Buying in Tract Neighborhood

16 years ago

Our daughter and her family live in a new KB Homes' subdivision in Cedar Park. (20 miles outside Austin) We are renting in Austin but I am at her house every day helping her with her twin babies. I will be caring for them at her house in two weeks when she goes back to work. We are now thinking of moving to her subdivision to be close by. However, all of the homes are basically the same with 5 or 6 models to choose from. In a few years when the twins are older, we want to sell and move into Austin. I am concerned about being able to sell the home when there are so many others with the same elevation and floor plan. So far only a couple have come on the market because the subdivision is so new. Do you think it is a bad idea to buy in a subdivision that only has one builder with cookie cutter homes if we want to sell in 5 years? We really want to be near our daughter and grandbabies to help when they are little. But we want to enjoy and live in Austin when they get older. Thank you for any advice.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

marys1000
16 years ago
That's a tough thing, predicting the future.
Do you think it will remain a desirable location?
Do you think there will be lots more new construction going on when you want to sell?

Being able to sell and being able to sell and get your money back are two different things. Of course you'll be able to sell. But at what price. Will you break even? That's what the above questions are for.
galore2112
16 years ago
I don't think it is a disadvantage to buy a cookie cutter home. To the contrary, when it comes to homes, people tend to be conservative. Think realtor beige.
Related Discussions
When is it smart to buy the biggest house in the neighborhood?
Q
Comments (19)
A friend showed me a list of "ten secrets to true happiness" and it included "live in the nicest house in the neighborhood so you do not constantly feel the need to keep up with the neighbors" something like that. It really helped me make a decision to buy a larger than average home in a mixed single family home and townhouse community. The old real estate idea of buy the worst house in the best neighborhood was previously my belief. Because my house has more square footage it outprices the neighborhood homes if the price per square foot is the same. We feel like we got an amazing deal on a great house we love. It is the biggest house in the neighborhood, but it was not the highest priced home sold here. In fact it is the cheapest $/SF. If previous buyers had been willing to pay the original list price it would have greatly outpriced other homes by more than 100,000$. So the seller had to keep lowering til they found a buyer. When we sell, we need to remind ourselves not to make the same mistake of trying to price this larger than average house by square foot and keep it more in the price range of the other big houses in the neighborhood. Just remember if the house is having a hard time selling, you will likely face the same concerns in buyers when you try to sell. Is the neighborhood somewhere you do want to live? I did buy the biggest house in my neighborhood, so I am biased.
...See More
Tract Home/Production Builder Questions
Q
Comments (64)
We did this too, and really, it was fine. We bought a 3500 sq ft house on a pre-sale basis from a mid-size builder in the Seattle area. Overall, I thought the quality was good enough. There was a major problem with the second floor sloping in our house plan and this affected several homes, but the builder was very responsive about it and fixed it. We also had a problem with the front door that needed to be replaced and painted. They did that too, although there was a problem with the painter using a paint machine that got into our heating ducts and spewed fine droplets of paint everywhere. It was not a pleasant experience but I will give the builder credit for trying to fix things. I would say the most painful aspect of owning that home was dealing with most of the not-so-customer-oriented contractors for all the fixes during the warranty period and the drain on my time (luckily I was a stay-at-home mom). I don't believe that third party inspectors were allowed during construction. But I did have three different inspectors look at the house, but only after the house was completed. One was before the closing walk through, one before the one year warranty ended, and one when we eventually sold it 2.5 years later to be in a close-in neighborhood. The inspectors didn't find anything big and I believe the quality of the build was similar to other new construction homes around this area. That builder limited our choices to some pre-selected options (unless you wanted to pay $500 to go to the "design" center which was basically the hard surfaces contractor/supplier's showroom--remember this is a mid-size builder in the Seattle area post recession), a couple of room layout options, two lighting package choices, AC and irrigation. We would not have been able to add windows, extra doors, or really anything else outside of the pre-set options, since the market was really warming up to be a seller's market and we bought the house on a pre-sale basis. I don't know of anyone else in the neighborhood that was able to make non-standard layout changes or add/change windows. Overall, it was a good experience buying and living in that house. It was nice to be in a neighborhood full of children that were my kids age and meet other neighbors that were similar in life stage to us . We made some good friends that way. We lived in a 1960's development before that and rarely talked to the neighbors and didn't know any neighbors with young children. It was also a relief not to have to worry about replacing the roof right away or worry that our old plumbing system would need to be replaced. I would have bought another tract home if I could have found one with a layout that was good enough, with enough yard space, in a close-in location, and that was at a more "affordable" price point. In fact, I did try to buy another tract house but was outbid (I think they sense that I was going to be a PITA :-). Now we are building a semi-custom house. While I do enjoy interior design/decorating, this has been a very stressful and time-consuming process. I often dream of moving into an already built house so I don't have to obsess over all the details and can get on with my life!
...See More
Architect custom -> Builder Custom -> Semi Custom -> Tract
Q
Comments (58)
