Cy-Fair Real Estate

I checked out the recently opened pool area at Bridgeland, and I have to admit I am very impressed. In a single pool area, they incorporated an Olympic-size lap pool, water volleyball area, two separate kid play areas, and two large water slides (one enclosed and one open) that spill into their own pool. I have also read on the Bridgeland website that they have two diving platforms (a 1-meter and a 3-meter), but I did not notice these on my visit.

Adjacent to the pool was a good sized park and playground area of which a good sized portion poker casino gamefree texas holdem poker game,texas holdem poker game,texas holdem tv poker gameonline poker lawvideo poker machinepoker game,internet poker game,home poker gamefree texas hold emfree online 7 card studfree online texas holdem poker,texas holdem poker game online,texas holdem poker onlinereal money online pokerplay internet poker onlinefree texas hold em game7 card stud hi low7 card stud handsfree texas holdem poker,free poker,free internet pokerfree no limit texas holdem,no limit texas holdem strategy,no limit texas holdemfree online video poker7 card stud gamemultiplayer poker onlineofficial texas holdem rulecard games 7 card studonline poker downloadonline poker cheatingonline casino poker tournamenttexas hold em gamelive online pokeronline poker tourvisa credit card application status0 balance transfer credit cardcard credit generator numbercard credit debt free helphousehold bank credit card,bank card com credit household,card online credit household bankfleet credit card service,mobile credit card wireless service,credit card servicesdiscover credit card application,application card credit discover statusdiscover credit card online,card credit discover online paycard credit interest lowest ukonline master card credit card application,canadian credit card online application,online credit card applicationapplication canadian card credit line,credit card application on linecard comparison consolidate credit debtcard credit debt reduction solutionaspire card cards,aspire credit credit,aspire credit card,aspire credit card home pageprime credit card interest rate,credit card interest ratechase credit card online payment,card chase credit online paymentcredit card counseling servicesfake credit card numbersaspire card credit paymentcapital card credit one servicebalance card credit introductory transfernational city bank secured credit card,bank card city credit nationalconsolidate credit card debt comparisonarticle card consolidation credit debt was shaded with large sun-shades. My wife loved this idea due to the sunburn factor with our fair-skinned 16-month old son.

The pool is also right next to Lake Bridgeland with it’s floating wood dock and several paddle boats for residents to enjoy.

Very nice stuff. Good work Bridgeland!

Description from the Bridgeland website:

An expansive pool complex recently opened at Lakeland Activity Center which provides residents with numerous water fun options. Residents can choose from a six-lane Olympic-size lap pool and diving well with two platforms, one-meter for the beginners and three-meter for the “show off”, a gradual depth play pool with volleyball nets, a young children’s pool with slides and sprays, two 30-foot tower slides for tubing, equipped with their own splash pool, and a spray park with fountains and creative water features to keep the little ones entertained.

Here is a good article on InmanNews about the best order to do things when you are looking to move to a new house.

http://db.inman.com/inman/content/subscribers/inman/column.cfm?StoryId=050502JG&columnistid=guttentag

In short, the order that Mr. Jack Guttentag recommends is:

• Get a contract on a new house
• List old house
• Get an unconditional contract of sale on your existing home (this is the tricky part) with a closing date after the closing date on your new home
• Assuming you do not have enough cash to cover the down payment, get a “bridge loan” from a bank which will use the home equity built into your current house to help fund the down payment on your new house.
• Close on your new house
• Close on your existing house
• Pay back the bridge loan
• Done!

I found a very nice mapping tool today called Backcountry Maps.

http://www.backcountrymaps.com

The idea behind the site was to “to map out the spots we’ve been in the backcountry and the spots we’d like to hit.” The appeal for me is that it is the first site that I have found which successfully merges Google Maps with topography maps.

This is not all that important for real estate in Harris County since the county is for the most part very flat. However, if you are looking for property in the counties north and west of Harris county, this information can be very nice to have.

All you have to do is find the area you are interested via the “Hybrid” map option, quickly left-click the spot to “pin” the location (optional), and then click the “Topo” button. Each line generally represents 5 feet of elevation when you are in one of the maximum zoom settings. This information is nice to know if you are considering to build a house near a creek or river bed. If the building site is 10 to 15 feet above the creek bed, you more than likely do not have to worry about flooding.

