Within an executed contract, the seller has agreed to sell their home, with no way out of the contract.  That's called Specific Performance, as they must perform their end.  However, the buyer has a way out almost every time as you can just claim something about financing.  Or if they default, the earnest money would revert to the seller.  Buyer can always back out, seller cannot.I'm in a situation right now where we're having appraisal issues, and the seller is wanting to terminate the contract so an appraisal is not stuck on their house, so they can still turn around and sell to another buyer willing to over pay for the house.  We have had 4 appraisers look at the house, and the final appraisal we're accepting is from an appraiser that the listing agent picked!!  It's not even a buyer... 08/08/2006

The big joke is to schedule plans to be out of town at least once a quarter because you'll notice your business will pick up right before you leave.  As I was driving out of town on Friday, I had about 15 minutes before I would lose cell reception, and the listing agent calls me to say all terms have been agreed to except the microwave.  Microwave?  Who cares about the microwave, and my buyer felt the exact same, so the buyer and the listing agent met on Saturday morning to execute the contract.Another deal I have been working on for over a month finally finalized about an hour before I left town.  The house didn't appraise, so we had to renegotiate terms that both buyer and seller could live with.I have another client who was supposed to close on his current house and new house on Frid... 08/06/2006

I just read about a contest going on in the North Texas area about trying to get people to car pool.  They estimated about 3 million people driving to and from work everyday and 9 out of 10 are driving alone.  The contest is at http://www.tryparkingit.com/.  "Only" 235,512 miles have been saved thus far.My problem with this is though people care about the environment and people talk about trying to carpool, people don't and won't do this.  People in North Texas have pride in their cars and they want others seeing them driving their cars.  People can't see the prestige if it's sitting in a parking lot for DART (the transit system here).I work from home, so I don't have this problem.  But more and more, when I'm showing properties, people assume they'll just follow me in their car.  I'm l... 08/04/2006

It amazes me how many sellers think they can just get a contract on their house, show up to closing, and get the amount of the sales price at closing.  Many sellers don't understand that they have their own closing costs, just like a buyer.Sellers don't just pay a commission to sell their house.  Sellers also have to credit the buyer the taxes on the property from Jan 1 through the day of closing.  When towards the beginning of the year, this number is small.  Towards the end of the year, this number gets bigger and bigger. Also, you will be buying a tax certificate that ensures all taxes are current and up to date. I've never seen a contract written where the seller doesn't buy the Title Policy for the buyer to ensure a clear title transfer over to the buyer.  This is just tradition in... 08/03/2006

I got my ASP today!  I am now a certified ASP REALTOR®.  The ASP is an Accredited Staging Professional.Staging is NOT decorating!  Staging is de-personalizing.  Staging is getting a house ready to sell faster and for higher dollar.  A staged home makes all the difference in the world.For our final exam, we hit a house in Plano and we tore it apart and then put it back together.  It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun!  We had strict rules about not putting any furniture in the garage, so we were basically forced to use everything in the house, which is what you don't want to do, but it all turned out ok.The seller's listing agent came over at the end and he didn't even recognize anything in the house as it was all moved around and the colors we focused.Anyway, if you're in the Dallas ar... 08/02/2006

National Night Out was fun in my neighborhood.  There was a live band, a jump house, and some other air blown slide thing for the kids.  I definitely think we had enough people to keep you Crime Watch signs up for another year.  You have to have something like 40% of the neighborhood show up and sign in for that recognition.The police stopped by and talked with the kids.  Even the firemen stopped by with their firetruck so the kids could climb up and into the truck.We collected  alot of canned goods as well.The hit of the party was my "Donna Water".  Every time I looked around, someone was holding one of my water bottles with my picture and logo and contact information.  I even saw some of them reading them!  I'm working at getting the main Realtors out of my neighborhood, since they do... 08/02/2006

Plano based EDS announced that they will be cutting anywhere from 3000-4000 jobs, globally, in the second half of the year.  IKES!!  Collin County is already seeing high foreclosure rates and this does not look good.  I imagine many of those people will have problems finding comparable jobs and then I get the calls from friends asking me to help their friends/ co-workers through a short sale...I say, reduce the salary of many of the executives at most corportate companies, and layoffs would not be necesary in that type of abundance.  Execs typically make such gross numbers, it's disgusting.  Share the wealth!  08/01/2006

