Moving to Houston from the UK (Pearland, Bellaire: real estate, leasing agent, credit check)

[Macklin3]

My husband and I and our little boy, aged 2, are possibly moving to Houston and I'm trying to find out some information about renting a house. We're looking at the Pearland area. Could anyone let me know about the following please:-

- Apart from rent and bills are there any specific taxes/ agents costs that we would have to pay?
- How do leases work in the USA? In the UK its usually 6 months but either party can give 1 months notice to quit/regain possession
- Once we've found a property how long does it take to complete formalities and get the keys? What are the formalities eg references etc.

Is there anything else I need to know/consider? All advice gratefully receieved.

[chris_ut]

You can check Houston Real Estate - Houston Homes, Houston Home Value and Houston Relocation to do a search for leases in your area and price range. You do not pay a fee for a leasing agent if you use one. The fee is paid by the property owner. For houses people usually require a 1 year lease but you might be able to negotiate for a 6 month one depending on the vacancy rate in the area. Typically if you need to break your lease early you have to pay a fee equal to 80% of the next months rent. To qualify for a lease they usually only require a deposit and a credit check. Coming from the UK you may have an issue with the credit check part but there is a previous thread where someone talked about how to deal with that. You might want to search for that thread.

[Macklin3]

Thanks very much for that.

Just one more thing - I know we'll pay for electricity, gas, water but is there any local tax (to cover things like refuse collection etc).

We're just trying make sure we don't get any surprises when we come. In the UK we have a 'lovely thing' called council tax which can be quite a large chunk of money - payable by the tenant based on the value of the property!

[ZeroTX]

It depends. If the home is located within a city limits, e.g. within the Pearland city limits, they probably include your trash fees with your water bill, so it's not technically a separate cost. On the other hand, if you're in an area that isn't within the city, you probably have to pay your neighborhood association for garbage collection. In my last neighborhood, which was not located in a city, I had to pay $45 per quarter for garbage collection. This wasn't TOO bad, although it went up to $60 recently, which I felt was excessive.

You will also want to budget for your television/cable and Internet, which may be through the same provider or separate ones. Check out Comcast and AT&T, which are most likely your two choices.

Also, lease terms on a house can vary greatly between owners. I've never seen a home lease under 1 year and generally breaking the lease is expensive. However, renters have substantial protections in Texas. To the point that I'd hate to ever be a landlord.

Oh, by the way, Welcome to Texas! If you do choose Pearland, you may be in for a suburbia culture shock. Most of the areas of Pearland are recently built suburban areas. As an original Brazoria County resident (born there!), I miss OLD, small-town Pearland.

If you don't like driving for at least 2 hours per day, I suggest looking in town a bit. Meyerland, The Heights, Bellaire, West University Place, etc, depending on your budget. I chose suburbia, because those nice in-town places are...expensive.