Thank You

The title of this post is what Memorial Day has become to so many… A day for people to get together and merrily eat, drink and play. That is all fine and good and I hope each and everyone out there has a wonderful, fun filled day. But, please… Do not forget what the day is all about. It is about our fellow Americans who have served our country in the United States Military. Whether you have protected our family from abroad or domestically, I say to you, a heartfelt thanks. Others have served from the home-front… The many wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who have been left behind while a family member has gone to be in harms way for your safety and mine. You too, have sacrificed and my wife and I wish you well and want you to know our prayers are with you.

Enjoy a wonderful holiday and never forget those who have served, some paying the ultimate price, in order for us to enjoy the liberties this great country affords us. Nothing under the sun is free… and that goes for democracy and freedom as well.

911 Key Street

I just went live with my newest listing on Thursday over in the Heights. This great brick 1920’s bungalow is a wonderful home. Though it only has about 1200 square feet of living space with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, it lives much larger than that. The living/dining combo is very spacious and the kitchen which has been updated with granite countertops and the whole nine is large and open itself. The owner, who purchased the house from me back in 2008 put a new roof on the place along with gutters and refinished the hardwoods. He is being transferred for work and stated that he would live there forever if he didnt have to reloacte. Sitting at 911 Key Street just off of 11th/Pecore Street, this home will not be on the market very long. In just one weekend on the market, it has received 15 showings which is more than many houses get in a couple months. The unique brick and large front porch with a swing are very appealing!

Good eat'n!

Im sure you have seen that ship… Alright Lazybrooker’s this blog is not about Lazybrook itself, it has nothing to do with real estate at all… This blog has to do with food! I love good food… and that is just what you get on that ship! So, you will have to drive a lil ways to eat on this ship… but not all the way to Galveston. Head out I-10 West, exit Westgreen Rd… make a u-turn under the freeway and head back East towards Houston, you will see the ship on the right… Capt’n Toms is the real deal! Ain’t nothin’ healthy about this place… It’s mostly fried seafood but it is excellent! It is kind of a free for all in regards to seating, on the weekends especially. You just kinda stand around and wait for some spots to open up along the bar… when they do, you gotta be fast! You can sit along the windows, but you get better service on the actual bar. A couple tips… When it comes to fried oysters or oysters on the half shell, you get much more than you order. We were there just last night, Hailey and I ordered a dozen on the half shell, we got 16 oysters… I then ordered a half dozen friend oysters (extra crisp of course)… I got 10! So it isnt about the quantity either, they have really good food. It isnt greasy at all, considering it is fried… Seriously, treat yourself to some great food at great prices. Those half dozen oysters which turned into 10 for me with extra crispy french fries… that cost $4.75. Cant beat that! Go get ya some!

Here we are, now a full month into 2010… Still crazy to me… Anyway, we have a ton of activity in our neighborhood. Here is a basic outline of the market activity.

ACTIVE LISTINGS

Currently as it stands, we have 12 active listings… Quite a few. On average as I usually lay out, nothing changes. The majority of Lazybrook homes actively for sale have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Although, of the 12 available, we do have two 4 bedroom homes and one 5 bedroom home. We have four 3 bathroom homes available and one 4 bathroom home out there. The average lot has 9,302 square feet with homes averaging 2,389 square feet sitting on them. These homes are priced at an average of $150.23 which comes out to $358,891.00. Average days on market = 100.

PENDING LISTINGS

We have one listing sitting in pending status as of now sitting over on Seamist Court. She boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, sits on a lot that is 7,215 square foot lot and hasliving space totaling 2,165 square feet. Her listed price? She was $449,900 and shows that it never hit the market. Strange, but it is what it is.

SOLD LISTINGS

We also only had 1 closing in January.  1711 Haverhill Drive sat on the market for 80 days before receiving a contract. This one was a 3 bedroom home with 2 baths sitting on a 7,150 square foot lot, featuring living space totaling 2,004 square feet. Her askinig price was $330,000 and she was had for $322,000 which is $160.68 per square foot.

CONCLUSION

Lazybrook, in my opinion continues to be one of the best Inner Loop values in Houston, no doubt! We are about to hit the peak months in our industry as Spring draws near. We should see a rise in sales beginning this month which will only get better as we hit March and April… The great ranch style homes Lazybrook has are timeless and even better, the lots are nice and spacious, with beautiful and mature trees. The large lots you will not get over in the Heights and you get as much or more square footage in our homes, many times for a lesser price! Again, I have a bright outlook for Lazybrook in 2010.

