iTexas Realty Co. Blog

I love draperies.  For me they make our San Antonio home look different from anyone else's home.

Right now, I am looking at the the most beautiful botanical Waverly print, a coral floral damask taken from a Colonial Williamsburg print: It's alive with dogwood foliage and blooms, kangaroo paw, tigridia, violas (popular flowers of colonial times) and a few butterflies floating by on a soft breeze.  They fit so gracefully with our bedroom antiques and the dark, scraped, hardwood floors.  They should be peerfect for the room.  I spent hours sewing them with a 7 inch "pipe organ" pleat to suit the length necesssary for 9 foot ceilings.

But tomorrow, I'll be taking them down and replacing them with a plain, dark moss green solid - something more suitable for resale.  If I have time, I'll put up the new ivory panels in the family room - the floral drapes in that room went to Goodwill yesterday...

The process of staging for sale will continue.  Hopefully, we'll be able to get on the market in the next 3 weeks.  I can assure you this, though: No sign is going up until the grass turns green and I have re-potted the hanging baskets on the porch. 

Then theres's that exterior painting now that the weather hass warmed up...

Images courtesy of GIFanimations.com

 

 

Not a week passes when we don't receive a call from a Prospective Buyer wanting property information about a home that we have listed in San Anotnio Texas. 

We usually chat for a few minutes about the home, then we ask:

"Do you already have an agent helping you?" 

We receive some amusing responses:

"Yes,"

• But I can't reach them
• My cousin (brother, cousin, monkey's uncle, etc), will write the offer
• My agent is out of town
• My agent is too busy to help me

First, we explain how we work in a one-on-one relationship with our clients; much like a personal shopper.

Then, we give our standard statement: If your Agent isn't providing the service that you want so that you can get moved; you need to call that Agent immediately and let them know how you want to work, That includes the following:

• When you want to be moved
• That you want to be sent listings including any new listings from the MLS, if available in their area
  
• Which areas, price range and features you will consider
• Which features or individual neighborhoods you will not accept
  
• That you want them to be responsive to messages during business hours and will offer the Realtor the same courtesy
  
• That you are ready to see homes so that yo may put in an offer and complete a home purchase
  

If you are a "ready-willing-and able" realistic and pre-approved Buyer, there's no good reason why your Realtor can't help you within business hours; but you need to work together with clear goals and an agreed-upon time line.

If you are NOT a "ready-willing-and able" realistic and pre-approved Buyer, who has entered into a Buyer Brokerage agreement, your Realtor may not know that you are serious.  Give that Realtor a call and have a candid conversation about your working relationship and your desire to get serious about buying a home and getting moved. 

 

It's the end of a long day, so I thought I might share with our friends a photos of where I WISH that I had been able to spend my day on a warm Saturday afternoon

- maybe relaxing on a blanket, sipping some wine and having a picnic with Steve. 

Maybe next week...

So, did your Saturday live up to it's potential? I hope that it did!

 

--Sara

 

This has been a busy business week and it's been wonderful.

Some very unusual (for San Antonio, Texas), but tiny snow flurries on Tuesday kept people at home and allowed my Buyer to have a little more time to consider the purchase of a new dream home for their family.  That made all of the frozen toes worthwhile.

But the frosty weather did make me think about our last visit to the Cayman Islands (usually, real estate conferences and seminars are located in Cleveland in the winter...), where even the trees are covered with beautiful, tropical flowers that perfume the warm ocean breeze. 

 

 

--Sara

We have missed chatting with all of out blog friends this week while we've been out of town at Mandatory Continuing Education. It's been great and we are ready to leap back in and show homes to Buyers on Monday. Our showings are scheduled, start and luncheon locations have been selected and we'll be ready to go; Except for one potential problem: Unfortunately, we're now trapped in the floating city (Voyager of the Seas), as the Port of Galveston is completely fogged in! Who knows how long we'll be here? To up the irony factor, of the agents who show for us when we are out of town; one is here with our group from the San Antonio Board of Realtors and the other is leaving tomorrow for a family reunion. Oh well, we'll call another agent to help if we're still stuck tomorrow. What's the longest time that the ship has been fogged in/out of the Galveston Port? We heard 2 days. At least there will be dining and dancing... --Sara

This evening, Steve and I are at a large hotel. We are doing our Mandatory Continuing Education. Despite the scintillating class that we attended today on Legal and Ethical issues, Steve is tired and hanging out in our room.

Being the independent woman that I am, I head off to listen to some music and have a glass of champagne. While standing at the elevator bank with a fellow traveling gal, I meet a young man, about 12 years old and all of four-foot-two, wearing a suit and tie.

He pauses in front of me - I assume to ask directions, but instead he queries "Are you taken, or could we go out sometime?" I gather my wits to politely respond "Thank you, but I'm taken."

The shocked woman next to me, who is also waiting for the elevator just laughed and pronounced it the cutest thing that she'd ever seen!  Me, too.  It's been almost 20 years since my son was that tender age.

I have to say, If we have this much fearless optimism in the market going forward, you can only imagine the home sales that we'll all be making!

--Sara

As the saying goes, "there's GOOD news and there's BAD news".  Let's get the "BAD" news out of the way first: The San Antonio market has started to reflect some of the national trends.  Hold it!  Not ALL of the national trends, and not NEARLY as "BAD". 

2008 Sales were 17,137 homes, vs 2009 sales of 16,887, a DECREASE of 1.5% (not bad)

The Average Sales price for 2008 was $183,989; for 2009 it was $177,710 DOWN 3.5%

Average Days on the Market went UP 23% to 131We have to add that in the neighborhoods we list and sell in, the stats are better than average.

Compared to the "doom and gloom" numbers from much of the rest of the country, these San Antonio stats are not terrible! These are Market-Wide numbers- for the areas that we list and sell in the stats are not as BAD!

2010 appears to be off to a good start, but the buyers are being 'picky'- looking for move-in ready homes priced "right".  Our experience with buyers has been that they THINK they want a bank-owned or short-sale property, but when they learn that there are VERY FEW they would actually LIVE in and that the process can take MONTHS, they move on to nice homes at fair prices.  -Steve

Despite glacial (40 degree days here ARE considered near-freezing in this part of Texas), temperatures today in San Antonio.  You can see it coming in the faint greening of the grass and the hint of new leaves in the trees.

Spring is headed our way here in San Antonio!

Soon there will be birds tweeting, crocuses blooming and fuzzy ducklings paddling.  I can't wait!

 

--Sara

On a Saturday as we speed toward Spring, I love to dream of a new flower bed, full of bright colors, gorgeous foliage and the dark mulch that makes the blooms really "pop".  I love to imagine what varieties I will plant in my San Antonio garden as soon as it warms up a bit.  Spring, spring, won't you hurry!

If only they could be framed and last longer...

 

--Sara

We have some great Amenity Centers in the Alamo Ranch area in San Antonio, Texas (Culebra, outside of Loop 1604), where you can find new homes and new Northside ISD schools being built.  There are also some great re-sale homes available!

This show is from the DR Horton neighborhood of Riverstone at Alamo Ranch.  The Amenity Center is on the corner. diagonally across from the new Northside ISD "Westwinds Area" Elementary School, scheduled to be completed in 2011.

The Amenity Center includes 2 pools - one is a baby pool with a beach entry,  a playground, a BBQ pavilion, sports court, and ample park space for relaxation and play.  What a great palce to spend some free time!