Fighting Your Property Tax appraisal for Dallas Real Estate

In an article posted on CNNMoney.com which was titled “7 Ways to Fight Property Taxes”, they had a decent check list for fighting your property tax value when it seems too high which can definitely happen with Dallas Real Estate. From my experience, Denton County is notorious for raising property value each year for the max amount. Then the county will leave it up to the owner to fight the value set by the county appraiser. If they don’t, it’s more money in the county’s pocket. Read more on the “7 Ways to Fight Property Taxes“

Dallas New Home Search feature is now available!

TexasHomeCentral.com now offers the ability to search for new home construction in Dallas Fort Worth using an innovative map-based home search tool. Try it out now and search for new homes in Dallas. Some of the homebuilders include David Weekley Homes, Darling Homes, Highland Homes and more. Read more of this article “Dallas New Home Search feature is now available“!

Good News for Home Owners and Home Sellers

In my last post, Good News for Home Buyers, I talked about how the Fed continuously lowering rates was something to get excited about. I didn’t mean to leave out our Dallas home sellers and home owners. I believe it’s reason to celebrate for everyone in Dallas Fort Worth!

Thanks to the Dallas real estate market, this is great news for home sellers for a lot of obvious reasons. Lower interest rates mean more home buyers in Dallas that will apply and get approved to buy your home. More home buyers in Dallas means buyer competition which equals increased sales prices (hint: do not wait home buyers, prices will be going up, not down). That’s great news for any home owner in Dallas that has their home on the market. Read More on “Good News for Home Owners and Home Sellers“

Good news for home buyers

The Fed is continuously lowering rates (latest was largest cut in over 20 years) so home buyers and home sellers in the Dallas real estate market have a few things to get excited about.

We haven’t seen really tough times Dallas Fort Worth like the rest of the U.S. has but still, the news headlines can likely scare any buyer into hiding. With the latest Fed cut, Dallas real estate analysts are expecting respectable improvements in home sales. We have already seen a tremendous increase in home buyers visiting the home search feature on our Dallas real estate website. Read more on “Good news for home buyers“!

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New Credit Scoring model for 2008 – FICO 08

Fair Isaac Corp., the company that made the FICO credit score popular, is changing the way it determines that score. The model, named “FICO 08” should do a better job predicting loan defaults, according to the company. It is set up to be more forgiving of occasional slips by a consumer, but will take a tougher stance on repeat offenders. This new version will still score from 300 to 850 and will still take into account level of credit indebtedness, credit length, number of new accounts and inquiries, and types of credit, to determine scores. But, it will do a better job of separating “good risk” from “bad risk”, with thin, or young credit files, as well as consumers who are actively seeking new credit, being a part of the client profiles that will be more heavily scrutinized. The model will also be more lenient to people with serious delinquencies (greater than 90 days) if they have other accounts in good standing, which backs up their claim of forgiving occasional slips.

The VP of global scoring for Fair Isaacs is predicting that more consumer scores will go up than go down!

As far is this relates to the mortgage industry, good credit is always a plus when you are trying to buy a house. Read the rest of this post!

Should You Add a Realtor to a New Home Contract?

I am asked constantly whether it’s a good idea to add a Realtor on to a new home contract. Is it a good idea or will a homebuilder penalize you by holding back on available incentives. Let’s discuss a few basic truths to answer that question.

SET INCENTIVES AMOUNT

The sales person in a new home model has a set dollar amount that they are allowed to use to discount the home in an effort to close the sale. That dollar amount changes month to month based on sales needs but there is rarely an opportunity to get more off on the home. Some weak sales people will give that money away the second you walk in the door. The good sales person will hold back and offer a little off the price to see where you stand and then offer just enough more to close the sale. This tactic makes you believe you got a better deal by negotiating them down when in fact they were playing on your emotions. They typically hold back on some of the money for later in the homebuilding process if something goes wrong and they need to offer money or free appliances to make the problem go away. A Good Realtor can make sure you get the full discount or more.

