January – June 2009

How is the real estate market changing in Bryan College Station? June was great again this year!  Considering what has been going on in the rest of the country we had a remarkable number of sales in June!  Hope you were one of the MANY to take advantage of the slower real estate market and the $8,000 tax rebate this month.

Click here to view the embedded video.
 

Have you tried the new 979-764-2121 Instant Info Line?  Remember to store the number in your phone so anytime you are out driving you can hear information about ANY home for sale ANY TIME.

Is it time for YOU to take advantage of the real estate market? Is it time to move your retirement money from the uncertainty of stocks to the more stable real estate market in Bryan/College Station? Call me and I’ll tell you how you CAN use retirement money to purchase rental real estate NOW!

Property Tax Assessment

you do? Make sure that your tax value is decreasing, as well. Brazos County mails out estimates for the year 2009 in June. That’s four months away, you exclaim. Yes, plenty of time to investigate your property’s current market value and to prepare your tax appeal, I say.

Your case for a request to lower the property’s value is not simply based on your feelings about higher taxes. You’ve heard Benjamin Franklin say it – in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. So don’t be shocked to find yourself in a recession and asked to pay higher property taxes this year.

There are several options when appealing your tax value. One is to hire representation. You could pay a licensed property tax consultant to analyze the tax records, perform an appraisal of your property, and represent you before the county appraisal district review board.

Another option is for you to do the research yourself and represent yourself at the hearing. As a property owner, you will still need an appraisal from an expert to enter evidence in your hearing. Kelly Seaton with Verdad Valuation Services
can provide you with that appraisal.

You may view your county tax information at the appraisal district, 1673 Briarcrest Drive. Request to see your complete record. Note the comparable properties on the record card. See why the tax district thinks your property is worth more.

When you file for your appeal, pay attention to the deadlines and remember to show up for your hearing! Take all of your documentation from the appraisal and your notes. You may want to practice your testimony ahead of the scheduled hearing. The burden of proof is on the property owner – you have to give facts as to why your property is not worth the assessed amount. Facts, not feelings.

If at any point in the process you have questions call your REALTOR for advice and information. Hopefully a bit of research and persistence will decrease your property tax value and possibly your monthly mortgage.

Kind regards,

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

P.S. Some lenders may only credit your tax escrow for future increases(reserves the bank holds to pay your annual tax bill) and keep your monthly payments the same. Reserve the celebration until you know all the deets from your mortgage company.

As the real estate market picks back up, so does the progress on new home building. Crowley construction is nearing completion on two if its custom builds, 3515 Matoska Ridge and 303 Timber, and if you haven’t stopped by lately to take a look at either of these, it’s about time you did.

The house on 3515 Matoska is a beautiful farmhouse style home set on 1.27 wooded acres in Indian Lakes. The house is painted both inside and out and the installation of the flooring is nearly complete. Many of the appliances and amenities have already been installed, such as the custom light fixtures, master tub and granite countertops, with the rest of the appliances to be installed soon.

303 Timber is a one of a kind build in the College Station Historic District, featuring huge covered patios, a flexible floor plan and wide open rooms that make this house perfect for entertaining. The exterior was just finished being painted, and the interior will be done within a week. This floor plan is completely unique and if you have not seen it since the drywall went up, you will hardly recognize it!

These great custom builds, priced at $699,900 and $600,000 respectively, will both be completed soon and if its’ been a while since you’ve seen them, you owe it to yourself to go see how far they have come. If you have never taken the time to go check out these homes, located in two of the best areas of College Station, then there has never been a better time to go see what you’ve been missing.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839

Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839

Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

I recently sold a property that has no street parking in front of it or on the side of it. The only parking you have is for two cars in the driveway and for two cars in the garage. My client asked me to check in to getting him a permit to pave a wider opening so that he could have driveway parking for at lest 6 cars. This would have been considered “head in” parking which basically means that a drivr would have to back out onto the street instead of entering it in a forward direction.

After approaching the city, I have found that they city code does not allow for more then 25 feet of curb cut from ones property onto the street! The normal 2 car garage is 22 feet wide so this doesn’t leave much space for more parking. To get exceptions to this, you have to file for a variance with the city in order to get more curb cuts. The problem is, they don’t like to give the variance in the first place, and secondly they don’t want to give it to addition “head in” style parking. They usually like to give it to circular type driveways that have an opening for entering and leaving.

