Blog
Bridgewood Ranch – San Antonio 78254
Welcome to Bridgewood Ranch.
Bridgewood Ranch, part of the larger community of Bridgewood, is a large development in San Antonio 78254 located on the Northwest side of town off of Leslie Road (map). Located close to shopping, restaurants, and entertainment along the Culebra commercial corridor at Loop 1604, Bridgewood Ranch is a great location in the Northwest. There are also four other communities to choose from in the development of Bridgewood.
The five local neighborhoods that make up the Bridgewood community are: Bridgewood, Bridgewood Estates, Bridgewood Villas, Bridgewood Ranch and Bridgewood Meadows.
With it’s excellent amenities, such as a pool, clubhouse, basketball court, playground, and soccer fields, Bridgewood Ranch is a very active neighborhood with a very active Homeowner’s Association
If you’d like to take a tour through Bridgewood Ranch (or any other Bridgewood neighborhood) and see the homes currently available, contact me.
If you’re thinking of buying a home in Bridgewood Ranch, you can view the homes currently available by clicking the link below:
Related articles by Zemanta
- Braunridge – San Antonio/Helotes 78023 (rerockstar.com)
- DR Horton Is Building New Homes In Stillwater Ranch (rerockstar.com)
- The Hills At Alamo Ranch (rerockstar.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=e513341b-fad8-41fe-a9f2-6b571ff66a8e)
Review: Brasserie Pavil
Paris comes to San Antonio.
You may have heard me mention Brasserie Pavil before, but this time, we’re not talking Twitter, we’re talking amazing food.
It was my eight year anniversary with my wife recently, so we decided to swing by Brasserie Pavil (map) for a late lunch/early dinner. My wife and I are pretty simple when we celebrate the milestones and don’t often go “all out” on them, but we decided we’d treat ourselves to a nice dinner (it didn’t hurt that we had a gift card either). Nice is an understatement.
Surf and turf.
My wife decide to have mussels, which we both love. Described on the menu as “Prince Edward Island Mussels with White Wine, Chopped Tomatoes and Fine Herbs with French Fries,” these did not disappoint. The taste was just as I would expect from a French Brasserie (I’ve had this same dish in Paris more than once) and the mussels were juicy and plump, not the little, limp mussels I’ve disappointingly been served so many times at a million restaurants (I never learn my lesson I guess). She was in seafood heaven eating them and of course, I had more than my fair share.
I didn’t know what to have there were so many things on Brasserie Pavil’s menu that I wanted to try. I get like that in restaurants…I can’t choose between a few things and usually wait for the waiter to come to the table and then I blurt something out. This time, my mouth moved and out came “Peppered NY Strip Steak with Cognac Black Peppercorn Sauce, served with French Fries.” I owe my quick thinking mouth a debt of gratitude. I love steak. I can eat it just about anyway you can serve it. I like just about any cut too. Even the cheap stuff. Whoever grills the steaks at Brasserie Pavil is a genius. I have never had a NY strip steak that cut like a ribeye. This one was tender, juicy and cooked to perfection. I’d dare say it was better than a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse steak (and I do not throw that statement around lightly). My only complaint would be that they didn’t serve the Cognac Black Peppercorn sauce in a gallon jug. My heart probably wasn’t loving the rich, buttery sauce, but heart be damned it was too good not to enjoy. We both had frites (fries) with our dinner (how very French!), so I didn’t have to share mine. She would have had to fight me for them. Frites, French fries, shoestring potatoes – call them want you want, I’ll stick with “delicious.”
Whether it’s lunch (their sandwiches are incredible) or dinner, it’s easy to see why so many local San Antonio residents rave about Brasserie Pavil. Be sure to follow @Brasserie Pavil on Twitter to keep up to date on their daily specials and other great offers.
Disclosure: CMP.ly/0
Related articles by Zemanta
- Huebner Village – San Antonio 78248 (rerockstar.com)
- A SXSW Recap: Social Media Breakfast San Antonio March (socialmediabreakfast.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=2321df78-3a24-4700-b98b-6f7714078943)
Paying More Than Asking Price For Your Home
How much is too much?
You’ve found the perfect home. It’s perfectly priced (and your agent agrees whole-heartedly). There’s one problem. There’s an offer on the table already. Welcome to the fun world of guessing what the other offer looks like. It’s an age old real estate tradition rooted in three things: wanting to have a crystal ball, wanting to buy the home, and being willing to pay more for the home or make a better offer.
