Finding A Good Rental Area

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A good rental area is where tenants are plentiful and can afford the rent, and there is not an oversupply of rental housing. How do you find such an area? 

Here are some important tips:

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Jobs & Employers

1. First, look for an area where there are many employers to provide a steady base of employed tenants! 

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Avoid older homes

2. Avoid older homes. They tend to need more care for maintenance issues, such as plumbing, electrical, roof leaks, and worn-out appliances. 

3. Avoid large lots or large homes with pools. A big lot requires big maintenance. Also, when it comes to resale value, you will find that a big lot will provide only marginal returns for your money. 

4. Beware homes on busy streets! Proximity to high-traffic streets knocks down the value of the home. These houses may be attractive as rentals, but they can be difficult to resell later on. 

Dallas Rental values within the region

Rental Values

5. Finally, check out the rental values within the region. 

Source: Zillow

Source: Zillow

Housing Reports and Current Real Estate Market for Dallas, Plano, and Irving

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This report provides a summary of the current real estate market within the Dallas, Plano, and Irving Metro areas. The primary source of this report is the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Housing Reports for Dallas-Plano-Irving

  • The median price in the Dallas-Plano-Irving metro has increased by approximately 1.3% year-over-year, from $277,000 to $280,000. Prices in the metroplex exceeded the statewide median price of $231,000 by $49,000.

    Housing Activity for Dallas-Plano-Irving

Real Estate Center - Texas A&M University

Home Price Index for Dallas-Plano-Irving

Home Price Index for Dallas-Plano-Irving

Real Estate Center - Texas A&M University

The Real Estate Center's Texas Home Price Index measures price appreciation changes for residential single-family homes. Each market index begins at a value of 100 at the base period. The base period is the benchmark period by which all future periods are compared. Base periods vary for each market based on data availability. An index value of 150 in the latest period would represent an average of 50 percent home price appreciation compared with the base period for that market.  

Real Estate Center - Texas A&M University

Real Estate Center - Texas A&M University

 

Source:

Data used in this report come from the Texas REALTOR® Data Relevance Project, a partnership among the Texas Association of REALTORS® and local REALTOR® associations throughout the state. Analysis is provided through a research agreement with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/

Staging Your Home to Sell

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Preparing and repairing your home for sale will certainly make it more appealing to buyers. In this post, we will answer the following questions: How does your home stack up against other homes for sale? What will it take to make your home the favored property of the neighborhood? What extra steps can you take to get an edge?

  1. Know your Price Point

    Before you begin readying your home for sale, you should figure out first what it might be worth. Knowing the value of your house will be important as you make decisions about how much time and money to invest in staging it.

  2. Making Comparisons

    Studying homes in your area and in your price range will give you a sense of what a good asking price would be. Talk to your neighbors about homes that have been sold recently to learn more about the sellers’ experience. Try to find out:

    1. What was the original asking price?

    2. What did the home eventually sell for?

    3. How long was it on the market?

    4. Did it need much work?

  3. Understand Neighborhood Life-cycles

    As you learn more about current buyers’ expectations, you will also want to pay attention to who is moving into and out of your neighborhood. It’s useful to know who your likely buyer is so that you can stage your home to appeal to their buying needs.

    Knowing the approximate age of buyers looking to move into your neighborhood will also help you decide how much updating you need to do.

4. Styling Trends

Most buyers want a home that is on trend. They generally do not want a home that is out of style, or outdated. These are two reasons why you need to be on trend:

  1. If the house's decor is up-to-date, people will assume the maintenance of the home is also up-to-date.

  2. If your home is fresh and up-to-date, they will want to buy it.

    3. Rearrange your furniture to focus on the elements of each room that will sell the house. Use example room layouts in home decor magazines as a guide to the overall impression your rooms should make.

Source: “Staging Your Home to Sell” by Julie Dana & Marcia Layton Turner

The 10 Top Cities to Buy a House in America

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Data company Niche recently released its list of the top cities in which to buy a house based on home values, property taxes, public school rankings, and other factors. Here are the top 10 places on the list. With four cities on the list, the Lone Star State dominated the rating! 

  1. Plano, Texas
  2. Overland Park, Kansas
  3. The Woodlands, Texas
  4. Rochester, Minnesota
  5. Richardson, Texas
  6. Naperville, Illinois
  7. Round Rock, Texas
  8. Huntsville, Alabama
  9. Palm Bay, Florida
  10. Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Source: 

Niche.com

 

 

Prevent Emergency Repair by Home Maintenance Checklist

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You can prevent home emergency repairs with home maintenance throughout the year. According to HomeAdvisor, “Maintenance is usually a lot simpler than a repair, and a lot more affordable. Keep a checklist handy during the entire year, so you don't forget any timely tasks ''. Here are five tasks HomeAdvisor recommends not to forget to complete each year:

1. Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (On a quarterly basis)

Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

2. Clean your gutters and downspouts (Twice a year)

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Clean your gutters and downspouts

To prevent damage, the downspout needs to be free of debris so it can release water three feet from your home's foundation.

3. Check for cracks (Fall)

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Check for cracks

Take a day each year to check caulking for cracks, especially around tubs and showers. Cracks can let in water with no place for drainage, which will cause damage.

