Doug Britton thought he had the deal of a lifetime: a contract to buy 101 acres of land (in red on the map) just south of the spot in Spring where — it was rumored at the time — ExxonMobil planned to develop a new corporate campus. And it was available for cheap: just $5 million. Britton contacted two brokers at Bandier Partners to help him move on it.
HAR’s pioneering ratings program for real-estate agents gets a bit of scrutiny from the Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money magazine. Among the amazing stats: A mere 1.4 percent of all ratings on HAR come in at less than 4 stars; meanwhile, on Angie’s List 5.9 percent of real-estate-agent reviews have equivalent “mediocre to poor” scores, and on Yelp the number is 18.5 percent. Agents participating in the Houston Association of Realtors program earn an average rating of 4.94 out of 5. How do they chalk up such glowing reviews? “In reality, that 4.94 represents the average score of just 12 percent of the association’s agents. Another 7 percent participate in the rating program but don’t make their results public. The rest — some 17,000 real estate pros — don’t get rated at all, either by choice or because they haven’t completed enough transactions. The group surveys only customers who have closed deals, leaving out everyone who, satisfied or not, walked away. Those qualifications help explain why fewer than 0.3 percent of the Houston agents have been awarded a low one-star rating by their clients — a figure that seems to defy reality, given all the things that can go wrong in a home deal. (The association says low-rated agents often opt out of the program.)” Reporter Alyssa Abkowitz quotes Katy agent Patricia Gant about the one black mark that brought her overall rating down to a comparatively low 4.4 out of 5 stars: “I would’ve never sent [a survey] to her,” she says, “if I’d had any idea that she’d give me one star.” [Smart Money]
A reader from the Heights sends in photos documenting only the latest scene in Houston’s long and theatrical history of commingled real estate and political ambition. If you like, say, the pricing on the homes Karen Derr’s former company sells — like this one at 946 Arlington St. — you’ll certainly want to see Derr join city council!
But what’s with that part in red letters? Maybe just to let voters know she’s a little less favorably disposed toward freeform demolition than, say, former candidate/broker Michael Berry was. Writes our reader and snapshooter:
I am guessing that Karen Derr’s office rec’d so many calls as to the future of this house- one the few remaining 19th century homes in the Heights, that she had the “Remodel” sign made and stuck atop her broker sign. . . . Karen used to be on the board of the Houston Heights Association and she is locally active and running for office, so she does not want to piss off too much of her long time neighbors.
Here’s a brand-new home-search tool that will likely change the way you hunt for residential properties in Houston. And you can find it on the website of . . . a real estate agent working out of this Pearland strip center??
Actually, the new search tool is just a branded implementation of Diverse Solutions’ dsSearchAgent, which has been around for a few years in other markets, and received a major makeover late last fall. The same system might be hiding on some other area broker’s website, but this is the first we’ve seen it working with Houston MLS data.
What’s so special about dsSearchAgent?
Last week, Realtor Karen Derr had to give up her plan to run in the special election for City Council’s District H seat, after she failed to meet the paperwork deadline to get herself on the ballot. Abc13′s Miya Shay tracks her latest plans: “Derr’s retooled website now says she’s running for At Large 1. That’s the seat currently occupied by Peter Brown. The election is in November, so it’s certainly not too early to start. The joke at City Hall is that At-Large seats are usually easier jobs. If your sidewalk is mangled or you need a speed bump, you call your district council member. So, what do At-Large council members do? Mainly, with no district to manage, At-Large council members are allowed to address issues they are passionate about. It might be housing, public safety, city finances, or some less well defined passion. Then there is the other passion I find politicians can’t live without: running for another elected office.” [Houston Political Blog; previously on Swamplot]
After selling her Houston real-estate business last year, Realtor Karen Derr became one of the first candidates to announce an interest in running for City Council in District H, even before it was clear Adrian Garcia’s former seat would be available. But her ramped-up campaign missed this week’s filing deadline, so Derr won’t be on the ballot: “Derr tells 11 News that she thought the city’s deadline matched a state deadline for special elections, which is not until later this month. ‘To tell you the truth, we’ve been out with a very grassroots campaign on the trail and going to three and four meetings a day,’ she said. ‘We dropped the ball, evidently.’” [11News; previously in Swamplot]
It’s gonna get kinda lonely soon at the Karpas Properties offices on W. Alabama. Owner Hedley Karpas has sold his company to Martha Turner Properties, leaving a few agents and employees to scramble for new homes.
Karpas told his 60 employees — including more than 40 agents — about the sale Tuesday morning. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Karpas told the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that he’ll become a broker associate at Martha Turner Properties. But he won’t be bringing many people with him:
Turner said she will be interviewing about a dozen Karpas agents and retain a “select few.”
Ouch. According to Sarnoff, Karpas’s office will close at the end of this month, though agents will continue to work with existing clients.
Photo still from virtual tour of Karpas Properties office: TK Images
Here’s another example of the importance of loyalty and reputation in the Houston residential real-estate biz. The Houston Press‘s Richard Connelly catches up with the ex-partner of formerly ubiquitous Houston real estate agent Mike Spear, whose ubiquity has been a bit challenged since he began serving a two-year sentence in federal prison for income-tax evasion earlier this year.
. . . even though Spear himself might be behind bars, his spirit lives on: If you’re looking to buy or sell a house here these days, you might be forgiven for thinking you’re doing business with the well-known realtor.
Before the two joined Prudential Gary Greene in 2005, Spear and Realtor Ray Allison ran Montrose mainstay AllisonSpear Realtors. Allison explains to Connelly:
There’s a group of professionals within Prudential Gary Greene that are organized as the Mike Spear Team, but it is not the official name of this company.
Huh?
Mr. Spear did work with this firm. He is no longer with this firm. The Mike Spear Team does continue. It is appropriate for it to continue . . .
There’s more: Spear’s admissions from the July 2007 plea agreement, featuring shell corporations and a Mercedes Benz.