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RESEARCH NEW HOME BUILDERS IN DALLAS FORT WORTH
Highland Homes
David Weekley Homes
Darling Homes
Huntington Homes
New Lineage Custom Homes

Three Ways to Sell Quickly in a Slow Market

If you are thinking about selling your home in the Dallas Real Estate market, you will be happy to know that the Dallas area has one of the lowest average sales times in the country. According to research conducted my Altos Research Co., only Denver has a faster average sales time than Dallas. The report estimates that it takes about 80 days to sell a home in Dallas, compared to 110 days for the other cities surveyed. So, how do you beat the market average?

THERE ARE 3 WAYS TO SELL YOUR HOME QUICKLY!

1. Price your home to sell! If you prepare a truly accurate Market Analysis, then you will have a good idea of what price your home should sell for if it sells in the average sales time. If you want to sell faster than 80 days, then consider coming down on the price by $3,000 to $4,000. Anything more (on an average priced home) and buyers may think the price is too good to be true and worry. This will help your home stand out to a buyer’s agent and encourage the buyer to jump on a good deal. Research has shown that the average Dallas home, priced $4,000 below average market sales price, sold in significantly less time.

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Use a Home Inspection to Sell and Close the Deal!

Most Realtors and Home Sellers will tell you that a detailed home inspection is the responsibility of the Home Buyer to have done for prior to closing. I would like to offer another point of view on this subject. One that may help you sell your home a little faster and help ensure your home closes.

In today’s housing market, homes are not selling as quickly as before. You need every tool available to ensure your home sells and closes. So, how can a pre-listing inspection help? I believe there are 3 ways a pre-listing inspection can help which I have listed below.

1. Create confidence and trust for potential home buyers. When a home buyer knows of potential problems ahead of time, they are more likely to feel comfortable with the purchase and prepare themselves for the repairs. They are going to find out later anyway and deals have a tendency to fall apart when problems are discovered at the last moment.

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Use Technology to Sell Your Home

The real estate housing market in the Dallas area is still very good with home sales prices up in almost every Metroplex city. The down market for us has been mainly slower home sales which I’d take any day over a dramatic drop in sales prices. With slower sales, what can you do to help drive traffic to your home increasing your chances at finding the right home buyer to sell your home quickly?

This is where technology can really help! Today, over 80% of home buyers begin their home search online. While home buyers are viewing homes online, they are spending the majority of their time looking at a home’s pictures. Pictures speak a thousand words… especially when you only have a few hundred words available for an MLS listing description.

It absolutely amazes me that a Realtor would bother listing a home online without posting a photo with it immediately. Tens of Thousands of potential home buyers receive “just listed” properties emailed to them each month from our website, TexasHomeCentral.com. If an agent fails to post that home with at least a few pictures, most of those home buyers will not give that property a second look.
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Should you sell your home as For Sale By Owner?

Many people ask me whether they should try to sell their home by owner rather than paying a REALTOR to sell it for them. That is a relatively easy question to answer but a hard one for many home sellers to swallow. It’s always hard to give up part of your hard earned equity and unfortunately, many Realtors fail to truly earn their commission making it even harder to let go.

If you pull up the real estate stats for the North Dallas area like McKinney, Frisco and Plano or even some of the Tarrant county areas like Keller and Flower Mound, you will find that over 80% of the home sellers that list their home as for sale by owner eventually enlist a REALTOR to sell their home for them. For the other 20%, more than half say they would never do it again. Of the other half, 7% sold their home to someone they knew so really, less than 13% of FSBO sellers actually stuck it out and weathered the storm.
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Buying a Car during the Home Loan Process – What can that hurt?

One of quickest ways to get ‘Unapproved’ for the loan on your dream home is to do something that negatively effects your credit score during the home loan process. One of the first conversations we have with all clients (good or not so good credit) is notifying them to NOT make any major purchases while building or buying a home. That means NO new car, new boat, furniture, electronics, etc…until the loan is closed.