* Data taken from HAR.COM *

The Longhorns and Crimson Tide will battle it out tonight at The Rose Bowl

OK… So please do not hold this against me all you Texas Longhorn fans… But, Im sorry… It is of my opinion that
Terrence “Mount” Cody,
Javier Arenas and All-Everything LB,
Rolando McClain will reek havoc on Texas’ offense tonight. Cody, Bama’s mammoth 6′5″ 370 pound defensive lineman, will be in Colt McCoy‘s backfield all night making it an easy night for McClain to roam the field and make big plays. Javier Arenas, Bama’s best defensive back, will be locked up much of the night with Texas’ Jordan Shipley, making it a rough night for Texas’ pass game.

I guess that's a "Heisman Pose"

Texas’ Sergio Kindle will do his best to stop Bama’s QB, Greg McElroy and Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram but in the end, the Tide roll their way to the National Title tonigh. It will be a tough, hard fought game between two of college football’s most storied and tradition rich programs. This hould be a fun one to watch!

Tune in to ABC, Channel 13 at 7 pm for beginning to end coverage.

Closed on December 18th

It is always a good thing to close out a deal in the dreaded month of December. Many times in our business, the market goes dry but it just goes to figure… During the Holidays, folks are likely caught up with family and friends celebrating the two greatest Holiday’s on earth, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, being caught with family and friends… thats a good thing! Anyhow, I was fortunate enough to close out my sale over in the Rice Military area. Keith and Sophie Fletcher, my clients, are now the proud owners of a beautiful town-home at 5222 Lillian Street. Congrats to them. They are a wonderful couple who relocated here in 2009 for Sophie’s career. Now it is time to get the show on the road for 2010!

As a kid, growing up there on Brookmere Drive in Lazybrook, mom and dad always made Christmas the most special of special days. Christmas Eve would bring great anticipation and joy throughout the house. I would be gitty with nervous anxiousness… What would be waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning? What would Santa have left for me? I remember finally falling asleep and waking up at the break of dawn to race out of my room and down the hall too see what would be awaiting me. Christmas was without a doubt the most exciting time of the year for me as a child. Christmas day, without a doubt, the most exciting day! I guess you could say it truly brought out a “child-like wonder”!

The joy that the Christmas season brought to my brothers and myself was also there for my parents. They enjoyed seeing the smiles that were brought to our faces. As I get older, I understand the true joy and meaning behind all of those Christmas’. The Christ child! A baby who went on to live a perfect life, ultimately giving up his own life so that you and I can have eternal life.

The point to my story here is that, the “child-like wonder” and the wonderful anticipation of this season has never gone away. Each year, around Thanksgiving time, we break out our favorite Christmas music, we put up the Christmas tree, we  place nativity scene’s around our homes, we put lights up on the house and a lil more joy overcomes us all. We speak with a lil more cheer and a bigger smile on our faces. We walk with a lil more pep in our step. The joy that is Christ, comes out in us all, even those who are not believers! It is no wonder… It is Christmas!

My prayer is that we have all approached this most joyous of seasons as we did as children. Whether we have many gifts or zero under our trees this year, we can ALL have the most precious and exciting gift that was given freely, Christ!

Merry Christmas!!!

Andy Williams, an American Icon.

Wow… So I am late! Thanksgiving has come and gone now and many of you are off to a crazy shopping day on this Black Friday. I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful “Turkey Day” with family and good friends. Hailey and I made a 12 hour trek up to Sabetha, KS to visit her family for Thanksgiving. We all spent a day in Manhattan, KS, home of Kansas State University, for a lil Christmas shopping in “Aggieville”. We shot some skeet back in Sabetha and of course enjoyed some great Thanksgiving meals… Yes! I said MEALS, that’s plural! This morning, Hailey and I, along with her mom and dad, will travel about 5 hours to meet my parents and brother in Branson, MO where we have family homesteads. Tonight we will see the world famous Andy Williams’ in his Christmas show which is a huge favorite of mine and a family tradition… The Icon’s voice is still as beautiful and strong as ever, amazing at 82 years old! Branson is a great place to get you in the Christmas spirit and Im sure we will have a great time before we head back to Houston on Sunday morning.

Well… Happy Thanksgiving all and I wish you all a very blessed Christmas season!

