Frisco, Plano, McKinney, Arlington, Irving Rental vs BUY!!!! (days on market, rentals)

[alooper]

So we are from California and we are thinking about moving out to Texas. We'd like to live in a city that is mentioned in the title of this post.

We are confused when it comes to renting vs. buying and the size of the home you can get compared to the mortgage or rental. Here in California we can afford a house well over $600,000 -- but we'd like to spend less if we move to Texas.

As an example, I navigated to realtor.com and entered my specs. I wanted to look for a home that was at least 3,000 square feet, between 300-400k, and 5 bedrooms. The search results bring back dozens of listings with homes that look HUGE; well over my 3,000 square foot request.

Then

I log onto Craiglist and type in my specs; Frisco Texas, 5 bedrooms, and very few rentals come up. Anything that large is priced at $3500 and up. What in the world is going on? I can't find that "BIG" of a home to rent, and if I do, the price is basically a mortgage.

Does anyone have any idea on this?

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by alooper

So we are from California and we are thinking about moving out to Texas. We'd like to live in a city that is mentioned in the title of this post.

We are confused when it comes to renting vs. buying and the size of the home you can get compared to the mortgage or rental. Here in California we can afford a house well over $600,000 -- but we'd like to spend less if we move to Texas.

As an example, I navigated to realtor.com and entered my specs. I wanted to look for a home that was at least 3,000 square feet, between 300-400k, and 5 bedrooms. The search results bring back dozens of listings with homes that look HUGE; well over my 3,000 square foot request.

Then

I log onto Craiglist and type in my specs; Frisco Texas, 5 bedrooms, and very few rentals come up. Anything that large is priced at $3500 and up. What in the world is going on? I can't find that "BIG" of a home to rent, and if I do, the price is basically a mortgage.

Does anyone have any idea on this?

Try the rentals side of realtor.com. Or find a local realtor. There aren't many homes that size to rent, honestly. The best way to find a rental home still involves boots on the ground...you drive around neighborhoods you like and look for "For Lease/Rent" signs. Houses for lease/rent in my area are rarely advertised. Word of mouth and signs are usually all that's needed. One house went up for lease one street over; the owner posted it on a single neighborhood association group page on Facebook. He had a signed 2-year lease 24 hours later.

Best of luck.

[veuvegirl]

Also look at ebby.com it is a local website that we found our rental house on. Much more seemed to be listed.

[Restrain]

Rentals are short right now due to the people moving in. Prices are jumping for homes, 15% in the northern suburbs last year. Days on market are in the single digit.

Honestly, if you can afford to buy, do so. Not a bubble as you saw in CA as hundreds move in each day. Look at where you will be working and buy based on the probable commute times.

Yes, you can buy a BUNCH of home for $300-400K.

[alooper]

Thanks for the info. That website ebby.com is great. Ideally we'd like to rent for a short time to get a feel for the areas until we know where we would really like to commit to. Any other resources would be great if anyone knows of any. Thanks again.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by alooper

Thanks for the info. That website ebby.com is great. Ideally we'd like to rent for a short time to get a feel for the areas until we know where we would really like to commit to. Any other resources would be great if anyone knows of any. Thanks again.

Yeah...pretty much no landlord is going to rent a house to you month-to-month when they can get someone signed up for a 1-3 year lease. Sorry.

[alooper]

A year would be fine. Resources Big D?

[Aceraceae]

Originally Posted by alooper

A year would be fine. Resources Big D?

A realtor that will help with a rental is another option. Get a MLS search/daily update set up to your criteria and see what pops up.

[Aceraceae]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Yeah...pretty much no landlord is going to rent a house to you month-to-month when they can get someone signed up for a 1-3 year lease. Sorry.

Exactly.

[NAvery815]

We rented a 2500 sq ft home and found it on Realtor.com. It is a professionally managed house in McKinney. OneProp is a site that has a lot of properties.

We actually took out a 1 year lease, but we terminated after only 5 months with a 180% of one month's rent penalty. That's one of the nice things about a management company, they are set up to deal with people who want to break leases. We intended on staying a year but then we found a great house. With the way the market is, it was worth it to us to pay the fee to get out of the lease.

We are paying $1395. Only 5 months later, when they relisted it, they jacked it up to $1495. It rented within 48 hours and rented 6 weeks in advance. Very competitive. Even in November, a slower time for rentals, we were in competition with another applicant. We had to take possession and start paying rent about 2 weeks before we needed it to make the deal happen.