Real Estate Archives - Kimberly Howell Properties

A Bird’s Eye View of 650 Winding Ravine

August 9, 2019 by Matt Stigliano Leave a Comment

As 650 Winding Ravine continues to take shape, Stadler Custom Homes has provided us with some new drone footage to share with you. The home, which is being built to benefit the Military Warriors Support Foundation and the San Antonio Food Bank, will be sold with all net proceeds going to these two terrific charities. Kimberly Howell Properties is thrilled to be a part of this project and we’re excited to see the home take shape. The home will be a 4,814 square foot, four bedroom, 3.5 bath contemporary luxury home right in the heart of Stone Oak. There aren’t many opportunities like this left in Stone Oak and with all of the proceeds being donated to worthy causes, this home will be something you can be proud of for many reasons. If you’d like to schedule a tour, please contact Kimberly Howell.

How To Create Real Estate FOMO

June 27, 2019 by Tatiana Delaserna 1 Comment

This week, we turn the keys over to agent Tatiana Delaserna and let her take over the blog. In this post, Tatiana discusses “FOMO” – we don’t want to spoil her article, but we have to say, it’s a very real thing and we love that she’s teaching her clients about it (and now, we benefit from it, because she’s sharing the knowledge with all of us).

FOMO – “Fear Of Missing Out” is real. It is especially real in real estate – it is the very reason we see multiple offers on a freshly listed home. The ability to leverage this emotional response from buyers has never been so powerful as it is today thanks to our integrated world of social media, websites like zillow.com, and instant satisfaction consumers crave on all aspects of life. Because buyers can see in real time when a home hits the market, the idea of “you only get one time to make a great first impression” is more impactful than ever. If a buyer sees a home that looks great on pictures, in an area they have been looking for, and for the right price, they start wondering who else saw it too and the race begins.

Unfortunately, the opposite has also never been more damaging to sellers. When a buyer disqualifies your property, they will never revisit it online (they can block that home permanently!). If they feel it is overpriced, they will save it, and wait on the sidelines to see when seller will drop the price.

The three components of creating the perfect FOMO are visual appeal, being at the right place at the right time, and price.

Visual appeal – Over 96% of all buyers start shopping online…and they will move on if you do not catch their attention within the first 3 seconds. If they cannot see how great your home is from the pictures, then you may have lost the “perfect buyer.” Taking the time to prepare your home before it hits the market is not a luxury, it’s a must if you want to ignite the desire of buyers. At Kimberly Howell Properties, many of our agents work closely with stagers for this exact reason.
Being at the right place at the right time – Your property has to be seen by the right people at the right time (when they are in the market to buy!). If a buyer sees your property popping up in all the places she has been looking, the reality that other buyers are seeing it too hits home quickly. Unlike at our favorite clothing store, there is no way the buyer can hide your home behind the out of season sweaters – the only way of hiding it from other buyers is to submit a competitive offer and take it off the market!
Price – There is that saying, “everything sells…at the right price.” The thing is, many times that “right price” is very different from what a seller has in mind and what the market will bear (what a buyer will ultimately be willing to pay for it). There are several pricing strategies for each seller situation but if we want to create that fear of missing out, there are some time tested principles successful listing agents utilize.

Remember, the biggest enemy of creating FOMO is days on market. The longer you property sits on the market, the less buyers worry someone will come and snag it from them. They have less and less desire to submit a strong offer and start to wonder why no one has bought it yet. It becomes a vicious cycle – they wonder what is wrong with it. Do not let your home become victim of “nobody wants what nobody wants,” let’s work together to create the perfect FOMO storm!

image courtesy of Jesper Sehested and PlusLexia.com

You Passed Your Real Estate Exam – Now What?

June 17, 2019 by Jessica Flores Leave a Comment

Once upon a time, we all started at the beginning, with a fresh new real estate license in our hands and a ton of things to learn in front of us…being licensed is one thing, but becoming an incredible agent takes time. Jessica Flores remembers her days at the beginning and in this post, she speaks to those that are just wrapping up their licensing process and entering the world of real estate for the first time. We’ll step aside and let her do the rest…

Congratulations! You just passed your state and national real estate exam and you are ready to go sell houses. But where do you start?

Well, first off, you are now an independent contractor, but you are required to be sponsored by a broker. So how do you choose your brokerage?

This may seem like an easy answer, but in reality your choice can be the difference between making it or giving up.

