New to the Board

[jasonwb]

just wanted to introduce myself to the forum. i haved lived in and out of houston for the past 10 years and i am in the process of buying a townhouse/condo in the midtown, rice military, or med center area. i have been researching properties for the past 8 months and have made some good headway. i have read many of the posts in this forum and found a lot of good info.

i understand there is a lot more to buying than just finding something in your price range and checking it out and i feel this forum will help assist me in my journey. i am currently working with a realtor that is not familiar with these areas and i feel i am not getting everything out of this process.

a few of the properties i have looked at are Camden Commons off Almeda and Camden in the Med Center area, The Plaza at Center in Rice Military, and 2902 Chenevert which was under contract when i viewed the property and closed shortly after that.

any good ideas or tips from experience in these areas will be greatly appreciated. i am also open to suggestions of realtors that specialize in these areas.

thanks!

j

[Parrothead]

Welcome welcome! Anything in Rice Military is going to pan out well, I'm not familiar with Chenevert, but maybe someone here is. Good luck, and glad you found us!

[TheNiche]

any good ideas or tips from experience in these areas will be greatly appreciated. i am also open to suggestions of realtors that specialize in these areas.

Finding a good property can be a lot like finding a good woman. You can look at hundreds, become infatuated with a few, and possibly fall in love with one, making a bunch of amateurish mistakes and overlooking a lot of shortcomings that'll come back and bite you in the ass later on. A few tips:

1) Know your utility function. What combination of traits are you in the market for? That blonde may be great to cuddle up with on a cold night, but you wouldn't want to marry her...and the chubby smart girl may be intriguing, but perhaps you'd best admire her brilliance from afar...but the reasonably cute brunette with that irrisistible personality that goes perfectly with yours, she's a long-term keeper.

2) Maybe you aren't in it for the long term. Maybe you'd rather just rent a bunch of trendy 'blonde' homes for a while, one after the other. I wouldn't know, but you need to. And if you want advice from me, then you need to tell me.

3) Don't worry about the one that got away. Even if you're getting old and think that all the best have been taken off the market, there will always be divorcees and widows. ...and of course, the rentals...

EDIT: One last thing. You may fall in love with one that doesn't love you back (i.e. too expensive, surrounds herself with noisy a-holes, has vermin for children, or wants you to foot the bill for some medical procedures). Weigh things carefully and walk if you have to. If your goals and needs are incongruous with hers, it'll never work. Half the battle is figuring out whether this is the case; the other half is bringing yourself to do the right thing. I speak from experience.

Edited November 7, 2006 by danax

[dbigtex56]

What an analogy. I'm just so glad you didn't go into plumbing problems, or mold infestations.

[Bacchus]

I'm in the same boat as the thread starter. I'm looking very hard at the Rice Military area for a townhome purchase. The area just east of Shepherd around Feagan (street names include Dickson, Fowler, Patterson, Floyd, etc), has an enormous amount of townhome construction activity currently ongoing. Most of these homes are in the $350k - $425k range. I like their layouts and location, but I'm not overly impressed with the following:

1) You can't walk to anything

2) There remain some vagrants and property eye-sores in the immediate area

3) The streets are almost too narrow for two cars to pass, let alone visitors to park

I just feel bad plopping down 400 large and living next to an auto body shop and a dilapidated home that needs to be razed. The flip side is that buying now, with these undesirables in the neighborhood, represents a potential upside for property values as the area improves. Additionally, I'm a lot more comfortable buying a place where you are surrounded by nice, new developments in your price range, as compared to being the nicest place in the area. Parts of Rice Military still represent a blank canvas, so the place has room to grow and improve. I could see it becoming a Camp Logan type of area, or alternatively the townhome-dense area just south of Gray and east of Shepherd. Both of these areas are nice residential communities with good property values. The question is how long this renewal will take in Rice Military?

