Southlake Real Estate - Keller, Southlake, Trophy Club, Westlake Texas Real Estate

5 Home Improvement Projects That Will Get You Top Dollar For Your Home

2011-09-30T09:35:00.001-07:00

It’s a highly competitive market for home sellers right now. More homes to compete with means that the impression your homes makes - from the curb, and on the inside - matter now more than ever. You can increase your chances of selling faster - and at today’s top dollar - by investing in a select few home improvement projects that have been shown to make a big impact on buyers.

Bad news alert: it might cost you a little time, effort and cash. The good news, though, is that the best projects for quickly increasing your home’s resale value tend to be cosmetic and fairly simple and inexpensive to do. Here are five projects with big-time return on investment for home sellers-to-be, in terms of their power to attract buyers, and to attract dollars from those buyers.

1. Painting: Adding a fresh coat of paint to ceilings and walls is a tried and true way to increase your home’s appeal to buyers. Go for white or neutral tones that help lighten your rooms. (Now is not the time to show off your fascination with fuschia and lime green.) Buyers will have an easier time envisioning how they will infuse their own personalities into your home if they’re looking at a relatively blank slate.

Painting lightens and brightens rooms, instantly removes scuffs and dings and gives every room a fresh, polished feel.

Fresh exterior paint - even if your time or cash budget limits your efforts to accents like eaves, shutters, doors and trims - is also a quick, inexpensive way to polish the look of your home from the curb.

2. Landscaping: Everything you’ve heard about curb appeal is true. First impressions matter - especially if your house is one of eight or nine a buyer has seen in one day. Buyers will be more excited to look at the inside your home if the outside looks clean, charming and inviting. Mow the lawn, trim the hedges, pull the weeds and plant some flowers, bushes or shrubs for the biggest impact - and be diligent about keeping your landscaping very well-manicured throughout the time your home is on the market.

Be sure to keep it low-key, relatively low maintenance and neutral, though. This is not the time to indulge your personal fantasies of living in an exotic paradise, unless that matches the existing look and feel of your home, nor is it the time to install a time-intensive English garden that buyers will love, but not want to take on. Think clean, simple and elegant for the biggest boost in value.

3. Cleaning and de-cluttering: Start by removing all your family photos from the walls and all sorts of tchochkes and clutter from the tops of tables, desks, dressers and counters. Buyers want to be able to envision their lives in the house, not yours. Personal items - and the visual clutter they create - have been shown time and time again to block buyers’ ability to create this vision.

Also, remember that buyers are coming to see the house and evaluate its space, not to bear witness to all the fabulous furniture that means so much to you (no matter how amazing your personal taste). Remove furniture that takes up too much space and fills up rooms. Get rid of clutter such as clothes, boxes, piles of mail and other items.

And then clean - and keep cleaning obsessively, the entire time your place is on the market. Kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms should look unlived in when they are shown. And don't forget to clean less obvious places like windows, walls, doors and and floors, to dust off shelves and furniture, and to polish appliances.

4. Plumbing repairs and water stain/damage repair: Paying a plumber to make a few stops throughout your home can be well worth the investment. Leaky faucet in the master bathroom? Get it fixed. Does the space under your kitchen sink look like a science experiment? Leaks and water stains definitely provoke disgust and exasperation on the part of the buyers you want and need to impress. And they can be pretty cost effective to fix - ask your agent for a referral, if you need one.

5. Staging: Staging your home can make a dramatic difference in the price for which your home sells. Good staging is equal parts:

(a) removing your personal belongings and replacing it with more artwork, decor and cleaner-looking furniture,

(b) and tweaking the home’s paint, wall coverings and even landscaping to show the place in its very best light.

When done well, staging can convert your home from just another listing on a buyer’s list to the setting for a fresh, new start to the fresh, new life of their dreams. Professional stagers, in particular, have special skills and materials they use, from convincing you to get rid of a bunch of things you value (but read: junk to a buyer), to items like mirrors, plants, art work, lamps, pillows and even furniture that tells a visual story of the life buyers can fantasize about living in your home.

Talk to your agent about staging - some agents have the skill to do this on their own, while others might have a professional stager they frequently work with.

In some cases, you might want to take on even larger projects. Before you go that route, talk with a local real estate agent; they are well-positioned to know what sort of updates and features will make the most impact on local buyers. Not all major, non-cosmetic upgrades to your home will create a significant difference in the price it commands, so take advantage of your agent’s expertise as you make decisions about whichproperty preparation investments to make (and which to forego).

Tips to Get Your Stale Listings Sold

2011-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

today’s market, most listings aren’t instantly flying off the market. While we all know price is one of the most important factors in the sale of a home, there are other factors they can improve the saleability of your listings. Here are a few tips to get that stale listing sold plus a handy download designed just for sellers.

(1) Offer incentives or alternative financing options
Incentives can make a big difference for buyers who are stretching to find the down payment to buy a home or who may be sitting on the edge of loan limits. Seller incentives such as paying for closing costs, inspections, or repairs, or providing allowances or credits for home upgrades after closing can make a big difference to home buyers short on cash. Other alternatives could include pre paying taxes, homeowners dues and insurance. Consider offering buyer incentives to encourage on the fence buyers to take action on your listing.

(2) Make it accessible
Take a hard look at the accessibility of a home. Today’s home buyer is impatient. They want to see homes and they want to see them now. Make sure your listings are simple and easy to show. Carl Medford, an agent with Prudential California Realty in the San Francisco Bay Area believes home accessibility is the #1 reason homes don’t sell. “If we can’t get in, we can’t show the house. If we can’t show the house, we can’t sell it. We frequently end up showing less than six homes because we can’t get access to homes on the list.”

(3) Expose it- everywhere!
We are often surprised by the number of homes with property addresses undisclosed on the internet. It’s no secret homebuyers are looking on the internet for homes, make sure they can easily find it. Two popular search filters we see prospective homebuyers using on Trulia.com are filters for listings with open houses and filters for listings with price reductions. Want more eyeballs on your listings? Make sure they are updated weekly on popular real estate search sites like Trulia and Craigslist and be sure to list your open home times to get the max exposure for your listings. Want more info? Check out 3 free ways to rank higher on Trulia.

(4) Refresh your photos
Today’s homebuyer spends a lot of time online. As your listing becomes stale, so does the property photos. Consider retaking the photos, especially if seasons have changed. If taking new photos is out of the question, you may want ot consider changing up the order your photos display online to give it a fresh appearance for web browsing buyers. Many agents start their photos with a picture of the front of the house when they would be better served displaying the huge backyard or the amazing chef’s kitchen.

(5) Put some zing in your marketing copy
In addition to stale photos, your marketing copy may be putting prospective buyers to sleep. “Check out my 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in a great location.” Yawn. Add some zing to your headlines and descriptions to draw the attention of homebuyers. Your marketing copy needs to tell a story that appeals to the people most likely to buy your listing. Your copy can get old too. Simply freshening it up frequently is a good way to capture more attention to your listings.

The Top 3 Real Estate Deal-Killers-and How Buyers Can Avoid Them.

2011-09-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, homebuying was a much less dramatic affair then it is today. The house hunt was fun, if suspenseful, and then there was another exciting whirlwind of inspections, closing and moving in. Today, though, as soon as buyers get the gumption to jump off the rent vs. buy fence, they find themselves on another edge - the edge of their seats, through the entire escrow process waiting to see what obstacle will emerge next, and whether their transaction will survive it.

Deals get killed all the time, and buyers can't relax until they have keys actually in hand. Here are three of the most common real estate deal-killers, and some steps buyers can take to deactivate them.

1. Appraisal too low. Some buyers incorrectly believe that the best thing that could happen to them is for the property to appraise below the agreed-upon purchase price, expecting that a low appraisal forces the seller to bring the price down. In fact, so many of today’s sellers are barely breaking even, that a low appraisal is probably the most common deal-killer around. If an appraisal comes in just a tad bit lower than the contract price, usually the seller will come down if they can, or the buyer will kick in a few extra bucks. But when it comes in 5, 10 or even 20 percent low, most sellers can't - and most buyers won't .

Low appraisals also seem like the most difficult deal-killer to avoid, as this process is entirely out of both buyer's and seller's control. But there are two things buyers can do to minimize the risk. First, check the comps - i.e., recent comparable homes that have sold in the area - before making an offer; your agent will help you do this. Then, don't make an offer bizarrely above the average range of the comparables, even if the property has multiple offers, unless you're prepared to deal with a low appraisal a couple of weeks out.

Also, consider working with a local mortgage broker who also originates loans through its own bank (vs. walking into a large bank's branch off the street); these lenders have the ability to choose from a smaller pool of appraisers that they know are qualified and knowledgeable about your area.

2. Property condition dramas. When the market melted down, lenders found themselves with a lot of decrepit homes on their hands. This explains two things: (1) why lenders are more concerned about property condition now than ever, and (2) the raggedy condition of so many of the "distressed' homes on the market. Homes that have extensive wood rot, dangerous decks or electrical systems, or peeling paint and missing systems (sinks, stoves and the like) are highly unlikely to pass muster when the appraiser walks through, even if they do qualify as being worth the purchase price. And while an individual seller might be willing to do some work, many just can't afford to; short sale and REO sellers simply refuse to make fixes, 9 times out of 10.

Prevention is the best medicine for curing this transaction ailment. If you are buying a short sale or REO property, be aware that when the selling bank says as-is, it really means as-is. Ask your mortgage broker and agent to brief you on what sort of shape your lender will require your home to be in, at minimum, and keep that standard in mind during your house hunt. Your agent can help manage your expectations about which properties will and won't likely pass muster.

3. Loan approval takes too long. Every buyer knows they must get preapproved for a mortgage before they start house hunting, but many don't know that preapproval is just the first in a long list of steps that have to happen before the loan becomes a sure thing. In fact, it's common now for buyers to get their loan preapproval many months before they end up in contract, and lots can change in the interim - further extending the time it may take for their loan approval to come in.

It's common for contracts to include a standard loan contingency period of 17 days, give or take a few. But the appraisal might take longer than that to come in, or the underwriter might have lots of questions and seemingly random nitpicks about the appraisal, or about you: they want to see your driver's license, then your marriage license, then your divorce decree, and after that, a letter from your employer agreeing that you'll be keeping your job even though you're moving an hour away. It never seems like they ask for everything at once, thus it can take longer than 17 days to obtain all the requested items, turn them in and get the underwriter to sign off on them.

Until you get that green light, it's foolhardy to remove your loan contingency, as that step renders your earnest money deposit non-refundable, under most contracts. Many a buyer is forced to either secure an extension from the seller or to let the transaction die, rather than forfeiting their deposit funds. And again, some sellers understand and will play ball, but bank sellers can be particularly resistant to loan contingency extensions, especially if there are backup offers on the table.

Best practice for buyers to minimize the chances of an overtime loan approval process killing the deal? Be ready: be ready for lots of bizarre documentation requests, be ready to provide things you've already been asked for, and be ready to do so quick-like - without pushing back. The faster you can turn around the things the underwriter wants, the better.

Also, it can be very helpful to work with a mortgage broker and agent that have worked together before and have close communications, so that your agent can stay abreast of any and all loan process glitches and keep the listing agent apprised of the legitimate reasons you may need an extension throughout the contingency period, rather than assuring them everything's speeding along then having to ask for a last-minute extension.

4 Incentives that Sell Homes

2011-09-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

On today’s market, it’s pretty easy for a seller to find themselves in a serious state of stuck: home stuck on the market with no bites from buyers, and family stuck in the home until the home sells. And that doesn’t even account for the feeling of stuck that comes from having gone just about as low as you can go on price without turning your transaction into a short sale. If you’re trying to sell, and you’ve lowered the price but still find your home struggling to compete against a bunch of other, similiarly priced homes with similar features, selling can seem difficult at best, impossible at worst.

The worst part of this particular flavor of stuck is the feeling that the whole situation is out of your control, that there’s nothing within your power that will move your home off the market. You’ve already painted the place, replaced the carpet, tricked out the curb appeal and lowered the price as far as you can go. So what else is a seller to do?

Offer incentives.

Incentives are perks - they can be big or little - that a seller offers to their home’s eventual buyer. The most outlandish incentives are the ones that make the headlines, like the Ferrari one Malibu owner threw in with the sale of their condo last year, or the year’s worth of cookies that actor George Hamilton reportedly negotiated into the sale of his home from a bakery owner. But the incentives with the most power to get your home sold tend to be much less exciting perks thatactually fill a real need the average home buyer has.

Here are four basic, incentives you should consider offering if you’re having a hard time getting your home sold:
1.Interest rate buy-down. When you hear sellers say they will “pay points,” what they are doing is offering to award the buyer a certain number of percentage points of the sales price, which will, in turn, be paid to the buyer’s lender as discount points that bring the buyer’s interest rate down. For the buyer, this is a big deal, as it decreases the pressure they feel to guess the right day to lock in their interest rate (a common source of serious stress among buyers), and sends the message that if they buy your home, they’ll automatically beat the market rate. And what buyer doesn’t want that?!
Seller-paid rate buy-downs also save buyers money on their monthly payment over the entire lifetime of their loan, and the seller-paid points are usually tax deductible, to the buyer, the next time they file taxes. You can see why these incentives are so powerful at attracting buyers!
2.Closing cost credit. Many buyers trying to break into the market while prices are low are already scraping the bottom of their savings account barrels to come up with their down payment money. With most home loans, the buyer will have to come with anywhere from 3 to 6 percent of the loan amount, in cash, on top of their down payment, to cover closing costs like loan fees, escrow services and title or mortgage insurance. (And strangely enough, the buyers putting the 3.5 percent minimum down payment on an FHA loan are likely to have to come up with the higher end of the closing cost range, 6 percent, to cover their mortgage insurance.)
Some smart sellers (and their agents) include in their home’s listing and marketing materials the offer to pay a credit of 3, 4, 5 or even 6 percent of the home’s sale price at closing, to defray the buyer’s closing costs. A closing cost credit is a great financial help to buyers and a strong differentiator that can make your home much more attractive than nearby listings. Your listing agent can help you run the numbers on how much of a credit you can afford to offer, and how to make an overall package - listing price and credit - that will be maximally magnetic to prospective buyers.
3.HOA dues credit. If you are selling a home that is in a homeowners’ association (HOA) that charges monthly or even annual dues, then surely you recall buying that home and being overwhelmed at the prospect of going from rent being your sole monthly housing expense, to having a laundry list of expenses starting with your mortgage, including property taxes and insurance and then having HOA dues as the unpleasant cherry on top.
One way to overcome that concern in the minds of buyers and to differentiate your unit from all the other, similar units for sale in your complex is to offer a credit at closing that covers the buyer’s HOA dues for 6 months, a year, or even longer. Talk with your agent about how to do this strategically, in a way that will offer the maximum lure for buyers but will not run afoul of any guidelines for seller credits imposed by the buyer’s lender.
4.Broker incentives. Some savvy sellers who can’t afford to offer buyers several percentage points’ worth of the proceeds of sale toward closing costs take a different route, offering to pay a bonus percentage point (or more) in incentives to the eventual buyer’s broker or agent - on top of the commission, rather than to the buyer themselves. Over 90 percent of buyers who are ready, willing and able to buy a home on today’s market are represented by a broker. And brokers have to sort through sometimes hundreds of pretty similar listings to decide which ones to show a buyer any given Sunday.
Offering a broker’s incentive makes your home stand out among all those listings to the brokers and agents who put buyer’s property tours together. While these aren’t “buyer incentives,” strictly speaking, but they do operate to boost the number of buyers that come view your home - in turn, boosting your home’s likelihood of getting an offer.

4 Need-to-Knows for Buying and Selling Homes at the Same Time

2011-08-30T08:16:00.001-07:00

Once upon a home, buying a home was as simple as saving some dough, spending a couple of weekends visiting Open Houses and writing up a contract. The time frame from house hunt to move-in was a couple of months, max. These days, super-tight mortgage guidelines, market concerns, distressed sales and appraisal dramas complicate and prolong both buying and selling.

If you need to pull both buying and selling off at the same time, it can seem like you're signing up for these complications, squared. On top of that, the very real prospect of spending some time homeless takes the stress of home buying and selling to an entirely new dimension.

Fortunately, getting yourself educated about what to expect on today's market and knowing all your options empowers you to obliterate panic with a strategic approach, an amazing logistics plan (and backup plan) and comprehensive preparedness for all possible outcomes. In that vein, here are four need-to-knows for those who want or need to sell their current home and buy a new one, at the same time.

1. Meet with a local agent who actively sells homes in your neighborhood, far in advance of listing or house hunting. You need them to brief you on items like how long you should expect your home to take to sell on today's market, what (if anything) you can do to move it faster, and whether listing after doing some improvements to your home, at a different time of year or at a different price point than you had planned can realistically be expected to make an impact on your time frame.

You also need their professional opinion as to what price you can expect to get for your home. This will impact whether you need to consider a short sale (if your home's value is less than you owe on it, for example) which, in turn may affect your ability to qualify for a home loan in the short-term. (Short sales often make it difficult to qualify for a new home loan for a couple of years.) If you need to buy in the near-term, but your home is unlikely to sell except as a short sale, you'll need to discuss the legalities and logistics with your mortgage pro, attorney and/or a CPA, as well.

Actually, the information about how long your home will take to sell, how much you can expect to sell it for and whether you're expecting to have to unload it at a short sale is all information you'll need to provide to your mortgage pro, so definitely collect it as early as possible in the process. A year before you need to move is not too soon to have your first meet up with your agent.

2. Meet with your mortgage broker before your start looking for homes or put your own home on the market. Of course, this is something you would have done eventually in preparation for your purchase, but it's essential that you have them walk with you through both your sell and your plans to buy, before you do either.

Why?

Well, a good local mortgage broker can work with you and your agent to help you:

•do the math on what you'll net from your home sale;
•help you know how much you (a) can qualify to buy, and (b) will need to come up with for your purchase;
•understand whether the sale will impact your credit at all all and by how much, if so; and
•time your sale vis-a-vis your purchase.

There are dozens of ways the sequence might need to play out, to be successful at both buying and selling, and you'll need your mortgage pro to be a partner in the process of determining how to order things - before you actually do anything. For example, you might be under the impression that you can't buy before you sell, because you can't qualify for both, when in fact your mortgage pro could suggest a solution like a low- or no-cost refi first, to bring your payment down so you can qualify to buy before you sell. Or maybe you ARE in a situation where you can't qualify to carry two loans, so you need to sell first and use your own cash to make up the difference between what you owe on your home and what it sells for to avoid a short sale so you can still qualify to buy your next property.

In any event, you won't know what exactly your capabilities are, from a mortgage and timing perspective, until you hear it from the source. So, get that meeting on the calendar, too, as early as possible.

3. Know your options for staying in after closing - or moving in early. Many homeowners try to buy and sell at precisely the simultaneous moment, with very little overlap, because they don't want to throw money away on rentals. The reality of today's market is that very, very few sales close precisely when they are expected to, mostly for reasons entirely out of the control of either party. The seller's bank takes months longer than expected to allow a short sale to close, or the buyer's bank takes eons to sign off on the appraised value of the home. In any event, if you are selling your home, before your purchase will be complete, know that it's okay to ask for a "rent-back" where you can stay in the property for as long as a month or more after the sale closes by agreement with the buyer to pay them rent on the property in the amount of their mortgage payment, taxes and insurance for the time you remain in the home.

On the other hand, if you are buying after your sale closes, some sellers will allow you to move in before closing on a similar arrangement - essentially a lease or early move-in arrangement. They may ask you to sign a document waiving their liability for your belongings and anything else that goes wrong while you're there, before closing - you'll have to negotiate and decide what works for all involved. Before you start to freak out at the thought that your 'buy' won't close when you need it to, know that this option might be available, and talk with your home's seller to see if they'll consider it.

4. Plan for gaps - and for overlaps. There is very little in this world we can be sure of, except the high probability of your escrow closing late. Having a backup plan in place just in case you close one or both transactions off-schedule is essential to avoiding the surprise-induced panic attacks so frequently suffered by those intrepid housing consumers who try to buy and sell homes at the same time. And, frankly, sometimes the best defense against these surprises is simply to plan for gaps and/or overlaps.

So, if you want or need to buy before you sell, build a cash cushion that can cover double payments for a couple of a months - and just plan on that. If that's not in the budget, or if you'd like to try out your new neighborhood or town before you buy, close your home's sale, then plan on renting a place during your house hunt - if you just need a place for a month or two, you might want to consider a suite hotel or a short-term, vacation-style rental like those you can find on sites like Airbnb.

How to Educate Your Buyers Before They Move To The Neighborhood

2011-08-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

For most home buyers, buying a property isn’t just about the house, it’s about the neighborhood. Making a decision about where they want to live is a crucial part of the home buying process. In addition to determining if they are going to buy a three bedroom, two bathroom rancher or a 4 bedroom, 2 bath two story, they also have to buy into the lifestyle. Are there parks near by? Playgrounds? Is there a church they can attend? Is the neighborhood safe? Do houses in the neighborhood hold their value?
These are all important questions your prospective buyers are probably searching for. As the neighborhood expert, you’ll be making sure your buyers understand the ins and outs of the neighborhood they select. Here are three ways to educate your buyers on the neighborhood (with a downloadable tip sheet to give to your homebuyers).
Drive them around
Get your buyers in your car and drive them around the community. We tend to take one entrance into a neighborhood, often the pretty one. Are there multiple entrance points? Most likely yes- make sure they see all access points. Show them the neighborhoods on different days, and at different times of the day. Sure backing up to the main street doesn’t sound noisy on a weekday at 10am, but what about at evening rush hour? Drive the surrounding community. Identify parks, shopping centers and other points of interest that your buyers might care about. Make sure your buyers have an opportunity to get a complete picture of the community.
Direct them to resources about neighborhood safety
What one buyer thinks is “safe” is very different from another. I remember when I first moved to San Francisco from Arizona, I thought the neighborhood was “seedy”. The locals considered it “posh”, but I had never lived in a big city before. Be it the local police station or Trulia’s Interactive Crime maps, make sure your buyers are armed with information to help them evaluate the neighborhood and determine what’s “safe” to them.
Give them the stats
Most homeowners will eventually move again. When they go to sell, you want them to call you. Many times we focus on comps for a particular house, but don’t forget about the overall neighborhood. Give them the stats to show how the neighborhood has performed over time relative to other nearby neighborhoods. Sure, it may have seen a dip in home values in recent years, but when we look at the last 20 years, how did it perform? Did it recover faster in the dips or get hit harder? Give your homebuyers a source of comparison. Perhaps it hasn’t performed well, but major revitalization of the area is about to get underway, giving them a larger potential upside. Homebuyers often work on emotion, but make sure to give them the hard numbers too.
Happy, educated buyers yield more client referrals. We’ve put together a handy tip sheet for your home buyers with 5 “need to knows”- download it and share it with them!

5 Questions You Need To Answer Before Deciding To Buy A Home

2011-08-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

In most parts of the country, the housing market is good (or great!) for buyers right
now - interest rates are bizarrely low, lots of inventory means lots to choose from, and the cost of renting has increased in a lot of markets. But just because the market’s good doesn’t mean it’s the right time for everyone to buy.
The decision whether to buy a home is a very personal one; you need to carefully examine your own situation to determine whether it’s right for you.

So, what are the questions you need to answer in deciding whether you’re ready to buy? Here are some of the big ones:

1. Do I have enough money for a down payment?
And how much, exactly, is “enough?” Today’s minimum down payment requirements range from 3.5 percent on an FHA loan to 10 or even 20 percent for conventional loans. That means coming up with anywhere from $7,000 to $40,000 on a typical $200,000 house. While there are still programs that can give you a down payment assist (see last week’s post, 5 Insider Secrets for Coming Up With Cash for Down Payment), much of the heavy lifting here will need to come from you - in the form of saving up your hard earned cash. And keep in mind there are also closing costs you’ll probably have to pay in cash, which can run as high as 3-4% of your total purchase price.

Talk with a real estate pro and a mortgage broker in your areas to start wrapping your head around how much “cash to close” (i.e., down payment + closing costs) will run, approximately, on a local property that would meet your needs. Can your savings cover this? If not, where will you get the money - what’s your plan for coming up with it?
Putting down as much as you can a) makes you more attractive to lenders, so you might qualify you for better loan terms and b) gives you additional purchasing power, either decreasing your monthly mortgage payment or increasing your purchase price limit for a home.

2. Can I handle the not-so-glamorous aspects of homeownership?
If you can’t even fathom the prospect of having a home maintenance crisis without having a landlord to call to fix it, you might want to reconsider homeownership - or at the very least, buy a lower maintenance condo or townhome in great condition, and make sure you get a home warranty! As a home owner, after all, you essentially are your own landlord. Pipe bursts in the middle of the night? Guess who’ll be up fixing it or calling (and paying) the plumber? (Hint: you.)

There are also some less-than-glamorous bills you’ll have to deal with in your new role as a homeowner that you never laid eyes on as a renter: property taxes and hazard insurance, to name two. When you go from renter to owner, you also need to account for the cost of appliances and maintaining the property’s roof, windows, and landscaping, among other things.

3. How long do I intend to stay in the house?
If you think you might move out of the area next year, then you really shouldn’t be thinking about buying a house (unless of course, you want to play landlord and rent it out after you leave - a prospect which requires its own risk/rewards analysis). For your home purchase to pencil out as a good deal, financially, you’ll shouldn’t buy unless you’re comfortable staying in the house at least 5-7 years - even longer, if you’re buying a home in a foreclosure hot spot or an area with a sluggish job market.. This gives you some time to build up equity and make up for the costs of buying, selling and moving.

4. Are my job and finances stable?
Maybe you just went through a major career change and are in the process of working your way back up from the top. Or maybe you work in a field that has been hit really hard by layoffs and cutbacks. The worst case scenario is to find yourself in a spot with mortgage payment you have no way to make, when you could have avoided that by seeing the writing on the wall. If you feel like there’s a real chance you could lose your job or income tomorrow, you may want to hold off on buying a house - that has the added bonus of giving you the geographic freedom to move, if needed, to get a new job.

