My husband and I are planning on moving to Texas in 2 years. We want to buy a house there next year?

Question

We would like to rent it out for one year and move into the house the following year? Is this possibe? Do we need to actually be residents of the state to buy a house? What is the going rate to rent a 4BR, 2.5 BTH house in Houston, Texas? My husband's sister lives there so she will over see things for us in terms of rent collection - maybe, and her husband will handle any maintenance issues - we will pay them someting every month for taking care of this for us. Any feedback is welcome please.

Answer 1

My husband and I just moved to Dallas from Pittsburgh. We explored the house option only because the prices of houses were so much cheaper here than in Pittsburgh. We then thought of renting a house. We contacted a realtor and he showed us endless houses on paper and then we were to pick the ones we liked. We went from 20 houses to 3. Out of those three, there was only 1 that was even a little worth considering.

We toured all 3 places and let me be honest with you, people are hogs and do not know or care to take care of things. The one house smelled like cigar/cig/dog and they all were soooo old! The rent prices were decent but you have to buy all your applicanes. We ended up renting a lofted townhouse in an apartment building. Much cheaper and it includes all the applicances. This way we are able to save money so we dont rush into a house, esp since we want to explore other parts of Dallas, not just where we lived.

There is a lot to think about when renting a house - be careful!

Answer 2

I don't think any state can prohibit you from owning land if you are from out of state. I do believe that would be illegal.

You can buy the land and rent it out and never even have to see it if you use some sort of real estate management service.

I would get some Houston newspapers and check out the rates for rental houses in them. Make some calls and find out what are the rates in the area. Here is a link to a group that might be able to help you out some.

http://nail-usa.com/

It is The National Association of Independent Landlords. They are based in Houston, too.

Answer 3

You can find homes meeting those guidelines for $130,000 and up... depending on what area you are wanting to be in. I would expect to pay about about $1,300..... again depending on the area. Try looking on Homes.com, they have rentals on there and you can get an idea. To buy a home go on Har.com, they have homes in the greater Houston area listed on that site (it's the best one).