If you want something different, it’s best to schedule a meeting with Carol Cotter at the City of College Station’s planning and development department. Turn in a plat of what you have and what you are doing along with an application. She will then review it in person and with city staff. In a couple of days they will get back to you with an answer. Unfortunately there isn’t a “set in stone” set of principles they follow. It’s all pretty much up to their discretion and view of how the design will affect saftey and traffic concerns. I’d recomend having a pretty good case in place if you are looking for something that may be questionable.

The best advice I can give is design your home with lots of extra driveway space and room to turn around on the property and get the plan approved before constructing your new home. This work up front will ensure that your property and home design work for your lifestyle.

If you need any help or suggestions or have questions, please feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com.

Clay Lee

College Stations #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

The most recent cul-de-sacs opening of Riviera, Quaker Ridge, and more are the last ones platted on the west side of Pebble Creek Parkway that are not slated for patio homes! On the other side of the PC Parkway extension is the next section to be developed which has historically been a more expensive area of Pebble Creek. Many of those lots will back up directly to Lick Creek Park which will only increase their value and cost. Once that section is gone, the next platted area is only acced off of William D. Fitch Parkway. It is uncertain if and when that area will be developed; however, that area will not have direct access to Pebble Creek Elementary and the club house. Many people think that the land at the end of Pebble Creek Parkway will just be bought up and included in Pebble Creek. However, that land is the “buffer” between Pebble Creek and the Texas World Speedway. The east side of a Pebble Creek Parkway extension would be undevelpable as it is already occupied by Lick Creek Park. The West side would be the only developable area. However, development in this area will be less than 4,000 linear feet from the speedway which would be very noisy!

The bottom line is that you want to reserve a lot as soon as you can. Currently there is a long list of home buyers with their names on lots that are about to be released. You can be second and third in line on certain lots, and I would highly recommend doing that. Many people end up changing their mind, and you don’t want to miss out. Direct home buyers with the intention of building a custom home get preferential treatment over home builders when reserving lots. Contact Pebble Creek directly to reserve your lot today before they are all gone!

Pebble Creek is College Station’s #1 Residential Community and is the only Country Club in the College Station School District. It is seemingly irreplaceable within the highly acclaimed College Station School District.

If you would like more information, feel free to email me @ rclaylee@yahoo.com

Clay Lee

College Stations #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a decade!

www.ClayLee.com

College Station has luxury homes located in many different areas, but for the past few years and seemingly for many more to come, the best areas to buy or build in are Pebble Creek and Indian Lakes. These are two very different communities from each other; however, they have the smallest number of days on the market and the best appreciation in town. Why is this?

Pebble Creek is the only golf course and country club community located in the confines of the College Station Independent School District. While Bryan has 4 of these communities, College Station only has one. With the current atmosphere of development in the city of College Station and the lack of readily available land to develop, this community is set to be a safe bet for many years to come. Clients love that it has its very own Elementary School, extensive walking trails, lots of quiet cul-de-sacs, and a state of the art club house with a large pool, tennis courts, a bar, banquet and meeting facilities, and a couple of great restaurants. Houses in Pebble Creek range in price from $170,000 to home in excess of $1 million. They have everything from patio homes to large golf-course front estates. There truly is something for everyone. The developer has done a great job over the years of releasing just a few lots at any one time as to not flood the market with new homes. This has kept prices up and made the market extremely stable. The best deals are the homes that are at least 10 years old as they are aging and need to be updated. However, there are amazing new homes like my listing at 5203 Whistling Straits that was designed by the noted Aggie artist, Benjamin Knox. It’s almost 5,000 square feet at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. It’s priced at $1.1 million and has all the latest technologies and design elements.

Indian Lakes is also a booming community that seems to really do a good job of mainting it’s value with a steady appreciation. Prices here range from $275,000 to over $1 million dollars. Texas A&M’s new head football coach, Mike Sherman, just purchased a resale home here for around $1.7 million on 10 acres. You can find gated patio homes here as well as medium to large estate homes. It’s a unique neighborhood with some state of the art ecological features, miles of horse riding and biking trails, tennis courts, a community resort style pool, and an enormous lake. Prices here are all over the board and usually based on lot size and the view. The lots on the lake can sell for as much as $500,000! Most of the homes are in the $500,000 to $700,000 range and sit on 1.5-3 acres. There are tons of trees on most lots which really add to the privacy. The best part about this neighborhood is the fact that it has hundreds of acres of nature preserves and buffer areas. This really keeps the neighborhood looking like a true country setting, but you are literally only minutes from all the amenities you need. Again, it will be hard to have a neighborhood that can replace this one. Assembling this one and getting it developed took almost a decade. It will take that long or longer before it could even be thought about being done again. You’d also have to find the land which would be very hard to find and costly if it could be found.