Is there really such a thing as 100 percent job security in today’s economy? Probably not. But the best practice is to be confident that your finances could handle a temporary loss of income and still make your mortgage payments, before you buy. One way to do this is to have enough money in the bank to cover 4-6 months’ worth of living expenses, calculating them to include your mortgage payment - before you deem yourself ready to buy. That way, even if you lose your job with no warning at all, you’ll at least have a reasonable window of time to find a new one without digging yourself into a hole - or worse, losing your home altogether.

5. What are my real reasons for buying?
Buying a home is a long-term commitment that will have massive impacts on your lifestyle, your family and your finances. In other words, don’t do it unless you’re really sure you want to and are ready for the lifestyle change - don’t let someone else talk you into it. Worthy reasons renters with homeowning readiness give for their decision to buy include some or all of the following:
•You want to build equity instead of paying a landlord. Fact is, if you get a fixed rate mortgage and make the payments for the full term of the loan, you'll eventually pay it off. That's not possible when you're renting.
•You want a place to call your own, where you can paint a wall purple, add a pottery spinning studio or build your dogs an obstacle course (oops - that's my reason for homeownership!), because it's your prerogative.
•You want the tax advantages of homeownership.
•You want a stable place you and your family can live for as long as you'd like.
Ask yourself these questions, and be honest with your answers. If you really want to buy, but your answers to these questions today don’t weigh in that direction, it doesn’t mean you’ll never own a home. It’s usually just a matter of strategically timing your purchase out a year or two when your savings, your career and your lifestyle are in alignment with the implications of ownership - consider working closely with a real estate broker and a mortgage professional to get an action plan in place and start working that plan.

For Sale By Owner- No Go's

2011-08-18T10:24:00.001-07:00

Interesting story which recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal regarding Colby Sambrotto, the founder and former CEO of forsalebyowner.com. It seems the founding father and lifelong evangelist of the concept of selling your home without a real estate agent was forced to hire a broker to sell his home after failing at what he preaches others should do. After failing to sell his NYC apartment on his own as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), Sambrotto hired a broker and paid a 6% commission in order to get the job done. His personal experience helps refute some of the myths Sambrotto has been espousing for over a decade. Let’s look at two of those myths:
Myth #1 – You Will Pocket More Money Selling on Your Own. Most FSBO sites say you can save the commission by selling on your own. What happened in Sambrotto’s sale? From the WSJ article:” The broker, Jesse Buckler, said he told Mr. Sambrotto the apartment in the Lion’s Head building on West 19th Street near Sixth Avenue was priced too low and wasn’t drawing the right buyers. By May, it went into contract, he said, after attracting multiple offers. It closed in the last few days for $150,000 more than the original asking price.”
Myth #2 – The Internet Alone Can Sell Your Home. Many have said that, with the introduction of home search on the internet, hiring an agent is no longer a necessity. What happened to the FSBO guru when he attempted to only depend on the internet? From the WSJ article: “Looking to move his family to the suburbs, [Mr. Sambrotto] said he carefully staged his apartment for sale himself, and put it on the market. But after using a mix of websites to publicize his apartment, he said he had only ‘middling successes and switched to a broker because many buyers were so reliant on brokers.”
Bottom Line There is a reason the real estate industry has been around for centuries: you perform a valuable service. Have a great day.

7 Deadly Sins of Overpricing

2011-08-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

“We can always go down, but we can’t go up.”
Have you ever heard that from a client? If you have been on many listing appointments, you have probably heard this statement once or twice. When setting the sales price of their home, many sellers are tempted to tack on a few percentage points to “leave room to negotiate”.
Overpricing a home can have many ramifications for a home seller. It can limit the number of potential buyers who can afford your home, reduce showings and create an impression in the marketplace that the homeowners aren’t really serious about selling their home. Serious homeowners who overprice their home often get caught in the trap of price reduction after price reduction trying to catch up to the market.
During the past year, U.S. home sellers slashed more than $24 billion from home listings on Trulia.com. Trulia’s Q1 Home Offer Report indicated that on average, most sellers will reduce their list price after 79 days on the market, choosing to cut their original list price by 8 percent. Following a first reduction, 35 percent of these sellers will make a second.
Most homebuyers look at 10-15 homes before making a buying decision. Because of this, setting a competitive price relative to the competition is an essential component to a successful marketing strategy. Underpricing a home isn’t good either- educating your clients about the importance of properly pricing a home is key to the home sales process.
We put together this handy tip sheet to share with your sellers on the seven deadly sins of overpricing.

Top 5 Characteristics Home Buyers Want in a Real Estate Agent

2011-08-04T12:44:00.001-07:00

1. Honesty and Credibility-Win them over with the Truth! When these buyers talked about honesty and credibility, it often came with stories about past negative experiences with agents. The stories were about agents trying to push them towards a more expensive purchase and a strong dislike for the false sense of urgency they feel agents create when it comes to placing an offer on a house. Buyers have expressed how hard it is to trust anyone in today’s real estate market so it’s even more important for agents to help them feel comfortable.
2. Area Familiarity - Do your neighborhood homework!
These buyers place a high importance on finding an agent who not only sells homes in a specific neighborhood, but also knows that neighborhood well. They want an agent who knows all about the schools, local parks, safety, restaurants and even the secret gems the neighborhood has to offer.
3. Good Follow Through-You say it, you do it.
During the conversation our buyers constantly verbalized their frustration with agents who didn’t do what they said. Email me, call me and send me the things you say you will. It seems like such a small thing to ask for. Do what you say, combine it with some honesty, and you’ll be an agent buyers feel comfortable working with.
4. Organization-Keep it in order.
You’re honest, you know the area like the back of your hand, and you try your hardest to follow through but it’s just so hard to keep track of your to-do lists and return every phone call. Buyers are expecting agents to be organized and put together. There are a ton of tools out there to help with this. (We love Evernote!)
5.Good Listener-Everyone is unique. Treat them like it!
Users want an agent to listen to them with a blank mind. I heard phrases such as “pigeon hole”, “judge”, “they aren’t listening”, “tell me what I want”…etc. come up in our discussion. Users don’t want an agent to assume they need A just because they hear B. They want an agent who listens to what they want and will ask as many questions as required to really understand who they are and what they are looking for.
Make sure you get those references too- recommendations and testimonials followed closely in the 6th position.

4 Steps to Minimize the Risk of Owning a Home

2011-08-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, in a not-so-distant land, owning a home was thought of as the safest "investment" around. Fast forward to the present day, and home ownership seems super scary to many people who can afford homes, and would like to own them, but are paralyzed by the fear of buying a lemon, or having a mortgage catastrophe.

Here are 4 simple steps to minimize the risk that you'll become the main character in a homeownership horror story.

1. Stick with a fixed-rate mortgage. Recent data shows that adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs, are increasingly popular, rising from 9 percent of the mortgage market in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 12 percent in the first quarter of this year. This might seem crazy to some, but in financially aggressive crowds, the lure of low, 3 percent(ish) interest rates on ARMs is enough to overcome any qualms. As well, today's ARMs tend to have lower lifetime interest rate caps and require payment of principal, so they don't adjust as violently as the subprime interest-only and option ARMs that contributed to the foreclosure crisis.

If the thought of your mortgage payment changing over time gives you the shakes, you don't want to live in a state of interest rate obsession for the next few decades, or you simply crave the simplicity and predictability of knowing what your housing payment will be for the next 15, 20 or 30 years, then stick to

a fixed-rate mortgage. The rates are higher, but with a fixed-rate loan, the risk of scary payment changes are not only lower, they are non-existent.

2. Put - and keep - a home warranty in place. One of the most frightening things about going from renter to homeowner is the prospect of being solely responsible for the care and feeding of your home and all its systems and appliances. Responsibility for both the costs and the actual logistics of repairing things like a leaky roof, a broken hot water heater or a haywire electrical fixture looms large in the minds of first-time buyers, in particular.

A home warranty plan kicks in when escrow closes, and depending on the coverage you select, will cover your home against the breakdown of major systems and even some appliances, like furnaces and water heaters. In some cases, you can even upgrade the coverage to protect against roof leaks and some plumbing issues. When a covered item breaks down, just remember to call the home warranty company first - for the cost of a service call you can get the item repaired or even replaced, if necessary. I remember the home warranty company replacing a $900 water heater in my first home; what a godsend!

Talk with your agent - you might even be able to negotiate for the seller to pay for the first year's cost of the warranty. Just remember to renew it when it expires every year, to keep a cap on your risk of unexpected repair costs for the duration of your tenure as a homeowner.

3. Get repair bids and estimates, not just inspections. After you find the home of your dreams (or the home of your budget!) and get into contract, you'll have a contingency or objection period ranging from 7 to 17 days during which you can obtain all the inspections you want. Most buyers start out with a general property inspection, a pest inspection and a roof inspection, then get more specialized inspections if the property calls from it. Pest and roof inspectors will generally provide an inspection report AND a repair bid for any work they find needs to be done.

But the overall home inspection could very well list a dozen needed repairs, upgrades and maintenance items, without providing any information about how much those repairs will cost. If your inspection report surfaces work you'll need to have done to fix things (or avoid bigger fixes down the road), work with your agent to schedule actual repair contractors to come in and give you bids on the work before your contingency or inspection period expires. That will position you to negotiate around repair costs with the seller, or to know what you're getting yourself into, cost-wise, if you take the property as-is.

4. Buy on the 10-year plan. Warren Buffett once famously advised stock investors to "only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years." The same advice is good for buying a home in today's real estate market. Take on a mortgage you know you can sustain, buy at a price you can comfortably afford and avoid having to sell because you need to move for some urgent reason, or because the home no longer meets your needs.

You can take this last step to hedge against losing money on your home by planning your space, career and lifestyle needs out 5, 7, even 10 years in the future - everything from how many bedrooms and garage spaces you'll need to where you'll want to be located, geographically - and selecting a home that will meet those needs for that foreseeable future. As a general rule of thumb, the harder hit the area was in the recession, the longer you should plan to hold it.

6 Ways to Save Money in Your Home, Car

2011-05-06T09:41:00.001-07:00

You can help save the planet while also saving cash, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. Annual energy costs are likely too even increase with rising fuel and utility costs. Below some pointers on how to trim yearly expenses with some easy ways to go "green."
In your car:
Use cruise control. Cruise control on the highway can help you maintain a constant speed, which can help save gas.
Use the overdrive gear. By using the overdrive gear, your car’s engine speed goes down, which not only saves gas but also reduces engine wear and tear.
Slow down. Driving anything above 60 miles per hour decreases your gas mileage rapidly.
In your home:
Swap out the light bulbs. Replace old incandescent bulbs with energy efficient options such as compact fluorescent lights, which can shave up to $50 off your electricity costs over the lifetime of each bulb.
Plant a tree. Properly positioned trees outside your home actually have been found to reduce a home’s energy use, even up to 50 percent during the summer months and 15 percent in the winter.
Get a tax break. Uncle Sam is offering 2011 tax breaks of up to $500 for energy efficiency home improvements, such as with Energy Star windows, insulation, or energy efficient heating and cooling equipment.

Home Building on the Rise

2011-05-06T09:40:00.001-07:00

New home construction is picking up just in time for the spring buying season, according to the latest new-home report rfrom the Commerce Department. Builders broke ground on more new homes in March than in the last six months.
Another bright spot: Building permits, an indicator of future construction, increased 11.2% for the month. After a dismal winter performance, new-home building bounced back 7.2% in March from February to a seasonally adjusted 549,000 units.
The new-home sector has faced hard times in recent years, competing against a flood of foreclosures and short sales on the market that have pushed housing prices down. In February, construction fell to its lowest level in nearly two years.

Smart Growth Communities

2011-05-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Americans favor walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, with 56 percent of respondents preferring smart growth neighborhoods over neighborhoods that require more driving between home, work and recreation. That’s according to a recent NAR study, called the Community Preference Survey.
Walkable communities are defined as those where shops, restaurants, and local businesses are within walking distance from homes. According to the survey, when considering a home purchase, 77% of respondents said they would look for neighborhoods with abundant sidewalks and other pedestrian-friendly features, and 50% would like to see improvements to existing public transportation rather than initiatives to build new roads and developments.

Mortgage Rates Fall

2011-05-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

In Freddie Mac's results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.78 percent for the week ending April 28, 2011.
That is down from the previous week when it averaged 4.80 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.06 percent.
Mortgage rates followed Treasury bond yields lower amid weak local economic data reports on business conditions and house prices. Declining home prices and a high level of foreclosures continue to affect housing tenure decisions

What our Clients are Saying About Our REALTORS

2010-05-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Rosanna,

I recently was looking for a lease house. I need an immediate move in date. I called Rosanna of a house listing off the Internet. She got the criteria I was looking for and set it up to email me every time something came in that fit what I was looking for. When I was ready to look she drove from Keller all the way to Crowley to go look at the houses. Not once but twice. When the house I wanted fell through she stayed on top of it and when the other candidate backed out on the lease home - she contacted them and was able to get me in my house. She made my life a lot easier during this time of need. She was willing to meet me not matter how far or what time it was. She truly went out of her way to help me find my home. I was so impressed with her as an agent, but also as a person.

Jill Boyd, Crowley, TX

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Rosanna,

We would like to say thank you for all your assistance. You were very helpful and God sent. We have moved into the house and everything is looking good.

Really, you were very professional and helped us all the way in getting exactly what we wanted. We would not have had it better because you covered every angle of the house hunting/renting process and would be glad to recommend you to all our friends and colleagues that may be in need of your services. Once again, thank you a million.

Austin & Enzinne Onyejiaka, Arlington, TX

Not much impact from repeat buyer credit

2010-03-01T07:04:00.001-08:00

Not much impact from repeat buyer credit

It sounded like a great idea three months ago: Hand homeowners a $6,500 tax credit to find a new place to live, giving a thrust of energy to the housing market's recovery.

So far, people are staying put.

In November, the federal government extended a tax credit of up to $8,000 for people who hadn't owned a home for three years. This credit had helped boost home sales last summer and fall. Seeking to build on that momentum, the government added a new credit of up to $6,500 for current homeowners, hoping it would transform them into house-hunters this winter and spring.

But real estate agents around the country say the credit is doing little to elevate sales. Reasons vary.

The unemployment rate is still near 10 percent and consumer confidence is falling. Home prices have stabilized in some markets, but are still a third below their 2006 peak. Droves of people who want to sell are stuck because their home is worth less than they paid for it. Harsh winter weather has Americans shoveling driveways instead of preparing their home for buyer visits.

"No one is saying, 'I need to buy something before it expires,'" said Tim Surratt, an agent with Greenwood King Properties in Houston.

The tax credit for current homeowners was intended to help stabilize prices and bolster the economy, but the housing market remains vulnerable. Sales of both new and previously occupied homes dropped in January, and the Mortgage Bankers Association's index of loan applications recently hit a 12 1/2-year low.

Also, the percentage of current homeowners looking to buy was nearly flat from January to February, according to a poll of 1,500 real estate agents by Campbell Communications and Inside Mortgage Finance.

The Obama administration has pumped billions into the housing market, hoping it will lead the nation out of its economic doldrums. Efforts to modify loans facing foreclosure have largely failed. So, hundreds of thousands of discounted homes will hit the market this year, stressing a market desperate to balance high supply with sluggish demand.

"You've got a really big problem that requires big guns, and the tax credit is just not big enough," said Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Agents believe the credit's true test will come in the spring, the busiest home-buying season. Concerns about high unemployment could keep buyers on the fence.

"If you don't have a job, you're not going to be able to buy a new house," said Deborah Farmer, owner of StarLight Realty in Tampa, Fla.

Another problem is that homeowners, in many cases, will need to sell their current home to afford a new one and claim the credit on tax returns. That's a major issue for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth. Nearly one-in-three homeowners with a mortgage is currently in that situation, according to Moody's Economy.com.

Also, $6,500 may not mean much to a buyer with enough equity to sell a property and afford another home. The savings will hardly dent down payments or moving costs. Most sellers employ real estate agents who typically receive 6 percent of the sales price.

Federal report says that D-FW home prices were up last year

2010-03-01T06:55:00.001-08:00

Federal report says that D-FW home prices were up last year

Prices of homes purchased in the Dallas area rose by a smidgen in 2009, according to a federal report released Thursday.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said that Dallas area home sale prices were up 0.43 percent at the end of last year compared with a year earlier. Nationwide, prices were down 1.2 percent in the same period.

Unlike other home price comparisons, the federal housing study only looks at home purchases financed with mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the big government-owned loan investors.

Dallas was one of three top 10 U.S. metro areas that had home price gains in 2009, according to the federal index.

Washington, D.C., had the biggest price increase at 10.55 percent, followed by a 3.71 percent increase in Houston.

Among major cities, the biggest price declines last year were in Miami, down 12.86 percent, and Phoenix, down 12.03 percent, according to the FHFA.

The quarterly federal housing index is different from the recently released Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks the values of actual houses over time. The Case-Shiller index does not look at new home prices, which are included in the federal price measure.

Case-Shiller said that Dallas-area home prices were up 3 percent at the end of 2009 compared to a year earlier.

Dallas home prices are up about 12 percent during the last five years, the FHFA report said. And since 1991, overall home prices here have risen by more than 74 percent.

The country’s 10 largest home markets averaged a 3.7 percent price drop since 2004, according to the federal index But since 1991, home prices in the top 10 U.S. metro areas are up an average of 96 percent.

Repeat Buyers Need to Act Fast to Capitalize on Expanded Tax Credit RISMEDIA, January 23, 2010—By now it is well documented that today’s affordable ho

2010-01-25T11:41:00.001-08:00

Repeat Buyers Need to Act Fast to Capitalize on Expanded Tax Credit
RISMEDIA, January 23, 2010—By now it is well documented that today’s affordable housing prices, historically low interest rates and federal home buyer tax credit have combined to create one of the most attractive first-time buyer markets in recent memory. What many Americans might not realize is that a recent expansion of the buyer tax credit has created an equally desirable opportunity for existing homeowners.

This past November, Congress elected to expand the home buyer tax credit to repeat buyers after seeing the success the temporary financial incentive had on the housing market and overall economy. As a result, current homeowners who will have lived in their home for 5 consecutive years out of the last 8 may now be eligible to receive a $6,500 tax credit.

“The expanded tax credit offers a great financial opportunity for existing homeowners, particularly those looking to trade up,” said James M. Weichert, president and founder of Weichert, Realtors, one of the nation’s largest independent real estate companies. “Not only can you receive a large sum of money from the government, you’ll also likely purchase your next home for less money and at a lower interest rate than you could have in years past or years to come.”

To qualify for the tax credit, the repeat buyer must have signed a binding contract by April 30, 2010 and close on the home by June 30, 2010. Tax credit eligibility is subject to income limits, $125,000 for single buyers and $225,000 for couples. In addition, the sale price of the home being purchased can not exceed $800,000.

There is no requirement that existing homeowners must have sold their home to be eligible for the $6,500 tax credit. However, Weichert encourages existing homeowners who want to benefit from this incentive to move quickly, particularly those who prefer to first sell their current home before purchasing a new one.

“Typically, it takes three months or longer to sell a home. That’s why it is critical repeat buyers put their home on the market right away. Otherwise they might not leave themselves enough time to both secure a buyer for their current house and find a new home by the April 30 deadline,” added Weichert.

Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

2009-12-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

12:08 PM CST on Monday, December 7, 2009
By STEVE BROWN/ The Dallas Morning News

The North Texas housing market came roaring back in November. Preowned home sales rose by 31 percent last month from a year ago – one of the biggest such increases on record. Also Online

Interactive map: Dallas-area home sales and prices

And median home sales prices were up 5 percent.

The big jump in residential transactions came as large numbers of homebuyers rushed to take advantage of the federal home buying tax credit, which has been extended.

Real estate agents in October sold almost 5,500 preowned homes through their multiple listing service, according to statistics released Monday by the North Texas Residential Information Systems and the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

And condo and townhouse sales were up more than 60 percent from a year ago.

November’s robust sales activity is the latest in a string of recent indicators, which show that the North Texas home market has bottomed out and is turning the corner.

Through the first 11 months of 2009, North Texas home sales are down 12 percent from the same period of last year. And median home sales prices are unchanged year to day from 2008.

November was the second consecutive month that Dallas-Fort Worth area home sales rose from the previous year – ending more than a year of consecutive declines.

Some neighborhoods that weren’t impacted by the federal homebuying incentives saw dramatic spikes in home sales last month.

In the Park Cities, preowned home sales soared 81 percent in November from a year ago.

Sales in close in North Dallas neighborhoods rose 48 percent.

And at the end of November, the inventory of unsold homes on the market fell below 6 months which is considered a balanced market.

Expanded Version of Tax Credit Will Allow More Homebuyers to Qualify

2009-11-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

Expanded Version of Tax Credit Will Allow More Homebuyers to Qualify

RISMEDIA, November 9, 2009—President Obama recently signed an expanded version of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was set to expire on November 30. “The new version of the tax credit has the potential to stimulate the housing market even more than the old version due to the fact that more people will qualify under the new rules,” said Gibran Nicholas, Chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “Although the tax credit remains at $8,000 for homebuyers that have not owned a primary residence in the last three years, it has been expanded to include a $6,500 tax credit for homebuyers that have lived in their current primary residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years. Under the old rules, move-up homebuyers did not qualify.” Consider these three examples:

Example 1:
Jane purchased a home in 2002, lived there for 5 years as her primary home, moved out in 2007, and turned that home into a rental property. If Jane decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she lived in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 2:
Harry purchased a home in 2004, and lived there for the past 5 years as his primary home. If Harry decides to buy a new primary residence today, he would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that he lived in the same residence as his primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 3:
Nicole purchased a home in 2006, and lived there for the past 3 years as her primary home. If Nicole decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would not qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she did not live in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

The tax credit applies to homes purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. “If you sign a binding contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010,” Nicholas said. “It works kind of like a gift certificate that can be redeemed for cash. You simply file a form with the IRS right after you buy your home, and the IRS will send you a check for the full amount of your credit.”

The income limitation for single tax payers went up from $75,000 under the old rules to $125,000 under the new rules. For married tax payers, the income limitation went up from $150,000 to $225,000. “This means that more people will qualify for the credit – especially in parts of the country with higher costs of living,” Nicholas said. “This should help stimulate parts of the housing market that may not have been impacted by the old version of the credit.”

There are many creative ways of structuring your home purchase transaction in ways that maximize the benefits of the credit. Here are a few examples:

-The credit applies to 1-4 unit homes as long as you live in one of the units as your primary residence – you could live in one unit and rent out the others

-If two unmarried individuals buy a home, and only one of the individuals qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit. (Note: In the case of married couples, both spouses must qualify for the credit).

-The credit applies even if you have co-signers on your mortgage loan

For more information, visit www.CMPSInstitute.org.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-11-08/expanded-version-of-tax-credit-will-allow-more-homebuyers-to-qualify/#ixzz0WTkr6IKw

TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED

2009-11-06T12:30:00.001-08:00

TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED

The $8000 tax credit for first time homebuyer's has been extended. The program was expanded to include a $6500 tax credit on the purchase of a new home to apply to people who have owned a home for at least five years.

Income restrictions will be relaxed, meaning more people could take advantage of the program.

The bill would extend it to apply to home purchases under contract before May 1, 2010

Great news! Watch for more details.

Give us a call for all of your Real Estate needs.You can reach us directly at 817-337-5169 or on the web at www.soldteam.net

Texas Sold Team Realty, LLC
CRS, e-Pro, ABR, Luxury Real Estate Expert

Information provided by Pam Taylor with WR Starkey Mortgage

Why Live in Texas- Great Video!

2009-11-04T08:25:00.001-08:00

Visit www.soldteam.net to find your dream home today!

Residents near proposed assisted-living center criticize developer's plan

2009-10-29T09:13:00.001-07:00

Residents near proposed assisted-living center criticize developer's plan
By LINDA TAYLOR
A proposed assisted-living center has drawn opposition from nearby residents, who say it would hurt their quality of life and property values.

Homeowners near Countryhill Drive and Rapp Road turned out in large numbers to voice their concerns to Keller’s planning advisory board on Monday. They urged members to deny developer Nisher Inc.’s request to build the center, Mustang Creek Estates.

The 4.8-acre development would house 104 assisted-living units in eight, one-story buildings on the north and northwest sides of the intersection. Plans call for each building to be 6,000 square feet.

Nearby residents said the campus would increase traffic, worsen drainage problems and drive down the value of their houses. Most residents who spoke said it would pose a safety risk to the many children who walk or ride bikes to schools.

"Country Hill Drive is a neighborhood street, not a major arterial road," Terry Leake said. "There are a number of kids who ride to school who access Country Hill to reach the marked crosswalk on Rapp Road. Having the entries to the facility on Country Hill could present some serious safety issues to those kids."

Architect Scott Roberts said the center would add fewer cars to area roads than a commercial center, which the site is currently zoned for.

"We feel this zoning and use is much less impactive than the uses possible under the [current] zoning," Roberts said. "The buildings are very residential in nature and are arranged at angles to create more interest. We will try to be the best neighbors we can."

But some residents oppose the center, citing potential harm to their home values.

"Every realtor I’ve talked to said you will narrow your prospects when potential buyers see the retirement community located at the entrance to the neighborhood," Mike Reed said. "This will definitely decrease the property value."

Despite that concern, Roberts said, values near a similar facility in Allen have risen steadily since it was built.

Board members had their own concerns, which centered on parking. With a proposed 28 parking spaces, most members felt the number would not be adequate to accommodate staff, visitors and residents who have their own vehicles.

"The part that really jumped out at me is you only have three handicapped spaces for eight buildings," member Leslie Sagar said. "Parking is a big issue. You have 28 spaces and 16 of them are for employees."

Doug Miller agreed with Sagar, saying the proposed parking could cause visitors to park on Countryhill Drive.

