House hunting and selling in Houston

Depending on country, era and target...hunting style is always unique. That applies also to house hunting.

The Finnish style of reading the Sunday newspaper and checking which of the houses are having open house or browsing the main national pages for available rentals or property for sale and then going either for open house or agreeing a showing time with realtor (who represents the seller). The buyer would never have separately a realtor and the buyer has to do whole lot of the work by themselves.
Often it means that someone, who the buyer knows and who has more experience in buying a house e.g. father, brother or brothers best friend, will come and check the place before the final decision.
If you get lucky the seller is so advanced that they have ordered already the objective house inspection and have the report to show when one is viewing the place. This is though a luxury and happens once every blue moon.

After I returned to Finland in 2007, after 12 years abroad...I was dying to get my OWN place. I was on final assignment in Asia-Pacific, 3 months non-stop. I had sent though all my belongings already to Finland from Belgium to wait for my arrival. Parallel I had browsed the internet page with all the properties for sale and had daily notification activated for the houses I considered as suitable candidates. After arrival I went to see 2 houses and bought the latter one. I moved in 1.5 weeks after I arrived back to Finland...chop chop chop.

How is the whole house hunt in US then? Below some notes from my experiences in 2014, when we were momentarily looking for a house:
Well, first of all, you normally find a hunting buddy i.e. real estate agent to present yourself and help you to find & see the places you consider as possible candidates. Apparently only foreigners go see the places without their own realtor and that gets the local realtor professionals always wonder "why would anyone do that?"
Houston has a great real estate page HAR.com, where all properties for sale and rentals are listed.

I must say, I do like the US way - having your own realtor, especially as foreigner, has been a great help.
First one meets to discuss what are the things we would be after. Where we noticed with my husband that what he wants and what I want....well, we were still in different worlds back then, apart from few foundational things.
Hubby - city living, space, modern & simple style
Me - garden, space, modern & simple style, close to park or outdoor opportunities
--> Comment of the current status: Our preferences are slowly getting more common ground after some grinding time together and with the change of becoming 3 in the near future :)

We drove few weekends on our own to check the open houses in the city. Pretty fast we realized that our need for big rooms, modern style and space vs city living....beaucoup bucks.

Slowly my husband gave in, little by little, towards the idea of living in the suburbs.
Once we had bit more idea of what we want we prepared a list to to the realtor. Based on that he suggested bunch of places to see. We pre-checked the list and took out the ones, which we immediately "No Way".
That sounds all nice and easy, doesn't it? If it only was so easy.
The photos and how the representation is done here...that is vicious. The first few times we went to check the houses. Based on the photos and adds I had already the pre-hype: "house XYZ will be our new home! It looked perfect for us!"

Only to find out on-site that e.g. rooms were way smaller than what was the feeling from the photos. Also most of the time they, intentionally, do not attach the picture of the floor plan. So, the only way to get grasp of that...is to go and see the place.
There have been cases were we all thought that we found the dream place, walked in to find that there was water damage, which clearly had brewing time on the floor / ceiling.

In Finland, one has to do more work by oneself but the pictures are closer to reality, plus there is nearly always the floor plan in the internet with the square meters (square footage) for each room. Here you only see photos but will not have the information of the layout or the size of the rooms.

Which sometimes leads to what was my biggest burden: the emotional ups and downs and to remind oneself that you cannot trust anything you see in the internet. Here apparently too many realtors ensure that photoshopping and mega wide lens photos are taken to make the place look better.

Which is why at some point I needed a break from it. I could not deal traveling whole week for work, come back Thursday late evening. Friday work and get the household in shape, during weekend go for house hunting ...ending up emotionally totally deflated and Monday at 5 am head to the airport again.

After several weeks of break we went again one weekend. I got such headache during the house hunt, not sure if it was from hope vs preparing myself for disappointment. So it happened that the last house, which my husband had forgotten to send in the prep list to my e-mail. Means, I had no expectations, had not seen any photos or details of the house.
We walked in....and yes, it needs work but it was the first house, where me and my husband could agree on. We both had positive thoughts about seeing us living there. But he house was wayyyyy overpriced and at the end our level vs the level, what the owners expected to get were too far apart.

After that experience I was just not into it...spending the weekend while driving around looking for places with a realtor, who was scolding us each time that we had not even limited our area to a specific one. That was not what I wanted after long work week. I mean, how could we we limit if we first wanted to get the feel of what all is out there? There is the great Finnish saying: Do not buy pig in a sack. Means that one should be aware of what one gets before agreeing to buy anything. In this case to get to that state, it will not happen over night.

