Many home buyers in the Dallas, TX market are finding Richardson to be a pleasant surprise.  As in any big city, Dallas home prices are higher the closer you get to town.  There are a few exceptions in some highly commercial areas, but for the most part, the high rise condos and redeveloped residential lots keep home prices pretty high relative to the larger market. 

Many families are finding Richardson to be close enough to Dallas to make an easy commute, yet just far enough out of the city limits to find plenty of house for the right price.  Richardson East offers traditional neighborhoods with good schools and plenty of open space.  It is one of the rare places near a big city where there are still open fields and natural settings.  Softball and soccer games can be seen regularly on corners in the community.  The Richardson Square Mall located at Belt Line and Plano Road is being redeveloped into a new Kohls, Lowes and Super Target.  All things considered, it is a very attractive community for families who want more house and more space for a fair price and within close proximity to Dallas.  In a comparable community inside Dallas, $200,000 would get you a three bedroom home with two full bathrooms and a two car garage.  Most likely that would be on a smaller lot and be a one story house. 

In Richardson, not only are the public schools exceptional, but the same $200,000 could get you a five bedroom home with three and a half bathrooms and the two car garage.  The lot will be larger, and there are plenty of two story homes.  Both cities have great real estate deals to be found, but for the money Richardson is becoming more and more attractive.

For more information on each of these housing markets, visit www.4DallasHomes.com

Lake Highlands is one of the most desirable areas in all of the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex.  Why?  So many reasons. 

First, there are wonderful people there that care about keeping their community safe, clean, quiet and fun.  What a great place to raise a family.  Second, Lake Highlands name should give away it's location relative to White Rock Lake.  The area sits "high" above the lake and actually hosts the highest point in all of Dallas at Flag Pole Hill.  The lake boasts many great attractions like fishing, sailing, bike riding, hiking, parks and plenty of areas for picnics and barbecues with family, friends and pets.  Third, Lake Highlands has the distinct advantage of having City of Dallas utilities but Richardson Independent School District schools.  RISD was named best large school district in Texas in 2007.  The area is known for its strong support of local schools (Especially Lake Highlands High School.)  LHHS is proud of its sports teams including baseball, football, basketball and even an award winning country and western dance team.  It's hard to find a restaurant our retail business in the Lake Highlands community that does not have a sticker or a poster of some sort to show their support for the schools. 

Close to everything, Lake Highlands makes sense for folks who want to be close to Downtown Dallas (15 minutes,) Irving, Garland, Rockwall, DFW Airport and more.  Located just south of LBJ (635) and just east of Central Expressway (75,) Lake Highlands feels like a mature suburb yet sits inside the city limits.

Lake Highlands is also experiencing some exciting new development.  Redevelopment might be the better word since the new Lake Highlands Town Center will be replacing thousands of units of multi-family housing along Skillman Street between Abrams and Walnut Hill.  The Town Center will include residential, commercial and public projects that will certainly add appeal to the community.  There will even be an outdoor amphitheater.  Other development projects include a new Super Wal Mart and possibly a Senior Living Complex. 

Residential Real Estate investors are foaming at the mouth at the opportunities for financial gain in the housing market as well.  Lake Highlands is proving to be a bright spot on the dismal real estate map lately. 

 Good news for residents and future residents!

When you go to the doctor, he doesn't sign you in, check your insurance, call the pharmacy, greet you in the lobby, walk you back, check your heart rate and blood pressure and also give, interpret and document the exam as well as prescribe treatment - does he?

Why then, would anyone expect an individual real estate agent to meet a client, explain his or her services, write up an agreement, measure the house, photograph the house, create advertising pieces for web sites, newspapers, flyers and signs, set up showing instructions, search for title histor, verify insurance, put out signs, advise the client, show the home to buyers, screen the buyers, talk to the lender, talk to the appraiser, talk to the title company, talk to the inspector, verify the inspection report, verify funds, host open houses, preview comparable properties, attend closing, follow up and the other 251 items required in every residential transaction?

No one should.  This business is best done with teams of prefoessionals whose members specialize in one or two areas of the process and in the end offer each client top notch service and advice on all issues related to the purchase or sale of their home.  Real estate teams offer great value to the consumer at no additional cost. 

Many first time home buyers aproach home ownership with a mixture of fear and excitement.  It is the job of the real estate consultant to minimise the fear and give direction to the excitement.  Here are a few short and easy facts that will help any first time home buyer make better decisions when considering their purchase.

• Home buyers should never have to pay real estate commissions (Sellers Pay the Commission)
• Home buyers should always be represented by a licensed REALTOR.  Even when buying or building a new home.
• When calculating mortgage payments on your first home, be very careful when using online mortgage calculators.  They rarely include all of the necessary expenses.  Remember PITI.  All homes will require four things if you are getting a mortgage or borrowing money.  PITI stands for Principle - Interest-Taxes - Insurance.  Many calculators only include Principle or Principle and Interest.
• Don't forget regular upkeep fees like utilities, minor repairs and any upgrades that you plan on making.  You can only spend each dollar once!