"By my calculations, you could have as many as 24 employees on the premises at one time," Miller said. "The parking is woefully inadequate."

Most board members seemed to favor a zoning change but disapproved of the Mustang Creek Estates plan.

"We have a real conundrum here," Gary Reaves said, praising Nisher’s preparations. "I do applaud your efforts, but I’ve listened to the residents and they have some very real concerns. I think this project as it is proposed is too much of a strain on this neighborhood and I cannot support it."

Renee Ramsey, the would-be owner of the center, said she was willing to work with the neighbors on their concerns, possibly even reducing the number of buildings from eight to six.

The board postponed a decision until December to allow opponents, the developer and city staff to work out major sticking points.

Linda Taylor is a special contributor to The Keller Citizen.

For Sale: 6BR/5.5BA Single Family House in Southlake, TX, $565,000

2009-10-04T15:18:00.001-07:00

For Sale: 6BR/5.5BA Single Family House in Southlake, TX, $565,000

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Existing-Home Sales Ease Following 4 Monthly Gains

2009-09-29T08:25:00.001-07:00

Existing-Home Sales Ease Following 4 Monthly Gains
RISMEDIA, September 28, 2009—Existing-home sales in August 2009 gave back some of their strong gain in July but remain above year-ago levels, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Existing-home sales- including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops- declined 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million units in August from a pace of 5.24 million in July, but remain 3.4% above the 4.93 million-unit level in August 2008. In the previous four months, sales had risen a total of 15.2%.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the tax credit is working. “Home sales retrenched from a very strong improvement in July but continue to be much higher than before the stimulus. The first-time buyer tax credit is having the intended impact of bringing buyers into the market, allowing them to take advantage of very favorable affordability conditions,” he said. “Some of the give-back in closed sales appears to result from rising numbers of contracts entering the system, with some fallouts and a backlog contributing to a longer closing process, but the decline demonstrates we can’t take a housing rebound for granted.”

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.19% in August from 5.22% in July; the rate was 6.48% in August 2008.

An NAR practitioner survey shows first-time buyers purchased 30% of homes in August, and that distressed homes accounted for 31% of transactions; both were unchanged from July. “The recent trend shows broad improvement in most of the country, but with an expected rise in foreclosures over the next 12 months we need to maintain a healthy level of ready buyers to absorb the inventory. An extension of the tax credit is critical to preserve incentives for financially qualified buyers to enter the market,” Yun said.

He added that many buyers had been on the sidelines during the past few years, waiting for signs of stabilization. “Now that the market is showing some momentum, we have an opportunity to achieve a more rapid and broader stabilization in home prices. Extending and expanding the tax credit also would help to keep other families from becoming upside down in their mortgages or risk foreclosure,” Yun said.

“When home prices show sustained gains, credit will become more widely available to other sectors because Wall Street will be able to price risks confidently. Stable home values will also allow more families to purchase consumer products and provide a strong boost for the broader economy.”

NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said time is running very short for the existing tax credit. “Because it’s generally taking 60 days to close on a home after a contract is offered, buyers have little time to act to complete a purchase by the November 30 deadline,” he said. “There’s no guarantee what Congress might do, so there’s really no time to waste. Since Realtors® have unparalleled knowledge of local markets, they can also advise first-time buyers on any additional state or local programs that might be able to offer them financial assistance, and help them close on a home before the tax credit expires.”

Total housing inventory at the end of August fell 10.8% to 3.62 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.5-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 9.3-month supply in July. Unsold inventory totals are 16.4% lower than a year ago. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $177,700 in August, down 12.5% from August 2008. Distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell for 15 to 20% less than traditional homes. Single-family home sales fell 2.% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.48 million in August from a level of 4.61 million in July, but are 2.55 higher than the 4.37 million-unit pace in August 2008. The median existing single-family home price was $177,500 in August, down 12.1% from a year ago. Existing condominium and co-op sales slipped 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 620,000 units in August from a spike of 630,000 in July, but are 10.1% higher than the 563,000-unit level a year ago. The median existing condo price was $179,300 in August, which is 15.7% below August 2008.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast declined 2.2% to an annual pace of 910,000 in August, but are 5.8% above August 2008. The median price in the Northeast was $241,100, which is 10.5% below a year ago. Existing-home sales in the Midwest fell 6.6% in August to a level of 1.14 million but are unchanged from a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $149,900, down 10.4% from August 2008. In the South, existing-home sales were down 3.1% to an annual pace of 1.89 million in August but are 1.6% above August 2008. The median price in the South was $157,400, which is 11.0% below a year ago. Existing-home sales in the West declined 2.7% to an annual rate of 1.16 million in August but are 7.4% higher than a year ago. The median price in the West was $220,500, down 12.2% from August 2008.

For more information, visit www.realtor.org.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-09-27/existing-home-sales-ease-following-4-monthly-gains/#ixzz0SVdAMpNc

First-Time Buyers Race to Beat the Clock, Qualify for $8,000 Federal Tax Credit

2009-09-16T12:08:00.001-07:00

First-Time Buyers Race to Beat the Clock, Qualify for $8,000 Federal Tax Credit
RISMEDIA, September 15, 2009—First-time home buyers have just 12 weeks to find and close on a home to qualify for the $8,000 Federal tax credit before the November 30th deadline. Those just beginning the process will have to beat the average time it takes to buy a home, a challenge smart buyers can meet even though it’s taking longer today to close most transactions.

Two significant challenges first-time buyers face today include the potential for a lengthy process related to search and closing if not managed carefully at every step, and intensified competition. On average, first-time buyers search 12 weeks to find a home, while closing can take up to 60 days, depending on individual circumstances and local regulations. Additionally, the tax credit has proved to be extremely popular this year, since taking advantage of the first-time homebuyer’s Federal tax credit and relevant state incentives is the most important reason motivating 10.8% of buyers today. In fact, approximately 1.14 million buyers have already filed for the credit. Many more are expected to file for the credit when income taxes are due April 2010.

Still, while time is short and competition high, historically high affordability is a major factor driving first-time home buyers today, a growing group accounting for one third of all purchases in July 2009. The National Association of Realtors’ affordability index in July 2009 was 36.0 percentage points higher than July 2008. Under these conditions the typical median-income family can allocate 15.8% of their gross income to mortgage payments, well below the traditional allowance of 25%. Interest rates, which play a major factor in affordability, remain low, at 5.22% in July for a 30-year fixed rate loan.

Realtor.com President Errol Samuelson explains, “The national median home today costs approximately 174,100. By moving quickly to find and close on a home by November 30, first-time buyers qualifying for the $8,000 tax credit can actually purchase this same home for only $166,100, an almost four and a half percent discount off of the price of a typical new home. Because affordability this year is at its highest level in 28 years, and the market offers an incredible selection of homes within reach of most first-time buyers, we expect their numbers to grow as they pursue today’s once in a generation opportunity to become homeowners.”

Samuelson suggests that by combining effective use of technology and the greater access to information it delivers with expert advice from local Realtors, today’s first-time home buyers can beat the clock and use the $8,000 Federal tax credit along with any available state-level credits to purchase a home under the November 30 deadline. “By moving quickly, being prepared to make decisions in the face of increased competition, and taking the learnings from others to reduce time without cutting corners, first-time home buyers starting today can close on time and qualify for the $8,000 Federal tax credit,” added Samuelson. “To help this important group trying to enter today’s market, Realtor.com offers tips and expert advice that can help expedite the search, negotiation, finance and closing processes so they can beat the clock.”

Tips for the first time home buyer starting their search today:

-Searching – Search While You Sleep – Since 87% of all buyers start online, you probably will too. On Realtor.com it’s easy to sign up for email alerts and create personal portfolios for homes of interest. Soon you’ll be searching while you sleep, at the office or even while you’re at an open house. You’ll be the first to know if a home you want comes up for sale or receives a price reduction.

-Negotiating - Freshness counts. You don’t have time to look at unavailable homes. Stale data on prices, time on market, features, or property values puts you at a disadvantage when negotiating.

-Appraisals - Appraisals can be a problem today; make sure the lender can deliver the appraisal on time. Your loan will not be approved if it doesn’t appraise for the agreed price, so don’t delay. If the property doesn’t appraise for the bid price, ask for a desk appraisal; you’ll receive a second look.

-Finance - Don’t let the financing process slow you down; 35% of first-time buyers find the mortgage application and approval process more difficult than what they expected. Start saving pay stubs and bank statements now. Collect your tax returns; anything proving your income qualifies you for the home you want.

-Closing - Get your insurance company and the home owner association, if applicable, to forward a cost estimate to the escrow company early. This will make it easier for them to more accurately estimate your closing costs, which in many states must be paid in cash at closing.

For more information, visit www.realtor.com.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-09-14/first-time-buyers-race-to-beat-the-clock-qualify-for-8000-federal-tax-credit/#ixzz0RIOBnCDt

Happy Labor Day

2009-09-04T08:03:00.001-07:00

Labor Day is more than just an extra day off from work or simply the last fling of summer. It's a much-deserved rest in recognition of the hard work and daily disciplines that fuel our businesses and drive our economy.
We hope you enjoy this time relaxing with friends and loved ones.
You deserve it.

Only 90 Days left ot use the $8,000 Tax Credit

2009-08-31T08:16:00.001-07:00

Did you know it can take up to 30 days to close a home using the $8,000 Tax Credit? You have even less than 90 days to use it before the end of November!

http://www.soldteam.net/ContactUs

What Would You Do With $8,000?

2009-08-21T12:58:00.001-07:00

What Would You Do With $8,000?

What if the government decided today that, instead of bailing out Wall Street, it was going to give every American $8,000? What would you do with the money?

For most Americans, paying off credit card debt would be a great way to use the free money. According to a Nilson Report released in April 2009, the average credit card debt per household in the US was $8,329 at the end of 2008. That money from the government would almost wipe out your debt completely. Imagine being completely debt free.

Healthcare is a big topic these days. According to the most current Census Bureau statistics, some 45.7 million Americans do not have health insurance. So, many Americans might choose to use their $8,000 to enroll their family in a healthcare program through their employer. The federal government tracks the average spending on health insurance for people with job-based coverage, and the most recent figures (from 2005!) indicate that the average individual's premiums were $3,991, while families spent an average of $10,728. Your $8,000 would go a long way in insuring your family.

Some Americans might choose to start a small business. Experts estimate that start-up costs for many new business ventures are between $10,000 - $15,000. With $8,000, a large portion of your initial investment would be covered.

If you really think about it, there are so many things you could do with $8,000. You could open a 529 college savings plan. You could add your 8 grand to the government's $4,500 Cash for Clunkers plan and buy a new car. You could take your family on an amazing once-in-a-lifetime vacation. You could open an IRA and save for retirement...

But what's the point in dreaming. The government's not giving away $8,000, right?

Wrong.

Right now, through November 30th of this year only, the government is giving qualifying first-time home buyers up to $8,000 for purchasing a home (or up to 10% of the purchase price). This is free money that you do not have to pay back. And here's the best part: if you qualify, you can get your money from the IRS this year, even if you've already filed your 2008 taxes.

There are, of course, limitations and other qualifying factors, but they are all pretty reasonable and easy to explain, and we'll be glad to discuss these with you or anyone you know who is looking to buy a home. With today's combination of lower home prices and lower interest rates, this temporary incentive from the government is really a great option for many Americans who act now to finally fulfill their dreams of owning a home.

Tax-Free Weekend

2009-08-20T13:11:00.001-07:00

Tax-Free Weekend

We are a week away from the back to school bell, and this weekend we will all be scrambling to get those last minute items. Shoppers can get a break this weekend from sales tax with the states annual tax holiday beginning Friday and extending through Sunday. This saves shoppers about $8 for every $100 spend. New items added to the list this year are backpacks, and most school supplies, that include binders, folders, lunch boxes, pens, pencils calculators, book bags and much more.

For more detailed information click on the link below

Texas Tax Holiday Official Page

Pending Home Sales up for Fifth Consecutive Month

2009-08-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

Pending Home Sales up for Fifth Consecutive Month
RISMEDIA, August 5, 2009-Pending home sales are up for the fifth consecutive month, the first time in six years for such a streak, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in June, rose 3.6% to 94.6 from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May, and is 6.7% above June 2008 when it was 88.7. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was in July 2003.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a combination of positive market factors is fueling the gains. “Historically low mortgage interest rates, affordable home prices and large selection are encouraging buyers who’ve been on the sidelines. Activity has been consistently much stronger for lower priced homes,” he said. ”Because it may take as long as two months to close on a home after signing a contract, first-time buyers must act fairly soon to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit because they must close on the sale by November 30.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast rose 0.4% to 81.2 in June and is 5.8% above a year ago. In the Midwest the index increased 0.8% to 89.9 and is 11.6% above June 2008. The index in the South jumped 7.1% to 100.7 in June and is 8.9% higher than a year ago. In the West the index rose 2.9% to 100.4 but is 0.2% below June 2008.

NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, is hopeful that a recently elevated level of contract cancellations will ease. “Last month, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae clarified that appraisals should be done by professionals with clear local expertise,” he said. “This should mitigate the situation of many valuations done by out-of-area appraisers coming in below the price negotiated between buyers and sellers. Hopefully, in the months ahead, we’ll see an even closer relationship between contract activity and closed transactions.” McMillan said NAR is continuing to press the appraisal issue. “We have asked Congress and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to immediately implement an 18-month moratorium on the new appraisal rules to further address unintended consequences of the new guidelines,” he said.

NAR’s Housing Affordability Index (HAI) remains very favorable. The affordability index stood at 159.2 in July, down from record peaks in recent months but it remains 36.6 percentage points above a year ago. Under these conditions the typical family would devote 15.7% of gross income to mortgage principal and interest, well below the standard allowance of 25%. The HAI is a broad measure of housing affordability using consistent values and assumptions over time, which examines the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income.

“A monthly rise in home prices and somewhat higher mortgage interest rates led to a modest decline in affordability in June, but it was still the sixth highest index on record dating back to 1970,” Yun said. “Because housing is so affordable in today’s market, job security and the first-time buyer tax credit are bigger factors in influencing home sales.”

A median-income family, earning $60,700, could afford a home costing $289,100 in June with a 20% downpayment, assuming 25% of gross income is devoted to mortgage principal and interest. Affordability conditions for first-time buyers with the same income and small downpayments are roughly 80% of what a median-income family can afford. The affordable price was much higher than the median existing single-family home price in June, which was $181,600.

Yun expects existing-home sales to gradually rise over the balance of the year, with conditions varying around the country. “It appears home sales are on a sounder footing and inventory is gradually being absorbed.”

For more information, visit www.realtor.org.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-08-04/pending-home-sales-up-for-fifth-consecutive-month/#ixzz0NFTbnzEY

Trending Upward? U.S. Home Prices Improve for Fourth Consecutive Month

2009-07-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

Trending Upward? U.S. Home Prices Improve for Fourth Consecutive Month

RISMEDIA, July 29, 2009-Data through May 2009, released by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, one of the leading measures of U.S. home prices, show that, although still negative, the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved for the fourth consecutive month in 2009.

The 10-City and 20-City Composites declined 16.8% and 17.1%, respectively, in May compared to the same month last year. These values are improvements over April’s data, which show annual declines of 18.0% and 18.1%, respectively. After 16 consecutive months of record annual declines, beginning in October 2007 and ending in January 2009, the indices have now shown four consecutive months of improvement in annual returns.

“The pace of descent in home price values appears to be slowing,” says David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “There is a clear inflection point in the year-over-year data, due to four consecutive months of improved rates of return, after the steep decline that began in the fall of 2005. In addition to the 10-City and 20-City Composites, 17 of the 20 metro areas also saw improvement in their annual returns compared to those of April. Looking at the monthly data, 13 of the 20 metro areas reported positive returns; and the 10-City and 20-City Composites reported positive returns for the first time since the summer of 2006. To put it in perspective, this is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months. This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing.”

“While many indicators are showing signs of life in the U.S. housing market, we should remember that on a year-over-year basis home prices are still down about 17% on average across all metro areas, so we likely do have a way to go before we see sustained home price appreciation,” Blitzer added.

As of May 2009, average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to where they were in the middle of 2003, indicating that the three years of appreciation that occurred from 2003-2006 were all given back in the following three years. From the peak in the second quarter of 2006, the 10-City Composite is down 33.3% and the 20-City Composite is down 32.3%.

In terms of annual declines, the numbers remain relatively somber with all metro areas and the two composites in negative territory, and 16 out of the 20 metro areas are reporting double digit declines. Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle and Tampa posted their lowest index levels in May since their respective peaks. From peak to trough Phoenix and Las Vegas are the worst off, down 54.5% and 53.4%, respectively. More upbeat news is seen in the monthly data; Dallas and Denver have reported three consecutive months of positive returns. Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, San Francisco and Washington D.C. each reported two consecutive months of positive returns. Eight of the 13 MSAs reporting positive monthly returns for May were greater than +1.0%.

For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-07-28/trending-upward-us-home-prices-improve-for-fourth-consecutive-month/#ixzz0MfSx7bJM

Texas Sold Team Realty CARES Blood Drive

2009-07-20T13:31:00.001-07:00

Texas Sold Team Realty CARES Blood Drive

That is right! Cindie Stewart and the Texas Sold Team Realty, LLC Team heads to the Carter BloodCare Mobile Bus in Keller to give blood. We wanted to find a way to help our community and what way is better than giving your own blood to help our those in need.

She wasn't scared one bit! Way to go Cindie!

Take Five and Stay Alive

2009-07-13T07:56:00.001-07:00

Take Five and Stay Alive
A Health Tip with Ingo Logé

The economy. The recession. Our jobs. Our family. War. Inflation. Traffic. Those are just some of the things that can cause stress in our daily lives. But have no fear! When the stress-monster attacks, there's something quick and easy you can do to breathe easier...one nostril at a time.

As Fitness Forever founder Ingo Logé shares in the accompanying video, "Air is invisible food." And when it comes to fitness and nutrition, Logé definitely knows what he is talking about! As a personal training and nutrition expert with over two dozen years of real-life experience, Logé's client list reads like a "Who's-Who" in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Watch the video to learn Logé's five minute breathing exercise...and then watch your stress melt away!

For more great tips from Ingo Logé, and to learn more about his products and services, visit www.myfitness4ever.com.

July is Air Conditioning Appreciation Month

2009-07-09T10:46:00.001-07:00

July is Air Conditioning Appreciation Month

Prepare Your Home for Hot Weather

Setting your air conditioner 5 degrees higher will save up to 20% on cooling costs.
Use fans to make indoor temperatures feel cooler, most ceiling fans use less energy than a light bulb.
Have your A/C unit serviced to cut up to 15% of your cooling cost.
Don't try to cool the great outdoors! Seal cracks, gaps, leaks and add insulation and/or radiant barrier to save up to 20% on home cooling cost.
Investments for Summer Energy Savings

Have your ducts professionally sealed to save up to $190 per year.
Install programmable thermostats and only cool the house when you're home-it can save up to $180 a year!
Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFL's or the new LED's to save on lighting AND cooling bills. 90% of the energy used by old incandescent bulbs produces heat, NOT light.
If your old AC breaks down, consider a high efficiency replacement. Replacing a 10 year old central AC unit with an Energy Star qualified model can cut 20-40% off your cooling costs.
Choose a Programmable Thermostat That's Right for You!

To decide which model is best for you, think about your schedule and how often you are away from home for regular periods of time-work, school, and other activities. Then decide which of the three different models best fits your schedule.

7 day models are best if your daily schedule tends to change, say if children are at home earlier on some days. They give you the most flexibility, and let you set different programs for different days.
5+2 day models use the same schedule every weekday, and another for weekends.
5-1-1 models are best if you tend to keep one schedule Monday through Friday, and another schedule on Saturdays and Sundays.
A/C Filters - The MOST Important Maintenance Task!

The most important maintenance task that will ensure the efficiency of your air conditioner is to routinely replace or clean it's filters. Clogged, dirty filters block normal air flow and reduce a system's efficiency significantly.
Some types of filters are reusable; others must be replaced. They are available in a variety of types and efficiencies. Clean or replace your filters every month or two during the cooling season.

Area Fire Works and Festivities

2009-07-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

Area Fire Works and Festivities

Fort Worth
Jul. 4, 2009 - Fort Worth's Fourth
Come celebrate Fort Worth's Fourth, Saturday, July 4, 2009, with an evening of free music and family fun along the Trinity River behind LaGrave Field. Jet Skis, watermelon, trolley rides, water wars and Battle of the Bands hosted by 95.9 The Ranch Radio. Watch the Cats play until fireworks start around 9:30 p.m.. It all starts at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, July 4. For more information visit www.streamsandvalleys.org or call 817 926-0006

Grand Prairie

July 3 & 4, 2009 - Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration. Enjoy two full days of exciting live Thoroughbred racing and fun activities for the whole family including pony rides, a petting zoo, bounce houses, games, clowns, and more followed by our 20-minute fireworks spectacular choreographed to music. Plus, enjoy live music by Incognito on Friday, and Maiden Texas on Saturday in our Courtyard of Champions from 5p.m. - 11:30 p.m. Gates open early at 3 p.m. each day and the first live race begins at 5 p.m. Details may be found at www.lonestarpark.com

Bedford
Jul 4, noon-11 p.m. Concert, food, family activities, a parade, and fireworks will be at the Bedford Boys Ranch at 2801 Forest Ridge Drive in Bedford. Bring lawn chairs, blankets, and coolers. No alcohol, please. Admission is free, but there is no parking at the Bedford Boys Ranch, except for those with handicap signs or plates. Park at Pennington Field at 1501 Central Drive in Bedford and catch the shuttle for $3 per person.

North Richland Hills

Jul 4, 9:30 p.m. Twenty minutes of fireworks will take off at the North Richland Hills Village Center, 6351 Boulevard 26 in Richland Hills at the intersection of Highway 26 and Highway 183 inside Loop 820.

Irving
Jul 4, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. The Irving Symphony Orchestra will put on a concert starting at 8:30 p.m. Food and beverages will be available. No coolers or alcohol permitted. Admission is free. The concert and fireworks will be at Williams Square Plaza (5215 North O'Connor Boulevard) in Las Colinas in Irving.

Plano
Jul 4, 9:30 p.m. The city of Plano will have a fireworks show at the Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve at 2801 Spring Creek Parkway. Some food and beverages will be available for purchase. Free parking will be at Collin County Community College and First United Methodist Church of Plano. Radio station KLAK 97.5 will have a simulcast during the fireworks show.

Frisco
Jun 27-28. Pizza Hut Park in Frisco plays host to Celebrate Freedom 2008. For two days, three stages will be full of Christian rock groups and speakers. VeggieTales characters, inflatable rides and slides, jump rope demonstrations, dance teams, and cheerleaders are just some of the entertainment available. Admission is free, but parking is $10-15. Pizza Hut Park is at the intersection of Dallas Tollway and Main Street in Frisco, near the intersection of Dallas Tollway and Eldorado Parkway.

Granbury
Annual 4th of July Celebration - Hometown America
Start Date: July 4, 2009 8:00 am
Location: Granbury Historic Downtown Square
Contact Name: Chamber of Commerce Contact Number: 817-573-1622 Website: www.granburychamber.com
Description: Art & Craft Booths, Hometown Parade, Tom Ward Memorial Decorated Bike Contest, Live Entertainment at the Granbury Square Plaza, rockin' Rods Car Show, Old Fashioned Games at Shanley Park, Bulls and Broncs Rodeo at the Reunion Grounds. Talley Amusements Carnival Rides and Fireworks over Lake Granbury.

Going, Going, Gone - The Key to Peace of Mind before Bidding on Properties

2009-06-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Going, Going, Gone - The Key to Peace of Mind before Bidding on Properties
By Paige Tepping

RISMEDIA, June 16, 2009-Buying a home is one of the most significant decisions, as well as one of the biggest investments, a home buyer will ever make. With home prices down around the country, mortgage rates at record-level lows, an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and a surge in home auctions, buyers must be more educated than ever in going through the home-buying process. Home buyers are looking for peace of mind right now, and Pillar To Post’s home inspections give prospective buyers just that.

According to the Associated Press, home auctions have surged 47% since 2003, which opens the door to homeowners interested in buying a home at a bargain price.

“There is a huge inventory of homes on the market right now, which is great for buyers, but it should still be ‘buyer beware,’” says Trevor Welby-Solomon, Pillar To Post’s vice president, Technical Training, Support and Development. Home buyers must be cautious, because homes sold at auction are sold ‘as is;’ therefore, professional home inspections are a crucial element in the bidding process.

With the economic climate we are experiencing today, it is easy for buyers to say that money is tight and they don’t want to spend the $350-$450 it costs to get a home inspection, but Welby-Solomon says the exact opposite is true.

“Since credit is tight and home values have dropped, it is almost impossible to go back to the lender or bank and further define a line of credit to fix items within the home once you move in,” he says. Home inspections focus on the structural element or systems of the home and look closely at items regarding the health and safety of the occupants. “In addition to checking the major structural items within the home, home inspections also cover more common elements, such as the condition of the roof covering, leaks in the basement and the major mechanical systems (heating, cooling, electrical and plumbing).

“Home inspections take away the emotional aspect of the transaction as well as provide prospective buyers with an objective, third-party opinion of the building,” says Welby-Solomon, and are especially important for buyers looking to purchase a home through an auction.

“Home inspections are used to better educate buyers about their potential purchase and whether the price of the home is actually the final cost,” he says. While it may be appealing for buyers to bid low on a home, it is a good idea to have a sense of what your final expenditure will be once the home is yours.

“Since joining Pillar To Post in 1994, home buyers and sellers’ attitudes toward home inspections have changed completely,” says Welby-Solomon. “There is a much greater awareness of the value of a home inspection, and a lot of this has come about as younger buyers are coming into the marketplace.” As younger buyers are more research- and information-oriented, they are looking for more value and want to be more educated and informed in making decisions, he says.

