The Katy real estate market has come alive! There is good news for both buyers and sellers, and I’m happy to report that we are in a balanced market. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Real estate in the Katy area has come alive since the middle of January, and there is a lot of good news for buyers and sellers alike. Interest rates have gone up about four or five times since the beginning...
May 26, 2017
Do you need a survey when buying a property? I’ll go over the answer today. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Recently, a client of mine asked, “Do I need a survey when I’m buying a property?” Need is a strong word, but I highly recommend getting a survey. In today’s market, you’re actually able to obtain a past survey from a seller. The seller has to sign a T-47 affidavit, which states t...
Apr 27, 2017
If you’re a home seller, accepting a contingency purchase means you have to take certain things into consideration you otherwise wouldn’t have with a normal offer. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Today I want to cover the basics of a contingency purchase and how it differs from a regular purchase if you’re a home seller. A contingency purchase is when a buyer for your home has a home th...
Apr 12, 2017
I’ve got two exciting announcements to share today. Here’s the big news. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home I’ve got a few exciting pieces of news to share with you today. First, I have partnered with a vendor who will allow you to make upgrades and updates to your home before selling and you won’t have to pay until after closing. Let’s say you want to replace the paint in a room, the floo...
Mar 06, 2017
Tired of always having to physically go to the title company to sign the paperwork when buying a new home? This pilot program might interest you. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been invited to be a part of a new national pilot program. What is this new program? How does it work? Instead of you having to physically sign paperwork at the title company to...
Feb 17, 2017
I’m so excited to tell you all about a new purchase program called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage! Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home I just learned about a new program called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), and I’m excited to share the details with you today. HECM is a purchase program that enables those of retirement age, 62 or older, an incredible opportunity to purchas...
Jan 30, 2017
When buying a brand new home, it’s best to hire a Realtor to represent you. Here’s why. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home It’s always best to have a Realtor represent you when selling a home, but what about when buying one? There a few reasons why you want a Realtor representing you while looking to purchase a home. First, here are a few facts on what you are getting into when buying a br...
Jan 13, 2017
If you’re selling a home, a home inspection might turn up some code violations. I’m here to tell you how to handle that situation. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home When a buyer gets a home inspection done, is a seller required to fix code violations? Recently, a buyer did an inspection on one of the homes that we sold, and my seller asked me that question. The answer is no. A code violat...
Dec 20, 2016
Thinking about selling your house this winter? There are a few extra steps you need to take to get the most out of your sale this time of year that I wanted to share with you. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Since winter is nearly here, it’s important to remember that the winter market in Houston is still very good—it always has been and it always will be. In fact, December is often the...
Dec 06, 2016
What is a property tax certificate and why do you pay it every time you sell a home? Today we're discussing the finer points of why a title company orders this certificate. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home A customer recently asked me about property tax certificates and why you have to pay them every time you sell a home. It's a great question, as not many people know exactly what a prop...
Nov 10, 2016
What’s happening in the South Katy real estate market? I’ll go over all of the details today. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Today I’m here with a snapshot of what’s going on in the South Katy area. As of right now, there are 1,286 properties for sale and 342 of those are under contract. On a monthly basis, we’ve had anywhere from four to nine sellers for every buyer on the market; rig...
Oct 25, 2016
We're seeing a lot of vacant homes for sale in our market since things have slowed down. Is it OK to showcase your home on the market with photos of it without furniture, though? Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home In our market, homes are selling a little bit slower, causing many homes to go vacant before they sell. For this reason, I recently had a customer ask whether a home that's for s...
Oct 25, 2016
Open houses aren’t what they used to be. Our team, though, has created a system that results in hosting the perfect open house. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home Do open houses even work anymore? That’s not an easy question to answer. With the abundance of homes we have in this market, open houses are a dime a dozen. The other thing to consider is that the way most agents conduct open hou...
Oct 14, 2016
What are the chances of your home selling in this market? Right now, the reason so many homes are not selling is that there are, on average, six or seven sellers for every buyer. In order for your home to sell, then, it has to be perfectly positioned in every way. The best thing you can do to stack the odds in your favor is to choose the right agent. To know what it means to choose the right agent, watch this short video. Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considerin...
Aug 17, 2016
Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home I wanted to take a minute to talk about the three types of appraisals we have in the real estate world. You have the tax appraisal - which really should be called an assessment, because it is not an appraisal where someone comes out to look at your home to determine its value. Then you have the market value appraisal; typically a mortgage company will com...
Jul 06, 2016
Looking to buy a home in the Houston area ? Get full MLS access Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home A lot of people have been asking us lately about how long homes are taking to sell in Houston. We measure this statistic by looking at the average days on market. However, there are actually two numbers to look at. One is the average days on market for all homes, and the other is the average days on market for homes that actually sell. In the Houston area...
Jun 17, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . One of the most frequent questions I get these days is if we are in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market in Houston. The answer is, we are actually in a balanced market. Whenever you’re in a balanced market, you’re never really even-keeled. Typically...
May 13, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . More and more, we’re starting to see the same problem during home inspections. In 2002, the state of Texas started requiring double-pane windows to be installed on all homes moving forward. These windows have a life expectancy of about 20-30 years, de...
Apr 27, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . Recently, I had a client who was searching for a home ask me an interesting question. He asked if certain builders’ homes sold for higher prices than other builders’ homes. This isn’t an easy question to answer, because many buyers who buy re-sale hom...
Apr 06, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . A lot of people have been asking me about the differences between a short sale and a foreclosure. They are both different kinds of distressed properties, and I’ll tell you the difference today. A foreclosure is a home that a bank owns because it was r...
Mar 21, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . Today, I want to talk to you about a market condition that is starting to happen more often. This isn’t something that happened when Houston was in a seller’s market, but now that we’re in a balanced market, buyers have started making an offer on a ...
Mar 08, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . The great news right now in the Houston market is that interest rates are still low and buyers still have faith in the market. There will come a point when many home buyers will decide to wait another 6 months to start buying again, and when that ha...
Feb 17, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . December 2015 was a record month in real estate for the Houston area. The momentum has continued so far in January, which started out with a phenomenal burst of buyers. In fact, this past weekend we had 48 people show up to a single open house, and ...
Jan 20, 2016
Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575 , or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com . Every so often, we have foreclosed homes that come onto our market, and there are always many different kinds of buyers looking to purchase them. A lot of them are wholesale buyers, looking to purchase a property, rent it out, and sell it. Then we a...
Jan 05, 2016
