Things to Look for When Buying New Home

Hi! We looked in Castle Hills a few years ago and it really is a beautiful neighborhood. We ended up buying across the street in The Homestead instead, but it was purely our personal preference. There's certainly nothing wrong with CH. They do seem to have particularly high Homeowners Association fees, and that doesn't even cover the swimming pool, which is an added cost. Just something to think about. The schools for this area are very good. CH has it's own elementary, and the closest middle and high schools are also highly regarded. There are also some really good private schools nearby if that is your preference. I have been told the neighborhood groups can be a bit cliquish over there. But that is just hearsay, and I would guess it is probably like that in most places. The people I have met that live there seem very nice and friendly. The golf course is not actually associated with the neighborhood, but it's nice to have there. It is somewhat expensive, but there are others around you can go to which are cheaper and in my opinion just as nice. I do love this area in general. The location is perfect being right in between I35 and the tollway. And YES definitely get a good inspector. I remember one really nice house we looked at in CH and it had been treated for black MOLD. Although they said it was totally fixed now, it was still enough to scare us off from that particular home. So just watch out.

Hi A.,

If you aren't currently working with a realtor, I would love to help you.
I am a licensed realtor for Coldwell Banker. The home building process can be overwhelming, and I can help eliminate some of that!
Email me if you are interested and I can give you my number.
Best of Luck.

S.

I'm sure you will get lots of responses to your questions. I don't know anything about your two builder choices, so I can't comment. We built a new home in 2004 and loved the entire process. I guess what I liked most about the building from scratch was being able to pick EXACTLY what we wanted. My only advice is this, next year (when you are almost in your house a year) get an Inspector to check everything - a reasonable one will charge you about 20 cents a square foot. Then, take your list to your builder and have them fix everything before your one-year warranty expires. This will really save you. Good luck!

Hi A.,

We have a Highland home and we love it! They are a great builder. In fact, when we move we will try to get another Highland. We purchased a Highland spec and used a buyer's agent to help us through the process. Even though our house was new, we still paid for our own home inspection, as advised by our agent. I highly recommend Highland for their quality and customer service.
Good Luck!
-D.

A.,
We used C&C Inspections and were very impressed and pleased with the inspection we got.
http://www.ccinspections.com/