The major drawback to the site is that I have not found an option to find a location via address or zip code.

Zillow just released a new intriguing feature to their arsenal this week. “Make Me Move” will allow home owners to post a price on their house without officially putting the house on the market.

So in other words, if a potential home buyer decides that he or she loves your house even though it is not officially listed on the market, he or she can log into Zillow to see what you would be willing to accept for the place if a buyer really had to have it. Best of all, this service, like all of the rest of Zillow’s services, is free.

In less than a year, the company claims to have 3.2 million users and 70 million home listings, so they are obviously trying to cash in on advertising revenue versus to pay to play business model.

For those of you unfamiliar with Zillow (www.zillow.com), they came on the the real estate scene early 2006 with an automated, free home appraisal service. You just type in any address and Zillow gives you an estimated value for the property. They even give you historical charts and graphs like you would see in a stock price.

Since then, they have added the ability for home owners and REALTORS to list properties as well as this new “Make Me Move” service.

I took a brief tour around Towne Lakes recently. I realize it is difficult to picture the grand vision of a subdivision when it is in its infancy, but I am always perplexed when fledgling subdivisions make it more difficult for themselves than they have to.

In the case of Towne Lakes, I would have thought they would start in a location that was more visible from Barker Cypress. The entrance is hidden behind Cy-Fair College down West Road. If I wasn’t specifically looking for it, I definitely would not have known it was there.

I am not sure on the exact borders of the subdivision, but my understanding is that it is essentially bordered by Hwy 290 on the north, West on the south, Barker Cypress on the east, and Fry on the West. You would have thought they would start a little closer to Hwy 290 with an entrance somewhere off of Barker Cypress to get maximum visibility. Of course that may not have been an option if the subdivision does not own land that is directly on Barker.

The other issue with the location is the large set of power lines going through the middle of the first section. Even if power lines have no effect on health, they are still unsightly and definitely have a negative effect on real estate values.

This reminds me of the first section of Stone Gate when they first opened in 1999. That section had three whammies going against it. (1) It bordered the 290 railroad track; (2) It had power lines going through the middle of it; (3) It surrounded a concrete plant that bordered the northern part of the subdivision.

Even with those flaws, Stone Gate has become a very nice and successful neighborhood.

And with a very large real estate firm with deep pockets like Caldwell Watson developing Towne Lakes, I’m sure it will become very successful also. It will just take a little bit of time.

I noticed this evening that Coles Crossing does not use the “To the trees” slogan on their website. The slogan they are using now is “come and see”.

Come and see?!?! What does that mean?

To be honest, I’m not sure if that is better or worse than “To the trees”. At least with “To the trees”, I understood the point they were trying to get across. The issue with that slogan was that seemingly every time I drive out of the neighborhood (I am a Coles Crossing resident) I see a new batch of land getting clear cut. So maybe that is where the slogan came from! Come and see trees getting cut down!

The new batch of land is on the corner of Jarvis and Barker Cypress bordering Cypress Creek. That batch of trees used to make the entrance into the neighborhood very grand. Huge oak trees overhanging the road right before you got to the big “Coles Crossing” sign across the pond at Jarvis. That entrance is one of the reasons my wife and I decided on this neighborhood in 1999. We figured it would be a little less grand once they made Barker Cypress a divided 4 lane road, but we never imagined they would cut down ALL of the trees. But no longer. Now it is just another empty patch of land that is destined to be a strip mall, pharmacy, or bank.

I do give the community credit for actually planting quite a few trees of late. That will make the community look nice in 10 or 15 years. However, the irony with that especially in places like along Coles Crossing North that goes between Coles Crossing drive and Telge is that they cut down all of the trees when they put in the street. If they kept those and the underbrush around them, we would not have had to spend home owner’s dues to plant more trees! I definitely think that Longwood did it right in terms of keeping all the trees and underbrush in the greenbelts between the homes and main community streets.
Even with the tree issue, I really do love the neighborhood. Even though a lot of trees have been destroyed, it is still one of the few neighborhoods off of Hwy 290 that actually has trees which is nice. The people are very nice, the community is active, and I love the weight room and tennis courts. I do wish we had another pool or at least a bigger one, but that is a story for another day.

