Rental communities in Sugar Land? (Houston, Austin: for sale, real estate, 2013)

[GatorDoc77Fam]

Hi We are a family of 4 - with 14yo and 4yo kids with a small dog. We are moving to Houston, TX this summer after my husband completes his medical residency and he then begins his new job in the Texas Medical Center area.

We visited the Houston area in November to finalize the decision to accept Houston's job offer. I admit that at first glance I wasn't too impressed with Houston (inner loop neighborhoods). But, we set out to visit outside the loops and looked at various areas (including Katy, Bellaire, Missouri City, Pearland and Sugar Land); like many East Coasters with family (followed a few similar threads here), we fell in love with Sugar Land homes and neighborhoods and feel like that is where we would be better off as diverse communities with access to good schools, parks, etc. are important to us. We are looking to rent before we buy to make sure that we love the area first and work on improving our credits (took a beating during medical residency ).

We have just started our more serious search this week and are interested in single family homes, but as a last alternative we will do a 3-4 BR town house (Is this even a possibility?) as that would be a lateral move for us.

One of our concerns is that many of the homes in the Sugar Land area that are available for lease appear to also be up for sale, therefore making the possibility of our family being in a position where we would need to move again within a short amount of time and possibility to an undesirable school zone.

Does Sugar Land have any rental communities that offer single family homes or townhomes???? We require pet friendly rentals which also limits the possibilities.
Rental range between $1800 and $2300. Must be zoned/assigned to Recognized or better schools, especially high school. Thanks for your advice and help in advance!

[Failed Engineer]

If a home is for lease and sale, just negotiate the lease term you want and you won't have to worry about moving. The lease will lock you and the owner in for the period you sign for. I haven't heard of a rental only community of SFMs or townhomes in Sugar Land.

FYI, in Sugar Land zoned to very good schools, you'll probably land at the high side of your budget, especially if you are firm on the 4 bedrooms. But you should be able to find it. Look in New Territory and First Colony. New Territory will be slightly more affordable, First Colony a little better located. Schools are similar in both.

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Good luck!

[slnt]

Gatordoc, I would suggest contacting a realtor that specializes in the Sugar Land area. You might want to expand out your search to include Missouri City especially Sienna Planation. There you will find many options as well as excellent schools.

You did ask about rental home community in Sugar Land. There are none. There are some apartment complexes in the area that have where you can have a garage if that is what you are looking for. The Broadstone in New Territory is one such apartment complex that has some units that has garages that are attached to the unit. Here is their floor plan for a garage unit: Broadstone Three Bedroom Units New Territory

Areas to look at in Sugar Land include: First Colony (Colony Grant, Colony Bend, Commonwealth, just to name a few First Colony neighborhoods)...there are also a couple of townhouse communities off of Grants Lake Blvd and Highway 6, Riverstone, New Territory and possibly Telfair (Telfair currently does not have a rental home in your price range however, you never know what will come up soon). Another possibility is Greatwood. Although it is not in Fort Bend ISD, it's located in Lamar CISD, the schools that are zoned to Greatwood are all very good.

You can search in Houston Real estate, Houston homes, Houston Realtors - HAR.com to find rentals.

Good Luck with your search and Welcome to the area!

[JaqueCosto]

FBISD Attendance Boundary Maps
Clements in #1 HS in FBISD.

You'd easily be able to rent a single family home within your budget to any FBISD high school.

You can rent a home in Sienna Plantation (Ridge Point HS) and catch Fort Bend Parkway to TMC which is where I assume your husband will be doing his residency. The Fort Bend Parkway extension into Sienna Plantation will open this Fall. This would be a relatively easy commute since there's no traffic on the tollway.

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Ex: Creek Crossing at Anderson Springs neighborhood within Sienna Plantation MPC
Only $1500/month, that's a subprime starter home about as cheap as it's going to get for a newer home. Of course you can do much better for $2300.

[JaqueCosto]

Gables Austin Colony apartments are zoned to Clements as well as portions of Grants Lakes town homes.
There are hundreds of inexpensive First Colony homes built in the 80's zoned to Clements but this probably would be too far a commute to TMC. The newer neighborhoods within Clements zoning will mostly be out of your price range.

There are no starter homes in Riverstone so you won't find many rentals in your budget there either. You can find rental homes in Lake Olympia.

If you want to save money you can also rent a new apartment in the Century @ Sienna Plantation or newer Watermark at Sienna Plantation. The Sienna Plantation developer has moved on from building subprime credit starter homes into building apartments. But I wouldn't want to share walls with anyone, a medical resident will be sleep deprived even without the noise.

