Discover Creekside by KB Home: Affordable, Flexible Living in Parrish, Florida

In this episode of Jim Sells the Suncoast, Jim speaks with James Phillips from KB Home, spotlighting the new Creekside community in Parrish, Florida. Learn why this development stands out for first-time buyers, retirees, and anyone seeking a personalized home without the extra fees.

Key Highlights

1. Location & Lifestyle
   • Quiet Yet Connected: Tucked just off 675 in Parrish, offering an “off-the-grid” feel while being roughly 30–45 minutes from Tampa, Sarasota, and local beaches.
   • Natural Setting: The community preserves open spaces, including a linear park ideal for walking, play, and outdoor relaxation.
2. Home Options & Pricing
   • Single-Family Floor Plans: Sizes range from a 3-bedroom (1,541 sq. ft.) to a 6-bedroom (3,100+ sq. ft.), starting in the mid $300Ks up to the mid-to-high $400Ks.
   • Personalization: Buyers can choose structural upgrades (e.g., covered lanais, extended ceilings) and visit KB’s design center to select finishes—from flooring to countertops.
3. No CDD & Low HOA
   • Monthly Fees: HOA is only $80/month, covering common-area landscaping and upkeep.
   • Future Amenities: Phase 2 plans include a pool and clubhouse, yet HOA costs are expected to remain low.
4. Build Timeline & Customization
   • Estimated 6–9 Months: From contract to move-in, including a month for permitting and 5–7 months of build time.
   • Choose Your Lot & Plan: Larger parcels can accommodate pools, and every homesite supports any floor plan with minimal restrictions.
5. Warranty & Support
   • 1-2-10 Warranty: Covers materials/workmanship for the first year, systems (plumbing, electrical, HVAC) for two years, and structural defects for ten.
   • Lender Integration: KBHS offers various loan types (VA, FHA, conventional, and more) plus credit repair programs if needed.

What’s Next?

Looking for a new home that offers affordability, customization, and a convenient location? Reach out to Jim at jim.ahearn@gmail.com or visit Jim Sells the Suncoast for more insights on Creekside by KB Home and other Suncoast communities. Happy house hunting!

A Personal Note from Jim:

Hey there, I’m Jim Ahearn, your go-to real estate guide and host of Jim Sells The Suncoast podcast! 🎙️✨ Dreaming of Florida life? I’ve got you covered! As your dedicated buyer's agent, I’ll handle everything from walk-throughs to closing, making your home-buying journey as smooth as a Florida breeze.

Whether you're local or tuning in from afar, I’ll bring the Suncoast to you with virtual tours and expert advice. Let’s chat about your dream home and I'll connect you with all the right people to make it happen.

Ready to move to paradise? Drop me a line – I can’t wait to help! 🌴🏡

Transcript

Jim: 0:51

Hello and welcome to Jim sells the Suncoast. Today I am honored to have James Phillips with me. He is with Creekside KB Home Development going on up in the parish area. He's been in real estate for about eight years, working new homes for seven and just recently joined KB. So James, welcome. Not a problem. We know there's a lot of growth and new development going on up in the parish area. So I wanted to dig in a little bit about Creekside and what we have going on. What sets this development apart, maybe in terms of lifestyle and community experience compared to others in the area?

James: 1:30

Yeah, absolutely. It's a little bit more off the beaten path. We don't have any CDD fees. Very low HOA. It's a cost effective neighborhood, really great for entry level buyers, those looking to retire on a budget. But we do also offer a lot of personalized options and really nice floor plans. If you did want to do more of the personalized home and do all the bells and whistles, you can go a little bit more luxury as well.

Jim: 2:03

Yeah, I know when you're driving along the main road out there, 6 75. All of a sudden you see the entrance and it goes by. But when you go back in there, it opens up and it's nice to have a little bit of that. It's still convenient to everything when we talk about that location in parish of you're probably 30 to 45 minutes to Tampa Airport. About the same to Sarasota Airport. about the same to the beaches, about the same to Lakewood Ranch, about the same to UTC for restaurants and nightlife. So it's really in that center of it. But as soon as you go back, it's like a world apart where you're separate and you're not you're in the center, but you're not, within the center, so to speak.