The question is...does it matter? I think it does, because words matter. We throw around words on this board constantly when we really mean other things, and I too am guilty of this. Custom really doesn't mean custom when used on this board, it means architect. So someone who maybe isn't experienced on this board may see the word "custom" and think they designed their house from the ground up, therefore it is very custom. When most posters really mean the house needs someone with professional design experience and some measure of talent to guide you through the design process or actually design the home. ----------- Also a better understanding of the differentiation can lead to better advice. In the area I was born in (an area that I still own land in), the major tract builder can build a 4,000 square foot house for under $280,000. If you can't differentiate between a tract and production builder, it is hard to understand how that is possible. ----------- Finally, I am not sure this board does a great job these days of helping people build a home. I might be alone in this, but I would prefer a well built, poorly designed home over a poorly built, well designed home. We focus so much on the design process and the freedom you have to make selections that we sometimes miss the real tragedy of production and tract builders, the shortcuts they take in construction in order to deliver those appealing prices. While I agree custom homes are better than semi-custom and semi-custom is better than production, etc., the real quality cutoff for me is control of the how the walls are built rather than where they are built. For me this is the biggest draw for an architect and the thing rarely touched on, but may actually pay dividends far into the future that make architects not only affordable, but profitable for those value conscious consumers. Again, this is just my opinion.
...See More
Has anyone regretted building their “internet” or tract ‘model’ home?
Q
Comments (71)
Mrs Pete..I agree..now OT, sorry, but I was reading your post all starry-eyed, and I have deep personal interest..)) do you bake gluten-free too? I can bake gluten-free. It is more difficult in that the finished product tends to "spread" and don't like to stand up straight, and they require more internal support ... which is something you want in a wedding cake. If you need to serve gluten-free people, these are my suggestions: - Go with a single layer of gluten-free cake ... most people don't care about gluten, so this allows your baker to do what's easiest for the majority of the cake. - Make that layer one of the small layers. - Consider carrot cake as your gluten-free layer. Most people like it, and it's an easy choice for gluten-free. - A whole different thought: Opt for cheesecake, which isn't always gluten-free, but absolutely can be made without that bitty-bit of cornstarch or flour. Yes, a cheesecake can be stacked. If I were doing this for a wedding, I'd offer a variety of self-serve toppings: Strawberry, cherry, blueberry, chocolate, nuts, maybe coconut. I did not even have cake at my wedding - no, not even Costco, so I am likely not your target person to talk cake with, but I am most definitely craving cake now (lemon please, with lemon filling...maybe alternated with raspberry....). And that's the point. A whole lot of people just want a house ... they'd see a difference in 3 bedrooms vs. 4, but their eyes might glaze over if you started talking about optimizing the kitchen or the merits of different types of windows. Aren't they just ... windows? As for lemon, I am making a small wedding cake tomorrow for the royal wedding. My daughter (but not her English husband) is absolutely insane over the royal wedding. Since it's just for us to play with, I am experimenting with a "naked cake" ... it will be lemon (my lemon cake is INCREDIBLE, if I do say so myself) with fruit (or maybe just blueberries? I haven't been shopping yet.) and lemon cream-cheese frosting between the layers. I am driving this cake over to the hospital where my daughter works because she and her fellow nurses are coming in to work early to watch the royal wedding, and I'm going to watch with them. How'd she convince them to come in before 6:00 am? She promised them my cake, and she reminded them of the cake I brought them recently ... it was two layers of carrot cake sandwiching a layer of cheesecake. It was better than what I made for my co-workers on St. Patrick's Day: I experimented with a Green Velvet cake (like red velvet, but containing an entire bottle of green food coloring) sandwiching a cheesecake ... the next day every one of us was confused: we felt fine, but we were all pooping green. When we all realized the source of our malady, we laughed 'til we cried. If you like lemon and raspberry, try Key Lime Cake with Raspberry Filling. I made a simple three-layer cake (with raspberries on top instead of flowers and whipped fluff icing) for a casual wedding that featured BBQ ... it complimented the food very nicely. I thought it was "you CAN'T have your cake, and eat it too." We always seem to have cake at my house. We eat it, and we still seem to have more. Current house is someone else's fully custom house. I've always wondered why realtors advertise that a house is "custom". That means it was built to someone else's taste. Doesn't seem to be a selling point to me.
...See More
kitchenshock
16 years ago
Where I live those have pretty much become the norm. I don't like them, but obviously people like them enough to pay the ridiculous prices they charge for them. If those types of developments are the norm in your area too, then I don't see an issue with resale. I think custom homes are a thing of the past when it comes to large developments. Its the factory concept where you gain efficiencies (ie more profits) building everything nearly the same. I just don't like living where the only way I know I am on my street is by reading the street sign.
cordovamom
16 years ago
We've been kind of snobby in our house hunting, avoiding "cookie cutter" homes in deference to custom or semi custom homes. However, when we were transfered to Denver a number of years ago we coudn't find the right house in the right school district for the right price and ended up in a "cookie cutter" neighborhood that had basically 5 different models. We found there were a lot of people like us, families that wanted the best school district and bought the most house they could get in that particular school district. That happened to be a "cookie cutter" home because custom or semi custom homes in that school district were out of our price range.

