Top Questions Answered about Moving to Dallas

So, what are the top questions we get asked from people wanting to make that move here to Dallas Texas? Today we wanna talk about the top five things that we have been getting over and over again from clients wanting to do the research, wanting to find out what it's really like moving here to the Dallas Texas area. 

Where Should I live?

So the biggest question that we are asked all the time is where do I wanna live? Dallas is so huge and there are so many great places to live, but people tend to get really overwhelmed, trying to figure. Where is going to be the best place for them and their families? A lot of people think that they need to move here and it needs to be all brand new. I want a new build. I want something sleek and modern and completely up to date. But when we find them homes that are in their price point, places that they have been looking. They realized that maybe that's not exactly where they wanted to live. Some of the things that we want to discuss first off is, are you young?

Are you working downtown? Do you want a lot more of that nightlife? Well, maybe living an hour outside of downtown Dallas in the suburbs might not be the best place for you. I mean, if you're moving here and you want to go and experience, a fun night out with your friends on a Thursday night for happy hour,  or maybe you wanted live close to where you are working and you work downtown and you hear that there are great restaurants, tons of music that goes on at night.

Great happy hours, and you just wanna be able to have that access to walk to your favorite local coffee shop on a Saturday morning, or do your grocery shopping. You just really don't wanna be bothered with having to drive in and out to the suburbs, just live in a quiet little neighborhood filled with kids because you wanna go and hang out with a lot of people just like you.

Well, that could very well be downtown, but there are also some other great areas. Throughout Dallas,  if you are a young professional you may wanna check out, but there are certainly different options because if totally dependent on where you are working, what you are thinking about for your commute, and the type of activities that you are looking to do.

Another huge thing that we are getting tons and tons of reach-outs for, is I have kids. I have kids going into whether it's elementary school, middle school, or high school, especially if it's high school and your kids are heavily into sports, you wanna be completely involved in your community.

 Maybe living downtown, isn't gonna be right for you, or maybe living out in the suburbs where you're realizing your kids are highly involved in club sports just realizing, maybe you're a little. Further out than you were hoping for. So this is why you reach out to us. This is why we are absolutely able to dissect that.

Where are you working? Are you commuting? Are you traveling and what are your kids into, what is your family like to do for fun?  Do you wanna have easy access to the lake? Do you like spending tons of time outdoors? Do you like hiking? Are you a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys and maybe you want to be able to go to sporting events all the time?

Dallas has something for everybody, that's why we're here to help narrow down those particular areas for you. Really help you get to know what these neighborhoods are like, and what type of communities are out there? Because we have been to all of them multiple times and, we just get a feel. Once we start showing houses to our clients, we know, what different neighborhoods have to offer and why it is that some of these neighborhoods might be the perfect fit for you.

Another question that we had asked about where to live and the type of community that might be right for somebody we had, we've had multiple clients who are,  kind of set to retire. They realize you know what, I don't have to be completely involved in the hustle and bustle anymore.

I can get a nice home out in the country. In, among all the trees and have tons of fun stuff to do with my family. When my grandkids come to visit, we did have a client recently reached, who didn't wanna be too far out of the city because they did love to travel. So it was, do I move all the way out to Celina? Well, when we showed them where it was,  they'd heard so many good things about it. They had done a ton of research on some of the communities and it seemed to be the perfect fit for them. When we kind of showed them where it really was and how long it was gonna take to get to the airport, the types of restaurants and things that they loved going to. Ultimately, they realized how incredibly far it was for their lifestyle, and we found them the perfect area. They still wanted to be a little bit more out into the country, but they wanted to have kind of quicker access to get into the city because they loved eating out. And especially for travel, they didn't wanna have to spend an hour in the car trying to get to the airport because of how much they traveled and the amount of family that they knew were gonna wanna come to visit them here in Texas. That's why you reach out. Let us talk to you about these areas so that we can give you the breakdown of some of these amazing communities that we have here, whether you're a young professional, you don't even have to be working downtown as a young professional. There are still some other great areas, whether it's an urban Los Colinas area. Or out in Richardson in Plano, there's a lot of great nightlife that can be had out there. There are a lot of great businesses out there, and maybe even as a young professional, you do like to go out to the lake with your friends.

Reach out, put those questions down below, and let us know what you love doing, especially because Dallas is so spread out, it encompasses the entire Dallas and Fort Worth area and people don't really realize quite how big it is. That's what we're here obviously the number one question that we are getting. Definitely top of mind for everybody relocating here on, helping them find that perfect fit for their lifestyle, whether they're a family they're moving out here to retire, or they're a young professional.

Is the Weather Really as Bad as They Say?

Another question we get asked a lot too, is your weather really that bad? Are we gonna be stuck in tornadoes? How often are we gonna have tornadoes? Do I need to make sure I have a garage for my car because of all this crazy weather that you have, well, I mean, if you're not used to it, it depends on what you consider bad.

We moved here from Arizona where the sun was blistering hot. All summer long. In fact, probably six months out of the year, it seemed like, it was hot all the time. And we moved here and we knew it was gonna be hot and it was humid as well,  we had a breeze and we had a lot of trees. So we kind of preferred that a little bit more than having lived in Arizona in the heat factor. But in Arizona, we never had a threat of a tornado and yes, we have threats here. Very seldom, do they really kind of touch the ground?  A couple of these communities and neighborhoods throughout the last 10 years that we have lived here have seen a little bit of tornado activity. But when you hear about the tornado activity, a lot of times it never really touches the ground or it does minimal damage, definitely, something to be, you know, aware of to be mindful of that you do kind of wanna plan in place just in case that year you move here might really actually end up having the little bit of activity that you weren't quite prepared for. Maybe it isn't the tornadoes, but it's the hail and the amount of rain that we can get sometimes. And it can hit you like you were not even expecting it and they will shut down the airports.