There are lots of other great and unique neighborhoods in College Station, but if you truly want the best long term resale value and appreciation, your safest bets are Pebble Creek and Indian Lakes.

As always, for more information on living your Luxury Lifestyle and buying or selling Luxury Real Estate, email me at rclaylee@yahoo.com.

Clay Lee

College Station #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a decade!

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that a luxury home qualifies as a luxury home merely based on the properties square footage or land size. However, a luxury home can be a 1500 square foot town-home or a 20,000 square foot ocean front compound. It’s the features of a property that make a luxury home a luxury home, especially in College Station, TX.

The following are the biggest places that mistakes are made.

Master Suites
A Big Shower and Walk-in Closets are just not enough. Buyers expect a Spa in their own home today. You have to have multiple shower heads, rain showers, body sprays and if possible a steam shower. Closets have to be totally custom with built-in packing centers, extensive shoe storage, tons of drawers, adjustable hanging space, full-length mirrors, and good lighting. The sleeping area has to be well designed with plenty of room for a bed and a nice sitting area. High end quality flooring of wool, stone, or wood is expected in this space as well. Buyers also want separate closets if the home is larger and even more popular are separate master bathrooms.

Kitchens
Quality Cabinetry is just the starting point for luxury kitchens. From contemporary to French Country, the hardware inside the cabinets is almost as important as the design. Clients want customized drawers and shelving. The hardware has to be of the highest quality as well. High end appliances are not black, white, or biscuit on the outside. Stainless steel is the safest choice, but the new glass and cabinetry front models are also becoming more popular. The luxury home buyer wants luxury brand names like Sub Zero, Wolf, Thermador, Bosch, Viking, and Gaggenau. They expect professional style gas ranges and built-in commercial style refrigerators. Even the smallest luxury homes have at least a $10,000 appliances allowance for the kitchen, but the larger homes have as high as $40,000 to $60,000 in appliances. The bigger the home, the more appliances you need including multiple dishwashers, ovens, and refrigerators. The favorite features today are pot fillers over the range, built-in coffee/espresso makers, warming drawers, and wine refrigerators.

Electronics
Today’s luxury is all about convenience and the luxury home buyer knows what’s available and wants it! One of the most popular systems is the Crestron system which can control the air conditioning, all lighting, audio, video, window coverings, and security. Buyer’s want control over their homes, and the more gadgets they can get, the better. Even the mature luxury buyer wants these things so that the home can pretty much take care of itself. They want the ability to have sound and video throughout the inside and outside of the house. They expect lighting to be totally customized and user customizable. They want art lighting, task lighting, general lighting, unique hanging fixtures, and more. They desire creativity. Even if it’s not in the budget when building or buying, a luxury home is expected to be pre-wired to do all these things.

Floor Plan
The luxury home buyer is tired of going to a friend’s house and feeling like they are in their own home. This buyer can afford whatever they want, and they want something unique and different that they feel is a reflection of their life, status, and style. The same or similar floor-plan just doesn’t cut it. They want a home designed by a noted artist, architect, or designer. However, most importantly is to make sure the home makes sense. You have to make sure that the home has the right rooms that are required for a home of its size. In College Station, homes over 3,000 square feet have to have at least a 3 car garage, 4 bedrooms, a minimum of 3 and one-half baths, a study, formal dining room and a large family room. As you go up in square footage, you go up in the types and number of rooms that are expected. Over 3300 square feet a game-room is expected. Get closer to 4000 and an additional formal living room is expected. Get even larger and clients expect home theaters, additional office spaces, additional bedrooms, guest quarters, secondary kitchens, multiple laundry rooms, and more.

Exterior Features
The most important place that people forget about when designing a luxury home is the exterior. Buyers today want the outside to be as luxurious as the inside. In larger homes they expect great views, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, pools, spas, putting greens, basketball courts, designer gardens, and more. Buyers want them to be pest free and private – even in the smaller properties.