This is ridiculous!!  Last year, there were 264 schools that were ranked as unacceptable and this year, that number jumped up to 321!  How does this happen?  What's funny (not really) is all the schools that cheated on their TAKS Tests (standardized tests) didn't help much as most of those are still unacceptable.Granted, we had a huge jump in enrollment due to Hurricane Katrina and those students were probably on different levels which made it hard for many of them to catch up.On the good side is that the number of exemplary schools were on the rise too... but just like the local news broadcast, it's easier to look at the negative than the positive.  The increase of exemplary schools went from 304 up to 555 which was a 7% increase.  WAY TO GO!! 08/01/2006

The Dallas County officaials are thinking about declaring a heat emergency. There are now 8 heat related deaths across the county as even the night time temperatures are staying above 80 degrees.The news keeps reflecting back to the summer of 1980 as the hottest summer with 69 days over 100 degrees, but I keep reflecting back to the summer of 1998 when there were over 50 days over 100 degrees, and I had juts graduated college and I was having to go on interviews in a full suit and pantyhose and boy was it hot.  I didn't live here in 1980, so I have no idea how that really compared, but '98 was HOT HOT HOT!Back in 1980, the hottest days records were on July 26 and 27 at 113 degrees... and with the heat index, that was probably well over 120!Stay COOL and drink lots of water, not just flu... 08/01/2006

Like it's not enough that Texas is getting a bad rap about all the cheating on the standardized tests, but now the FBI has come to town to investigate DISD and their credit card use.  About a month ago, DISD found out that some of their employees were using the district credit cards for personal use.  We're not just talking about a lunch here or a dinner there.  We're talking about big purchases!  $6Million in big purchases that were in violation of the use!!  That's $6M in just one year!!Look at the tax dollars at work.  All I can say in response to this is I'm so glad I'm no longer in Dallas County.  My tax money, for the most part, goes elsewhere.Here is the full story   07/31/2006

This past year, many people griped and moaned about the new registration tags for our cars.  They're were much bigger than the previous years and they had this awful, cloudy, almost clear boarder with the Texas Flag in the middle...  It was huge and it obstructs some view out the front window.So, with enough people saying how ugly it was and the cloudy boarder looking bad, they changed it.  You would think that was a good thing, BUT, they changed it so the border is now blue instead of cloudy and there's no flagged background, it;s white.  There is a tiny red, white, and blue Texas graphic... but it's the exact same size as last year's!  YUCK! Now, instead of having a small obstruction of view, there's going to be a much larger one since it's a dark navy blue they're using...Man, some p... 07/31/2006

It was announced yesterday that eHomeshowings.com has been bought by CSS, Centralized Showing Services.  It was inevitable.  EHS was never as big as CSS.  I used CSS when I was with a previous broker, so when I had to sign up with EHS, a much smaller company, I was disappointed.  I love being able to call one number to schedule all my appointments, and I get a little irritated when I have to call multiple numbers.  Well, to be signed up myself with EHS, I was making sure all other agents always had to call at least 2 numbers if scheduling multiple showings.In my area, you must be signed up where your broker is signed up, so there was not an option for me when I switched brokers.  I am so glad to be back with the big-dog of scheduling showings, and hopefully my sellers won't have to tell... 07/28/2006

I truly believe there is a reason for everything... the latest event that happened to fuel this theory more is that I met my grandmother for the first time in almost 18 years and I have to thank real estate for that.If I wasn't in real estate, I would have had no reason to be at the title company a couple of weeks ago.  If I wasn't there, I wouldn't have been able to see a familiar name on a folder.  A name that I had not seen in years!  After a few phone calls, I spoke with the buyer's agent who then called me on a three-way conference call to be able to talk with my grandmother.  After a couple of hours, we decided we needed to meet, so we met for lunch last week.  I told my mother about this a couple of days ago and my mom wants to meet her!!  In so many ways, life is not fair... but... 07/28/2006