James: 2:44

They definitely wanted to make it seem like a little hidden jewel back there and

Jim: 2:50

it definitely is fantastic. So let's talk about the variety of living options that are available. It's all single family homes, correct? It's all single family homes. Okay. And then floor plans. What size are we are? Where does the gamut run? Does it go to bedroom to five bedroom? What are we looking at?

James: 3:11

So it, the smallest that we offer is a three two, and it's 1,541 square feet. We have a four two, which is 1707. We have another four two that's 1,989 square feet. And we have a larger four three at twenty three hundred and thirty three square feet. And then once you go larger, those are our two story option. So we have two story options starting at 2, 555 square feet. And that one right there can be a five bedroom with three and a half bath. Or you can go up to 2, 700 square feet. And you can do up to five bedrooms again with three full baths. Or you can go as big as 3, 100 square feet and then you can do six bedrooms

Jim: 4:06

You know what? I do love the way you named the homes cause it makes it very easy to remember how big they are.

James: 4:11

Yeah. It makes me easy to sell that way as well.

Jim: 4:13

So what's the price range then? What's the starting point for your smallest home and then what does it go up to for the upper home.

James: 4:20

Yeah. So the smallest square footage is right around 3 45 9 90. They love their nine nineties. the 17 oh seven is actually only five grand more. And so for five grand, you get 200 more square feet, another bedroom. And so that one's priced right at 3 59 90. And it goes as high as I believe 475 for the 3, 100 square foot plan.

Jim: 4:51

And so a six bedroom house for under, under 500 is still, I think a pretty good bargain. Definitely. So beyond the home purchase you already mentioned there's no CDD fees there, which is fantastic. You get the feel of being near either North River Ranch or Lakewood Ranch. But without the cost associated, what other fees, what's the HOA maintenance, property taxes, anything additional that buyers should be aware of?

James: 5:19

Not much. The HOA is 80 bucks a month and that's pretty much it. There's no other monthly fees built into it. Everything else is pretty much cut and dry.

Jim: 5:33

Okay. And obviously with HOA fees, some of that will go to the amenities that are available. So what amenities are going to be in there and then is there anything that the development is going to cover, whether it's no maintenance or anything like that, what the cover?

James: 5:46

So the 80 it's going to cover the overall landscaping and upkeeping of the community. We do have the common areas. Yes, sir. All the common areas. And there's quite a bit of landscaping in, entryway. And also we're doing a linear park. And so there's a linear park that runs half the length of the community and that will have landscaping as well. And so in this first phase, not really much as far as amenities go, which also keeps the cost down. But in our second phase we will have a pool and a clubhouse over there.

Jim: 6:26

Okay. And that'll still be at that same 80 HOA fee?

James: 6:32

Yes. The good thing about KB is we take ownership of the HOA until the communities are completed. And so we can guarantee that it won't jump and there won't be any

Jim: 6:44

And then you say a linear park, is that, lengthwise along the whole property as opposed to one small like square of park is what you mean where you can travel or pathways through it? Exactly.

James: 6:56

Yeah. So it's pretty much, it's going to be the length of the community. And it'll lead you into the two ponds in the front entryway. And so you have plenty of room to walk around let the kids play some sports, take your dog.

Jim: 7:11

Nice. Yeah. A little bit of walking room. That's nice that it's spread out. What how big is Creekside as what's the projected build out, the number of units, a number of acres, and like the timeline on building through phases and completion.

James: 7:30

So right now we're probably looking at for the entire community to be built out maybe two, two and a half for the first phase and then projected the same amount of time for the second phase. So probably around five years total. And in this first phase we have 98 home sites. And in the second phase, it'll be the same number. So another 98 home sites.

Jim: 8:00

Okay. So we're looking maybe 40 homes a year being built, which is good growth without being so much that all is construction as you're driving in. Yes, exactly.

