August 13, 2010

how to reduce spring texas property taxes

Will paying cash get you a discount on real estate?

The majority of the time if you pay cash for Spring Texas real estate you will get a discount. The real question is not will you get a discount but how big of a discount. The answer depends on how big of an advantage cash is to the seller. The biggest discounts for cash will be on […]

August 11, 2010

Accepting property in its present condition doesn’t mean you can’t ask for repairs

In section 7 of our Spring Texas real estate contract the touchy subject of property condition is addressed. Buyers, sellers, and Realtors seem to generally understand the majority of the items in this section. That is until they reach 7.D. ACCEPTANCE OF PROPERTY CONDITION which is where confusion takes over. In section 7.D., Spring Texas home buyers have to either check […]

August 9, 2010

500 Characters

500 characters sounds like a lot but it’s not. 500 characters is the quantity of characters the Houston MLS system gives me to describe my listings. 500 characters that’s it. That is all I get to describe why you want to buy this particular house over all the other houses on the Spring Texas real estate market. It’s just not […]

August 7, 2010

Monthly payments on FHA loans increase on October 4th

Earlier this year, the FHA increased the upfront mortgage insurance premium from 1.75% of the loan value to 2.25%. Now the FHA has decided to reduce the upfront mortgage insurance premium from 2.25% to 1% and increase the annual premium from 0.55% to 0.9% on loan to value (LTV) ratios greater than 95%. What does […]

July 26, 2010

My House, My Rules

I remember my parents saying “My House, My Rules” a lot when I was a kid. It was their common response to my questions of “why can’t I eat in the living room?” and “why can’t I put my feet on the coffee table?” and “why do I have to take off my boots by the back door?” The other day when […]

July 24, 2010

Do you know if your house is for sale?

About 10 years ago it was easy to know if your house was for sale. And if you weren’t 100% sure all you had to do was take a quick look oute the window. If you saw a real estate “for sale” sign in your yard, your house was for sale. But fast forward to today and it’s […]

July 21, 2010

Spring Texas on Money Magazine’s most affordable places to live

Listed at #5 on CNN’s Money Magazine’s list of most affordable places to live is our very own Spring Texas. The fact that our little city of Spring Texas made it on Money Magazine’s list of Top 25 most affordable places to live came as no real surprise to me. As I have known for some time […]

July 17, 2010

Spring Texas Real Estate: Market Report June 2010

What’s going on with the Spring Texas Real Estate Market? It can be summed up with one word “SLOW”. The usually busy summer selling season is anything but that with year over year pending sales being down 30%. Sales for the month were down a much smaller percentage than pending sales due to the lingering effect of the federal […]

July 12, 2010

Where’s the best Pizza?

There are numerous criteria in which you can judge pizza including its … crust, style (NY, Chicago, deep dish, brick oven), toppings (variety, quality, quantity, distribution, proportion), value, and the atmosphere its served in. Where’s the best pizza in the Spring Texas area? In my opinion, the best all around pizza is served at Grotto’s. Grotto’s pizza is baked in a […]

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