Suexpat

Yes my point of view is I have to live in a house where the landlord is in a make as much money as you can position. I am a landlord in the UK and I wouldnt, and would not want to, get away with the issues you can have here.

Britsimon

Sounds like your landlord is shortsighted...

Suexpat

All 3 of them have been and all my friends have the same issues. The landlords know that the oil companies don't get involved. I am sure this is not helping the original question so maybe we ought to leave it for others to answer.

TopSec

3 bed townhouse rental in the Energy Corridor (midway between Galleria & Katy), nice are is $2800 per month. I have a friend though who lives on Memorial, near the park in a nice block on the Bayou who pays the same for same size??

We were at a guy's out in Katy last night for a barbie and although it was a nice house in itself, it was apparent as you drove close to it and got there that it was not as upmarket as the places a mile away; his rent $1200!! Wouldn't have wanted to live there though.

You gets the are you pay for!!

Mr Weeze

Rule of thumb for Houston is 1% of the property value as rent per month. There is low end and expensive. No real middle ground. There is an expat premium, and a pool can add $500 a month to rent, even if it doesn't make much of a difference to the sale price. Of the 20 expats at work I asked only one managed to find a place within their rental allowance. I got $3600 a month. A month. Really. I shit you not. We rented a £400k place in Aberdeen for £1200 a month as landlords. We rented a $450,000 place here for $4,250 a month. We looked at in excess of 20 properties, after ruling out a whole load more places too. Houston is not cheap to rent a house. Apartment yes, house no. And foreclosures are limited too.

Britsimon

So all that is happening there is the landlords are smelling the blood in the water, and based on a couple of "must haves" they know that expats (who are getting the allowances) will be squeezed into paying. However, you are looking at the market as an expat with an allowance of $3600 in your pocket - so of course, the realtors and the landlords have sold to your budget. It's easy to do because you will "top up" on top of the allowances to the desirable property you want, rather than compromise within a sensible budget - which is what normal folk do. It happens all the time - same thing happens in areas with banking industry, or in a slightly different way, students. Go a mile outside the "golden triangles" that the realtors have pushed you towards and there is a different market - one that you are apparently not even aware of - but one that the locals access.


Don't feel too bad, because you have probably done the same thing with the house in Aberdeen - and, as I said earlier - the oil and gas industry simply pass on all these inflated costs to the rest of us...

Suexpat

I think unless you are here in Houston you cannot really comment on the Houston market. Where the husband works and where the children go to school makes an impact on the house price not a desirable property. Some people would love to keep to their budget but it is not possible. Renting here is not as easy as you think it is.

Mr Weeze

Err, right. Because of course I went out there looking to spend more than my budget. Poor little me, those nasty people tricked me into emptying my wallet on a house that they would have rented for half that if only I hadn't worked in oil and gas. The fact the rental we got had been on the market for 5 months and was still the best of am average bunch at the time is neither here nor there.

Can you come back when you have tried the Houston market? Really? You understand that 1,200 of 400,000 is about 1/3 of 1% for Aberdeen, so whatever point you were making is somewhat lost? Now apartments in Aberdeen, you can make a killing as a landlord...

Houston rentals include property taxes. Texas has no state tax, and that can be 3% of the value of the house. Add $1,000 a month to the rent on a 400,000 house. If I have jumped too many steps for you let me know and I can run through the maths step by step.

I don't like it, but that is what the market can command. Even without a pool you still pay an extortionate amount for a 4 bedroom house of a comparable standard to home. Of course, if zillow tells you otherwise feel free to believe that. I know someone who is clearing $1,500 a month profit on renting his house out in Katy, while on assignment elsewhere. So how do we afford all this? Starting oil company salaries are over $100,000 - I believed you quoted this as the median way earlier. Houston is a place of extremes. It's funny how statistics work, isn't it? I can also explain standard deviation if that helps too.

OP: feel free to believe what you like. You an get an apartment in the Galleria area (I believe the Dominion is around $2,800 a month for a 2/3 bed) but a house will blow most budgets. However, apartments do seem to be a bit cheaper, so you may wish to focus on that.

As far as salaries go, I assume there will be a commission element to your salary. At 30% to the agency (seems to be the going figure here) for an experienced salary of $200k + signing bonus you would know better than me what you could make. Discount salaries by about 30% for service companies. Day rates for consultants can be in excess of $3,000.

Owen778

Sounds like most expats would be better off renting for just long enough to find somewhere to buy, providing the relocation package will support that.

And it's not that surprising the landlords are doing this, really. Firstly, because they can. And secondly, who knows when the oil price might plunge again? The value of the houses would plummet and demand for rental properties would pretty much disappear if (or when) that happened.

saintstu

Thank you very much for your help everyone.

They've decided to offer me a role in the middle east, so looks like I'm off to the sandpit for a few years.

Cheers,

Stu

Mr Weeze

In that case Scamp would be a good person to talk to. He's a recruiter in the ME.

saintstu

Mr Weeze, you are brilliant!

Thank you for your help.

Mr Weeze

Not a problem. It's mildly amusing pointing a recruiter in the direction of another recruiter. Role reversal, if you will.

ian-mstm

How is any of this related to immigration other than the person is thinking of moving across the pond? Am I the only one who thinks this is entirely the wrong forum for such a discussion? This is fodder for the general USA forum.

Ian

Britsimon

Ok, so you think I don't know Houston. Fine.

So can you explain what is the expat premium you mentioned earlier?