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Closing on a house in Celina/Prosper area (Light Farms)...

5,806 Views | 15 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by East Dallas Ag
Silvertaps
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AG
Anyone in that area?
I close on Wednesday (6/21) and want to get some feedback on the area.
duck79
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We are about 10 minutes south but have driven thru light farms and mustang lakes quite a bit while deciding if we want to put our house on the market. We really like Light Farms and how far the neighborhood has come.
cadetjay02
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I live a little south of you, at Preston and prosper trail. Honestly, I don't know why you would want to live in a neighborhood that is split in 2 by railroad tracks. Frontier pkwy is going to be a mess when they widen it too.

On a positive note, there are finally some stores opening up and more restaurants on on the way. A few years ago you basically had to go to Frisco or McKinney for everything.

What is your kid situation? The new elementary out there is good, but the middle schools and high school are pretty overcrowded.

Overall, it's a good place, just have a lot of growing pains on the horizon.
CrawlingNo5
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The whole area is going to be a traffic nightmare until they expand the roads. Not sure if you are aware of the proposed 380 6 lane bypass. I know the bloomdale option shouldn't affect you as you are farther north but the laud howell option may have an impact.

I live at the edge of McKinney/prosper. I like it out here.
oldschool87
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You will love it! Everything is brand new...
Silvertaps
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The railroad track was a concern initially, but they appear to have done well in "hiding" it . My fiance and I don't have a kid yet, but do plan to at some point. We wanted get into the area before it's priced out of our range. It seems the growing pains will be a beating for a while...but will pay off later.
Also, found out Ben from Ben and Skin show on 105.3 the Fan is on LF.
BoDog
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Prosper/Celina residents... if you have a dog, Prosper Dog Retreat just opened. Owned by a good Ag and friend of mine. We are boarding our dog there next week.

www.prosperdogretreat.com
OlRock
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Wife and I are class of '04 and have been in Bluestem since September 2015. We have 1 at LF Elementary, and another who will begin in Fall 2018.

Things I have liked; my wife likes it, can fish in the ponds, kids have friends, hang out with neighbors (this didn't happen at our other neighborhood), the HOA events are fun, the gym is nice, future little lake looks fun, small town feel (we frequent Dallas w/ no issues as long as we plan for traffic), retail is blossoming, really really close to prosper rec sports field for kid's soccer and football (frontier park), we don't have neighbors behind us and have beautiful sunset and storm views (and the eventual toll road in years to come), HOA covers front yard maintenance (they'll mow and treat it at least), I like our house, the landscaping around the development is nice and we enjoy walking paths around the development.

Things I have not liked. I was really skeptical moving further north from Frisco, but the market was right for us to make a move and my wife really liked the development. She's works in the area too. My profession keeps me all over town and gives me early mornings, so commute isn't really something we take into consideration; MUD tax on water (be sure to change your sprinkler times after you move in or your water bill will be as much as your mortgage, builders water every day for like 30 mins per zone), appraisals have sky rocketed due to what the new homes are going for now vs when we got in. Since new homes are really only comps, we have seen our appraised value rocket $40K over our purchase price. This is good long term, but can bite you in the ass if you aren't prepared, the pool is great when the entire neighborhood isn't there, construction is annoying, HOA fees have already increased $5 per month, I hate dallas parkway simply because it's dangerous and peak traffic times can be terrible and it floods when it rains hard (they'll close it just north of 380 to 1st street), our street is busy, houses are close to each other with small yards (yeah suburbia) and we already had tennis ball sized hail.

The train is funny. Everyone bought a home knowing it was there. Once they finished the crossing by the school, the horn started sounding every time it crossed the street. Everyone near the crossing complained and said their builder told them it would be a no horn zone. Well it took a testing period before the no blow zone was in practice. However, you'll still get a rogue one every once and a while. Plus, you can still hear it blown from Frontier. Apparently plans are in the work for Frontier improvements including a new crossing that won't require the horn. And the train occasionally parks on the tracks blocking the crossing, thus creating mass hysteria.

Oh, and as soon as you get on the neighborhood facebook page you'll be entertained for days. Let me know if you need anything I can help you with. And welcome!


Edit: internet sucks depending on what side of tracks you are on. the newer homes across from the high school have fiber I believe. New options are beginning to sprout, but it appears most have struggled with internet to some degree.

