We moved from South Florida to Prosper, Texas in 2022. Four years in, Prosper was the right call for our family. The road here was not. We made seven mistakes, some before we ever loaded a truck and some after we unpacked, and every one of them was avoidable.
If you are relocating to North Dallas, read this before you fall in love with a listing.
Why We Left South Florida for Prosper
We left for space, for schools, and for a cost structure that let our money go further. Florida had been home our whole lives. We knew the insurance market was getting painful and the crowds were getting worse. Prosper promised a growing town with strong schools and room to breathe. That promise held up. How we got here is the part we would redo.
Mistakes We Made Before the Move
Mistake 1: We treated “no state income tax” as the whole tax story
Florida has no state income tax either, so Texas felt familiar on taxes. That comfort was the trap. Texas funds its government through property taxes, and in a fast growing town like Prosper your total tax rate stacks up from the county, the city, the school district, and special districts like MUDs and PIDs. We break the full stack down in how Texas property taxes, MUD and PID fees actually work.
We also lost something leaving Florida: the Save Our Homes cap. In Florida, once you have a homestead exemption, your assessed value can only rise by 3% a year or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower (Pinellas County Property Appraiser). When you sell, the cap resets and the new owner’s taxes are calculated on full market value. We walked away from years of accumulated savings under that cap and started over in a state with no equivalent brake. Nobody explained that tradeoff to us until after the fact.
Mistake 2: We shopped by school rating instead of school culture and community fit
We filtered towns by ratings and stopped there. Ratings tell you test scores. They do not tell you whether your kids will fit in, whether the parent culture matches yours, or whether the town around the school feels like home.
Our fix now: verify school district boundaries by street address, because in North Dallas a single town can feed into more than one district. Then visit on a school night, not just a Saturday.
Mistake 3: We guessed at commute times instead of driving them
North Dallas highways change personality between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM. A 25 minute drive on a Sunday map can be an hour on a Tuesday. We did not drive our real routes at real times before we committed to a side of town. If you or your spouse works in Dallas, Plano, or Frisco, drive the route at rush hour before you write an offer. Not on Google Maps. In the car.
Mistake 4: We fell in love with the house and underweighted the community
The model home will do this to you. Granite, tall ceilings, the staged living room, and suddenly the zip code stops mattering. It always matters. We have watched families buy the perfect house in a community that was wrong for them and spend two years quietly regretting the address, not the floor plan. It is why we tell buyers to study the town of Prosper itself before they study floor plans.
Mistakes We Made After We Arrived
Mistake 5: We underestimated HOA rules and amenity realities in a master planned community
Master planned communities sell a lifestyle, and the HOA enforces it. We did not read the restrictions with relocation eyes. Fence rules, exterior paint approval, parking rules, what the amenity center actually costs to use, how the HOA is run while the builder still controls the board. Read the HOA documents before the option period ends, not after. We were just as blunt about the rest of living here in Prosper TX Downsides: What Realtors Won’t Tell You.
Mistake 6: We did not respect Texas weather
South Florida has hurricanes and humidity. North Texas has a different menu: extreme summer heat that lasts months, hail that can total a roof in one storm, and winter ice events that shut the whole metro down. We arrived unprepared for how much weather drives your budget here, from the roof you buy to the insurance you carry to the trees you plant. It is also why we tell every Florida mover to read how homeowners insurance changes when you move from Florida to Texas before they close.
Mistake 7: We waited too long to build a new circle
We told ourselves we would make friends after we settled in. Settling in took a year. In a town where most people arrived from somewhere else, everyone is looking for their people, but nobody knocks on your door. Join the thing, the church, the gym, the BNI chapter, the neighborhood group, in month one, not month twelve.
The Fix for Each Mistake
- Taxes: Build your total tax rate from the county appraisal district for the exact address, city, county, school district, and any MUD or PID, before you fall for a price. And price what you are leaving behind: Florida’s Save Our Homes savings reset when you sell, so what you built up there does not travel with you.
- Schools: Verify the district by street address, then judge culture in person. Go on a school night, talk to parents, and spend time in the town around the school, not just the campus.
- Commute: Drive every real route at rush hour, in the car, on a weekday. A Sunday map time is a fantasy number in North Dallas.
- Community: Pick the community first and the floor plan second. Tour the neighborhood on a random Tuesday, check what is built and what is still promised, and ask who lives there now.
- HOA: Read the covenants, restrictions, and fee schedule during the option period. Know the fence, paint, and parking rules, and what the amenities actually cost, before you are bound.
- Weather: Budget for Texas weather from day one. Get a homeowners insurance quote during the option period, ask about percentage based wind and hail deductibles, and look hard at roof age on any home you tour.
- People: Join one group in month one. Church, gym, a business network, a neighborhood group. Community here is built on purpose, not by accident.
The pattern across all seven: every mistake came from researching listings instead of researching life. Listings are marketing. Life is the tax bill, the drive, the HOA meeting, the July electric bill, and the people.
What We Would Do Differently Today
If we moved again tomorrow, here is our exact playbook. Build your total tax rate before you build your budget, using the county appraisal district for the specific address. Verify the school district by address and visit on a weeknight. Drive every commute at rush hour. Tour the community on a random Tuesday, not just the model home on a Saturday. Read every HOA document during the option period. Price Texas homeowners insurance during the option period too, because hail deductibles here are often percentage based and they change the math. And join one community group in your first month.
Your Checklist Before You Relocate
- Pull the total property tax rate for your exact address from the county appraisal district, including any MUD or PID.
- Confirm what you are giving up in Florida, including your Save Our Homes savings, which reset when you sell.
- Verify school district boundaries by street address.
- Drive your real commute at rush hour, in the car.
- Read the HOA covenants, restrictions, and fee schedule before the option period ends.
- Get a Texas homeowners insurance quote during the option period.
- Book one community connection, church, gym, or group, for your first month.
Want the full version of this checklist plus our town by town breakdown? Download the Start Here guide. New to the site? Our Start Here page walks you through the towns in order.
Luke Jones, REALTOR, eXp Realty, Texas license #793146 TREC Information About Brokerage Services: https://movingtonorthtexastx.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/iabs-luke-jones-2026.pdf Texas Real Estate Commission Consumer Protection Notice: https://www.trec.texas.gov/sites/default/files/pdf-forms/CN%201-2.pdf
Leave a Reply