All Forum Posts by: Cristin Andrews

I’m here in Houston buying here, KC and Boise 

Sorry to hear this. I have learned there is an odd set of people that would actually want to live in that unit because of the notoriety so don’t necessarily assume no one will rent it. There was a high profile murder down the street from my sisters house in a rental in a decent area and it wasn’t even 60 days later they had a new renter in there. 

Thx Mark. 

If anyone finds this post via a search later - here is what I found out. 

The Floodway is apparently classified the same as the Flood Area - AE so insurance is required and there are also construction limits requiring you work with FEMA/Structural engineers for all building or remodeling or get a permit to go ahead within them in some cases.

Insurance costs are entirely dependent on the elevation certificate which I would have needed to commission myself since seller didn’t even know they were in a flood plain OR I could have negotiated to have her commission the survey. My insurance agent said in some extreme circumstances it is possible no one would flood insure the property and then it would be impossible to bank finance the deal. Also if the property was grandfathered in or at a compliant elevation once the survey was done and a certificate issued then the flood insurance could be under 1k but it had the potential to be very very expensive (many thousands) or as previously mentioned even uninsurable  Zone and Floodway AE had roughly 26% or 1 in 4 chance of flooding over the lifetime of the mortgage  

I walked away from the deal and informed the seller so she is prepared for the next buyer. 

I am considering buying a property that has never flooded and current owner has lived there 15 years without Flood insurance. It is located in Houston TX and in a floodway (just outside of a Zone AE Floodplain) I'm not required to buy flood insurance but feel like it would be prudent to do so. My insurance agent is not reachable today but I wanted to make a bid. I can't seem to find any info on the web about costs of insurance in a floodway vs a flood zone and how those compare. Anyone here have any info on that by chance? I have no idea if I'm looking at 500 a year or more like 6K a year - really no idea.  Also anything else I need to know about floodways aside from the construction restrictions?

Have you ever been to Galveston? It's a terrible beach. As locals we go there because there aren't any other good options nearby but it's ugly and just bad in general and the undertow kills a few people regularly. I would never invest there. I'd find a proper beach instead. Highly recommend you visit before taking the plunge. 

@Account Closed I'm keeping my eyes open 

@Account Closed the HOA fees I have been seeing are 300-400 per month

@Joe Abughazaleh thank you for your response. I’m really not sure if they are real wood or not as the house was bought with them already installed and I don’t know what to look for to tell. Will have to check into that. 

Tenant has allowed 4 (non approved) dogs to pee all over hardwoods in house. Tenant is leaving soon and so I am looking for advice on how best to get the smell out of the hardwoods. It is overwhelming smell from the door. I haven’t been able to inspect it enough yet to tell if there is water damage also. Am I going to have to rip the floors out?

@John Moorhouse

As everyone else has said. Stay in school. The world is not kind to high school drop outs. I saw your note that you have changed your mind so that is good.

Some ideas for you while is school:

- start a real estate club in your school or financial

- join (or start) your school’s Habitat for Humanity club. You can start getting building experience there. My son was in his high school club and very much enjoyed it

- start to build your network. This is the single best thing you can do for future success in any field

- continue to do your research and define your focus area

Good luck!

Cristin