But if it were me I'd just stick to renting a home in Sienna Plantation due to its proximity to TMC and overall the schools are great as well.

[GatorDoc77Fam]

Thank you all for your helpful input! I am happy to say that my hubby is actually finishing off residency now, so this is his first official post residency job which will be at Ben Taub Hospital in TMC. It has been a long road from med school through residency to now ::angel chorus:: We of course want a decent commute for him, and regardless of his hours being more feasible, we still would prefer to NOT share walls.

SCHOOL ZONE: First Colony and New Territory seem to be within our rental price range - we are also going to look at Sienna Plantation as it was recommended by a few. My only concern with Sienna's high school is that har.com lists Ridge Point HS as a 'Acceptable' school based on TAKS exam (though it is rated well on greatschools.org). I really would prefer exemplary or recognized HS zones for my 14yo - Clements, Dulles, Austin, and Kempner and Elkins (by order of preference). Thoughts?

APPLIANCES: As for the rental homes that we have looked up on har.com and zillow.com - quite a few of them seem to not offer a fridge with the rental or even no appliances. Any suggestions on this - where to possibly rent appliance. Seems to me. to purchase a new fridge when we hope to move to a new home within the next 3 years and would prob want a new appliance, is silly. But maybe not?!?!

Oh and by the way - access to Dunkin Donuts trumps any of our other needs/wants, so wherever I can be closest to one is the place to be...just kidding (kind of!)

[Nick_tx]

Originally Posted by GatorDoc77Fam

APPLIANCES: As for the rental homes that we have looked up on har.com and zillow.com - quite a few of them seem to not offer a fridge with the rental or even no appliances. Any suggestions on this - where to possibly rent appliance. Seems to me. to purchase a new fridge when we hope to move to a new home within the next 3 years and would prob want a new appliance, is silly. But maybe not?!?!

No, it's silly to rent an appliance. Find an inexpensive or even used fridge. You'll pay way more to rent it than it would cost you to buy an inexpensive one.

[Jonathz]

I would suggest you rent in a subdivision that zoned to the school that you want your kids to go. You can try out that school and you don't need to move your kid to a different school when you buy. So do a study on which school you want your kids to go and then decide on what subdivision you want to rent. Riverstone and New Territory are zoned to exemplary schools and have the rental houses that fits your price range.

[slnt]

GatorDoc, don't be concerned about TAKS ratings (that rating system is or has gone away, this year's 11th graders are the last group to take the exit level TAKS). The system for measuring performance is seriously flawed! The state has a new version of TAKS, called STAAR. Currently, the amount of STAAR tests are being debated about in the Texas Senate. There are some major problems with this new system they rolled out last year. They are currently debating the amount of STAAR tests that are appropriate for High School students as well as altering the graduation plans.

All the schools you mentioned are great schools including Ridge Pointe which is a new school. It is about 2 years old. Clements is the darling of Fort Bend ISD however a major caveat, it is an extremely competitive school. If you want your child to graduate in the top ten percent, they need to be a super-genius and have nearly a perfect GPA.

I have sad news to break to you, currently there are no Dunkin Donuts in Sugar Land. Several years ago, they were planning to expand all over the area. I think those plans might have gotten hurt by the Atkins diet as well as the economy. Never know, we are getting so much new retail in the area, Dunkin Donuts might be on the horizon too.

[JaqueCosto]

Originally Posted by GatorDoc77Fam

SCHOOL ZONE: First Colony and New Territory seem to be within our rental price range - we are also going to look at Sienna Plantation as it was recommended by a few. My only concern with Sienna's high school is that har.com lists Ridge Point HS as a 'Acceptable' school based on TAKS exam (though it is rated well on greatschools.org). I really would prefer exemplary or recognized HS zones for my 14yo - Clements, Dulles, Austin, and Kempner and Elkins (by order of preference). Thoughts?

Ridge Point is a new school rated for its first time and only time in 2011. Class of 2013 will be their first graduating class...not sure if any of this affects the TEA rankings. The TAKS system is being phased out for the STAAR system which may further differentiate the schools in terms of performance.

And I'd say the above order sounds right. All the schools have a mix of different neighborhoods making the only real standout Clements. Personally I don't think it matters all that much Honors/AP students are going to be in separate classrooms compared to those failing the TAKS exams.

FYI your son might be interested in the Medical Academy at Hightower HS which is where Sienna Plantation was formerly zoned. It's open to all FBISD students.
Academies
Medical Science