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This Sounds Vaguely Familiar

Not that I have a monopoly on this subject, but it sounds a lot like my story, with a few extra quotes tossed in.

Golf Porn: Water View

Graveyard for golf balls?

Golf Porn: The Tribute

Nice and green in more ways than one.

George Bush Moves To Dallas, New Golf Course Opens

I find this highly suspicious. We know that after D.C., George Bush has got to be slightly bored — I mean, he’s going to Cooper, to his new temp office, Elliot’s, fund-raising for the new library in an economy that is sucking bad polluted air. Then this press release crosses my desk: The Tribute Golf Course is opening up Lake Lewisville. It’s a master-planned community plus course by Justin Leonard, and has a “green alliance” with the home builders surrounding it. In case you don’t know, golf courses these days, like home builders, all boast of their green-ness, not to be confused with the color of the turf. They try to minimize irrigation and hard surfaces, limit turf grass, courses by the sea actually use salt-water to irrigate. This one has all the bells and whistles and I hear Tribute has offered the former president a free guest pass just to lure him in, maybe get him out of Laura’s hair… oh Lord, wait ’till he sees that he could have paid $280,000 and had a green home on the green instead of what he paid to be on Daria Place:

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House Porn: Turtle Lake, Not Creek

Right in your own backyard at 5815 Bent Trail.

House Porn: Feeling Blue?

Not in this kitchen at 5815 Bent Trail.  Corian — not radioactive.

House Porn: Gazebo, Greenhouse, Gads Of Space

I’m very bullish on Preston Trails — you get scads of space, seclusion and square footage up here north of LBJ. Jo Pressly, Virginia Cook. Has so much promise: 8100 square feet all on one floor (baby boomers are getting tired of stairs, I am hearing, one reason why this area is gaining so much attention) five bedrooms, study, four car garage, huge lot, gazebo, pool, tennis court and “Turtle Lake” right in your backyard. Asking: $2,889,900.

More Troubles For Highland Capital

$745 million more in troubles. Meantime, here are the homes for sale in Dallas that I am told by sources are backed by James Dondero, one head of the firm — each home appears to be it’s own limited liability partnership: 3500 Beverly, 4223 Bordeaux, 4041 Grassmere . These are exquisitely built and designed by Andrew Merrick Custom Homes, just waiting to be loved by a homebuyer.

City Council Approves Form Based Zoning

Signed, sealed, delivered — what do you think?

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Should The New First Dog Need A Brother Or Sister

And I highly recommend the other breed Sasha and Malia have expressed an interest in getting — a Golden Doodle. Doods are wonderful, somewhat “hypoallergenic”, fiercely loyal, protective, smart, and full of energy. Warning to the White House kitchen: Doods are also adept counter-surfers.

The New First Dog?

I reached Dave Perry-Miller today to give the Obamas some tips on the Portuguese Water Dog they are reported to be getting for first daughters Sasha and Malia.

The Portuguese is a “working class dog,” says Dave, very appropriate for this presidency and the nation’s current pulse. Portuguese fishermen used them to retrieve fishing nets out of the water from their boats. Laborers, yet, but with much class and panache: Dave’s Henry James is more like “a naughty person with fur”, he says. The breed eats their kibble and also that of any other canine — “his favorite is really whatever is in sister Edith Wharton’s bowl.” Frisky, like our stock market — at age 12 Henry James is still jumping. As for special treats, the choice of a PWD for the White House ought to have an enormous influence on health care: Henry James’ favorite snacks are fish and apples — give that to every American once a day and you’ll slice the cost of health care right in half.

Jones Day Quite The Proprietary Firm

This lawsuit almost gave me bloggers block: last week a thoughtful reader alerted me to a lawsuit brought against a Chicago website called Blockshopper by the prestigious law firm Jones Day, which has a Dallas office. Blockshopper is a real estate site that provides statistical and market data information and more — vital info such as how much people’s homes are worth, all the stuff that is of public record but that folks kind of don’t like when you open the books. (I hear this all the time.) Some Jones Day attorneys bought homes and Blockshopper served up links to the homes and also to the law firms web site, which ticked off the lawyers. Anyhew, the lawsuit was settled and Inman has a great recap of the whole shebang. Basically, like most things legal, it was apparently cheaper to settle than litigate even though Blockshopper says Jone Day was TRYING to poke a huge hole in First Amendment rights. But did not succeed:

“While some observers have worried that the settlement will prompt other companies to make similar attempts to prevent Web sites they don’t like from linking to them, BlockShopper co-founder Brian Timpone foresees no such repercussions.

Timpone, a former television reporter who is also the publisher of a chain of legal newspapers, told Inman News that the site will continue to write about transactions involving Jones Day attorneys “every chance we get.”

“They wanted to bully us into not writing about them, and they failed,” Timpone said.

Timpone said BlockShopper spent $110,000 defending itself in court. Had the case gone to trial, “no question we would have won,” he said — but that expenses might have risen to $500,000. He called the settlement “a stupid, pointless resolution” that gave Jones Day an excuse to get out of a court battle that has generated considerable publicity, including articles in Slate and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“We hope that Jones Day’s experience — the negative publicity — will dissuade other bully lawyers from doing the same thing,” to BlockShopper and other Web sites, Timpone said. “Deep linking is what the Web is.”

