I love the area, lived there for 10 years, still own my first house I bought and lived in and now is a rental, a few blocks away...I'm trying not to fall in love with it and have an investor mentality, but...It passes my two tests, in order.1.

I have jacked and leveled more than one house Rule #1 Dont depend on the jack to hold beam in place while doing repairs Have lots of blocks and shims.

The SAFE act was intended, among other things, to block inflated sales to naive buyers who didn't understand what they were getting.

My bread & butter was cruching the numbers on a deal, then get the ugliest house on the block, and turn it into the top dog in 6 months!

That said, the quality of life in Houston proper is very much neighborhood (and even block) specific, whereas some of the outer-lying suburbs such as Spring, Cypress, Katy, Sugar Land, parts of Missouri City, and Pearland all tend to have better reputations overall.

Lots of sage advice there :) As always, I'll harp the "don't just look in your home county" tune - if your market's dried up temporarily, don't be afraid to look at other cities, states, countries or continents - you'll have to do DD on the providers more than on the actual properties in most cases, but it's just a different skill set - and affordability, as well as cashflow, may just amaze you if you set your sights a bit further than "around the block".

Tight market, so could go for $1550/975+ Separately metered for gas/electricMaster water meter (considering a submeter)1 block to active, desirable downtown area & close to university.

I like the idea of boat storage as the property is 3 blocks from one of the great lakes.Thanks for the tip on building to cash flow.

Homeowners are already looking at granite countertops and thinking they're tired and cliche - we've moved on, concrete, butcher block, and so many others. 

Also crimereport.com is great to get a sense of what goes on in the neighborhood, and lastly google maps to view the blocks.