Shopping for new homes in North Texas? Buying a new home—or a first home—is always an exciting prospect, but it can also be a little overwhelming. Here at Sandbrock Ranch, we believe in making people feel welcome, so we thought it might be a good idea to extend a neighborly hand by defining a few of the terms that you may encounter when you’re shopping for a new home. And we made them all easy to understand!
Here are some of the home buying terms you might want to know!
- Closing costs: A lot of paperwork goes into buying a home, and some of that paperwork brings with it incidental fees such as title insurance and loan processing costs. Taken together, these various fees are called closing costs and usually make up no more than 5% of the purchase price.
- Denton MUD Tax: A Municipal Utility District (MUD) is a special entity created by the State of Texas to perform many of the functions of local government, such as maintaining roads. Homeowners at Sandbrock Ranch within the Denton County MUD pay their annual property tax bill to the MUD instead of paying a city tax. Over time, the MUD tax declines as more homeowners move in, and most MUDs are eventually dissolved and incorporated into a city.
- Developer: Not to be confused with a home builder. The home builder is the company that actually builds your new house, and we have several leading home builders constructing beautiful new homes in North Texas at Sandbrock Ranch. The developer, on the other hand, builds the neighborhood your home is situated in: laying out roads, incorporating Aubrey utilities, adding in amenities, and creating the community’s unique style. While you may live in a home by David Weekley Homes, Highland Homes, or Perry Homes, you’ll still be in Sandbrock Ranch. Read more about our developers here!
- Escrow: Buying a house takes a lot of trust on both sides. An escrow account is something the seller or builder requires and the Title Company sets up during the buying process to help ensure good faith all around. When you’re buying a house, you’ll often be required to put some of your down payment into escrow where it will be held and credited to you at closing.
- Prepaids: As you work with your Loan Officer, you will decide what type of mortgage will be right for you. Most mortgage payments include “Escrows”. These are portions of your Aubrey Homeowners Insurance and Property Taxes deposited into an Escrow account each month and your lender will pay your taxes and insurance for you when it is due. As such, at closing, your lender will require 1-3 months of these deposited into the escrow account as a cushion.
- HOA: An HOA or Homeowners Association is an organization designed to safeguard (and increase) property values, maintain the community’s overall appeal, and enhance the lives of everyone in the community. To finance this, HOAs collect dues from residents that help to pay for everything from landscaping and repairs to community events. When a master-planned community is finally built, the HOA features a board of directors set by the developer. This board of directors is made up of community members who are elected to the position. Check out Sandbrock Ranch HOA blog post to learn more about our HOA.
- Home loans: Let’s face it, a new home is a big investment, and most people don’t have enough money to buy even the most affordable home outright. That’s where home loans or mortgages come in. A mortgage is simply another name for a home loan, which works similarly to any other loan. A lender fronts you the cost of the house (minus your down payment, prepaids and closing costs), and you have to pay that money back over a set period of time with interest. If you want to know how much your monthly mortgage will be, a handy online mortgage calculator can take a lot of the guesswork out!
- ISD: An independent school district (ISD) is a school district that operates separately from a county or municipality. Sandbrock Ranch is proud to be zoned to the Denton ISD, which provides plenty of educational opportunities for our residents and their families, including Denton ISD elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as a future on-site elementary school right here in Sandbrock Ranch!
- Lifestyle director: Here at Sandbrock Ranch, we like to think of our lifestyle director as our own personal director of fun! It’s the lifestyle director’s job to create and implement the various programming and activities that help make our community such a great place to live! Our community enjoys everything from Fishing Fridays to wine tastings and lots more!
- Master-planned community (MPC): A master-planned community is a large residential neighborhood that has been planned since inception with a great number of amenities built for residents. At the Sandbrock Ranch master-planned community in Aubrey, Texas it’s so much more than that. We pride ourselves on offering great amenities such as swimming pools, playgrounds, fully stocked fishing lakes, a demo kitchen, and more, but we also believe in creating a real community where people can get to know their neighbors and feel welcome and at home every day.
- Move-in-ready homes/quick move-in: A move-in-ready home (also known as a quick move-in or QMI) is a home that’s already constructed and ready for you and your family to move into as soon as you’ve closed on the house. When you purchase a move-in-ready home at Sandbrock Ranch, you’ll enjoy quicker closing times, the ability to move into your home right away, the protection of a new home warranty, and immediate access to all of Sandbrock’s latest amenities.
- Property taxes: Paid to local and state government—or to a Municipal Utility District, see above—property taxes help to pay for things like roads and utility maintenance in your area. They’re collected from everyone who owns property in the region.
- Real estate agent: A real estate agent works with both buyers and sellers. An agent helps home buyers find the right home for them and helps those who wish to sell their home find a motivated buyer. Your real estate agent should do more than just push home listings your way. He or she should answer your questions and work with you to find the right neighborhood and the perfect home for you and your family.
- Title company: When you own a house, what do you own? You own the building itself, obviously, but this isn’t a case where possession is the law. You can rent a house without owning it, for example. When you buy a new home, the title is the written evidence that you actually own your new property. A title company’s job is to make sure that the title is free and clear and to issue title insurance. The title company also usually maintains the escrow account that holds funds until closing.
Finding your dream home in Texas is about more than just choosing a house. It’s about finding a community where you can live the life you envision for yourself and your family. Of course, it’s also about finding the perfect house. At the Sandbrock Ranch master-planned community in Aubrey, Texas, we like to think that we have both.
With gourmet kitchens, ample storage spaces, and plenty of fresh Texas air, our quality homes are built for everyday living and life-long memories. Our new construction homes start from the mid $200s. And, of course, Sandbrock Ranch also has tons of amenities and good neighbors, not to mention the inspiring North Texas landscape right outside your door every morning!
Shopping for new homes in North Texas? View our Home Finder page or Move-in Ready Homes page to take a look at homes available at Sandbrock Ranch. Fill out the form below for more news about our homes and community.