Betty Tatum, Real Estate Broker

I recall her as the Queen of Dilbeck listings in Highland Park. In fact, she lives in a Dilbeck home, now her new office and headquarters. Betty Tatum, who began her real estate career as a commercial appraiser with Henry S. Miller Company in 1967, has opened her own brokerage to concentrate on representing buyers and sellers in the Park Cities, Preston Hollow, Bluffview, Greenway Parks, Turtle Creek and other upscale neighborhoods.

Ms. Tatum was previously with Briggs Freeman, which you probably already knew. Bet you didn’t know that Betty Tatum was the first woman to graduate with an MBA from what is now the SMU Cox School of Business. Then she went on to develop appraisals for apartment complexes and office buildings as well as performing market analyses for banks on trust portfolio properties. At the time, she was the youngest member of the North Dallas Realtors Group.

Ms. Tatum is married to commercial broker John Tatum; the couple has three daughters. Avidly dedicated to the community, she had chaired fund-raising events and volunteered for Southern Methodist University, TACA, The 500, Inc., Girl Scouts of America, The Episcopal School of Dallas, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League and The Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society.

Re-Focusing From Affluence To Affordability

Here’s a lesson from American Express, the folks who brought (some of) us the Centurion Black Card, deigned only for those who charge spend in excess of $250,000 a year or, internationally, pull in more than 653,000 pounds per year. This is the card with the $5000 annual fee that gives you full time concierge service. I have coveted a black card forever just so I could get Destinations Magazine and the newer Black Ink but, of course, never qualified. Well AmEx is now offering the more mundane necessities of life – gas, groceries and cheaper restaurants/stores — to its membership rewards program on it’s populist cards. (I wonder how many Centurion card holders are left.) We are talking Red Lobster and Old Navy. Great quote from the story in the San Francisco Business Journal:

“While one card member may choose to redeem points toward a year lease on a Lamborghini or even to rent a private island, another card member can redeem points for a gas card to simply get from point A to B.”

Seems like more and more of us just want to get from point A to point B. Might be helpful to point this out to that home seller who is hanging on to their 2008 asking price for dear life.

Update: Oops, I mean Departures Magazine, not Destinations.

House Porn: The Meadows

Nice master with fireplace, doesn’t look like 1963 to me. But then, change out that mantel, make it sleek, and next thing you know you’ll be wearing a beehive!

Deal Of The Week/House Porn: Musing In The Meadows

Dealbook Deluxe: 2008 list price: $515,000, now $379,000. Located in the Meadows, a couple streets south of the home where the Geis tragedy took place, the neighborhood is getting very hot and the home has true sixties sensibilities. Not that I’m trippin’ or anything, but I can see Twiggy in her micro-mini, hear the psychedelic music on the intercom. Memories of avocado and orange-shagadelic carpet whisper from the walls. This street was the 1963 Parade of Homes. What may be keeping her from being a bride: four levels, backs to Walnut Hill Lane, outdated kitchen, grandmotherly knick knacks. Let’s think outside the box here: the knick knacks can go to the Salvation Army and net you a nice deduction, plant some junipers across the rear yard fence, and go get some granite asap. There — any other questions?

Homeowners Getting Stuck With Contractor Bills?

Dream house turned nightmare. This story ran on WFAA-TV a few weeks ago, very dramatic: a physician says the builder didn’t pay his sub contractors on her $1.3 million Frisco dream house, so now they are knocking on her door, looking for payment. I have two words: Title Insurance. I may be wrong, but isn’t that why we buy title policies and aren’t they supposed to cover this kind of stuff? Wonder why the reporter didn’t ask more questions.

The First Dog Is A Portuguese Water Dog

So I just heard, and dialed up Dave Perry-Miller for Obama family advice: stay tuned.

RE: Just So We Don’t Blame Bush

Vital point from a commenter:

“Regardless of political mudslinging, the crux of the discussion is this section
“Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a
conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes
his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.”

So Candy, how many of the current defaulters used that program? I am sincerely asking the question. Is it 1% of the current defaulters, 10%, 50%, 0%? What is it?

Don’t go pointing fingers without having some answers.”

Anyone have the answers?

Best Deals In Town: Previously Owned Autos and Someone Elses’ Home

From here to Timbuktu, if you can’t sell it, lease it.

Leasing of luxury homes in Dallas is on the increase, with folks not batting a single eyelash at dishing out $7000 to $12,000 per month to lease a luxury home that may have been languishing on the market. Far better, says Dallas luxury lease queen Jill Lucas, Lucas Luxury Leasing, than buying and going belly-up. Many buyers who plan a temporary stay in Dallas don’t trust the market, so her business is booming. In fact, some buyers interpret the “to lease” as a sign the homeowner may be struggling, so they hop in with a buy offer. This just happened on one of her multi-million dollar Park Lane estates. The Wall Street Journal reports that previously-owned autos are the new status symbol. Business is booming, much to the dismay of automakers struggling to sell new cars. One Dallas Realtor, in the market for  new wheels, checked out a cool Mercedes with a sticker of $110,000 and walked right across the street to buy a previously owned luxury auto for about half the price.