Gutters ..
NO gutters is the best situation for NE Texas as far as I'm concerned.
I have built a few houses ... matter of fact, I'm in the process of un-retiring *(after more than a dozen years) to start spec construction again... bought a lot this week and am finishing drawing the plans (yep, I draw my own), and none of mine have had gutters.
Proper attention to grade, as Phil said, is, in NE Texas at any rate, the important factor.
It is necessary to water the foundation perimeter in my area, just as one waters the trees, to eliminate cracking.
I water all night long, via a soaker hose all the way around my house, any time we go a month without at least a one inch rainfall.
The house across the street from me was built the same month as was mine twenty three(23) years ago... good friend from high school days .... he made two errors in my opinion .....
went all electric and installed gutters.
His year-round cost for electric heat and air is consistently appx fifty percent greater than is mine and he had to spend fifteen(15) grand about a dozen years ago, and ten(10) grand about five years ago .....
excavation and pressure induced concrete to shore up the two corners on the south side .....
There are several foundation repair companies in business here, I know the owners personally, and they don't place any blame on the gutters ... BUT I do ... ggggg
I asked each of them how many homes they repaired that had NO gutters and the replies were what I consider "non-responsive" .... heh heh heh
Now, there are NO basements .. I mean none to speak of here locally, and slab construction covers 90+ percent of the house building the past twenty years.
I've never seen the need for gutters... this is just my opinion.
Nemer
