COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR LOVELY NEW HOME IN TALLOWOOD “. . . I was in Dallas this weekend and while flipping through channels in the hotel room, I came across one of those Sunday morning suburban real estate infomercials where they showcase a single builder in one neighborhood that is under construction. During a testimonial from a recent homebuyer, the guy lauded the ‘acres of beautiful forests’ surrounding his new home. As the camera panned the landscape, I saw nothing but 10 foot tall invasive mesquite trees as far as the eye could see. Seems like our Houston realtors should start cashing in on the ‘aesthetic value’ of the ‘tallow forests’ – especially emphasizing the ‘fall color’ and its function as an ‘environmentally friendly privacy screen.’ Most homebuyers would have no idea what they’re looking at. Carefully rewording reality is usually what realtors do on HAR, anyway!” [Superdave, commenting on What Happens If You Don’t Garden the Wild]
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Tag: Real Estate Marketing
Is it sweeps week already? Or did the La Maison at River Oaks just step up its marketing game? 11 News reporter Courtney Zubowski corrals the KHOU newschopper to provide some “over the top” coverage of that clothing-optional sundeck on the roof of the French Quarter-themed apartment complex at 2727 Revere St., south of Westheimer. Alas, no one is taking advantage of the facility when she shows up, and judging from the aerial shots used in the report, neither camera operator nor editor seem to know exactly where the thing is.
A Swamplot reader throws out some more theories:
A reader writes in to share the exciting news that one of those Northgate Custom Homes townhouses on Heights Blvd. that’s snuggled up next to the train tracks and just behind the recycling center on Center St. is now listed as “option pending” on MLS. Readers chose the complex as the city’s Best Vacancy in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate just a few months ago. Is someone buying right next to the tracks?
Well, not exactly. 114 Heights Blvd. Unit B, priced at $309,000, is the one that’s now listed as option pending. It’s shielded from those noisy trains by the full 20-or-so-ft. width of the adjacent townhome, Unit A. And here’s the featured view from one of its balconies:
Must be tough out there for a little old 1940 cottage in a rough-and-tumble teardown town like West University Place. And so we have this elective-surgery survivor, which showed up on the MLS just yesterday. The listing mentions a 2002 Kitchen update, a roof dating from 2007, and new bathrooms in 2009. HCAD lists a renovation in 2001. Would never have guessed you had work done, really! You look fabulous!
Okay, we’ll show you a few pics of the inside. But really, you’ve already seen the best photo.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ISLANDS OF VALUE “I have come to believe that what is nearby means nothing at all to a lot of people. The Heights just east of Shepherd was, just a few years ago, mostly shotgun shacks and run down rentals. That stopped nobody from building half million dollar plus homes. Now- that doesn’t mean this place isn’t overpriced – a comp is a comp. I’m just saying that there are apparently many people who love being the castle surrounded by the serfs.” [finness, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Brookesmith in the 200s]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: MAKING OLDER HOMES SAFER “Ironically, all of the lawsuit-limiting legislation passed at the request of the home-building industry makes Texas one of the few states where a pre-existing home is a more secure investment than a new home. When the market begins to reflect this, which it will eventually, new home builders will regret it.” [jlawrence, commenting on The $58 Million Perry Home]
A commenter named Jamie fills in the details on this “Stairway To Nowhere” — which also appears to include a ramp — found on the corner of 18th and Ashland streets in the Heights. Blogger Viula of The Heights Life, who snapped the photo, is curious about where the stairs came from:
“They really struck me as part of a time gone by in the Heights,” she writes.
And what a time it was! Reports Jamie:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CONFESSIONS OF A CURIOUS HOMESELLER “I used the baby monitor to listen to the showings of my house. Just hung out at the neighbors. Not because I thought our realtor needed monitoring but because I was just so, so curious about what folks would say about my house. No real surprises. But I was amazed how many people brought small children to the showing–they spent a lot of time telling their kids to leave our coasters alone.” [Merrie, commenting on Spying on the Homebuyers]
SPYING ON THE HOMEBUYERS Ken Brand, a real estate agent in The Woodlands, has an idea: “Imagine the quality of feedback the listing agent and their seller would receive if showing appointments were monitored by video equipment? You could see and hear how prospective buyers react – live, unbiased and unspun. No more begging the listing agent for fuzzy feedback, no more spin, no conflicts of interest, no BS, simple straight facts. . . . I’m not suggesting that we should all run out and rig-up, secret or unsecret surveillance systems in our listings. I am saying that there are sellers today who are recording showings without our knowledge. I am asking us all to consider how we would show properties if we knew we were on Candid Camera. I am suggesting that recording property showings has pros and cons. I am suggesting that presented correctly, an agent or brokerage might create a point of difference and attract an unserved niche of sellers. I am suggesting that offering showing surveillance services is first mover advantage and something that most competitors would not choose to match or compete with.” [Agent Genius]
Chron columnist Lisa Gray takes note of the new UH East Parking Garage:
On the Spur 5 edge of campus, the University of Houston recently finished a garage that takes garage pride a step further. It’s trimmed in jazzy vertical strips of Cougar red and white — a parking pep rally, a garage that serves as a billboard promoting its institution. If Renu Khatour, UH’s chancellor and tireless promoter, were a parking garage, this is the garage she would be.
Oh, it gets better . . .
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IS IT REAL OR IS IT HDR? “I don’t photoshop my pics. My skills are worse [than] this one. I wonder: What about HDR photography? I have never used it in my marketing, but some of the images sure border on fantasy as well.” [Thomas A. B. Johnson, commenting on A First Glimpse of the New Dynamo Stadium“]
Got sellers who aren’t too keen on . . . say, clearing off a messy bed for you to take photos? Nothing a little Photoshop rubber stamp magic can’t fix. Add a few blocky pillows, spread that quilting, and presto! It’s clean!
Hey, that was easy! What else could we brush up in this Memorial Bend home?
“Dual toilets in the Masterbath…very unique,” reads the caption on this photo in a listing for a Riverside Terrace home on Parkwood Dr.
But haven’t we seen something like this somewhere before?
Oh, yes.
But that just means this home, built in 1965, was way ahead of its time:
I CAN DO THAT Katy real estate watcher Lou Minatti finds himself in awkward position: “After years of ranting about dumb real estate sales gimmicks, here I am seeing them applied to my own modest tract house. It’s listed on the MLS and boy does everything appear HUGE! My back yard isn’t large at all but with a wide-angle lens it looks like an acre back there. . . . Too bad [my agent] didn’t do the photos before the hard freezes turned everything brown a few weeks ago. . . . Going through the interior photos, the agent turned on every single light in the house, even with bright sunlight coming through the windows. It does seem to look better.” [Lou Minatti]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO APPRECIATE FINE ARCHITECTURE? “Wow, I’ll never look at a disheveled person straddling, hugging, and kissing the corner of a building or monument the same way, ever again.” [TheNiche, commenting on The Very, Very Good Friends of Hermann Park]