DR Horton Homes In Alamo Ranch (San Antonio, Howe: sales, real estate, HOA fees)

[airdog69]

We are in the military and will be moving to SA in Mar 08. I have a few questions for those of you who live or know about the DR Horton part of Alamo Ranch.

-Is the subdivision heavily under construction, or are there quite a few homes now? Could anybody post a general pic of their neighborhood/street? We can't seem to find any other than the clubhouse.

-What are your HOA fees?

-How long did it take for your house to be completed?

-We have a pretty good idea of what floorplan we want, however, we don't know if we should make a trip down (from Ohio) to look at the lot. Are they all pretty much standard or would looking at a picture give a good idea of what the standard lot looks like?

Thanks for any info,

Eric

[majormadmax]

Eric

Not in Alamo Ranch, but I drive through there on occassion and we are also in a DR Horton (our second, the first was a Continental) so hopefully I can help out a little.

For one, Alamo Ranch is only starting, I would guess at best maybe 10% of the homes in that area have been built or are under construction. It is going to be a huge neighborhood, and there is a large complex also going up as well as a Valero gas station and the widening of Culebra Road. As such, expect lots of construction vehicles.

Secondly, Alamo Ranch has one big hill and a bunch of smaller ones that it is being built on, so there is a major difference in the views you are going to get. As such, I would recommend taking your 10 days of permissive TDY and come down and pick one out. Two years ago when we PCS'd here Alamo Ranch wasn't an option (we came from overseas and were in the TLFs, so we had 30 days to find a place). However, about a year later we saw our floorplan on top of the big hill with some beautiful views that I wished we would have seen when we were looking. I would've grabbed that lot in a second.

Just a suggestion, download GoogleEarth if you haven't already, set the Elevation Exaggeration to '3' (the highest you can, it's under 'Tools'-->'Options') and under 'Fly to' type in the zip code '78254.' Alamo Ranch is the area almost straight south just past 471 (Culebra) and west of 1604 (the Outer Loop). Lower the viewing angle (hold down the <shift> key and the down arrow) and rotate by continuing to hold the <shift> key and then use the left and right arrows to spin the imagery. It'll give you a good idea of where the higher elevations within Alamo Ranch are. And the area along Loop 1604 and south of Culebra (471) is where the large shopping center is currently being built. Someone posted the site plan in a thread on here, search and you should be able to find it.

And I will try and get through there this week and take some quick pics for ya!

Cheers! M2

p.s. I am retired USAF, we chose to retire here after being stationed in San Antonio between assignments in Germany and Belgium. Have you been here before, other than Basic? If not, and you have any questions, feel free to fire away.

[Nick2021]

I am also military and am in San Antonio right now...looked at some DR horton homes today. Kind've concerned though as the salespeople were REALLY pushy into getting us to commit to reserving a lot. They have a 5.25% apr special going on right now, but are trying to tell us that the special will last only until the 15 million dollars (set aside for the promotion) is gone.(Even though the promotion lasts until Nov 30) Again, they're being real pushy in trying to get us to secure a lot. Finally...looked at some houses available to get an idea of the floor plans...lots of minor things were overlooked. They say they will fix them before a buyer moves in...but I've done some research tonight and a lot of people said they've had problems with DR Horton homes and KB homes. Can anybody else give a brief oversight into these issues? Also, has anybody had any luck with negotiating prices on these homes or are they penny and dime on upgrades?

Nick

[Latinocowboy]

As of a month ago, Riverstone at Alamo Ranch was at 7-8% completed. The sales trailer officially opened up for business in April 2006. I believe there will be roughly 1800 lots total. It would have been larger, but D.R. Horton sold some land when the market started to slow. Currently, construction here has slowed down. They've even "let go" of a few superintendents and transferred some to the warranty division.

HOA fees are about $225/yr.

Sales people will quote construction time as being six months. It all depends on weather, resources, quality issues. I've seen houses go up in three months (yikes). Ours took over 7 months, due to weather and my inspector doing a great job for us.

Regarding "incentives", I would make sure to check things out carefully. One of my neighbors believed the builder when they were told they'd throw in a full irrigation system for free. Great on paper, but when it came down to their lot premium, they were charged around $5K. This is a ridiculous amount of money. I payed $1500 and I have a corner lot which is larger. Someone paid for their sprinklers indirectly. This is the type of stuff you have to be aware of when sales people try to pull their incentives pitch on ya.

