Young Couple Moving to Houston -- Advice Needed! (Dallas, Spring: apartment, leases)

[eloon]

I did some searching but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I figured I'd start a new thread to see if I could get any good specific advice.

My (future) wife and I are moving to Houston in July. I'm working Downtown (Smith and Dallas) and she is going to teach. She really likes Spring Branch and we've both read good stuff about it. They're actively recruiting here and she likes what they have to offer.

We know we can't afford to buy yet, but we want to buy sooner rather than later (like within 6mos - 1year), which puts us in renting for right now. Since we want to buy something, we want to live cheaply for the time being in order to save more money. We have 2 dogs and enough toys that we want to have a garage, but we could give on the garage if needed.

So my question is, where would be a good place to live for one working downtown and the other working in Spring Branch? That is relatively cheap, or at least moderate.

[EasilyAmused]

Give your top budget. Something with a garage, safe, good walking and close to both locals sounds like Galleria Townhouses, but you are goingto have to pay at least 1200 a month. It might be best to go ahead and look at a purchase in that area. 77057

[eloon]

I'd hope for it to be cheaper than that. Neither of us are from Houston and don't want to buy straight away. We also don't have enough cash for a down payment.

I figure if we can stay to $1000 or less we can save enough in 6-9months so we can buy.

Price and safety is the most important. I don't worry so much about me, but I worry about her feeling safe taking the dogs out at night and such when I'm out of town.

[EasilyAmused]

The garage is what will hold you back from the location and the safety. If you can forgo the garage I think you will find something. But if you need a storage unit for all your stuff, you could be paying for a garage instead.

Use HAR.COM. Residental leases. You have search by area. Safer Spring Branch schools are located in area 23. Galleria is area 22. Downtown areas are Central 16

If you find an address you are interested in, post it. You will get feed back from many of the posters in here.

[eloon]

I did a search and here's the mapped results I came up with. BTW, I really like the new HAR and the updated features.

You can see the search criteria I used toward the bottom of the picture as well.

[EasilyAmused]

All your hits are in the murder center of Houston. Sorry. You need to be North of Westhiemer.

New Har is a RED HOT MESS.

[UK-Trinity]

The new har doesn't work with safari either - as a mac user I am not happy!!!

[eloon]

Well that sucks it doesn't work with Safari, but I like how when I search I can see all the locations on a map right away. I always wanted that because it was a pain to click the listing then click to see a map.

Anyhow, it looks like everything I've been able to find is out. I assume that I'm going to have a crappy commute and we won't get a garage. That's fine as long as it's relatively safe and cheap enough for us to save. Where are the decent apartment locations, and how can I find them online?

[pepper131]

My husband just rented at 9900 Memorial off Memorial Dr - a 1 br at 6 mo lease is around $750-810. But no garage and I'm not sure of the pet policy. We used an apt locator since our heads were spinning - send me a message if you'd like her contact info.

[eloon]

I think we could probably handle something like that if it was cheap enough that we could get storage too. They would have to take pets though, because that's obviously a deal breaker.