Fall Creek, Summerwood or Cinco Ranch? (home search, elementary school, live)

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by Yonkers

You can also try to find the house on your own. I did. Buyer's Realtor don't cost you anything but if you do all the legwork on your own, you can possibly get a discount. If you don't like to do that stuff yourself, a Realtor is well worth it.
*waits for flamed by Realtors*

We use to think that and we did go it alone on our first home that we built with Weekly. Now after two more moves and seeing how things work I am not thinking that to be true. If you get a very knowledgeable Realtor who specializes in homes sales in the specific community you are looking in than chances are they have the in on deals more so than anybody would ever get on there own. I know this for a fact because our Realtor is one of the best in our area and we have seen how it works. The builders will give kick backs to the buyers because they know she will bring them people who WILL be buying that are not wasting time and have their ducks already in a row with financing. You can get pretty sweet deals. We had one house that was over $410,000 that we were gonna get for like $330,000. Keeping in mind the deals are on already built homes not pre builds. There is not much leeway with a ground up home.
I still say do your research and find out as much as you can on your own and then you can compare notes with the Realtor. Ours thought how funny it was that we already knew almost all there was to know about the homes she was showing us. We knew what sold and when it sold. Not what it sold for but we kept watch for several months on things. We also knew how long homes had been sitting. Its always good to do your own homework.

We have used the same Realtor in our area not only to sell our home due to relocation but also to help us find our new one once we came back to the area.

[RCH99]

Originally Posted by Txgal33

You can get pretty sweet deals. We had one house that was over $410,000 that we were gonna get for like $330,000. Keeping in mind the deals are on already built homes not pre builds.

It's worth noting that these were new homes that had been sitting stagnant and on the market complete for a year, or more, in some cases.

Builders hardly keep their desire to dump these units a secret from everybody but Realtors.

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by RCH99

It's worth noting that these were new homes that had been sitting stagnant and on the market complete for a year, or more, in some cases.

Builders hardly keep their desire to dump these units a secret from everybody but Realtors.

Not true! The house had been finished for exactly two months and that is it!! Like I said I do my homework. I knew what was going on in our community for a year before we even moved back. I watched homes sit for almost that entire year and then two months before we were to move back homes we were hoping to get to see sold.

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by RCH99

It's worth noting that these were new homes that had been sitting stagnant and on the market complete for a year, or more, in some cases.

Builders hardly keep their desire to dump these units a secret from everybody but Realtors.

Just to add we did though end up getting one of those homes that builders wanted to dump at an outrageous deal. Unless you do your homework though you will not know which homes those are unless you have a Realtor you have worked with before that you know you can trust.

[RCH99]

^ I wasn't trying to back bite you......The new home market is a complete cluster right now, and will be for some time. You decided to buy a completed spec that had been on the market for a while. Up until recently, you were convinced your builder was still in business here in Houston and singing their praises.

I'm simply responding to your claim that it is absolutely necessary to utilize a Realtor to be able to secure "an outrageous deal". I'm saying it's not, thats all.

The builder you chose has ceased operations in Houston. What is your Realtor going to do to help you with that?

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by Txgal33

You think Summerwood would go south? I know they have some issues as well. FallCreek I am ify about but with the million dollar homes in there I think they would start fighting back before they let it go south though issues are already there.

No, not really - but Cinco definately not.

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by RCH99

^ I wasn't trying to back bite you......The new home market is a complete cluster right now, and will be for some time. You decided to buy a completed spec that had been on the market for a while. Up until recently, you were convinced your builder was still in business here in Houston and singing their praises.

I'm simply responding to your claim that it is absolutely necessary to utilize a Realtor to be able to secure "an outrageous deal". I'm saying it's not, thats all.

The builder you chose has ceased operations in Houston. What is your Realtor going to do to help you with that?