God Bless Our Veterans

Thirty years ago, I was blessed with the privilege of being born in this wonderful country we know as the good ole U.S. of A. I have never done anything more than wake up each morning to a relatively simple, day to day life. My daily worries could never compare to the worries that men and women dating back generations have had to endure on the front lines of war. Many in this country balk at the idea of war. Many in this country have never put thought into the idea that their simple right to protest anything, including war, is a freedom that was fought for and will continue to be fought for until the end of time. I could never imagine what it is like to go to sleep each night in a foreign land, away from the comforts of home… Gun fire and bombs blasting in the distance, the idea that at any moment an enemy ambush could happen and life could flash before ones eyes, gone forever… All for one great purpose. That purpose is freedom… your freedom, my freedom, even our unborn children’s freedom. The struggle for liberty and justice for all, will always remain and the gratitude that I hold in my heart for our military men and women who have served in the past, who are serving now, and who will serve in the future will never be enough. That gratitude, it’s all I have… With that, we salute you all and say a simple, thank you.

God Bless,

Jaron Hall

My lil desk...

I thought I would write and tell a bit about what a day is like when I am working with buyers. I guess, like anything else in life, we all have our ways of doing things. Same goes for Realtors, we all have a method we like to use in order to keep ourselves organized, at least we all should. Those that dont, that would be chaotic! I can be pretty anal attentive about things, I like to stay pretty organized with business, although my wife probably looks at this desk I am sitting at and wonder how I can call it organized! It is, trust me, I know where everything is! Anyhow… So I am sure everyone just thinks we all can go walking into any home that has a sign stuck out in front of it, no problem… Not the case… not at all, which is what can be frustrating for an agent. I always try and be up front with my buyer’s. I try and explain that they can’t just call me up and 15 minutes later we can go see a home. Not in most cases anyway, it isnt that simple. So, here’s how it should happen…

Scheduling the Showings

So, you are a buyer, you go and get on the nifty Houston Association of Realtors website, known as HAR and you pick out the homes that you like and would appreciate seeing. I usually ask that buyer’s send me a list of MLS #’s for the corresponding properties they would like to see. This enables me to go into our back-end search engine, plug those MLS #’s in and that will guide me directly to a list of those homes the buyer would like to see. Now you will get to see why it isnt so simple… I then take the MLS print outs, usually, no more than 5-6 in a day per buyer, and I look at the Key Map Page and Grid for each property. This allows me to go to the Key Map and place the properties in an order that is best for routing. After placing the homes in the best order, I then have to set up the appointments which are usually done through a “showing service” or the office of the listing agent. I ask that buyer’s give me adequate time to prepare for showings… Why? Because it takes time to organize the routing and then the appointments for the showings have to be made. We do not know which homes are vacant or which are occupied. If the home is vacant, we can usually set the appointment immediately, if the home is occupied, we can run into several issues. Occupied homes usually require that the appointment is approved by the home’s occupant. In this case, the person setting the appointment must contact the occupant and get approval, at which point the person setting the appointment then calls me back to advise. Also, many times, an occupied home can require at least an hours notice or even 24 hours

Youve heard of Man's Best Friend... How bout Realtor's Best Friend?

notice for a showing. Bet ya werent aware of that! This is why I try to politely ask my buyer’s for a 24 hour window to get out and see homes. Sometimes this cant happen and it is understandable, we just see the homes available. We usually have about an hours window to see each home which is no big deal for the first couple of homes, but after that, the schedule can get all messed up! Then, another obstacle is an accompanied showing. This is where the seller wants his agent or a colleague to accompany showings at their home in which case, an exact time is usually required. Setting the appointments and coordinating the right amount of time in between is the trickiest part of the process, for me at least. There are so many variables to deal with… traffic, weather, etc…

Now the fun part begins…

Once the appointments are set, I notify my clients and I give them an outline of the showing schedule via email and we set up a place to meet. Before we meet, I place all the addresses in my trusty GPS and I go drive the route and make sure it flows nicely, again, this if time allows. If not, I just wing it and no one seems to care much anyway. That is just more of my anal retentiveness! : ) The rest is just gravy and actually pretty fun… I like to meet my buyer’s somewhere and then I like for them to ride with me. Sometimes this cant work out but I prefer this. It gives me a chance to hear their thoughts and their individual wants, desires and needs… The needs are the most important thing to catch on to of course. It also just gives us time to get to know each other… We then repeat as necessary until the perfect home is found…