While there are numerous good deals to be found in today’s market, home inspections give buyers peace of mind before actually buying the property.

“Don’t be afraid to ask if you may bring a third party with you to do a walk-through of the home before the auction starts,” says Welby-Solomon. “Home inspections allow prospective buyers to not walk blindly into a home auction and end up with a money trap that you have to keep throwing money into after purchasing.”

For more information, please visit www.pillartopost.com.

We've Moved!

2009-06-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Texas Sold Team Realty, LLC has moved to a new office in Keller, Texas. Come by and visit us! Keep checking in for our GRAND OPENING RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY in July.

New Address:
424 Keller Parkway
Keller, Texas 76248

Can You Get a Loan Today?

2009-06-05T07:09:00.001-07:00

Can You Get a Loan Today?

Changes in the real estate and mortgage markets have prompted many, including many in the media, to wonder, "Can you get a loan today?" For an answer to this important question, YOU Magazine turned to Barry Habib, an expert in the mortgage-backed securities market. Chairman of Mortgage Success Source and founder of Mortgage Market Guide, Mr. Habib has managed a hedge fund, authored a stock advisory newsletter, owned an insurance agency, and has been an avid real estate investor for many years.

Habib says that, yes, you can get a mortgage in today's market, but you have to understand that lenders have returned to a pre-2000 mindset – a kind of "common-sense lending" that seeks long-term success versus short-term profits. There's plenty of money available, says Habib, but your mortgage must make sense in today's terms, not the looser standards permitted by lenders in 2000 and 2001.

How Did We Get Here?
In 2000 and 2001, real estate was hot – make that white hot. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Composite 10 Index, an index that follows home prices, values increased 21.5% from the years 1990-1999. During the first two years of this decade alone, home prices increased 23.6% for the same index. This resulted in a period of wildly loose lending guidelines that would ultimately fuel the subprime mortgage collapse in 2008.

In retrospect, it's easy to see, and even understand, the mistakes that were made during this unusual period of growth. Rapidly escalating home prices not only eased economic and personal financial woes, they invited opportunity and risk whose rewards, while hard to resist, couldn't possibly be sustained at such a high level. Nonetheless, increasing equity created flexibility that benefitted buyers and sellers alike – as long as property values continued to ascend.

During this time, borrowers with no jobs, no down payments, and poor credit histories could easily obtain financing. A host of exotic mortgage products flooded the market. And even if a borrower got into trouble, there was a multitude of options to help him or her climb out of the hole, including refinancing or even selling the property. A lot of people made a lot of money during this time.

But, as the real estate market began to turn and the economy began to suffer, home values slowed and then ground to a halt, and the true risk in the market was exposed. No longer supported by skyrocketing home values, borrowers had fewer options, lending guidelines tightened, adjustable rates adjusted, resulting in a crash in the market that is only now just beginning to turn.

What Does This Mean to Borrowers Today?
Simply put, home lending has returned to what insiders call a "full-doc world." This means lenders need proof, documented evidence that a borrower is creditworthy and likely to repay the loan. This creditworthiness is based on the four tenets of lending: the borrower's ability to pay, willingness to pay, equity in the transaction, and the property itself.

Ability to Pay
This is the documentation portion of the equation. In determining one's ability to repay a loan, it is now common for a lender to ask for recent paystubs, W-2s, and possibly tax returns in the case of a salaried employee. For self-employed borrowers and those earning commissions, tax returns for the two most recent years and a profit and loss statement for the current calendar year will likely be required. While certain exceptions may be granted, potential borrowers can further increase their chances of securing a mortgage by keeping their debt-to-income level below 45%.

Willingness to Pay
Repercussions of the credit crisis have made FICO scores more important than ever to lenders. In order to obtain the best interest rate and have a broader selection of loan programs from which to choose, potential borrowers should strive to keep their FICO score above 720.

Borrowers whose scores fall below 720 where the loan will be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can expect risk-based pricing, which could result in either higher costs or higher rates. So, while it is possible to get a loan with scores as low as 620, programs other than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are probably the best path for a borrower with a lower score to take.

Equity in the Transaction
With the exception of mortgage programs guaranteed by the USDA and VA, no-down-payment loans have pretty much evaporated on a national level. Today it is expected that borrowers put a minimum of 3.5% down for an FHA loan and 5%-10% down for agency loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

If someone is strapped for cash, however, it is still possible in the purchase contract to negotiate with the seller to pay a percentage of the closing costs, as long as it's within the program's limitations and the property appraises highly enough for this action to be permitted.

With the exception of the President's Home Stability Plan, it is no longer possible to refinance a loan without equity in the property. However, under this plan, millions of homeowners are expected to be able to take advantage of being able to refinance at a loan-to-value of up to 105% of the appraised value.

Cash-out refinancing has also been tightened, compared to just a few years ago. While pulling equity out of a home is still possible, the costs to do so have become more expensive for homes with a higher loan-to-value. Depending on the program, cash-out transactions have generally been limited to a maximum of 85% of the home's appraised value.

The Property
Home appraisals are also being more scrutinized today to ensure the value of the home is both fair and realistic for lender and borrower alike. On May 1st, new legislation (Home Value Code of Conduct or HVCC) placed a barrier between loan originators and appraisers for loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (legislation does not affect mortgages guaranteed by the FHA, USDA or VA.)

For those loans impacted by HVCC, all parties involved should be prepared for potential delays. If value conflicts occur, sellers, buyers, homeowners, and real estate agents must be prepared to provide information where needed.

In locations of the country where property values have been in significant decline, additional documentation may be required by the appraiser to help the lender justify the appraised value.

In Summary
Yes, getting a mortgage may be more difficult than it was a few years ago, but don't assume that you can't get one.

Reports suggest that over $2.7 trillion in loans will be originated in 2009 – that's over $1 trillion more than 2008. Contact the professional who supplied you with your copy of YOU Magazine. With interest rates at or near all time lows, lower home prices, and the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers, it's worth the time and effort to find out if you can benefit from common-sense lending in today's real estate market.

Pending Home Sales Up for Three Months in a Row

2009-06-04T12:23:00.001-07:00

Pending Home Sales Up for Three Months in a Row

RISMEDIA, June 2, 2009-Record low mortgage interest rates boosted pending home sales for the third consecutive month, with some benefit now from the first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7% to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2% above April 2008 when it was 87.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions. “Housing affordability conditions have been at historic highs, but now the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit is beginning to impact the market,” he said. “Since first-time buyers must finalize their purchase by November 30 to get the credit, we expect greater activity in the months ahead, and that should spark more sales by repeat buyers.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast shot up 32.6% to 78.9 in April and is 0.8% above a year ago. In the Midwest the index rose 9.8% to 90.4 and is 11.1% above April 2008. The index in the South slipped 0.2% to 93.0 in April but is 3.5% higher than a year ago. In the West the index rose 1.8% to 94.8 but is 2.9% below April 2008.

NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said there are numerous buyer assistance programs around the country. “Some states are offering bridge loans that allow first-time buyers to use the tax credit for downpayment and closing costs, but there are many other local government and nonprofit programs available to buyers, depending on location,” he said.

“Just last week, HUD announced that qualifying buyers can use the tax credit for closing costs on FHA loans, to buy down the interest rate or make a larger downpayment. Buyers who are wondering about their options should contact a Realtor®, who can advise consumers on the housing assistance programs and resources available in a given area.”

NAR’s Housing Affordability Index is in record territory. The affordability index rose to 174.8 in April from an upwardly revised 171.9 in March, and was the second highest monthly reading on record after peaking at 176.9 in January of this year. The HAI is a broad measure of housing affordability using consistent values and assumptions over time, which examines the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income; tracking began in 1970.

A median-income family, earning $60,900, could afford a home costing $296,800 in April with a 20% downpayment, assuming 25% of gross income is devoted to mortgage principal and interest. Affordability conditions for first-time buyers with the same income and small downpayments are roughly 80% of that amount. The affordable price was well above the median existing single-family home price in April, which was $169,800.

Yun cautions that the reporting sample for pending home sales is smaller than that of existing-home sales, so it is subject to greater variability. “In addition, the relationship between contracts on pending home sales and closings on existing-home sales is taking longer than in the past for several reasons,” he said. “Mortgage processing time has increased, it is taking many months to close on those homes requiring short sales with lender approval, and some sales are falling through at the last moment.”

The total number of existing-home sales is expected to improve but with dramatic local market variation in the timing of recovery. “The market has already bottomed in some areas, but this is an unusual housing cycle with some areas improving rapidly while others languish or decline,” Yun said.

For more information, visit http://www.realtor.org.

Read more: "Pending Home Sales Up for Three Months in a Row | RISMedia" - http://rismedia.com/2009-06-02/pending-home-sales-up-for-three-months-in-a-row/#ixzz0HUUwhaAo&A

From the Midwest to the Pacific, job seekers are heading to Texas

2009-05-26T12:43:00.001-07:00

From the Midwest to the Pacific, job seekers are heading to Texas

'If you had to ride out this downturn, there is no better place than Texas. The declines here have been nothing compared to other states.’

By STEVE CAMPBELL

sfcampbell@star-telegram.com

Across the nation, unemployment is sky-high, the housing market is sucking wind and recessionary fears have frozen Americans in place.

Just don’t tell that to a stream of new residents who are "voting with their feet" that Texas is the safest place to ride out the storm and the place to be when the economy recovers.

Even in the midst of a recession, economists, demographers and relocation experts believe the Lone Star State is on the cusp of becoming The New California.

Or maybe it already is.

For people seeking economic opportunity, Texas is becoming what California has been since the Great Depression, says Los Angeles urbanist and author Joel Kotkin. Texas recently "ran the table" in a recent list of "Best Cities for Jobs" prepared by Kotkin for New Geography and Forbes. Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas were ranked as the top five large metro areas in the country to find a job. If that weren’t enough to get the moving van loaded, McAllen and Odessa top the mid-sized and small city categories, respectively. Among 333 metropolitan areas, Texas has a remarkable 20 in the top 100.

Relocation surveys show that Texas remains a top destination for people leaving other states. Its automobile registrations continue to climb, and the Texas housing market has avoided the double-digit declines other fast-growing states have seen. While the unemployment rate has risen in Texas, it’s nowhere near as high as most of the country, underscoring the state’s economic resiliency even as the downturn deals out its lumps.

Kotkin, a professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., who analyzed U.S. Labor Department statistics for his report, says Texas’ dominance at the top of the jobs list is unprecedented.

"Part of it is a function of the economic collapse of Florida, Phoenix and California. The collapse is still important in Texas, but Texas has had more balanced growth and that’s more sustainable," he said in a telephone interview while navigating an L.A. freeway.

"Part is the nature of Texas: People don’t move there for climate and scenery," Kotkin said. "They move to Texas for jobs and affordable housing. People make economic decisions to go to these places. They don’t go for perfect weather where you can surf one day and ski the next."

Selling "everything but the deer head" and leaving the Detroit area for Texas was simple math for Rodger Benton after Hewlett Packard laid him off.

"It was pretty much a no-brainer to make the move," he said. "The unemployment rate in Michigan is really high. Things are really tough up there. There’s just more opportunity here."

Jobs beget growth

Steve Murdock, who was the Texas state demographer for 25 years and director of the U.S. Census Bureau during the last year of the George W. Bush administration, says jobs attract new residents, and Texas has been driving fast for several years.

"Very few of us say, 'I think I’ll go there because there are not as many " he said. jobs and they pay less,’

Murdock, now a sociology professor at Rice University, says Texas’ growth in the last decade has "been simply phenomenal."

According to the latest Census figures released in March, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added 146,500 people between July 2007 and July 2008 — more than any metropolitan area in the nation. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown added 130,000 for the No. 2 spot, and Texas had 10 of the top 25 counties with the biggest numerical gains.

Texas has lost jobs in the recession, with the unemployment rate at 6.7 percent in March, the highest mark since January 2004, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

But that still looks good compared with Michigan (12.6 percent unemployment), Oregon (12.1), South Carolina (11.4), California (11.2) or North Carolina (10.4).

"If you had to ride out this downturn, there is no better place than Texas. The declines here have been nothing compared to other states," said Richard Froeshle, deputy director of Texas Workforce Commission.

Moving out

As the economy has soured, many people are moving to Texas for a new start.

In 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, 14.3 percent of the people leaving the once Golden State were bound for the Lone Star State, according to Relocation.com, which tracks moving trends. Other states with sizable outflows to Texas included Florida (7.9 percent), Illinois (4.7), Michigan (4.6) and New York (4.3).

Another indicator of moving patterns is U-Haul truck rentals.

To rent a 26-foot moving truck today from Los Angeles to Fort Worth would cost $2,141. Renting that truck for a Fort Worth-to-L.A. run would only cost $557. Nearly the same prices apply for moves from Detroit to Fort Worth and vice versa.

That means far more people are moving to Texas than going in the other direction, a U-Haul employee in Fort Worth said.

Julie and William Taylor of Flower Mound made that jump just before California’s housing bubble burst.

Fed up with William’s three-hour round-trip commute and the state’s declining economy, they unloaded their home in Santa Clarita in 2006 after it had doubled 1/2 years."We thought, 'We better do it now while we can.’ I had in value in 3 never even come to Texas, but we knew there were jobs here," said Julie, a stay-at-home mom with two small children. "We knew it was going to be easier for my husband to find a job [in the transportation industry]. And it was true. We feel so blessed to have gotten out when we did."

'The place to go’

Tory Gattis, who runs a software company and writes Houston Strategies, an urban issues blog, is convinced that Texas will be the "focal point" of the nation’s next historic migration trend.

"During the Dust Bowl, during the Great Depression, California was the place to go. Texas is the place to go now," Gattis said. "Sure, we are clearly losing some jobs but people are still moving here. I can see it anecdotally in the license plates around town. I see a lot of Michigan plates, California license plates, I see them from all over."

That’s playing out across the state, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, which tracks motor vehicle registrations.

In 2000, there were 17,962,300 registered vehicles in Texas and that number soared more than 3 million to 21,185,173 by the end of last year, the department reports.

"Vehicle registrations continue to climb by the hundreds of thousands in Texas despite a decline in vehicle sales," department spokeswoman Kim Sue Lia Perkes said. "This may be one indicator that Texas continues to experience a steady stream of transplants from other states despite the national economic downturn."

John McLendon sees the economy where all that rubber meets the road.

No Vacancy signs were the norm at his Oak Creek RV Park near Weatherford for years as migratory workers flocked to the drilling fields of the Barnett Shale, he said. Most of them cleared out late last year, when natural gas prices cratered and companies mothballed rigs.

Now he’s seeing a different trend. People from states hit hard by the recession are coming here in search of jobs. "I’ve seen some from Florida, Utah, Colorado, Montana — they’re from everywhere," McLendon said.

Jo Ann Royer, director of relocations for Williams & Trew real estate, say inquiries about moving to Fort Worth are coming from across the country.

"We’re seeing the whole spectrum of medical industry employees. They are coming from everywhere because the hospitals here are expanding," Royer said. "We’ve had, believe it or not in this economy, banking personnel coming in because there is a new bank on every corner in Fort Worth."

'Zone of sanity’

Jim Gaines, a research economist at Texas A&M University, says that the recession has slowed overall growth but that there are good reasons why people continue to come to Texas.

"Why do people move? Generally, jobs," Gaines said. "Right now, Texas will probably be the only state in the Union that reports more jobs than the year before — by a total of close to 154,000 [in 2008]."Those numbers will be reduced this year. But if you are an entrepreneur or want to start a business, this is the best place to do it because of the pro-business attitude of the state."

Eventually, when distressed housing markets across the country stabilize, Gaines predicts that skittish homeowners will be weighing their options. In those places, "as soon as you can finally sell, you’re going to get the hell out of Dodge," Gaines said.

Jason Saving, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, also believes that Texas has some "fundamental advantages" that are spurring growth, even in a recession.

First is a "very favorable business climate," and second is affordable real estate.

"These things make the state attractive to businesses and residents alike," Saving said. "I think that’s why, if you look at the migration data within the U.S., that you see so many people moving from other states to Texas."

Gattis says Texas’ cost of living is a key to its attractiveness.

"It’s not everything," he said, "but when you have more discretionary income you can buy a better house, a better car, you can spend it at restaurants. That’s income that leads to a better quality of life. "

Texas State Demographer Karl Eschbach says in tough times, people "move to where they think they can survive."

"You might move back home where you have family and a support network, or you move to where you can get a job," Eschbach said. "If I’d left Texas and then lost my job, I would be back in a quarter-second."

Mark Lowther moved fast when that happened to him.

The Texas native was a marketing manager in Seattle for Washington Mutual, the failed savings and loan which was bought by JPMorgan Chase.

His job ended May 1, and he and his wife, Michelle, a disaster contingency consultant, "jumped" at the chance to come to Fort Worth so he could join Southwest Bank as a senior vice president and marketing director.

"The real estate market here is stronger and more affordable," Mather said as movers were unloading the couple’s belongings. "You can buy a comparable house here for close to half the price what you can get on the West Coast."

Kotkin, the L.A. author, says Texas is benefitting by being in what he calls "the zone of sanity," a swath of the nation’s midsection where housing prices stayed stable.

The twin lures of jobs and affordable housing are important to young professionals planning to raise a family or start a business, he said.

That’s what Lance Marshall and Elizabeth Peirce have in mind. The 25-year-old high school sweethearts from North Texas moved to Chicago in 2005 to pursue careers after graduating from college.

Marshall managed a specialty wine store and Peirce worked for a nonprofit and then turned to waiting tables before working as a media coordinator for a fashion boutique.

"I was underemployed and I never stopped looking for a job," Peirce said. "In Chicago, the competition was incredibly fierce and the economy wasn’t very good and then it really declined last year."

When they got engaged, coming back home looked like the safe bet. In February, they moved in with her parents in Grapevine, which has "been fun and mortifying at the same time," she said.

She’s now working as a sales consultant at a bridal shop. It’s not the job in communications that she wants, but it’s a start, and she’s still hunting. Marshall is working for a wine distribution company and dreaming of owning his own business.

"I can see a lot of optimistic growth here" he said. "I want to be a 50-year-in-the-same-house kind of guy, and when I was thinking of the places to do it — it was D-FW."

Open for business

Texas’ business climate of low taxes and a low regulatory burden draws companies and workers, Saving said.

"There is something inherently entrepreneurial about Texas. It’s the nature of the state from its formation, Texas was built by people who were looking to better themselves, and that has continued ever since," he said.

Kotkin says tight business regulation is hurting California. But not Texas. "Whether you are GOP or Democrat, you can’t imagine Texas becoming anti-business," he said.

Seguin Mayor Betty Ann Matthies says that mind-set is part of the reason Caterpillar is building a 850,000-square-feet diesel-engine plant that will employ 1,400 in her town of 25,091 east of San Antonio.

"I think that Texas is known right now for trying to encourage industry to come here," Matthies said.

The city and state’s "willingness to help," along with a location with easy access to interstates and major ports were key factors in Caterpillar’s decision, spokeswoman Kate Kenny said.

"It was a good decision all around, the location, the people, the timing," she said.

An economic refuge

No one argues that the recession hasn’t bruised Texas, too.

But for people like Benton from Clinton Township, Mich., Texas feels like an economic safe zone by comparison.

When Benton, a 45-year-old staff sergeant in the Army National Guard, was notified that he was losing his job as a computer systems operator, he also learned he was going to be redeployed.

He was at Fort Hood in Texas when he was on active duty in the 1990s and he liked it. "People are friendly here," he said.

So he leapt at a chance to be stationed in San Antonio and work as a liaison in the Wounded Warrior program helping injured soldiers. "This is rewarding. I don’t plan on going back to Michigan," he said.

The auto industry’s woes stretch from Michigan into Dayton, Ohio, where Dione Kennedy, 48, was the president and CEO of a theater association. Since January, she’s held the same title at Bass Hall in Fort Worth.

"Things are very tough in Ohio," she said "Dayton is a big GM town, and a lot of industry was built around that and it has been hit hard."

And the real estate market here seemed healthy by comparison.

"Prices for homes in Ohio have been rapidly dropping and in the communities here there was no apparent downturn," Kennedy said.

She and husband Daniel, a stay-at-home dad for their young daughter, have noticed another difference.

"It seems like every time my husband talks to someone in Dayton, it’s another concern about someone about to lose a job or has a lost a job. We don’t hear that here."

The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that because of the recession, Americans are moving at some of the lowest rates in 50 years.

But Saving, the Fed economist, believes people "will vote with their feet" and keep heading to Texas.

"Moving is costly, and it’s a hassle. It’s not something people want to do . and looking long-term, I think it’s . . unless they see a better opportunity clear that Texas is a favorable place to be from an economic point of view."

Distressed Properties and First-Time Home Buyers - The Recipe for Real Estate Recovery?

2009-05-19T10:01:00.001-07:00

Distressed Properties and First-Time Home Buyers - The Recipe for Real Estate Recovery?
By Mary Ellen Podmolik Print Article
RISMEDIA, May 19, 2009-(MCT)-Value-conscious, first-time buyers have become key to the housing market’s recovery, and they are snapping up priced-right foreclosures despite the warts-and-all, sold-as-is condition of the properties. Half of the sales made in the year’s first quarter were to first-time buyers and almost half of all these sales were distressed properties, the National Association of Realtors reported. Distressed properties include foreclosures and short sales, which are private transactions in which a homeowner sells the property for less than the amount owed on a mortgage.

The glut of foreclosures has pushed down home values, so heightened interest in buying them benefits the immediate neighborhood and the overall housing market.

“It’s a very good first step,” said Lance Ramella, a principal at RW Real Estate Advisors in Oakbrook Terrace. “The first step is selling the most value-conscious units and those are the foreclosures. We’re not going to see any real sustainable price appreciation until we move the foreclosures off the inventory list.”

Moving homes off the foreclosure inventory list may take a while though. With the lapse of several industrywide foreclosure moratoriums, lenders nationwide are initiating foreclosure proceedings again. Government-led efforts to refinance or modify troubled loans can’t help the rising number of people unable to pay their mortgages because they’ve lost their jobs.

In Illinois, more than 7,300 homes became bank-owned during the year’s first quarter, according to RealtyTrac. It’s impossible to determine how many of them are listed for sale, or sold, at any one time because the area’s real estate listing service doesn’t require a property to be listed as a foreclosure.

To capture new interest in home sales thanks to lower interest rates and a first-time-buyer tax credit, a growing number of lenders and asset management companies that own foreclosed homes now appear more willing to drop prices. Banks used to hold fast on pricing and held back properties so they didn’t flood the market, but that has changed, said Susan Sirles Fidler, an agent at Re/Max 10 in Oak Lawn who works with lenders.

Attractive pricing is causing a noticeable increase in multiple offers. In just the past two weeks, a two-bedroom, two-bath Lincoln Park condo listed at $289,000 garnered 60 showings in two days and 20 offers; it sold for just over $330,000. A vandalized East Village penthouse that needed at least $80,000 in repairs was listed at $159,000 and sold for $245,000. In Northbrook, a foreclosed home listed at $719,000 received multiple offers and sold for $730,000.

A bidding battle on a foreclosure with potential “is not the exception,” said Henry Torn, a buyer’s agent at Chicago Realty Partners.

The uptick in interest is encouraging to lenders as well. “That’s what gives us hope,” said Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage. “It’s positive, healthy activity. We’re actively lending to that end of the market, the owner-occupant.”

Finding diamonds in the rough can be a test of stamina, determination and an ability to hold one’s breath. There can be evidence of vandalism, water damage, multicolor mold and squatters who didn’t have access to bathroom facilities because the plumbing fixtures were stolen.

“This is not for the faint of heart,” said Marki Lemons, an agent with Rubloff Residential Properties, who carries a flashlight into properties and keeps paper masks in her car. “You have to be patient, be non-judgmental and have some vision. You have to decide if you can stomach this.”

Others are in decidedly better shape, in part either because companies are offering departing homeowners cash for keys and a clean property or they are sprucing up the properties before they put them on the market.

“These asset managers are at a point where they’re writing checks and trusting the Realtor to get the work done and put it on the market,” said Dean Rouso, owner of Prime Property Partners in La Grange. “We’re helping the neighborhoods because instead of having this comparable property out there for $99,000, we now have a comp for $150,000.”

Not all buyers, however, find themselves on the winning end of foreclosure deals, and that is causing them to look for value in the traditional market.

‘Making Home Affordable’ Program Delivers Much-Needed Relief to Homeowners

2009-05-18T10:07:00.001-07:00

‘Making Home Affordable’ Program Delivers Much-Needed Relief to Homeowners
Print Article
RISMEDIA, May 18, 2009-With the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program delivering much-needed relief to homeowners and to our economy just over two months after the release of program guidelines, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan provided an update on the program’s impact on stemming the housing crisis and keeping families in their homes and announced new options for homeowners facing foreclosure.

“In just over two months, the Making Home Affordable program is up and running, helping our economy recover and making a difference in the lives and livelihoods of thousands of American homeowners. Historically low interest rates are allowing Americans to refinance and save money, and modifications are helping homeowners avoid foreclosure,” said Secretary Geithner. “We are announcing a new program component to help homeowners obtain modifications in areas suffering from home price declines. If a modification is not possible, we are also announcing steps to encourage the quick private sale or voluntary transfer of property, which will save homeowners money and protect their financial future. These are critical steps in stemming the foreclosure crisis and stabilizing the housing market, both of which are critical to our economic recovery.”

“I can’t stress enough how important our HUD-approved counseling agencies are to the success of the Making Home Affordable program, and ultimately, to helping keep American families in their homes,” Secretary Donovan said. “That’s why HUD has requested a $100 million investment in our Housing Counseling Assistance Program for fiscal year 2010, a $35 million increase from our 2009 budget. This investment will help further support the work of our 2,600 HUD-approved housing counselors across the nation, just like those at NCRC, who play a key role in ensuring that borrowers can take part in the modification and refinancing options made available through Making Home Affordable.”

