an ongoing conversation place for everything real estate

Are you looking to build a new home in the Omaha, Nebraska? CBSHOME Real Estate represents the finest agents and builders in the most popular developments. These are located throughout Douglas County including Gretna, Elkhorn, Bennington, Bellevue, Valley, and Plattsmouth.

If you are interested in building in a certain school district, our available lots and developments page may help you in your search for the perfect new construction neighborhood.

You will also find many links to of our featured developments that show available lots with Google Mapping in Omaha to give you a better idea of location with surrounding amenities.

Are you looking for a perfect new construction development to build your dream home? We are proud to introduce 3 new featured developments. Find your lot today on BuildWithCBSHOME.com… Build With Us!

We now have a total of 7 featured developments powered by Google Mapping. Preview a video of the development, find lot availability and pricing as well as builder and community information. Many of these lots are not in the MLS and featured exclusively on BuildWithCBSHOME.com.

	Glen Oaks is an acreage development located in Blair/Fort Calhoun area only 10 to 15 minutes from I-80. Most acreages range from 2-4 acres with some additional acreages of 10 to 18 acres giving you unlimited possibilities to build and enjoy a serene retreat unlike any other city development.Residents of Glen Oaks enjoy hard surface roads throughout, rolling wooded hills with walking trails, 2 ponds and wildlife to enjoy. Out-buildings are allowed and horses are welcome. You are allowed to work with any builder you choose. When you build here you are able to put more of the features you love into your home.
	Deer Creek Highlands is one of Omaha’s Premiere neighborhoods. It offers amazing views, large lot sizes, golf course frontages, and beautiful landscaping. Deer Creek Highlands lies on the only Private 27 hole golf course exquisitely designed by Arnold Palmer called The Players Club.The Highlands are located on the Northwestern Part of Deer Creek. It is unique in terrain with a variety of trees, water features, wetlands, large hills, landscaping, & top of the line golf course. The Highlands can be easily accessed directly from 120th and State Street or from Deer Creek Dr. next to the clubhouse.
	Spring Creek development is located 1/2 mile North of 25th Street and Cornhusker in the Bellevue, NE. Many walkouts are available in the $23,950-$33,950 price range. Homes are built in the $250,000+ range. The development is close to shopping and many fine restaurants.Also, this development resides in the Bellevue School District and conveniently located near Bellevue University. It is only 2 minutes from the Kennedy Freeway and 5 minutes north of Offut AFB.

Visit these fine new construction developments and others on BuildWithCBSHOME.com… Build With Us!

According to the Sunday Omaha World Herald article here;

Two Omaha-area housing subdivisions have filed for bankruptcy, the first in a wave of what could be a dozen or more reorganizing their finances. Housing developers have thousands of vacant lots on their hands at least twice as many as a healthy supply and some are defaulting on the bank loans that got their projects going. Banks are suing the developers personally to exact payment.  For residents of affected subdivisions, the future of their neighborhoods, tax burdens and property values are at stake.

As the market struggles to climb out of a recession, some subdivisions are stuck with millions of dollars in debt and scant tax base to pay the bills. Even with a recent pickup in home construction, industry officials say, bankruptcy is now inevitable for a string of subdivisions. They agree that too many inexperienced developers and too many inexperienced investors jumped into the market. Meantime, easy financing encouraged developers to start larger subdivisions with more lots than were necessary in the immediate future.

Banks, now, are expected to tighten lending requirements and developers will create fewer lots at once. Compared with the boom years, banks and developers now have access to more comprehensive data on lots and sales.  Prospective homebuyers looking to build in one of the subdivisions might find a bargain, but also will want to ask questions about the development’s finances and plans.

If you read this article be assured that none of the CBSHOME subdivisions are involved in the defaults and bankruptcies.

Joe Valenti, Executive Vice President of CBSHOME stated how fortunate we feel that none of our subdivisions were mentioned in the article.  John Allen, who has been developing subdivisions for over 30 years and as CBSHOME’S website for lots and developments, BuildWithCBSHOME.com states, has developed approximately 17 residential areas with thousands of home sites in the metro area.  He has worked diligently with our financial partners, land engineers, SID experts and others to develop the best possible subdivisions.  We continue to work with our agents, builders and financial partners to build homes in all of our areas even in these very challenging times.  Shadow Lake, Cinnamon Creek, Falcon Ridge, Whitehawk and Southwind have been very successful and are moving along very nicely.   We are seeing new activity in the Northwest metro area with the opening of two grade school facilities in both Castle Creek and Pine Creek subdivisions.

It is the last few days of this years Street of Dreams.  If you haven’t already gone, take an afternoon or early evening and enjoy a walk through 6 beautiful homes.  The homes are at the Silverleaf estates which are located 1 block north of W. Dodge and 192nd.  The homes shown have been built by Royal Development, L&L Custom Builders, Inc., Malibu Homes LLC, Quest Construction, Prairie Homes, Inc., and S&S Custom Homes LLC. 

Hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sunday.  Tickets are $12.00, $10.00 at local Hy-Vees, Children 6-12 are $6 and 5 and under are FREE.  Go Saturday night and watch the Huskers play at entry #6.  

So take a couple hours, enjoy, and see what these local builders have to offer!

Hey, my friends, it’s time for the 25^th annual Omaha Street of Dreams.  The event began on September 12 and will run through September 27.  This year the Metro Omaha Builders Association (MOBA) event is held in the elegant Siverleaf Estates Development.  Siverleaf is between 185^th and 192^nd Streets, just one block north of Dodge.  The Street of Dreams is open to the public and is advertised as the premier event of its kind in a 5 state area.  It is an opportunity for area builders to show off their craftsmanship and creativity.

The Street of Dream homes run between $700,000 and $1,000,000.  Most of the 125 lots in Silverleaf are estate size, walk-outs.  The development is ringed with lots of trees with “meandering creek beds and rolling hills.”  Silverleaf also boasts plenty of walking paths and open spaces for residents to enjoy.  “Silverleaf Estates is a natural setting that is second to none, but it is being enhanced with significant landscaping features, old-world style street signs and carriage street lighting, and a spectacular cobblestone bridge main entrance!”

This is your chance to get great ideas for your own home decorating and landscaping.  The Street of Dreams tickets are $12 dollars.  You can save by purchasing your tickets at any Hy-Vee location in Omaha and Council Bluffs for $10. Children under 5 are FREE.  Hours for the event are from 3-7 on Monday-Tuesdays and from 11-7 on Wednesdays through Sundays.

Those of you in the market for a new home may want to consider this lovely new area.  If so, please give me a call at 402-697-4251 or email me at Marie.Otis@cbshome.com.

Metro Omaha Builders Association kicked off its 25th anniversary of Omaha’s Street of Dreams on Saturday in the beautiful Silverleaf Estates development located at 192nd just north of Dodge.  The homes range in price from $700,000  to over $1,000,000. 

Touring these homes gives you the opportunity to see the newest trends in construction, interior design, landscaping, and home accessories.  The tour runs through September 27th so check out the homes and then come back and tell us what you thought!  Were you impressed?  Did you see things that you would like to incorporate in your own home?  I look forward to your comments!

The process of building a new home just got more complicated. New escrow closing regulations make building and closing on a new home even more tricky than it was before. It is even more important than ever to get all the information to your lender in a timely manner. These new regulations make the closing portion of the real estate transaction much more prone to delay. The Buyer needs a completed, final closing cost sheet (HUD form) 3 days prior to closing. The slightest change in the HUD form can delay the final close.

As a new construction listing agent, it is very common for Buyers to have overages from their selections when building a new house. Two important factors make this a dangerous slice of procrastination: 1.) appraisers have been less than generous with property values stagnant at best and 2.) the change in purchase price can create a low appraisal situation and easily delay the closing by affecting the final closing documents.

The moral of the story is to deal with an experienced Builder like Sherwood Homes or Lane Building Corporation www.SherwoodHomesOmaha.com . A home builder with experience (over 40 years in the case of Sherwood Homes, Inc.) can make the Home Buyer aware ahead of time of otherwise unforeseen expenses.

Wells Fargo has a thorough breakdown of the changes in regulations. (click for the complete breakdown)

Low appraisals have become more common in the current real estate market as noted in this recent Realtor.org article

When it comes to having a new home built, the process most people are familiar with starts with seeing model homes, where they can look at an example of what the builder will provide, where they can open cabinets, look at flooring & finishes, & in general, “kick the tires” as they try to make the decision to sign the paperwork to get construction on their own new home started. I know, because I’ve had 2 homes built for my family & me. Yet, as a homeowner since 1975 & a REALTOR® since 1991, I’ve reached the conclusion that there is an approach to new home construction that Omaha-area buyers could benefit greatly from.

Consider these questions:  Are you willing to put up the money required to build a home based entirely upon what you see in a model & what you are told by the builder &/or the agent representing him/her? Are you willing to live with a build that is covered by a Nebraska law requiring that the builder address problems associated with a new build for only 1 year following your closing on its purchase? Do you consider yourself an expert about building components, HERS ratings, R- values, & this term called “sustainability“? Last but most important, do you know how to determine the quality of the build for your new home? Or do you want that to depend solely upon what you see when you look at those model homes?

New is nice, but it doesn’t stay new! We live in a harsh weather environment in Nebraska, one of extremes of all types. Just “average” weather in Nebraska places so many demands on a home’s stuctural components. Then there is the consideration involving energy. Certainly, current building codes require more energy efficiency to be built into a home than even a few years ago. However, it’s really short-sighted to look only at the type of heating & cooling system without considering much more than that. What about the building’s “envelope”? SIP or “stick-built”? Not just what style of windows but what they’re made of. What about the roof? The siding?

A new home sure looks pretty with its fresh paint, but when that hardboard starts to puff & swell, what then? What if you could live in a home that didn’t need its exterior painted for 15-20 years? What if you owned a home that had windows that wouldn’t need to be torn out & replaced at a cost of $15-$20,000? Would you like to live in a home that had average heating & cooling bills of, say, $100/month? Would these things save you money & prove your home’s added value each day you lived in it & also when you decide to sell it in the future?