More on the process of buying your first home soon...

The Magic of Believing - Claude Bristol

The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason

Financial Peace - Dave Ramsey

Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield

The E-Myth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber

What They Should Have Taught Me At Big Blue - Darryl Tramonte

The Five Lessons A Millionaire Taught Me - Richard Paul Evans

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

Bob is a smart guy.  He works hard, loves his family and needs a bigger house.  His wife is pregnant with their third child and the three bedroom home they have in Dallas, TX is simply too small for their growing family.  Bob actually spends five minutes thinking about how he would like to solve his problem.

Bob's analysis of his real estate situation works something like this:

1. We have more people than we have bedrooms
2. We need more bedrooms
3. We need a new house
4. We will need to sell our house in order to buy a bigger one
5. We can't sell it ourselves since we don't know much about it
6. We don't want to pay too much for someone to assist us
7. We will use Assist-2-Sell Real Estate Company to sell our house for a flat fee
8. We will save thousands of dollars compared to a traditional six or seven percent commission broker
9. We will use the savings to pay for our move and help us buy the bigger house
10. We will also use Assist-2-Sell Real Estate Company to buy our bigger house since they don't charge anything to help buyers.

BOB TAKES STEP#1 OF THE ONE STEP SMART BUYING PROCESS:

Bob calls Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Realty in Dallas, Texas.

Bob schedules an appointment to meet with one of their REALTORS for that afternoon.  A very nice agent shows up on time to Bob's house and answeres all of Bob's questions.  Thirty days later, Bob has a great offer and accepts.  The Assist-2-Sell agent handled everything.  Bob is so happy that he tells all of his friends and family.

Bob has a neighbor.  His neighbor's name is Jim and Jim's wife is also pregnant with a third child and their three bedroom home is getting too small as well.  Honestly, Bob's neighbor Jim is not as smart as Bob.  Jim makes some of the same decisions as Bob, like selling and buying a new home.  But,as you probably expected, Jim doesn't take Bob's advice and he uses an agent from Kel-Max 24 Realty who has a really great glamour shot on her business card.  He ends up selling his house in thirty days as well, but he also ends up paying almost twice as much commission to his REALTOR as Bob paid to his Assist-2-Sell agent for the same exact service.  Jim won't be able to buy a bigger house in the same neighborhood as Bob this time. 

The moral of Bob and Jim's story is that Assist-2-Sell is America's Leading Discount Real Estate Company.  We are a volume based, full service, technilogically advanced real estate company with highly trained, highly educated and very friendly full time professional agents.  We charge less to home sellers in order to generate more business and create life long relationships with our happy sellers and buyers.  We are still in business to make money, and we do it by assisting more and more home sellers and home buyers every year.  We make up for our fantastically low fees by assisting so many more people.  Contact us to find out more.  www.4DallasHomes.com

Lake Highlands House Sells in 35 Minutes With Assist-2-Sell

Homeowner Saves Nearly $9,000 in Real Estate Commissions

DALLAS - Feb. 21, 2008 - Thirty five minutes. That's how long it took for a house in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas to sell last week at full price. The secret? Assist-2-Sell's "Direct-to-Buyers" ^SM marketing program.

"No, I'm not reminiscing about the real estate boom. This happened just last week," assures Todd Tramonte, owner and broker of Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Realty of Dallas. "Once the seller said, ‘show it,' we had a contract signed by one of our own buyers within 35 minutes for a net full price offer."

By working with Assist-2-Sell, instead of a "traditionally-priced" broker, the seller saved nearly $9,000 in real estate commissions, compared to paying six percent. Todd's office charges $2,995 for houses up to $200,000, with moderate increases for houses that list for more.

Explains Todd, "The only difference between Assist-2-Sell and ‘traditional' real estate companies is our compensation structure. We charge a low, flat fee instead of a commission that is a percentage of a house's sale price. That can add up to significant savings."

As a full-service real estate brokerage, Assist-2-Sell's experienced brokers and agents handle everything throughout the entire process of selling a house. That includes pricing the house; advertising and marketing online and offline; showing the house to prospective buyers; working with other local brokers and agents; and managing all of the paperwork and the closing.

"We were able to sell the house so quickly because we deal with so many buyers and sellers. Due to our volume and our team approach, we were able to match the best buyer with the best seller," says Todd. "We really do put people first. Our low commissions allow sellers to be more flexible and enable buyers to get better deals."

Todd Tramonte opened Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Realty in Dallas in February 2006. Assist-2-Sell, North America's Leading Discount Real Estate Company^SM, provides home sellers with full brokerage services for a low, flat fee, saving consumers more than $800 million in commission.[1] Homebuyers also have access to a full range of services, including Assist-2-Sell's exclusive listings databases. All brokers and agents are fully licensed and REALTORS®. On the Net: http://www.4dallashomes.com/.     

