Personal Experience: How We Moved to Texas

This story is shared by Regina. She enjoys background in project administration, compliance, and legal coordination in the energy sector. With academic degrees in Public Relations and Sustainable Development, Regina has experience working in international settings, managing contracts, and overseeing regulatory compliance in the oil and gas industry.

Regina and her husband moved to the USA primarily for professional growth, since her husband got a job in Dallas, TX. Currently they are living in a house, where they moved in August 2024. Today she is sharing with us some useful details about her town, Flower Mound, and family lifestyle in the state of Texas.

Choosing Our Town and Neighborhood

Flower Mound is a peaceful, family-friendly community with great schools and infrastructure. It’s a nice place for raising a family. The community is safe, well-maintained, and has excellent public services. I also appreciate local parks and recreational areas, which are perfect for spending time with my daughter.

When we first moved to Dallas, we chose Uptown because it is vibrant, convenient for young professionals, and close to my husband's job. Later, when I got pregnant, we looked for a more spacious and family-friendly environment, which led us to Addison. Once our baby was born, we wanted a permanent home in a safe, family-oriented community with high-quality schools, which is why we chose Flower Mound.

Here are my top 5 factors when deciding about the neighborhood:

· Safety & family-friendliness

· Quality of public schools

· Green spaces & recreational areas

· Driving accessibility

Our town has multiple positive aspects. I’d like to highlight excellent schools: Old Settlers Elementary School, Bridlewood Elementary School, Forest Vista Elementary School. There are lots of green spaces. It’s easy to drive around the neighborhood. Our area is well-connected by highways, making it easy to reach Dallas, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, and other cities nearby.

However, public transportation is limited, and having a car is essential for daily life. Since I am a beginner driver, one of the key advantages of Flower Mound is that I can navigate comfortably without always taking the highway.

Glenwick park and a public library are on my list of go-to places. As for the shopping malls, I would recommend The Shops of Flower Mound, Flower Mound Town Center, and The Highlands of Flower Mound.

Currently, we do not interact much with the local community, except for two of my Russian-speaking girlfriends who live nearby. However, as our daughter starts daycare, we may begin to engage more, especially through school-related activities and meeting other parents.

Choosing Our Future Home

The real estate market in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including Flower Mound, is competitive, with high demand for family-friendly neighborhoods, good schools, and spacious homes. Housing prices have been rising due to strong job growth and an increasing population. Personally, dealing with such a competitive market was rather challenging; we saw houses get sold within hours of being listed, making it stressful to decide so quickly.

For expats, some possible issues may include:

Understanding the home-buying process in the U.S., which may differ from their home country.
Securing financing if they don’t have a long credit history in the U.S. Some banks may require additional documentation.
Finding the right neighborhood, as commuting distances, school ratings, and home prices vary significantly across the metroplex.

I would recommend Zillow for browsing listings and getting an idea of price trends. In our case, we worked with a real estate agent who is the wife of my husband’s boss. She helped us with negotiations and paperwork. We were satisfied with the service, as it made the process much smoother. Overall, it took us 4 months, from starting to choose the property till actually moving in.

Please mind that there are specific laws and regulations when buying a property in Texas:

Title insurance is required to protect against ownership disputes.
No state property tax. Yet Texas has relatively high local property taxes, which vary by county.
Option period for inspections. Buyers can negotiate an "option period" (typically 5-10 days) where they can back out after an inspection.

Buying a Property in Texas: Step by Step

House hunting with a newborn requires extra patience and flexibility. Since I was still breastfeeding, we had to carefully plan all our home viewings around her feeding and nap schedule.

Our home-buying process involved several stages, each requiring time and effort:

We explored different areas online, considering factors like commuting, schools, and housing prices.
Mortgage Pre-Approval (1-2 weeks)
Home Search & Viewing (1-2 months)
Making an Offer & Negotiation (5 days). Once we found the right house, we made an offer. The seller countered, and after negotiations, fortunately, we reached an agreement.
Home Inspection & Appraisal (2-3 weeks). Our bank required a home appraisal to ensure the property’s value aligned with the loan amount.
Final Mortgage Approval & Closing Process (4-6 weeks). After the appraisal, the bank completed the underwriting process and approved our mortgage. We signed all legal documents at the title company and paid closing costs.

We took out a 30-year mortgage with a 5% down payment, which was the minimum required for our loan type. Monthly Payments included principal, interest, property taxes, and homeowners’ insurance. The costs related to signing a contract (notary, taxes, agents, paperwork, etc.) amounted to 5% of the house price.

To sum it up, the biggest challenge was how fast-paced and competitive the real estate market is in Dallas. You have to act quickly and be ready to make a competitive offer above the asking price if you really want a house. We actually lost two houses we really liked because we didn’t act fast enough or didn’t offer enough in a bidding war. It was frustrating, but this way, we learned that in such a hot market, hesitation can mean losing a great home.