Coles Crossing — Come and see….something or another.

Cy-Fair is getting a rather large master planned community designed around a series of interconnected lakes, and I am not talking about Bridgeland!

The Houston Chronicle had an article a few days ago about a new 2400 acre master planned community called Towne Lakes that is going in on the south side of Hwy 290 between Barker Cypress and Fry Rd. Caldwell Watson Real Estate Group is the developer of this project.

A full 300 acres of this community, approximately 1/8th of the entire subdivision, is going to be water. According to the article, residents will be able to travel from one end of the community to the other via boat.

“Every single portion of the neighborhoods will have some sort of access to the lake or canals,” said Peter Barnhart, vice president of residential development at Caldwell Watson. “Coupling that with the town center, we’ll be providing housing opportunities across a myriad of price points.”

Mr. Barnhart goes on to say in the article:

“You can get in a boat and go from one side to the other side, which is about 4 miles. You can get in a boat anywhere in the community and get anywhere else in the community.”

If you are looking to purchase a home on a man-made lake, the northwest part of Houston is an excellent place to look. In addition to Towne Lakes, the Cy-Fair area has Bridgeland and Sydney Harbour both of which are also built around robust lake systems.

Summerwood is a beautiful tree-lined master planned community in the northeast part of Houston.

FACTS:

• School District: Humble ISD
• Approx. Size: 1500 Acres
• Amenities:
• 2 pools in different sections of the community both with play areas for the kids
• 150 acres of nature preserve / 17 acres of lakes
• Tennis Courts
• Community Center
• Park on Lake Houston
• Many miles of hike and bike trails

Summerwood is attractive to many due to its close proximity to downtown (approximately 19 miles), its abundance of trees, and its reasonable housing costs. It is also a short drive to the Channelview and Baytown areas which house the majority of the large oil and gas facilities in Houston. This makes Summerwood an ideal neighborhood candidate for people in those fields.

The land in a few sections in Summerwood had to be raised due to flooding concerns which meant all of the trees had to be clear cut. However, I would say that this is an exception and not the rule as there are still tons of trees and plenty of shade throughout the neighborhood. Compared to a good portion of other new neighborhoods in the Houston area which clearcuts all trees for development ease, I would say that Summerwood has done a fine job in this area.

There are 4 villages within Summerwood. According to HAR.com, the median values in these villages ranges from $162,000 to $231,000 depending on the village. The median home size ranges from 2385 sqft to 3371 sqft.

Houston’s Channel 2 News ran a two part story over the past couple of days about convicted criminals getting real estate licenses which in turn gives them access to essentially every house on the Houston market via a SUPRA key. Story

According to the story “general counsel Loretta Dehay admitted that some murderers and rapists are eligible for licenses under the current rules”. I realized the the Texas Real Estate Commission has to be open-minded, but not giving licenses to convicted sex offenders and murderers you think would be a no-brainer!

What makes matters worse, the cost to do background checks on all current Texas licensees is not cheap. If the state mandates this, TREC will have to either get a bigger slice of state funding (not likely) or they will have to raise Realtor membership fees. Not good…

An area that a real estate blog can bring value to potential consumers is community (or subdivision) profiles. At the time of this writing, I have not found single website that included community profiles for multiple subdivisions in and around Houston. I am hoping that CyFairRealEstate.com supply this for the Northwest quadrant of the Harris County.

Our plan is to spotlight at one subdivision in the Cypress area at least once a week. These profiles will include factual data such as number of properties, average home square footage, average home value, tax rates, etc. gathered from the “Neighborhoods” section at HAR.com (link). In addition to the facts, we will include items that I think could be important to an individual or family such as community pools, recreational and fitness areas, nature/hike/bike trails, trees, etc. Each profile will also include several pictures.

Since I may not know each individual neighborhood as well as a resident who has lived there for several years, if you find omitted or inaccurate information about your community on this site, please let me know. I will get the information updated as soon as possible. Also, if you would like a community profiled, add a comment to this site or send me an email and I will get that done also.

Our first community profiled will be Coles Crossing.