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Trick or Treat for Ebby’s Young Professionals at House of Blues

It’s trick or treat with Candy and Dallas Dirt in just one hour at the House of Blues where I’ll be interviewing Ebby Halliday on social networking… come on down. I’m out the door…..

Dallas Real Estate/Bankruptcy Update: Creditors Getting More Negotiable

Dallas foreclosures are up again, according to Roddy’s Foreclosure Listing Service, Inc: more than 6,000 posted for October, more than 5,000 posted for November, with the estimated total for 2009 a whopping 60,000 — about the size of a town. But local creditors must be taking Happy Pills or getting smarter, says one bright young Dallas attorney. They are frantically working out deals with homeowners on debt to avoid all-out bankruptcy.

Say your home gets foreclosed on. What then? Your options are to file for bankruptcy or pay off the deficiency balance, which is the amount you are liable for on the note after the foreclosure sale. But what many people don’t know — in fact, I learned this just at dinner last night — that figure can usually be reduced to pennies on the dollar outside of filing bankruptcy IF you hire an attorney to negotiate with the mortgage company. And the mortgage companies are getting so bankruptcy weary, they are in a more negotiating mood, says Jacob A. Decker, an attorney with Allmand & Lee.

“The large five mortgage companies are really talking turkey now, ” says Decker. “Last week, I settled one deficiency balance of $65,000 for less than $5,000.”

The trick, he says,  is to work with a bankruptcy law firm that deals with the creditors on a daily basis in a bankruptcy context. That way, the lenders know that if they do not settle for a  pennies on the dollar, the next step will be a bankruptcy filing where they will likely get zilch. A couple thousand versus zero? Decker says the lenders will almost always take the money.

Toss in cash-strapped tenants who are filing to wriggle free of long-term leases, bankruptcy attorneys are busier than they have ever been, says Decker. He’s also seen a significant increase in creditors’ willingness to settle other debt — renegotiate auto, student loan and even credit card debt. Bankruptcy attorneys are raking it in. Full disclosure: I have first-hand knowledge of how hard they’re working and am not complaining one bit: Decker is my new son-in-law!

Breaking: Dallas-Based PlainsCapital Offers First U.S. Bank IPO in Two Years

Further proof of how Texas is an island of stability in this recession: PlainsCapital Corp. is going public, to not only re-pay its government loans, but to increase revenue — though the Dallas-based bank and mortgage holding company has done extremely well with revenues increasing 30% over the last five years. PlainsCapital is the parent to PrimeLending, a local residential mortgage company with offices nationwide.

Maybe there’s hope for jumbos after all.

Ask Candy: What Should I Do About Selling My House?

DallasDirt wants to help buyers and sellers of properties. Home not selling? Should you buy now and can you afford that new home? Questions about a certain ‘hood? Ask Candy and we will enlist the help of an entire city of real estate experts!

Dear Candy:

My house has been on the market now for 95 days with about 30 showings. It’s a sprawling North Dallas ranch, great neighborhood, large lot near Inwood and Royal. I’m told this is a “highly sought after” area. We are considering lowering the asking price from $999,500. Do you think we should? By how much? My husband says we should take it off the market and wait until spring. Do you think this market is going to get any better?

Here’s the feedback we have received: not big enough; too big; yard not visible enough; too much of a “project” at this time, buyers need to sell their Uptown home first, buyers want new construction and less yard, buyers want quarters for their parents, buyers wonder why the walls are so big, buyers want a contemporary, open and updated kitchen. (Does no one remodel homes anymore? We didn’t thinking buyers would want to make their own statement.) Jeesh.

I just don’t know what to do, can you help?

Love, Amy

Dear Amy: Wow, you have had a busy last few months there, that’s a lot of showings. I know your area and it is hot, but this is a buyer’s market. It’s like the ultimate Last Call. In a market like this, buyers can afford to be picky picky and when they do make offers, they are coming in 20% to 40% below asking. Plus there’s still lots of inventory, so if they want new, they can find spec inventory from a builder who’s willing to let go. The biggest problem, I hear, is the out of towners who do not yet understand that our tongues are not hanging out like the sellers in New York, Florida, Phoenix and Nevada. (California is seeing a blip of euphoria, ha!)

Have you staged your home? Offered a remodeling credit for those who have no vision or inclination to redo that kitchen? Home warranty? Maybe fill the counters with ideas of what they could do. Most buyers today want turn-key — they are too busy to mess with a remodel. I’m the exception — I prefer to do it myself.