James: 8:13

And that, yeah, that's what we're trying to avoid. And so each phase is about, I want to say a little over five acres of land just where the houses are being built,

Jim: 8:24

Okay, and what size lots does that lead to,

James: 8:27

Yeah, for the larger homes, you're probably looking at a quarter of an acre. And then for everything else, you're probably looking at a little less,

Jim: 8:39

Okay. We talked a little bit about really good for people may be downsizing or new home buyers coming in, first time home buyers. What is it the community is offering really to drive those? And I know the price point is on target. Now we've got some fantastic communities coming in to help drive that portion of the business.

James: 9:03

Yes. So incentives wise what we're doing right now is we're doing between 20 to 30 K flex cash. And so buyers have the option to buy down their interest rate. So we can go as low as two points below the outside, And then we're also contributing money towards closing costs. And you could use that flex cash towards options as well. Structural options on them. So if you wanted to do like a covered lanai, extended in the back. That's something that could be covered under that flex cash if you wanted to raise ceilings, ceiling height to nine foot four inches from the standard eight and a half feet, you can definitely do that as well. So we have a ton of structural options, which is really great because a lot of builders are moving away from doing those things. It's just really whatever you can imagine there, there's an option for that.

Jim: 10:04

Yeah, that sounds pretty good. I've talked to a couple of different sites where they're more on the inventory ready kind of side where you can come in and personalize it, such as painting a wall or changes of colors, but being able to make structure changes. That's the next level up. What does that do to the construction time? So what is your timeline right now from, signing the document to closing? Are we in that six to nine month window? Exactly.

James: 10:30

Yeah. So we're right around six to nine months. And with all the personalized options, that first month is going to be a lot of permits getting approval and different things like that and prepping the home site. And then from there, we're looking at an actual build time of, five to seven months

Jim: 10:48

is the buyer able to pick a mix and match, pick the site and the home, or is it laid out as to which site can handle which kind of home?

James: 10:57

everything is negotiable. So any home site can fit any square footage of floor plan that we have. It's just how big of the backyard do you want? How much space do you need? All those good things, basically. As far as the structural side of it, you can put any floor plan anywhere. So it's really great to have that flexibility.

Jim: 11:22

Yeah, that's a lot more flexible for that price point. Is there room for a pool?

James: 11:27

So most home sites will allow for a pool. We've got maybe 10 in total that have some easements that don't allow for a pool. But for the most part, the majority of the home sites can accommodate a pool.

Jim: 11:43

So if somebody really wants a pool, they could come in and mention that. So how does KB support homeowners after the sales? What kind of warranty? Ongoing maintenance. What is in play here?

James: 11:55

So they have a 1 2 10 warranty, the industry standard. And so for the first year, everything installed in the home is covered. For the second year, it's gonna be all your systems, so plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and then 10 years is anything structural. If you were to notice it within a 10 year period that there was cracks in your sheet rock or a deviation of height in your flooring and you think maybe your slab could crack anything like that. No, I've never seen that, but that would be considered a warranty issue and we would repair anything associated with that. So flooring cabinets, anything that was affected due to a structural option. So it's a really pretty great. Program. And if they don't handle it in a quick enough time period, you could actually call one to 10 warranty and they have their own personnel that would come out.

Jim: 12:46

Okay. So one of the big things in the County really is the focus on environmental considerations. What was done with planning out the parks and areas and the home sites itself for Creekside, anything that the.

James: 13:04

Oh yeah. So they definitely wanted to. Have a community layout that would allow for different floor plans and two story, single story homes to have a variety. So just like we were talking about earlier with the other builders doing more of the move in ready product. We didn't want to have a cookie cutter community where everything looked the same. So by allowing the buyers. To personalize the home. Let's say they pick a floor plan a 1989, and their next door neighbor has the same floor plan, right? The only caveat there is now you gotta pick a different elevation, so the Exterior homes get a little different right off the bat. Once you do that, you actually get to go to our design center, the design center is gonna allow you to see. A variety of colors for the exterior of the home. So you'll pick your trim color, your main color, even your shingle color. And so you could do stone veneer, you could do brick veneer on the front. the options are endless. And also in that design center, just to hit on that, you're picking out everything that goes in the interior of the home as well. So you can do tile flooring throughout you could just do it in the main part of the home. You can do LVP flooring throughout or just the main section of the home. Quartz countertops, we have 30 different colors to choose from. Granite the options are endless. The lighting options, the door handles, the hardware. we have walls and just a beautiful design center in the Riverview section of Tampa.