You keep up well. As for helping we have no issues that need helping. If we did she would be in contact with those in Austin. From what I understand since they allowed their name to be associated with those yahoos here in Houston then they are responsible for all warranty issues. Like I said though no worries thus far. Also I have never sang their praises. In all honesty I was hesitant to purchase knowing good and well the situation at hand. House sat for almost three years though so if anything were to have been wrong with it such as foundation or structural it would have been apparent at the time of purchase. We made sure to have everything inspected including bugs. As for the rest of the homes on the market here. There is only one I would touch. In all honesty if we had been building back then and walked into their model home here there is NO WAY I would have gone with them especially with Highland in here. The model home was decorated by a 5th grader and is just awful. You would have thought you were back in the 80s with the design.
I only may have sang praise because we got such a steal. Its not for the faint at heart to go into such a situation though. You never know what you are going to get. Again though our Realtor knows around here and nobody has had any issues with their homes. She has and will ALWAYS go up and above the call of duty!! I have witnessed it first hand.
Realtor or no Realtor is up to each individual. You are right and I am right so it all boils down to knowing the market you are looking in and doing your homework. Really though without the comps of sold homes how do you know how good of a deal you really are getting?? Hcad can sometimes help with that.

[City Love]

Originally Posted by Txgal33

We use to think that and we did go it alone on our first home that we built with Weekly. Now after two more moves and seeing how things work I am not thinking that to be true. If you get a very knowledgeable Realtor who specializes in homes sales in the specific community you are looking in than chances are they have the in on deals more so than anybody would ever get on there own. I know this for a fact because our Realtor is one of the best in our area and we have seen how it works. The builders will give kick backs to the buyers because they know she will bring them people who WILL be buying that are not wasting time and have their ducks already in a row with financing. You can get pretty sweet deals. We had one house that was over $410,000 that we were gonna get for like $330,000. Keeping in mind the deals are on already built homes not pre builds. There is not much leeway with a ground up home.
I still say do your research and find out as much as you can on your own and then you can compare notes with the Realtor. Ours thought how funny it was that we already knew almost all there was to know about the homes she was showing us. We knew what sold and when it sold. Not what it sold for but we kept watch for several months on things. We also knew how long homes had been sitting. Its always good to do your own homework.

We have used the same Realtor in our area not only to sell our home due to relocation but also to help us find our new one once we came back to the area.

It's much easier to work with someone like yourself, who is informed and interested in getting a good deal.

Built homes can be had for big discounts. It sounds like you got a good discount on yours. New builds have very little overhead cost, so they sit idle until someone bites. Of course they want to sell, but they don't have to knock off 10's of thousands off the bat.

Builders can give BIG discounts if you are flexible with the home you want.

Just an FYI for others.
A good realtor is better than no realtor.
But no realtor is much better than a bad realtor.

I think people bash on realtors because they've had bad experiences with a few. But hopefully this economy weeds a lot of those bad ones out

[Txgal33]

Originally Posted by City Love

It's much easier to work with someone like yourself, who is informed and interested in getting a good deal.

Built homes can be had for big discounts. It sounds like you got a good discount on yours. New builds have very little overhead cost, so they sit idle until someone bites. Of course they want to sell, but they don't have to knock off 10's of thousands off the bat.

Builders can give BIG discounts if you are flexible with the home you want.

Just an FYI for others.
A good realtor is better than no realtor.
But no realtor is much better than a bad realtor.

I think people bash on realtors because they've had bad experiences with a few. But hopefully this economy weeds a lot of those bad ones out

"A good realtor is better than no realtor.
But no realtor is much better than a bad realtor."
Loving this CityLove!! So very very true!
We knew what we wanted and where we wanted it. To be honest we were willing to pay $50,000 more for VB Filmore but they did not have one ready for us at the time and I did not want to go to a differ community. So it all worked out in the end. We did not get our dream floor plan but we got a everything we wanted in house for less. We decided location was our one non negotiable.

[EM1956]

Just to answer the question about the park n ride- my husband takes it daily from I 10 and Grand Parkway to downtown. Never any problems- trip takes about 40-45 min. each way