• 1,946 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm single story - $125,000 - Great Price/Location!

Sableridge, Houston  -  Amazing 3-2-2 With Awesome Layout! Tall Ceilings, DBL Sided Fireplace in Bkfast RM & Family Room. Breakfast Bar - Open Kitchen, Tile, Cook In Style! French Doors, Super Duper Soft Carpet, HUGE Master W/2 Walk-In Closets, Dbl Sinks+Garden Tub & Stand-up Shower, PRIVATE Byard W/Deck & Fresh Landscaping! Excellent Curb Appeal, Well Maintained, NO SMOKERS, KIDS, PETS or MESS! Shows Like A GEM! BEST SHOWING IN SABLERIDGE! BAM!

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Excellent 3 Bedroom!

• 1,088 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm single story - $79,900 - Phenominal Price!

Sablechase, Houston  -  Excellent 3 Bedroom @ A Phenonminal Price. Newer Siding Outside on Either Side of The HM & Around Chimney. Carpet/Tile - TALL Ceilings, Very Inviting. Newer Fixtures & Fans. Large Master, Newer Ike Fence, Side Decking, Very Cozy - Great Opportunity For A first Time Homebuyer Potential Income Producing Property. Cute Neighborhood Near 1960. Great Find!

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Dewberry Farm opened again on September 26th for their 8th season!

Dewberry Farm is located just west of Katy, north of I-10 on HWY 362 and our family goes every year.  We have been going here for about 3 years but it just keeps getting better and better every year!

Prices are reasonable-- kids over 3 but younger than 55 are $11.  Seniors are $8 and law enforcement and military are $9 with proper id!

There are things in the Dewberry Farm that have individual costs but they are reasonable and there is a TON of stuff to do that doesn't cost extra as well. 

Also if you are looking for a great place to buy your pumpkins for the upcoming Jack-o-lantern season, you can get them here for 50 cents a pound!

Purchase Pumpkins
Pumpkins are 50 cents per pound with a minimum of $1 per pumpkin and a maximum of $24 per pumpkin.

Goat Feeding
25¢ per container of feed

Corn Cannon
$3.00 to shoot 9 ears of corn

Pedal Carts
$3.00 for all day pass

Kidilla Hoppers
$3.00 for all day pass

Pony Rides
$5.00

<!--<b>Zeke's Lost Treasure</b><br /> -->Gemstone Mining
bags of 'rough' $5.00 to $7.00

Flower Bouquet Picking
$5.00 per bouquet cup

Zip Lines
$3.00 for all-day pass

Black Hole
$2.00

Lighted Pumpkin Stroll
(Saturday Nights) $3.00

Pumpkin Blaster
7 shots for $5 or 5 shots for $3

Glenshire, Houston  -  The single story at 12523 Millbanks has been sold.

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Windstone Colony, Katy (Harris County)  -  The single story at 4755 Wind Trace has been sold.

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Bear Creek, Houston  -  The single story at 15638 Boulder Oaks has been sold.

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Enclave At Bridgewater, Katy (Harris County)  -  Announcing a price reduction on 3622 Granite Springs, a 2,292 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm 2 story. Now MLS® $130,000 - Great Buy w/ appliances!!.

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Bear Creek, Houston  -  We invite everyone to visit our open house at 15638 Boulder Oaks on May 3 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

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Bear Creek, Houston  -  Announcing a new listing: 15638 Boulder Oaks, a 1,638 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm single story "Open Floor Plan". Now MLS® $110,000 - .

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If you haven't heard of Cinco Charities, you probably soon will be.  It's been the vision of the Keller Williams Katy Office to give back to the community that we live in and love!

Katy is beginning to grow at a phenomenal rate and with that, we'll soon see massive expansions in the medical field here.  New hospitals and especially the Children's Hospital are creating a center of activity in Katy that will draw people in for the incredible health care we have here and we soon will have more of.

 Cinco Charities was founded with the idea that these people coming here for treatments of critical illnesses needed a place to stay during treatment. The Cinco Charity vision is:

To provide temporary housing in our community with a warm, safe environment for individuals and their families who are hospitalized or receiving treatment for a serious medical condition.

Well, the time has come and the first of many families will be benefitting from the tireless efforts of the Cinco Charities and Keller Williams Realty, Katy At Cinco Ranch!  We are very excited about this development!

If you would like to help out, we have several ways to do so.  Our main fundraiser is coming up in April and we are looking for GOLFERS to play in our Annual Golf Tournament.  Our golfers in past tournaments say that we put on one heck of a show (and why shouldn't we since our cause is so incredible!)

You can find more information about Cinco Charities and the Golf Tournament here:

CINCO CHARITIES

So things in your neck of the woods is a little slow lately.  Not having as many showings, not hearing from your agent and just generally you're a frustrated home seller.  You certainly are not alone these days.  Yes, things are picking up from January to February and as we head into March but the market activity is just a side note to the real question I'm thinking about today.

