Advice for anyone fixing to buy a house (Houston, Spring: renters, HOA)

[shanla]

I am warning you, check out the neighbors!!!! Make sure you are NOT buying next to a rental property.

We thought we had done all of our research on neighborhood, schools, area, etc......we found the perfect house in a well established, highly recommended area....we visited the house twice b/c we were from another state...but our dream is ruined b/c of our neighbors who are renters next door. It has become a nightmare I am scared everyday to live here, I have called the cops twice on them in 2 weeks, I have tried to contact the owner of the house (who owns homes all over the houston area so he probably doesnt care b/c he is getting paid) we have good reason to believe they are dealing drugs - ppl in/out all hours of the day, the list goes on and on. Our HOA is having a meeting on the 22nd so hopefully something can be done. I just wanted others not to make the same mistake we did.

[shanla]

About an hour after I posted this they were arrested for drugs.

Does anyone know/have any advice on what can be done to get them out of here????

[flo2900]

wow... TY for posting I never thought this could be a problem...how do you find out in advance of buying if any renters in the street short of knocking on doors?........I`m planning to move to Spring area.

[flo2900]

Originally Posted by shanla

About an hour after I posted this they were arrested for drugs.

Does anyone know/have any advice on what can be done to get them out of here????

Be careful of retaliation...I`m serious don`t let them find out who called the law on them...some of these ppl have nothing to lose!

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by flo2900

wow... TY for posting I never thought this could be a problem...how do you find out in advance of buying if any renters in the street short of knocking on doors?........I`m planning to move to Spring area.

Here is how you find out --

1) Go to the online tax records of the appropriate county appraisal district. For Houston in Harris county, that's Harris County Appraisal District.

2) Look up the street you are thinking about buying on (and the street behind behind it, if you will have neighbors adjacent to your backyard). Look at all the records of the adjacent homes (would be wise to look over the entire street)

3) Any record where the owner's address doesn't match the address of the property itself is a rental.

To the OP:

Fortunately, you have a couple of things on your side.

First, renters don't stay long.

Build a rapport with the local cops who come out when you call in a complaint; they are not supposed to reveal the source of the complaint. It's better in some ways than the HOA; the renters might feel more compelled to move if they feel like they are getting more than the normal heat from the cops. As far as the HOA, if you can discreetly get them to ticket the owner directly for lawn, noise, etc. violations, that could certainly help.

You said you tried to contact the owner directly -- do you have their home phone # (there are ways to find out, esp with the data from hcad.org above)? If you have their home number, I'd call them when the negative activity is occurring... even (especially) if it is late at night. If you happen to wake them up at 2AM, so much the better. They won't really be able to complain; after all, you are just looking out for their property, right?? Same if you contact them at work. Need the work number? Also not hard to find. Eventually, they are going to realize it ain't worth it with these tenants.

The other thing you have going for you... you don't have to disclose lousy neighbors if you sell. That's a last resort, and you hate to pass on your problems to someone else... but hey, that's the market. If the house would be worth every penny if it weren't for those neighbors, well, they will eventually leave. They do not sound like the type that would be able to buy.

[shanla]

If we would have just knocked on one of our neighbors doors and introduced ourselves as the new neighbors we would have found out about them and we would not have bought this house.

We have developed a rapport with the police already. Harris county has been GREAT! You dont have to leave your name when u call a complaint in so it could be any of the neighbors, I have been scared of retaliation, but I am more afraid of them being out there..the police have told me to call them everyday if I have to and they will come check it out...they know the guy on a first name basis and have arrested him many times.

a guy about 5 houses down had his truck stolen, another neighbor had his house broken into, another had his car egged..this has all taken place in a matter of 3 weeks and we believe they (or their friends) are behind it all...each morning I wake up and look out the window just to check to make sure my car is still in the driveway...let me clarify also - this is not the Hood! we are in a very respectable area.

The owner has been contacted MANY times and from one of the neighbors, my understanding he is now trying to find out legally how he can evict them since they do pay their rent on time. We will call him until we get him today. Keep your fingers crossed!!! I will keep you posted!

[tstone]

Originally Posted by flo2900

Be careful of retaliation...I`m serious don`t let them find out who called the law on them...some of these ppl have nothing to lose!

Ditto on that. When I rented, I only spoke to Johnny Law when something directly/negatively affected me or my family, or if I actually witnessed something violating going on in plain view. Not if I simply suspected something, saw people or heard noises. I used to suspect a lot of things, and still do, but at the end of the day it proves nothing. Drug deals? Never saw them. Hand-offs? Yeah, saw a few of those but what did they really hand-off anyway? Regardless, what business is it of mine? How about the girl next door that runs trains in & out the window in broad daylight? Ok, never saw that but I got a buddy dealing with that now.

As they say, ''snitches get stitches''...

...usually that's putting it quite nicely. Life in prison is easier than life ''in the world'' to some.

Sometimes for your family's sake it's wiser to simply tough it out and mind your own business. These people come & go faster than you think.

That said, I hope these guys leave soon and are replaced by more upstanding indivduals. Absentee landlords represented by shady property managers are very common here.

[shanla]

As I said before I am scared of retaliation but I am more scared of living here and letting what is going on here get out of hand - our fear directly affects me and my children..my 8 yr old has been sleeping in our bedroom since we moved here b/c she is scared...something we were not accustomed to before. I do not want to be a snich but if everything was on the up and up there would be no reason to snich....Sure, we think they are running drugs - but the police did a drug bust last night - and yes, they found drugs and yes they were arrested...so we were correct in our assumptions of what we were witnessing and anyone knows if there is buying/selling drugs what kind of people that attracts....we paid good money to live in a safe place to raise our children and we would like to keep it that way.

On a good note, I spoke to the owner and he IS going to evict them. He rented the house to a single lady in her 60's. Well, weve never seen her???

Anyway, I just wanted to help others avoid the mistake we made. Sometimes you overlook the small things when you get caught up in buying a house. You get so excited and you hardly think that something like the neighbors can rob you of your joy. Best of luck to all of you.

[mcsotan]

Thing is, you can control who your neighbors are before you move in but you can't control what happens after that. A new family moved in across the street from us and I believe the 19 yr old is at the very least smoking pot, if not lots of other stuff. He has friends over all the time and his parents were gone last week. Last winter they built a giant snowman (emphsis on "man") in the front yard. Our street is fairly busy with school buses full of elementary kids coming and going all day. One of our neighbors went over to remind him of this and he didn't care at all. Told her he thought they'd love it. He said he thought his dad who was due home from work soon would love it, too. Mind you, there was no question, even from across the street what "it" was. This is a very conservative neighborhood with young families. I called a cop who finally came and made him destroy it.

Luckily, he has left us alone for the most part. But we have to look out the front window at his trashy car and his dad's super ugly camper parked in the driveway. Also we get to listen to cars revving and crowd noise late at night. And smell cigarette smoke wafting our way. All this AFTER we had already lived here for many years. I guess it's just the breaks. We can't control everything unless we want to go live out in the middle of the country. And then there are coyotes. LOL

[recuerdeme]

A drive by (several actually) are always a good thing. I've seen neighborhoods that are picture perfect by day and filled with prostitutes and druggies by night.

I'm purchasing a house and of course I drove by the neighborhood, probably excessively, at all times of the day/night. I haven't found anything wrong with it ts far... aside from cars not being parked in garages.

Of course this is all outsider looking in. You never really know until you are there. Luckily I have been fortunate enough to converse with some of the immediate neighbors, one being the selling agent. They seem ok.