Additionally, annually check for cracks in the grout of tile floors, which can allow water to seep into the floor and cause mold growth and rot.

4. Roof inspection (Fall)

Roof inspection

Every fall completes an annual roof inspection to help prevent the need for major repairs or a roof replacement.

5. Service HVAC Unit (Summer)

HVAC Unit

Service HVAC unit

Service heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit - Hire a professional to service your HVAC unit (Summer). It will increase its efficiency and prevent a breakdown.

Source: 

www.HomeAdvisor.com

Top 5 Fastest Growing Cities in the U.S.

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According to CNN Money report, four out of the top five fast-growing cities are located in the Lone Star State.  Conroe, Texas, a Houston suburb, was the fastest-growing city in the nation last year, with a population growth rate of 7.8%. That's a growth rate 11 times higher than the national average. 

The growth of population has boomed in Dallas Suburb such as Frisco and McKinney. Because of population and job growth in these areas, the median home value has been raised, with a nearly 8% increase in the past year. 

 

Sources:

CNN Money Report

Census 2015 to 2016 Population data

 

How To Check School Proficiency Index Before Buying a House!

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Statistics in real estate market show that homes in neighborhoods near high-ranking schools maintain a higher resale value. You can evaluate schools by checking School Proficiency index that is developed by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The school proficiency index uses school-level data on the performance of 4th-grade students on state exams to describe which neighborhoods have high-performing elementary schools nearby and which are near lower performing elementary schools. The school proficiency index is a function of the percent of 4th-grade students proficient in reading and math on state test scores for up to three schools within 1.5 miles of the block group centroid.

Values are percentile ranked and range from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the higher the school system quality is in a neighborhood. 

Data Source: Great Schools (proficiency data, 2011-12 or more recent); Common Core of Data (school addresses and enrollment, 2011-12); SABINS (attendance boundaries, 2011-12).

INTERACTIVE MAP

Source:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Explore Your Neighborhood & Discover Community Lifestyle

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Location, Location, Location! From the buyers’ standpoint, location is the key to success in real estate investment. It’s always best to understand different aspects of the neighborhood and explore its characteristics such as school rank, crime rates, and other factors. For making better decisions, the following sources can help you to understand your neighborhood and its characteristics.   

Discover Community Lifestyle & Demographic Information

ESRI provides various data sources such as different consumer spending, demographic, lifestyle, and behavioral trends. The following link provides a comprehensive of neighborhood's characteristics. 

Enter a ZIP Code and pick some topics to see what the power of location can reveal about any place in the US. Explore up to 10 different consumer spending, demographic, lifestyle, and behavioral trends and tap into spatial analytics to see your neighborhood like never before. 

In "DATA" tab, you can select various topics such as Median Income,  Age, Population Density, Graduate and Professional Degrees. In "MAP" tab, you can see the location.  

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Community Lifestyle and Demographic Information

More Information
ESRI_Discover_Community_Lifestyle.jpg

Explore Your Community’s Characteristics

Click Here & Start Exploring

More Information:

ESRI Demographic Information

 

Understand Your Neighborhood by Neighborhood Navigator

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It’s always best to understand different aspects of the neighborhood and explore its characteristics such as school rank, crime rates, and other factors. For making better decisions, Neighborhood Navigator Tool provides detailed population, education, financial, environment, and crime information on over 30,000 communities nationwide.

 

Neighborhood Navigator Laska Rezalty

Neighborhood Navigator

onboardinformatics.com

Click Here to Explore Your Neighborhood

More Information:

Onboard Informatics

Where To Invest In Housing!

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To find out where to invest in housing in 2017, Forbes provided a short list of top 20 markets where population, jobs and home prices are growing. According to their forecast, for every city on the map, Local Market Monitor expects home prices to grow by at least 17% by 2020.

To obtain more details for each city, please click on the images located at left panel of the map.

Source:

Forbes.com

Why Home Values and Apartment Rents Keep Climbing In DFW

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Why Apartment Rents Keep Climbing In Dallas-Fort Worth? According to The Dallas Morning News, Housing price and Apartment rents in North Texas continue to rise! Over the past decades, Dallas was a very cheap place to rent or own! Why home values and rents are increasing here? This is the main reason: Job Growth! 

Because of Job Growth in Dallas, more people are moving here to start or develop their professional lives. This is the main reason that home values and rent price are keep climbing in DFW! 

According to Steve Brown from The Dallas Morning News, DFW is creating more than a 100,000 job a year, and that's attracting a lot of young professional people. For instance, the people are moving here from Toyota — their headquarters is coming here from Southern California, and they're coming from New York City.

 

An aerial view of Legacy West in Plano, Texas, highlighting some of the companies locating offices there. (Courtesy of Karahan Companies, urbanland.uli.org)

An aerial view of Legacy West in Plano, Texas, highlighting some of the companies locating offices there. (Courtesy of Karahan Companies, urbanland.uli.org)

The graph below is presenting housing activity for Dallas-Plano-Irving and the time series of average prices from 1994 to 2016. 

Housing Activity for Dallas-Plano-Irving: Average & Median Price

Real Etate Center at Texas A&M University

If you have any questions or would like more information about the steps to buy of sell your home please contact us.

Jila Seraj

+1 (214) 212 3462
Jila@LaskaRealty.com