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  • The Offer Is In The Mail! Selling your property’s mineral rights in Jefferson County.

    Remember, a few weeks ago, all the seismic blasting that was being done in and around Beaumont?  If you live in North Vidor and Pine Forest by Ten Mile Creek you heard the blasts for weeks.  The ground shook, it rattled your nerves, and according to the  Southeast Texas Record one property owner found a 150 foot hole filled with dynamite explosives had been drilled on his property without his permission.

    Watch your mailbox.

    Lake Ronel Oil Company which conducted the seismic tests was looking for pockets of gas and oil.  If found Lake Ronel Oil Company will want to buy the mineral rights. 

    According to this video from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, offers to buy mineral rights from property owners often arrive in the mail.

    This five minute video introduces a very complex topic here in Texas:  The buying and selling of mineral rights.  If you are considering buying or selling your mineral rights in Jefferson, Orange or Hardin County, TX, you’ll want the advice of an attorney.  Until then… 

    Watch your mailbox.  Watch the video. 

    Let SE Texas Real Estate Talk know if you receive a letter.

  • People Have Been Asking: Is Beaumont’s Housing Market Slowing?

    Slow_snailHere’s the question I’m being asked most frequently. "Are home sales in Beaumont slowing?"

    Good question from prospective home buyers and home sellers.  Everyone must be listening to the national news.  Even the News Released by NAR – the National Association of Realtors- addresses a national sales slow down. 

    What home buyers and sellers have to remember is housing statistics should be looked at on a local level.  To home buyers and sellers in Beaumont, TX, it doesn’t really matter if home prices are dropping in Miami, FL.  It doesn’t really matter if there is over a 10 month supply of houses on the market across the nation.  What matters is what is happening here. 

    So here’s the real scoop:

    January 2007

    • 139 homes were sold
    • $19,200,000 million in dollar volume closed
    • $138,100 was the average price in our market
    • $119,400 was the median price in our market
    • 1001 listings were on the market
    • 5.2 = the months supply of inventory

    January 2008

    • 122 homes were sold
    • $18,145,000 million in dollar volume closed
    • $148,700 was the average price in our market
    • $134,300 was the median price in our market
    • 1321 listings were on the market
    • 6.4 = the months supply of inventory

    Changes between Jan. ’07 and Jan. ’08:

    • 13% fewer sales
    • $1,055,000 less dollar volume closed
    • 7.5% increase in average price
    • 12% increase in median price
    • 320 more listings on the market
    • 1.2 months increase in the months supply of inventory

    *Data from Texas A&M Real Estate Center. 

    If you are a glass is half full type of person, homes in Beaumont have gone up in value.  That’s good news.  If you are a glass is half empty type of person, sales have gone down.  That’s the bad news.  Want some more good news?  January is typically one of the slowest months of the year for real estate sales.  Spring is the home buying season.  March through August in 2007 recorded over 200 sales each month.  If the phones in my office are any indication, activity is picking up.

    Here’s my answer to the question:  January was a little slower than last year but our local housing market is in great shape.  Prices are up since last year.  They are expected to increase more this year.  Spring is the busiest home buying season of the year and its just about here. 

    If you plan to sell now is the time to get your home on the market.  If you plan to buy, do it soon before prices go up much more. Ask me the question, "Are home sales in Beaumont slowing?" this spring and I bet the answer will be "No, homes are selling faster than last year."

    Do you have an opinion?  Comments are always welcome.

  • Jefferson County Homes Auctioned Today.

    Jefferson_co_courthouseIt was a bad day for several dozen homeowners in Jefferson County.  Today was foreclosure auction day.  On the steps of the Jefferson County Court House, homes were auctioned to the highest bidder.  In the afternoon session, about two dozen homes were on the auction block. 

    How does a home reach this point?

    1. Homeowner gets behind on the mortgage payments.
    2. Mortgage Company gives notice of the delinquency to the homeowner.
    3. A set period of time is given to cure the delinquency.
    4. If the homeowner does not bring the payments current, then the mortgage holder will file a notice with the county court.
    5. Twenty-one days after filing a notice of trustee sale a home can be auctioned.

