House Hunting

[Chief Sapulpa]

In the Tulsa area I'd look at Jenks and Bixby. Those are the better school districts. BA has kind of dropped in quality over the past 10 years.

I've lived in Bixby since 1995 and my wife was born here. Growth has been exponential with no plan for infrastructure to support the growth. City Water pressure is generally low and summer mornings it can be half of what's normal. From Tulsa the basic normal way in and out is Memorial and with more and more unsyncronized traffic lights its a headache. More schools, more apartments and more traffic lights also mean more property taxes. I'd consider somewhere other than Bixby.

 

[TinkerTanker]

I've lived in Bixby since 1995 and my wife was born here. Growth has been exponential with no plan for infrastructure to support the growth. City Water pressure is generally low and summer mornings it can be half of what's normal. From Tulsa the basic normal way in and out is Memorial and with more and more unsyncronized traffic lights its a headache. More schools, more apartments and more traffic lights also mean more property taxes. I'd consider somewhere other than Bixby.

We're dealing with the exact same idiocy with our Edmond city council/mayor. "Grow grow grow!!" they say. No, nope, no thanks. KYS and save the trouble.

 

[HiredHand]

BA prices are up. You definitely can't buy the same house for 180K that you could buy just a few years ago. Our neighbor's just listed their home for sale and are asking 100K more for their house than they bought it for in fall 2019.

The quickest way from Sapulpa to BA is the Creek Turnpike and that's a toll road. Expect to pay around $2k per year to take the toll road each day.

 

[Parks 788]

Any reason why some may disagree? Asking because I’ve never been to that town, but I found a home that I like. I’ll be taking a drive down there tomorrow to check it out.

I’ve asked for two weeks of vacation to tour homes and towns for this reason.

I do got a kid in elementary and my job in BA, so it’s a consideration.

The reason for some to disagree are these. THe bond may raise some taxes in town a bit. Not sure exactly what taxes but in the end it probably won't be noticable in your day to day life, as in raising city sales taxes by 5% or your property taxes by 10% or whatever. To a big degree, I don't mind some minimal tax increase if I have school age children and they have the opportunity to attend a brand new, high tech school with all the amenities to help students learn better and attract better teachers over the years.

Sapulpa has been a small/smallish town that has always been the step child to the other Tulsa outlying towns like BA, Jenks, Owasso, Clairemore, etc. Does it have the best schools? No. But they aren't terrible either. There is a relatively new elementary school called Freedom Elementary. Part of Sapulpa Public Schools. Supposed to be a real good school. As far as the city council goes, probably not a lot different than the towns mentioned earlier, jsut a different flavor of idiots like most towns anywhere in America. I'm not familiar with the zoning laws that Tinkertanker is talking about but that's also, something that is fairly common in most citys. You'd have to check it out for yourself. With that, if I'm buying a house I'm making sure it's not next door to a community of terribly run down or condemed homes that could be taken overy by the city and low income apts built. Nor would I buy a home next to a large vacant lot where there's potential for a city to built such a place.

In the end, I mentioned Sapulpa because my wife was born and raised in Sapulpa, went through the school system and has done quite well for herself, choices and career. We lived in Sapulpa for about 8 months when we moved to OK and it was nice. Ended up buying rural property outside of Bristow so we moved. Wifes parents still live there in a nice neighborhood as her sister's family in a really nice area. Your budget is another reason I mentioned Sapulpa. I think you can get good bang-for-your-buck if you choose wisely on your house and neighborhood.

 

[Bocephus123]

The reason for some to disagree are these. THe bond may raise some taxes in town a bit. Not sure exactly what taxes but in the end it probably won't be noticable in your day to day life, as in raising city sales taxes by 5% or your property taxes by 10% or whatever. To a big degree, I don't mind some minimal tax increase if I have school age children and they have the opportunity to attend a brand new, high tech school with all the amenities to help students learn better and attract better teachers over the years.

Sapulpa has been a small/smallish town that has always been the step child to the other Tulsa outlying towns like BA, Jenks, Owasso, Clairemore, etc. Does it have the best schools? No. But they aren't terrible either. There is a relatively new elementary school called Freedom Elementary. Part of Sapulpa Public Schools. Supposed to be a real good school. As far as the city council goes, probably not a lot different than the towns mentioned earlier, jsut a different flavor of idiots like most towns anywhere in America. I'm not familiar with the zoning laws that Tinkertanker is talking about but that's also, something that is fairly common in most citys. You'd have to check it out for yourself. With that, if I'm buying a house I'm making sure it's not next door to a community of terribly run down or condemed homes that could be taken overy by the city and low income apts built. Nor would I buy a home next to a large vacant lot where there's potential for a city to built such a place.

In the end, I mentioned Sapulpa because my wife was born and raised in Sapulpa, went through the school system and has done quite well for herself, choices and career. We lived in Sapulpa for about 8 months when we moved to OK and it was nice. Ended up buying rural property outside of Bristow so we moved. Wifes parents still live there in a nice neighborhood as her sister's family in a really nice area. Your budget is another reason I mentioned Sapulpa. I think you can get good bang-for-your-buck if you choose wisely on your house and neighborhood.

Not a thing wrong with Sapulpa

 

[caliberbob]

Also consider looking for a house in a nice part of BA you like that is outdated. As values go up, an outdated home value will also go up and with equity you will recoup the cost for updating things. And you can update as you go and do it economically. Seen several houses with a $20k-$40k disparity compared to market value simply because of outdated style. Just a thought

 

[caliberbob]

I've lived in Bixby since 1995 and my wife was born here. Growth has been exponential with no plan for infrastructure to support the growth. City Water pressure is generally low and summer mornings it can be half of what's normal. From Tulsa the basic normal way in and out is Memorial and with more and more unsyncronized traffic lights its a headache. More schools, more apartments and more traffic lights also mean more property taxes. I'd consider somewhere other than Bixby.

When we were in the planning stages of moving to Oklahoma we had our eye on Bixby and our realtor said that memorial is basicaly the only way across the river without a long, long detour. Glad we listened to him. It’s a beautiful area but they need a couple more bridges.

 

[RickN]

Remember when house hunting to use a really freaking big rifle.

 

[caliberbob]

Remember when house hunting to use a really freaking big rifle.

Whole new meaning to “pulling the trigger” on a purchase lol