Written by: Erin Campbell - Assist-2-Sell PR Genius

[1] Savings based on statistics since January 1, 2000, for all Assist-2-Sell offices in North America compared to paying six percent commission. Six percent used for comparison purposes only. Commissions may be negotiable and are not fixed by law.

While much of the country is crouched in the corner in the fetal position waiting for the real estate market to retreat from its attack on home owners, folks in most markets in Texas should be as active as ever.  The overwhelming majority of national media is stuck in a cycle of piggybacking each others stories on the bursting of the real estate bubble and the sub prime loan debacle.  Oh, they also decided that we are now in a recession. 

The truth of the matter is that there are quite a few markets in America that weren't experiencing the dramatic increases in property values in the late 1990's and early 2000's that have caused the inevitable market correction that is happening now.  As any intelligent investor knows, capitalist markets are efficient and will generally correct their own missteps.  While the coastal markets and a few other recently "Hot" markets experience the resetting of appropriate property values and experience drops in sales prices and exponentially longer sale cycles, markets like Dallas, Texas are generally very attractive. 

Average appreciation in Dallas, Texas has been somewhere between three and six percent over the last decade.  Since 2006 we've seen a slight slow down in that number.  We've dipped in some parts of the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex to a basically neutral market with little or no gains or losses.  Relative to the rest of the country, this is fantastic.  Even better, several parts of town that are taking active rolls in the growth of their community are still experiencing the five and six percent gains that were familiar five years ago. 

The few media outlets with a clue about individual markets have named Dallas, Texas one of the top five real estate markets in the United States.  These predictions are not only for 2008, but many insightful experts predict that Dallas and other Texas markets like Houston, San Antonio and El Paso will continue to be America's strongest real estate markets for years to come.  In Dallas specifically, job growth is very strong.  Many corporations are moving into Dallas and surrounding suburbs due to the relatively low cost of loving.  School districts in most Dallas suburbs are far above the national averages in test scores and many other performance points.  A favorable climate and notoriously clean and entertaining reputation make Dallas as desirable as any US city. 

Investors are picking up on this first and are buying up properties at a rapid pace.  HUD homes are flying off of the market and Sellers who are willing to price aggressively are moving properties quickly. 

Buyers should be thinking, "When will I be able to find a better market to purchase a home in?" 

They will then find a very clear answer, "Never."  Prices haven't increased in two years, interest rates are amazingly low, there are plenty of homes to choose from, buyers can call most of their own shots and the awareness of the health of our market is finally beginning to penetrate the lemming mentality of the media.  Soon the weather will change and the more aggressive and firm prices will return with the flowers and the buyers.

Buy now or pay for it later.

If I sold mufflers, I believe that I would have the best muffler shop in town.  I would hire quality people to order, package, ship, install and repair the mufflers.  I would train them to be the most knowledgeable, courtious, respectful and dedicated muffler people in town.  I would reward loyalty in my team and in my clientelle.  I would not only sell mufflers to the people in my community, but I would participate in projects to improve the safety, visual appearance and enjoyment of my community.  I would aim to offer the absolute best mufflers at teh very best price every single time. 

I would also operate in a way that would let my competitors know that they must raise the standard of their business in order to keep up or the alternative would be to get out of the muffler business.  I would not compromise the integrity of my muffler shop because of industry standards.  I would to a tough but fair competitor.

I don't sell mufflers, but I run my Dallas area real estate business in the same way.  I own and manage Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Realty in Dallas, Texas.  We area a brokerage of highly educated, highly skilled and dediated real estate consultants.  We are fully licensed by the state of Texas and members of both the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) as well as the MetroTex Association of Realtors.  Lots of associations I know.  We are REALTORS, but we are much more than your average glamour shot from XYZ Realty.  We approach our client/friend relationships as consultants.  We bring value to the client not by telling them how to sign on the dotted line so that we can "sell their house," or telling them which three bedroom two bath ranch style one story home is best, but by asking them truly thought provoking questions and determining what their real needs and dreams are.  Only once we know what is best for our client, do we begin the process of marketing a home for sale or shopping for a new home.  We work with sellers in all price ranges and in all parts of Dallas, Texas. 

We regularly work with agents from other real estate brokerages as well.  Yet, we do not have the luxury of truly competing in our industry.  As real estate professionals, we must be very careful when drawing a distinction between our unique and incredibly valuable service offering and the traditional 6% or 7% model of "one price fits all."  We need these other agents in a way that a muffler shop will never need another muffler shop.  We love to work with our friends from other offices and we must cooperate to give the very best service to our client/friends.

So, I don't sell mufflers and I am as much of a competitor as it is appropriate to be.  But, I enjoy every day of meeting and working with other agents and brokers who chose do run their businesses a little diferently.  It's a free country and I wouldn't have it any other way.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!