Take a cue from what you are hearing? Can you make the yard, which is one of your huge plusses, more visible? Can you draw people out there with furniture? Can you offer any perks with purchase — a face-lift for the new owner?

Just kidding.

As for lowering the price, the buyers will probably do that for you — sorry. The problem is this: the experts think interest rates are going to go up, and that kind of noise always gets the buyers off the pot, so to speak. But I am also hearing worries of inflation, which means all our homes will be worth more. Wish I had a crystal ball. Maybe hang in there ’till spring, or let her go for whatever you can without wanting to kill yourself. This administration had better get the credit market for jumbos — $417,000 and above — un-constipated real fast. After all, we bailed them out, right?

Keep us posted…

xo

Dallas Real Estate: Contain Yourself In a Max Levy Green High Rise

As SweetCharity tells it, the Turtle Creek Association sure knows how to hold a home association meeting. We are not talking casseroles and cookies from Sam’s; try the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and every Who’s Who in town. Then the man who has brought us more hangers, cubicles and containers than we really know what to do with speaks. That would be Garrett Boone,co-founder and chairman emeritus of The Container Store. Boone was talking about clean air, which we all love and want dearly, but most vitally for us, he also talked real estate. Thanks to Glenn Hunter, I got  notes.

I had heard that Garrett and Cecelia, who are the best neighbors folks could ever have, were going high-rise and moving to The Centrum. Boone said he’d hoped to be an official Turtle Creek “neighbor” by now, but a “six-month construction delay” has kept them out of their unit at the Centrum Tower and in their sprawling ranch home not too far from yours truly. (Boone’s co-founder, William “Kip” Tindell, also lives nearby since he bought Caroline Minnis’s $ 5 millionish sleek contemporary home on Northaven at Ricks Circle.) The Boones have a penthouse on the 14th floor of the Centrum, which he said they love because of the unique, sleek architectural component of the building, the spectacular views and yet still neighborhood-y feel.

But here’s what’s really cool: The Boones have hired architect Max Levy to create a contemporary but uber green showcase home up there. To wit, three sides will be made of sustainable, recycled glass; hidden LED lights mean no more lightbulbs; a complete rainwater recapturing system even way up there, and native, not-so-thirsty Buffalo grasses on the terrace. The Boones say they will be one of the the first Platinum LEED certified penthouses in Dallas.

Despite the delays, Boone says he’s sure to be moving into the new space by April 2010; a palm reader in New York told him so, saying, “You will have a big move in your life in April of 2010.”

“In terms of construction timing,” says Boone, ” a palm reader is as good as anyone!”

No kidding!

Dallas Real Estate: Housework Before a Showing Means More Sex?

Apparently so, according to a study by the Journal of Family Issues I found posted by Amanda Salinas on the 33 News Blog. Anyone who has ever had a home on the market knows what a nightmare it is to keep a house clean 24/7, ready for that showing any minute. So I got to thinking, if he helps out with this really important housework chore, does he get “lucky” more often than not?

(Should he? Or she?)

We had to show one of our homes when everyone was sick, including me; one of my children had just thrown up. Let me sing the praises of (A) Tylenol and (B) Pine Sol. I gracefully tossed a bath towel over the mess (ewww) and poured Pine Sol in the bathtub as the doorbell rang after stashing papers under sofa cushions, toys under the sofa. And guess what: they ended up buying the house in a huge hurry — 30 days — for their daughter’s wedding in the late 80’s!

So let me take this one step further: if your spouse helps you clean house for a showing or open house, does that translate into sex more often? I invite the NAR to commission a study.

Dallas Real Estate: Barclays May End Up With Some Morgan Stanley Props

I told you last week that Morgan Stanley was going to have to do some talkin’ on nearly $2 billion in loans from Barclays Capital by November 2 — now Steve Brown tells us that one option may be turning over stake in some of the buildings they owe money on to Barclays outright.

Damn, Steve, you are so good. Can you imagine what would happen if we were a couple?

U.S. Mortgage Applications Fall 14%

This is not good news, as we are nearing the end of the first-time homebuyer credit November 30. Actually, we might as well say that credit is over NOW, since few who buy a property in the next week or so will be able to close by November 30, what with all the lending and appraisal hoops to jump. So it is NOT good news for the housing industry nationally that mortgage apps are down. Apparently even Christopher Dodd is now calling for an extension…