You’re faced with the prospect of making that better offer in order to “win” the right to buy the home. But how much more should you go above asking price?
Think before you pay more.
The first thing you and your agent should look at is the offer itself. Are you asking for too many little things? Before even considering changing the price of the home you may want to consider restructuring the offer. Things like title insurance, residential service contracts (home warranties), surveys – these all take away from the seller’s bottom line if you’re requesting they pay for them. Emotional items can add into that as well. Remember the statue in the back yard you asked for in your offer? The seller might have some emotional attachments to it, so before you push for the lion statue by the pool (knowing there’s another offer), perhaps you might want to rethink it.
Sometimes money is all you have.
Of course, if you’ve written a great offer and the only thing you can change is what your willing to pay for the home, then it’s time to figure out what a) the home is worth and b) what it’s worth to you. Hopefully, in making an offer you’ve already gone through these steps. Your agent should have discussed the comparable sales with you, so you should have a good idea what the home’s current market value is. Now it’s time to think about what it’s worth to you. No matter what the market data suggests, a home is only worth as much as you’re willing to pay for it. You can buy a shack for a million dollars or a mansion for mere pennies – if you find value in the purchase, then go for it (of course, appraisals will affect your ability to overpay, especially in the current market).
The listing agent does not have to tell you anything about the other offers on the table, so at this point, it becomes a psychological experiment. Do you go high? Do you creep up just a few hundred dollars? Do you stand firm? It’s hard to say and every case is different. Your agent should ask the listing agent what the others have offered, but usually the other agent will remain mum about prices (and they should – it’s their duty to get the most for their seller). If you want this house, it’s possible you’re going to have to pay more than asking price.
The main factor you should look at is the home’s price in relationship to the current market’s comparables (houses of similar size and value in the neighborhood, sold in the last few months). If the asking price on the home is lower than most, you may want to consider pushing up and above asking price. If the home is well priced and in line with the market, you’re faced with a tough decision of whether you want to pay more or not.
Recent trends.
The trends I’m seeing with sellers’ asking prices is that they are still pricing them slightly higher than they hope to net, as they know buyers are being more frugal with their offers. I still suggest my sellers price their homes on target – this saves the haggling and back and forth and will get the home sold faster and for maximum value (the more you overprice it, the more the trend is to get less than you could have received). If a home is well priced when my clients look at it, we talk it out and more often than not, we look towards full price. Everyone wants a bargain, but if the home is already priced right, there’s not as much wiggle room.
Trends with foreclosures, short sales, and HUD homes has been the opposite of more traditional sales. I’ve seen ridiculously low asking prices that are designed to generate multiple offers. Multiple offer situations are great when selling your home – you are then playing each buyer off of the others. Cash has also been king. Banks love cash offers as they are simple to close and although you may have made an offer significantly higher than the asking price, a cash buyer will typically be more favored, even at a lower price. Shooting below asking price on these distressed properties has a tendency to leave you empty handed and back out on the streets, looking for a different home.
photo courtesy of Refracted Moments™
Related articles by Zemanta
- Disclosure of Offer Prices in Phoenix Real Estate (allphoenixrealestate.com)
- Purchasing a HUD Home-Misconceptions and Advantages (annarborundressed.com)
- Listing your home isn’t a game. (rerockstar.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=1b1aa8d8-952d-4517-af70-d9aaf101039d)
Saddle Mountain – San Antonio 78258
Welcome to Saddle Mountain.
With gorgeous views of the rolling hills in the Stone Oak area, Saddle Mountain, located directly across the street (map) from Barbara Bush Middle School (part of the North East Independent School District), is a KB Homes community in San Antonio 78258 with home prices starting in the $160Ks from KB’s four-sides masonry Classic Collection.
Saddle Mountain is still under development, so there are plenty of opportunities to select your lot and build a brand new home. From 1582 square feet to 3728 square feet and three to six bedrooms, you’ll find homes in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges (up to the $220Ks); all offering nine-foot first floor ceilings and two car garages. Although traffic woes have affected the Stone Oak area for some time now, the new 281 Superstreet Project should hopefully lessen the problems and bring with it renewed development in and around 281 (especially the 78258 and 78260 zip codes).
