On a personal note: my cockatoo Punkin is under control but the picking of her feathers still is occurring. My scarlet Macaw Merlin is now growing his feathers back & hopefully although they are itchy will now leave them alone. Who knew parrots responded so strongly to grief over other animals in the household!



You may have heard all the headlines about the mortgage companies going out of business, the housing market stalling & foreclosures on the rise but have you heard from your broker that now you should BUY BUY BUY? Well if not let me be the first. The #1 mistake buyers make is NOT buying in a buyer's market. Most people buy when prices are going up & scarcity of property is bringing property prices up.



BE SMART, BUY LOW how do you think most investors do it?



WHY? Real estate for the most part is not a short term investment. It is a long term investment that all charts, graphs etc that the beancounters use will show you that Property outperforms almost all markets in the long term & is one of the few tangible investments that rarely results in a total loss. There are different tax benefits that can be applied such as accelerated depreciation, 1031 exchanges & more that you can discuss with your CPA.



This is not the time to SELL UNLESS you are relocating, moving up or laterally, or just plain have to as you cannot afford your escalating interest rate. As fewer people can qualify for mortgages rentals will be more in demand. You can even own property in let's say a high employment market like Houston from California IF you have a reputable property management company that handles the details of rentals, maintenance, leasing & repairs for you.



I know that our real estate office is gearing up for the transition in the marketplace by creating & organizing for more investors and the services they will need in the future.

Been a while since my last post, 2 of my parrots died within a week so panic struck! Fortunately the deaths were unrelated. One (Angel the quaker) was 14 years old & we're still not sure what happened to her. The other (Allie the sun conure)has always had heart issues so it was just her time. The prairie dog "buddy" decided to take the opportunity to play dead on the kitchen floor hours after the 2nd parrot died so it was a rough day!

Last Friday at a Realtor breakfast for Chesmar Homes in the new community of Sterling Lakes I was interviewed for HOTONHomes.com again. The show will first air on KPRC Channel 2 at 10:00am. It is always a little unnerving doing these little spots but I'm learning to deal with it. HotOn provided some great relocation videos for me to give to clients and Canyongate properties did also. Michael Garfield the High Tech Texan(r) was there to announce the high-tech capabilities of the Canyon Gate Community developed by Land Tejas. I am a bit of a technology nerd myself so it is always great getting to talk to the King of the techies! This community will be the first time that a a Canyon Gate Community will be located in the Southern 288 corridor area. See http://www.canyongate.com or call me (I know the marketing rep) for more information on these communities. Anyway, Chesmar Homes is now being run by Don Klein formerly of Lennar Homes. I used to work for him & think that he runs one of the tightest most efficient building companies in the Houston area. In my opinion Chesmar is a definite up & comer in the New Home Market. Don believes in running an efficient company with little fluff so that he can pass the savings on to the customer in form of homes with great features for the price, You gotta love that!

On May 11, 2007 I'll be heading over to Sterling Lakes again for the Wall Homes Breakfast for area realtors. I'll let you know if I'm on HOTON again!