Blog

May 22, 2010

How to dispute your real estate taxes

If you haven’t filed a protest of your Spring Texas real estate taxes yet, you still can.  But don’t wait too much longer as the protest deadline is June 1st. Once you decide to protest the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas house, the next decision you have to make is do you protest the value yourself […]
May 19, 2010

Real Estate negotiations – business or personal?

Negotiating the sell or purchase of Spring Texas real estate is vastly different than other business negotiations.  Yes, there are some similarities between real estate and business negotiations. They both involve a contract and require give and take between people or corporations. But that’s where the similarity ends between real estate and business negotiations. Business negotiations are just that business. It’s nothing personal […]
May 17, 2010

Spring Texas Real Estate: Market Report April 2010

What’s going on with the Spring Texas Real Estate Market?  Fueled by the last minute rush from buyers wanting to take advantage of the tax credits before there expiration on April 30th, home sales for the month were 27% higher than April 2009.  While the prior year’s month over month showed a significant increase, there was no corresponding increase […]
May 15, 2010

Top 5 things you can do to sell your house faster

The busiest time of the year for the Spring Texas real estate market are the months of May, June, and July.  Since we are already half way through the month of May, you don’t have time to waste if you want to get your house sold this summer. Here are 5 things you can do to […]
May 13, 2010

Homebuyers tax credits have ended. Now what?

April 30th, 2010 has come and gone and with it the expiration of home buyers tax credits.  Well almost .. as the tax credit does continue until April 30, 2011 for qualified military personnel but for the majority of home buyers the fat lady has sung and the party is over. Will the expiration of the home buyers tax credit […]
May 11, 2010

If the house doesn’t appraise for the sales price, are you stuck with buying the house?

The short answer is NO.  Paragraph 4A(1) of the Texas residential real estate contract states: “If the property does not satisfy the lenders’ underwriting requirements for the loan(s),  this contract will terminate and the earnest money will be refunded to buyer.” If you are purchasing a Spring Texas house on the resale market, paragraph 4A(1) protects you from having […]
May 9, 2010

How to buy a Spring Texas house

The other day, Seth Godin (one of my favorite authors) wrote a post on his blog titled “How to buy a house“.  Seth shared some good advice.  Advice which holds true during both buyers markets and sellers markets and in every local real estate market across the U.S. including the Spring Texas real estate market. Seth’s advice was not about the […]
May 5, 2010

Crime Rates for Spring Texas

Is insert name of neighborhood a good Spring Texas neighborhood to live in?  If you are relocating to Spring Texas, this is a question you want answered.  Unfortunately, the National Association of Realtors code of ethics prohibits Realtors which includes me from directly answering this question. So where can you go to get information on crime rates for Spring Texas? Houstoncrimemaps.com has […]
April 27, 2010

The Grand Parkway and resale value

For years now, we have been hearing about the Grand Parkway and its proposed path (Segment F-2) through Northwest Harris County.  Segment F-2 is projected to be 12+ miles and will connect SH 249 to I-45.    When all of the segments of the Grand Parkway are completed, and I do believe it will be when and not if, the Grand […]