To better understand why or how this will effect you, I will give you an example of a client with good credit that buys a new car during the home loan process and the real cost of buying that new car. Oh, and the “Cost” I am referring to is not just the new payment. Read the rest of the post!

Stonebridge Ranch gets Radical (is that still a word?)

Does your kid like to skate, grind, blade or ride their bike a little faster than you’re comfortable with? Well, their life is about to get a little better if they live in Stonebridge Ranch, located in McKinney Texas. Stonebridge Ranch is considering to build a skate park on a sizable, open piece of real estate in Stonebridge Ranch just south of their Aquatic Center.

Homeowners in Stonebridge Ranch have argued that the park areas don’t accommodate older children and I’d be the first to agree. I live in Stonebridge Ranch and it is an amazing place for family but teens do not always want to hand out with the family (surprise). I think this is a fantastic idea!
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McKinney Texas is Going Green

Whether super city or small town, every home town bears the burden of providing food, shelter, resources, and energy for its residents. Until recently, many United States cities have been more likely to be the cause of environmental ills than the solution.

Today many cities, like McKinney Texas, are finding ways to “Green” themselves in ways that not only make them more livable but also save millions on municipal budgets and in some cases, as with smoking bans, may even save lives.

McKinney’s population has grown amazingly and consists of energetic and well-educated residents. The median age in McKinney Texas is 31 and the average household income is $94,000. Read the rest of this post!

Yard Sale! Get Rid of the Clutter

Buying or selling a home provides an excellent opportunity to get rid of clutter. Uncluttering your home not only reduces what you’ll move to your new home but will help stage your home for selling. As any Realtor will tell you, uncluttering your home as a home seller is very important. Take time to sort out unwanted items since your junk may be someone else’s treasure. The following are some useful ideas to help prepare for a successful yard sale.

Regulations
Check with your local HOA or city chamber to determine if a permit is required and what the rules are for posting yard sale signs. You can click here to find links to local chamber of commerce in the Dallas Fort Worth DFW area.

Advertising
Put an ad in the newspaper with the time and location. Most hardcore yard sale shoppers browse the local paper before the up coming weekend. List any big items you may have to sell. There are always early-birds so be prepared to start on time or you may decide to open up earlier. Post directional signs around the neighborhood. Good signage will bring customers to your sale but be careful for other yard sales happening in your neighborhood or your sign may direct the buyers to someone else’s home by mistake if their home is located before yours on the street. Be sure to remove the signs when the sale is over or you may get fined.

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Fixing a Fixer Upper

Fixing A Fixer Upper
Have you ever tackled a project like remodeling a single room? I can hear it now, my child giggling and saying, “funny daddy, you have paint on your nose!”. A single room can be overwhelming by itself but when you’re a home buyer looking at a fixer-upper home as an investment or for your personal home, it’s easy to become flustered. This is where having a solid plan comes in and then just like any other big project, take it one step at a time. The plan you create will differ greatly depending on whether you are living in your fixer-upper or not.

Not Living in Your Fixer-Upper
Any home remodel is much easier when you’re not living in the house, but there are still some guidelines that will make things a lot easier. If you are planning on tearing the walls down or “gutting” the house, then this should be the first thing you do. This will give you access to insulation, wiring, and windows. If all three are in good condition, you can skip this step (thank heavens), but more often you’ll want to work from scratch and it isn’t as expensive as you may think to redo the sheetrock and texture. You may need to replace or upgrade the wiring so look it over closely or hire an electrician to make sure it is in good condition. The insulation should go in as thick as possible with a good R Value of around R-19 and don’t forget to insulate around the windows. Since the walls are already down, this would be the best time to replace the windows if needed. Once the sheetrock and texture have been completed and have a fresh coating of paint, think about the flooring and whether you want to change or replace the material (waiting until after the paint has dried will save you the hassle of trying to clean the paint out of carpets or worse).

