Houston: Which areas to look at?

[Brittney Lundeen]

Hi all! I currently live in Minneapolis and am looking to move to Houston within the next six months. I'm sick of waiting around for our hot market to cool down and honestly just tired of MN. I'm looking to purchase a single family home to live in, fix up, and rent out a year or so later. I might also purchase another single family home to fix up and rent out right away. 

The issue is, I have no clue about Houston. If some locals could fill me in on which areas to look at and avoid, that would be very much appreciated!! North, West, East, South? Any certain suburbs I should be looking at?

Here's what I'm looking for:

-Single family homes

-Under $150k

-B or C class neighborhoods. I definitely don't need any fancy areas, I just don't want to be in a place where I'd be worried all the time.

-I really like suburbs rather than extremely populated downtown areas. A place that would still be within 30 miles to a populated area with jobs.

As for the amount of rehab, I'm on the fence about buying a home that's had flood damage. I've heard contractors down there have about a six month wait and materials are growing thinner. If that's true, I will probably need to stay away from those houses, since I don't trust myself to handle drywall and other larger projects. Cosmetics are no problem.

Any realtors in the Houston area that have experience in investing- I would love to talk to you!

-

[Candace S.]

I would do a search on google to figure out traffic time to where you will be headed most often. Miles don't quite compute to minutes near the city.  With 6.3M+ people in the Houston-metro area, it can get congested in some areas virtually 24/7 (west-610 by Galleria area). 

There are some transitional areas within the loop that you might be able to get into for $150k off the market or needing quite a bit of work for an SFR, but with a $150k purchase budget, there are quite a few options.

I'm a native Houstonian and currently live inside 610 (the loop). PM if you want to discuss further. 

Good idea to be cautious about flooded homes, especially those that sat under water for a couple weeks with a slab foundation...