3 Year Rent vs Buy in Houston

[Amy Friend]

Hey BP Houston!

My husband and I are moving to the Houston area while he is on active duty in the USMC. We will be there approximately 36 months and will arrive in the early summer. He is currently deployed and we are considering buying a home in the April/May time frame so it is ready for us when he comes back from deployment. We are excited to move to Houston as we are from the Dallas area and my husband went to school in Austin. We have been linked with an agent and lender by someone we trust and are in the process of being preapproved to use to rest of the VA loan, we used some on a house in Oceanside CA.

Situation:

-My husband will be working on the UH campus recruiting officer candidates, we want to minimize commute within reason.

-We will have two children in elementary school by the time we leave, so a good elementary school is important to us.

-We are looking at Pearland and Sugar Land as they have good schools.

-We will get ~$2000 a month in housing allowance from the military monthly, what we don't spend goes in our pocket.

-We know Houston can be prone to flooding and will avoid homes which flood.

We are coming from San Diego which has a very different real estate landscape. How do yall feel Houston is in terms of a rental market? Is there an upper limit to price and size which people want to rent? (E.g. 3 or 4 bd and no more than 2k a month). Would it make more sense to rent in an area with good schools instead of buy, or is potential appreciation a factor worth considering in Houston? Where would you avoid living? Are there any extra expenses to being a landlord which are specific to Houston? Seems many houses here do not pass the 1% test, let alone the 2% test. What else are we missing?

Additionally, last year my husband's business partner and him closed two deals which are currently being rehabbed, one in Texas and one in Virginia. We are interested in BRRRRing, flips, multi, etc while in Houston. We would love to attend any meetups in the area and talk to any like minded individuals!

We are excited to be back in Texas! Hope to see yall around!