student4life

Thanks guys!!! Great help! I went to the downtown county clerk office and brought along a copy of the deed that was sent directly to me by the Trustee... When I showed the clerk my paperwork she said it looks like they sent me the original deed... Sure enough it was the original deed and their office did not receive any paperwork from the auction regarding the property... She informed me that they typically get the paper first... So she processed my deed to make it further official... BUT she informed me that I would have to travel to the HCAD office and have them update their records since HCAD and the County Clerk office is completely separate and I guess don't communicate with one another... I thought once you purchased a foreclosure at the downtown auction all the paperwork would be done for you....Learned something new! Anyway thanks again guys for the help!

I purchased a bank foreclosure back in December 2011 at the Houston Downtown auction in front of the Family Law Center. I received the paperwork in December from the Trustee showing the sale with me as the owner. However, when I check HCAD.org it still shows the old owner as the current owner of the property. Does anyone know how long it typically takes for HCAD to update its records to show the new owner of a recently purchased property?

Thanks again guys! And Happy Holidays!!!

Thanks everyone! Yea I guess the search continues... I think if I have to turn to HAR.com my choices will be very limited based on my criteria... Thinking about biting the bullet and getting a subscription to realtytrac in order to see if I can find something there... My other option is to identify the areas I am interested in and maybe get out and talk to neighbors working in their yard to possible get the scoop to see if someone may be interested in selling... A friend of mine got lucky this way... A lot more leg work but I may find something that a realtor searching HAR might not see... Wish me luck guys! If someone has another helpful suggestion please let me know! Thanks again!

I have been looking for a lot for about 3 years now and about two years ago I posted the question "Is it possible to find Vacant Land at a good price for around $40k?" I did get some suggestions and some leads but nothing panned out... So two years and an additional $35k later ... Is it possible to find Vacant Land at a good price for around $75k?? Purpose for lot: Planning to build a modest house that will bearound 1500 sq ft (not including the garage) with a nice size yard inorder to insure there is “elbow” room between the neighbors and myself as wellroom for a very small vegetable garden. Summary of lotRequirements: 1) Lot size MINIMUMS: a. Within the 610 Loop: 0.25 acres (10,890 sqft) (if it has a view of the city skyline, I may consider asmaller lot) b. Outside the 610 loop BUT within the beltway: 0.5acres (21,780 sq ft) c. Outside the beltway: 1.0 acres (43,560 sq ft ) 2) Lot location: a. NOT near anairport b. NOT near alarge canal c. NOT nearlarge electrical power transmission line towers d. NOT next toa railroad track e. Location should be within a 30 minute drivetime of downtown Houston, TX 3) Miscellaneous: a. Would prefer (but not required) an area with little orNO home association fees b. Relatively low crime area c. An area where the realtor wouldn’t have an issueliving there himself/herself 4) Budget for lot: a. Lot should be under $75,000

After talking with various realtors and searching HAR for days, I have updated my requirements for a lot (see below). If someone knows of a property that may fit the below criteria please feel free to send me a PM... Thanks! Purpose for lot: Planning to build a modest house that will be around 1500 sq ft (not including the garage) with a nice size yard in order to insure there is "elbow" room between the neighbors and myself as well room for a very small vegetable garden. Summary of lot Requirements: 1) Lot size MINIMUMS: a. Within the 610 Loop: 0.25 acres (10,890 sq ft) (if it has a view of the city skyline or in a very nice old neighborhood, I may consider a slightly smaller lot) b. Outside the 610 loop BUT within the beltway: 0.5 acres (21,780 sq ft) c. Outside the beltway: 1.0 acres (43,560 sq ft ) 2) Lot location: a. NOT near an airport b. NOT near a large canal c. NOT near large electrical power transmission line towersd. NOT next to a railroad track e. Location should be within a 30 minute drive time of downtown Houston, TX 3) Miscellaneous: a. Would prefer (but not required) an area with little or no home association fees b. Relatively low crime area c. An area where the realtor or current owner wouldn't have an issue living there himself/herself 4) Budget for lot: a. Lot should be under $40,000

Yea Tax repos appear to be a good way to get a "good deal" but from speaking with various people Tax repos require: 1) A lot of up front research in order to make sure there are no leans on the property that you will be responsible for... 2) Must have ALL the money in hand after the auction concludes One thing I am thinking about doing is requesting a data export of delinquent property taxes from the tax office. I did it several years back for a database project and I think they charged about $25 for the ASCII file export that fits on a CD... It will has the location of the property as well as the owner information and how much is owed... The trick back then was extracting the address information and then mapping it into some sort of GIS software package. It should be easier now with mapping products like Microsoft's MapPoint or Google maps.... Once that information is mapped it should be easier to see graphically where potential properties are located and maybe approach the owner to see if he/she is willing to sell since their property taxes are delinquent...

Thanks guys for the advice!!! The search continues....

Hello I was wondering if the community had any thoughts on whether or not it is possible to find a vacant lot in Houston between 0.25 acres and 1.0 acres which is 20 to 25min from downtown, with a price point of around $25k? Looking to build a small house with a garden in the backyard

XLR8, were you getting a lot of misreads of your meter? That is the issue I am currently experiencing. Does your wireless meter allow you to store your readings to a home computer so you can track your energy usage and verify your bill? If so where did you order your wireless meter from? The PowerCost Monitor works great but I have been looking for something that will allow you to store your electricity usage on a home computer for easier trending, tracking and most importantly verfication of my bill... Also you might want check out the link below to a forbs article because it looks like Centerpoint is already spending money to roll wireless meters out. http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2007/1112/154.html

I am not sure which is best out of the two but the two main things you should take into account is 1) Cost per kwh ( I am currently paying $0.099 per kwh with Gexa) 2) If there is a penalty for canceling your contract early (I tend to favor plans that do not penalize customers for switching ) Those are the two main things I looked for. Also you may want to look at a device called the PowerCost Monitor (www.save-electricity.ca) The meter readers have misread my reader twice! The first time the meter read misread my meter I received a bill for ~$600 for a small house! The PowerCost Monitor is pretty good about giving you an estimated amount of how much electricity you are using

You are probably right but if I hear of something I will definately let you know... Just hope its not kept within certain circles... I knew I should have invested in Golf lessons! ;-)

Looks like another builder might be planning to dump some land... 40 cent on the dollar... Does anyone have the inside scoop on Lennar? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5348357.html With Perry and Lennar getting rid of some land maybe I might find me something nice at a reasonable price...

Yep that's the artist I was referring to...He was kind enough to respond to my emails about how he built his house. I believe it was featured in an issue of Cite magazine. Yep it

Thanks Niche, Yes lets stay on single-family lots topics in order to narrow down and focus the discussion. I have looked at various places around 15-20min from the downtown area... I have even looked at the Acres Homes area since I know of a Houston artist with a TALL fence that stays in that area... I always keep an open mind and quality of life is always at the top... When I attended Houston's Art Crawl I did discover some promissing areas...

Hello I have been planing and searching to buy some land to build a small house on with a nice size yard to live in for about 2 years now in the Houston area... I have been waiting patiently for a good deal... I would like to build as close to downtown as possible in a good area with low crime... I have been hearing rumors of developers getting ready to sell land in preparation for a softening market... Has anyone heard these rumors as well? Also the link that prompted this post is on CityData so I just wanted to get some members thoughts on the Houston situation since I am still looking and waiting patiently... Thanks!