And on the high school being overcrowded, a 2nd high school is supposed to be built within a few years. Hell, I think I saw that there will be another elementary school for LFs soon.
Silvertaps
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Awesome!
Thanks for the info!
The house I'm buying is in the Hawthorne area. Funny you mention internet. I'm starting to shop providers as we're planning to use streaming for TV (sling, DirectTV Now, or PlayStation Vue...haven't decided).
-Do u know what internet services are currently available in the Hawthorne area?

Also, I'm only aware of the FB groups because of my gf...she turned me on to them. I've spent some time reading the drama and 1st world problems.. Amazed how entertained I was. Her and I have no kids (outside of a chocolate lab)...so we may park ourselves at the pool with a cooler of adult beverages and take in the sh** show. Ha
cadetjay02
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Here's my subjective restaurant reviews.

I'm not a coffee person, but there is a new shop next to the Kroger called Honeylu's, it is dog friendly if you want to take your dog on an excursion.

The JC's is the high school kid hang out, so we avoid it.

Palio's pizza is good, and BYOB.

Ernesto's is fine, nothing outstanding.

The Cotton Gin Cafe downtown is somewhat nostalgic and ok.

Chef's on Scene has some pretty good stuff, probably my favorite place actually in Prosper. Not a fan of their brisket, but other things are good.

In Celina-

Burger Fixin's is pretty good and nice people. (No inside eating area)

Papa Gallo's is good as well, I'd go there before Ernesto's.
OlRock
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I searched the I Love LF facebook page and some of the people who first moved into Hawthorne were mentioning Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative as the best option there. Some of the posts are vague, but they may even have fiber available.

I would suggest searching the same facebook page to see other's experiences. Most of what is on the page is pre-Hawthorne though. Our only choice was AT&T back in 2015. Although when measured, the speed is slow, we haven't had any real issues. Our peak usage is an x-box, ipad, netflix on the tv and a browsing laptop, and we rarely have issues other than Netflix struggling.

Suddenlink recently came in Bluestem and advertised really fast speeds and a lot of people made the switch. But I recall some griping about Suddenlink and even switching back to AT&T.

There's even a thread I remember recently about people cutting the cord. You may want to search for that one as well.

Lucy's in Celina is good too. I prefer their breakfast over Cotton Gin.
falconace
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I'm at Preston and prosper trail... jay and I may be neighbors and not know it!

We moved here after we started having kids and really enjoy it. I'm also an early bird so traffic isn't an issue.

We have Grayson Collin county fiber internet and it's awesome. Customer service is great. We've got ps vue as our tv and no problems even with 5 streams going. In 2.5 years, we've only had two issues with internet, one was a fiber cut down the street. I called and a real person answered and told me they were on it and asked if they could call when it was fixed. A few hours later the same person called and told me it was fixed. The other issue turned out to be a botched update to my router that they don't own. They said everything looked fine on their end but I thought the issue was with them so they rolled a truck that showed up 2 hours later and found the issue. Super nice tech.
Silvertaps
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Thank you for the recommendations!

https://www.att.com/shop/u-verse/offers.html?product_suite=DTV

I put in my address in on the above AT&T site and received the "high speed internet not available" and "digital home phone not available"...so much for the bundling attempt. Not sure how accurate that is, but appears I'm limited to Grayson or Suddenlink (assume they are available).

cadetjay02
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I'm near the south east corner, which side are you on?

I need to look into the Grayson Collin internet, I have Suddenlink, never had problems but it's expensive.
OlRock
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My builder gave me the contact below for AT&T. Your address may be so new they don't recognize it yet. If this guy doesn't lead you anywhere you may ask your builder what others are doing. I think AT&T has us in Collin, TX not Celina or Prosper. But again this was almost 2 years ago.

Sal - 214.843.7077
HomeFinderCody
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2nd High School scheduled to open in 2020. We've been in Prosper since 2010. All things considered, we love it. We have two Elementary kiddos and the education has been outstanding. Oldest starts middle school next year. I'm not crazy about having portable buildings at the schools, but if you live in Northern 'Burbs that's a part of life with exploding population.

Lucy's in downtown Celina is a cool place...similar to Cotton Gin in Prosper and better food in my opinion. We like Ernesto's for Tex Mex. Many people like Mesa as well. Lots more stuff on the way at Gates of Prosper including Chick Fil A, Chilis, Texas Roadhouse, and more.
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East Dallas Ag
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Silvertaps - would appreciate your thoughts on LF after being there a year, working with some folks thinking about building in the area.
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