If the location of the homes is good, in a good school district, easy access to expressways and shopping, then the home will sell in the future. It may not appreciate at the pace of a custom home, but if the area is a good one, some people will overlook the "cookie cutter" nature of the sub division.
daisyadair
16 years ago
I think cookie cutter is fine in a transitional neighborhood. New couples starting new families who need a house at a lower price point and plan to move on in a few years.

I live in the dfw area and always joke about the "million dollar track homes" we have.

Is Round Rock too far away? They have some of the best schools in the nation.
chisue
16 years ago
My main concern on resale would be if there is plenty of land around that will be developing when you are ready to sell. It's hard to sell a 'used' tract home when a buyer can get a 'new' tract home.

With many markets dropping like rocks, might you rent a home there? The next few years looks pretty bad for RE. (Maybe the Austin area is an exception?)
melrosgirl
16 years ago
I say go for it. As with any new development though, do not think of selling that home until the entire neighborhood is completed. Competing with the builder (who is most likely offering build incentives) is very hard. Nothing wrong with cookie cutter neighborhoods, so to speak, assuming the houses look a little different.
Carol_from_ny
16 years ago
I grew up near a town that had cookie cutter houses, compliments of it's biggest employeer at the time. Thing is after a period of time even cookie cutter houses develop a personality that distinguishes them from each other.
Landscaping, fences, pools, adding garages and rooms, changing roof lines. It all changes the cookie cutter house. The problem is it takes time for the changes to happen.
No one knows what the future holds for themsleves let alone the real estate market. I'd suggest you find a house you love, that makes the here and now good for you and your family and go for it.
User
16 years ago
My ex and I bought in one of those "cookie cutter" neighborhoods right after we married in 1988. Homes were built by Centennial (I don't even think they're in business anymore - ?) and there were just a few floor plans to choose from. So - yeah, "cookie cutter" is how the neighborhood probably would've been described. But as the neighborhood grew, the individual personality of each of the homes began to shine through. Everyone did something different, landscape-wise. Some homeowners added pools, some added greenhouses, some upgraded the interiors after owning for a few years ... in time, it became less of a "cookie cutter" environment and more of a neighborhood where the homes evolved in a somewhat unique fashion over time.

So - I wouldn't let your present worries put you off. It is difficult to predict the future, but chances are, something similar as to what happened in my old 'hood could very well happen in the place you're considering. And that's not at all a bad thing! (And bless you for wanting to move closer to those babies! Who can blame you! Enjoy!)
patty_cakes
16 years ago
Mpp788, my DD/DH/GS moved to Austin last Spring, and I just sold in CA and am anticipating a move to Austin. I've heard of Cedar Park, but have never been there. IMO, it's all irrelevant as to where you live in Austin, since everything seems to be 20 minutes away.

My family lives in an unincorporated area of Manor, a VERY small country town(according to mapquest, it's 24.21 mi from Cedar Park)which coming from CA, I find 'neat'. It's considered to be on the east side of Austin. The subdivision is Shadowglen(they have a website)and the homes have many differnt exteriors, though all are stone, brick, or a combnation of the two~there could be a few stucco. It's a fairly new area, and still growing. There are at least 4 builders, if not more, and various price ranges in the different areas. Anyway, this is where i'm choosing to build as I too, want to be close to the kids. Yes, it is tract housing, but very nice tract housing and several different price ranges. There are also a few re-sales. You could even have a two-story, as MB's are on the main floor~I *love* that!

I suggest you check it out before making a decison, unless you want to stay closer to the direction where your family is.

Buying in Tract Neighborhood

Comments (10)

marys1000

galore2112

Related Discussions

kitchenshock

cordovamom

daisyadair

chisue

melrosgirl

Carol_from_ny

User

patty_cakes

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US