Articles about Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Sunday Means Open House Porn in Dallas Real Estate
For $3,495,000 you could land yourself in this beautiful water front home. It is hard to find many places in Dallas that make you feel like you are “getting away from it all,” but this W. Lawther Avenue home is guaranteed to please. It gives off that northeast vibe I love so much: nestled into the woods, ivy growing up the weathered brick, shutters, chimneys, and a regal double door front entrance. Furthermore, not many homes in Dallas can boast being built in 1940. But for those of you who are afraid of a fixer upper, don’t worry, the worst is behind you… central air conditioning has already been installed. Ebby Halliday has scheduled an Open House for this Sunday, August 16th, from 3:30 to 5:30 and (at risk of sounding like a car salesman) this is not one you are going to want to miss!
Wow! Talk about a bargain- this Preston Hollow home can be yours for the price of $849,000. It is contemporary style Inside — don’t let the ’80’s exterior fool you — without the sparseness and confusion of many contemporary homes. It is accessible and beautiful. Hardwood floors, lake views, walls of windows, french doors, and “soaring ceilings.” Who could ask for anything more? One of my favorite features of this home (of many) is that it needs little to no work. So if you are looking to just move in right away, no muss, no fuss, get a u-haul and start packing because this is the home for. Briggs Freeman will be presenting this home in an open house on Sunday from 3:00 to 5:00. Located off Forest Lane, not actually on it — which could also provide quick access out.
Apartments are the new black. Sticking to the theme of most of my open house preferences, this baby has hardwood floors, high ceilings, and views of Turtle Creek. If you are scaling back because of that pesky economy, or you are just looking for something smaller, then this apartment is perfect. Spacious, private, and beautiful, this apartment is a a bargain at $645,000. Check it out during the Allie Beth Allman open house on August 30th from 1:00 to 3:00. I jumped the gun a little bit in telling you about this open house so early, but this gives you the opportunity to check it out before anyone else can steal it out from under you!
Open House Porn: What’s up this weekend…
My three favorite open houses to check out this weekend:
I think it must be pretty obvious by now what kind of house I like. It is tucked away, almost hidden from the street. It gives it somewhat of an enchanted forest feeling, which beautifully matches the interior of the house. I am not talking about unicorns and fairies, but cozy clutter. Lots of plants, patterns, and decoration. I must say though… the room with the table that appears to double as a giant Monopoly board makes me nervous. I spy, with my little eye, 17 crosses hanging on the wall. Is this the Bible Belt or what? Check out this house on Sunday from 3 to 5! Set you back: $1,649,500 Preston Hollow.
Well, just the other day I went on a walk with my wonderful roommate, and we did our usual judging of every house we walked by… as well as every person. We passed by this little gem and we both fell head-over-heels in love. It is adorable in every way shape and form. The perfect symmetry of the hedges and windows, the hanging tree protecting the lawn from the brutal Dallas sun, and, of course, the huge windows adorned with green shutters. If Sam and I were single (that is, if we did not already have a ‘unit’ that we are married to), we would be putting the moves on this one! Maybe we are just faithful because we are poor college undergrads! 4352 San Carlos Street for Ebby Halliday open Sunday from 2:00 to 3:30. $1,160,000.
Vaulted ceilings! Need I say more? I love this home because of the vaulted ceilings (obviously), big windows, black shutters, columns, and southern plantation vibe, but… this family seems to have a fetish for the color red. “Red rum, red rum,” except in this case “red room”. Don’t like red? Sherwin Williams is offering 25% off. Take a look at this on Sunday from 1 to 3, 4533 Bordeaux Avenue, shown by Allie Beth Allman and well-priced at $1,099,000 in Highland park.
