Some common uses for a bonus room are a media room, home office, children’s play area, oversized game room, or a craft room.  A media room allows homeowners to feel like they are going to the movies, while still enjoying the comforts of home. Studies or home offices have become popular as more people work from home, but need a separate space that doesn’t interfere with their normal living space.  

A bonus room can be located virtually anywhere in the house. Some builders tuck them behind a covered porch or atop a two- or three-car garage. The goal is to give the home owner options, so they will be satisfied with their purchase.

Here are a few decorating ideas to spruce up your bonus room:

Media room – Dark walls, ceiling, furniture and/or flooring are essential – but that doesn’t mean black! Consider a rich navy blue or chocolate brown color instead. And add patterned carpeting for visual interest.

Office – Use bright lamps, such as a floor fixture to create a nicely lit space.  Wood finishes are appropriate for furniture. You can find stylish desks and chairs that are both functional and comfortable. Add some plants for visual interest. (Studies say they’re good for reducing stress!)

Craft room – Paint the walls with a white or off-white color to provide a neutral background for all of your art supplies, fabrics and paper. Select a table that is counter height and fit it with casters so that you can roll it to the middle of the room when needed.  Store supplies on shelves or in stackable bins.

If you’d like more information about North Dallas new homes for sale, and the types of bonus rooms offered by Landon Homes, visit our website at www.landonhomesusa.com.

Why should you buy a quick move-in home versus a resale? There are several reasons. 

1. Builders Warranty – A brand new home comes with a warranty from the home builder, so you have peace of mind should anything break down in the house. With a resale, you’re dependent upon how well the previous owners maintained the property. Even when you have a home inspection performed before the purchase, there’s a chance for problems to be missed.  
2. Upgrades – A move-in ready home often includes options and upgrades that are appealing to new home buyers. Plus, the builder often includes features that have been popular with existing home buyers, so you know the design has been tested by families like yours. 
3. Pricing – Builders typically include large incentives on move-in ready homes, so you could get a better deal on a brand new home than you would on a resale.  
4. Energy Efficiency – A new home includes the most up-to-date energy saving features and construction techniques, enabling buyers to save money on utility bills and insurance premiums compared to an older home.  

If you’d like information on the available move-in ready homes for sale in North Dallas, contact Landon Homes at 866-898-3603. Landon Homes is rated among the best Dallas area home builders. Our better built by design, affordable green homes are ready now in premier neighborhoods.

The state’s unemployment rate is below the national average and job growth is steady at a healthy 2.8 percent rate, the same as it has been over the last two decades. In addition, Texas has one of – if not the strongest – real estate markets in the country. So if you’re in the market for a new home, pay attention to local numbers, not national, and you won’t go wrong.

One area that’s been growing fast is McKinney, site of Landon Homes’ Shiloh Ranch community, and recently rated number 5 in CNN Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live in the U.S. Newcomers are flocking to this Dallas suburb because of McKinney’s great schools, safe streets, low crime and robust employment opportunities. The city also features lovely rolling hills, expansive open spaces, more than 40 miles of hike and bike trails and 2,000 acres of parkland.

The homes in Shiloh Ranch are the most energy efficient in the area, include huge backyards, and some models feature 3-car garages. The community is located just north of Virginia Parkway off Custer Road with the Exemplary J.R Wilmeth Elementary School right across the street. 

For more information about Shiloh Ranch or any of Landon’s other new home communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, contact Tanya Smith anytime at 866-898-3603 or visit our website at www.landonhomesusa.com.

It is important to know where the candidates stand on the issues. So do your homework now, and don’t worry about it again until Election Day when it’s time to make your vote count. Remember that politics is a soap opera that will always involve drama. Waiting for election cycles to be over just delays the enjoyment you could be having in your new home! 

There are some great deals to be had right now in the housing market. Prices are affordable, mortgage rates are at record lows, and the new homes that are built today are much more energy efficient than those built 5-10 years ago. That means you’ll be able to save a good deal of money on utility bills.  Plus, a new home comes with a full builder’s warranty, so you don’t have to worry about making repairs.

At Landon Homes, we keep you in the loop all through the construction phase, so you know how your home is progressing. We offer a pre-construction meeting, a pre-drywall inspection, and a final inspection to ensure your satisfaction during all points of the building process.

