Friday, April 15, 2011

Corporate Housing - Houston

Corporate housing is basically a furnished apartment. Initially, they were leased by corporations for their employees who were temporarily residing in Houston. Now, anyone can lease furnished apartments for a variety of reasons.

The process of acquiring a corporate rental can be rather complicated and boring. So, I'm not going to put you to sleep with a bunch of details. However, there are some basics you need to know.

  1. Houston does not have an inventory of furnished rental apartments just waiting for someone to lease. These days, you pick your property and a third party converts it into a furnished unit.

  2. Your options include two different types of properties: Apartment communities and privately owned properties. Sometimes private owners will have their property set up specifically as a furnished apartment or home. These are rare but they do exist.

  3. Most properties require 1 year leases. There are some apartment communities that will accept shorter term leases. Most condo and hi-rise buildings do not allow short term leases. This really limits your choices.

  4. A furnished unit may or may not include utilities and maid service. When negotiating for a furnished unit, it helps if you know what you need. Expect to pay about $2000 above the base price of an unfurnished apartment or home. This number can be lowered by placing utilities in your own name, hiring a maid or even reducing the number of televisions in the unit.

  5. Once you find your property, you'll need to allow up to 5 business days for it to be converted to a furnished apartment.
Finding a furnished apartment can be a lot of work and very frustrating. Use a Realtor who is experienced in leasing. They can make this process easy for you and prevent you from wasting a lot of time.

1 comment:

Tiago said...

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