Skip to main content

Want to purchase home in Houston. Need advice regarding flooded homes

I am planning on selling my home in Las Vegas. I have 3 potential cities to move to - Phoenix, San Antonio, or Houston.

Houston seems to have a lot of great homes available, but obviously, some have been flooded. My current home is worth 175K, which is about what I am expecting to receive. I own it outright, no mortgage. My budget is about 100-110K, for a condo or townhouse, preferably townhouse, and will be paying in cash for the home. I'm 25, I have no children, roommates or SO. I plan to use the excess to pay off all my debts, relocate, go to school for a Masters degree, study for CPA exam and add finishing touches to the new home.

My question is, should flooded homes be considered? I found a few beautiful townhouses that seem to have been well refinished. I inspect the pictures carefully, inside and out, to see if there is possibly any lingering water damage (found a few with water damage still visible, auto pass). I have been using the interactive flood maps as well, to see where each house falls on the map. What else should I be doing to vet out homes, determine if it has been flooded, and to know if it has been repaired correctly? For the most part, I try to avoid any homes in the 500 year flood plains, and don't even consider a home in the 100 year flood plains.

I know Houston is a bit of a riskier market than others, but I'm feeling game about it. I bought my first condo in Las Vegas 5 years ago for 80K, and more than doubled my money, through upgrades and general market growth. I think the market in Houston will grow in the next several years, as the history of Harvey is put behind us. Since I have no other obligations, am young and can freely move, I'm willing to take a chance for a few years. I'd like to leave this hellhole known as Las Vegas behind. How can I pick a healthy home in Houston? What's the best way to go about it?

submitted by /u/the_underdog01
[link] [comments]

source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/cwt67o/want_to_purchase_home_in_houston_need_advice/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Aren't comps/CMAs useless with buyer credits at close happening now?

I'm looking into buying a new construction townhouse in my HCOL US city. I'm seeing builders offering interest rate buydowns worth $20k-$60k on $800k homes (rather than just lowering prices) in order to keep their comps high for their other units, now that buyer demand has been declining. I asked my agent about these, and he said these buydowns aren't even the full story: buyers can write all kinds of other credits into an offer, like their closing costs, prepaid sewer fees, etc. Apparently cash buyers can just write in a "buyer credit at close" for any amount in their offer. So a new townhouse that appeared to sell for $800k in the MLS might have actually been a cash offer with a $100k+ buyer credit at close, meaning the buyer only spent $700k or less in total, but to the rest of the world they can only see the $800k! So that made me realize I can't trust comps/CMAs for other new construction townhouses. The sales prices could be way lower than they appear...

Co-signing as non-primary resident - effect on size of required downpayment & first time home buyer status?

Contemplating co-signing on a house with my mom and splitting the mortgage payment. I currently have a significantly higher income and much better credit than her. I'm looking at potential home costs and related downpayments but have difficulty using some of the online estimators. From my perspective, this would be somewhat of an investment purchase (I intend to stay in my current location in a different state and contribute to the mortgage), however, for my mom, this would be a primary residence. For purposes of the downpayment size and the type of mortgage arrangement, would it be an investment property or a primary residence? Many thanks for any help. submitted by /u/piercalicious [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/km4hvl/cosigning_as_nonprimary_resident_effect_on_size/

Making offers on houses not listed for sale.

I want to buy a home for retirement. I am looking at lots of options, mostly focusing on the locations that appeal to me. I see lots of Zillow estimates of homes that look like great deals to me. Are these estimates accurate, even though similar houses in the same area that are for sale are usually priced much higher? If so, is it realistic for me to try to make offers to owners that do not have their homes listed? Would a realtor even consider helping me do this? Or, do these values indicate that the houses listed for sale are overpriced, and I should just lowball until someone accepts? Are houses today tending to sell far below list prices, or ??? submitted by /u/chewybrian [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1o4mcon/making_offers_on_houses_not_listed_for_sale/