 I showed a home recently and when I called to follow up with the agent, (an agent that I have spoken to a while back on another home) I was a little shocked at the turn the conversation took. 

Apparently, this agent was at work when I called (the call took place about 2pm in the afternoon).  When I say the agent was at work, I mean he was at work in a job other than real estate.  A little shocked, I asked, so why are you working at XXXXX?   The agent's answer was that he had left the real estate business and returned to his former career field.  This agent has been in the business for 4 or 5 years so this really puzzled me.

When the agent got off of work, he called me back to follow up about the house I showed (my buyers had narrowed down their choices to two homes and ultimately eliminated this particular home because they were unable to get the answers they needed before submitting an offer by 4pm).  We continued our conversation from earlier, cut short as it was by the demands of another employer's time clock.  This agent has left the real estate business, currently has 4 or 5 homes listed for sale, and is handling those seller's homes on a "part-time" basis while he works for his new employer.  I asked him if his sellers know that he is no longer a full time real estate agent and he said no, that he was able to handle both "jobs" just fine. 

I don't think he realized that by not being there THAT day, he might have cost his sellers an opportunity to sell their house.  Now I say might because we ultimately don't know if my buyers were all that serious about that house or if they had already decided on the other house before we talked to him.  BUT I can tell you that he did not get an offer that day.

So it got me to thinking.  With the shifting market, I've already seen a lot of less successful agents leave the business.  Our office sent back some 20 licenses to the state board for one reason or another at the beginning of 2008.  Those agents COMPLETELY left the business but they had NO business depending on them either.  How many agents around the country have gone on to another job or profession and have kept their license active with their broker thus allowing them to continue to have listings in the MLS?   Did those agents let their sellers know that they were no longer full time agents and give them an option of terminating their listing so they could list with a full time agent?  I have no way of knowing that but I'm guessing, from my experience the other day, that they did not tell their sellers.

So is YOUR agent in the business anymore?  It might be a good idea to ask!  (By the way, before you ask, I am a full time real estate agent, love my profession, and strive to be the best real estate agent in the world!)

Valentine's Day in KATY TEXAS!!!

As I traveled around this morning accomplishing some errands, I marveled at how many people, particularly guys had not taken care of Valentine's Day yet.  The stores KNOW IT too.  They were ready for it. 

Extra manpower in the floral departments were noted at Walmart and Kroger! 

Anyway, Valentine's day comes but once a year so let those you love know all year round!

I was asked recently about a post a made to this blog about a year ago.  It concerned the Simple Truths of Service movie and told the story about Johnny the Bagger.

It's very touching but shows us how EVERYONE makes a difference and that attitude is contagious!

Click here to view the Simple Truths of Service movie.

With the huge variations in prices of homes sold in Katy,  I often get asked about the most expensive properties sold in the area.

 For January 2008, the honor of most expensive property sold in Katy Texas goes to a home in the Seven Meadows subdivision, located on Coastal Meadow.

This home has a stone and stucco facade and 6936 square feet!  5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and a beautiful pool, this 2003 built home sold for $790,000 at the end of January 2008!

The Seven Meadows subdivision is located just west of Grand Parkway @ Fry road in the 77494 zipcode in Katy Texas.

In December, President Bush signed a bill called the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act in an attempt to aleviate some of the distress caused by the mortgage meltdown that is affecting real estate nation wide.

What does it really mean to the homeowner?  Well for the homeowner in trouble and facing foreclosure, there has always been a route that agents pursued called a SHORT SALE.  The short sale often buys the homeowner additional time before foreclosure to sell their property.  It also allows the seller to sell the property more aggressively by marketing it for less than they actually owe.  The bank will often set a price that works for them which is less than owed or sometimes, they approve a short sale and you just submit offers to the bank until they have one that is acceptable.  HOWEVER, the end effect of that action often came back on the homeowner. 

The bank has the ability to issue a tax certificate, a form 1099, to the homeowner who must then count the forgiven amount as INCOME for the year the home was sold.  In other words, if you sold your home for $15,000 less than was owed, you could end up owing taxes as if you had EARNED an additional $15,000 that year.  That might not be that big a deal because the flipside of NOT doing a short sale would have been a foreclosure and not being able to buy a home when your circumstances do change.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 now keeps the IRS from counting that amount that is forgiven as income.  In otherwords, the repercussions for doing a SHORT SALE of your home became virtually none.  It will still affect your credit report but not NEAR what a foreclosure would do.

In addition, by doing a Short Sale and not being 1099'd for the difference, you could come out ahead financially instead of being foreclosed because the mortgage companies still have the right to write off a foreclosure sale in the same manner (in other words, if you allow the home to be forclosed on, you could STILL be responsible for the difference of what the bank sells the home for and what was owed whereas with the Short Sale, you are not)!