Buying a home in Lubbock: start with the right part of town

I'm Shelby Cotton, a REALTOR® with eXp Realty, LLC. Before real estate I worked in architecture, civil design and subdivision planning. That background changes what I notice on a showing. I look at how a floor plan works, how a lot drains and what the surrounding development suggests about the street's future.

I also know what Lubbock's ground asks of a house. High Plains soils behave very differently from the Gulf Coast clay I lived on for about twenty years. Foundations and drainage deserve a careful look here, and I'll point out what I see so you know what to ask your inspector. I am not an inspector or an engineer, so for anything structural I will point you to a licensed professional.

My job is to protect your interests. That sometimes means telling you a home isn't the one, even when it photographs beautifully.

Each part of Lubbock answers the same questions differently. Here's how the neighborhoods I work in compare for a buyer.

Newer homes in the northwest. Uptown West is mostly 2020 to 2023 construction from several local builders, near Erskine Street and Frankford Avenue in Frenship ISD. You get modern layouts and manageable yards, with West End shopping close by.

Front porches and sidewalks in the south. Vintage Township, south of 114th Street, dates from around 2007 forward. Cottages sit alongside larger custom homes, with alley-loaded garages, a neighborhood pool and an HOA. It's in Lubbock-Cooper ISD.

Value near Loop 289. Remington Park is largely 1990s single-family housing on tree-lined streets, near Slide Road and 73rd. Loop 289 puts much of the city within a short drive.

Space and mature trees in the southwest. Farrar Estates was mostly built in the 1970s and 1980s, with generous rooms and lots. Kings Gate is mainly 1980s brick around 82nd and Quaker. Lakeridge grew up around LakeRidge Country Club from the late 1970s on. Kings Park is a small pocket of larger homes north of 82nd with very few sales in a typical year.

Photos sell the paint and the light. A showing is where we check what photos leave out. On every tour I'm looking at a few things you can't change later without real money.

The layout. Does the floor plan work for how you'll live? A home that forces you through one room to reach another limits how you can use it. Two homes with the same square footage can feel like very different sizes.

The lot and the street. Where does water go when it rains? Does the home back to a busy road or sit on a quiet interior street? What's next door, and what could be built nearby later?

The expensive parts. The age of the roof, the heating and cooling system and the water heater. Signs of foundation movement, like cracks above doors or doors that stick. In Lubbock those deserve a careful look, and they tell you what the house will ask of you in the next few years.

I'll tell you what I see, good and bad. If a home looks right and something about it worries me, you'll hear it before you write an offer, not after.