Getting To Be A Good Time To Buy A Condo In Dallas:Makes Me Want To Scream
It really is a good time. Might be even better in the fall, though you may be tripping over the bottom feeders. Great piece by Steve, but my favorite part is where he quotes Al Coker, the last marketing guru for the ill-fated Stoneleigh, as saying “In Texas, people that have jobs are fairly confident that they are going to keep them” right before Mike Puls says “it helps that some Dallas condo projects never got off the drawing boards.” The irony! Love you Steve Brown! I needed Depends when I read that one. I am sure the Stoneleigh management team rues the day they gave Al the keys. He came in and re-designed the whole marketing center, which I never could figure out. (I think it ended up looking more like a funeral home than a classy, tasteful condo.) I would LOVE to know what he spent on the re-vamp, and where are all those drape-y things? Not that Al is not capable, but the dramatic re-design, re-conceptualization lost critical time for the developer — time when they could have been making more pre-sales off the roll started by Kyle Crews, who is now marketing TerraNova in Preston Center. These guys were real estate pros, they knew the party was not going to last for eternity. Why didn’t they stick with the game plan and just hit the streets? Last I heard, those who had put down deposits at The Stoneleigh have been refunded and I heard the shell was being evaluated for a distress sale. The Ritz and The Azure have been plagued with structural issues, the Ritz taking good care of its owners by putting them up at the hotel while water was shut off. Oh yes, those monthly HOA dues at The Ritz: about $1800. The Azure is also having some issues, none of which surprises me – you can have the Pope as contractor and you are going to have building issues. Two hints for next time: do not buy any building products from China. And figure out that we like closets the size of Manhattan in Dallas. And we may not be as modern as we think. One Arts just switched brokers to attract a more traditional buyer, and the Palomar is now a rental.
Have I missed anyoned? The House? Museum Tower? How everything is way overpriced — thank you, Ted Wilson: “… at least 85% is priced over $417,000 putting it into the jumbo loan category…” which means it cannot be cheaply financed. Is not affordable to the demographics who might want to live downtown. And where did these developers get these demographics telling them that people would pay $700,000 for a condo, dish out $1800 a month in HOAs and still have enough left over to shop and dine at restaurants that charge $100 for a steak?
It makes me want to scream. Stay tuned.
About That Lot At 4500 Lakeside Drive
That would be Tim Eller’s lot, but I am now told that lot is no longer available. But Tim’s son John Eller has joined the dynamic real estate sales team of Ben Jones at Allie Beth Allman, Ben being the agent who was marketing Tim Eller’s lot. I’m showing the lot still being in the Eller family name.
If You Get “THE LETTER”, It Means You Have Arrived, They Are Dying To Get In
Yes, “The Letter”. It’s an elegant correspondence from a real estate agent, and it goes something like this: Dear So & So, We are working with a (delightful, dynamic) couple (sometimes called the buyer) who is seeking a home in your area. They are well-qualified cash buyers (read: members of the Lucky Sperm Club) who do not require the sale of another home as a contingency (read: it’s already sold, or daddy can just write a check). They are willing to be flexible with closing or possibly lease-back (to you, but don’t think you can replace those nickle drawer pulls with Home Depot stainless — they’ll snap photos). Please call us at your earliest if you are at all interested.
Oh yeah, this is a good letter to get. Hang onto it — and that’s a good agent out there busting (Gucci) shoe leather trying to find a home for a client. This is exactly what Allie Beth Allman did for months trying to find a home for former President George and Laura Bush. In fact, that may have been how she found the house on Daria Drive.This is what Kenny Troutt did a few years back when he decided to buy up multiple acres at Inwood and Royal, an area he later sold to Hillwood which is now known as the Creeks of Preston Hollow. (I must tell you that story someday.) Getting the letter means you live in a hot ‘hood where others are dying to move in and you may not have to crump on your asking price too much. In the good old days, you might even have had a few back-up contracts.
We love getting The Letter. Just don’t show it to DCAD.
National Association of Realtors Admits That Market Data for Dallas, North Texas is Wrong
The National Association of Realtors acknowledged Monday that calculations it did for a North Texas Real Estate Information Systems first quarter economic report were incorrect. The report showed significant increases in the percent change of number of homes sold in the first quarter of 2009 for most of Dallas County’s ZIP codes as compared to the first quarter of 2008 (download it here).
Uneeta Mosby-Palmer, a spokeswoman for NTREIS, said the data for the report was obtained from MLS and then sent to the National Association of Realtors to be calculated for average price change and percent change in the number of homes sold. She declined to comment further.