Especially when here you are not just buying a house. You a buying the neighborhood. That means that you need to check the neighborhood and their reputation. You need to check the schools in the area and their scoring, etc. etc. You should check the "coms" aka comparison data for the past 6 months to see if the current sales value is in line. But you need to see at the same how the market has changed, whether prices have gone up, stayed the same or gone down. All of that will impact to how bank will value the property and how that property's value may develop in the future. There is lot of investigation work that goes into understanding the ins-and-the-outs of the potential candidate house before making a decision or making an offer.

So, we decided to shift the focus first on selling our place and then see what comes. We agreed that even renting a place in between would be an option. Would help us to get more ideas of the different areas. Before that came holiday season and we took a break from everything :)

How do you sell your apartment/house in Houston?
For selling the place, which we finally decided to get rolling during first quarter of 2015 we hired a realtor, who is THE expert for downtown real estate. After meeting him my husband and myself really felt good about the coming co-operation. And we were so right!
Terry Stanfield is THE guy to contact if you are planning to sell or buy in downtown Houston.

He got our place photographed and I was pleasantly surprised that his team took photos, which truly represented our place and were very realistic. The photos did not make the rooms look bigger or more pretty. We kept our own furniture for the showings. There is an option here that you can stage your place. Which means that realtor helps to rent furniture to the place to help to create better vision for the buyers. Our combined furniture was modern and so was our place, so it was a good match. We just decluttered the place a little...and otherwise it was ready to sell.

We decided to allow automatically showings on any weekday during our office hours. There is a centralized realtor booking service, where realtors can book showings. With our automatic allowance it means that as long as the showing fell within the category we had set, we would get only text message sharing that there will be showing (with details of the time). During weekends we would get a call from the centralized booking team to ask if they can book showing for a certain time, before confirming it to the potential buyer's realtor. The other neat thing is that they use key boxes i.e. electronic lock boxes. The selling real estate agent puts the apartment key into that and when the centralized booking team confirms the showing, they send the electronic code to the showing agent (i.e. potential buyer's agent). He/she has usually a remote, which adopts the code and is able to open the lock box. Safe and no hassle with the key.

3 months and 3 offers later, we got it sold exactly to the price we had set as the expectation price. This was mixture of my husband's careful background work in forming realistic understanding of current price level for similar lofts and Terry's, our realtor's, guidance.
Terry and his team did excellent job. One of the team members joined the showing (even if it is not mandatory) when they saw from the booking information that realtor, who has booked the showing, was not from downtown. That way they were able to really give the insights to the building's history and idea about the downtown lifestyle.

Between getting the offer, back & fort price / moving time negotiation, accepting the offer and finally doing the "closing" i.e. handing over the property and in return getting the payment for it...it may weeks easily few weeks or more. As after the offer is accepted final inspection is done. Here inspectors tend to aim to get some money back for the buyers. Means that some of them list even the most irrelevant things and it is depending on the buyer, whether they point that out or not. In our case we had just refreshed the place, changed flooring to both bedrooms and painted the walls. So, very little was pointed out in the previous offer we got. We had fixed those, so for the final offer we got there was nothing standing out from the inspection.
After that the buyer's bank (if they choose to take a loan) will do property evaluation, including the whole building or house / area / apartment / etc. This will dictate how the bank will value the property and what kind of loan offer the bank will make to the buyer.

Also, here the interest rate you get is not the same for everyone. It depends on your credit history. If you have "accrued" good credit history, which results to good score. In that case you get better interest rate than if you have either no previous credit history or low score.
Just in comparison - in Finland interest rate is set by bank and is valid for all. Bank does background check and decides whether they give you the loan or not, but interest rate is the one, which the bank has generally listed at the time.

The sale of our apartment was taken care so smoothly by Terry and his team, that very little was left for us to do, other than moving out in agreed time frame. We live now on west side of Houston in a rental, exploring different area and at some point we will start looking for our house. Next time lot wiser than last time, when we were house hunting and we have a great contact now to ask for reference to find someone, who is a match for us showing some potential houses. I got my faith back, thanks to Terry, that selling / buying a house or an apartment can be a pleasant experience, even in Houston.
Right now, we are just gonna relax and enjoy Houston from different perspective! :)

Houtonian Delicacies - Plethora of International Choices

As the Finnish and German saying goes...love goes through the stomach. I think it applies also to different cultures. Food plays important part in whether one starts to like country / area / town.

Houston is the melting pot of different cultures for centuries already, and respectively the variety of foods available is colorful. Also, eating out is very much part of the Houstonian culture. On top of variety of restaurant chains, there are plenty of nice smaller scale restaurants. The issue is not finding one...the issue is deciding which one to choose! :)

The best part here is that one can eat out and not go broke on it. Through the fact that I love cooking, eating out has been staying as special treat in our household.

