Friendswood housing market (Houston: HOA, houses, neighborhood)

[msearfoorce]

We're relocating from NYC to Houston in a couple of months and have decided on moving to Friendswood. Now that our house has sold, we're focused on finding a new one but have no idea how the housing market compares to the insanity of New York. In Brooklyn, a typical situation would be as follows: a 2200 sq ft older home would be on the market for $870K and sell for $820-840K, though bidding might start as low as $790 or 800K. Time on the market for an accurately priced home is usually under a month from listing to contract.

We have seen a couple of homes we like at $449, $475 and $525k respectively. Can anyone tell me how to bid competitively for the area? Do sellers usually end up getting what they ask or more, or do selling prices in the $350-$550K price range end up going for a few percent less? We don't want to bid full ask on some of these houses but don't want to do what is a typical NYC thing of bidding 10% less and come off like were trying to lowball anyone, either.

Any tips or input would be greatly appreciated!

[colcat]

The best person to answer that is a realtor familiar with the area. Good luck!

[texas7]

They sell fast but if you find one you like, you can usually get it for the asking price. Now inside the loop in houston, you often have to bid against another buyer but not so much in the suburbs - usually just give them asking price.

[LuvTexas]

I am a Friendswood Realtor for 10 years. Market here is extremely intense right now and homes are going list price or better within days of listing. Would love to help you guys but don't wanna risk being booted off website. Not sure how this works so just keep posting questions and I will keep trying to help.

[CJinHOU]

move fast,,, there is no time to look and think it over as most homes that are decent will go under contract asap.. My wife and I recently began looking at homes in the katy/cypress area. We saw one home the morning it was listed on har.com..... thought because we were first to offer that it was most likely ours... even bid 6k over asking and we lost that house. We saw maybe 10 homes and put offers on 3 homes and lost them all. Finally the 4th house we got and are in the closing process. There are alot of investors in the area buying up homes immediately and sellers are taking their cash offers even if its lower than the bids from regular people.... good luck

and side note... unless you are working in friendswood you have to consider the traffic on hwy 45.. its some of the worst in Houston.. no area avoids the traffic problem but 45south going into downtown is backed up very often.

[msearfoorce]

CJinHOU thanks for sharing your experience. One of the houses we have our eye on has actually been on the market for about 3 months - does that mean something's probably wrong with it?

We're aware of the traffic issues, but honestly we came down a couple of months ago and looked at over a dozen schools around Houston, and Friendswood had far and away the most impressive and fitting choices for our children, including one with special needs, which is a very large part of our decision.

[msearfoorce]

Also, does anyone have any advice/input on HOAs? We're trying to decide between a house on a large lot, not part of an HOA and a house in a beautiful subdivision (The Forest) that seems like it might be a bit restrictive as far as rules and regulations go, but the neighborhood is really attractive.

[abbybaby]

We just moved to Friendswood in August. We ended up having to pay full price for our home. Some sell the minute they go on the market and others don't. Really depends on what neighborhood you want.

[abbybaby]

The Forest is nice. We wanted in there but lost the house. I prefer hoa's. This is our first time to live in a neighborhood without one and we do not like it. Neighbors pile stuff up, boats and jet skis parked in front. The yards are also not kept as nice. We don't live in a cheap neighborhood but people do whatever when there is no hoa.

Our last home didn't allow parking over night on the streets and I loved it. An hoa just keeps a neighborhood looking tidy.

[msearfoorce]

We're looking at a house over by the high school that's not part of an HOA but most of the houses are 300-700K and the lots looked big and generally tidy, but The Forest is really nice. Such different options make it hard. One of the enticing things about the non-HOA option is the lot is an acre, whereas with the HOAs we've had trouble finding anything in our price range over .3 acres.