Jeff Leatherwood
Broker/Realtor®
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The Realtor's Life Category
The Importance of Good Pictures When Marketing Your College Station Home
September 3rd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As a Realtor, I employ various marketing strategies when selling a listing. I consider marketing to be the absolute essential way to get the word out about your home. This can be anything from putting up a webpage dedicated to your home, establishing a virtual tour for it, to listing ads for it in the local home classifieds. The main factor that all of these various marketing strategies have in common is the photo. Without exceptional pictures of your home and property, none of these strategies will fully impress the potential buyer.
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College Station I.S.D.’s rezoning for the 2011-12 School Year
August 31st, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As I recently reported, College Station will be opening two new schools in the district in the near future. Greens Prairie Elementary is set to open its doors in August 2011, and College Station High School will open in August 2012. To accomodate the opening of these new campuses, the school district has been hard at work on the daunting task of redrawing attendance zones. Not only do these attendance zones affect the new schools, they affect all College Station I.S.D. campuses – elementary through high school.
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Existing-Home Sales Plunged in July, College Station and Nationwide
August 24th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As I reported yesterday, July was a shaky month in the College Station and Bryan real estate market. There was some positive information, such as the average sales price remaining relatively steady. Further, days a home was on the market before selling was at a record low. However, the overall climate (unlike our current Texas weather) was cold and slow. An astonishing number of new homes were listed (450) but of those homes, only 98 went under contract. This trend is not simply affecting our local communities; it is one that can be seen on a larger scale across the United States. As rough as this may seem for our area, we are still seeing better numbers in College Station and Bryan than the rest of the nation is experiencing. For the country on the whole, existing-home sales plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in July as inventories soared. The main factors affecting the current housing market include absent government support and a shaky economy.
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College Station Home Sales Report for July 2010
August 23rd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
The recently reported monthly sales for July 2010 presented much positive (and some less positive) data. Though sellers have not been receiving nearly as much good news these days as buyers (considering the historically low interest rates buyers can receive, availability of homes on the market, and bargaining power), sellers did receive a highly refreshing experience in July. The average number of days on the market for a home was drastically low this past month – coming in at only 98 days. In fact, in the College Station/Bryan market, we have not seen numbers this low in years. Even in the more prosperous summer of 2006, average days on the market topped in at 109 in both June and July. Additionally, though it has dropped a bit, the monthly average sales price has stayed relatively even over the past few years. This proves that when a home is priced accurately and marketed correctly, it will sell, regardless of the surrounding real estate conditions!
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Texas Home Sales up for Third Quarter in a Row
August 5th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
According to the latest Texas Quarterly Housing Report, the volume of real estate sales in Texas increased for the third quarter in a row. These conditions are not being reflected all across the nation, but it would appear that the Texas market is on a slight upswing. The Texas Quarterly Housing Report is issued four times a year by the Texas Association of REALTORS® with MLS data compiled and analyzed by the Real Estate Center at our very own Texas A&M University.
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The Philosophy of Pricing your College Station Home
August 3rd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
When the time comes to price your home for sale, you may be tempted to start with the price you originally paid, add in a markup to reflect the various upgrades or repairs you made, and wait for the bids to roll in. Unfortunately, this strategy is not likely to be a successful one in today’s market. With many home sellers having to compete with foreclosures and overall low prices, College Station and Bryan home sellers need to – above all – price their homes aggressively.
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Foreclosed Homes in Bryan/College Station Affect Entire Neighborhoods
July 28th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
A subject that has been pervading the real estate world and the nation on the whole is foreclosure. While most homes and neighborhoods in the Bryan/College Station region remain unaffected thus far, the number of foreclosures is slowly - but steadily – rising. As a homeowner, one surely does their best to avoid this stressful and painstaking process. However, most homeowners are unaware that if their neighbor experiences a foreclosure, their own property value will suffer as result.
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Brazos Valley Food Bank Feast of Caring – August 11, 2010
July 22nd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
The Brazos Valley Food Bank has been a part of our Bryan-College Station community for 25 years, raising food and money for those of our neighbors in need. In 2009 alone, the BVFB helped feed over 48,000 hungry citizens. But they need our help now more than ever. In the past five years, the food bank has experienced a 59% increase in the demand for food. Though this ever-increasing hunger epidemic in the Brazos Valley is a daunting problem, the food bank’s message is, and has always been, hope. We believe that with the help of community members, and through their time, food, and monetary contributions, we can continue to alleviate hunger in the Brazos Valley.
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Prepping College Station Homebuyers and Sellers for a Physical Inspection
July 21st, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
One of the single most expensive and important purchases one will make during their lifetime is for their home. Therefore, to safeguard this purchase, the essential marker during the home-buying process is the property inspection. Once a home is yours, you are in charge of all maintenance, repairs, and problems that arise. This is why it is best to be aware of any issues before you make the committment to buy. But buyers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from an inspection; sellers benefit by knowing the condition of their home before they place it on the market. Then, any needed repairs can be made prior to listing. Because of the importance of this (typically two to four hour) meeting, I always make a point of attending the home inspection whether I am the buyer or seller’s agent.
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How Psychology Plays a Role in Selling College Station Real Estate
July 19th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As an experienced College Station real estate agent, I have long been aware of the fact that psychology plays an unexpectedly large role in selling real estate. Everything – from how a homebuyer perceives his agent to how a seller prices her home – plays a huge role. When the market was on the rise, this was considered mildly interesting information; now that the market is a bit less stable, this information is much more relevant.
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