    Texas Foreclosure Laws are pretty straight forward.  There’s not a lot of wasted time between falling behind on payments and the court house steps.  Texas uses non-judicial foreclosures.  This avoids a lengthy lawsuit.  Most mortgages have a "power-of-sale" clause that allows the mortgage holder to sell the property for repayment if the borrower does not repay on time. 

    Over 90% of the homes auction today were bought by the bank or entity that holds the mortgage.  Three homes were bought this afternoon by bidders.  The bank is trying to recoup what they are owed so a minimum bid- usually the mortgage amount- is set.  Anyone can make a bid over the minimum.  Its not for the faint-hearted.  You must pay CASH in full the same day. 

    What’s the price range?

    Today’s lowest minimum bid was $9000.  That one was bought.  The high bidder became the new owner for $9,100.  The most expensive property auctioned was in Barrington Heights.  The minimum bid was just over $280,000.  No takers on that one.  That’s a lot of cash! 

    What happens to the homes no one bids on?

    The banks or mortgage holders buy them for the minimum bid.  This is basically the amount they are owed. These homes are known are REO – Real Estate Owned.  After taking possession of these homes the banks hire local REALTORS to list the properties for sale. 

    For most investors this is the safer time to buy a foreclosed home.  Here’s why:

    • You have time to have a home inspection done.
    • You can see the condition of the interior and exterior of the home.  You CAN’T do this prior to the auction because the homeowner is still living there.
    • You have time to have a title search done.  This will help reveal any issues with title going into your name.
    • You can finance the purchase price.

    Want to learn more?

    You can always attend the public foreclosure auction.  They are held the first Tuesday of every month.  Next bad day for homeowners in Jefferson County – April 1, 2008.   

  • Gated Golf Course Community coming soon to SE Texas.

    Dscf0007_2Coming Soon!

    There’s a new gated, golf course, waterfront community coming to Southeast Texas.  Let me preface that "NEW" might not be exactly the right word because the Belle Oaks Golf Club has been around since the mid 1990’s.  The residential development called Lake Estates has been around for a few years to.  What is coming soon is a renewed plan and call for action from local builders aimed at developing this unique waterfront, golf course property. Location!

    Friday, February 29th, The Homebuilders Association of Southeast Texas held its monthly meeting at the Belle Oaks Golf Club.

    As a special incentive to get some immediate home construction started the builders in attendance were offered ten homesites at dramatic discounts.  Smart idea from the developer.  This property truly is unique.

    "Where else in SE Texas can you have your boat in the backyard and look out your front door to views of a rolling, green 18 hole golf course?" 

    Development did not take off like a rocket when the project first opened.  But now, with the new growth coming to the area, developers think the time is right. The  7 billion dollar expansion at Motiva is expected to add another 300 permanent jobs to the area with up to 10,000 contract workers being employed at one time or another.  Valero has expansion plans in the works too. 

    No doubt the growth is coming.

    Will the renewed plan and call for action get this project off the ground?  Oh, to own a crystal ball.  As with all things, time will tell.  The real estate visionaries of Southeast Texas think the time for Lake Estates to boom has arrived.  If the local builders heed the call this community could be the a real gem.

    Lake Estates Amenities include:

    • waterfront properties on expansive boat channel
    • lighted concrete boat ramp
    • direct access to Taylor Bayou
    • Hampshire-Fannett ISD
    • concrete bulkhead surrounding the channel
    • Class "A" development- underground utilities, concrete curb, and gutter streets, a state approved water and sewer system

    Future plans call for:

    • a new clubhouse
    • gated front entrance
    • possible commercial square at Hwy 73 turn off to community
    • townhomes

    The project is exclusively represented by Coldwell Banker Southern Homes.  Homesites on the golf course start at $59,900. Waterfront homesites start at $79,900.  Buy a homesite. Choose your own builder. Construct the custom home you desire.

    Lake Estates at the Belle Oaks Golf Club is coming soon! 

  • Price Just Lowered on Beaumont, West-End Custom Home!