The new details on the Making Home Affordable program include:

-Foreclosure Alternatives provide incentives for servicers and borrowers to pursue short sales and deeds-in-lieu (DIL) of foreclosure in cases where the borrower is generally eligible for a MHA modification but does not qualify or is unable to complete the process, which helps prevent costly foreclosures and minimizes the damage that foreclosures impose on borrowers, financial institutions and communities. The new details will simplify and streamline the process of pursuing short sales and deeds-in-lieu, which will facilitate the ability of more servicers and borrowers to utilize the program. The program provides a standard process flow, minimum performance timeframes and standard documentation, and it offers financial incentives to servicers and borrowers to pursue these alternatives to foreclosure.

-Home Price Decline Protection Incentives (HPDP) will provide lenders additional incentives for modifications where home price declines have been most severe and lenders fear these declines may persist. To encourage the modification of more mortgages and enable more families to keep their homes, the Administration, building on insights pioneered by Chairman Bair and the FDIC, has developed an innovative payment that provides compensation based on recent home price declines. Together, the incentive payments on all modified homes will help cover the incremental collateral loss on those modifications that do not succeed. HPDP payments will be linked to the rate of recent home price decline in a local housing market, as well as the average cost of a home in that market.

Since the launch of Making Home Affordable, more than one million Americans have now refinanced, due to historically low interest rates, and thousands of underwater borrowers have refinanced under the Home Affordable Refinance Program. Fannie Mae has had over 233,000 eligible refinance applications through its refinancing program, with more than 51,000 of these having loan-to-value ratios between 80% and 105%. More than 55,000 Home Affordable Modification offers have been extended to qualifying borrowers. Additionally, servicers have mailed more than 300,000 letters to homeowners who are potential candidates for the program. The refinance application volumes and modifications underway make clear the desire of homeowners to take advantage of the Administration’s program.

Making Home Affordable, a comprehensive plan to stabilize the U.S. housing market, was first announced by the Administration on February 18. The three part program includes aggressive measures to support low mortgage rates by strengthening confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; a Home Affordable Refinance Program, which will provide new access to refinancing for up to 4 to 5 million homeowners; and a Home Affordable Modification Program, which will reduce monthly payments on existing first lien mortgages for up to 3 to 4 million at-risk homeowners. Two weeks later, the Administration published detailed guidelines for the Home Affordable Modification Program and authorized servicers to begin modifications under the plan immediately. Fourteen servicers, including the five largest, have now signed contracts and begun modifications under the program. Between loans covered by these servicers and loans owned or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, Home Affordable Modification participants now account for more than 75% of all loans in the country.

For more information, visit www.financialstability.gov.

Why Live In Texas... You gotta see this video

2009-05-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

This video shows the growth and opportunity here in Texas. The stats are real and Texas is not only the perfect place to live but the perfect place to have a job. With times as they are we as real estate agents are seeing more and more out of state home buyers who are relocating to either find new jobs or their actual headquarters moved to Texas. That says a lot. We hope you enjoy this video. Click here if you have any questions.

Fort Worth Added More Residents than any other North Texas City in 2008

2009-04-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Newly built homes dot the skyline west of I-35W at North Tarrant Parkway in far north Fort Worth.

Fort Worth continues to lead the way for growth in the Metroplex.

Cowtown added 17,400 residents last year — up from 16,000 in 2007 — and now has a population of 720,250, according to figures released Thursday afternoon by the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

But while Fort Worth continues to boom, growth overall in the 16-county North Texas region has slowed, mostly because of declines in the housing market.

Overall, the region’s population grew by 92,480; the first time the estimated growth was less than 100,000 in 13 years. Last year, the region added 131,000 residents.

Duane Dankesreiter, manager of research and information services for the North Central Texas council, said the slower growth reflected the mortgage crisis and broader economic recession. Both are scaring off residential construction in the area. Just 27,339 single-family units were built in the region in 2008, a 30 percent drop from the year before.

Construction of new multifamily units kept pace with previous years.

"We still have people coming into the region, but it’s definitely slowed," Dankesreiter said. "I don’t think it will go too much lower, given that our economy is still better than most out there."

Fort Worth was the leader in growth, but Dallas and Arlington grew as well, Dallas by 6,000 residents and Arlington by 1,300. Tarrant County as a whole gained 27,650 people last year, more than any other county in the North Central Texas region, which is anchored by Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief attributed the city’s growth to its unique quality of life and diverse work force. But with the growth comes the need for more police, fire and other city services.

"As the city grows and our numbers grow, then the demands grow accordingly," Moncrief said. "I’d much rather have 17,400 new people than lose 17,400 Fort Worth citizens, any day."

Dankesreiter admitted to being surprised by Fort Worth’s resilience. He had not expected to see the city add more people in 2008 than it did in 2007, he said. He guessed that the new jobs created by the Barnett Shale – a huge natural gas field that lies beneath Fort Worth and other parts of North Texas -- may have been an important factor.

Moncrief agreed that jobs related to activity in the Barnett Shale have helped insulate the city from economic problems that other parts of the country are experiencing.

"I know that Fort Worth is not bulletproof," he said. "I do believe we are going to be affected less. I think we’re going to be affected last."

Mansfield leads the charge

Mansfield saw the largest percentage growth in Tarrant County, a 5.2 percent jump, bringing the city’s population to 55,950. Spokeswoman Belinda Willis said the city’s building boom began to ebb about four years ago, after several years of seeing requests of more than 1,000 single-housing permits annually.

"If that trend had continued, we’d actually be at 65,000, but that trend has backed off for quite awhile now," Willis said.

Roanoke in Denton County also saw a large increase, growing by 800 people, or 13 percent, to 6,950 people.

Farmers Branch leads Dallas County

In Dallas County, Farmers Branch had the biggest growth, jumping 8.1 percent to 31,100 people. Spokesman Tom Bryson said city leaders have been working to foster quality mixed-use and multifamily developments. A 2-year-old controversy over aggressive measures to force out illegal immigrants in the city had spurred concerns that it might deter the city’s growth.

"I’d say that if you go through anecdotal information, obviously you hear things on both sides, but I think the numbers speak for themselves," Bryson said.

Nearby Addison had by far the largest population drop in the region, of 12.4 percent, which Dankesreiter attributed to the city’s demolition of several multifamily units to make room for a new mixed-use development.

The Council of Governments’ population estimates are based on current housing inventories and weighed against other statistics including occupancy rates and labor force estimates.

AMAN BATHEJA, 817-390-7695
abatheja@star-telegram.com
Star-Telegram

2009 Spring Tour of New Homes

2009-04-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Looking for a new home? Curious what the 2009 new home builder has to offer in a new home? Looking for decorating tips that will set you apart from all your neighbors and friends? Well, come out to the 2009 Spring Tour of New Homes and see.

May 1-3, May 8-10, & May 15-17

This year there will be over 70 homes ranging from $110,000 to $2.3 million in Denton, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant and Wise Counties.

For details check out the website below for times and locations to pick up the Tour Book.

www.fwspringtour.com

Check it out! You will be glad you did!

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Helping More Homeowners - Loan Modifications Increasing

2009-04-17T11:23:00.001-07:00

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Helping More Homeowners - Loan Modifications Increasing
RISMEDIA, April 17, 2009-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac modified nearly 24,000 loans during the fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of 76% over the third quarter. The modifications, along with the suspension of foreclosures that began November 26, reduced the number of foreclosures by nearly 27% during the quarter, according to data released by James B. Lockhart, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as part of the Foreclosure Prevention Report for the fourth quarter for 2008.

The FHFA report details the actions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have taken to prevent foreclosures and keep people in their homes. It analyzes data provided by the companies with adjustments to account for the impact of the foreclosure suspension. The suspension, originally set to end Jan. 9, 2009, was later extended to Jan. 31, 2009.

“Fewer homeowners are losing their homes as a result of the foreclosure prevention efforts,” said Director Lockhart. “We expect the numbers of those getting relief to grow further as the Making Home Affordable program picks up speed in coming months.”

The foreclosure prevention options include forbearance plans, payment plans, delinquency advances and loan modifications. Workout options that led to resolution of delinquent accounts, which means the account was either reinstated or removed from the portfolio, increased 15% in the last quarter of 2008.

The report shows that as of Dec. 31, 2008, of the Enterprises’ 30.7 million residential mortgages:

• Modifications represented 34.0% of fourth quarter loss mitigation actions up from 22.2% of the third quarter.
• Completed payment plans represented 19.0% of fourth quarter loss mitigation actions compared to 24.2% of the third quarter.
• Short sales represented 8.9% of fourth quarter loss mitigation actions compared to 7.7% of third quarter.
• Deeds in lieu represented 0.8% of fourth quarter loss mitigation actions compared to 0.7% in the third quarter.

As a result of increased loss mitigation efforts and the foreclosure suspensions, the overall loss mitigation performance ratio (loss mitigation actions as a percentage of mortgages for which foreclosure was likely) for mortgages serviced on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, increased from 55% during the third quarter of 2008 to 65.7% in the fourth quarter. For prime loans, the ratio increased from 45.1% to 54.2%, and for nonprime loans from 64.7% in the third quarter to 75.3% in the fourth quarter.

Suspensions gave servicers more time to work with borrowers in foreclosure who were eligible for the Streamlined Modification Program introduced in early November 2008. The impact of the suspensions caused December 2008 numbers for completed foreclosure and third-party sales to decline and for total loans, 60-plus, and 90-plus-days delinquent loans to increase.

When adjusted to account for foreclosure suspensions, the month-over-month change in the delinquency rates decreased. The month-over-month change in the 60-plus-days delinquency rate from October 2008 to November 2008 was an increase of 14.39%. The month-over-month change from November 2008 to December 2008 was an increase of 9.31%.

For more information, visit www.fanniemae.com or www.freddiemac.com.

Chef' Point Cafe on Food Network

2009-04-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

Chef Point Cafe

Look for us on

Food Network's
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Monday, April 6, 2009
9pm
Check your local listing
for more information

A Unique Fort Worth, TX Restaurant

Gourmet chef Franson and his wife Paula Nwaeze chose an unusual place to open an upscale Fort Worth restaurant.

A Conoco gas station in Watauga, TX.

How the Chef Point Café came to be there is a funny story of perseverance and creativity.

Quirky and fun, Chef Point Café’ has as its motto: Fill'er-up outside, fill'er-up inside. While you relax and await one of the chef’s signature dishes, you’re welcome to thumb through the latest issue of Auto Trader or buy a scratch off lotto ticket.

But don’t expect the usual convenience store fare.

A mixture of hearty American comfort food and Italian cuisine, the Chef Point Café menu includes such delectable culinary creations as crab cakes topped with roasted bell pepper, lobster bisque, and grilled sea scallops in garlic butter.

And don’t you dare visit the Chef Point Café without tasting the bread pudding smothered in hot cognac sauce, the bread pudding voted best among Fort Worth restaurants.

(817) 656-0080
5901 Watauga Rd
Watauga, TX

If you have not experienced Chef Point Cafe you don't know what you are missing. The food is beyond words, the wait staff is friendly, the dress if comfortable and the prices are good! Check it out..See for yourself..You will be glad you did.

Texas Still Most Popular "Moving-to" State

2009-03-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

For the fourth straight year, Texas is the No. 1 state Americans are moving to, according to Allied Van Lines, which annually tracks U.S. migration patterns. Texas had the highest net relocation gain (inbound moves minus outbound moves performed by Allied Van Lines) of 1,903 in 2008. “With the continued job growth we’re seeing in major cities like Dallas and Houston, and very affordable home prices statewide, Texas is still the place to be,” says Brooke Hunt, 2009 chairman of the Texas Association of REALTORS®. Texas’ 9,879 total Allied shipments (inbound and outbound moves) in 2008 ranked second behind California, which had 11,400. But more people moved out of California last year, enabling Texas to retain its status as the No. 1 “moving-to” state in the country. In fact, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas gained more residents between July 2007 and July 2008 than any other state. Texas gained 484,000 residents during the 12-month period, followed by California (379,000), North Carolina (181,000), and Georgia (162,000).

If you’ve recently moved to Texas, or you’re thinking about it, check out the Moving to Texas section of TexasRealEstate.com.

Sources: Allied Van Lines, U.S. Census Bureau, Texas Association of REALTORS®

Foreclosure, Short Sale, Lease to Buy, House Values, Interest rates

2009-03-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

What is it that everyone is talking about? What is really happening and can anyone really help?I have been doing real estate since 1992. I have been self employed for over 1/2 my life. Self employed for those who don't know what that means. Cindie's definition is unemployed with an attitude.That means if I don't show up and perform I don't get paid, in fact sometimes I show up and show up and still don't get paid. The difference is I still just show up anyway. If I was doing real estate to become rich I picked the wrong career. However, if I picked real estate because I genuinely like helping people find a great deal and a nice home to live in or help them sell the one they have then I picked the right career. If you are having trouble and can't seem to find someone that really cares then keep looking till you do. There are lots of people that play are real estate one deal at a time. I like to say I get to help someone one person at a time.

Real estate is normally the largest investment that anyone will make in their life time. So, it should not be handled by someone that just thinks your another deal. If you are facing foreclosure you need to talk to a Realtor who knows and understands the process in your area. There are several different options you can take to stop it long enough to see what options would be best for you. If you don't have the credit score you need to buy a home FHA just passed via the local banks here a minimum of a 620 FICA. FHA did not pass that the banks have taken that on themselves to do. They got the money to loan from the government but your not going to get it so easy. Maybe you need to sell but your home is not worth what you owe that would be a Short Sale. This is where your good Realtor can be worth their weight in gold to you. It is a transaction that your current lender will have the final say on what the terms, price etc will happen. This is a tough pile of paper work. It can be done. I was doing these in 2006 when things were going like gang busters. The biggest issue is getting someone on the lenders side to help your file over the pile they have on the desk. These employees are over worked and under paid in my opinion. If your credit is good and you have enough money to put at least 10% down it is time to buy. I have been telling people when rates were around the 5% mark buy.

The market here in the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area is really good. The kind of home you can owe for the rate of interest you can buy at is unbelieveable. I just got a deal accepted on a 550,000 home buyer is putting down 20% and the interest rate is fixed at 4.78%. Not to mention the deal on the home this would be a 780,000 home. Guys you can't buy the materials to build this home again at this price. Lease to Buy, boy the phones have been ringing off the hook on this deal. Here in Texas none of your monthly rental can be applied, your landlord must keep excellent records or you better make sure you have copies of all cleared checks to show you have been making your rent on time. Your deposit can be put into the pot to close the deal. You really are getting the first right to refusal or you agree to a prices at a much later closing date than normal and at that time you get a real loan and you will own the home after funding and no longer a tenant.

I have spent a lot of energy educating myself and my team on all these issues so we can better service you the clients. Interview and re-interview your Realtor. Make sure your a person with needs and the Realtor your hiring wants to really help you, not just put a sign in the yard and or your bottom in their car seat. Ask a Realtor for help or advise. Their service of talking to you on the phone is free to you. Most are very willing to answer any questions you might have.
--
Cindie Stewart
Broker/Owner
Texas Sold Team Realty,LLC
213 S. Elm Street
Keller TX 76248
Office: 817-337-5169
Mobile: 817-881-7653
Fax: 817-796-1242
WWW.SOLDTEAM.NET
Women's Council of Realtors
2009 VP of Membership of NE Tarrant
2008 President of NE Tarrant Co.
Chair for Technology for State of Texas Co-Chair Ways &Means for State of TX
www.wcrnetc.com
www.wcrtexas.org
www.techytalktuesdays.com
ePro, CLHMS, Realtor, CRS
This is a great day and there will not be another one just like it, enjoy fully it will be over soon good or bad

Praise Dave Ramsey for he has spoken the Truth about Real Estate

2009-03-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last night as I laid in bed watching a little TV prior to falling asleep, I was flipping channels and came across the Dave Ramsy program. He was talking about real estate so my ears perked up and listened. I was so very impressed since he is the only real person with exposure to the general public that was finally speaking the truth about this industry.

I have been so tired of the sky is falling attitude of the media. I totally get that bad news sells, but surely people must be getting tired of this. The truth that Dave Ramsey was saying was that most of the foreclosures are in 35 counties of which most of these are in the following: California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Michigan. There is a huge thread about these areas too not just in real estate but with social ideas as well. That I won't go into but the real estate is important. News you won't hear on the national media is that home sales in CA alone are up over 100 percent. WOOO HAAAA but not a word about it.
Second talking point that Dave Ramsey said was that we were going to see over 3 million in foreclosures this year alone. I have said this as well most of the ones that file won't get foreclosed on, their foreclosure will be cleared by a sale of the property, the home owner works something out or the sell with a short sale.

Third talking point that Dave Ramsey said was that according to the Reatlor.org site put out numbers for January 2009 in that month alone there were over 4 million homes sold.

Please not year and month it is important that you are in the know.

There are over 4 million out of work and funny apparently there is over 2 million jobs available. Sure might not be what you want or you might have to move to the job or whatever but there is work if you want to do what you want.

Ok, so if you have over 3 million in foreclosure in a year that is about 257,000 homes a month going into foreclosure.

Why is this news not getting on the national media----- It does not sell. Americans can't get enough of the Dirty Laundry. We wonder why there is so much anti depressant medication available. What we allow to be feed our brains.

I am not saying not be informed. Make sure the facts are true and look for the whole story. You can't get the whole story in a 30 second clip. Do your research.

I just want to thank Dave Ramsey for standing up to the BS that seems to be spread around on a well fertilized field ready to be planted.

--
Cindie Stewart
Broker/Owner
Texas Sold Team Realty,LLC
213 S. Elm Street
Keller TX 76248
Office: 817-337-5169
Mobile: 817-881-7653
Fax: 817-796-1242
WWW.SOLDTEAM.NET
Women's Council of Realtors
2009 VP of Membership of NE Tarrant
2008 President of NE Tarrant Co.
Chair for Technology for State of Texas Co-Chair Ways &Means for State of TX
www.wcrnetc.com
www.wcrtexas.org
www.techytalktuesdays.com
ePro, CLHMS, Realtor, CRS
This is a great day and there will not be another one just like it, enjoy fully it will be over soon good or bad.

WINE & CHEESE OPEN HOUSE 8949 GLENDARA DR., NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS

2009-03-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Texas Sold Team Realty is hosting a Wine and Cheese Open House

Friday, March 13th from 3:00 - 6:00

Come see a beautiful custom built home by Independence Custom Homes, Inc.

Click on the link below for more information.

http://soldteam.net/files/533341/WINE&CHEESE-glendara.pdf

The Perfect Storm for the Ft Worth Home Buyer

2009-02-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Perfect Storm for the home buyer who feels like they have a stable job, good credit, a little money, you will owner occupy and don't think you will be leaving or wanting to move for 10 years and you want to live in these areas. Boy, do we have a deal for you! City of Fort Worth will launch its program March 2009 to give you the home buyer $25,000.00 yes you heard me right $25,000.00 big ones.

Of course you have to want to live in the following zip codes 76131, 76137, 76133, 76123, 76179, 76112,76248 with the city of Fort Worth as your address (some of these might be Keller, Haslet etc zip codes as well if they are not really city of Fort Worth they do not qualify.)

You can't make to much money either 1 person can't make more than $54,250 a year it goes up the more people in your family.

You have to purchase a lender-foreclosed home as well. That should not be to much of a problem since most of the foreclosures are in theses areas.

My whole team has been trained for this program and we have talked with Emily Weathers at Innovative Mortgages who is an approved lender and knows how to get this loan done.

Add some BAM to your deal if you are a first time home buyer on top of that your friendly Federal Government is giving you another $8,000.00 tax credit if you buy prior to December 2009.

That is a great deal combined with the current cost of homes as well as the current interest rate. What are you thinking if you don't at least look into this deal?

Seriously, this is just to good to be true but it is the truth. Yes, there are some conditions that if you don't follow it is not a great deal so you must completely understand the transaction.

You need to find someone that won't take you down the wrong path with a home with major issues, not a good buy and that you are not fully aware of all the terms in which you must live by to do these programs.

Dude, you can put down any where between 10-20k down on the principle of the loan and you don't have to pay it back if you stay for 10 years. This is simple math my friends simple math.

http://www.fortworthgov.org/ecd/info/default.aspx?id=61060

Keller Family's 'Extreme Makeover' Home to Air March 1 on ABC

2009-02-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

BY BETTY DILLARD
February 26, 2009

The newly rebuilt home of the Augustin family in Keller will be unveiled March 1 during an episode of the Emmy Award-winning television series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

The program will air locally at 7 p.m. on Channel 8 WFAA.

Amber and Peter Augustin, a March of Dimes volunteer family, received a new home built and donated by Wall Homes of Arlington in less than a week’s time during the taping of the program in December 2008. Since that time Wall Homes has filed for bankruptcy.

The show is a highlight of the program’s “Heroes in the Community” series.

The Augustins were selected because they are dedicated to helping families with premature babies and because of their active participation with the March of Dimes.

The couple’s son, Lane, was born prematurely in 2004, and spent a month hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit at Baylor Healthcare Systems. He underwent countless surgeries before he was a year old and today still has some on-going health challenges.

Two years after Lane’s birth, a flood destroyed the Augustins’ house along with Amber’s photography studio.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Amber Augustin. “Losing our home was a nightmare, but the silver lining is the support we’ve seen from our community and our family at the March of Dimes.”

The Augustins have raised thousands of dollars to support March of Dimes research and other programs to help prevent and treat premature death.

“My dream is to raise national awareness that premature birth is a serious and growing problem,” said Peter Augustin. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition not only gave us a new home, but is helping more moms have healthy, full-term babies by highlighting the March for Babies this year.”

Donations can be made to the Augustins’ team, Lane’s Light, or a family can create its own team by visiting marchforbabies.org

Farmers Insurance, a national sponsor of the March for Babies, provided insurance for the new home for one year at no cost to the family.

bdillard@bizpress.net

Good Guys Do Still Exist!!

2009-02-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

My husband was given a beautiful stainless steel, 3 burner, bells and whistles grill
last year. It was approximately 1 year old when he got it and this brand carries a 10year warranty. Come to find out Lowes is the only distributor for this brand grill so you have to get all replacement parts and warranty issues done through them.

We cookout 2-3 times a week minimum, year round no matter what the weather. 2 of the 3 burners quit working and when we went on line to Lowes to order replacement parts we were told they were on backorder. Lee decided to go to the Lowes by our home and see if they could help him with replacement parts. Being the rebel that he is he walked into the garden section wearing his Home Depot hat! Tell me that didn't get some attention real quick. He explained his dilema to the department manager and she sent a guy to the back to rob parts off another grill. Lee was thrilled to death! He was going to get to cook last night on all 3 burners!

After trying to install the new burners he discovered that they were too long. So back to Lowes he went. It's a good thing they are close. Come to find out the grill we have is no longer made and the company has merged with someone else and yada, yada, yada. They asked him to load up the old grill and bring it to the store. Good thing the strong neighbor was home to help load this huge, heavy thing into the back of the truck. Back to Lowes he went and they informed him that they were going to swap out the old grill for a new one. This is a $600 grill! When he left there he not only had a new grill with a new warranty but he had a new blue Lowes hat to replace his Home Depot one and he was a very happy camper!! He was cookin on it when I got home last night just smiling from ear to ear!

The art of good customer service still exist! The customer is still #1 and a flailing home repair store has gained a new customer. The customer is still important regardless of what business it is.

The Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009 (TEXAS IS IN THE TOP 5)

2009-02-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

From: BUILDER 2009
Posted on: February 17, 2009 11:02:00 AM
2009's Healthiest Housing Markets

The Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009

Builder, in conjunction with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, debuts its metric for determining markets with the best and least potential.

With most economists and builders expecting a national market decline this year, this may not seem like the best time to be selecting the "healthiest" markets in the country. Virtually every market was down last year. But a close look at the numbers reveals that some markets have way outperformed others during the last four years and are likely to continue to do so this year.

When the housing market stages its official recovery, the markets listed on the following pages are likely to lead the parade. It may take a year or more for the weakest markets--where burgeoning foreclosure sales are still pounding new home values, making building and selling new homes an exercise in futility-- to finally stage a turnaround. We'll present that list next week.

The healthiest markets have many things in common. Most of them are great places to live, either close to the ocean, mountains, or major universities. Most of them didn't have a huge run-up in prices during the boom and aren't experiencing rampant deflation during the bust.

To compile these lists, we analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country. We ranked them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. We also examined what's happened with home prices; many of the healthiest markets have managed to hold the line on home values. And finally, we considered the rate building permits, which may be the single best ongoing indicator of builder confidence in a market. We combined all these metrics to produce a score for each market.

Here are the top 15, in reverse order.

The Healthiest Markets for 2009

15. Myrtle Beach, S.C.
2008 total building permits: 3,211
Though permit activity dropped sharply last year, Myrtle Beach remains one of the hottest markets in the country, especially when you analyze the number of permits pulled per resident. Only 263,287 people live in the Myrtle Beach metro area, which until recently had been growing its population by nearly 5 percent a year. That means builders pulled one permit for every 82 residents. A steady influx of people, many of them retirees, are drawn by close proximity to the ocean and 117 golf courses at last count. That has helped keep home prices steady; they fell only 10 percent last year to a very affordable $174,800. Most of the home building is split between Brunswick and New Hanover counties. Jobs are dependent on the tourist industry, though, and the metro area was rocked last year when a $400 million rock-and-roll themed amusement part, Hard Rock Park, opened and then filed for bankruptcy. Myrtle Beach added jobs last year, but as of December employment was decreasing at a 4.2 percent rate compared to a year earlier.
Busiest builders: Centex Homes, D.R. Horton, Beazer Homes, Bill Clark Homes, Pasquinelli/Portrait Homes

14. Wilmington, N.C.
2008 total building permits: 3,551
Wilmington has the second highest ratio of permits pulled per resident, behind only Myrtle Beach. The population here, 352,919 by Census estimates, has been growing at a 4 percent annual rate for the last five years, well above the national average. Primary residents are drawn by a four-season climate, close proximity to Atlantic beaches, and affordable housing. Median home prices, at $198,700, are just about the national average. The area gave back 1,000 jobs last year, after gaining 19,000 the previous three years. Wilmington has had a 60 percent decline in permit activity since 2005, around the national average, but its track record for population growth helps it make this list.

