DavidAg02

Wow... this thread is a funny one. I will attempt to add something meaningful though.

I recently used InTown Homes to build my new house. InTown and Lovett are both owned by Frank Liu. The floor plans offered by both companies are exactly the same, but the price points are different based on location and finishes, with InTown being the lower priced homes.

While the building process was not 100% trouble free, my family and I are extremely happy with the quality of the home and price we paid.

In my opinion, the homes sell themselves, and representatives of this company should not feel the need to do the kind of shady marketing that has happened here.

Nothing first-hand but I've heard the same thing though.

Sold my previous home through Urban Living, and I would not recommend them to anyone.

No attention to detail, and their customer service is pretty pathetic.

When my home went on the market, they brought over a stack of about 50 printed flyers for people to take as they walked through the house. I could tell right away that it was something they just reused over and over again. The flyers I was given had features listed that weren't even present in my home... obvious stuff like stainless appliances (mine were black), a "spacious" patio (no patio on my home), etc.

It was a joke. Took me several weeks to get some corrected flyers, and there were still some errors.

Ultimately the home sold, but I don't feel like they earned their commission at all.

I went with a different company when I bought my next home.

Our son is enrolled at Teeter Toddler on Dairy Ashford just south of Briar Forest. About a 5-10 minute drive from I10/BW8 intersection.

Great hours, great price and very good student/teacher ratio. Place is always clean and relatively quiet.

I know plenty of West Coast people who ask me when Whataburger will be expanding out that way!

People always want what they can't get easily. In-N-Out will be popular, but Whataburger has a huge headstart and will win the location/convenience war without even trying.

Agreed, keep in mind folks this is the demographic center of Houston and the highest earning zip code in Texas (and likely the south). This won't fly just anywhere.

I love that people call this the burb's. I live in Spring Branch (obviously Spring Shadows) and I work in the Galleria, I can drive to work in 12 minutes in the morning. It takes about 15 minutes to get to downtown. Outside the Loop isn't the burbs anymore, it's the city. It's the demographic center of the city, it's memorial, it's the best school district in the city. Like it or lump it, it's Houston and in 10 years when it has many more high-rises no-one will think any differently

Gessner looks like a dump north of I-10 but mark my words it's changing fast. Spring Shadows is filled with 80 year olds who've been dropping like flies and every time they get replaced but very successful 30-somethings with kids like myself. I've seen more luxury vehicles on Gessner than pick-ups recently and that's unusual. We've had 2 attorneys move into our cull-de-sac this year. Our neighborhood is very family friendly, I know the names of everyone on our street and they know me, we exchange emails and look out for each other. The changes I've seen in just 4 years are crazy. Especially around Bunker Hill. Westview is now littered with HUGE new homes, and every day there is another one added. Money's run out of room south of I-10 and has now crossed the freeway. My home value, even in this economy, has gone up nearly 60k in 3 years (I had it appraised to re-finance). The 35 story building you all hate so much brought 35 stories of professionals to the area who want to live close to work as has the new C-Mex building. We bid on a house on Westview, 1600 square feet listed at 140k, we offered 162k, it sold for 200k. The comps can't even keep up.

Buy now, mark my words. The branding in this area expands every day (street signs, pavers, 12 new (matching) schools, obilesks, gateway markers, flowers) and when light rail, City Center expansion north of I-10, Memorial City expansion north of I-10, and Gessner re-build happens you'll wish you did.

I love that you wrote this, mostly because it echoes my own feelings about the area.

I've been living within walking distance to CityCentre for the last 5 years and have been watching the area develop and grow.

We recently outgrew our 5 year old, 2 bedroom condo and sold it for a very significant profit. We love this area, the schools and the opportunity that it offers, but just couldn't justify the expense of a house in "Memorial."

There is so much new construction just north of I-10, that we are now under contract with a home builder and are having a 4 bedroom home built just 2 miles from CityCentre.

We looked at moving to the suburbs and other areas inside of Houston, but it's so hard to beat the amenities, schools, price and opportunity of the BW8/I10 quadrant. I have a feeling my family will be in this area for quite some time.

I spent some time at City Centre this weekend. Really has a great feel to it and still has a lot of available ground floor retail. It's only going to get better now that the economy is showing some signs of recovery.

I've been visiting CC at least once a month since it opened, and it's things opening up.

The only thing that bothers me at this point is that it seems to be very dining oriented, with hardly any retail shops.

From their website under the dining and shopping tab:

17 dining establishments

7 shopping establishments

Seems sorta 1 sided... also not a single mens clothing store.

Maybe because Memorial City mall is right around the corner?

Thanks for the info. This project got delayed and now it's less needed with the cooler weather, but I'll get it done so I'll be ready for next Spring.

These are without a doubt the best outdoor ceiling fans... they come with a large price tag though.

http://www.bigassfans.com/residential/index.html

Lot's of great suggestions in this thread so far. One that hasn't been mentioned and is a particular favorite of mine is Texas Hamburger Palace.

If you live or work in west Houston you have to try it. Get their bacon cheeseburger, you won't be sorry. There is literally more bacon than burger.

It's on a street called Ranchester, just south of Richmond and inside BW8.

For you burger fans, this is a great website to check out:

http://www.texasburgerguy.com/

Some really cool new houses going up on the north side of I-10 around Wilcrest. The builder is InTown homes which is owned by Frank. I'm sure this is part of the development that the article is talking about.

Sushi-pop is not open yet.

The wife and I tried SushiPop on their opening day and thought it was a big letdown. For the price, I expected it to be much better. Great looking place though.

Hopefully they are just working out the kinks and will improve over time.

Until then, Koto on Westheimer near Wilcrest will continue to get my sushi money.

Why do people like that place? Not only is it the worst tex-mex food but it's over-priced!

Couldn't agree with you more!

I think it's so popular because of the atmosphere.

I'm currently under contract with InTown Homes to purchase a home in their new Upland Lakes community.

We've seen many InTown homes both inside and outside the loop and have always been impressed by their construction quality and the way their communities are laid out. My wife and I have lived in Memorial for the past 5 years and love the area, but are now needing more space. We found Sherwood lakes, but since it was almost completely built and sold by when we found it the selection of homes there was very limited and we could not get the size of home we needed.

Upland Lakes is now under construction, and the prices are very good. The neighborhood is definitely in transition with lots of older low-income apartments and business along those streets. However, the schools are good (and getting better) and InTown (as well as other builders) are targeting this area for future development.

We've been under contract for several months now, and there were some delays in construction due to weather and permitting issues that put them behind schedule from the beginning. I was not bothered by this as much as I was bothered by the representatives lack of communication with us about the delays. Now that construction has begun, the communication has gotten much better.

Overall, we are very confident that we will be getting a well-built home in an up and coming neighborhood with good schools at a fair price. It's clear to me that InTown does have big plans for this neighborhood, because in the past year they have constructed 2 custom homes (both valued at over $500k) on Wycliffe (the street that runs parallel to Upland).

If you're interested, I'll be happy to keep you updated with the progress of our home and the community.