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Yes indeed-that would be Mi Familia on Hwy. 16, right next to the Worst Value Inn, well--they call it the Best Value Inn, but I stayed there once and renamed it, lol. We have a new Best Western, also on Hwy. 16, so if anyone ever travels here, USE IT over any of the others. It's nicer.
The hottest new-ish place to eat IN town is Clayton's Barbeque. It's out on the 380 by-pass next to the airport DQ. Not fancy but GREAT food, if you're passing through.
Have you heard of The Wildcatter Ranch Steakhouse? There's a new (2 years old?) steakhouse out on Hwy. 16, going south toward Graford. WOW. Nice place to stay, nice place to EAT, great place to take the kids, family, friends for a day of horseback riding, canoeing, HUNTING (for BelleStar.
They have a website you can look up. I hope saying that isn't breaking a posting rule. I'm not listing it!
[quote=socketz;324257] Home appreciation is a good thing and it creates disposable income that can be used to do others things, like invest, travel and treat yourself/family to nicer things..... There needs to be balance.
Disposable income? Pulling money out of your house to enhance your lifestyle is just adding more debt..and it's getting alot of people in trouble right now. Disposable income is CASH leftover after you pay your bills.It wasn't long ago that investing with equity was illegal. I know people are doing it these days....but it's definatley something you shouldn't enter into lightly. I enjoy reading your posts Sockets....and I bet you make smart money decisions.....but this whole "ooh...lets pull money out of the house and buy stuff!!" has really been abused.
yep! Mi Familia!!! that's it!
Clayton's opened after i moved from there. it's been over 3 years since i have lived in the area.
i get emails from Wildcatter all the time...i think i am on some equine event forum and that's why....looks like a GREAT place.
you sure are succeeding at making me long for my old town!!
enjoy it!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLee82
Yes indeed-that would be Mi Familia on Hwy. 16, right next to the Worst Value Inn, well--they call it the Best Value Inn, but I stayed there once and renamed it, lol. We have a new Best Western, also on Hwy. 16, so if anyone ever travels here, USE IT over any of the others. It's nicer.
The hottest new-ish place to eat IN town is Clayton's Barbeque. It's out on the 380 by-pass next to the airport DQ. Not fancy but GREAT food, if you're passing through.
Have you heard of The Wildcatter Ranch Steakhouse? There's a new (2 years old?) steakhouse out on Hwy. 16, going south toward Graford. WOW. Nice place to stay, nice place to EAT, great place to take the kids, family, friends for a day of horseback riding, canoeing, HUNTING (for BelleStar.
They have a website you can look up. I hope saying that isn't breaking a posting rule. I'm not listing it!
I personally don't pull money out myself to use it, but when used in a responsible way, it's a tool.
-John and Susie have 75k equity in their home and a line of credit, John loses his job.
-John and Susie have 75k equity in their home and a line of credit, little Susie Jr. now needs orthodonic work and John's medical insurance doesn't cover it
Then there are a host of other things you can do, like invest in a second home in an area where your kids are going to college and have them live there while they are away.
Or maybe use some equity to start a business that in 3 years or so will make enough to run itself. I have freinds in CA that used home quity to start Engineering firms that are now very profitable.
Or what about just selling and moving into a nicer home. 3% per year appreciation on a 400k home is alot more than 3% appreciation on a 200k home right ?
I could go on and on, but you see what I mean. Successful people use money to make money.
Leveraging money has gotten a bad rap because people use home equity to redeocrate their home, or buy a BMW they would otherwise not be able to afford. But in the end, it's really their choice and nobody can stand there and say building equity of any kind is a bad thing. Abused yes, but not a negative.
Essentially what equity does is provide you with options. For me, options are critcial to success, be it personal or financial. Without options, we are trapped and that to me is the way it seems many Texans view Real Estate in general - as some what of a liability or necessary evil with the potential to trap. Californians on the other hand seem to see it as a very necessary financial tool that's critical to your overall success. This is the fundamental disconnect and is what's creating the 'us and them' mentality we sometimes see here. I just think that for so long there was no home equity to speak of in Texas, so people just learned how to live without it and justified not having it as a necessary means of avoiding some unforseen evil....I work with friends now that are native Texans and they all own land (OK, CO, TX) which was bought will home equity recently. Most of them plan to build on the land and retire. This is yet another use of equity, TX style (I know 0 CAs that own raw land).
Just two separate ways of thinking. Since I don't want to argue about paying off every bill you have and being debut free and those types of discussion, I'll probably leave this idea alone at this point and treat it like a discussion on religion or politics.
quote by socketz:
"Essentially what equity does is provide you with options. For me, options are critcial to success, be it personal or financial. Without options, we are trapped and that to me is the way it seems many Texans view Real Estate in general - as some what of a liability or necessary evil with the potential to trap. Californians on the other hand seem to see it as a very necessary financial tool that's critical to your overall success. This is the fundamental disconnect and is what's creating the 'us and them' mentality we sometimes see here. I just think that for so long there was no home equity to speak of in Texas, so people just learned how to live without it and justified not having it as a necessary means of avoiding some unforseen evil....I work with friends now that are native Texans and they all own land (OK, CO, TX) which was bought will home equity recently. Most of them plan to build on the land and retire. This is yet another use of equity, TX style (I know 0 CAs that own raw land)."
