D

One Arts Plaza Broker Changeroo: How Modern Is Dallas?

Last Monday, July 13, the Mathews-Nichols team of real estate agents at Allie Beth Allman took over exclusive representation of One Arts Plaza from Briggs Freeman (who paid big bucks to advertise it on Good Morning Texas), to sell the remaining 16 of 61 units available ranging in price from the mid $600’s to $2.85 million. Team member Faisal Halum, who had the listing originally when he worked for David Griffin, is the lead team agent. But here’s what’s really interesting to me: Faisal, David and Erin have brought in Ann Schooler to stage the very contemporary One Arts in very traditional interior design. (Ann is well known in the design world for her high end, rich and gorgeous traditional look. Think carved chests, Louis IV chairs and to-die-for oriental rugs. ) Which makes me think, how really modern is Dallas? Designers tell me that while uber modern decor flourishes when the economy is humming, in a recession folks tend to cling to the traditional — warm, woody, almost Ethan Allen looks. (Almost.) It’s like we want to see the comfort of  yesteryear around us. So I find it very interesting that Mathews-Nichols went this route.

What do you think about Dallas and contemporary design? How modern is Dallas?

$8000 First Time Home Buyer Contract For Deed Question

A reader writes/asks:

“Can you get the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers on a contract for deed sale? “

Contract for deed means the buyer allows the seller to retain title of the property (after the purchase) in exchange for a smaller down payment or other concessions. As long as the buyer makes regular payments, all is well but should he or she miss one payment, they risk losing the property since the seller retains title. It’s sort of like paying rent, and having that rent credit your equity.

As far as this new $8000 taxpayer deal,  I have to ask the experts for help.

Experts can you please chime in?

Toxic Ceiling Syndrome: How Do You Get Rid Of Popcorn?

I will never forget walking into a home in San Antonio and almost dying. It had a toxic ceiling. Not just popcorn like I’d never seen popcorn, but gold-flecked, bedazzled popcorn. Worst: it wasn’t twenty years old, it was fresh. Someone had actually recently created that ceiling and was proud of it!

A reader sent me this photo — please do not tell me this is a pink popcorn ceiling — and says he has a special challenge:  not only is this ceiling heavily popcorn-ed, it is twelve feet tall and sports a four foot skylight on the staircase. What short of a nuclear explosion can this homeowner do to get rid of this awful toxic ceiling syndrome?

D Sale Of The Week, Ctd. A Hand Sprayer In Every Tub

A master without a deep soaking tub is, well, camping. I used to say no marble around the tub is camping, but that was until they came out with these great ergonomically perfect tubs, like this one in Ed’s Pathfinder listing/home.

Which reminds me of my biggest pet peeve: soaking tubs without hand-sprays. People, please, do not save $100 by skimping on the hand-sprayer. Serious bathers do not live by running water alone. You need the sprayer to rinse off hair, bods and clean the tubs. As my hero Joan Crawford would surely have said, NO SOAKING TUBS WITHOUT DIVERTER SPRAYS EVER!

D Sale Of The Week: Getting It All In West Plano For Less Than $500K

Formals, check. More than 3400 square feet, check. Pool, check. Marble floors, huge master suite, wet bar, family and game rooms, kitchen and baths updated from the original 1981 construction, check. (Check out the master soaking tub and stone wall.) Yours for $409,900. True confessions here: the owner is an agent with Ebby Halliday, who I met at real estate school — we drifted towards each other once we learned we were both journalists who had worked for CBS. Ed Danko, the homeowner, is a former CBS news photographer, a 25-year news veteran and producer. With the economy (media in particular) such an employment challenge, Ed took an early retirement from CBS News and moved to Dallas to become an agent. He got his license about seven months ago and has been selling up a storm at Ebby’s Willow Bend office in this market. This is a guy who’s been all over the world and covered President George H.W. Bush in office. How great to have Ed and his family in Dallas!

But one day after two closings, CNN came knocking. Ed is off to Atlanta as a news producer and editor. Now his Steeplechase home is on the market and like the pro he is, Ed is doing everything right to sell it. This one won’t last.

Motivated seller — check.