Officials at NAR will now review all the data in the report for errors including: average price, total number of homes sold, average days on market, and percent of asking price.
The discovery was made during an investigation conducted by People Newspapers into the NTREIS quarterly reports.
“It looks like it’s going to take us quite a while to dig into it,” said Ken Fears, manager of regional economics at NAR. “Something clearly happened when we were loading the data for the first quarter 2008 so we need to go through our notes, go through our algorithms and equations to check out what is going on. And then we are just going to completely re-publish this report because it’s obviously just too messed up.”
ZIP codes such as 75208, in North Oak Cliff, were reported as experiencing a 1,950 percent increase in the number of homes sold for the first quarter of 2009 when compared to the first quarter of 2008, according to the report. The 75225 ZIP code, which covers parts of the Park Cities and Preston Hollow, was listed as having an 84.82 percent increase in price and 330 percent increase in the number of homes sold when the two quarters were compared.
Fears said the report was “so out of the ballpark it doesn’t even make sense.” He said he and his staff were hopeful they would be able to present a new, more accurate report within two days.
One Preston Hollow and Park Cities brokerage had already published the error-riddled report in an e-mail newsletter sent to their entire staff.
“My word,” said Pierce Allman, of Allie Beth Allman and Associates, when he was told of the mistake. “They’ve always been reliable. I don’t know what the glitch was and they may not know either. We will obviously try to find out any of their faulty data that we’ve already used.”
Jeff Duffey, an agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, said such abnormally high results shouldn’t be trusted despite the reliability of the source.
“Those numbers are so bizarre I wouldn’t even pay attention to them,” Duffey said. “If I had seen those digits … I would probably have done some more fact checking before I passed it on. I would never put that in a publication to my clients.”
Audio: Allman Talks About DMN Real Estate Deal
As Tim pointed out on Frontburner, it’s probable that if the deal is going to happen (and from what I’m hearing there could be a press release as soon as tomorrow) then it will be done with A.H. Belo because they are the parent company of The Dallas Morning News. However, Pierce Allman says Belo Corporation (parent company of TV stations across the country including WFAA-TV Channel 8 locally) in the voice mail. When we get official word on which one it is we’ll let you know. While we track down this piece of information feel free to listen to the voice mail message where Allman outlines the deal between DMN and Sawbuck Realty here:
Belo Corp is Getting Into The Real Estate Business
At least that’s the message Pierce Allman sent in a voice mail to all 275 of his agents late this past week at Allie Beth Allman & Associates. Here’s what Pierce had to say:
You are going to see a press release from The Dallas Morning News any time now announcing that Belo Corporation has invested in SawbuckRealty.com. They are a Web-based residential brokerage based in Washington D.C. They are going to be opening next week in California. If you go to their Web site SawbuckRealty.com, they did an overview of their operation which is geared mostly to first-time buyers and a slightly lower price range. Belo has not stated any promotional plans, but the Sawbuck site will become the platform for the Dallas News real estate site, and it will have full access to NTREIS and MLS. So, the bottom line is the Dallas News has decided to enter the market as an online broker referring prospects to so called partner agents for a 30 percent fee off the top. Needless to say several brokers are meeting next week … And [we] will certainly update [you] with any implications and options. Have a good weekend.
Obviously, if this news is true then it could be a real game changer for local agencies because very few of them have the type of Web presence The Dallas Morning News does. It definitley looks like the company is trying to find a way to monetize their Web site traffic, and getting a 30 percent finder’s fee off the top could add up for them. To give you some background on Sawbuck here’s a press release they put out on Jan. 30, 2008, when they launched publicly. Keep your Web browsers tuned right here folks, because this story is definitely developing …
Norman Brinker’s Dallas Home
Though it’s now owned by oncologist Dr. Dennis H. Birenbaum, and on the market with Polly Kinzie of Allie Beth Allman for $6,300,000, I will always think of 9410 Alva Court as the home of Dr. Terry James, who built it, and the great Norman Brinker, who James sold it to in the ’90’s.
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