How a walking tour teaches you to read a city like Houston
A two-hour downtown walk is the cheapest architecture course in town — here's how to get your money's worth, even when you pay nothing.
Rosa MarchettiGuides
Step-by-step answers to the procedural side of property: what a survey covers, how permits are filed, when contractors get paid, what stages cost.
How to make an offer on a house without overpaying for it
Price is only one line of the offer. Contingencies, timing and flexibility often decide who wins.
David Jordan
What it takes to turn an office tower into apartments
Office-to-residential conversion hinges on floor depth, plumbing, and light — most 1970s-and-later office floors are simply too deep to make legal bedrooms.
David Jordan
How to read a floor plan before you fall for the apartment
A floor plan tells you where daylight dies, whether the bedroom wall touches the elevator, and how much of the advertised square footage is hallway — if you know where to look.
Rosa Marchetti
Why the federal historic tax credit will not touch your own house
The 20% credit behind a decade of mill-to-apartment conversions runs on one rule about income-producing use — here is how it actually works.
David Jordan