13. Charlotte, N.C.
2008 total building permits: 12,231
People and businesses must love Charlotte, because they are moving there at a high rate. The metro area of 1.74 million has grown its residents by 4 percent annually over the last five years, one of the highest rates in the country. They are drawn by relatively affordable housing for the east coast—median home prices are only $210,900, and they've only "corrected" downward by only 4.2 percent in the last year. A strong fourth quarter helped Charlotte record 12,231 permits last year, only a 44 percent decline since 2005. Charlotte's strength relative to other markets led the investment banking firm UBS to predict last year that it would be one of the first markets to recover from the housing downturn. Charlotte is still a single-family market, with 62 percent of the residential activity in stand-alone homes. The job market in this banking hub contracted last year, after growing 3 to 5 percent annually the previous three years.
Busiest builders: C.P. Morgan, NVR/Ryan Homes, Pulte Homes, Centex Homes, KB Home

12. Denver, Col.
2008 total building permits: 8,800
Denver has been all over the home building news of late, with Beazer and Centex leaving town, then Village Homes of Colorado declaring bankruptcy. But the market hasn't been hit as hard by the home building recession as other Western markets, in part because it didn't experience rampant price appreciation during the boom. That's partly because there's lots of land available to develop in Denver. The median price of an existing home here was still an affordable $225,100 in the third quarter of last year, down only 11.4 percent in the last year (through 3Q 08). Denver enjoys one of the highest population growth rates in the country--2 percent annually for each of the last five years. Builders pulled 8,800 permits in Denver last year, down from 20,864 in 2005, a percentage decline that's close to the national average. Denver is buoyed by a strong commercial real estate market.
Busiest builders: D.R. Horton, Richmond American Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, Shea Homes, Engle Homes. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

11. Nashville, Tenn.
2008 total building permits: 8,142
Nashville, the 20th largest home building market, operated under the radar of the national housing boom. It didn't ramp up wildly during the boom years, and it's not contracting viciously during the bust. Median home prices remain an affordable $152,100, propped up by a growing job base. Eighty percent of the residential construction is single-family. Some of the market's resilience stems from above-average population growth of about 2.3 percent a year. Back in the day, 2005, Nashville accounted for 16,654 permits; it now runs at about half that level. But that's a better performance than most major markets.
Busiest builders: Ole South Properties, Beazer Homes, Centex Homes, The Jones Company of Tennessee, Technical Olympic USA. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

10. Washington DC
2008 total building permits: 11,693
Washington D.C. showed signs last summer that it might be emerging from the downturn, then it turned south again. Even so, the area produces a ton of jobs—an estimated 35,000 in the last year—that fuel a vibrant housing market, the 11th largest in the country. Many of the jobs stem from contracts with the federal government. Washington D.C. remains a relatively unaffordable place to live, with a median home price of $332,700 in the third quarter of last year. But values have fallen only 24 percent in the last year in part because the population continues to grow—an average of 1 percent annually over the last five years. Home building patterns have changed dramatically in the nation's capital with builders mothballing subdivisions well beyond the beltway and focusing on infill opportunities. The region remains one of the worst in the nation for commuters.
Busiest builders: Ryan Homes, K. Hovnanian Homes, Centex Homes, NV Homes, and Stanley Martin Companies. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

9. Fayetteville, Ark.
2008 total building permits: 2,989
Fayetteville has made some important lists in recent years. Located in the foothills of the Ozarks and within an easy drive of Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters, it has recently been named one of the best places to live (by Kiplinger) and to do business (by Inc.). Employment, which had been strongly positive since 2005, dropped somewhat in the fourth quarter of last year. Recent layoffs at Wal-Mart's corporate office sent tremors through the market. But several Fortune 500 companies that sell products to Wal-Mart have established offices here, and they have helped Fayetteville achieve one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter. The University of Arkansas is also located in Fayetteville, and it has helped attract start-up businesses. Residents are drawn by an affordable housing stock; median prices average only $139,400, below the national average, and they've lost only 2.4 percent of their value in the last year. Builders pulled only 2,989 residential permits last year, down from 7, 449 in 2005.

8. Indianapolis, Ind.
2008 total building permits: 7,004
Builders are still pulling permits at a relatively healthy rate in Indianapolis, despite a virtually flat job market. Unlike other major markets that have become multifamily-oriented, single family still accounts for two-thirds of home building activity. Ultra-affordable housing accounts for some of the activity—the median price of a home here is only $117,900, making it one of the most affordable markets in the country. As a result, home prices have declined only 4.5 percent in the last year. At the top of the market in 2005, builders in Indianapolis took down 15,619 permits, so activity is down 55 percent, slightly better than the national average. Unfortunately, the relative health of the market wasn't enough to keep Davis Homes, one of the area's largest private builders, from going out of business last year.
Busiest builders: C.P. Morgan, Beazer Homes USA/Trinity Homes, Centex Homes, American West Development/Arbor Homes, The Ryland Group. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

7. Seattle, Wash.
2008 total building permits: 13,021
Seattle, a city of 3.4 million people, last year weighed in as the eighth largest home building market. Residential construction activity here, as measured by permits, is off only 50 percent since 2005, much better than most markets. Seattle has steadily transitioned during the last 10 years from an affordable to an upscale housing market, with the median price of an existing home reaching above $350,000. Even so, existing home prices fell only 11 percent in the last year. One of the secrets to Seattle's success is that it has added lots of jobs in recent years; and held on to them last year. Some builders there have even stepped up their land buying in anticipation of a market recovery. As the city has become more urban, the share of single family to multifamily permits has reversed; multifamily now accounts for 58 percent of activity.
Busiest builders: Quadrant Homes, Centex Homes, Murray Franklyn, Camwest Development, Polygon Northwest. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

6. Raleigh, N.C.
2008 total building permits: 11,386
Another state capital with multiple universities, Raleigh was still adding jobs at a 1.9 percent annual rate though the third quarter of last year. With a population of more than 1 million, it also has one of the highest rates of population growth of any top metro market in the country over the last five years: nearly 5 percent annually. Though the price of a median home here, $221,900, is above the national average, it is well below other cities in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The metro area has added roughly 68,000 jobs since 2005, and employment held steady last year. With a glut of national builders in the market, locals such as Dixon Kirby have experimented with different looks and styles to keep sales alive.
Busiest builders: Centex Homes, KB Home, Pulte Homes, Hovnanian Enterprises, Atreus Homes & Communities. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

5. Dallas, Texas
2008 total building permits: 26,145
In a year when permits declined 35 percent nationally, Dallas only experienced a 9 percent fall-off. With a population of 4.2 million, Dallas was the third largest home building market last year, as measured in permits pulled. Employers in Dallas, a popular place for corporate relocation and expansion, added 42,000 jobs last year, a growth rate of 2 percent. Existing home prices have held steady, falling a paltry 2.3 percent in the last year, Interestingly, the face of residential construction has changed dramatically in Dallas in recent years; 58 percent of the activity last year was in multifamily, compared to a five-year average of 23 percent. The relative stability of the market, though, wasn't enough to prevent Wall Homes from filing for bankruptcy earlier this year. On the other hand, former Meritage co-CEO John Landon recently started a new Dallas-based home building company.
Busiest builders: D.R. Horton, Highland Homes, David Weekely Homes, K.Hovnanian Homes, Drees Custom Homes. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

4. San Antonio, Texas
2008 total building permits: 10,261
San Antonio is another Texas market that is still adding jobs, about 15,000 last year. A city of more than 2 million people now, its population is also growing, at a 2.8 percent annual clip through the third quarter of last year. Existing home prices are barely declining in San Antonio, down only 1.8 percent in the last year, leaving the median price of an existing single-family home at an affordable $154,400, 25 percent below the national average of $200,500, according to the National Association of Realtors. The upper end of the housing market was hurt recently when AT&T announced it would be moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas.
Busiest builders: D.R. Horton, K.B. Home, Centex Homes, Pulte Homes, Fieldstone Communities. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

3. Fort Worth, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 10,388
Fort Worth, always operating in the shadow of higher profile Dallas, nevertheless can currently claim to have a slightly healthier housing market, based on its employment growth, relatively strong permit activity, and inexpensive housing. Now the 14th largest home building market in the country, Ft. Worth's builders pulled 10,388 permits last year, roughly two-thirds of them single-family. That may be half as many as 2005, but many other major markets showed much sharper drop-offs. The relative strength of the Fort Worth market in recent years stems from its ties to the oil and gas industries, which has fueled above-average job growth. The metro area added 17,300 jobs last year.
Busiest builders: D.R. Horton, Choice Homes, History Maker Homes, Meritage Homes, Centex Homes. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

2. Austin, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 14,250
Nine years ago, during the tech bust, some builders felt that Austin was too crowded and left. The bloom is back on Austin's yellow rose now; it moved up the leader board to become the sixth largest home building market last year. Job creation explains the move. While other markets lost employment, Austin added 17,400 jobs last year, 2.31 percent growth rate. It helps that Austin is home to both a major university, The University of Texas, and the state capital. Existing homes cost a little bit more in Austin than other Texas markets, roughly $190,900, but that's still below the national average. Also, Austin is one of the few metro areas in the country where median prices actually rose in 2008--1.4 percent through the first three quarters of the year. Amazingly, Austin now generates more home building activity than Chicago, which has six times more people.
Busiest builders: D.R. Horton, Lennar, KB Home, Centex Homes, Meritage Homes. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

1. Houston, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 42,697
They like to do things big in Houston. Now the metro area, home to nearly 5.8 million people, can lay claim to being the largest home building market in the country, with 42,697 building permits. The market is still benefiting from an influx of population and jobs and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Employment rose 2.2 percent last year, representing the addition of an incredible 57,000 jobs. Home building activity in Houston has only fallen 31 percent since 2005. Also, existing home prices actually rose in Houston last year, 2.8 percent, to $160,200, still a very affordable level. Roughly one third of the home building action is in Harris County, followed by Houston proper and Fort Bend County. One of Houston's largest builders, Royce Homes, shut down last year, and Kimball Hill, one of the biggest builders in Texas, closed its doors this year after it failed to find a buyer.
Busiest builders: Lennar, Perry Homes, David Weekley Homes, MHI/McGuyer Homebuilders, and KB Home. Courtesy: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

OPEN HOUSE IN Keller, Texas - 1613 Overlook Terr., Keller, Texas

2009-02-21T07:00:00.001-08:00

OPEN HOUSE IN Keller, Texas - 1613 Overlook Terr., Keller, Texas

Open House: Satuday, Feb. 21st - 12:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Park it here.... Park it Here There's an over-sized garage for your vehicle and place to park RV or boat in back at this 3625-SF home on.264 acres in North Richland Hills in Thornbridge South Addition. You'll enjoy 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, private study, master suite with dual sinks, separate shower, jetted tub, tons of cabinets, walk-in closet, elegant dining room with carpeting, inviting family room with fireplace, convenient kitchen with breakfast area, microwave, walk-in pantry, gas cooktop, electric oven, granite countertops, work island for added workspace, dishwasher, upstairs game room with built in entertainment center and wet bar, and a manicured lawn. Former model home! Upgrades galore! A MUST see! Easy access to highways and shopping!

OPEN HOUSE IN NORTH RICHLAND HILLS - 8925 STRATFORD DR.

2009-02-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

OPEN HOUSE IN NORTH RICHLAND HILLS - 8925 STRATFORD DR.

Open House: Satuday, Feb. 21st - 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Open House: Sunday Feb. 22nd - 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Park it here.... Park it Here There's an over-sized garage for your vehicle and place to park RV or boat in back at this 3625-SF home on.264 acres in North Richland Hills in Thornbridge South Addition. You'll enjoy 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, private study, master suite with dual sinks, separate shower, jetted tub, tons of cabinets, walk-in closet, elegant dining room with carpeting, inviting family room with fireplace, convenient kitchen with breakfast area, microwave, walk-in pantry, gas cooktop, electric oven, granite countertops, work island for added workspace, dishwasher, upstairs game room with built in entertainment center and wet bar, and a manicured lawn. Former model home! Upgrades galore! A MUST see! Easy access to highways and shopping! Please call Cindie at 817-881-7653 for more information OR visit http://www.soldteam.net/content/featuredprop.html/82816983?proppos=9&ag_id=1229224&featuredproperty=1&startpos=1&endpos=10&ids=82639010,73535094,73535095,79291685,81392406,79327002,79441929,83534119,82816983,79441924&propertyCount=27

Open House - 8109 Belmont Court, North Richland Hills, Texas --- Come and join me

2009-02-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

Open House - 8109 Belmont Court, North Richland Hills, Texas --- Come and join me

Open House: Satuday, Feb. 21st - 12:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Open House: Sunday, Feb. 22nd - 3:00 - 5:00 pm

Come Get The Keys!

Everything is new and ready at this traditional 4-bedroom/3.5-bath home, gameroom and only an easy drive to Northeast Mall and Southlake Town Square. Guaranteed to average less than $199 per month to heat and cool! BISD

Can't make the open house this weekend - no problem call me and I will set up a personal showing

Joana Sweney
817-501-7309

Open House - 8949 Glendara Court, North Richland HIls

2009-02-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

Open House - 8949 Glendara Court, North Richland Hils, Texas - Come and see this great house this weekend with me!
Open House: Satuday, Feb. 21st - 12:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Open House: Sunday, Feb. 22nd - 3:00 - 5:00 pm

Won't Last Long

Act quickly and check out this new 4-bedroom/3.5-bath 4143-SF home, gameroom and only a short drive to Southlake Town Square and Northeaast Mall. Offers a formal living room with hardwood floors, distinguished family room with gas fireplace. Guaranteed to average $199 or less per month to heat and cool this gorgeous home. BISD.

Don't have time to come this weekend, no problem call me and we can set up a personal showing!

Joana Sweney
817-501-7309

Texas Fun Facts

2009-02-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why so many people love Texas, want to live here and are the way we are? Well, here are a few facts that I bet most native Texans don't even know!

Here are some interesting things about Texas

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas ...

1. If someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Texas ;
2. If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas ;
3. If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas ;
4. If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas ;
5. If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas ;
6. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas ;
7. If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas ;
8. If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas ;
9. If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody's passing you, you may live in Texas ;
10. If you find 60 degrees 'a little chilly,' you may live in Texas ;
11. If you actually understand these jokes, and share them with all your Texas friends, you definitely live in Texas .

Need to be cheered up?

Happy, Texas 79042
Pep, Texas 79353
Smiley, Texas 78159
Paradise, Texas 76073
Rainbow, Texas 76077
Sweet Home, Texas 77987
Comfort, Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the Sun?

Sun City , Texas 78628
Sunrise, Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray, Texas 79086
Sunny Side , Texas 77423

Want something to eat?

Bacon, Texas 76301
Noodle, Texas 79536
Oatmeal, Texas 78605
Turkey , Texas 79261
Trout , Texas 75789
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice, Texas 75155
And top it off with:
Sweetwater, Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!

Detroit , Texas 75436
Colorado City, Texas 79512
Denver City, Texas 79323
Klondike, Texas 75448
Nevada , Texas 75173
Memphis , Texas 79245
Miami , Texas 79059
Boston , Texas 75570
Santa Fe , Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861
Reno , Texas 75462

Feel like traveling outside the country? Don't bother buying a plane ticket!

Athens , Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China , Texas 77613
Egypt, Texas 77436
Ireland, Texas 76538
Turkey, Texas 79261
London, Texas 76854
New London, Texas 75682
Paris, Texas 75460

No need to travel to Washington D.C. Whitehouse , Texas 75791

We even have a city named after the planet! Earth , Texas 79031

And a City named after our state. Texas City , Texas 77590

Exhausted? Energy , Texas 76452

Cold?

Blanket , Texas 76432
Winters, Texas

Like to read about History?

Santa Anna , Texas
Goliad , Texas
Alamo , Texas
Gun Barrel City, Texas
Robert lee, Texas
Need Office Supplies?
Staples, Texas 78670

Men are from Mars, women are from -
Venus , Texas 76084

You guessed it..it's on the state line.. Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids...

Kermit, Texas 79745
Elmo, Texas 75118
Nemo, Texas 76070
Tarzan, Texas 79783
Winnie , Texas 77665
Sylvester, Texas 79560

Other city names in Texas , to make you smile.....

Frognot, Texas 75424
Bigfoot, Texas 78005
Hogeye, Texas 75423
Cactus, Texas 79013
Notrees, Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest, Texas 76886
Kickapoo, Texas 75763
Dime Box, Texas 77853
Old Dime Box, Texas 77853
Telephone, Texas 75488
Telegraph, Texas 76883
Whiteface, Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

And last but not least, the Anti-Al Gore City

Kilgore, Texas 75662

And our favorites...

Cut n Shoot, Texas
Gun Barrell City, Texas
Hoop And Holler, Texas
Ding Dong, Texas and, of course,
Muleshoe , Texas

Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas.

1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742 miles

2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles

3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas

4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos, July 4, 1883.

5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water. [I thought it might not be there anymore, but I checked, and it is still there! - Evonne]

6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston .

7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America .

8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.

9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.

10. The worst natural disaster in U.S . history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane, in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island .

11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was ' Houston .'

12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .

13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43' in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.

14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.

15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.

16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.

18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington -on- the Brazos, Harrisburg , Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia and Austin ...

19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).

20. The name ' Texas ' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas .

21. The State Mascot is the Armadillo (an interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.).

22. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston .

Cowboy's Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie , Texas :

(1) Just one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma & Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin'.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin' before God.
(6) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal.
(7) No killin'.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don't take what ain't yers.
(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff

Now that's kinda plain an' simple don'tcha think?

Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers

2009-02-17T05:42:00.000-08:00

"GOOD COMMUNICATION IS AS STIMULATING AS BLACK COFFEE...AND JUST AS HARD TO SLEEP AFTER." Anne Morrow Lindbergh And communication on the new $789 Billion Stimulus Plan has been flying fierce over the past week, resulting in late nights for Congress and probably more than a few cups of coffee. President Obama is certainly hoping the new plan will wake up the struggling economy, and breathe some life back into the housing market as well.
The tax credit in the Stimulus Bill has been scaled down to $8,000 from its previous level of $15,000, or 10% of the value of the home for any first time homebuyers who purchase homes from the start of the year until the end of November. It starts phasing out for couples with incomes above $150,000 and single filers with incomes above $75,000, and buyers will have to repay the credit if they sell their homes within three years.
In addition, there's news that the Obama administration is trying to hammer out a new program to subsidize mortgages to fight the credit crisis. The plan would seek to help homeowners before they fall into arrears on their loans, whereas current programs only assist borrowers that are already delinquent. There are no details yet on this plan, but I will be monitoring this news closely in the weeks ahead.

6 Ingredients of Strong Housing Markets

2009-02-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

By Luke Mullins, US News
Feb 6th, 2009

Community elements essential to supporting favorable home prices over the long haul
With lower home prices and attractive mortgage rates, 2009 will present plenty of bargains for real estate shoppers. But as the historic bust continues, Americans everywhere are learning a painful lesson about home buying: property values don't always increase. As such, anyone looking to purchase a home this year should make sure they're buying into a community that can support long-term value. With the help of housing experts, U.S. News compiled a list of the top 6 ingredients of strong housing markets:

Please note that although the following factors will help support a home's value over the long term, they can't prevent short-term declines in a given market—especially in light of the ongoing real estate crash. "These would be forces that are going to impact [your home] over the next five to ten years, as opposed to next year," says Mike Larson of Weiss Research.

1. A well-groomed neighborhood: Well-maintained homes and landscaping have a positive effect on property values in that community, says Joshua Dorkin, founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com, a real estate networking and information site. By caring for the appearance of their homes, residents help to create a more aesthetically-pleasing environment that future real-estate hunters will want to buy into. So when you're eyeing a home, make sure to take a drive through the entire neighborhood. Take note of how the neighbors care for their homes, lawns and gardens. "Run-down houses and abandoned cars are big red flags," Dorkin says.

2. Good schools: Given the importance of education, communities located within strong school districts tend to support higher home prices. Parents, after all, will want to move into the communities with the best educational opportunities. "The school district is important in terms of increasing demand for that particular area," says Richard Moody, chief economist at Mission Residential. Would-be home buyers can determine the strength of a local school system by accessing online information from local governments or community websites, Moody says.

3. Low Crime: Low crime rates also support strong home values. Since nobody wants to live in a neighborhood where they feel unsafe, crime limits housing demand in a given community. As a result, it's important to obtain crime statistics for the neighborhood you're considering moving into. The best way to do that, says Steve Dexter, a foreclosure expert and author of the book Beat the Banks, is to contact the local police department. "The police department is a public utility," Dexter says. "Most medium- to large-sized [communities] have a public information [officer] that is dedicated to interacting with the public." By contacting this office, home shoppers can get their hands on all the information they'll need to determine a community's level of safety.

4. Close to public transportation: Proximity to public transportation or commuter rails can also help boost home values, says Ron Phipps, a broker with Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I. He argues that Americans are increasingly willing to pay a premium for properties that allow them to be less dependent on cars. "Access to bus lines and commuter rail lines is of huge value," Phipps says. "The price of fuel is going to go up again and a lot of my clients are saying, 'O.K., how do we position ourselves to minimize that impact?'" Phipps says.

5. Favorable population trends: It's also important to look at the population trends in the city you're considering moving to, Moody says. "You want to see a track record of steady population growth, which supports growing demand for housing, which will in turn support rising home values," Moody says. Such data can be found online at the U.S. Census Bureau, or though local county or township web sites, he says.

6. Healthy employment landscape: Employment plays a key role in population trends, as workers migrate to locations where they can find jobs. Thus, a healthy employment outlook is a key component of a strong housing market. "If you are in one of these upper Midwest cities and you've got layoffs, especially in a sector like automotives where the jobs are disappearing and they are not coming back, that is a huge problem," Larson says. Home shoppers can obtain economic data from the local government or chamber of commerce, Larson says. Pay special attention to the unemployment trends and find out if any new companies are slated to move into—or out of—the area. "A lot of communities have been trying to attract the sort of economically insensitive industries like biotech and [pharmaceutical companies]," Larson says. "If you've got an area where that kind of business is being brought in—through tax incentives or other efforts—that would be a positive for your local area."

OPEN HOUSE IN NORTH RICHLAND HILLS - 8925 STRATFORD DR.

2009-02-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

OPEN HOUSE #2
Open House: Satuday, Feb. 14th - 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Park it here.... Park it Here There's an over-sized garage for your vehicle and place to park RV or boat in back at this 3625-SF home on.264 acres in North Richland Hills in Thornbridge South Addition. You'll enjoy 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, private study, master suite with dual sinks, separate shower, jetted tub, tons of cabinets, walk-in closet, elegant dining room with carpeting, inviting family room with fireplace, convenient kitchen with breakfast area, microwave, walk-in pantry, gas cooktop, electric oven, granite countertops, work island for added workspace, dishwasher, upstairs game room with built in entertainment center and wet bar, and a manicured lawn. Former model home! Upgrades galore! A MUST see! Easy access to highways and shopping! Please call Cindie at 817-881-7653 for more information OR visit http://www.soldteam.net/content/featuredprop.html/82816983?proppos=9&ag_id=1229224&featuredproperty=1&startpos=1&endpos=10&ids=82639010,73535094,73535095,79291685,81392406,79327002,79441929,83534119,82816983,79441924&propertyCount=27

OPEN HOUSE IN KELLER, TEXAS!!! 1613 OVERLOOK TERR., KELLER, TEXAS

2009-02-13T19:58:00.001-08:00

OPEN HOUSE #1
1613 Overlook Terr., Keller, Texas - $709,000
Open House: Saturday, Feb. 14th - 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Open House: Sunday, Feb. 15th - 2:00 - 4:00 pm

This home is a Perfect 10! Encounter luxury and spaciousness in this 5-bedroom/5.5-bath 5147-SF home on 1.11 acres. Features include a comfortable family room with wet bar, entertainment center, master suite with sitting room, separate shower, dual sinks, walk-in closet to quickly find your clothes, classic dining room, grand formal living room with wood floors, fireplace for winter days, cook-friendly kitchen with gas range, pantry, garbage disposal, work island for cleaning veggies, granite countertops, custom cabinets, breakfast area, double ovens, microwave, dishwasher, large laundry, game room, study, home office, home theater for the movie buff, exercise room for shedding pounds. Backyard features a wonderful fireplace for enjoying those chilly days outside. The City of Keller has planned for a 43 acre park that will back to this great home! Please call Cindie Stewart for more information or visit http://www.soldteam.net/content/featuredprop.html/82639010?proppos=1&ag_id=1229224&featuredproperty=1&startpos=1&endpos=10&ids=82639010,73535094,73535095,79291685,81392406,79327002,79441929,83534119,82816983,79441924&propertyCount=27

FHA Loan Incentive. Did you know there where Incentives?

2009-02-11T07:33:00.001-08:00

FHA has a 203KS loan that will give a buyer money added to the mortgage to repair and or update a home being purchased, that is in need of some TLC.
Here is some information on what qualifies under this loan.
For help finding a home that will qualify give me a call.

What improvements are eligible under the new Streamlined (k) program?

