Plano Real Estate

If you are going to be buying or selling Plano Real Estate you need to fully understand the terms and conditions of the sales contract.   If you do not you could loose thousands of dollars or you could loose the purchase or the sale of the home.  Hiring a professional Plano Realtor is the single most important thing you can do to protect your interest.  But is this enough?  The answer is a resounding no!  While your Realtor has a fiduciary responsibility to protect your interest no one will protect your interest better that you will.  It is your house and it is your responsibility to study, research and ask questions in order to understand every aspect of your home purchase or sale.

With Plano real estate or any DFW real estate, as a home buyer you need to make sure that the sales contract contains a financing contingency which will let you out of the contract if you are unable to obtain financing for the purchase of the home.  You also want to make sure that the contract contains an appraisal contingency that states that if the property does not appraise for at least the amount of the contract price then you can get out of the contract.

As a seller you want to make sure that the buyer puts up a good size earnest money deposit, a bare minimum of at least 1% of the sales price.  Also, make sure that the buyers provide you with a per-approval letter from their mortgage lender.  The letter should state that the lender has checked the buyers credit scores, verified their income and checked their assets and debt ratios and that based on this information the buyers qualify for a mortgage to buy your home.

DFW Real Estate

According to the National Association of Realtors, housing affordability conditions have reached the highest level since record keeping began in 1970. The Housing Affordability Index rose to a record high in January. The Index is based on the relationship between the median housing prices, average mortgage rate and median family income. The higher the number in the Housing Index the greater the household purchasing power.

The Index data reinforces an unprecedented opportunity for home buyers in today’s real estate market. There may not be another window of opportunity like this in our lifetime.  DFW Realtors are scrambling to keep up with the surge of buyer activity throughout North Texas.  There are still great values available to home buyers through Dallas Foreclosures and motivated Sellers.

If you are a DFW home seller you may want to take advantage of this renewed buyer activity and sell into its strength.  Housing inventory levels have declined to a point where conditions are becoming much more balanced in much of the country.

The median price for DFW real estate also saw an increase according to the latest housing report.  The median price was $144,950, or 1% greater than a year ago.  The report shows that their are pending (under contract but not yet closed) sales on 5,384 homes, a whopping 35% increase from February 2011.

The DFW real estate market remains one of the strongest markets in the Nation.  With that said, as real estate market is becoming more and more hyper local, markets throughout the Metroplex, like the Plano real estate market, are experiencing even stronger numbers than the DFW market averages.  Likewise, there are a handful of markets that are experiencing numbers not as strong as the DFW averages.

Highland Park Homes

Highland Park homes are situate in a more established community located only four miles from Downtown Dallas.  These homes, in general, are custom and larger than homes found in Plano.  The average price of a single family home in Highland Park exceeds a million dollars and are comprised of the highest valued homes in North Texas.  To live in either Plano or Highland Park is a privilege for those who are fortunate enough to live in one of these communities.

As the 2011 Dallas real estate market begins to heat up and knowing that the DFW Real Estate market is one of the strongest real estate markets in the country you may be considering flipping property for a profit.  This is especially true if you were a flipper in the past and you have been sitting on the sidelines for the past few years.  There are plenty of Dallas foreclosures, short sales and motivated sellers who need to get rid of their properties but just because they need to sell these properties does that mean it is a good idea to get back into the flipping market?

Flipping Dallas Real Estate

According to Broker, Investor, Harry Ridge now is a great time to get into, or back into, the flipping market.  The caveat being that you must educate yourself on all aspects of the business from finding truly undervalued properties, obtaining cash or financing for the purchase, repairs, carrying cost, and selling cost to knowing what types of repairs and upgrades to make to a property to make it more valuable to finding the right contractors to do the work and to do it at the right price.  Ridge goes on to say that we are in a hyper local real estate market and you must do your due diligence to find the right properties in the right areas.  Just one mistake in any of these areas could mark the end of your flipping business.

With all of that said there is still a ton of pre-foreclosures, foreclosures and short sales throughout the Metroplex that will have a negative effect on real estate prices in both Dallas and Plano.  The City of Plano has had a resilient home market in spite of some of the Dallas neighborhoods we discussed and certain areas around the Metroplex where the distressed property market is high and property values are going from low to lower.  It all comes back to what I said earlier about real estate markets being hyper local, meaning that Dallas foreclosures will not have a negative effect on Plano real estate values.

The Brigade team worked diligently to prepare the meals and put together the care packages.  Late afternoon, volunteers in a delivery van full of care packages and coats went into the streets of Dallas.  It didn’t take long for them to empty their van and in doing so they met many grateful people who were in desperate need of the things many of us take for granted.  I will go as far to say, there was love between the Brigade Volunteers and the people they met and served this day.

Each care package contained a note:

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit. Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
- Napoleon Hill

The most memorable experience for most of the volunteers is when they came across two young girls, one, maybe 16 or 17 years old and the other 4 or 5 years old.  The older girl was deaf and could not communicate very well.  The volenteers gave both of them a coat.  When the youngest girl received her coat she was smiling, laughing and jumping all around. it was as though she had be given a pony.   Our experiences and feelings will not soon be forgotten they will motivate us to do more and give more.

Sponsors and Volunteers

Mary & Mike - Whitney & Michael  - Andrea A

Barbara T. - Samantha L. - Lisa Y.  - Susan K. - Regina S.

Chris & Edith Aslam and their Father.

Corporate Sponsors

Hosse Financial  -  National Lottery - Jack in the Box

Allison Garner / Farmers

VIP Realty - VIP Realty Platinum

In loving memory of Phyllis Ridge and Wayne Harris.

Broker-Owner Franchisee Harry Ridge will begin expanding into three East Coast Markets in the Spring of 2012.  Ridge and Soto will open offices;  VIP Realty Washington DC, VIP Realty Maryland and VIP Realty Virgina. VIP Realty’s Seller Clients will appreciate the technology and the aggressiveness of their VIP agents that will help them sell their homes for the highest price in the shortest amount of time.   VIP Realty’s Buyer Clients  will appreciated their professional agent’s knowledge of the local markets and their aggressiveness to get them the best value on the perfect home for them.  These are exciting times for the VIP Realty Franchise and the VIP Realty Family.