It kind of seems that every time we have family flying into town or trying to get out of town, some crazy storm blows through that we are not prepared for and it completely shuts down. All of the airlines. So once or twice a year, it seems to happen. And it always seems to happen when our family is coming into town. So something else to be prepared for is. How it can affect your travel. We do tend to stay indoors when that happens. We highly recommend not being out on the roadways, not on the freeways. When some of this happens, we've also experienced some ice storms as well. And if you and Texas do not know how to deal with an ice storm. So if they say that it's coming and you need to be prepared,  do whatever you can not to be out on those roads because Texas does not know how to deal with it. It happens so seldom. And so infrequent that we don't have the trucks to plow the snow, to put out the sand or the ice on the roadways. Granted, if they know it's really bad, they do try to prepare for it a little bit. But if you have checked the news,  a couple of years ago when we had our super crazy ice storm and there were,  quite a few casualties out there, it was really a huge mess because of the black ice. That's what we say around here. If you do not have to be out in it, do not. We tell our kids, you are not leaving the house just because Texans do not know how to deal with it. And it is better to be safe than sorry. Being out on the roadways when we have those problems.

Should I Buy or Rent?

Another question that we have been getting quite a bit more lately is should I buy or should I rent first? That is completely up to you. It's one of those determinations that we can't really completely answer for you, but it's more of let us help guide you. Let us help answer those tough questions. Is it right for you? We are in the real estate world over here, and we are loving helping people get into their forever homes or their first homes when they're relocating, maybe to get their kids in school. But,  maybe you realize that you might only be here for a year or two, or, you know, the exact neighborhood you're you wanna live in or the community and you just can't find a home. That's, either big enough for your family or maybe only maybe all the homes that are coming on the market are too big for your family.

So we do try to help make those determinations right now, people are freaking out a little bit more over the interest rates. We try to help them get pre-qualified and know their numbers so that they can determine what is right for them because ultimately when you buy a home you're building your own equity and when you rent something, you're building the equity for somebody else. So we definitely like being prepared, helping people understand those things of what it is that they're looking for, the communities that they wanna be in, and just running those numbers to help 'em figure out if buying or renting is the right thing for them.

Cost of Living

We are also getting asked a lot about the cost of living out here. What do things cost? We're also getting things like how much is a gallon of gas out there? I mean, if you're coming from California, Or New York even, and you realize how expensive some of those gas prices are and gas is a big topic right now. So what am I gonna pay? And how often am I going to have to refill?   So say you're having to commute downtown and you're gonna be having to fill up your gas tank quite a bit. Maybe you need a more economical car.  Definitely don't buy the car before you buy the house,  maybe that's something you wanna think about because you want to live in your ideal area. So what's the cost of gas. How high are our property taxes? Yes, our property taxes are going to go up every single year as your home appreciates. so does the cost of your property taxes because they do assess those based on the value of your home. We do get a homestead exemption here in the state of Texas on your primary residence. But your property taxes are definitely a very large bill that you have to be prepared to pay every single year. And whether it comes out of your mortgage payment every month, or whether you just like to pay that one payment every year, you wanna be prepared based on the size of your house and the location that it is, what you might actually have to be paying for those property taxes, and you'd be surprised how often people are asking how much it costs for. A gallon of milk or a dozen eggs. And while the price of everything has seemed to go up, people are starting to ask these a little bit more nitpicky questions, just because they're realizing what their budgets might be in groceries, especially if they have a family of six or even four and, or teenage boys, you realize that some of those costs really start to add up. Technically you have no idea what it's costing around the country. People are just really. Honing in on their expenses right now. And they wanna know exactly what it is that they're having to pay for. So the cost of living is definitely a huge thing, depending on where you're moving and what it is that you're looking for, for your family, we can absolutely help you run some of those numbers as well.

Do I need Cowboy Boots, Hat, and a Truck?

last but not least, you are moving to the great state of Texas. We are getting asked all the time about, do people really have that country accent, are y'all fixing to go somewhere? Well, yes, you can find it. Especially if I move there, am I going to need to invest in a pair of boots and a cowboy hat, and do I have to go out and buy myself a truck? Yes, it is Texas and yes, there are a lot of trucks and granted there are a lot of people wearing cowboy hats and boots. It doesn't matter if you're living out on a ranch or if you're living in the city, you can find it. Sometimes you might find that a little bit more in, on the Fort worth side instead of the Dallas side, which is a little bit more professional,   it doesn't matter in any neighborhood, any community, you can certainly find those people that are loving wearing their cowboy hats and their cowboy boots. And it is not uncommon to see girls going to prom in cowboy boots and people getting completely dressed up and wanting to wear their super cute pair of cowboy boots and guys wearing their cowboy hats out. We've always said, you wanna go ride the bulls and you wanna go to the rodeo. You're probably gonna be a little bit more on the Fort worth side instead of the Dallas side. All around Dallas, we have seen it. It's not uncommon to see it, obviously at the Cowboys game or the Rangers game.

It doesn't matter what sporting event or concert you're gonna see people wearing it. It is Texas. It is the south, and people are very proud of their roots and proud of living here. And if you have any questions at all, and you're thinking of moving and you want to reach out. Let us know what we can do to help you answer those questions.

Figure out where it is that you may wanna move and how we can help you make that move that much easier. Reach out! Call us, text us, send us an email, and let's figure out a time to meet so that we can help you make that move that much easier.