The Streamlined (k) program is intended to facilitate uncomplicated rehabilitation and/or improvements to a home for which plans, consultants, engineers and/or architects are not required. The Streamlined (k) program includes the discretionary improvements and/or repairs shown below:

• Repair/Replacement of roofs, gutters and downspouts
• Repair/Replacement/upgrade of existing HVAC systems
• Repair/Replacement/upgrade of plumbing and electrical systems
• Repair/Replacement of flooring
• Minor remodeling, such as kitchens, which does not involve structural repairs
• Painting, both exterior and interior
• Weatherization, including storm windows and doors, insulation, weather stripping, etc.
• Purchase and installation of appliances, including free-standing ranges, refrigerators, washers/dryers, dishwashers and microwave ovens
• Accessibility improvements for persons with disabilities
• Lead-based paint stabilization or abatement of lead-based paint hazards
• Repair/replace/add exterior decks, patios, porches
• Basement finishing and remodeling, which does not involve structural repairs
• Basement waterproofing
• Window and door replacements and exterior wall re-siding
• Septic system and/or well repair or replacement

What are the minimum and maximum amounts for repair costs under this program?

Given the need for homeowners to make minor repairs without exhausting personal savings, and in consideration of the increasing cost of materials, the minimum repair cost of $5,000 is eliminated and the ceiling is now raised to $35,000. This revised maximum repair/rehabilitation amount recognizes the cost of making older homes more energy efficient. Note that as described below, when the repairs exceed $15,000, the mortgagee must perform or obtain an inspection to determine that all listed repairs were completed.

Can this program be used for repairs and improvements on purchases of HUD Homes?

Like the regular Section 203(k) program, Streamlined (k) may be used for single-family housing sold by HUD. REO properties that have been designated by FHA’s Management and Marketing contractor (M&M) as “insurable” with repair escrow ($5,000 or less in required repairs) or “uninsurable” (with more than $5,000 but no more than $35,000 in required repairs) are eligible for the Streamlined (k) program provided that the repairs qualify as eligible work items outlined in this Mortgagee Letter.

For questions give me a call or send an e mail. I will be happy to help you find a home, or help you find a great lender.

Have a great week,
Cindie Stewart
817-881-7653

Valentines Day At Chef Point Cafe!

2009-02-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day
There is no remedy for love but to love more...

Enjoy candlelight dinner, fresh flowers and chocolate kisses for your special date.

Experience your romantic day Saturday and Sunday.

Featured Dinner Special

Duck a'Lorange
Half duck slowly roasted and cooked to perfection, served with angel hair pasta and topped with the Chefs special orange sauce!

Valentine's Day Menu
Escargot

Duck Breast

Romaine Heart Salad

Rack of Lamb

Fresh Sea Bass

Prime Rib

Steak & Lobster Tail

Duck a'Lorange

Chocolate Mouse

Bread Pudding

and more....

If you haven't enjoyed the fabulous menu at Chef Point Cafe, you don't know what you're missing. Grab your favorite Valentine and enjoy a meal you won't forget.

Franson & Paula Nwaeze
Chef Point Cafe
5901 Watauga Rd
Watauga Tx 76148
817-656-0080

Looking for a Weekend Trade Days?

2009-01-28T10:28:00.000-08:00

Trade Days USA has taken over the Texas Motor Speedway every 4th Monday weekend! Entrance to the market is free, Parking is $5.00 per car load. Very well organized, lots of security, food vendors, bounce houses for the kids. SPCA has a place set up for pet adoptions. Huge enclosed Pavilion is nice especially if the weather isn't.

We were out there last weekend and we were quite surprised at all the speciality items. Wasn't your typical garage sale feel. I found some great gift items and even bought a couple of things for myself as well. Majority of the vendors are there every month. So, if you don't get it this time they will be there next time.

Some of us have our usual Trade Days, Flea Market schedule: Canton First Monday Trade Days, Weatherford First Monday Trade Days, McKinney Third Monday Trade Days and now we can add Texas Motor Speedway Forth Monday Trade Days.

Check out their website: www.tradedaysusa.com. It will give you the schedule for each month as well as information incase you want to be a vendor, pluse alot more.

Add it to your weekend to do list. Check it out February 21 - 22. Have a great time.!

Here is a Great Way to Support our Military

2009-01-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

We all have old cell phones laying around in drawers, in boxes or hiding in the closet. How about we recycle those phones and give our Deployed Military Men and Women a way to call home and talk to their families.

Each phone donated = one 250 minute calling card
Each $40 donation = one 1,200 minute calling card

Check out this website and see what you or your office as a group can do to help out!

www.helpthemcallhome.org

They are giving their lives for our freedom. Now let's see what we can do for them.

Tips and Tools for Real Estate Professionals

2009-01-26T14:48:00.000-08:00

ABC's for Success

Avoid negative sources-people, places, habits
Believe in yourself
Consider things from all angles
Don't give up and don't give in
Enjoy life today, yesterday's gone and tomorrow may not come
Family & friends are hidden treasures
Give more than you planned to
Hang on to your dreams
Ignore those who try to discourage you
Just do it!
Keep on trying, no matter how hard, it will get easier
Love yourself first, and the most
Make it happen
Never lie, cheat or steal-always strike a fair deal
Open your eyes and see things for what they really are
Practice makes perfect
Quitters never win and winners never quit
Read, study and learn about everything important in your life
Stop procrastinating!
Take control of your destiny
Understand yourself in order to better understand others
Visualize it
Want it more than anything
Xcellerate your efforts
You are unique-there is only one YOU
Zero in on your target and go for it!

Sent by - Call her for your Home Warranty Needs!
Jewel Harmon
Senior Account Manager
Fidelity Home Warranty
(817) 501-6988
jewel.harmon@fnf.com

Davis Weekley Homes Founder Generous with Employees

2009-01-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all the negative press on CEO’s there are still uplifting stories that keeps hope alive.David Weekley, the founder and CEO of David Weekly Homes, Inc. generously gave to all his employees nationwide a PERSONAL check of up to a maximum of $1000 depending on years of service.

His letter sent with the check stated that not only did he appreciate the hard work during a trying time but that he and his family felt very fortunate and wanted to share with his David Weekley family.

I am proud as a Realtor to sell David Weekly Homes and to have my company name next to them as well. If your next step is buying a new home, I highly recommend David Weekly Homes, and especially the Build on Your Own Lot division.

Contact Chip McClure here in the Dallas Fort Worth area and he will be very happy to help you.

The CEO of Best Buy also shared his good fortune with his staff. The board offered him an additional bonus which he refused. He decided the money should be given to the employees that keep the company moving forward every day.

I will continue to shop at Best Buy and probably will not even check out the competition.If the executives of these two companies care that much about the people who help run the business then I can only imagine how wonderful they treat their clients.

Check Out Some of Our Listings

2009-01-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

6245 Winter Park Dr., Home Town , North Richland Hills
3 bedroom, 2 bath, David Weekley Home. Nice Upgrades, Open and Bright, Plantation Shutters throughout. Full Sprinkler System, Good size backyard, Nice Covered Patio and Front Porch. Great Location, Easy Access to Hwys, Mall and Shopping! Go check it out!

1613 Overlook Terrace, Keller

5 bedroom, 5.1 bath, 3 living, 2 dining, Study, Gameroom and Media Room on 1.11 acres. Family friendly floorplan, Master Suite with Sitting Area, Coffee Bar, Exercise Room, Guest Room with full bath down, 3bedroom and 3 baths are up. Covered Pavillion with Fireplace. Lots of room for a pool. This property is a MUST see.

6300 Estates Lane, Fort Worth

3 bedroom, 3.1 bath, 3 living, 2 dining, Private study, Gameroom, Media Room, Oversized garage with golf cart - workshop area. Golf Course lot with a stunning view! Custom 12 person hot tub with stunning landscape! Stunning view of the lake and Golf Course, Central Vac System, Built in Ice Maker in Gameroom and Kitchen, Hidden Closets. Beautiful Home, Great Views, What more do you need?

Not what you were looking for? Check out our website www.soldteam.net and see what other great listings we have.

Happy House Hunting!

5 Star Dining Without Having to Get Dressed Up!

2009-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wanted to have 5 star dining without having to get all dressed up? How about a place that you can have white table cloth dining, excellent food and still wear your jeans and t-shirt!

We have a resturant in town that is owned by a 5 star chef, excellent menu choices, large portions, great prices and out of this world delicious!

And would you believe it's in a gas station?

Chef's Point Cafe
5901 Watauga Rd.
Watauga, TX, 76148
chefpointcafe.org

Directions: exit Rufe Snow from 820 West, go North about 5 miles, turn left on Midcities Blvd., (Midcities changes to Watauga road) drive about one mile and we are in the Conoco gas station on the right.

Check out these links:
http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7132

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/bennigans-may-be-gone-but-the-monte-cristo-lives-on-at-unique-fort-worth-fine-dining-restaurant-75049.php

The Monte Cristo sandwich is out of this world and the Lobster Bisque served in a bread bowl is the best I have ever eaten!

Check out their website, read the menu, wipe your chin, because your mouth will be watering just like mine is right now just thinking about it!

Check it out and give your compliments to the Chef! He's one of the best!

Happy Eating!

Obama our 44th President

2009-01-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, change in theory is great. He is not God and his plate is a heavy one. I wish him and our government the best.

It is easy to look like a champ and end in a pile. Americans in general love a hero and will turn around and kick a singer off the "Idol".

Honestly, he looked a little scared today. I am sure the pressure of it all is weighing on him as it settles on his shoulder. That position looks great from where we sit.

Not sure why anyone would want the position in good or bad times. It really takes someone special to try and then to be the president of the United States of America.

I am just very happy to have been born here. There is no other place in the world that we as men and women could do and have what we have. (Including animals which we spend millions of dollars a year on.)

I know others will say sure there is. I travel way to much and I can tell you there is not!

I am blessed and so is Obama he was born an American and that is how he was able to get where he is now.

In most African countries his odds of living past the age of 12 would be huge much less grow up to be a leader. Sad that not just in Africa, but many other countries this is the case.

Again, I wish them all the best!

God Bless America and Americans period!

Cindie Stewart, Owner/Broker on TLC Flip this House Episode!

2009-01-16T09:01:00.001-08:00

Cindie Stewart on TLC Flip this House from rosannahudson on Vimeo.

Clean Up Your Credit

2009-01-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Clean Up Your Credit
Kiplingers Magazine
Wednesday January 14, 2009, 6:07 pm EST

With all the financial upheaval over the past year, including the subprime-mortgage mess and the rescue plan for banks toppled by risky loans, it wouldn't be surprising if you were tempted to think that credit is a four-letter word.

But one important lesson this crisis has driven home is that your credit is the financial equivalent of your good name. A good score is your ticket to a home, a car, a credit card or even an insurance policy, and even a tiny slip-up can come back to haunt you. That's especially true now because the credit crunch has spread to other types of borrowing. For instance, banks have been forced to write off record levels of credit-card debt, so they're setting the bar higher for potential borrowers. A year ago, a score of 720 would have had lenders lining up for your business. Today, a score of 740 or 750 will get you an account but might not qualify you for the lowest interest rates, says Bill Hardekopf, of LowCards.com.

If you haven't already done so, start by taking a look at your credit report. Log on to AnnualCredit-Report.com and get a free copy from each of the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. (Note: Copycat sites often require you to purchase other services in order to get a "free" credit report.)

While you're on a bureau's Web site, you'll also have the option of buying your credit score for $6 to $8. If you've already used your once-a-year free pass on AnnualCreditReport.com, go to myFICO.com to download your reports and scores ($15.95 for the score from one credit bureau, or $47.85 for all three).

Go through your report with a fine-tooth comb and file a dispute immediately with each bureau that reports an error. The process isn't lightning-fast (you typically have to wait 30 to 45 days for the bureau to investigate any disputes you submit), but be persistent until the problems have been resolved. Big issues, such as an incorrect notation that an account has gone to collection or a home is in foreclosure, could cost you 100 points or more on your credit score.

Gerri Detweiler, credit adviser for Credit.com, says it's also important to check the dates on any negative information that's being reported. Negative items, such as collections accounts, may generally be reported for seven years from when you first fell behind. Two exceptions are bankruptcies, which may be reported for ten years, and tax liens, which may stay on your record indefinitely until you pay them.

Other things to watch out for: paid-in-full accounts that still show a balance and someone else's record that appears in your file. If the credit bureau misspells your name or reports your address incorrectly, that won't affect your score. Balancing act. It's important to minimize the ratio of your outstanding debt to your credit limit (what's known as your credit-utilization ratio) for each card you hold. If you're near your limits and a long-standing customer with a good history, you could ask your current card issuers to raise your limits. Or you can focus on paying down your balances so that you're using less of your available credit. A good rule of thumb is to aim to keep your balance below 30% of your limit on each card.

If you're concerned that a recently frozen home-equity line of credit will tip the utilization scales, don't worry. Ethan Dornhelm, of Fair Isaac, the company that compiles the FICO score, says the scoring model excludes HELOCs from such calculations.

And don't apply for new credit cards you don't need. That 10% discount a retailer offers when you sign up for its card isn't worth it. When you apply for new credit, an inquiry is made on your credit report. Each inquiry is a tiny ding, but enough dings can add up to a dent, especially if your credit history is short. Craig Watts, of Fair Isaac, says that your best bet is to take on new credit only when you need it.

Pay your bill in full each month if you can. If you can't, pay at least the minimum, and make your payments on time. Late payments lower your credit score and may automatically trigger a higher rate. And if other lenders see that, they may raise your rate, too. That could result in more late payments in the future-and thus set off a vicious cycle of credit-card debt.

If your payment date is inconvenient, call your card issuer and request a change in the date. It may take a cycle or two to get results, but lenders are often happy to work with you.

Need Help with Closing Costs?

2009-01-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

HomeSteps® 2008 Ask An Agent Sales Promotion
Promotion Dates:Offers received October 23, 2008 – January 31, 2009,

with escrow closed by March 14, 2009.

Homebuyers:

We will pay up to 3.5%* of your purchase price in closing costs for all offers presented on HomeSteps homes between October 23, 2008 – January 31, 2009.

To qualify for this great money-saving offer, just ask your real estate agent to show you the available HomeSteps homes in your area and to include this closing cost offer at the time of your initial offer on a HomeSteps home. Then, upon qualified closing, you will receive your Ask an Agent buyer offer.

No coupon required!

Don’t have a real estate agent yet? Click here to search for an agent near you!

Saving up to 3.5%* at closing adds up! Just think, you could use your closing cost savings to purchase new carpet, new furniture – you name it!

This offer only lasts until January 31, 2009, so make sure and Ask an Agent today about HomeSteps homes.

*As an example of your savings, if the purchase price of your home is $150,000, HomeSteps will pay up to $5,250 of your closing costs. This savings is money that you can use for moving expenses or new furnishings. (Please note HomeSteps will only pay up to 3.5% of your purchase price in closing costs, not to exceed the total closing costs. For instance, if your purchase price is $125,000, and your closing costs are $4,250, HomeSteps will only pay $4,250, an amount equal to 3.4% of your purchase price.)

Real Estate Agents:

Get the HomeSteps seller advantage and earn more money – with no commission bonus limits! The more HomeSteps homes you sell, the more money you make!

We’re offering a 1.5% Selling Agent Commission Bonus* for each HomeSteps home sold! Yes, that’s right – 1.5%! With our generous commission bonus, you’ll take home more cash with each qualified closing.

Promotion is valid on all HomeSteps (Freddie Mac-owned) properties.

Again, there is no fixed maximum commission bonus amount for agents who sell multiple HomeSteps properties during the Ask an Agent promotional period. What’s more, this program makes it even easier to sell more homes with the new paperless commission bonus feature – no coupon required!

*Selling Agents will receive a 1.5% commission bonus, in addition to regular commission, paid at closing.

Terms and Conditions:
In order to redeem an Ask an Agent buyer’s closing cost offer or Selling Agent bonus, homebuyers/agents must purchase/sell a HomeSteps home between October 23, 2008 – January 31, 2009; sale must close escrow by March 14, 2009.

Terms:
Only HomeSteps (Freddie Mac-owned) properties are eligible.
This offer valid in the United States (including PR, VI and GU).

All offers submitted on or after October 23, 2008, and on or before January 31, 2009, are eligible.
Buyers Closing Cost offer must be mentioned to the HomeSteps Listing Agent at the time of initial offer on a HomeSteps home.

All sales must close escrow on or before March 14, 2009, to be eligible for Ask an Agent offers.

*Ask an Agent closing cost offer is valid only on owner-occupied, financed homes; a limit of 1% closing cost offer on owner-occupied, cash sales.
Closing cost offer may not exceed actual closing costs.
Investor sales are not eligible for buyer's closing cost offer.

Selling Agents may receive 1.5% Selling Agent Commission bonus for Investor sales.
Ask an Agent offers are not valid on Auction or Sealed Bid properties.
Ask an Agent offers are not transferable and may not be combined with any other offer.
Seller reserves right to remove homes from "Ask an Agent" promotion or end promotion at any time.

Selling Agent commission will be paid to Agent’s broker, for distribution pursuant to arrangements between the broker and the agent.

1-800-SELL-NOW Opens New Dallas/Ft Worth Location

2009-01-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

Cindie Stewart and Debbie Mitchell and their team at Texas Sold Team Realty LLC have

secured the exclusive licensing rights to 1-800-SELL-NOW for Tarrant County, Texas.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) –

Dec 30, 2008 – Home sellers in Tarrant County, Texas have a new number to call when they want to sell their house NOW.....1-800-SELL-NOW.

1-800-SELL-NOW, which connects real estate professionals across the country to motivated home sellers, today announced that it expanded into the Fort Worth, Texas area real estate market by awarding exclusive licensing rights in Tarrant County to Cindie Stewart and Debbie

Mitchell.

“We're excited to have Cindie, Debbie, and their team at Texas Sold Home Realty LLC to join the 1-800-SELL-NOW program. We know that Cindie, Debbie and their team will be valuable assets to the area home sellers,” said Kent Clothier, president and CEO of 1-800-SELL-NOW.

Home sellers in the Tarrant County area can be connected directly with the Texas Sold Realty LLC office by calling 1-800-SELL-NOW or visiting http://www.1800sellnow.com/tarrant.html. 1-800-SELL-NOW is currently seeking new license holders throughout the state of Texas - including Abilene, Houston, Austin, and El Paso.

For more information, please visit http://www.1800sellnow.com/register.html or email sales@1800sellnow.com Tarrant County area home sellers that want to sell their real estate property can call 1-800-SELL-NOW or visit us online at http://www.1800sellnow.com/tarrant.html to sell their house now.

Selling Your Home in a Declining Market

2009-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Selling Your Home in a Declining Market
by Richard Daskam - Thu, Jan 1, 2009
Provided by RealtyTimes

Selling a home in a declining market starts with a proper attitude and finding the right Realtor® who is optimistic and knows the right sales techniques in this tough market. Even though most people and economists are down on the housing market (feel it is depressed, that the economic recovery isn't going to happen in the next few months, and consumer confidence is down), it doesn't mean that you can't sell your home.

The truth of the matter is many people will sell their homes between now and this summer. While many sellers and real estate agents take a reactive approach to market conditions, those sellers who take a more proactive and realistic approach to the market will be the ones who sell their homes. These are the sellers who take advantage of this market and move up to their dream home! First, be honest about appraising the condition of your home.

The key to successful selling in a 'declining market' is pricing your home at today's market value, having your home in tip-top condition and being able to work with a prospective buyer on financing needs and terms. Don't let your ego or pride get in the way when determining a price for your home. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes and walk across the street. Curb appeal to a new buyer is a very important and is many-times overlooked.

Secondly, take a leisurely walk through your home jotting down the little things you might do to spruce it up. New carpeting, a fresh coat of paint, new light fixtures, mirrors, etc., are items that will give your home more emotional appeal and does not cost too much. Put away the clutter throughout the home. Rooms free of clutter will appear bigger and the new buyer can visually 'move into' your home much easier. Remember, new buyers are not buying your furniture.

Finally, be patient. The real estate market has changed considerably since the last run-up where homes sold in hours or days. We are now experiencing a more "normal market" where homes take 90-120 days to sell. Remember, inventories are at an all-time high right now. Bank foreclosures are all around you and many buyers will have difficulty qualifying for a new loan. Lenders also have very strict guidelines now and consumer confidence is very low. Allowing for a normal marketing period will do a lot to alleviate your impatience when you have few showings of your home or a lack of offers to review.

A good Realtor® will keep you abreast of market changes, activity on your home and others in the neighborhood, while maintaining a "teamwork" concept that is paramount for a successful sale. Properties need ample time to be exposed to the public and finding the right buyer requires a good understanding of the market as well as sales values. In all honesty, there are no easy answers but one thing is for certain, even in the worst markets, there are people selling homes and taking their equity!

For special reports and money saving tips when buying or selling real estate, log onto: FindRichardOnline.com. Today's Local Market Conditions Report

Now, what does the change of the year make a real difference or is it a state of mind?

2008-12-31T06:40:00.000-08:00

Now, what does the change of the year make a real difference or is it a state of mind? Something, about having a clean slate makes us feel more secure or renewed. But, does it really happen or is it more of the same stuff different day covered up with new a new attitude?I am a weird fish and believe that a number makes a difference. The number 8 alone makes me feel like you chase your own tail and never get out of the loop. Just look at it and do you see what I mean. The number 9 looks like you revist some of the old stuff but you break free from the loop to maybe do something different or make changes that don't have you chasing your tail.

I suppose it is a silly thought, but I am hoping that the banking, insurance, government, real estate, the world for that matter loop around on the good stuff for a while and then break free and do something different and hopefully it will be better changes then we saw ourselves do last year.

Have a wonderful new and successful year.

Lowest Fed Funds Rate in History

2008-12-30T12:26:00.000-08:00

These are incredible times! Recently, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by .75%, bringing them down to .25%...the lowest Fed Funds Rate in history.

Additionally, the Fed has been purchasing Mortgage Bonds which has helped drive interest rates to the lowest levels seen in our lifetime. While this is great news, we must remember that these windows of opportunity may exist for a very brief period of time. And the interest rate market has recently been incredibly volatile, with spikes of .25% within hours and .50% within days.

As rates can change quickly, the best advice for buyers is to lock early and get all of their paperwork in immediately to capture and protect the best rates ever. Also, I expect that pipelines will start to bulge and push many lenders to their limit.

Buyers need to ensure that they are prepared with all income and asset documentation needed to process their application immediately to avoid a delay in closing. Although it might seem obvious that buyers should act quickly, it is sometimes human nature to get greedy and try to capture the very bottom of the market.

There are many problems with that risky strategy, the least of which is that we don't know where the bottom is until it is already in the rear-view mirror. With rates at all-time lows, we know this will generate more buyers.

Anyone wanting to wait for better rates is taking a huge risk. Many lenders are offering rates near 5% on conforming 30-year fixed mortgages, with government-sponsored programs not far behind. Also, think about your personal situation right now. We might be able to help you save money on your own mortgage.

Call me today and we can explore what options are available for you.

Sincerely,
Lisa Warren
Southlake Branch Manager
Silver Oak Mortgage
(817) 410-2518
lwarren@somlp.com
www.silveroakmortgagelp.com

10 Great Low-Tax Places to Retire

2008-12-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

10 Great Low-Tax Places to Retire
Emily Brandon, USNews.com
Dec 18th, 2008

Full-time work is often taxing. Retirement shouldn't be. Picking a retirement location with low taxes gives you more cash to spend exploring the surrounding scenic beauty, taking in the local nightlife, or hoarding your hard-earned dough for future expenses. Kicking less money up to Uncle Sam also helps retirees on fixed incomes better cope with food, gas, and utility costs.
More from U.S. News & World Report » How to find a Low-Tax Place to Retire» Photos: Low-Tax Places to Retire» Best Places to Retire

Americans will spend more on taxes in 2008 than on food, clothing, and housing combined, according to Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge. This year, Americans worked 74 days to pay their federal taxes and 39 days more to cover state and local levies, the Tax Foundation calculated. There's not much you can do about the federal taxes if you want to live in the United States, but the state and local tax burden varies considerably by location. The most expensive state and local taxes are typically sales and excise taxes (14 days' pay), property taxes (12 days' pay), and income tax (10 days' pay).

To find low-tax places to retire, U.S. News cranked up our Best Places to Retire search tool. We sifted through more than 2,000 U.S. places to find locales that have relatively low taxes but also offer amenities important to retirees like a reasonable cost of living and fine recreational and cultural choices. Many of the low-tax retirement havens have no state sales tax, like Billings, Mont., or no state income tax, like Sioux Falls, S.D. There's nothing like zero tax to make your retirement dollar go further.

One low-tax retirement gem, Stafford, Texas, a suburb of Houston, eliminated its property tax in 1995. Texas is also one of seven states with no income tax. (The others are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.) Stafford also has the lowest sales tax in the Houston area.

Seniors looking to maximize their fixed income may also want to give Manchester, N.H., a look. There is no sales or traditional income tax, but New Hampshire does levy a 5 percent tax on interest and dividend income above $2,400 annually ($4,800 for couples). Residents ages 65 and older pay tax only on amounts above $3,600, and that's outside your retirement accounts. Withdrawals from retirement accounts are not taxed in New Hampshire.

Many retirement locales offer tax perks specifically for seniors. Nashville-Davidson County, Tenn., the home of country-music (and state) capital Nashville, for example, was the first jurisdiction in the state to allow homeowners ages 65 and older earning less than $35,390 in 2007 to freeze the amount of property tax due on their primary residence in the year they qualify, even if tax rates increase later. The frozen dollar amount will rise if the owner sells or makes improvements to the house. If the house drops in value and the current taxes become lower than the frozen amount, homeowners pay the lower amount. And like New Hampshire, Tennessee also doesn't tax earned income, just dividends and interest.

Low-tax towns don't have to be dull. Doral, Fla., is home to the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, which hosts a PGA tournament every year. And Henderson, Nev., Las Vegas's less glittery cousin, is only a short drive from the Strip, Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead. Businesses often flock to tax-friendly cities. And thriving local economies are sure to help retirees find second careers and start small businesses. The business-friendly tax structure of Spokane, Wash., is key to attracting prime technology jobs to the area. After work, retirees can stroll along the Spokane River, which runs through the center of town, or hike in the nearby mountains.

