The Hamburger Man At Veneto — NOW

It’s not too late — The Hamburger Man is at Veneto, which is really neat-o: 5806 Birchbrook off Matilda in Lake Highlands and really one of the best condo conversions I think I’ve ever seen. As you can see, we’ve had a lot of news lately. I was up blogging ’till 3:00 a.m. But I popped in to scout this property yesterday and have much to tell. Vitals: The Hamburger Man is there ’till 1:30 p.m. poolside. 

But What Will I Use To Line The Parrot Cage?

The Local OnLiner reports the LA Times is ceasing publication of it’s Sunday Real Estate section — sad because peddling Real Estate is how the paper got started back in the days. But I get it. Most of the west coast Realtors I spoke with last week (even last year) at Inman are shocked when they hear that Dallas Realtors still advertise heavily in the Sunday newspaper. Everyone out there is high tech, i-phones, Blackberries, Twitter, “blue sky”. (I love it!) In fact, when I asked agents how to best find an apartment to rent, everyone said Craig’s List and Rent.com. Come to think of it, the only paper my son touched when he found his 1/1 bachelor pad was the lease he signed.

Showtime — Getting Wet At 3816 Turtle Creek Boulevard

Video of one of the most talked-about properties in town, a prime Dallas location, freshly built on .7 acres bordering Turtle Creek and designed by owner Braden Power, co-founder of Power Properties, with loving care and exquisite attention to detail. Five bedrooms, six baths in the main house, loggia, fireplace, beaucoup outside rooms and seating areas plus (another) exterior infinity pool, guest quarters, rolling lawns and an intimate lounging area with fireplace smack dab at the edge of Turtle Creek. The ancient Rome influence is evident, revealed in the front atrium foyer with a reflective pool right as you walk in the house. (Don’t trip!) The pool is bordered with heated limestone passageways connecting the Moorish style entrance to French doors flanking the fireplace. (Architect Cole Smith collaborated with the owner/designer.) Details abound such as zebra wood inset in wood railings, hand-carved corbels, monochromic wall and window coverings. The main kitchen is so integrated you don’t realize it’s a kitchen — a butler’s/catering kitchen is adjacent. This home is so sexy  I asked if Viagra is circulated through the evaporator coils as a pheromone. Totally seductive retreat: one-touch interior/exterior mood lighting and sound systems and, most vitally, window coverings.  

Also home of the most decadent master suite in the country — wait till Mama sees this! Half of the second story is devoted to a languishing master bath with heated floors and towel shelves, indoor spa/media room, spa with steam room/waterfall/full bar/fireplace, gym, to-die-for haberdashery closet, sitting room, balcony and dressing room.

Now if 7697 square feet isn’t enough, a Cole Smith design for a greatroom of approximately 4,000 square feet is available to the buyer. Furnishings and decorative items are also available for purchase. Price tag: $13,000,000. Listing agent: Eleanor Mowery Sheets and Company for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Feds Sue Eleanor Mowery Sheets and Nicky Sheets, Frontburner Scoops Dallas Dirt

With this story. Here’s the D Home and Garden article the filing refers to.

Bush Home House Lust At Newsweek

Daniel McGinn at Newsweek called the other day, but I had no idea he’d be giving us so much ink! Apparently the entire nation has eyes peeled on Dallas Real Estate as everyone tries to figure out where George and Laura will land in Big D. Thank you, Dan, for the nice write up. I’ll give House Lust as gifts. Thank you Tim, for posting! And the Mathews-Nichols listing on Seneca, yes: I might even lay a few dollars from my sinking Fannie Mae stocks on that street. Maybe even right smack next door to Michelle Nussbaumer.

United Title of Texas

OK, here’s what I’ve learned: Mercury Companies, Inc. (parent company of United Title of Texas) is closing all operations outside of Colorado. Yesterday an email went out to employees basically telling them to take their stuff home and not come back today. As for anyone who had a closing at one of United’s ten Dallas area locations, all work will be transferred to First American Underwriter. Tell me what you know.

What’s Brewing With United Title of Texas?

Dallas Dirt Exclusive: I have just received word that United Title of Texas changed locks on their doors yesterday at 5 pm which will make it mighty hard for anyone with a closing scheduled at their offices to get in the door, much less close. Developing. Hear anything, let me know. (Ironic, I was just interviewing a company in New York about a new key-less lock system by Schlage.)

Second Home Lust: Tranquility Costs Only $100,000,000.

Most prestigious listing on lovely Lake Tahoe. 210 acres, eight private buildings, 38,000 square feet of summer fun makes Phil Romano’s place look kind of, well, minature.

Dallas Home Prices Down 3.1 Percent

So reports the Dallas Business Journal. And Back Talk Preston Hollow, where Jeff Siegel brings up his voyage to Chicago where the market is just plain God awful. I was in California last week where there are a lot of homes on the market, record foreclosures up 261% from a year ago. Yes, I said 261%. But the Peninsula area near San Francisco is still pretty insulated, folks there told me. I think the bottom line in this Real Estate story 2008 is that people with plenty of money who are either buying or selling are smelling like roses. They don’t have to worry about sales prices because they sold a company and live on non-earned income of $56,000 a month. OK, maybe the CPA will eventually suggest they chop a hundred thou off the price of a $4.5 million home. Tinkling in the ocean. This is the buyer every high-end spec builder in town is killing to have. No, the people hurting are those who over-shopped and who used home equity in one home to finance others. They bought into some experts’ advice — hey, I read those books too— for a moment I thought I could be Donald Trump. I heard lots of these stories in CA: one guy borrowed 90% against his home and bought not one but two homes out of state as investment props. (Idaho seems to be where everyone is buying investment props.) When he went to flip, the market had turned and he couldn’t sell them. Then the value of the home he had the 90% loan against declined — he had taken out the loan at the peak of the boom. Now he had two inflated loans on two props declining in value — not selling — plus the 90% loan on his home. What could he do? He walked, lost his equity. Just a few years back in Texas we could not take out loans against our homesteads because back in the wild west, men were gambling away the ranch at the poker table.