Finishes & Fixtures
You can have the right floor-plan, and the right features, but if you don’t have the right finishes, it’s all for nothing. Luxury home buyers in College Station expect real stone and wood flooring. They want contemporary accents in even the most traditional of homes. They want custom wall coverings and finishes that you don’t find in most homes. They want the best plumbing products and latest designs with brand names like Kohler, Toto, Hansgrohe, Sheryl Wagner, and more. You have to have the highest quality counter surfaces as well in granite, closed-cell woods, marble, or quartz. The luxury buyer wants the finest quality of materials that will last a lifetime.

The biggest mistake of all is when someone constructs one of these homes and does 90% of what is expected. That 10% causes buyers to look elsewhere to get everything they want, especially in this market. The luxury buyer is not affected by tougher lending requirements or market fluctuations. Our market has many cash buyers in this sector partly due to the current oil prices. With that kind of money, they will not settle for something unless it is exactly perfect. If they have to remodel it or finish it, they would rather start the entire creative process from the beginning and design it 100% the way they want it. That means that the “luxury” homes that are not 100% perfect are getting passed over and remain on the market. The ones that do have everything sell quickly and for top dollar. They key is to give luxury buyers everything they could ask for so that all they have to do is ask you to sell it to them! The best bet is to hire an agent like me to help you know what the market is demanding, a quality interior designer that has experience with this type of property, and a quality builder who has the type of subs that can install the materials you will be using. A home builder who specializes in more basic homes, will not have the sub-contracts that can install a complicated lighting system, custom flooring designs, paint finishes, and more.

Don’t make the mistake of cutting corners to save money by leaving out the things that true luxury buyers want and are willing to pay for.

As always, if you want more information on Luxury Lifestyles and Luxury Real Estate, please feel free to contact me at RClayLee@yahoo.com
Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

The building is truly a new study in the way that high rise buildings are built. Not just the movement mechanism, but the actual construction methods are very different. Much of the building will be built off site by a team of 600 technicians creating modular parts that will be put together on site! A team of 80 technicians will consturct the building on site which is planned for a 2010 completion. This is a far cry from the normal 2000 people it normally takes to construct a large sky scraper of this size!

Check out www.DyanmicArchitecture.net to read all about this companies imaginative ideas and to reserve your new apartment in the sky! Be prepared, units start at $3,000 per square foot. That is ruffly $4 million to $40 million per unit! I want to the listing agent on those units! However, I don’t want to live in Dubai!

As always, for more information on Luxury Real Estate and Living the Luxury Lifestyle, feel free to contact me at rclaylee@yahoo.com.

Clay Lee

College Stations #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a decade!

But going home doesn’t have to be the end of your stay at your favorite hotel! Due to an enormous amount of client demand, many of the 5 and 4 star hotels are now selling almost everything you need to recreate your hotel experience at home. If you had to pull all the materials together yourself, it would take extensive travel and weeks of internet searching to find all the bedding, accessories, towels, and plumbing products. Now with just a simple phone call you can have almost everything you see!

For example, W Hotels has a retail store in most every hotel and a magazine in most of their hotel rooms that sell most of the accessories and the linens. They even sell the special BLISS SPA soaps you use in all of their bathrooms. The Ritz Carlton does a similar set up, but even includes an option to purchase the same mattress you slept on. I think Westin Hotels have the best program. You can buy the complete “Heavenly Bed” you slept in, the “Heavenly Bath” shower head from the bathroom, the towels, the robe, and more! Even the smaller boutique hotels are getting in on the action.

Next time you stay in a hotel that you just love, ask the concierge how to purchase the items from your room. I almost forgot the most important part. These companies even sell these items at LESS than you would pay if you had to go out and find all of these items on your own!

Some travelers like to take this one step further and literally buy a piece of real estate designed by their favorite hotel. The luxury hotel chains are all doing it in places all over the world. It goes from basic hotel rooms, to suites, to condos, to even complete stand alone residences. In most cases you get full or partial deeded ownership. The hotel completely designs and decorates the property and maintains it! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not inexpensive, but it’s definitely the easy way to get your luxury pad without all the hassles.

For more tips on living the luxury lifestyle, please feel free to contact me anytime at RCLayLee@yahoo.com
Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert For More Than a Decade!