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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Woodway Glen Fourplex Condos: Converted, but Still Not Sold on the Idea

6323 Deerwood Rd., Woodway Glen, Houston

Here’s the plan: Buy a fourplex on a cul-de-sac near the intersection of Woodway and Voss. Do some painting, replace the roof and repair the exterior, put in granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances in one of the units and new appliances and carpet in the rest. Then . . . convert the place to condos, and flip them one at a time!

Except . . . there are a heck of a lot of condos out there in the $150K-$230K range, and selling is tough.

Bummer. But there’s still a moneymaking way out: If you can’t make the condo flip yourself, that doesn’t mean you can’t sell someone else on the idea of doing it. And you’ve already done the conversion work!

Just listed on MLS: 6323 Deerwood. Four units built in 1975, totaling 7,564 square feet, on a 10,171-sq.-ft. lot. Apartments lease for $1200 and $1400. Asking $645,000:

Units have already been condo converted! Investor can sell units separately or keep as a fourplex.

Will consider seller financing!

After the jump: the renovated innards.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Free! Classic Midcentury Modern Home Included with Purchase of Property!

Garden of 6040 Glencove St., Memorial, Houston

This 1.35-acre lot at the end of the cul-de-sac on Glencove St. has been on the market for almost 16 months, so you can imagine during that time owner-broker Richard Maier has been trying just about every marketing angle possible. There’s some evidence of it too: The records are a little screwy, but it appears the asking price has been raised three times and lowered four. As of last week, we’re on an upswing! At $2.65 million, it’s back up $51K from its all-time low, but still down from the $3 million of early ’07.

So what do we got?

ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SETTINGS NEAR DOWNTOWN JUST BEFORE MEMROIAL PARK. GORGEOUS VISTAS OF ROLLING HILLS, RAVINES, GARDEN TRAILS, CREEKS AND TURTLE POND! ALL LANDSCAPED WITH THOUSANDS OF EXOTIC PLANTS AND TREES! IRRIGATED BY PRIVATE WELL AND LIGHTED BY NIGHT! THE GROUNDS ARE CONTIGIOUS WITH ACRES OF NATURE PRESERVE & BIRD SANCTUARY!

Clearly, though, Maier’s latest sales tactic has just got to work — now he’s even gonna throw in a genuine Midcentury Modern home with the property. Absolutely free!!!

ALSO INCLUDED IS A CLASSIC MID CENTURY MODERN HOME BY NOTED ARCHICTECT TALBOT WILSON WITH 14 FT.WALLS OF GLASS!

Yeah, it’s a risky strategy: This is Memorial. So better end the listing on a more direct note:

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

After the jump, exotic plants!!! Plus an actual interior shot of the 5,000-sq.-ft. 1950 home Maier snuck in.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Menil Townhouse: Almost a Quarter Off

Menil Townhomes at 608 Stanford St. A, Temple Terrace, Houston

Deck of Menil Townhomes at 608 Stanford St. A, Temple Terrace, HoustonRemember those sleek modern million-dollar white-stucco townhouses designed by New York architect Francois de Menil for a small lot over in Temple Terrace, just behind Allen Parkway?

It was unusual to include the One-Two Townhomes being on the AIA Houston 2006 Home Tour in that they were, and are, unfinished. “My concern was that they would soon be sold,” says [developer Carol Isaak] Barden, “and then nobody would get to see them.”

She shouldn’t have worried. One of the units apparently sold a little less than a year later, and the other is still on the market — though it’s not a million-dollar townhome anymore. After construction finally ended last July, there were five successive price reductions. Since the end of last month this 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,845-sq-ft. townhome has been available for a humbling $779,000. If you count the garage level below and the rooftop deck as a single story, that’s almost as good as getting one whole floor . . . free!

After the jump, a brief gawk inside.

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tricon Garage Bungalows: Not Budging

2016 and 2020 Singleton St., Houston Heights

Why aren’t these $399,900 Heights bungalows-on-sticks selling? Tricon Homes has been trying to get rid of them since November . . . of 2006!

In the first part of 2007, Tricon dropped the asking prices for 2016 and 2020 Singleton twice from the original $449,900. But since June there’s been no movement.

They look like they’ve got everything: Cute front porches, plus garages with 13-ft. ceilings! Just completed! So what’s the problem?

Below the fold: How to slide a $400K house onto a 2900-sq.-ft. Heights lot!