I have listed below few of my personal favorites, which have been part of my cultural journey into the heart of Houston.
I have ordered Houstonia magazine for few reasons: it has the upcoming events, but also lists restaurants & places to go around Houston. I can only warmly recommend browsing even its web page, when you are looking for new ideas.
Happy exploring and Hyvää ruokahalua! / Bonne appetit!

Kolach / Kolache - originates from Check & Slovak immigrants. Houston style is slightly sweet bun with e.g. egg & bacon or other savory filling. Of course spiced up versions exist, when in Texas.
I got introduced to this at work. Friday morning meeting was energized with Kolaches from Kolachi Factory. I am not a sweet bun eater as such but the combination was delicious.
Colache Factory - One of the many places offering delicious Kolaches.

Mexican / Tex-Mex - Endless list of excellent real Mexican places (not just Tex-Mex) exists in Houston. One of the best one's is The Original Ninfa's (with their own Wikipedia page:LINK).
La Fisheria is known for their excellent Mexican seafood. Even my Mexican friends living in Alabama recommended this restaurant.

BBQ - Well it ain't Texas unless there is proper BBQ. Meat eaters love Houston and for a reason...this place hosts so many great BBQ places. One of the favorites is The Brisket House. My husband and myself took one of the Finnish friends there for his farewell dinner. We were all very happy of the outcome. The Brisket House is not a fancy place...it is down to earth BBQ joint, creating a cosy feeling with the slight smoky notes in the air.


Margarita / Tequila - Another create remains of the Mexican influence to the Texan history. Margarita's are available in any / every restaurant and mostly they are prepared well. Also, one can get here proper tequila without paying a fortune for it. One of the best places was TQLA, which I really liked...unfortunately now closed. But here is a list of some top places to go: LINK.

In Finland, Germany and Singapore...I tried tequila few times and thought that tequila & me do not match. I felt always so sick next day...even just after 1-2 tequilas. Till I was taught last summer by my project team / friends in San Luis Potosi how tequila is drank properly. If you get the proper tequila, you feel just great next day :) So, it is not allergy towards tequila...it is just crappy tequila, which causes the hang over. Claro que si!

Cajun & creole kitchen - the main meals I have enjoyed are the cajun style seafood - crawfish, fish and shrimps. Mainly in Galveston, which is THE place for excellent seafood (more about Galveston later). These dishes have made their way from Louisiana and as they are spicy, Texans have adopted the dishes with open arms. In Houston one of the best places for great crawfish and true Cajun style is Ragin Cajun. Relaxed atmosphere and bucket full of crawfish.

Vietnamese - Houston houses the 3rd biggest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam (as per the
statistics available now over 100 k people). Which leads to the positive outcome of having Vietnamese restaurants & "sandwich shops" everywhere. Some of them are ok, some of them are excellent. Vietnamese Pho restaurants have been well established around Houston. One of the mainstream offering of the restaurants is Pho. Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup, delicious broth, rich in vegetables and herbs with different meat choose.
I used to eat Chicken Pho in Singapore when ever I felt that I was coming down with something. I have taken back that habit here :) It is delicious and super healthy. Based on my experience, the Asian logic applies here too. You get the best Pho in places, which are not equipped with fancy exterior and glitter. Great examples are: Pho Basil and Nom Nom Noodles.

Japanese - Japanese places can be found anywhere and everywhere around Houston. As I am absolute fan of Japanese food and like making sushi at home as well...I love going to Japanese restaurants. Some of the ones I keep going back are: Sushi Nikko and Azuma. But like said, there are lot of places which I still need to explore. Now that I have found a Japanese store, Nippan Daido, close to our new place...I am looking forward to getting the ingredients and making sushi at home again.

Greek - I cannot say anything about Greek restaurants...except this one awesome Niko Niko's Greek kiosk in downtown Houston. It is right on the market square and one can sit outside enjoying the meal, observing people and happenings at the square. The food is excellent! Niko Niko's has also 2 restaurants (Montrose and Pearland) but the kiosk is just so cool. Reminds me of Europe and Asia with small food kiosks, simple and but delicious food.

German - There is one must place to go, when you want good German food...and that restaurant is now exactly behind our building :) Rudi Lechner's is the "Stamm Platz" / Regular place to go for Germans or those of us, who have lived in Germany and appreciate the German kitchen. Rudi's has been there since 1976 and they sure know to do their Schnitzel and German potato salad, as well as other German dishes. On top of that they have live entertainment several evenings a week, German schlager songs. Every month the Austrian & German community's Stammtisch gathers here. It is still on my to-do list to get connected to the German speaking community here.

