Avery Johnson’s Condo Goes On The Market

Well now, that didn’t take long: a source tells me Avery Johnson’s condo just hit the market today: $4.475 Million.Â
Listing Agent: Jamie Adams, Prudential Texas Properties. Jamie is the Realtor to rich and famous athletes — if you look on his website, he still has Daryl “The Moose” and Diane Johnston’s Northaven home up as he is their agent. Jamie’s a cool guy. Anyhow, chez Avery, my source tells me:

“Everything stays with an “acceptable offer.” Guess someone doesn’t want anyÂ
reminders of the past…and all the stuff is only a couple of monthsÂ
old. Asking price translates to $1,051.21 per square foot for “one ofÂ
the most prestigious condos at the Ritz.”

 Can’t wait to get some pics…

People Coming To Our Front Doors To Shoot Us: Sick and Tired, Not Going To Take It!

So Eric was lamenting the scavengers in his ‘hood, and while I totally sympathize, I’m sick and tired of the crooks in our ‘hood who come to the door and try and shoot women at home during the day. When I first heard this story I thought, oh, another scary urban legend, ’till I noted a friend’s name buried in the scroll and called her: yup, true story. Happened in Preston Hollow last Monday morning, 11:00 a.m. (Read entire event after jump.) My friend says the victim had all these wild thoughts  going through her mind but she remembered an Oprah episode telling women not to let a perpetrator get you in a second place. So frightened as she was, and too far away from her alarm keypad to hit the “panic” button, she ran away from him and ran outside, and hid behind one of her columns. (Love those columns!) This poor woman is understandably scared to death but doing OK; meantime her neighbor, my friend, is going to slip a gun into a drawer in her own foyer. I think I need one of those bumper stickers that says “Protected By Smith & Wesson” for my front door. But seriously, this is awful: I’ll bet these folks pay no less than $20K in property taxes and where is our police protection? Why are we not safe in our homes at 11:00 a.m. in the morning? Please be careful — get a peephole and if you do not recognize the person at the front door, DO NOT ANSWER!!!

(more…)

George Lewis, Home Builder to President and Mrs. Bush?

If you want a home builder with the best credentialled subs in the world, call George Lewis. He completed three or four projects for the Bush family when they lived in Dallas in their home on Northwood. He was recommended to Laura by her cousin, Robert Welch, a developer who has fabulous taste in women (I know who he’s dating!). Robert and George are ski buds. George reminded me that Laura’s father was a home builder,  so she is wonderful to work with, really one of his most delightful clients.

“She always knows in advance what decisions need to be made,” says George. “She thinks through everything.” 

Funny story, since we were talking about the wedding. When they bought Woodland Laura had George take out old Sheryle Wagner sinks because they were too fussy. “I don’t want my girls growing up with that,” she told him. Laura likes clean lines and simplicity. Another funny story: when his father was president, the Secret Service had to check out each and every sub who worked on the house. (And George’s all passed the muster!) One time the floor refinisher was coming while the Bush family was going to be out of town. The Secret Service had to be there to meet, watch and protect. So, the SS guy asked George, how reliable is this floor refinisher? Well, said George, he can be a bit flaky about time. (Hello, have you ever had a sub show up when he said he would?) So the SS guy asked the floor guy when he was planning on arriving: 9:00 a.m.

“If you arrive at 9:01 a.m. understand you are not getting in that house,” said the SS guy.

 The floor refinisher got there at 8:30 a.m. I want his name!

Ciao, Bice

This is painful to write, so I’ll just link. All I can say is that now I have to fly to Chicago or New York to get great Italian food. So Texans lova the steak house? That is so dumb. You can buy a great steak at Central Market, Whole Foods or Kuby’s for God’s sake, season and plop it on the $10,000 grill you have on the patio of your McMansion. Voila: steak. But to find a great sauce or pasta filled with delicacies, that takes hours of delicate prep.

RE: NAREE Wrap-Up

Last week Dallas played host to two major Real Estate conferences, the Urban Land Institute and NAREE. In a way, I was at both. My brother-in-law is in commercial Real Estate and he was in town for Urban. I’m wondering if we will see an uptick in sales after both these conferences. The Real Estate editors from across the country were very, very impressed with the urban development in downtown Dallas. Out west, Hillwood was kind enough to treat many of them to ‘copter rides and photo ops with Longhorn Thursday afternoon! Lucy Billingsley had a beautiful, tasteful reception at One Arts Plaza. Dallas power Realtors explained that we were are not suffering the way most areas of the nation are because we did not have huge run-ups in pricing and a lack of speculators. In fact, one of the best questions a reporter asked at the panel I moderated was this: why not? Why don’t Dallas home prices rise 20% to 30% like they did in Florida, California, Phoenix and Nevada? Ellen Terry said it’s because we have so much land and we can always spread out. A developer completes one home project in say, Flower Mound, sells it out and goes on to start another one because we have no natural barriers like mountans or an ocean. There’s nothing shutting us in!  Allie Beth Allman added that the speculators haven’t preyed on us all that much. However, the close-in areas such as Uptown, Park Cities, Preston Hollow, she says are seeing price appreciation because that dirt is limited. In a way, LBJ is the mountain range or ocean that gives us boundaries and keeps those values up. Bottom line: expect some good press about our Real Estate market in the national press within the next few weeks.  Frankly, we deserve it!