  We examine Kepler light curve variability on habitable zone transit
timescales for a large uniform sample of spectroscopically studied Kepler
exoplanet host stars. The stars, taken from Everett et al. (2013) are
solar-like in their properties and each harbors at least one exoplanet (or
candidate) of radius $\le$2.5\re. The variability timescale examined is typical
for habitable zone planets orbiting solar-like stars and we note that the
discovery of the smallest exoplanets ($\le$1.2\re) with corresponding transit
depths of less than $\sim$0.18 mmag, occur for the brightest, photometrically
quietest stars. Thus, these detections are quite rare in $Kepler$ observations.
Some brighter and more evolved stars (subgiants), the latter which often show
large radial velocity jitter, are found to be among the photometrically
quietest solar-like stars in our sample and the most likely small planet
transit hunting grounds. The Sun is discussed as a solar-like star proxy to
provide insights into the nature and cause of photometric variability. It is
shown that $Kepler's$ broad, visible light observations are insensitive to
variability caused by chromospheric activity that may be present in the
observed stars.