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The Adriatica in Stonebridge Ranch

As if the real estate in McKinney Texas’ Stonebridge Ranch wasn’t amazing and beautiful enough, Jeffory Balckard, developer and president of The Blackard Group is developing the Adriatica at Stonebridge Ranch. This is a vision that you need to see for yourself! You may find yourself moving to McKinney Texas.

Blackard’s vision for the Adriatica comes from the harbor village of Supetara on the island of Brac in Croatia. This Mediterranean harbor town is being transported to Adriatica at Stonebridge Ranch and is estimated to cost over $250 million. So far, the “Kastel” (castle), a 28,000 square foot office building, a retail structure housing Starbucks, The UPS Store and a Spa has been completed and are open for business.

The Front of the Kastel in Adriatica
If you think the Adriatica is only for work and play, then you’re sadly mistaken. George Fuller, a local Luxury home builder in the DFW Metroplex is building a residential area in the village, with 75 villas and 297 condominiums and lofts available. The designs are beautiful and the homes will be very close to the water.

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Now Opt Out of Annoying Telemarketing Calls

Now that you’ve began the process for opting out of the annoying junk mail that clutters your mailbox, here’s how to opt out of the annoying telemarketing calls.

First, when you do receive a call, don’t just hang up on them. Instead, tell the telemarketing agent to remove you from their list. Simply say, “Please remove me from your list and add me to your do not call list. Thank you!”. Yes, add the please and thank you or they may ignore your request out of spite for how you told them to “go to h#ll” before making your request. Nice will always go further, especially when they get hung up on all day.

Second and more importantly, register with the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry at: www.donotcall.gov or by phone at 1-888-382-1222.

That’s it! I hope that helps and as always, good luck in your quest for a peaceful evening meal with your family.

Related Posts
Opt Out of Annoying Snail Mail

Opt Out of Annoying Snail Mail

While looking for more information on combatting junk mail (snail mail, not email), I came across some facts from New American Dream and I thought I’d share them with you. Hopefully this list will inspire you to put an end to your own overflowing mailbox.

Junk Mail Facts and Figures
-Source: New American Dream article, “Just the Facts: Junk Mail Facts and Figures”

• More than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics)
• In 2005, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream – enough to fill over 450,000 garbage trucks. Parked bumper to bumper these garbage trucks would extend from Atlanta to Albuquerque. Less than 36% of this ad mail was recycled. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
• The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics)
• Citizens and local governments spend hundreds of millionsof dollars per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that doesn’t get recycled. (New American Dream estimate from EPA statistics)
• California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone. (California State Assembly)

If you are anything like me, then you are probably fed up with sorting through 14 peices of junk mail to find the only 1 real letter. Then again, you could be like my wife who is indifferent to the pile.

Here are a 2 steps you can take to get removed from many mailing lists
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Building a new pool? 7 Steps to Help Choose!

I recently had a new pool built for my home and I have to say, I am rather pleased with the result! After meeting and getting quotes from numerous local pool builders in Dallas Fort Worth, I came up with these 4 steps to help you make your decision.

Here are 7 steps that will help you to choose the right pool builder.

1. Find out how long the pool builder has been in business under present name and if they have ever filed bankruptcy under any name. Also, visit their showroom as many fly-by-night pool builders work out of the back of their truck making it easy to skip town.

2. Ask for the name and phone number of their insurance company. It’s important to verify that they have a current liability policy directly from the company.

3. Ask the pool builder to furnish lien waivers from vendors and subcontractors to prove they’ve been paid. This is extremely important! The greatest nightmare for any homeowner buying a pool is to pay 75%+ of the money for their new pool and have the pool builder skip town when they’ve only done 25% of the work. These criminals usually leave the subcontractors unpaid, which means they’ll come knocking on your door for payment.

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