blackdog

I had very good luck with the engineers at Professional Engineering Inspections:

http://www.profengineering.com/

I used them 4 times, for different houses that we were interested in buying; they really saved us from making some big mistakes: one seemingly beautiful house where the entire front of the house had internal water damage (and had to be replaced) and one house where the framing wasn't even close to spec. The third house just had the usual litany of roofing problems and funky wiring in the kitchen. The fourth house, we bought!

They aren't cheap, but they're thorough.

-bd

Hi Forum,

Well, I wanted to close out this thread by reporting that we are now living in "Woodway Square" at the intersection of Woodway Rd. and Winrock. It seems really great - we've had great interactiions with our neighbors and are really enjoying the area. Mountain biking in Memorial Park this morning was great!

Thanks for all the info these past couple of weeks. Now we're on to the house hunt!

-blackdog

dalparadise and rps324,

So can you suggest something better, that meets the criteria outlined when I started this thread?

(Safe, dog-friendly, within 45mins of where I'll be working - intersection of Hwy 6 S and Briar Forest, close to either running trails or walkable nightlife, perhaps Memorial or West University)

Texasdago has thus far been the only one to offer a suggestion - which looked really nice, but just had a fire.

Anything else out there?

Thanks all!

-blackdog

Hi Forum!

Thanks for the suggestion(s). I think we've found a place to rent: Woodway Square on 1200 Winrock Blvd. I'm visiting town next weekend to check it out. Seems to be very dog friendly and pretty safe (Hey, only 4 burglaries on that street thus far this year! )

Anyone have personal experience there?

I've learned a lot about Houston from these discussions; feel like we'll be able to hit the ground running - which is fantastic!

Aloha,

blackdog

Hi again forum,

Thanks for all the insight (Where to live in Houston thread) that we've been using while looking for a home in Houston. We've decided that it'll be best to rent for a couple of months in order to get the lay of the land. After your comments, we'll probably be looking in Memorial and West University, both for an apartment and for a final home.

We've gotten the help of an apartment agent courtesy of my my employer to help us find a short-term place (6 month lease). They sent us a list of places that supposedly meet my criteria (safe, in Memorial or West U., ~1000/month for 2 bed, dog-friendly, close to either greenery (running trails) or interesting nightlife). However, I checked the ratings that these places got on apartmentratings.com, and most of them scored really poorly. Now, I'm wondering about the agent assigned to us, and whether they really are knowledgeable about their recommendations.

If you all have any suggestions of short-term rental places that meet my criteria, can you post them? If you are an agent, I'd be happy to give you the referal. Also, anyone have personal experience with the following places that were recommended by the agent?

Looks like I'll be buying lots of drinks when I get into town...

Thank you!

blackdog

Places in Memorial:

The Memorial, 15135 Memorial Drive

Meadows on Memorial, 700 Memorial Mews

Silverado, 1335 Silverado Dr.

Village on the Parkway, ???

Ashford Lakes, 1200 South Dairy Ashford

Places in West University:

Gables Pin Oak, 4848 Pin Oak Park

Pin Oak Estates, 4807 Pin Oak Park

Camden Vanderbuilt, 7171 Buffalo Speedway

Kirby Place, 7500 Kirby St.

Hi All!

Got the big map of Houston up on the wall and am marking off areas according to your comments. Thanks!

When you mention "The Village", where do you mean? I've found lots of villages on the map...

What about West University Place? Seems like a nice area, probably within 45 mins for my drive, and what about the schools? Are they ok?

Thanks again!

-blackdog

Hi Forum & Gary,

Thanks for checking the time of the drive! Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Do you think it would be similar during the AM rush into work (for me on Hwy6)?

We've seen some pretty nice houses on the internet. I can't wait to get into town in 3 weeks to start really looking around! Maybe the prices of those couple of great "mods" will come down some? I can dream, can't I?

Aloha,

blackdog

Thanks! Thats a beautiful house. Looks to be a little out of our range, but it's close. (I guess it would really depend on if we wanted to spruce up the kitchen (I strongly dislike white kitchens... )

Here are two other houses that really caught our interest, to give you a sense of our preferences:

http://www.har.com/search/engine/indexdeta...=0&backButton=Y

Its MLS # 2719593. Looks really nice to me, I just wonder about the proximity to the main drag street.

http://www.har.com/search/engine/indexdeta...=0&backButton=Y

This one is MLS # 6921398. Again, it looks great, but its right on Memorial, which might be difficult.

Thanks again Forum!

-blackdog

Hello again!

Memorial Bend looks really interesting! I very much like that style home (The William Floyd designed homes). Tw2ntyse7en, I like the 50-60's mod as well as bungalow style...I think I'm just more attracted to something with some individual style rather than the more generic, mass-produced houses (though my pocketbook might not be so choose-y!) Tw2ntyse7en, if you aren't in a Houston real estate czar, maybe you should be by the wealth of information you share. Thanks!

Texasdago, do you have more info on the house with pool there? Anything online? I checked MLS, but didn't seem to find it.

Any realtors that specialize in this general area that are online? I really like karenderr's site, it offers lots of information and videos, though they focus on the Heights area.

Thank you all!

-blackdog

Forum!

Wow! Thank you for the quick information, especially your detailed response tw2ntyse7en! You all give credit to the Friendly Texas moniker! It'll take me a while to digest all you've written (with map in hand). With your responses, I think we'll be focusing our search to the rectangle described by 610 to the east, I10 to the north, Hwy 6 to the west, and the Westpark Tollway to the south - with caution around Alief.

Is it correct to think that if we lived west of the W Sam Houston Road within the rectangle described above, I'd probably have a 30 min commute to Hwy 6, and that if we lived as far east as 610 (say at the intersection of 610 and Hwy 59), that the commute would be ~ 1 hr? I think I'd shell out for taking the toll road every day...if that's faster than the surface streets.

Would it be crazy for taking the surface streets (say Memorial, 1093, or Richmond) instead of a highway if one lived east of the San Houston Rd? For example, I saw a home online in "Galleria" which was ~ 15 miles to where I'll work. However, that 15 miles would take me close to 45 mins to drive via surface roads (it was off Richmond Ave)?

Thanks! I promise to keep you informed!

-blackdog

Hi All,

We're relocating to Houston (I'll be working on Highway 6 south of I-10; I figured that this was a good forum to start) and wonder if any of you can offer some suggestions on where to look for a home. To throw out a wishlist and give you some background on our interests:

1) it would be great to commute 30 mins or less

2) we're early 30's; no children yet, but soon...

3) proximity to running trails and greenery would be fantastic (Terry Hersey Trail ok?)

4) would love to be able to walk/bike to shops, restaurants, pub for a drink every now and then

5) 2-3 times a month, would be great to see plays/theatre and jazz/classical music. It would be great to see live rock and roll/ soul/ funk/ etc. sometimes too.

6) safe neighborhood

7) someplace nice to walk the dog every day...

I've only visited Houston for the job interview, so I don't have a feet-on-the-ground perspective of the city and don't really know if what we've seen on the internet is valid, but... so far, we've thought a couple of places look interesting: "the Heights", which seems nice, but maybe too far of a commute? "the Galleria" and the Westchase area? I've been looking along Terry Hersey trail on google maps looking for nice neighborhoods too...We'll be able to afford a house up to ~300K.

Any suggestions?

Thank you for your help!!!

-blackdog