I know you want to get started with the process already, but I would like to start with a question, if I may: Why do you want to purchase a foreclosure? It’s okay to say it: You want a real deal! A foreclosure that has everything you are looking for in a home plus some good built in equity so when and if you decide to sell later, you would make a profit. Now that we’re on the same page, we can get to the good stuff. (Foreclosures are my neck of the woods, so I’m quite excited about writing this post.) All Foreclosures are Bargains Possibly, the biggest myth... 

When this question is posed, arguments begin. One one end, some homeowners view the lack of Open Houses as a sign of outright laziness from their agent. Their home has been on the market for a long time and maybe it would already be sold if only their agent had put some efforts into some weekend Open Houses. “Open Houses just don’t work” - claims their agent. “They are a complete waste of time. I sit and sit in an empty room waiting for prospective buyers to show up and they never do”. They might both be right. The short answer to our Open House... 

I’m sorry to tell you that the “Home for Sale” yard sign purchased from Lowe’s will not get your home sold. Neither will your Infotube brochures. Sure, if an interested buyer happens to drive around the neighborhood and sees your phone number in the sign, they will probably call it. They might even reach over and grab a flier to show their spouse what the home looks like. But don’t mistake the bare minimum with an actual marketing campaign. Selling real estate is a matter of exposure. You want to get as many qualified, probable buyers (ready, willing... 

Photo Credit: Joe Lanman During a brainstorming session about three years ago, an idea was born within our company that is completely vital to the overall marketing strategy we employ when selling Houston homes. We were trying to find a solution to the following question: What tool could we provide to home sellers to allow them to track the progress of our marketing campaign for their home? By the way, we found it ironic that in a field (real estate) where everything has to be written in order to matter (i.e. hold up in court), agents were verbally describing (in general terms)... 

Last month we were contacted by a homeowner whose Houston home had been on the market for over six months without selling. Their listing contract with the previous Realtor® had expired without producing a sale and now they were looking for a different agent to help them with the process. From the start of our appointment, the homeowners were very (understandably) hesitant and skeptical and in order to get to the root of the issue I asked them about their experience with the previous agent. After a long sigh, they told me that after a fantastic listing presentation and subsequent... 

Source: Houston Association of Realtors According to a press release by the Houston Association of Realtors on Tuesday, home sales in the Houston Real Estate market continued their year-on-year slide for the seventh month in a row. First, the raw data: The total number of sales and (as a result) the total dollar volume went down by approximately 17% compared to last year. The number of active listings on the market and the months of inventory went up 9% and 14.5% respectively. The number of pending sales went down by 19%. On the other hand the average sales price went up by... 

Discovery Green Park opened up for “business” this past weekend to large crowds who had come to see what the hype was about from local TV news and newspapers. This 13 acre, $122 million project by the City of Houston certainly did not let them down. Complete with waterworks, playgrounds and even a dogpark this was reminiscent of New York’s Central Park, although much smaller in size. It is located accross the street from George R Brown convention center, in close proximity to Minute Maid Park, Hilton and Four Seasons hotels. Being as obsessed as I am with... 

Considering the extensive news coverage of housing market woes, it might be easy for homeowners to wonder exactly where their neighborhood stands. This confusion can have serious consequences as homeowners base their “housing” decisions (i.e. when to put your home on the market and at what price) on their perception of the local real estate market. And if perceptions can get distorted from media coverage hungry for drastic news, it is possible that the decisions made on them might not be in the Seller’s best interest. The National Association of Realtors has... 

Last week, I was showing some foreclosure properties to a client in the trendy Midtown district. For those unfamiliar with Houston, Midtown is an ever developing, young, vibrant part of town buzzing with nightlife, urban lifestyle and contemporary town homes. Something was different about this particular property, though. Unlike the many, cut-up, fit-as-many-”boxes”-in-one-lot town homes we had been seeing, this one actually had a floor plan that flowed well and most importantly a did-you-see-THAT view. I have been in Houston real estate for quite some time now... 

A little over a month ago, I went over a feud between developers of a proposed highrise condominium [ASHBY] project in Southampton and opposed surrounding homeowners. At the time, the developers had agreed to delay permit requests to find a possible compromise that would make everyone happy. In such a spirit, they had submitted a proposal that would allow for a smaller building with a smaller footprint that they felt should alleviate any fears that homeowners had about increased traffic levels. Well it turns out that the developers are going forward with their controversial...