Jim: 14:39

Okay. Is there an option for metal roofs or is that not something available

James: 14:44

So they're not doing metal roofs but basically it's going to be the 20 year architectural shingles

Jim: 14:50

Okay. Are there any specific guidelines homeowners should be aware of such as pet policies or rental regulations?

James: 14:57

So the only rental regulations right now written within the contract basically says no more than 10 percent of the community can be sold to investors as rental properties. Short term rentals are not permitted through HOA in most of our communities. And so they're not permitted here at Creekside. But other than that, no, no real restrictions. We don't have pet restrictions. So other than what's regulated through the county so you'd have to go to the county website to see how many dogs or cats you have, but no breed restrictions or anything along those lines.

Jim: 15:37

Yep. And that's one of the questions I get quite a bit is on the rental. And typically what we're seeing now too is, a year lease, no more than two in a year. It can transition one to the other, but. You don't get to rent for a week and then have a bunch of trans and transition through there. Yeah. Can you share any stories or testimonials from current residents that highlight their positive experience? Cause I know as they start moving in and they see you guys, it's that wave high every time they come by, tell me something great that you encountered with somebody that's just bought in there.

James: 16:13

Yeah. So we don't have anyone actually living in the community yet. We're still waiting on the county for Water and power. So that tells you how new we are. But the buyers, earlier you mentioned getting a six bedroom home under 500 K I actually had a buyer who purchased the 3,100 square foot plan. And if the homes under construction now, it's looking beautiful so far. And they are extremely happy to have the option to get new construction and be able to put all the kids in their own bedroom. I have another family ran into some financing issues with another builder and our loan department was able to figure things out really work with them, get them on a plan to help with just some different issues they were having. They've got a four bedroom two bath plan that works perfect for their family. they really appreciate the fact that we were able to get creative with them and find something that works. now they're just ready to close. As soon as we can get water and power, they're ready to move

Jim: 17:15

Good. I've got two questions coming out of that. One, do you have an ETA on, when does this construction start? Wrapping up and people are able to move in. Is this like in April, may, somewhere in that timeframe.

James: 17:31

we're supposed to be getting water and power in the next two and a half weeks. Okay. We've got about six move-in ready inventory right now. Ready to close. And so I know at least one of those residents will be in, in the next four weeks.

Jim: 17:45

tell me a little bit about your vertical integration with KB lender insurance title. What's available as a one stop shop for customers coming in.

James: 17:55

Yeah, we have our own loan department. And so it's KBHS. And so the KBHS side of things, they are their own company, but they work directly with us. And so they handle all of your loan needs. The good thing about it is any loan type that they can do in the outside general practice. We can do here with KBHS. So they are VA experts, FHA experts. They offer all loan types, 30 year arms. If you can think of it, they can do it. They're really great with investor type loans as well. the benefit of buying a new build is you have to wait for the home to be built. And so if you did have any financial issues. If we're able to put you in credit repair programs, whatever you may need we can get you where you need to be in that time period, and they're really good at doing that, and they have a ton of experience.

Jim: 18:52

Fantastic.

James: 18:56

If you're just looking for something moving ready, or if you wanted to do a build to order, we've got you covered. but yeah we definitely got all different options for all different buyers, whether you're looking to downsize, move up, retire, get into your first home, something for the whole family, big families, small families, we got a little bit of everything. we're a smaller community, less fees cost effective, but still delivering the highest quality product that we possibly can.

Jim: 19:29

You know what? I love that location. I love this part of Florida, that location that's going to be right in the heart of everything, but still feel it's occluded. James, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you coming on and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Jim. It was a pleasure. Appreciate it.