Brunch - Weekend brunch is definitely the thing here. I really enjoyed getting introduced to brunch during my years in Germany & Singapore....then I lost the habit of that in between. After I moved here I introduced a habit in our household...every Sunday we go somewhere different for breakfast & coffee. My husband is a latte connoisseur and very picky about getting a proper coffee / latte. Sundays we got the time to find out new places to find latte for him and place to explore new breakfast menu. The list of good places to go around Houston is...again endless :)
Link to some places HOT right now: LINK.
Just some of the many places I have liked: Backstreet cafe, Grafiti, Siphon Cafe, Andes Cafe, Honeymoon, Tout Suite and Baby Barnaby's Cafe.

Food trucks - They are slowly making their more visible entry to the Houston streets. Austin is definitely the place to go if you want excellent food truck experiences. My bro can tell you by heart any of the new and delicious Austin food truck places :)
But Houston is promoting the food trucks and people are starting to find them easier.
List of some of the most popular ones: LINK1, LINK2.

Houston Health Care Mecca part II - Experiencing the hospital in the American way

Now that I am on sick leave and in strict bed rest, I will have time to finish all the blog drafts I have have stored for the day when I have time :)
But first, let me share with you how I got to this point. I will spare you from details but my very first hospital experience ever is definitely worth sharing. As it was great!

I am having the private project called pregnancy in progress. The ride has been bit bumpy but more of that, and pregnancy, in my other blog I will start writing (LINK).

So few weeks back my project manager's mind & body was in the mode of trying to accelerate things. In project environment any kind of acceleration is good and I am professionally known to turn the toughest projects around and bring them to goal in schedule. Which often means motivating the team to push hard and find the means to accelerate where ever possible. But as everyone with common sense knows, acceleration does not work well for pregnancies. Which meant that my doctor, Dr Michael Piegari, wanted to check me in to the hospital for expert team check and second opinion on what the options are to secure the rest of the pregnancy.

I thought I was going just for a quick check to the Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital but little did I know. I was informed while waiting for my doctors orders to have reached the hospital that at minimum I would stay over the night.

I was brought to my room....Yes, I got my very own room!
I have not been myself in hospital ever before but have visited plenty of friends and family in Finnish hospitals. Unless you are in the intense care unit, you normally do not get your own room. In the best case you are sharing it with 8 - 10 people. Which can be good from social perspective but in such cases you also share the tv and do not really have much control of the noise level. So, getting my own room was surprising me totally.

I got settled to my hospital gown and to my bed, which felt comfy enough. My doctor came to check that everything is okay with me and guided me little bit about the expert team and their way of working. Again, having a doctor that actually shows that he cares for his patients...priceless! After the talks with him I was pretty much in the relax mode, ready to experience my very first time in the hospital.

Next scene could have been directly from the Dr House tv series. I got the expert team and all the residents (medical students) taking over my room and surrounding my bed. There were 7 of them in total, which made me smile. As I was just thinking:"If there are those seven plus my doctor taking care of getting my body out of the acceleration mode....yeah, it will well taken care of." Just like in Dr House they asked all kinds of questions and I explained what I think had happened and what I had sensed.

What I liked about this whole thing was that everyone was very clear in communication. Things were explained thoroughly, I was given the understanding of the options and why something was considered a better option than another. I was asked 100 times if I had any questions, nobody was in a rush to get out of my room. All that left me pretty much with no other choice than relax and take it easy.

I got really funny reaction from the expert team 2 days later, when they asked if all is okay and I have been taken care by the nurses and gotten food. I shared that on top of everything else, I was excited that one can order the meals from a room service and the food was actually good. The look on their face was worth seeing. I could see that one of them was checking if I was still having any of the Magnesium Sulfate drops coming through the IV (makes you super relaxed) or I really coherently meant what I said. I mean...room service in a hospital! It is a small thing but makes the experience again so much more personalized.

Some of my friends in Europe commented, when I shared with them about where I had been past few days:"Oh, you must have been so stressed and in panic about having to go to hospital!"
Yes, had I been anywhere else than in Houston, where I was in one of the leading hospitals for risk pregnancies...I sure would have. But like said, this experience was very positive. The staff around me (my doctor, the hospital's expert team, the nurses) were all very professional and treated me like a human. The night nurse, while starting the medication during the first night and needing to monitor for the rest of the shift gave great advice on how to prepare to tolerate the pain during labor without extra medication. She was definitely making me feel like I was in good hands and I did not mind getting injection at 1 am or staying awake for monitoring.

Two weeks later...I am spending my days on the couch or in bed but so far with success. The body has gotten off from the acceleration mode. I take each day with gratitude, as that is one day more for the baby to "bake in the oven" and increasing the chance for a good start.

Since this pregnancy was determined to be a bumpy ride in a very literal meaning, I sure am happy to go through it in Houston. Surrounded by the top hospital and medical experts. As my doctor put it well: "Taking care of the mother is still easier, even in risk situations. As adult body gives more time to react. Taking care of premature infant or infant at risk....then it is down to handful of minutes to react and take the right actions."