[TheNiche]

I'm in the same boat as the thread starter. I'm looking very hard at the Rice Military area for a townhome purchase. The area just east of Shepherd around Feagan (street names include Dickson, Fowler, Patterson, Floyd, etc), has an enormous amount of townhome construction activity currently ongoing. Most of these homes are in the $350k - $425k range. I like their layouts and location, but I'm not overly impressed with the following:

1) You can't walk to anything

2) There remain some vagrants and property eye-sores in the immediate area

3) The streets are almost too narrow for two cars to pass, let alone visitors to park

I just feel bad plopping down 400 large and living next to an auto body shop and a dilapidated home that needs to be razed. The flip side is that buying now, with these undesirables in the neighborhood, represents a potential upside for property values as the area improves. Additionally, I'm a lot more comfortable buying a place where you are surrounded by nice, new developments in your price range, as compared to being the nicest place in the area. Parts of Rice Military still represent a blank canvas, so the place has room to grow and improve. I could see it becoming a Camp Logan type of area, or alternatively the townhome-dense area just south of Gray and east of Shepherd. Both of these areas are nice residential communities with good property values. The question is how long this renewal will take in Rice Military?

1) If you can get close to Washington Avenue...and I'm talking about no more than about three blocks...without being subjected to much noise or activity, then that's where I'd look to buy for potential walkability. Nothing will ever be very walkable deeper into the neighborhood because there isn't enough through traffic to support commercial development.

2) Eye-sores abound. The only neighborhoods that are free of them are fully deed restricted...and they either carry a substantial price premium or are suburban. So get used to them and don't worry about it from the perspective of appreciation in market value because most everywhere else that is comparable in character is in the same boat.

3) Narrow streets and drainage conditions may be improved in the future. Check with the City.

My personal view on Rice Military is the same as yours. The price is just too high for the area. Having said that, it is very well-located relative to employment centers and regional amenities, so if there were a regional drop in housing prices, you probably wouldn't be hit as hard in this 'blue chip' location as you would in emerging neighborhoods like the East End; the price you pay reflects the relative safety.

Look carefully at what you can get for the same money in different neighborhoods and make your selection based upon what you yourself are interested in. If you're buying a new townhome for investment purposes only, then you might want to reevaluate your investment criteria. Remember: land/location appreciates, improvements depreciate (like cars).

[jscarbor]

1) If you can get close to Washington Avenue...and I'm talking about no more than about three blocks...without being subjected to much noise or activity, then that's where I'd look to buy for potential walkability. Nothing will ever be very walkable deeper into the neighborhood because there isn't enough through traffic to support commercial development.

2) Eye-sores abound. The only neighborhoods that are free of them are fully deed restricted...and they either carry a substantial price premium or are suburban. So get used to them and don't worry about it from the perspective of appreciation in market value because most everywhere else that is comparable in character is in the same boat.

3) Narrow streets and drainage conditions may be improved in the future. Check with the City.

My personal view on Rice Military is the same as yours. The price is just too high for the area. Having said that, it is very well-located relative to employment centers and regional amenities, so if there were a regional drop in housing prices, you probably wouldn't be hit as hard in this 'blue chip' location as you would in emerging neighborhoods like the East End; the price you pay reflects the relative safety.

Look carefully at what you can get for the same money in different neighborhoods and make your selection based upon what you yourself are interested in. If you're buying a new townhome for investment purposes only, then you might want to reevaluate your investment criteria. Remember: land/location appreciates, improvements depreciate (like cars).

Yes but, sometimes, many times, buiding costs go UP which makes home prices go up without land going up. Many times there is a correlation and that is the double whammy good appreciation scenerio.

You could always look into the Koala (affectionately named by some board member here) lofts on the east side!

[TheNiche]

Yes but, sometimes, many times, buiding costs go UP which makes home prices go up without land going up. Many times there is a correlation and that is the double whammy good appreciation scenerio.

Actually, that is a very good point. Thanks for bringing that up.

But I'm inclined to say that building costs probably aren't going to go up much further. Now that new home starts are slipping on the coasts, I think that the market for building materials will either stabilize or weaken. So I think that my conclusion that improvements depreciate is probably still valid.

Edited November 10, 2006 by TheNiche