Tx DOT? Dollars to donuts that strip of land will be given to the local municipality. County or City.

That's what I was assuming.

Wait - you’ve put a bunch of effort into that house haven’t you? what a drag.

A small community near me was laid out in the 1850s but never grew in size. As I understand it, the roads they had planned were labeled easements; the township had ownership over the sections of land / property.

Since the town never grew, and the land wasn't to be used as intended, but the town still had ownership, the planned roads became "outlots".

Eventually the town did not want to own the planned roads (but increase tax base), so they divided the land equally between the adjacent private properties. The outlots then became "vacated outlots".

I've also heard the term abandoned easements.


Lee

Yeah, fair amount of effort. Part of the driver for selling the place is that I previously had authorization to permanently work from home, but the company has decided that unless you have a very compelling reason to WFH (like medical), you need to come into the office. The company has said "100% in the office" which can actually be closer to 80% if your manager is supportive. My location doesn't have enough seats/desks for everyone to be in the office 100% of the time, so we are still at 60%. They are projecting that our location will go to 100% (I'll be closer to 80%) next year. My commute to work in the office is a beyotch (84 miles). All of the reasons that they give for working in the office being better than WFH aren't really valid for me and my position, but that doesn't help me.

Another driver is that our property is separated from the interstate by a narrow strip of property that is "wooded" which is great, but when they change the road, those trees are going away. And it would take years to grow more trees at the front of our property.

Also, we're a long way from the grandkids (110 miles).

We also have a gate at the back of our property that drops out onto hwy 90 (precursor to I10). I've considered using that as an exit to keep from having to go 5 miles out of the way when going east. I wouldn't do it after much rain, but most of the time it would be fine.

Interesting

There are some fast-growing type of view/noise blocking trees - like some arbovitae can grow 3-5 ft/yr, you could have a nice tree screen in not that long, and some slower-growing trees beyond.

The RTO thing is super irritating. Do you have long there? A near-office studio crashpad 4 days/wk?

Yeah, there are lots of folks that are VERY grumpy about the RTO thing. And it does suck. Our boss would be perfectly happy for me to WFH, but it's not his call since RTO is coming from the top.

I've been here 14 years, and it's a good place to work. The missus has talked about a setup like you mention, something in town and something out of town. Of course, the cost of something in town would be painful to pay for so little.

I don’t know where office is, Houston? I’d think there’s perfectly ok 1 bdrm apts in Houston for <$1K/mo? Yeah it’s $12K/yr but a having a country home and a city pad could be pretty nice. Selling and moving isn’t cheap. Maybe in a year the RTO frenzy will ease and 80% can creep to 60%. If not, can always move then.

I'd be surprised if there was a decent apt near dt Houston for $1k, but maybe. The cheapest regular 1br where we lived for ~7 years is ~$1500 (plus garbage, etc would probably be $1550). So maybe someplace smaller for less if there's anyplace where I'd be willing to park my car that had studios.

A friend lived in Berkeley and worked in Stockton 3 days/wk. He bought a boat and lived aboard. Worked well. If he’d bought a small condo, it would have even been financially a winner. What do small condos cost in Houston?

Here's one near where we used to live, $230k + $640/mo maintenance fees.

https://www.har.com/homedetail/1010-rosine-st-303-houston-tx-77019/3776887

Another $259k + $370/mo maintenance fees

https://www.har.com/homedetail/1406-columbus-st-303-houston-tx-77019/7896496

I skimmed the first one - looks like a nice place for an in-town pad. About $1,250/mo mortgage if 20% down? So with condo fees, insurance, utilities etc maybe $2,000/mo? Not nothing, but second home mortgage interest is deductible. Closer to grand kids? Any appeal to having easy access to big city attractions when you or the missus want it?

Probably not the best time to buy a Houston condo but if you hold on to it long-term that could be a lesser concern. If it’s a really bad time - I don’t follow the RE market there - then could rent for a while initially.

I will say, RE sure is affordable there compared to where I live.

Hmm, the second one is more stylish.

I am usually anti-condo because so much is out of your control, like if the board keeps up on the maintenance and stays off the Fannie Mae blacklist etc. But if it’s a newer building and not in Florida, maybe that’s less of an issue. And for this purpose, a condo seems like a good option.