    Now priced at $329,000. 

    1470 Sheridan Place will be held open this Sunday, March 2nd, from 1-4pm. 

    Be there first before other buyers find out about the new price.  Call me direct if you can’t wait until Sunday. 

  • Sell your Beaumont, TX home faster with a pricing strategy.

    Dog_trickThere might not be any "real tricks" to pricing a home for sale, but you should use a pricing strategy.

    What’s the theory behind a pricing strategy?

    An easy explanation goes something like this. People make pricing judgments in mere seconds.  The good news is you can influence the judgment they make. 

    The Wall Street Journal’s Guide to Property, properly titled, The Real Estate Journal offers home sellers some advice on how to use a pricing strategy to set the price of your home.

    Three main points:

    1. Round number signal prestige, while precise number suggest a bargain.

    2. Buyers anchor off the first digit, so $399,000 seems far cheaper than $400,000.

    3. If you cut your asking price, make it easy to calculate the discount.

    The article also offers four pricing tips to sell your home faster. 

    • Looking slim
    • Stacking up
    • Sending messages
    • Cutting prices

    Want to learn the details?  Read the complete article Four Pricing Tricks to Help Sell Your Home Faster.  Curious how to price your home for a faster sale in Southeast Texas?  Call me.  I’ll develop the best pricing strategy for your home. 

  • Interested in SE Texas news “from a different perspective”?

    BinocularsIf you haven’t found The Bayou yet you are missing out. 

    Officially subtitled, "Southeast Texas… from a different perspective" this blog lives up to its name. 

    You might not always agree with contributing editor, Ron Franscell but he will spark your opinion on a wide range of topics. 

    Since Southeast Texas Real Estate Talk focuses on SE Texas homes one recent post caught my attention. It is titled,

    "The bank foreclosed on this guy’s house… and the new owners found his skeleton in a bedroom." 

    If you are curious, it didn’t happen in a home here in Southeast Texas.  Good for us.  It happened in Chicago. Not so good for them. Ron provides a link to the full story from the Chicago Tribune on The Bayou.  But you can also click here for the Chicago Tribune story, "This house was a steal."

    Thinking of buying a foreclosed home at an auction here in SE Texas, one word of caution, you never know what you might find, especially in the closet. 

  • Five Things To Know Before Making an Offer.

    Leaning_house_2Thinking of buying a home this spring?

    There are five things you should know before making an offer on your dream home.

    They may seem like common sense, but don’t be fooled by your emotions.  Home buying is an exciting and often stressful experience. 

    Follow these five tips and you will reap the rewards of a smart home purchase.

    1. Determine your needs.  What you want and what you need can be two different things.  Do you have to have a two car garage?  Or would you like one but could live without it?  Be realistic.
    2. See the competition. Make sure you see all the other homes that are for sale in the same neighborhood and price range. Click here for Freddie Mac home comparison tips.
    3. Get pre-qualified with a reputable mortgage lender. You can do some number crunching on your own to give yourself an idea of a comfortable monthly payment.  Click here mortgage calculator and tools. But before you make an offer you’ll want a pre-approval letter in hand. 
    4. Plan a negotiating strategy. A local REALTOR is able to help you negotiate more effectively than you can on your own.  You will need comparative sales information on other homes that have recently sold in the neighborhood.  This will help determine the best price to offer. More tips on how to negotiate.
    5. Have a back-up plan. Most sellers will counter a buyer’s original offer.  You will need to know how much you are willing to go up in price from your offer.  Sometimes more than one offer comes in at once and your offer isn’t accepted.  In these situations you need a back-up plan.  Realty Times offers more advice.

    Follow these five tips.  Not only will you make a smarter offer, you are likely to save money by not paying too much.  It pays to be an educated home buyer.   

  • What $1 Million Buys in Beaumont, TX

    Million_2 "What $1 Million Buys in Homes Across the U.S.", published by  Forbes.com  got me to thinking.  Detailed in the Full story is just how far $1 million goes in different housing markets across the country. 