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Holy Name Giant Homes

Holy Name Retreat Center at 430 Bunker Hill Rd. in Bunker Hill VillageThat 10-acre Holy Name Retreat Center parcel in Bunker Hill Village is being snapped up by Black Diamond Development and Abercrombie Builders, who tell the Memorial Examiner they’ll build 19 new homes on the property that “exhibit the degree of quality consistent with the affluent neighborhood.”

They’ll also apparently exhibit the degree of enormity consistent with extracting the highest possible price from the dollars-per-square-foot equation: the houses will range from 5,000 to 7,000 square feet.

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Thursday, February 7, 2008

Mattress Mack: A Consistent Record of Slashing Prices

The McIngvale Home at 3002 Pine Lake Trail, Northgate Forest

We now have the scoop and an update on Gallery Furniture owner Jim McIngvale’s mansion in Northgate Forest, and it’s a doozy. Yes, it’s still on the market. Yes, the price has been cut. But didja know the extent of the damage?

When last we left the Mattress Mack Pad, it was still soaring at $1.25 million. Well, now it’s down to . . . $885,000. Here’s the timeline:

Total savings overall: Almost 50% . . . if you buy now!

And here comes the Houston real estate cliche: You can take the mansion way out of the Loop, but you can’t take the “way out of the Loop” out of the mansion.

Or something like that.

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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

A $2,100 Price Drop and Still No Bites?

Flea Powder at 6822 Songbrook Dr., Alief, Houston

Bet the sellers are just itching to get rid of this place.

Here’s part of a photo from the listing of a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Braewood Glen. It’s been on the market for two weeks, and the asking price was lowered to $109,900 just a few days in.

After the jump: They already got rid of the carpet what more do you want?

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Priced in the Heights and Staying There

616 E. 18th St., Houston Heights

$1.2 Million in the Heights. And not budging. Since September.

Three bedrooms. Two full and 2 half baths. 3,758 sq. ft. Big lot. Built in 2003. Too many features to list, but that doesn’t stop them. Here’s a partial word count of the listing’s exhausting description:

suite: 3 mentions
custom: 4 mentions
Pella: 4 mentions
audio: 4 mentions
brazilian: 4 mentions
fireplace: 4 mentions
steel: 4 mentions
wood: 5 mentions
marble: 8 mentions
large: 9 mentions

After the jump, a few more photos.

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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Manhattan Penthouse: Still Falling

Living Room of Manhattan Lofts Unit 808, Houston

Here’s as dramatic a perch as any from which to enjoy a high-price-condo meltdown: the empty cupola atop the 8th-floor penthouse of the Manhattan Lofts building in Uptown. And hey, it looks like quite a fall to the floor below. Maybe stepping down slowly would make some sense?

Almost exactly a month after our original report on this over-the-top, oversized, and overpriced Manhattan penthouse, the price was cut a sixth time, to $1.65 million. How long before it breaks into six figures?

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Monday, February 4, 2008

Home of Tiny Reductions

1816 Bolsover, Southampton, Houston

Getting cheaper, but only in small increments: Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley’s former home has endured four small price cuts since it went on the market, but they’ve added up. The latest brings the home — at 1816 Bolsover in Southampton — to $1,125,000.

That price still isn’t so tiny, but it’s still a discount from $1.35 million. That’s where it started last July.

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South Side Special: One Sorry Fuqua

3015 Fuqua, Houston

Vandalism, 3015 Fuqua, HoustonForeclosure, vandalism . . . what more could possibly go wrong at this mansion-on-the-prairie near Brunswick Meadows, off 288 in South Houston?

How about a lack of serious buyers since the home was put on the market back in August — even after two major price cuts?

The place was built in 1950, but the listing agent’s mysterious comment that the “Home was at one time almost completed” probably refers to the recent doomed redo attempt. The asking price was cut to $345,900 in November, from an original $451,900. And it’s listed on another site for $325,900. Not bad for a 11,640-sq.-ft. home on 5 acres inside the Beltway.

Or . . . maybe not. After the jump: when vandals strike!

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Preservation Alert: Save the Historic Salvage Yard!

Johnny Franks Auto Parts AdIt’s not just the rice silos that’ll be leaving the First Ward. Next thing you know, they’ll be demolishing . . . the used-auto-parts yard across the street. A source very close to Charles Kuffner reveals that the owner of Johnny Franks Auto Parts at 1225 Sawyer St., across the street from the Mahatma Rice silos, has already sold the land to residential developers.

