07/18/16 4:45pm

1003 Lynwood Rd., Spring, TX 77373

The spiral staircase concealed behind the 2-story front entrance of 1003 Lynwood in Spring will get you to the right height, but you won’t be able to exit that way — the only accessible upper-story door to the exterior leads onto a balcony in the master bedroom. The house is half a block north of the Highland Glen subdivision (which is tucked into the V of land created by the intersecting Missouri Pacific rail line, beneath the Hardy Toll Road, and Cypress Creek). The 4-bedroom home sits on 4 fifths of an acre of tall-treed lot; it was built in 1968 and hit the market 4 days ago. 

And now, a portrait of a door in 2 parts: 

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Coming Out On Top
06/17/16 1:00pm

22427 High Point Pines Dr., Spring, TX, 77373

22427 High Point Pines Dr., Spring, TX, 77373Capital-R Realtor Jessica Arnett brought a price-reduced 4-bedroom house in Spring into the national spotlight this week by dressing up in a panda suit throughout the property’s listing photos. While there’s more than one way to panda to potential buyers, this particular tactic has been tried before: Arnett reportedly says the idea came from a British home listing from last month, in which the seller did roughly the same thing.

Arnett has already received calls from other real estate agents asking where to obtain a panda suit. But the stunt itself may be endangered — the British seller has already reversed course on bearing it all, and the photos in his listing have been replaced with more standard fare.  And Arnett readily admits that this kind of marketing likely doesn’t have much room to grow and multiply — while the Houston Chronicle reported earlier this week that she was open to the possibility of using the suit a sparing once or twice a year, her tone had changed by the time she spoke to Realtor.com’s Judy Dutton:

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Endangered Salespitch in Spring
05/03/16 4:30pm

A set of 4 new FEMA disaster recovery centers opened yesterday, sprinkled around the north and west sides of Houston hit hardest by the Tax Day flooding. The locations include a Greenspoint office building right across Greens Bayou from some of the apartment complexes evacuated during the flooding (including Arbor Court). The other centers opened Monday in Meyerland, Cypress, and Spring, and additional temporary help centers might get set up elsewhere around town.

As of yesterday night, FEMA had already received nearly 12,000 applications for post-flood assistance. Harris County reported last week that more than twice as many homes were damaged by the April floods as reported during last year’s Memorial Day flooding. Farmers Insurance agent Peter Zografos told the Houston Press last week that many of the same houses have filed claims a second time: “Some of these homeowners may have to be insured directly with the National Flood Insurance Program due to repetitive claims, [and] basically will be charged more for too many flood claims.”

Map of FEMA disaster recovery centers: City of Houston

Still Under Water
12/22/15 9:45am

Spring Town Center, Kuykendahl Rd, Spring, TX 77389

38 miles of Grand Parkway are expected to open early next year — NewQuest Properties is prepping Spring Town Center for the anticipated additional traffic by adding five new pad sites to the retail complex, located off of Kuykendahl Rd. south of FM 2920. Grand Parkway Segments F-1, F-2, and G — running between US 290 and the Eastex Freeway — are kind-of-sort-of nearing completion following a flood-heavy 2015, and are expected open in the first quarter of 2016.

The new additions to the shopping center are highlighted in yellow in the map above, and the zoomed-in section below along Kuykendahl:

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Coming This Fall to Spring
04/20/15 5:15pm

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When the listing of an expansive 2002 property in Spring says it has an “oversized, attached” garage, believe it. In this case, it’s referring to the airplane hangar in back (top). The mixed-use building’s informal first level features residential floorspace with aviation storage just steps away. The more formal living space upstairs has a bird’s-eye view of the inventory (top). Runway access to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport is immediately adjacent to the property, which is located, fittingly, off Steubner-Airline Rd. and north of Spring-Cypress Rd. Since February, a re-listing has held to a steady course pointed toward $3.5 million, the asking price set in a November-to-January initial sortie.

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Plane and Simple
08/01/14 4:00pm

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Who — or maybe what — was Ike and why does his tree get a namesake street in the Augusta Creek Pointe neighborhood in Spring? Sure, there was the notable hurricane by that name, but Ikes Tree Dr., which slices through the semi-shaded 64-lot section of The Creeks at Augusta Pines golf course community east of Kuykendahl Rd. and north of FM 2920, was in place by the beginning of 2008. The semi-custom, non-gated neighborhood’s model home, built by J. Kyle Homes in 2011, went onto the market this summer with a $409,563 asking price.

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