    Did you know in Manhattan $1 million will get you a 611 square foot one bedroom apartment?  Wow.  Closer to home with a $1 million budget you can buy a six bedroom 5,000 square foot home in Houston. 

    How does a million dollar home in Beaumont compare? 

    One thing is for sure.  You get more square footage here than you do in New York City.  About 6,000 square feet more it seems.  According to the Beaumont MLS data from Feb. 2008, there are three homes on the market above the $1 million mark.  The smallest of the three just came on the market.  Its new construction and offers 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, plus a 4 car garage with 5990 square feet of living space. 

    Not big enough for you?  Would 6349 square feet do?  There’s one you can pick up for a mere $1,150,000.  With the 6349 square feet you get 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, and a 3 car garage.  Still too small?  The most spacious home on the market at present is a 7596 square foot home.  It offers 5 bedrooms, 4 full baths, a three car garage and a lot of windows to clean.  Although if you are in this price range you probably won’t have to clean them yourself.  These million dollar homes offer their owners plenty of comfort from crystal chandeliers, to outdoor kitchens, to fountains, and garage apartments. One would feel no pain living in one of these beauties. 

    You might feel a little pain at tax time.  How’s a $17,000+/- property tax bill strike you?  The Jefferson County Appraisal District keeps all the property tax records on-line.  You can check your homes value.  It might not seem quite so bad now. 

    How often to these seven figure homes sell in Beaumont?

    In 2007, two homes sold in this range.  Surprisingly, neither stayed on the market more than 6 months.  Curious about them?  One property was a 125 acre ranch out in Fannett.  The lucky owner got two quarter horses, cows, chickens, and a stocked fish pond with the purchase. The other was an exquisite estate home built by American Builders with 5904 square feet of living space and a sports pool with fountain, fire pit, tanning deck and guest quarters. 

    According to the Forbes.com article in some parts of California $1 million probably only gets you about a thousand square feet.  After all the median price in San Francisco is over $800,000.  Compare that to Beaumont’s median price of approximately $150,000.

    It’s fun to see what $1 million buys even if that’s not in your budget right now.  The good news is here in Beaumont $1 million buys you an incredible estate. For those of us who have real budgets to live by you can still find your dream home and there’s a good chance you can find it for much, MUCH less.

  • Did you see it on the cover of The Real Estate Book?

    Discover the warmth and beauty of this custom home on a Cul-de-Sac lot in the desirable west-end.  Wonderfully maintained.  Built for owner with attention to detail.  Beautifully landscaped yard with lush foliage.  Features include: 4 bedrooms plus den, formal living and dining rooms, great floor plan for entertaining, fireplaces in den and master bedroom.  School track is Regina Howell Elementary, Marshall Middle, and West Brook Senior High. Click Here for BISD school zone.

    If you are looking for quality and location this is a must see.  Call me today to schedule your own personal viewing.   

  • Stop. Take a deeper look.

    Binocular_fishDriving around town how many "For Sale" signs do you see? 

    A lot?  A few?

    An interesting point was brought to my attention this week.  It has to do with the months supply of inventory in the Beaumont MLS.  Our inventory numbers have grown since last year. About this time in 2007 there were under 1,000 listings.  Starting off 2008, there are over 1,200. 

    A logical person would think we have more homes for sale.  The point that was brought to my attention is we have more homes from nearby areas being added to the Beaumont MLS. 

    Hum.  Interesting point. 

    The number of homes listed in Lumberton, Orange, Groves, Vidor, Port Neches and other neighboring communities has gone up.  In fact there are over 100 homes for sale in Lumberton.  Those homes are included in the Beaumont housing figures.

    Let’s stop and take a deeper look at the number of homes for sale in Beaumont’s west-end. 

    The west-end is often considered the most desirable area to reside.  Homes hold their values.  The schools are good.  Shopping is nearby. 

    • To break it down* there are a total 268 homes for sale.
    • 54 priced from $0 – $99,999
    • 95 priced from $100,000- $200,000
    • 94 priced from $200,001- $499,999
    • 24 priced from $500,000 – $2,000,000
    • *Figures from the Beaumont MLS as of today.