But wait. Johnny Franks Auto Parts bills itself as “The Nation’s Oldest Salvage Yard.” Is this true? If so, how could Houston let such an important historical site be destroyed? Founded in 1910, the salvage yard for years advertised itself as “the house of a million parts.” Sadly — like so many other historic structures in Houston — that may be its ultimate fate.

After the jump, Kuffner counts the reasons why there’s probably no stopping residential development from taking place on this historic site:

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Third Ward Demo Duplex: Dressed Up To Get Messed Up

Interior of 2103 Berry St., Third Ward, Houston, Under Construction

Renovate or demolish? It’s a false choice, really. Now you can do both!

If ever one listing encapsulated the essential paradox at the heart of the Third Ward’s uh . . . “resurgence,” it’s the one just posted for 2103 Berry St.

Contractors are hard at work completely renovating this Third Ward duplex . . . so that you can buy it and tear it down. Then you can start over and build brand-new townhouses! The brand-new listing features the construction-site photo above and the following description:

GREAT DUPLEX UNDER RENOVATIONS LOCATED MINUTES AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN,MIDTOWN, TOYOTA CENTER AND MINUTE MAID PARK. CORNER LOT SURROUNDED BY NEW CONSTRUCTION. PHENOMENAL OPPORTUNITY FOR A DEVELOPER’S OR INVESTOR’S TO BUILD TOWNHOMES.

Who says you can’t have it all?

After the jump: Can’t we just slather the stucco over the exterior brickwork and call it even?

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

1342 Rutland: How To Invest in a Collapsing Market

Check out the discussion going on now in the “Real Estate Professionals” section of the City-Data online forum. A reader is excited about an amazing investment opportunity at the 1342 Rutland St. condos in the Heights!

The unit I’m interested in is as of now at $34K. This if from a high of $77.5. Yes wow the suspiciousness of the place even more intriguing.

I’m thinking I could pay cash for the place maybe borrow a little but (family borrow not bank borrow)… finish the interior (it’s not finished) and rent it out for a good monthly rate (good for me that is). It’s in one of the best/trendy/expensive neighborhoods in Houston . So from the steady fall of the price I’m thinking an offer of $25K would be good. That way I could pay it completely and take my time fixing it up for rent… or sale.

Wow, a $77,500 condo for only $25,000! Sounds like a great investment. But then there’s that nagging feeling inside that makes the would-be investor end with this question:

Just how scared should one be entering this building[?]

After the jump: Reader advice!

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bear Creek Meadows Fourclosure Sale!

Four Homes by Legend Homes for Sale in Bear Creek Meadows

The wave of foreclosures sweeping over neighborhoods at the outer edges of town has . . . an upside!

Remember back when these neighborhoods were new — like, four years ago? Well, for buyers it’s just like those good old days all over again . . . only cheaper! That’s right: if you’ve settled on one builder model, you can be pretty picky about which upgrades and finishing touches you really want — even though the builder has moved on.

If you’re shopping for a home in Bear Creek Meadows in Katy, for example, you’ll find the four distinct residences pictured above listed on MLS. That’s right, those are four different houses. But they’re all the same model — The Cairns, Plan 509, by Legend Homes — and they’re all resales!

Which one is right for you? Clockwise from top left, the contenders are: 19411 Billineys Park Dr., 19606 Ballina Meadows Dr., 19906 Brisbane Meadows Dr., and 19510 Buckland Park Dr.

After the jump, a look at the differences between these four newish but back-on-the-market homes!

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Monday, January 14, 2008

Big House on Buffalo Speedway: Not Selling for Too Many Quoins

6118 Buffalo Speedway, West University Place, Texas

Just what is it about this West U house that’s scaring off the buyers? Is it the location on busy Buffalo Speedway? The outbreak of quoins on the front facade? The curious “custom paint” job in one of the home’s seven bathrooms that demonstrates to pooping gameroom guests how the house’s stucco surface might flake off?

Whatever it is, it sure looks like there’s a reverse auction going on: The five-bedroom, 5,119-square-foot house went on the market early last May and listed for $1,614,050. After three price cuts, it ended the year at $1,339,000. And now it’s only $1,239,000!

After the jump: a detailed look inside.

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