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Are you thinking about moving to Houston? There are a lot of reasons why you may want to call this city your new home. Before you make the move, though, there are some things you’ll want to learn about. By having these resources on hand, your move will be much easier. Read on to learn about how to make your move to Houston as stress-free as possible!
Learn About the Community Before Moving to Houston
The first thing you should do is learn a little bit about the city. Houston has a varied and long history that makes it a very interesting place to live. For example, it’s home to both NASA and Beyonce. While those pieces of trivia may not impact your daily life, there are other facts that will. For example, the temperature in Houston is typically humid and warm. Even the winter months don’t get too cold. During the summer, you’ll want to be prepared with sunscreen and mosquito repellant.
Another fact about Houston is that it’s large. The city is sprawling, and public transportation hasn’t caught up yet. This means you’ll need a car to get around, especially if you’re living towards the edge of the city. You can also expect your commutes to be pretty long if you’re in the suburbs and work downtown.
Housing Prices Are Reasonable
While housing costs across the country have risen, Houston has remained affordable when compared to New York, LA, Chicago, Denver, and other comparable metro areas. The housing market here has continued to grow, which means there are a good number of new homes available. One of the first steps when moving to Houston is to secure housing, and you should be able to do that without too much trouble. In addition to purchasing a house, there are also a good number of houses for rent in Houston, Texas.
Line Up a Short-Term Rental if You Need to
If you’re moving to Houston from several states away, buying a house can be challenging. Fortunately, you will find a number of apartments in Houston TX that you can rent for short periods of time. While doing an online search may be the best place to start, if you’re moving for a job, be sure to ask your new employer if they have any connections. Many large corporations may even provide temporary housing for a few months until you can get settled. Others may provide a small moving stipend or other benefits. It never hurts to ask. Even if the company doesn’t provide any benefits on its own, it may be able to refer you to apartment complexes or other housing resources.
Get Your Utilities Lined Up
Whether you’re buying or renting, you’re likely going to have to have at least a few Houston County utilities turned on and put in your name. This includes electric, gas, water, garbage, internet, and any other utility you may need at your new home. For your water and garbage, you’ll want to contact the City of Houston. For electricity, your provider will likely be TXU Energy, a company that serves around seven million residents and businesses in the Houston area. If you will have natural gas at your home, you will likely need to contact CenterPoint Energy. There are a number of home phone, internet, and cable television providers in the city, so you’ll have your choice of most of the major names in those industries.
Look into Other Services You May Need
You may need other services in Houston, especially during your move. For example, if you plan to do any remodeling to a house before moving in, you may need to look into junk removal services so you aren’t stuck with the debris. You may also want to find a handyman or a contractor to assist you in any small renovations or updates you want to do. Knowing where the closest hardware store in Houston is will be very helpful, too. You may need to find a flooring store, an electrician, or any number of contractors. The internet can be your friend, but you can also talk to your new coworkers or neighbors for recommendations.
There are a couple of things many people do right away when they move into a new home. First, they hire one of the many different cleaning services in Houston to deep clean the house. Even if it all looks very clean, it never hurts to have a professional do a deep clean and disinfect everything. This way, you know you’re starting off in a clean home. Second, if you’ve bought the house, you will likely want to change the locks. You never know who the previous owner may have given keys to, so it’s always best to switch them out. You can hire someone to do it, or you can also buy a set of new locks and install them yourself.
Find New Healthcare Providers
Another thing you’ll need to do if you’re moving from out of state to Houston is to provide new healthcare providers, including a primary care physician and a dentist. Again, you can ask around for recommendations or look online. If you’re transferring to the Houston office of your current company, changing doctors will be easier since you’ll already have your insurance established. You’ll be able to see who is in-network in Houston and find someone taking new patients.
If you’re joining a new company, you may have to wait until all of the paperwork is done and your insurance has kicked in. This may leave you with several months of no coverage or doctor. Talk to your current doctor about renewing your prescriptions early or getting a three-month supply so you don’t have to worry about running out.
Go to the Local Post Office
Of course, you’ll want to be sure your mail gets delivered to you. In order to fully change your address, you may need to pay a visit to the local post office in Houston. You may need to contact your previous post office, too, to make certain your mail is forwarded. Depending on where you live, you may need to rent a post office box, too. Once you have your new address, you’ll need to begin changing it with any magazines, bills, and other services as well as sharing it with your friends and family.
Read Up on the Weather and Know What to Do
Another resource you want to have on hand, especially if you’ve always lived in the northern part of the country, is how to handle the tropical storms and hurricanes that occasionally hit Houston. Do you know where local shelters are or how to protect your home when one of these strong storms is predicted? You should also invest in a disaster preparedness kit. This isn’t to say that you need to be alarmed at every storm, but if you’ve never lived in an area that has hurricanes, it’s always best to understand what happens during one and what you should do to remain safe.
Clean Out Your Current Home
Whether you live out of state or near Houston and are moving to another part of the city, you may have a lot of junk to get rid of before you move. You’ll want to look into junk removal in Houston North if you live in the area. Even if you don’t, you may decide that some of the things you moved aren’t going to work in your new home. You may also have boxes and other packing materials that you need to get rid of. Junk removal services can help with that.
Instead of searching for “junk removal near me,” call Junk King of North Houston. We will come haul away furniture, old appliances, trash, yard debris, electronics, mattresses, and much more. If your new home came with a broken hot tub, we’ll even haul it away for you. As long as it doesn’t contain hazardous waste, we’ll get rid of it.
We Donate and Recycle
Even though you may have moved furniture that you now realize doesn’t have a place in your new Houston home, it may not be garbage. Junk King is one of the few junk haulers that doesn’t simply take everything to the dump. Instead, we’ll carefully go through anything you have us pick up to separate out what can still be used and what can be recycled. If it’s in good shape, we’ll pass it on to a local charitable organization. They will see that it gets to someone who can use it.
If your furniture or other items aren’t in good condition, we will break them down and recycle whatever components can be reused. Our goal is to send as little to the landfill as possible. There are some items that simply cannot be reused or recycled, of course, but we do try to limit what we dump to just those items.
Whether you need junk removal in North Houston to get rid of things before you move or after you’ve completed some renovation projects on your new home, Junk King is here for you. Contact us today at 1-888-888-JUNK or text us at 1-737-888-5865.