If you’d like to take a tour through Saddle Mountain and see the homes currently available or to look at lots to build your new home, contact me.
If you’re thinking of buying a home in Saddle Mountain, you can view the inventory homes currently available by clicking the link below:
Related articles by Zemanta
- Panther Creek At Stone Oak – San Antonio 78260 (rerockstar.com)
- Market Report for San Antonio 78258 (sanantoniorealestaterockstar.com)
- Campanas at Cibolo Canyons (rerockstar.com)
- The Vistas Of Encino Park (rerockstar.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=9edfe6f5-acb0-4c9f-8ae8-a7931a41810e)
Building A New Home In San Antonio? Consider this…
A Question I Hear A Lot
Being a Realtor® in San Antonio, I spend a lot of time looking at new homes and getting to know the different builders and neighborhoods. I enjoy this work immensely, but more often than not, I hear the same question from buyers looking to build a new home: do I need a Realtor® to buy a newly built home? Whether it’s in casual conversation with friends about real estate or speaking to San Antonio buyers or answering questions on Trulia Voices; it seems many buyers aren’t sure if they should hire an agent or go straight to the builder.
In many people’s minds, the benefits of not hiring an agent when building a new home is that there will be significant savings on not having any commissions included in the price of the home. In other people’s minds, the sales representatives at the new home communities are just like having an agent – they do the paperwork and make sure everything works out right. Let’s take a look at these two schools of thought.
No commission equals a better price.
If you don’t hire an agent to help in building a new home, you won’t have to pay the commissions in the price of the new home. Seems sensible enough. Although the seller typically pays the buyer’s agent’s commission, if you’re not using a buyer’s agent, logic would suggest you can just scrap that piece of the price of the home. Unfortunately, the logic doesn’t work that way. The builder has calculated a certain price for the new home and has included commissions in that price. If they were to discount all of their homes that were sold without a buyer’s agent to account for the lack of a commission, they would essentially be bringing the price of their neighborhood down. When a buyer came along with a Realtor® representing them, it would be possible to argue that the price is several thousand dollars out of line with other recent sales. It doesn’t make sense for the builder to do this and in the long run would affect their profitability.
Builders are a profit driven machine and have carefully calculated their profit margins on each and every home they build. Even when they offer higher commissions and cash incentives to both agents and buyers, they still have a target number in mind at which they will be profitable. If they’re not going to discount the price of your new home because you’re not working with an agent, guess where that extra money goes? That’s right – the builder’s profit. Does it make sense for a buyer to go into a new home purchase unrepresented in order to increase the builder’s profit? I think I can guess your answer.
The sales representative will take care of me.
I’ve met a ton of builder sales representatives. I’ve never met one I thought was shady or slimy, although I’m sure there are some out there. No, this isn’t about the reps pulling a fast one on you, but about simple representation. If you’re looking to build a new home, who’s going to look after you during the process if you’re not represented by a Realtor®? The sales rep gets their paycheck straight from the builder. Let’s look at an example for argument’s sake. Your dream home is coming along just fine and you’ve been thrilled with the process. As the builder begins to install the fireplace that you couldn’t wait to have, you realize they’ve installed it level with the floor – you swore on the original plans it was a raised hearth and you are correct in remembering it that way. The builder has just paid the contractor to install the fireplace and now you want it fixed. If they fix the fireplace, it’s going to cost them time and money. Do you think the builder will just shrug and start tearing down the mistake? Of course not, they’re going to try and preserve their profitability and try to come up with the solution that costs them the least. This actually happened to a client of mine. The solution? The builder offered them a few upgraded light fixtures. Lucky for my clients, we were on top of the situation and held the builder to the original plans. We wound up with both the light fixtures and a corrected fireplace.
The sales representatives represent the builder. It’s similar to buying a home with the listing agent which is a form of dual agency called intermediary in Texas. During the process of building a new home there are a lot of things happening, from inspections to financing to selecting the finishing touches…wouldn’t it make sense to have someone on your side during the process?
Related articles by Zemanta
- New Home Construction: Build Your Dream House (rerockstar.com)
- San Antonio Home Builders: An Open Letter (rerockstar.com)
- The REALTOR’s role as a Buyer’s Agent (dougfrancis.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=9a6c1535-56f3-4fcf-a096-e77f4702547d)