    268 homes for sale. Does that seem like a lot?

    Price ranges are one limiting factor in home buying. If you want a certain part of the west-end you limit yourself more.  Take the median sales price in Beaumont $150,000.  Say, you want to spend between $100,000 – $200,000, here’s what you have to look at:

    • W1 = 6 homes for sale. 
    • Approximate area is E. of 1-10 stretching to the Nueches River by Riverfront park.  S. of 1-10 where it turns E. heading toward Rose City, and N. of the railroad tracks.
    • W2 = 37 homes for sale. 
    • Approximate area is N. of Calder, E. of Dowlen, S. of Eastex Fwy, and W. of the intersection Eastex and I-10. 
    • W3 = 9 homes for sale.
    • Approximate area is N. of College St., E. of Beaumont’s municipal airport, S. of Phelan, and W. of 1-10.
    • W4 = 21 homes for sale.
    • Approximate area is N. of Phelan, E. of the Port Arthur Fresh Water Canal, S. of Folsom, and W. of Dowlen.
    • W5 = 15 homes for sale.
    • Approximate area is W. Jefferson County with a Beaumont City address
    • W6 = 7 homes for sale.
    • Approximate area is S. of College, W. of I-10, Washington Blvd runs through it, so does Major Drive.

    37 homes for sale. Does that seem like a lot?

    Shopping in the upper end, above $500,000, you’ll be looking at homes in the area local REALTOR’s refer to as W2.  19 of the 24 homes for sale in this price range are located there.  It is home to some of the ritziest neighborhoods in town:  Metropolitan Park, Montclaire, Barrington Heights, Bellechase.

    24 homes for sale.  That does not seem like a lot.

    Numbers can be analyzed until you are blue in the face.  It is worth taking note, when home buying give yourself enough time to find the home that you want.  If you have to rush to purchase a home you may find there’s not as much for sale as you originally thought.

    Driving around town and seeing all those For Sale signs can be a little misleading.  That’s why it’s a good idea to stop! And take a deeper look.

  • Beware of false windstorm documents warns TDI

    Warning_sign_bird Just last week the Texas Department of Insurance issued a warning to all Texans.  It appears the department is investigating several cases of false windstorm documents.  The full warning can be read here.

    In order for a home to be issued a Windstorm Certificate it must be inspected by a qualified inspector.  It seems there are some unscrupulous folks out there pretending to be qualified when they aren’t.

    10 things you should know about windstorm protection.

    1. Need a list of qualified inspectors?  Beaumont has 19 on the list. 
    2. Why does a home have to have a windstorm certificate?  Its not required, but it is the only way to ensure your home qualifies for coverage through theTexas Windstorm Insurance Association.
    3. What is the TWIA?  It is the state’s insurer of last resort for wind and hail coverage in the 14 coastal counties. If you are buying or selling a home in Jefferson County, you’ll want to know more about Windstorm protection. Specifically, does the home you plan to sell or buy have a windstorm certificate.
    4. Want to learn more? The Texas Department of Insurance is a good place to begin. 
    5. Do all homes in Jefferson County require coverage?  Jefferson County Windstorm Map.
    6. Does your home have a windstorm certificate?  Enter your address here.  Find out now.
    7. What should you do if you need to re-roof?  TDI answers your roofing questions.
    8. What home construction projects require an inspection? New structures, additions, alterations, re-roofs, and repairs.
    9. When are inspections made?  During the construction phase.  Don’t wait until you are done.
    10. In Beaumont who do you call?  The Beaumont Field office 409-833-3756.

    If you are going to sell your home and don’t have a Windstorm Certificate you might need to get one.  A smart home buyer will ask for one.  But in this case it’s not like the old saying goes, "buyer beware", in this case its seller beware.  Beware of false windstorm insurance inspectors, the TDI says so.

Selling a home is Southeast Texas. Pricing is an important part of the equation. Sometimes the initial asking price doesn’t bring enough attention. When a home isn’t getting showings the usually means the buyers in the market think the price is too high. A small adjustment can be the trick to get your home sold.