Yes, only till recently did the laws in Texas change to allow home equity loans. I personally don't like them but that is me. I also view the ability to purchase a home as an investment, always have. I look longterm at the equity that is built up w/ time and the increase in value in that perspective. A slow down or dip in the market does not bother me. Like my aunt that lives by me said yesterday, she has noticed prices around here going up suddenly and does not really care for it. She has no interest in selling so the rise in property value can be seen as a "negative" as it relates to our property taxes. Unlike some states our property taxes are not based solely on the purchase price for as long as we own the property. Ours go up and down w/ the market. I don't think that Texans in general view real estate as a trap but then again most Texans are not as migratory as some states and may not feel the need to move every few years or chase the next "hot market". You tend to find more people in Texas that have owned their home for decades and have it paid off. As for only being able to buy a second home or land in another state using home equity, I've known plenty that have owned land/condos/second homes in other states or places in Texas for YEARS. That was kind of the thing or maybe a "Texas" thing as many people have always had "the farm" or "the lakehouse". No home equity was required to purchase it. We personally have been looking at buying a place somewhere but have never been able to figure out where we want it to be. We have "the lakehouse" but we want somewhere in a vacation destination. If and when we ever decide to do such there will be no home equity loan to purchase such. But then again, I come from the school of thought of saving the money to pay cash for a lot of purchases and not borrowing against something (like my main homestead) just to be able to afford a luxury that is not needed.
BTW, I could tell you why I personally don't prefer places like McKinney and Frisco but it would take a long time to explain. To keep it simple, I like the way that where I live feels like a true hometown and everywhere I go I see people that I know or know my family. Something I was used to growing up no matter where I went in the Dallas area I would see familiar faces. There is such a tangled web to it that you can not go anywhere around here w/o knowing someone that knows someone else you know as they grew up together.
"BTW, I could tell you why I personally don't prefer places like McKinney and Frisco but it would take a long time to explain. To keep it simple, I like the way that where I live feels like a true hometown and everywhere I go I see people that I know or know my family. Something I was used to growing up no matter where I went in the Dallas area I would see familiar faces. There is such a tangled web to it that you can not go anywhere around here w/o knowing someone that knows someone else you know as they grew up together."
I absolutely understand Mom. I'm the same way with the spot I live in in San Diego (I've lived here on/off since the late 80s and my wife's entire family lives here). You feel united and part of a larger overall community. Coversely, think about how it feels to go somewhere where you know almost nobody....suddenly these new communities create a common ground for strangers (because everyone there is new, even if they grew up in Dallas) to meet and share something in they all have in common...a new social structure. I also feel that when the stakes are even like this, people are much more likely to be flexible with their ideas and opinions - because at the end of the day, they need to be in order to fit in.
I'm guessing that not long ago Plano was a similar type of environment, then before that, Richardson.
It's like the new people in these areas to the north become pioneers in the beginning, then as time moves on, they mix in better and become locals. Then the next wave of newcomers head north.
But I agree with you. If your heart is in a certain area and you grew up there....why move to another place in the same area where you need to start over.
If you question why I think about this so much, I really need to because it is not just me that needs to fit in, it's my family as well. Personally, I'd feel just as comfortable driving a pickup with a gun rack in the back as I would a Volvo SUV. I can fit in. I just worry about my wife and kids because they have it SOOOO good here and are giving up alot to move out there for me.
" That was kind of the thing or maybe a "Texas" thing as many people have always had "the farm" or "the lakehouse". No home equity was required to purchase it."
And I think that's cool. All my friends here that are natives own some property out in the sticks somewhere where they go a few wekeends out of the month and shoot guns or drive a tractor around. I grew up on one coast in DC (expensive) and moved to another in my formidable years (Socal), owning property in those places was something developers did, not common folk.
Unfortunately I'm late to the game again here in TX, so at 3500 an acre (common for what I've seen), owning land may be out of my reach again.
Californians on the other hand seem to see it as a very necessary financial tool that's critical to your overall success. This is the fundamental disconnect and is what's creating the 'us and them' mentality we sometimes see here.
Let's see.
1)CA's borrow money against their house to pay for things they can't otherwise afford.
2)Real estate in CA has skyrocketed to the point that many in CA cannot afford to buy even a simple home.
3)CA's are leaving there and moving to TX because the RE market has been ruined for the average person in CA,and bringing that same attitude towards real estate that ruined CA with them,and now TX prices are skyrocketing.
Why am I not impressed with the track record of that kind of RE management philosophy.I dread the thought of that happening here.I have already had to rethink my approach to home buying even though I am in my 40's.My current prop tax is about $370 a month.If the increases keep happening like they are,in 15 years I will be paying $ 1500 a month just in taxes,more than my current mort,ins,and taxes combined.So no,people who are driving the prices higher are not doing normal people who just want to live in a house for 40 years any favors.
And you can bet when Texans catch on that this CA philosophy towards RE is part of the cause of their misfortune in not being able to continue to afford their home,there will definitely be an us vs. them mentality.
Last edited by lifertexan; 02-02-2007 at 12:56 PM..
"It's like the new people in these areas to the north become pioneers in the beginning, then as time moves on, they mix in better and become locals. Then the next wave of newcomers head north."
No, Socketz, the newcomers don't want (or need, since they won't be here long) to become locals. They look down at us since Kennedy was assassinated here. "These stupid dumb hicks here shot Kennedy and I am not going to try to fit in with them. It was better in that state that I left, but I am not going to move back there." And then, after 1 or 2 years, they get transferred to Phoenix or Atlanta. There is no reason to know the family next door, because they won't be here long.
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Dallas suburbs