Once you sign a contract to build with D.R. Horton, you will head over to the deco center to pick out colors, cabinets, carpet, tile, fixtures, etc. This is a great experience as you finally get to go through a very exciting process! However, you will have to leave a deposit consisting of a certain percentage of your total cost of upgrades. Technically, this is NOT a true deposit; one that you'd expect be applied towards the sales price of your home. Instead, they call it "earnest money" which gets applied towards closing costs. I tried to argue this with management and they would not give me direct answers.

Regarding purchasing spec homes, I cannot recommend it. If you educate yourself on the building industry here in Texas and do a few searches on construction defects, you'll begin to see the big picture. Forget about J.D. Power and other "awards" and acknowledgements. They are not indicative of real world results, IMO.

Finally, hire your own inspector... even if you luck out and get a decent superintendent.

Hope it all works out for you in the long run.

[yosoyway]

There is still construction going on but some areas are already full with homes. The last update we received about 2 months ago stated that it was 11% complete. It also depends where you buy. There are 3 sections within the community. Each section has it's own starting price and each one is pricier than the other. Some have more homes than the others.

I would also recommend that you look at the lots. Some lots have a nice view and some don't. Some had a view of downtown and others of the western hills. If you call them that. It's nice sometimes to get up in the morning and see the hills or blue sky rather than your fence or neighbor's house.

The HOA fees are $220 unless they went up and I haven't heard about it.

Our home took 6 months. From choosing the lot to close day.

I would also recommend that if you know someone here, I would ask them to go to the house during construction. I would go about twice a week and I would notice things and I would tell the supervisor before it was left like that. And even then some things were still overlooked and they had to fix them before we closed. I don't know about now but in the beginning I believe they went through several supervisors.

I hope this helps a little.

[F10gear]

To be honest, we had some problems when we first built here, but it had more to do with our superintendent than DR Horton themselves. We got the problems corrected with DR Horton and the superintendent got fired.

Because of the slow market and this time of the year (which is typically always slow), the sales people are little more desperate than normal. It's now a buyers market, so don't believe the hype! Do be afraid to haggle a little.

We were one of the first people to move into our division, so I had a chance to talk to the new neighbors as they moved in. For the most part, everyone seems to be pretty satisfied. There were some minor cosmetic issues that have been addressed and fixed, which I had as well. My wife and I love our home and we have a great view of downtown to boot. For the record, when buying a new home, there will always be something. I know a few people who built custom homes and had many problems as well. I really depends on the superintendent that you have.

[jules07]

Yep, build from dirt and get an inspector that will do several inspections at different stages of the building process. Also, I'd highly suggest finding a Realtor to represent you (yes, I am a Realtor {tho inactive right now} so of course I'd suggest that! ). The reason that I say that is because DR Horton schmoozes the Real Estate community alot and offers alot of incentives for agents to give their clients that the sales crew onsite will not offer the general public. Only way you'll find out about it is thru a Realtor. Just FYI.

[airdog69]

Thank you all for the info...I will be heading down toward the end of Nov to pick out a lot and go to the deco center.

For those of you who live at AR now, is your tax appraisal value less than the actual value of your house? Also, since ours will not be completed until around May or so, will we pay taxes on the land or will they estimate the value of the house?

Thanks

[majormadmax]

Usually the tax appraisal is lower than the actual value of your house. Don't complain about it! And you can get $10K homestead exemption but you have to apply.

And be careful concerning the taxes and appraisals, our mortgage company did not up the escrow amount last year, still taking out the amount of tax on the lot minus the house; they had to cough up the difference but of course we have to pay them back. It raised our payments $300 a month for a year...

Cheers! M2

[HMANZ]

I am a REALTOR in SAn Antonio. What Builder in Alamo Ranch do you like? Alamo Ranch is a nice place. Yes a lot of construction is taking place in Alamo Ranch and surrounding area. This part of SanAntonio is the fastest growing area in the city. The prices are a bit on the high side you could go down 1604 a few miles from Alamo Ranch and find the same builder making the same houses for a few thousand dollars less but than it would not be Alamo Ranch. My advise to you is look at D.R Horton Homes, Pulte Homes and Standard Pacific. A few other builders are in the area but I cant think of the names at this moment. I might have some pictures of the area. I have pictures of another D.R. Horton subdivision caled Amhurst. It's only 5 minutes from Alamo Ranch and pricess are lower. A lot of Military live in this area.