With a repertoire of more than 40,000 homes built over the last 20 years, the Landon team offers an unmatched wealth of talent, expertise and enthusiasm. Call us today at  866-898-3603 to schedule a tour of one of our model homes in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

U.S. News and World Report recently pointed out 9 reasons to buy a new home over a resale.  One of the benefits the article cited is the ability to design your home the way you want it, inside and out.  With new construction, you can choose your floor plan, select cabinets and countertops, paint colors and finishes, and landscaping. With an existing home, you have to live with the previous owner’s style, or spend money to change things you don’t like, such as wall colors and appliances. 

Another major advantage to buying a new home is that it will be more energy efficient than a resale home. Energy conservation codes get updated every 3 years, so a new home features the latest requirements like higher-efficiency insulation, doors and windows. Landon Homes takes these requirements a step further by doing 2”x 6” exterior walls that hold up to 50% more insulation than industry standard, tankless water heaters and highly rated appliances and water-saving faucets and shower heads that minimize utility bills.  A resale home usually has to be retrofitted with these features, at an additional cost. 

Home repairs and maintenance costs also play a role in the home buying process. An existing home or a foreclosure may need major repairs if the owner didn’t take care of it properly. That could put a big dent in your wallet.  A new home is covered by a builder’s warranty for at least a year, while other major components are usually warrantied for extended periods. 

Home builders may also be able to offer more financing options due to their relationships with lenders. As a result, you could get a deal on closing costs, a buy down of your interest rate, or even special upgrade financing. Fewer individual sellers have room to negotiate on these terms, so a new home might be your best option if financing is important to you.

If you’re looking for a new home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, visit Landon Homes to learn about our better built by design, energy-efficient homes that respect both the environment and your budget.

Landon has come a long way in just two short years.  The company has built and sold more than 250 new energy efficient homes throughout Little Elm, Frisco, McKinney and North Dallas, TX. It’s a significant achievement in two short years, considering that John Landon started this company in the midst of an economic downturn. However, the president of Landon Homes saw the economy as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle.   

Landon realized that lumber, land, and labor prices had fallen considerably, making it more affordable to build homes. And he knew that if people were in a position to buy now, they would have an exciting opportunity to get a lot of high quality at a very good price. Landon says, “If we build the right product, at the right price, in the right location, we’ll do OK, even in this environment.” “We call it our Value Equation.” 

Landon has the experience to back up his beliefs. He created Legacy Homes in 1987, when the economy was in the midst of another recession. “We were profitable in five months,” says Landon. And Legacy Homes eventually grew from a single community in Dallas to become the 12^th largest builder in the nation. 

The Landon team brings an unmatched wealth of talent, expertise and enthusiasm to every home they build. Our energy experts work hand-in-hand with our architects to create a home that is both beautiful and eco-friendly. Our goal is to build homes with lasting value and quality – creating the very best home for you in exceptional neighborhoods with highly acclaimed school systems. 

For more information about Landon Homes’ birthday promotion, visit our website at www.landonshomesusa.com or contact Tanya Smith at 214-707-0347.

The first thing you can do is establish one central location for papers and mail so everyone in your home knows where to find certain items. Next, decide what you’re going to keep and what you can get rid of. 

Children bring home lots of papers from school, so determine what percentage will get saved. As much as you’d like to keep all of their school work, it’s just not realistic to do so. Instead, display the most important or memorable papers on the refrigerator or on a bulletin board. Then, take a picture or scan the rest so you can save them electronically, minimizing clutter.   You can also store school papers in a 3-ring binder, a file folder in a drawer, or a storage box. 

It’s also a good idea to set aside one area for your children to do their homework. This not only helps minimize the clutter in your home, but it will help your children concentrate on the task at hand. Make sure this area has plenty of supplies available such as paper, pencils, pens, etc. Depending on the age of the child, the homework area could be the dining room table, a desk in their bedroom or a table in the living room. 

If your children are involved in various after-school activities like sports and clubs, post a schedule on the refrigerator or some other place where everyone in the family can see it.  A handy organization tool is to assign each member of the family a different color to keep track of who has to be where and when.  (If you or your spouse prefers computer organization, Yahoo! and Google provide free online calendars to help you manage your time.)  Make sure you note on the schedule which parent is picking up and/or dropping off so no child gets left behind!  Remember to check your schedule at the end of each day, so you know what’s coming in the days ahead. 

