Saturday, April 28, 2012

Determining the neighborhood...

Lauren and I made the decision in the summer of 2011 to find our "forever" home. We were outgrowing our current home, which had just over 1500 square feet and required the girls to share a room. We also knew that the girls, then heading into fourth grade, were zoned for a not-so-desirable middle school (to put it mildly) in the future. So, we knew that even though selling our current home would be a challenge, we had to take the plunge in the next year (to make sure we could get the girls in a better school by the fall of 2013).

We wanted a home in a great school district, located in a neighborhood with great amenities that wasn't a great distance (more than 30 miles) from uptown Charlotte. We started at the end of June last summer looking at homes, giving us plenty of time to research neighborhoods, determine the right price, and also figure out exactly what we wanted in our next home.

So, we spent the next several months visiting more than 50 neighborhoods and walking through 30 model homes (yes, we counted them up). We thought we would stay within the Charlotte city limits, but then I found a neighborhood listed in Davidson that caught my eye. It had a great amenities center, and also had some of the best schools in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The neighborhood was also eligible for USDA financing, which means no down payment and no PMI. (more on that later). That would be a big bonus for us, since we were facing a large payoff on our current home.

By September, we knew we wanted to live at The Farm at Riverpointe. (see the pool and amenity center below):



Then, we just had to determine the right floorplan, and get our current house ready to sell.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, WOW, that pool is amazing! Our pool is nice, but that is awesome. Jealousy ensues!

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    1. Thanks Thomas. The amenity center was a big attraction for us. It also includes a basketball court, volleyball court, tennis courts playground, and large soccer field. The center also has exercise equipment and even Wi-Fi. Our HOA dues won't be cheap, but we think they will be worth it, especially since our lot will be an easy walk from that.

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  2. We looked out there too! It's a fantastic community. However, we finally chose to go south and chose Massey in Fort Mill. We decided to move for the same reason as our daughter is about to complete 5th grade and we aren't thrilled with the middle school she was slated to attend in our current area just north of Charlotte. I hope your family enjoys the new house!

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