Magnolia Villas

Located at 1201 Drake Court, Waco, TX 76710.

This is the place the made Chip and Joanna Gaines famous.  This is the development that started it all.  Chip and Jo built this community from the ground-up before they became HGTV stars. In 2011, the couple and their business partners bought a 6-acre parcel of land in downtown Waco, TX, and subdivided it into 36 lots.

But it wasn't easy.  While working on this project, Chip and Jo ran out of money.   If you read the book, The Magnolia Story, a local bank in town believed in Chip and Jo and they gave them the money to complete the project.  

While working on this project, they filmed themselves.  They sent a demo tape in to HGTV and the rest is history.  And as a thanks to that local bank, TFNB, Chip and Jo did a series of television commercials before they became famous.  You can still see those commercials on YouTube today.

It's a gated community that is for 55 plus residents.  But what is most impressive about these homes, is that even before they were famous, they have stayed true to their farmhouse design.  Every single one of these houses looks like a Magnolia house.  And it's a great thing to see because it shows that they have always stayed true to who they are.

Even the street is named "Drake" after their oldest son.

They always thought big, and they always thought ahead.  And that's why, when Chip and Jo built this 55-plus community... they built it, right next to, the... Oakrest Funeral Home.