Scariest things about moving to Dallas !
You're making that move here to Dallas, Texas, and there may be some scary things that you want to consider before making that move here. Today we wanna talk about the top some of those scary facts about making that move here to the Dallas, Texas area. Some of the things we probably hadn't really paid a whole lot of attention to it or didn't really kind of realize what the big deal was all about.
So today we wanna dive in and talk about those eight scary truths about making that move here to Dallas, Texas.
All right, so making that move to Dallas could be kind of scary who likes moving in the first place, right? Because I sure as heck don't there are some things that maybe we wanna discuss to help prepare you a little bit better before making that move.
The Weather
The first thing we wanna talk about is the crazy weather that we have here in Texas.
I wanted to touch on this first because we came out to visit. And the very first time we came, we weren't even here for a week. And this crazy storm blew through that. I, I, I literally thought that the house was gonna snap into, we were staying upstairs at my aunt and uncle's house. They had this beautiful home overlooking the golf course.
And next thing you know, this crack of thunder came and I legitimately thought that the house was snapping in two. I had my four little kids in the house. I thought everybody needed to run for cover. And frankly, I literally, didn't know what was going on. I was terrified and it went on for hours. So we may get these crazy storms that blow through here.
And all of a sudden the weather's totally normal, or they say that, or tornadoes coming. Well, we have been pretty fortunate in most of the DFW area. We don't really see a lot of tornadoes that actually touch down, but when these storms roll through and the rain starts to dump, we've had times where it blew so hard, it found a way to get inside and underneath the crack of the door could not believe it, not to mention the hail when hail starts going, depending on it doesn't matter when it's gonna happen, it doesn't matter if it's going to happen. It's a matter of when no matter what, a couple of times a year you're gonna get hail, it may be worse than other times. Of course, certain areas get it worse as well, but it can do some serious hail damage to your roof, and to your cars. We've had friends, and windows in their homes have blown out because of it. I mean, maybe only one, we have had a couple of friends whose windows have cracked. It has been so bad and multiple people, you can drive around the streets and see that people have pock marks all over their cars sometimes because of the hail damage.
So something to be aware of, they're really not messing around. And if you can stay indoors and not have to mess with it and just avoid it altogether. You can definitely do that, , there are these new things that come onto cars, and it looks like this giant balloon-like you have put your car in this giant bubble. When you know a storm's coming, we have driven down that street and people put these around their cars because they don't want the hail to damage their cars. Chances are well, actually, chances are probably pretty good. Could hail and it could hit your car. You just never know for sure, quite how bad it's gonna be. In the 10 years that we have lived here, we've seen a couple of kinds of significant damage happen to people's cars and people's homes. So the roofing business is really good out here because of the hailed damage.
The Highways
Number two on our list that you may want to consider when making that move here is the construction and some of these roadways. I remember growing up that everybody learned to drive on the freeway, the freeway seemed decent enough. The lanes were wide and it wasn't that big of a deal, but it doesn't matter what roads we are going down there is some crazy construction that goes on and the traffic seems to be bad almost all of the time, it doesn't. The traffic can be flowing a lot easier than at other times, but sometimes the traffic is so bad, some of these freeways, we go down the 35 east, I have been down over on the 35 west and the lanes are so narrow. It seems like you have these big trucks driving right by you, and going to run right into you because the lane seems so narrow there are trucks all the time, traffic all the time, you just don't know what you're gonna hit and where the accident's going to be. Driving here makes me super paranoid. It doesn't mean that I don't have to do it. Quite often, I drive all over the metroplex, there's always something not to mention there are so many freeways here in the Dallas area. Now that personally, it doesn't matter how much navigation you have, next thing you know there's construction and they're rerouting you somewhere, and I'm always paranoid that they've changed something up on me in the last 30 days that I've driven down a certain road. I do cover most of the DFW metroplex, but it doesn't matter. I could not be going in a certain direction for a month or two, by the time I go back, something's under construction and they've rerouted me. So traffic here. We are, I am so grateful that we have navigation going on right now because it does help. But if you don't get on the right freeway, you could be on the toll road, if you're not paying enough attention, you could be going in the complete opposite direction. So something to keep tabs on of knowing where you're going, mapping out your route, and paying as close enough attention as you possibly can, but the number of trucks, the amount of traffic that we have. All around the DFW area, something to be a little bit more on guard about and prepared for
Property Taxes
Number three on our list is our property taxes., As everybody knows over the last year or two, the prices have gone up well everybody's property taxes are assessed based on where you live, the school district, you're in how old the town is. How new your home is. So multiple factors lead into, what you'll be paying for your property taxes and it seems every year they're trying to up those property taxes as much as possible. The biggest thing that happened this year was because of how our home prices have increased so much. Everybody had a major shock to their property taxes. I'm not sure there is one person I didn't talk to that just was absolutely floored when they got their property tax bill this year. Just keep in mind, that your property taxes are gonna go up every single year. So you go in and contest your property tax bill, you show them the comps and you give them a reason why you need to stop bumping up the value of my home as much. Here in Texas, you can also file for a homestead exemption which gives you a nice break if that is your primary residence, if you own multiple homes, it does not count to everything, but it does apply to your primary residence. You used to only be able to apply for that January after the year you purchased the home, but now once you purchase the home, you are able to file that homestead exemption and get a little bit of relief on those crazy property tax bills.