If you’re interested in “smart-sizing” your new home build by “right-sizing” it to fit your needs, & above & beyond that, if you want to learn how to have a home built that will provide you with proven, added value for you to enjoy every day you live in it & then be able to market it as a better built home than those around it when it comes time to sell, then please contact me for some exciting dialogue. Believe me, there is a better way to build a home in the Omaha area, & best of all, it does not have to cost you “an arm & a leg” to afford it, either!        -Scott Yahnke

I have a vision of the type of homes we should be building lots more of in the Omaha area. Homes that are better built that will require less ongoing maintenance. Homes that have windows that are not going to have to be replaced for thousands of dollars. Homes that are tight & cost less to heat & cool every day of the year. Homes that, when the original purchaser decides to sell, have proven, added value compared to the ones around them, thereby making them more desirable & marketable. Instead of “hardboard-box, minimum-code” quality, these homes are sustainable & energy efficient. And all it will take is to have home buyers who realize these benefits before making their investment because they know what to ask for & what to expect. And finally, if built “smart sized,” will be priced fairly yet offer superior value to homes around them. I feel that I have the knowledge, passion, & skills necessary to assist people who are considering having a home built for them in this manner.

Remember during the Clinton administration when the dot-com boom took off & mortgage interest rates were attractive? Then after 9-11, when the housing market kept things together economically? Were you one of those who chose to have a new home built during that time span? I was, & it was my second experience with having a home built for my family & me. What I want to do in this posting is to share the experience I had which was like that of so many, many other people who fell for a build that provided lots of square footage & appeared to look great to us when we moved in. But then, with the passage of time (& not too much of it, sadly), we learned the hard way about the trade-offs we made to get a “big, new house.”

Specifically, I’m talking about “minimum-code quality” builds, homes that give us square footage but at a bare-bones level of quality of construction. How many of us are really experts about building components & home-construction methods? I know I certainly wasn’t in 1998 when my wife & I decided to purchase a spec home because we liked its floor plan & location. But…WE thought we were on top of things. What we ended up with was a house that did indeed have a great floor plan & location, but a house that was lacking in both sustainability & energy efficiency.

With what I have come to learn the hard way about build quality, sustainability, & energy efficiency, I have come to the firm conclusion that the Omaha area needs what I would call “smart-sized” homes. These are homes that provide for the needs of the family while minimizing the over-building above ground that was so prevalent in the past 12 years or so. Think about it:  is there a room in your home, above grade, that you really don’t use enough to justify its existence? Could you have gotten along with some space finished below grade instead?

Along with those questions, how about the build quality? Most homes, even those “high-end” (i.e. pricey & pretty) ones built in the past decade, were put together with components that were as cheap as possible in order to maximize subcontractor & general contractor profits—unless the purchaser knew enough about what s/he wanted to specify either the building components, construction techniques, or both. In my home, for example, when I had to replace a light switch that had failed after a year’s use, I learned while at the home-improvement store that it was the cheapest switch the electrical contractor could select. After the wind- & hailstorm of June, 2008, the fins on my AC compressor were so damaged that they couldn’t be combed out, so we needed to replace the coils. We learned that this unit was so far down the list of equipment lines owned by Carrier that it was no longer in production & would have to be remanufactured at a cost more than a whole, newer model. And my windows…don’t get me started! Cheapest level, non-clad, started to rot within a few years. When I discovered what was going on with them, I actually removed the window with the most problems, replaced its failed components, & reinstalled it properly (including foaming around it which wasn’t done originally) for about $55 in parts & a lot of time on the ladder. However, I got a look “at the patient” & I now realize all too well that not only my house, but so many others of like genre, are standing out there & in need of constant maintenance. In reality, this doesn’t happen. Homes deteriorate, windows fail, HVAC components (most of them oversized too much to begin with, which causes them to cycle too frequently & fail sooner) go out, & on & on.

What’s the point here? There is a better way to build a home. If you want to find out more about what I’m talking about, please visit my web site. You’ll find more information & a link to another blog I’ve got going, “Building Greener Homes Is NOT a Mission to Mars!” And by all means, if you’d like to see a Powerpoint I have about a “residential greener building plan,” give me a call. I’d love to share my ideas with you & have some dialogue about the way homes can & should be built.

Oh, one last thought for this posting:  on my bike rides, I have seen quite a few homes in an “upscale” neighborhood I ride through that are having geothermal heating & cooling systems installed. I can see this from the well-service vehicles & equipment in the homes’ front yards & driveways. Why in the world would someone want to spend over $15,000 to do this when the home’s build quality & inherent energy efficiency doesn’t match this huge investment? Gosh, that would be a little like an elected official obtaining a high-percentage lease on a hybrid SUV in order to “make a statement” about “doing what’s right,” energy-wise, but in the end, not very cost-effective, eh? -Scott