My, how times have changed.

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244 West Wildwood, SA

These homes were built by the developer of Olmos Park Terrace in the 30’s with no central A/C. Thus the kitchens all had screen doors opening to the back yard for cooling. Some homes even had separate kitchens to keep the heat away from the resting rooms. With higher energy prices, wonder if we may revert back to that. In a way, we have —  with the popularity of outdoor kitchens.

San Antonio Honey Pie

Just darling, south of Loop 410, H.C. Thorman stone cottage in Olmos Park Terrace with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, completely redone near Trinity University. $235,000. Guess who owns her? ME!

Centex Loses $150 Million, Will That Affect Tim Eller’s Building Budget On Lakeside?

Just wondering.

What Are The Hottest Neighborhoods In Dallas???

You tell us. Calling all Real Estate fanatics: what are the best neighborhoods in this city to live in? Established, re-vitalized, up and coming? Where is all the activity, what streets does everyone want to live on — all price ranges. Close in or far out, tell us what you think for a future issue of D Home and Garden…..

Savannah College of Art and Design

Is coming soon to the West End of downtown Dallas, so says our Dave Moore on Frontburner. I recall posting something about this way back but even more, something else pretty major is going to be happening in that area Real Estate-wise very soon. Have promised to keep mum for a bit…stay tuned!

Second Home Lust: Pebble Beach, CA

Having just returned from northern California (was told by spousal unit to “get thy fanny on a plane”) I have serious new Real Estate lust: Pebble Beach and Carmel. Still breathless from my very first encounter with the terrain, trees, and props like this one: price tag  a mere $13 million…

House For Sale, Investment Opp, $10,300

In Dallas, on EBay.

Rolando Blackman Bids Belle Nora Adios

Dallas Dirt Exclusive: Belle Nora is truly available. Told you how Rolando Blackman no-showed for his closing of Belle Nora on July 14. Last week he left a voice-mail with the listing agent indicating he still wanted to buy the home and hoped to close by month’s end. Saturday, the agent received word from Blackman’s agent, Allie Beth Allman, that he couldn’t get the financing together and would not be buying the property after all. So she is on the market again. Mr. Blackman will not return my phone calls to his office. Wish he would: maybe we could post his W props and help get them sold.  

Is My Granite Killing Me?

OMG. That is Blue Bahia granite in my kitchen under the flowers. It almost cost me a divorce, now is it costing me…or my future grandchildren…their life? Granite is the main-stay wannabe of every luxury home: the Lacerte home for sale on Park Lane ($45 million) has beautiful golden-yellow granite in the kitchen. There is an entire quarry in the Andrew-Merrick home on Beverly Drive. Are designers going to test before they install? OMG OMG

Beverly Beauty

This is the home that Inside Edition toured as a potential Bush buy… listing agent Nancy Boucher Guerrerio with Allie Beth Allman.

New Home Sales — Not So Bad

From this report at CNN.COM.

Oprah’s Florida Condo For Sale

Found over on Zillow.

Exclusive: Inside Edition Comes To Dallas To Scout Possible Bush Home

After President Bush’s Houston declaration that First Lady Laura Bush was in Dallas house-hunting, the national media is perusing our market. Yesterday, Inside Edition contacted Blanche Evans with Dallas-based Realty Times, who promptly dialed up Pierce Allman at Allie Beth Allman and Associates. (Allie Beth is one of the agents reportedly helping the Bushes find a Dallas home. Other names include Pancho Hunt and Steve Collins with Virginia Cook.) IE wanted to see the type of home the Bushes might buy, says Will Seals, an ABA agent who was pulled into the fray because of family connections with the Bushes.

“I know the Bush family and they are not fancy people,” Will says. “The kind of home they would want is casual and family oriented. I mean, these are people who buy Pottery Barn furniture.”

The rumors run the gamut from Joyce and Larry Lacerte’s estate at 5323 Park Lane, on the market with Ralph Randall at David Griffin and Associates for $45 million and the location of several Republican fundraising events, to the lot at the corner of Euclid and Highland. Recent rumors posted on this blog include the North Dallas Forty and Bluffview.

Being the good guy, Will showed IE the corner of Euclid and Highland and speculated about why it might be a great location for the president — close to the police station, room enough for a plethora of secret service agents. And why not: $5 to $7 million. Then he showed them an ABA listing on Beverly built by Provenance Properties, award-winning builder Dan McKeithen: 3210 Beverly Drive. Price tag: $3,145,000. The kind of home the President and Mrs. Bush might actually want: elegant, loaded, restored from 1941 but not over-the-top. Not like Andrew Merrick’s $15 million spec house down the street, also touted as a potential Bush residence because of its stellar, super-strong construction.

Stay tuned: Newsweek is on the line.

Jonas Bros Purity Pad: Mama Said So

Mama at The Realstalker (love you, mean it) says it’s Wisteria Way all the way and then goes on to add her usual commentary… PS I don’t think there is anything wrong with children over the age of 18 living at home, do you? My daughter lives at home with us. As does her boyfriend. We have a virgin alarm in the hallway. She threatens to reconfigure the upstairs to her liking, to which I reply go for it as long as it doesn’t raise my property taxes.

Jonas Brothers: It’s Wisteria Way

Sources tell me this is the house and the boys gave their mom POA to buy the listing. Smart boys: sources also tell me Vaquero is one of the softest markets in the area — tons of supply.

Laura Bush Spotted In Dallas Yesterday…

House hunting.