Some cities, like Cheyenne, Wyo., try to slash their budgets rather than increase taxes. In October, Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker announced a hiring freeze on nonessential personnel, a reduction of out-of-town travel, and a review of equipment expenditures. "Just like taxpayers, the city needs to tighten its financial belt during these times of economic uncertainty," he says. By leaving vacant positions open until the end of the year, the city estimates it will save $3,160 a month per entry-level employee and $5,050 monthly for each vacant mid-level position.

Perhaps the most tax-friendly state for retirees is Alaska. The geographically largest state in the union is the only one without any kind of income or sales tax. The city of Juneau levies a 5 percent sales tax, but seniors ages 65 and older who have lived in the city for at least 30 days and plan to remain indefinitely in the state can get a Senior Sales Tax Exemption Card for a $20 application fee. Those over age 65 may also be eligible for a senior-citizen property tax exemption on the first $150,000 of assessed value. All Alaska residents with at least one year in the state also receive annual Alaska Permanent Fund dividends. The payout was an unusually high $3,269 in 2008, but even more typical dividends have been nothing to scoff at, ranging from $827 to $1,964 over the past two decades. This dividend may be taxed as income on federal tax returns.

Here are 10 great tax havens for retirees:
Billings, Mont.
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Doral, Fla.
Henderson, Nev.
Juneau, Alaska
Manchester, N.H.
Nashville, Tenn.
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Spokane, Wash.
Stafford, Texas

2008-12-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

Realtor & Mortgage Bailout!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

While every other industry is getting some type of financial relief from the government, where is the bailout package for the Realtors and Mortgage companies? Believe it or not, it just came on December 16th 2008. By way of the Federal Reserve lowering rates to historic lows. Now we didn't get a pot-full of money, but we did get a way to help start putting money back in the pot!

Lately there has been talk about the 4.5% 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Will it become a reality? No one really knows, but it is looking much more likely that rates will go that low or even lower. You may have heard that these low rates would only benefit current buyers, and not

current home owners seeking to refinance. Because of this lowering, everyone may

benefit from the lowered rates.

The Fed lowered the discount rate to .25%, and had already announced that they were going to

buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed securities. So with all these positive moves, rates are headed down. But, in January, the SEC is meeting and information may be released that could have a significant bearing on rates, potentially for the worse. So how long will this last? No one knows, rates may go back up next week or next month. Don't delay! Let's make hay while the sun shines and take advantage of our current windfall.

Home loan rates are currently in the low-5%'s, and have started to head lower! Nationally, home values are currently at 2003-2004 levels, coming down from their highs. However, this is

not always what we are seeing in our local Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex area.

Some local areas have lost values, while others have seen little to no loss.

If you have customers waiting for the best time, or for the market to hit bottom, this may be it. This is a great opportunity to call all your customers', present and past to let them know that today is a great time to sell and purchases another home. No one knows if this will last for 30 days, 6 months or even longer. Don't miss historical low rates! If you know anyone who is contemplating financing, now is the time to act. Let's get motivated to make those dreaded customer calls and get busy now! This is our bailout, it is here, we just have to work for it!

Don't forget, the first time home buyer tax credit of up to $7,500 and low down payment programs available for many people today. FHA is going to a 3.5% required down payment as of January 1st, 2009.

So, tell everyone you know that now is a great time to buy a home.

Get everyone you talk to pre-qualified as soon as possible. The best rates are only available to those with little to no credit problems. When rates are quoted, there maybe additional ''add-ons" that can cause the rate to go up. Working on your credit rating and getting customers

pre-qualified as soon as possible may help your customers get the lowest rate possible.

We can advise your customers on ways to help improve their credit scores, but we need

between 30-60 days. So it is important to get started before you have a contract written.

Call me today and let me help you!

Let's get those customers buying, and help them take

advantage of our industry's "Bailout"!

Have a Wonderful & Safe Holiday,

Rich Hebert

Lending Edge Mortgage

817-485-4155

rich@richhebert.com

http://www.richherbert.com/

America's Most Affluent Neighborhoods

2008-12-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

These towns have prospered in recent years--but some have tougher times ahead than others.
In an economy like this, even the richest communities across the country are feeling the pain.

Take Southlake, Texas. With an estimated median household income of $172,945, this Dallas suburb is the most affluent neighborhood in the country, mostly due to real estate growth. In 2005, the area doubled its town square shopping center, which bolstered the median household income by over $42,000 since the 2000 census. (Even accounting for inflation, that's still a big bump.)

Brian J.L. Berry, dean of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, says that what separates Southlake from its white-collar counterparts is undoubtedly its town square. "It is an upscale community with an expression of that status in its town square," says Berry. "If there is anything special about the suburb, it is that square."

The only problem is that there's not much room for Southlake to grow. Add to that the highest nationwide unemployment rate in 14 years and the second-lowest consumer confidence index in 34 years, and it's clear that even neighborhoods like Southlake have the potential to be affected by the recession in some way.

Behind the Numbers

To determine America's most affluent neighborhoods, we looked at average median household income estimates--in communities with populations between 20,000 and 64,999--from 2005 to 2007, provided in the U.S. Census' American Community Survey. On Dec. 9, the Census released data estimates on communities of this size for the first time. These include cities, towns, villages as well as census-designated places (CDP), a type of neighborhood that lacks a separate municipal government, but otherwise physically resembles one of these other places.

Topping the list is Southlake, followed by affluent New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., suburbs. But the list could see some shuffles in the months or year ahead.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based Institute for Supply Management's index of manufacturing activity--which the trade association releases each month--fell to 36.2 in November 2008 from 38.9 in October. (An index of 50 or lower indicates that an economy is contracting.) That's a 26-year low. To read more about this story.. visit http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/106273/America's-Most-Affluent-Neighborhoods

Forbes.com
by Lauren Sherman
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
provided by

Extreme Home Makeover Coming to Keller

2008-12-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

Tarrant County Couple Wins "Extreme Makeover" Home
By ANDREA JARES
ajares@star-telegram.com

Ever wondered what it’s like to be on the set of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"? Andrea Jares will Twitter as the show’s cast builds a new home in far north Fort Worth, starting Wednesday morning. Follow it at twitter.com/andreajares.

Amber and Peter Augustin of far north Fort Worth are known to many in the community as people who often give of themselves, without asking anything in return.
Amber’s ministry, Tiny Works of Heart, takes photographs of premature babies. She has been known to leave in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to take pictures of a baby who might not make it through the night.

Peter volunteers through Habitat for Humanity, even when his own home is unlivable.
Those are some of the reasons that dozens of people rallied around the family to replace their flood-ravaged home with a new one from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The host of the ABC television show, Ty Pennington, along with members of Arlington-based Wall Homes, surprised the family of five with a knock on their door just after 9 a.m. Monday.
"We don’t have to wonder about what we’re going to do anymore," Amber Augustin said Monday. "I think we’ve just been in such limbo for a year and a half that it’s going to be such a heavy burden lifted." Over the next week, while the family vacations in Hawaii, hundreds of volunteers and professionals will descend on the lot off Keller-Hicks Road in unincorporated Tarrant County to build a new home.

Among the volunteers will be members of her church, The Met Church in Keller, which helped sponsor a letter-writing campaign and helped the Augustins shoot a video asking the show to build a house for them.

The Augustins’ home was severely damaged in a flood in June 2007, and local officials said it would have to be raised more than a foot before they could move back in.
Amber Augustin said that wasn’t a feasible option while they still had a mortgage.
The Augustins bought the home 12 years ago as a fixer-upper, spending most of their weekends on renovation work. Now the home is "pretty much gutted," and they are paying living expenses in two homes — the unlivable house and a town home they are renting in the Crawford Farms subdivision, Amber Augustin said.

Frenzied support Church members who were already impressed with the family’s extensive volunteer work suggested that the Augustins apply to Extreme Makeover, said Mackenzie Wesley, a junior at Faith Christian School in Grapevine, who is in Amber Augustin’s church group. The group was moved by Amber’s photography ministry, as well as her work in the church and community.

"We just always thought that was something special," Wesley said. "We thought, 'Who better than Amber to get this?’ " The church members prayed, wrote letters and cheered as the family moved through the selection process. By the time they were selected Monday, some of the church members said they felt like they themselves had won a home. "From a Christian perspective, this is a complete answer to prayers. We prayed from Day One. For me, this is an absolute miracle," said Jessie Beebe of north Fort Worth, a friend and fellow church member who helped film the video appealing to the show.

Other friends sharing the excitement Monday were Jeff and Donna Brooks of Euless, who met the Augustins under the most somber of circumstances. Amber Augustin arrived at the hospital just before their son Wyatt was born. She stayed the night to get perfect photos. Her skill and respect in taking them made the baby look as if he were just sleeping, not dead.
"The pictures have brought us a lot of comfort and healing," Donna Brooks said. "Because that’s the only day we had with our son. And she captured that moment."

What’s ahead The construction crews will build the Augustins’ home between Wednesday and Monday. The episode featuring the Augustins will air in February or March.
Before a stretch Excursion limousine took the family away for their vacation, Amber Augustin said she is glad the show will bring attention to premature infants. She is also glad the new home will bring some peace to their lives.

Steve Wall, founder of Wall Homes, said that when the show called asking for help with the project, he quickly knew it was something he wanted his company to do. The excitement has spread not only to his employees, but to his company’s subcontractors too.
"All of our people want to volunteer during their time off," Wall said. "We’ll have a lot of people who are kind of taking this on as a second job."

How to help Building a home for the Augustin family will require hundreds of volunteers, as well as donated items from patio furniture to drapery hardware. Find out more about how to donate time or goods at extreme.wall.com.

HOW DOES MY CLIENT PAY FOR REAIRS?

2008-12-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

IN TODAY'S ENVIROMENT OF SELLING FORESCLOSURES AND SHORT SALES THE QUESTION IS OFTEN ASKED… HOW DOES MY CLIENT PAY FOR THE REPAIRS THAT NEED TO BE DONE ON THIS PROPERTY?

DIVERSIFIED Mortgage can now hold back escrow dollars for many repairs and your client will benefit in many ways…

•Only one loan. A second lien loan does not have to be taken after the closing for repairs
•Lower monthly payments with 1st lien loan vs 2 loans
•Convenience of only one monthly payment
•They can close now and have up to 120 days to complete work
•Up to $150,000 for work can be escrowed
•FHA, Conventional and Jumbo loans to $2 mil with Diversified's low rates
•Swimming pool hold backs available with 180 days to complete work

DON'T LOSE ANY MORE SALES BECAUSE OF NEEDED REPAIRS!!!
GARY GRIFFETH
817 329-5626 EXT 257
http://us.mc348.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=garyg@diversifiedloans.com

This is not an offer to extend credit. Program can change without notice.

TX lic. #8253

Treasury Department Considers Plan to Lower Mortgage Rates

2008-12-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

Financial industry lobbyists are urging the Treasury Department to take steps to lower rates on 30-year mortgages to 4.5 percent to lower mortgage rates and help stabilize the battered U.S. housing market.
Click here to read more in The Wall Street Journal.

FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER?

2008-12-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

Click the link below to see what kind of First Time Homebuyer Programs are in effect. Never know, one of these programs could be just for you! When you're ready to go look for that special house, call Texas Sold Team Realty! We'll be glad to help you!

http://soldteam.net/files/533341/FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER FLIER.pdf

2008-11-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving from Texas Sold Team Realty!!

The holiday season has begun and the hussel and bussel is starting to shift into high gear. Take time to enjoy the family and friends that we don't see on a regular basis. Everyone runs at such a fast pace anymore, quality time spent with family is almost a thing of the past. Laugh, tell stories, enjoy good food, watch football, make good memories to carry with you till the next time you meet. Those are the important things. Give extra thanks tomorrow and everyday to our troops who are fighting for and protecting our freedom.

Dates to Remember

2008-11-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

Holiday season is in the air. Below is a list of the happenings in the area. Nothing better to get you in the "Spirit" than an good tree lighting and parade of lights. If you haven't ever seen one you really need to go just for the experience. You will walk away singing carols and ready to hit the mall to finish or start your holiday shopping!

Nov. 14 - Jan. 3 - ICE! and Lone Star Christmas (Grapevine)
Nov. 22 - Jan. 4 - The Trains at North Park (Dallas)
Nov. 28 - Jan. 4 - Holiday in the Park (Six Flags in Arlington)
Saturday, Nov. 22 - 3:00 to 9:00 pm Home For the Holidays (Southlake Town Square)
Tree lighting at 6:30 pm
Saturday, Nov. 22 - 24 - www.SouthlakeFestivalofTrees.com
Friday, Nov. 28 - FW Sundance Square
2:00 to 5:30 pm - Holiday Fun Zone
6:00 to 8:00 pm - Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting
Nov. 29 - Dec. 21 - Snowflakes, Sugarplums, and SANTA! (Fort Worth)
Saturday, Nov. 29 - 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Hurst Annual Tree Lighting Spectacular
Monday, Dec. 1 - 7:00 pm
Historic downtown Grapevine Carol of Lights
Thursday, Dec. 4 - 7:00 pm
Historic downtown Grapevine Parade of Lights
Friday, Dec. 5 - 6:00 to 9:30 pm
Holly Days at Keller Town Center
Saturday, Dec. 6 - 10:00 am
Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children’s Parade Dallas
Saturday, Dec. 6 - 4:00 to 8:00 pm
NRH Night of Holiday Magic at NRH20 Family Waterpark
Saturday, Dec. 6 - dusk
Twinkle Light Parade on Grapevine Lake

The Top 6 Mistakes of Foreclosed-Home Buying

2008-11-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

By Luke Mullins, U.S. News
Nov 18th, 2008
Nothing illustrates the devastation of America's housing bust more vividly than the abandoned properties now blighting the nation's communities. In the third quarter alone, foreclosure filings were reported on more than 750,000 properties in the United States, a 71 percent increase from the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac. But for real estate investors, one person's tragedy can be another's good fortune. With so many foreclosures on the market, "this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for many people," says Steve Dexter, a foreclosure expert and author of the forthcoming book Buy and Hold Forever-Building Real Estate Wealth Far Into the 21st Century.
More from U.S. News & World Report » 3 Key Ways to Buy Foreclosed Properties» Getting a Mortgage After a Foreclosure» The 15 Best Small Businesses to Start
Still, the purchase of foreclosed property—an often complex and involved process—presents would-be buyers with plenty of opportunities to make costly mistakes. In an effort to help consumers avoid such pitfalls, U.S. News spoke with a handful of experts to create a list of six common blunders that individuals make when attempting to buy foreclosed properties.

1. Flying solo. While enterprising do-it-yourselfers can certainly get away with going through the traditional home buying process without an agent, foreclosed real estate is another matter. Such complex transactions require the expertise of not just any real estate agent but one with a background in buying and selling foreclosed homes. "In today's uncertain times it's important to be working with someone who has been through market cycles before," says Patrick McGilvray, president of TheHomeBuyingCenter.com, which links homeowners and owners of foreclosure real estate with potential house buyers. So unless you are truly a real estate expert, do some research and find an agent with foreclosure experience in your market.

2. Being unfamiliar with the law. It's important to remember that real estate agents aren't lawyers, and foreclosure laws can change significantly from state to state. "A lot of people don't realize [that] foreclosures are heavily regulated and every state has its own set of laws," says Alexis McGee, the president of Foreclosures.com. "If you don't have the language proper in your contract, or if you have even the font size wrong, it's criminal and civil damages-don't count on every Realtor knowing this." As such, McGee advises against relying on a real estate agent for legal advice. Instead, consumers should review the foreclosure laws in their state and then get qualified legal advice from a local real estate attorney.

3. Thinking short term. Since many foreclosed homes may decline further in value in the coming months, it's important that buyers approach the transaction from a long-term perspective." If you are not looking at a piece of foreclosed property from a 10-year time horizon-as an investor or as an owner occupant-then you will likely suffer," McGilvray says. So if you are just trying to cash in on a quick flip, don't buy a foreclosure. Only investors with the resources and patience for a long-term real estate investment and homeowners who can afford a fully amortized fixed-rate mortgage should consider buying foreclosed property, McGilvray says.

4. Seeing only the sticker. While the price you negotiate for a foreclosed home may be significantly less than its value just a few years back, many such homes may require substantial repairs. McGilvray says that anyone buying a foreclosed property should make sure to set aside an additional 10 percent of its price tag for repairs. "Make sure you have 10 percent, especially if the home is a few years old," he says. "It is amazing how quickly houses can deteriorate." Prospective buyers should keep these additional repair costs in mind when they are negotiating the home's price.

5. Searching too broadly. With so much inventory coming onto the market these days, it's easy for buyers to become overwhelmed. To that end, Dexter recommends that anyone in the market for a foreclosure target a specific neighborhood and contact an agent with experience there. Make sure to specify the type of property you are looking for in order to avoid being inundated with listings. Tell the agent, "I want all these kinds of houses in this neighborhood that are bank listings [and] I want to know about them all as they come on the market," Dexter says. The agent will then be able to shoot you all the listings that meet your requirements as they become available. "If [the buyer is] patient enough and they get plugged in to the flow of new bank listings coming in, they can pick up some awfully good deals."

6. Taking no prisoners. While buyers can certainly get good deals on foreclosed homes, it's a mistake to assume that banks will accept any and all offers. (Unless, of course, the listing specifically says so.) Banks aren't set up to sell houses, so they typically outsource their foreclosed properties to real estate agents, McGee says. In such cases, agents can receive listings in bulk, perhaps 50 at a time. While these agents want to get the properties sold off quickly, they also want to get a good price for the seller so that the bank will give them additional business in the future. "Saving face is important for them," McGee says. "A lot of people just assume that because this property is bank-owned they will just take half off. Well, that's just not true." As such, insultingly low offers have the potential to tank the negotiations over foreclosed homes, McGee says. So make sure you present your wholesale offer case well both in writing and verbally with the listing agent.

Buying? Selling? What to look for in a Real Estate Agent

2008-11-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

By BRENDEL HIGHTOWER - Detroit Free Press

When picking a real estate agent, think of yourself as an employer hiring for your company: Require a good resume, check references and do a thorough interview.
As CEO, you must recruit the best talent. Buying or selling a house is just like a business deal - and you need the right lieutenant to get the job done.
Agents should be familiar with neighborhoods and selling trends. You want someone who will go above and beyond to make things happen in this slow real estate market.

One of the best ways to find a good agent is to ask friends and family. They often can provide names of people they have worked with and liked. Checking newspaper ads, going to open houses and writing down agent names listed on For Sale signs in your neighborhood (especially ones that say "Sold") also might help you locate agents.

But the process doesn't stop there. Once you have a list of names, be sure to interview the candidates so you can determine which one will best meet your needs.
"The purpose of the interview is to feel comfortable, to know it's a person that you can work with and trust," said Pat Vredevoogd of Coldwell Banker AJS Schmidt in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the 2007 president of the National Association of Realtors.
Vredevoogd suggests that potential buyers and sellers ask agents about advanced real estate classes they might have taken. That can indicate how experienced and dedicated the agent is.
"This is a huge investment, and you want to be sure they have all the knowledge to protect you," Vredevoogd said.

Jessica Veitch and her husband, Jason, worked with three agents before settling on Chris Courtney of Remerica Hometown in Plymouth, Mich.
They closed on a 837-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch in Berkley, Mich., on Friday.
"He took time with us and was willing to work with us," Veitch said. "He didn't care that we were not looking for a real expensive house."

Here are other questions to consider:
- How many years has the agent been on the job? You may prefer someone who has been selling homes for years. Or you might prefer the fresh perspective and energy of someone newer to the field. Ask for a resume and references.
- How compatible are you? Don't underestimate the importance of personality. Buying or selling a house is often stressful and emotionally challenging. Comfort and trust are key.
- Does the agent know the neighborhood? Local knowledge is crucial.
- What level of customer care will you receive? An agent will be your partner in a huge financial undertaking, so you want to choose someone who is always ready, willing and available. The communication needs to stay open and your phone calls need to be returned quickly.
- For sellers, what is the marketing plan for your home? Ask for a list of ways the agent plans to market and advertise your house. That can include print ads, Internet marketing, flyers, postcards and direct mail. Ask for samples to see the quality and professionalism of the presentation.
- What about commission? Traditionally, a seller pays around 6 percent in commissions; 3 percent goes to the seller's agent and 3 percent to the buyer's agent. Commissions, however, can be negotiated.
- Does the agent work part-time or full time? Chris Courtney said a full-time agent can stay on top of changes as they come about and can be more aggressive.
"If we don't sell, we don't eat," Courtney said.

Real Estate Marketing Strategies -7 Ways to Overcome the Myth That You Have to Be ‘Pushy’ to Succeed

2008-11-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

RISMEDIA, Nov. 19, 2008-Haven’t we all been told that the ones who succeed are aggressive and pushy? Isn’t this why so many people are scared of marketing themselves? In my 30 years of coaching people, I have found that almost everyone has an adverse reaction to marketing. In other words, they would rather do anything but market themselves and that’s what they usually do.

Tip 1: Look at your old concepts of marketing:
What images come up for you when you think of marketing? Do you visualize a pushy salesman at your door? Do you think of telemarketers calling you at night?

Tip 2: Do you equate marketing to “sales”?
Most of my clients have always worked for someone else and in their own business, they are scared about whether they succeed or fail. So they begin to believe consciously or unconsciously that marketing means “sales.”

Tip 3: Do you think you are “taking” when you are offering your services?
Over many years of helping people get more clients, I can honestly say that most people believe they are taking from another when they market themselves to another. Instead, start thinking of yourselves as giving whenever you tell anyone what you do.

Tip 4: Have a very comfortable, non-pushy “elevator speech.”
An “elevator speech” is a memorized version of what you say when anyone asks you, “What do you do?” Always answer the question with a question. For example, if you are a real estate agent, instead of saying, “I’m a real estate agent,” say, “You know how most people get stressed out when they buy or sell a home? Well my job is to help them to relax and enjoy the process. I am a real estate agent.”

Tip 5: Always ask permission to continue.
For example, if you are making a “cold call” to someone in business, get their permission to continue. For example, if you are a coach and you say your name and what you do, like, “I help people succeed in business,” then say, “If you’d like to take 30 seconds, I’ll be happy to tell you what I do.” The receiver of the call will feel like their time is respected.

Tip 6: Always give before asking for the gift of someone’s time and attention:
For example, if you’re a real estate agent, and you want to go door to door, have something in your hand to give the person.
For example, “I’m your neighbor and I have a list of the properties that have been sold in our neighborhood. Would this be of interest to you?”

Tip 7: Your prospect needs to know, like and trust you.
Any attempts at being pushy with a prospect will turn them off. Remember to focus on building a relationship so they can know, like and trust you.

Dr. Maya Bailey, author of, Law of Attraction for Real Estate Professionals,

SERVING ALL OF SOUTHLAKE TEXAS REAL ESTATE, KELLER, GRAPEVINE, WESTLAKE, COLLEVILE, AND SURROUNDING AREA PROPERTIES!

2008-11-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Find a wealth of useful Texas real estate information for TX home buyers, whether you are buying your first home or need relocation, moving, or financing help in and around Southlake. Texas home sellers, whether you are selling a house, condominium, townhouse, acreage or other property type in and around Southlake. Before you sell or buy a home in Southlake, review Texas market information found on this website. The Southlake area is a great place to live. Whether you already know which area you are interested in, or are looking for some suggestions, contact me today, and we can discuss any question you might have about Southlake TX or any of the surrounding cities!

SELLING A HOME IN THE SOUTHLAKE REGION?If you're thinking of selling your home in D allas-Fort Worth, Southlake, Keller, Grapevine, Westlake, or Colleyville the first thing you should ask is "How much is my home worth?" Being educated on market trends in your area gives you the best chances of selling your home quickly and for the best price possible. Click on "Free Market Analysis" to request a free (C.M.A.) Comparative Market Analysis of your home. Use our free home search feature to find comparable homes for sale, too. We hope to a ssist you in selling your TX home because as your Realtors, we will go the extra mile to help you achieve your property goals. We constantly research the market and property values in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so your home is priced effectively from day one. We also make sure the public knows your home is for sale by using innovative advertising and marketing techniques to attract potential Texas home buyers.

BUYING A HOME IN THE SOUTHLAKE REGION?Finding Texas properties, such as residential, resale, new homes, luxury, estates, home builders, custom homes, lakefront, waterfront, condos, townhomes, lots, land, horse property, golf course communities, gated communities, retirement community, or investment property in the Southlake area, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Southlake, Keller, Grapevine, Colleyville, Haslet, Haltom City, Argyle, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Arlington, Trophy Club, Coppell, Lewisville, Springtown, Weatherford or Irving, can sometimes be a challeng e. You can find it here, though, on our Southlake Texas real estate information source. Let us help you find the perfect homes for sale. Because the Texas real estate industry is becoming more sophisticated and challenging every day, you need a realtor® professional team that understands the real estate industry, is positioned to stay ahead of the game, and can help you with relocation, moving to Texas, first time home buying, or financing. With offices in Southlake and Keller Sold Team Realty is in the perfect position to meet and exceed your expectations. So come and join us in the beautiful Dallas-Fort Worth area, home of many professional sports teams like the Cowboys, Rangers, Stars, Mavricks, and so much more!

First-time Homebuyers --- What I can do for you.

2008-10-30T09:42:00.001-07:00

I will . . .

Provide detailed listing information not available to the general public. Negotiate the deal to save you money. Guide you through the avalanche of paperwork. Commit my time and energy to finding you the right home.

Your decision to buy a home is both a sound financial decision and a commendable achievement. As your real estate agent . . .

I will lead you through every step of the exciting home buying process.
I will help you define your "wish list" of features you want in your home, your neighborhood and your school district.
I will walk you through the mind-boggling financial details associated with buying a home, including understanding the various mortgages and home buying programs available to you.
I will monitor all new listings and alert you to new houses as soon as they are put on the market.
I will eliminate the stress involved with buying a home by putting my years of real estate experience to work for you.

Finding the perfect home is my business. Contact me today!