Round about the end of April, artist Gloria Becker lopped $53,000 off the asking price of her art-and-animal-filled home at 7309 Greenbriar (near Main) featured here a month ago. It’s now listed for $795K.
Have any of you seen this place?
Read more about: 77030, Art, Braeswood, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions
This 4-bedroom, 2,800-plus-square-foot 1956 Modern home for sale on Braesvalley was designed by Houston architect Lars Bang.
Or was it? A few days after the home was featured as a Houston Mod “Mod of the Month” last October, Realtor Meg Zoller described her attempts to identify the designer in her blog:
A week or so ago we had Lars Bang come by the Braesvalley home in an attempt to authenticate the fact that he built it. Lars Bang must be in his 80’s or so. He had a friend of his drive him to see the home. He has a very outgoing personality and it was believed that he was excited about the possibility of it being one of his homes. My husband, Jim, helped him out of the car and invited him into the house, but Mr. Bang’s knees aren’t what they used to be . . .and he just wanted to stand out front and look at the house. After some time he decided that he could not confidently say whether the home was one of his designs or not.
The owner was so disappointed when she heard the news. She really wanted it to be one of his designs.
After the jump: the actual architect of this uh, memorable Meyerland home!
Read more about: 77096, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Meyerland, Modern Design, Price Reductions
Our first stab at the Neighborhood Guessing Game attracted a good number of smart observations from sleuthing readers . . . and a winner!
Thanks to all those who hazarded a guess! Five commenters thought the house we featured on Tuesday was in West U. There were single votes each for Sugar Lakes, the Eldridge & Memorial area, Montrose, the Heights, “near Meyerland,” and Southgate.
Ah, the wisdom of the crowds baker’s dozen! West U it was! The West University Place 1 subdivision, to be exact.
The winner of this first competition is the appropriately named Buildergeek, who named West U first. But enlightening — or entertainingly obfuscating — commentary wins points too! Honorable mentions go to Houstonist’s Jim Parsons, who guessed the house was a rehab from the 1980s or before:
The staircase is a giveaway in my mind — no self-respecting faux-neo-Georgian would have a staircase that Rhoda might have walked down.
. . . and to commenter Drew, who sounds a little like what we might expect if Sherlock Holmes had his own show on HGTV:
One of the early West U replacements. Built in the early 80s, given the finishes and selections. Larger than the standard West U lot, despite the red brick boxes and colonial style windows being so close to the neighbors. (Evidenced by the trees and added green space for the typical 5,000 sq ft WU lot. Must be west of Buffalo Speedway.
After the jump: Actual details on the featured West U home, which is actually for sale — “Rhoda”-style staircase, colonial-style windows, west-of-Buffalo-Speedway location, and all!
Read more about: 77005, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Price Reductions, West University
About one minute and 28 seconds into this video advertising a home that’s been on the market since late September of last year, we get a little . . . surprise.
Read more about: 77024, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Mannequins, Memorial, Park at Saddlebrook, Price Reductions, Staging, Videos
Carol Isaak Barden, developer of the towering white now-a-lot-less-than- a-million-dollar townhouses near Allen Parkway, explains to Swamplot why she thinks the second unit hasn’t sold yet:
We always expected that it might take longer to sell the homes. They are bachelor pads. They are not for people with children, they are not for residents with bad knees, they are vertical structures for people who don’t mind using the stairs. Since both Francois [de Menil, the architect] and I have lived in Manhattan in buildings without elevators, we didn’t think it would be such a big deal. We were wrong.
Hey, nothing a little retrofitting can’t solve! Barden says a 4-story lift could be put in “easily” — but she hasn’t, because some potential buyers preferred it as the architect designed it, and “didn’t want to give up the extra storage.”
Francois lives in a 4-story townhouse in NYC, my first apt. in NYC was in the Apthorp, an old pre-war building on the upper east side without an elevator. I schlepped luggage and groceries up the stairs, and stayed thin and fit. Francois and I were dead wrong about the elevator issue. Houstonians valet park at restaurants, stores, hospitals, and even some churches. (New Yorkers don’t). And therein lies the problem.
608 Stanford Unit B sold three months after completion, last May. Unit A? Not so lucky:
The second unit has had contracts, unfortunately, none of them have closed. . . . we’re hoping to close on a contract with a buyer who happens to be an architect. It seems that the people who most appreciate these homes can’t afford them. (Architects, engineers, designers)
After the jump: what a bargain! Plus, a bit of news . . .
Read more about: 77019, Buying and Selling, Elevators, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Montrose, New Construction: Residential, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Temple Terrace, Townhomes
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.
Read more about: 77007, Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Land Sales, Landscape, Memorial, Modern Design, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Talbott Wilson
Remember 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.
Read more about: 77019, Buying and Selling, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Montrose, New Construction: Residential, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Temple Terrace, Townhomes
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!
Read more about: 77008, Bungalows, Buying and Selling, Home Design, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, New Construction: Residential, Price Reductions
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.
Read more about: 77068, Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Northgate Forest, Price Reductions, Price Trends, Real Estate Marketing
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?
Read more about: 77056, Buying and Selling, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Homes for Sale, Lofts, Price Reductions, Uptown
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.
Read more about: 77005, Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Price Reductions, Southampton
Foreclosure, 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!
Read more about: 77047, Buying and Selling, Foreclosures, Graffiti, Homes for Sale, Minnetex-Place, Price Reductions, South-Houston, Vandalism
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!
Read more about: 77008, Buying and Selling, Condos, Foreclosures, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Price Reductions
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.
Read more about: 77005, Buying and Selling, Faux-Finishes, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions, West University
Here’s a great idea: Let’s deck out a 1980s two-bedroom, two-story Tanglewilde condo. It’ll look really sophisticated and sell fast, too! First, add the sleek blond leather furniture. Then build a dramatically lit aquarium into the dining area, so you can see the back of it . . . from the kitchen! That’s gotta help this baby sell for big bucks.
Except sixteen months later, it’s still on the market. The asking price has dropped from $129,900 to $109,900, but it’s been sitting at that last number for more than 10 months. And more reductions seem inevitable: Just a few doors down, an unstaged version popped up for sale 8 days ago, and has already reduced its price to $99,000.
After the jump, more pics of the Tanglewilde leather-and-aquarium bachelor pad!
Read more about: 77063, Condos, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Staging, Tanglewilde
Some curious price fluctuations on this 2006 turreted Montrose townhouse: Last week the asking price was reduced from $525,000 to $350,000. Which is pretty dramatic, though only slightly more dramatic than the $140K increase recorded on MLS the day after the property was listed, in early December.
Read more about: 77006, Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Montrose, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes
