T.F.
I substitute teach in PISD and I have heard of those schools but I don't know anything about them or the neighborhoods which feed into them.
I only sub at the elementary closest to my home (Blue Ribbon exemplary school)....the one my daughter (now 13) went through. I do feel that schools are very important and also keep in mind what feeder schools your children will go to after elementary, etc.
As for taking the plunge on real estate that is hard to say. When we moved here about 20 yrs ago, we did buy a house because we did not want to rent. We preferred to own. It was NOT a dream house, it was a starter house. I hated the layout, being on a corner lot and having an alley. We learned what we did NOT want with other homes. We upgraded this starter house, stayed in it almost 2 yrs and then we built a new home in a new/expanding golf course community.
Building a home will test your relationship to the nth degree. SO frustrating and I hate builders (been through 2 of them). We did enjoy our location very much in North Plano, West of 75. Another thing we learned with living on the golf course (we had no issues with the golf balls, hubby is a golfer, that was well planned out) is privacy. Someone is practically in your backyard all the time. That got old for us because we value our privacy. In 2000, we decided to do it again with another builder (something I said I would never do, ha ha) and it was another very frustrating experience but we do love our home, our space and our location now. We are less than 2 miles from the first home we built but we LOVE our privacy. I can be out back naked if I want to and don't have to worry about anyone around. Not that I do that.....just an example....
With all that said, if you know you will not be in the house long term and accept that, then starting out with a decent investment and re-selling might be a good avenue for you. Like us, you can get a feel for features you do and do not like. We swore after house #1 that we would never have another alley and we have not. We moved here from NC and had never seen alley's so it was odd to us. You can establish your credit better as well when you own, unless of course you default. It is expensive to maintain a house. We are frequent Home Depot/ Lowe's customers for maintainence products.
Good luck to you whatever you choose.
TF