I just wanted to remind everyone about National Night Out on August 1.  It's coming up pretty quick.  This is a great way to meet your neighbors and create new friendships.  I've only been in my neighborhood for about 10 months, so I'm definitely looking forward to meeting new people.I really want to make friends with my neighbors across the street as they're putting in a new pool!  We've passed pleasantries with a wave and smile, but not real talking.  Also, listings are popping up right and left around me, and my name is not on any of those signs.If we get a certain amount of people to show up, we get to keep the Crime Water signs within the community.  All that's asked of us is to bring canned goods and something to share.  My street has been assigned "Cold Bottled Water."  I guess t... 07/28/2006

Big Town Mall in Mesquite started demolision, but it was just a procedure as the mall has been dead for years.  Me? I say, "Where the heck is Big Town?  I've never heard of it!"  I've been here for 22 years and never heard of Big Town Mall.It was the first in the Southwest to be fully enclosed and air conditioned and opened in 1959. It was fourth in the country.  It was apparently over 77 acres and even had a small amusement park for the kids, but again, I say, what's Big Town?Big Town, since all stores had pulled out by about 2001, was actually a staging area for Katrina victims.  It was also in the movie True Stories in  1986, yet another movie I've never heard of. I guess I never heard of this mall because the main mall in Mesquite opened in 1971 only 5 miles from Big Town.  Town Eas... 07/26/2006

Money Magazine did their usual rankings for this year and four Dallas areas made the top 100 list for the best places to live: Carrollton, Denton, Plano, and Richardson. Not to be biased, but i moved to Richardson 22 years ago and currently still reside here, so I could have told you Richardson was a great place to live!!other rankings are:Highest Income:#5 Flower Mound with $104,921#22 Allen with $92,404Job Growth:#2 Allen with 55% #4 Frisco with 53%#8 McKinney with 40.1% (mckinney had no where to go but up)#23 Flower Mound with 31.1%And the most important was Body Mass Index:all cities tied with 25.4, but were still ranked in an order ofDenton #14, Flower Mound #15, & Ft Worth #16 07/25/2006

Verbal contracts are not held up in a Real Estate transaction.  Everything must be in writing.  All terms of everything must be discussed.  I love it when an out of town buyer tells me to just call up the listing agent and ask if such and such price is ok.  I'm like, we need more than just a price.  I need to know the amount of earnest money you'll be putting up, how much time you want to inspections, do you want a home warranty, when will we close, will possession be given at closing and funding or will there be a lease back... as I list off all these questions and more, people's eyes just start to bug out.I understand in some areas, people can write a letter of intent and then fill out the full contract later, but this is not how real estate works in the Dallas market.  Letters of Int... 07/25/2006

I always thought DFW was in the top 10 of largest metropolotan areas, but I guess I was wrong.  People always think Ft Worth is larger than it really is, but it's actually a small fraction of the metroplex, whereas Dallas holds well over the majority of the population.  Granted, Ft Worth had the largest amount of growth last year, by 21,500 and percentage growth is high, but percentage growth is only high because the original population count was low.For all of Tarrant County, the population is 1,702,250.For all of Dallas County, the population is 2,383,300.For the main counties in between, you have Collin County at 690,500 and Denton County at 578,500.Overall, the ranking for the largest metropolotan area encompasses 16 counties.The entire artice can be found here. 07/23/2006

Can you believe the price of gas these days??  We just hit an all-time high of $3.015 across the country.  The high we beat was set in September of 2005 and it was at $3.0117.I've been asked many times if the price of gas is going to change my business and I keep saying no.  However, I did give a referral to an agent last week because the buyer's price range was only $100k and he was looking in an area that's 45 minutes away... normally, I would have jumped to help anyone that I could, but decided taking the referral fee was well worth it in this case.The average in Dallas/Ft Worth is at $2.92 according to the 5PM news on NBC on Friday. 07/23/2006

I can't wait for this weekend!  We have had 10 days in a row of triple digit temperatures.  We even hit 107 earlier this week, which was the highest recorded temperature in over 3 years!  This weekend, we will be dropping to 95 degrees!!  Can you believe it??  95 degrees, possibly 94 degrees!!Actually, can you believe that we're all excited about 95 degrees?  I mean, if the cold front were to be in the 80's, that would be one thing, but it's still going to be in the mid-90's and, yet, everyone is still excited.  There is also a small chance of rain!  YIPPIE!!  I can't wait for some rain as the yards and landscaping definitely need more water!Stay warm this weekend.  I would hate for you to catch a cold by being out in the "cold" front! 07/21/2006