The Bugs
The number four scariest thing we wanna talk about is the bugs. I am eaten alive by mosquitoes, it just seems there's always something flying around. We have these big mud dobbers you think they're these big, huge wasps that are going to attack you and sting you, they build these mud tunnels up on the side of your house and you see 'em flying around your doors and your windows, and you don't want 'em to get you granted they're harmless, but they're there and they freak out your little kids. They freak out your teenage daughters as well, so many bugs, and come June the cicadas are out you try to go out and do yard work or go on a walk or just get in your car and the sound deafening I know there are bugs all over the country, everybody has different kinds of bugs, but it just seems here. I don't think I've ever seen as many bugs as I do here with our heat and our humidity, the trees and the grass, and the amount of moisture we have here in Texas. So if you get a lot of mosquito bites, keep that off, around, and spray yourselves if you're going to be out at night because bugs are no joke here.
Hot Water Heaters in the Attic
The number five scariest thing about living here in Texas is the hot water heaters. Did you know that most of these homes, especially if they're newer, are putting your hot water heater up in your attic, whoever heard such a ridiculous thing, they do it, and if there's going to be a problem, guess where and your hot water heater's gonna go out. It's going to start leaking well, where do you think that water goes? It goes straight down through the ceilings, through your walls and you'll see it bubble up. My aunt and uncle used to live here in Flower Mound when we first moved here and they had this big, gorgeous custom home. She looked up in her kitchen one day she had this beautiful, her house was beautiful. It was all custom painted, custom trim work, and next thing everything is bubbling, huge bubbles totally ruining the paint and all the trim work on her ceiling. So they had to replace those and not only that, she had to get somebody in to fix all of the damage that was done and it was quite extensive. So still don't understand why so many of these homes put their hot water heaters and not to mention their air conditioning or HVAC units up in the attic. So you have these drip pans that can overflow if it gets clogged, just something to think about is that you might wanna do a little bit of extra maintenance on those to help avoid any problems because it doesn't just end up making, you need to replace your unit. Sometimes you have to do a lot of repair work as well. I don't understand why our home thankfully has a hot water heater in the garage that is plumbed so that if there's ever overflow, it just goes straight out the garage. But a lot of these bigger, newer, more custom homes, they put 'em in the attic still do not understand why they do that.
Welcome to Texas, not to mention our attic space here is so unbelievably hot. You know, it gets really hot here in Texas, we do not have basements. So everything, everybody stores everything in the attic as well, a lot of times our attic space is up over the garage and it just is unbelievably hot that's not where they typically put your hot water heater. They tend to put it right up above in the middle of the house. So not super great, but it is what it is, just something to be prepared for down the line. We always recommend regular maintenance on those to help alleviate any problems that you may encounter down the line.
Moving to the Wrong Area
Next on our list is that you need to be prepared for moving to the wrong area, how scary could it be if you realize you had no idea how long that commute was going to be. I had no idea that they were going to completely tear up the freeway and it's gonna take me forever to get to work. So we always suggest that, if you're moving here for a job you really scout out where you're gonna be working, not to mention you, call somebody who has lived there for a long time.
You ask your real estate agent to please help direct you. And let you know what it will be like for your commute, for all the traffic you may have to encounter no matter what time of day you could be traveling for work. So just something always to be thinking of, know where you're going and what you're looking to do. When you move here, say you're gonna put your kids in sports and you know that they're going to be on these competitive teams, maybe these travel teams as well. You want to keep that in mind what you're looking for for your kids, so that you can know those areas that you may wanna move to, not to mention if your kids may have special needs and you wanna get into a school district that has a great program that fits your needs for your family. Do some research, ask around, and see what people, what kind of information people can give you about where to move, and what will best suit your needs. Because moving to the wrong place could be one of the scariest things that you could do because your home is pretty permanent. You could always sell your home and move down the road. Frankly, as I said, I hate moving and if I don't have to, I'm certainly not going to, we could all be upgrading our homes. We could be getting a job promotion and realize our family's growing and we wanna upgrade that way or maybe we're getting ready to retire or all of our kids have moved out and we wanna downsize. That is a totally different situation that maybe if you've lived here for a while, you know the areas that you wanna be and check out and it makes it a little bit easier to do, being a lot more prepared and asking all the right questions before you move, can help take off some of that stress and anxiety before moving.
High School Football
The last thing we wanna talk about that could technically be pretty scary for you is how high school football goes around here in Texas. If you are a true Texan, you are enjoying the Friday night lights out at the football games. It is a lot of fun. So many community members go out, even if they don't have kids that play, but say it's not really your thing. You happen to move to the neighborhood across the street from the football stadium. Well, the amount of traffic that comes in and out of these football stadiums can be quite insane not to mention the noise. Our marching bands here are huge. They are a big deal in a lot of these communities in school districts. If you're going to be moving across the street and you don't wanna be a part of the high school football community, something to be a little bit more prepared for. Because high school football is a way of life in most of these towns. Granted, it's not for everybody and maybe you do just enjoy hearing the excitement of the football team playing on a Friday night and you don't need to go to the games, be prepared for that if you live in one of these neighborhoods that are really close to a high school that just be prepared for the traffic and the noise, it could be scary at some point. We came from Arizona where I thought football was a big deal. Our football stadiums in most of these high schools are about four times the size of what we had in Arizona and some of them look like college football stadiums. If you're moving here to Texas, you wanna know some things that you can be prepared for to take the pressure off to be a little bit more relaxed and be a little bit more prepared so that you are not as worried when you move here, reach out, let us know what we can do to help answer those questions.
We can set you up on a tour here around the Dallas area, and we can give you a lot of recommendations of what's going on here in the Dallas area. We love to help people relocating here or moving anywhere around Dallas. We have loved living here over the last 10 years. So if you have any questions and you wanna shoot us a text, send us an email. Give us a call, and let us know what we can do to help you make that move here to Dallas.
