02/16/16 1:15pm

Leather-clad real estate agent Paul Gomberg, perhaps best known for the sales video of that Champion Forest house filled with excrement that made the rounds back in early January, is now starring in a less nose-threatening video tour — this one of a squeaky-clean 2011 mansion on Lake Conroe. The punchline this time: a suit-and-tie-clad 11-year-old that Gomberg chaperons around the property, who ultimately leaves the contract-ready agent hanging on the steps of the house pending parental permission to close the deal.

The house at 12386 Tramonto Dr., which first went on the market in October of 2014 for $1.6 million, was dropped to just below $1.5 million on Tax Day in 2015, two weeks before an early May relisting. The asking price dropped again last July to the current $1.35 million.

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Lake Conroe Listing Antics
10/02/14 4:15pm

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Cutouts, diagonals, and other woodworking flourishes on the inside bring a contemporary zip to this stone-faced 2002 custom home located on an island within Lake Conroe’s Bentwater. The waterfront property landed on to the market last weekend with a $1.875 million asking price. The gleaming tawny trim sets up a mod nautical vibe:

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Shipshape
09/08/14 5:00pm

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Viewed from the waters of Lake Conroe, the lacy tiers of a 1974 home in April Sound lend a layer cake appearance to a property that likes balconies enough to feature them outside and in. Leggy columns connect exterior parapets on 3 levels (top). The interior’s double-sided version spans the main living area between a pair of wooden staircases. Listed at the end of August, the property has a $950,000 asking price. A previous listing that lasted for 8 months back in 2008 had originally sought $888K but found no takers, despite a reduction to $747K.

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Wrapped in Railings
07/28/14 5:15pm

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Outdoor living dominates a 1991 Lake Conroe waterfront property in Montgomery. The log cabin’s interior, at least, didn’t rate many photos in the listing that appeared last week. There are, however, plenty of shots of canines in repose (top). The compound occupies 7.4 acres of a peninsula north of FM 1097 near the Grand Pines Country Club and Bentwater; a slice of San Jacinto National Forest is just across the water. The property has a $2.25 million asking price. It last changed hands in 1999, for $698,750.

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Ruffing It
05/23/14 12:00pm

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Now that Lake Conroe has filled up a bit, a Cape Malibu woods-and-waterfront property with dock is in the splash zone. The somewhat secluded 1975 property has a $489,000 asking price. Its back deck has this tidy, multi-level house attached:

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11/08/13 1:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BETTER LAKE “Wrong lake? Would you prefer rush hour on Lake Conroe? Shoulder to shoulder and all the noise? The area of Lake Livingston is 129.7 sq miles compared to Lake Conroe of 32.81 sq miles. Four times as large. Lake Livingston is fed from the Trinity River which flows from North of Dallas (almost Red River / Oklahoma line) while Lake Conroe is fed from the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. This matters greatly if it doesn’t rain or if Houston is too thirsty. Avg depth in Lake Livingston is 55 feet compared to 20.5 feet for Lake Conroe. In short Lake Livingston is far less congested, four times as large, much more stable water level, and much deeper. You choose but I chose Lake Livingston and love every minute of it and don’t forget the ability to head up the Trinity River a long long ways for other large bodies of water and calm surfaces for wake boarding and water skiing.” [Scharpe, commenting on A Newish Lakeside Estate in Coldspring Looks Back] Illustration: Lulu

05/24/13 1:15pm

The ‘bay’ at this multilevel 1990 property in Walden on Lake Conroe is a 2-story space with a modern, multi-pane frame of the water. Photos of the vista-boosting room — and its contemporary decor — dominate the early-in-May listing. The asking price, $925,000, apparently includes the furnishings.

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08/15/11 10:05am

LOWERING EXPECTATIONS ON LAKE CONROE Once Houston starts drawing water from the Montgomery County reservoir to stabilize levels in Lake Houston — as it is expected to do, for the first time in 23 years, as early as this Tuesday — the water level on Lake Conroe will likely drop between 3 and 4 inches per week. That’s on top of the typical rate of evaporation from the lake during the hot summer months — also about 3 or 4 inches per week. On Friday, the San Jacinto River Authority reported Lake Conroe was already 4 ft. below its normal levels — only a foot above its lowest level ever, during the drought of 1988. [Click2Houston] Photo: San Jacinto River Authority

01/11/11 2:11pm

Dusted off and back on the market with a new . . . uh, MLS number for the new year: This Rancho Escondido number from 1986 out there in Willis, putting in at the far side of Lake Conroe. We’ve tracked it back as far as last May and a $975,000 asking price; the 4,535-sq.-ft. home on a half acre is now down to $845,000. From the street the 4-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath home plays it quiet and Ranch-like, but once you’re inside the animal-skin prints and views open up:

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