June 13, 2010

When are you in contract?

Our Spring Texas real estate contracts have many dates listed in them with the most important date of them all being the date of the contract itself. The contract date (a.k.a. effective date) is the starting point for all the other actions in the contract that are specified to be done in X days. The contract […]

June 5, 2010

Flood Insurance – Wise purchase or a waste of money?

Once again, hurricane season has arrived. Hopefully, we will have another calm year like 2009 and not another year like 2008 when Hurricane IKE came barreling through the Spring Texas area. If your house is located in the 100-year flood plain and you have a mortgage, your lender requires you to have flood insurance. But what […]

May 28, 2010

Why does it cost more to live in a gated community?

Why does it cost more tods live in a gated community in Spring Texas and is it worth it? The first part of the question I can answer for you. Whether it’s worth the extra cost is one of personal opinion. We have several gated communities in Spring Texas including Estates at Creek Ends, Spring Lakes, Lakes of Cypress Forest, […]

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 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 […]

April 21, 2010

Spending habits of Spring Texas residents

Money … Money … Money …. Where does it all go? The majority of the time we don’t know where our money has gone. We just know it’s gone. With the help of Bundle.com, we can now gain some insight into our spending habits and the spending habits of our Spring Texas neighbors. Bundle breaks down the spending […]

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