Landon Homes offers better built, affordable green homes for sale in the renowned Frisco Independent School District. For more information, visit our website at LandonHomesUSA.com or contact Tanya Smith directly at 214-707-0347.

How many times have you bought an item “on sale” only to find out the price was actually marked up before the store decided to lower the price? So, what seemed like a bargain at the time really wasn’t – since the “sale” price was actually higher than the normal price of the same item at another store.

Unfortunately, some home builders and contractors use this same tactic.  They will lowball you to get the job and then come up with every opportunity they can to charge you extra, so you wind up paying much more than if you had gone with someone else.

You may also come across two homes with the same square footage and same number of bedrooms and baths in two adjoining neighborhoods. However, one is more expensive than the other. Does that automatically mean the cheaper home is the best value?  Not necessarily.

In these situations, you’ve got to do your homework. That means conducting a side by side feature and structural comparison to find out if you truly are getting the best deal with one builder over another.

One area to review is the type of energy saving features your builder offers. For instance, Landon Homes is the first builder in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to use 2×6 exterior wall construction instead of 2×4. With 50% thicker lumber, the walls of your home are stronger, and can hold 57% more insulation. As a result, your home won’t experience as much unwanted heat loss or gain, reducing your energy demands and lowering your utility bills in the process.

As you conduct your new home search, find out if your builder uses quality materials and has a good reputation for customer service.  You can save money in the long run by paying a little more upfront on a home that is built to last and helps keep your energy costs down. 

For more information about Landon’s better-built by design, energy efficient homes, visit our website at www.landonhomesusa.com.

For instance, if the current interest rate is 4.5 percent, the interest rate for the buy down would begin at 2.5 percent the first year, increase to 3.5 percent the second year, and then rise to 4.5 percent the third year, where it would stay throughout the remainder of the loan’s 30-year term. The title policy is included in the promotion, and there are no loan origination fees. 

As an added incentive, Landon says every customer that purchases one of the special 2/1 buy down homes will go into a drawing for a brand new Nintendo WII family gaming console package. 

If for some reason you don’t need to take advantage of the extra-low interest rate buy down being offered by Landon, Flagstone loan officer Patrick Iglinsky says he can mold the promotion into something that will be beneficial for you. 

The mortgage process may not be easy to navigate these days, but Iglinsky says he works closely with the Landon team and the title company to manage the flow of information for the home buyer. As a result, Iglinsky says he helps ensure that the approval process goes smoothly from the day the contract is signed to the day of closing. 

For more information about Landon Homes’ 2/1 buy down promotion, visit our website at www.landonshomesusa.com or contact Tanya Smith at 214-707-0347.

Landon Homes is proud to feature the Villages at Lakeview a new home community in Little Elm. Whether you’re shopping for your first home or an empty nester looking to downsize, Landon has your perfect home.

The Enclave at Lakeview offers some of the best prices in the Frisco Independent School District. This master-planned community includes four amenity centers, with pools, parks, trails and more. If you have a growing family that needs a bigger backyard and more space, consider the Reserve at Lakeview. This community offers estate-sized homesites – 74’ and 84’ wide and 3-car garages. In the middle of those two neighborhoods you’ll find The Dominion at Lakeview. It’s conveniently located just east of Lewisville Lake and is served by the area’s newest and best schools. Panther Creek Parkway leads directly into the Lakeview location from the Tollway.

Lewisville Lake offers a diverse water experience for homeowners in the area and we are just 4 short miles away from, fishing, water skiing and sailing,  just to name a few of the options available to you. The newest marina on the lake is Cottonwood Creek Marina. This meticulously maintained, fun, family-oriented facility is the only marina with fuel docks and ships store that is open year round on Lewisville Lake.

Cottonwood Creek Marina offers both open and covered slips with electricity and city water available at each slip. The marina also offers personal watercraft docking areas and courtesy slips. In addition, Cottonwood Creek is an annual sponsor of the “Anything Floats Derby” held in conjunction with the Town of Little Elm’s Autumn Festival.

For more information about Little Elm or our other new homes in the North Dallas area, visit our website at LandonHomesUSA.com or contact Tanya Smith anytime by phone at 214-707-0347.