There are many brokerages that you can choose to interview with. You should take the time to find out which is the right fit for you. Some questions you may want to ask include: Will training and education be offered? What are office fees, if any? What type of support system is included? What are the commission splits? The answers you receive can help you decide where you will thrive.

Once you have decided where you will hang your license it is time to get to work. This is the hardest part. What you learned in real estate school does not fully prepare you for what you will be doing. What you have seen on the cable TV network shows is even further from the reality of the amount of hard work, hours, and dedication that is needed to become a producing agent.
But don’t let that scare you. If it is something that you really want to achieve then it will require work and often anything of worth requires hard work.

Now, don’t fret, get to work. Go help people to sell their homes and help others make new memories by getting them into their dream home.

image courtesy of j.o.h.n. walker

What Makes A Neighborhood Great?

November 8, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

We all want to live in a great neighborhood, but what exactly makes a neighborhood great? Like many things in real estate, it’s subjective and you can ask ten people and get ten different answers. “Great” can be defined in so many different ways that it’s next to impossible to provide any one definitive list, but we thought we’d take a moment and compile a list of some of the most common elements we hear about from the buyers we work with.

Criteria for Great Neighborhoods

Location will always make the top of just about every list in real estate. The old phrase “location, location, location” exists for a reason. People want to live in a location that works for them. For many, location is a combination of distances from work, school, shops and restaurants, and other people such as friends and family. For some people any one of these can outweigh the others – we know plenty of people that will live anywhere to make their commute time shorter and others who can’t move far enough away from their family. Like everything, it’s all about personal choices.

Price plays a huge role in decision making too. As you’ll see, there’s a theme building here. Price too is subjective. There are some who feel the price of homes in The Dominion make it a great neighborhood, while we know there are some of you sitting there right now shaking your heads at that thought. What is affordable to you is typically the basis of this point although plenty of people tie the personal value of a neighborhood to the dollar value of the neighborhood.

If you have school age children, the area schools are more than likely going to play a huge role in your thoughts about any neighborhood. (Who says, “boy, I sure do hope the schools here are terrible,” while looking at a house?) “Are the schools good?,” is a question we hear often.

Amenities factor in to decision making too. With the Texas heat, access to a pool can be important, but of course some people would prefer the privacy of a pool in their own backyard over a community pool. Gated and guard gated communities often top the lists of amenities that are highly sought after.

The homes themselves can also factor into the “great” status of a neighborhood. Quality of construction, willingness of the builder to back their homes through warranties and future service, stability of the builder (we saw several builders leave our market after the housing crisis in 2008-2009), actual design and development of the land while building out the neighborhood, and both the use/functionality and aesthetics of the homes being built can affect the general public’s view of whether or not a neighborhood is great. We’ve even seen cases where the neighborhood started out looking like it would be easily be classified as a great neighborhood, only to have opinions change as the build-out of the neighborhood changed.

In the end, what makes a neighborhood great is the people. Neighborhoods are a mix of different people with different ideas, beliefs, dreams, passions, and needs, but when they all come together to create something more than just a handful of streets sprinkled with physical houses, but instead create a community…that makes all the difference in the world. A great neighborhood is a great community, where the people are just important as the factors listed above. We can all be great neighbors and be a part of being a great neighborhood, all we have to do is participate.

image courtesy of Life Lenses

Building Your Dream Home

October 12, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

Have you ever considered building your dream home from the ground up? Starting from scratch, choosing every detail, and creating something that is perfect for your needs? Many people dream of the day they can build their own home. It’s an excited thought to be the first one to live in the home, but also the one who made all of the decisions that give the home its character.
Building a home is not an overnight task and will take some planning, but on move-in day, you can look back and think of all the moments and decisions that got you here today. There are some things to consider to get you prepared to build your new home and we thought we’d take a look at some of the items you’ll want to consider.

Get To Know Your Builder

Your first step is to get to know the local builders in the area. This is one of the many areas a Realtor can become your best friend during the process. While you may feel you could save a few bucks going it alone, the experience and knowledge of your agent combined will be invaluable. And that’s only the beginning. To get to know the builders you should look at their inventory, but also take a look at some of their older homes (ask your agent to find some currently for sale). How have they held up over time? What are the locals saying? Do you know someone that owns a home built by the builder? What do they think? A builders’ reputation is everything and word travels fast.

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Stadler Custom Homes Builds Home for Charity

October 2, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

Stadler Custom Homes is building a new home in Hidden Canyon, one of Stone Oak’s newest neighborhoods, to benefit the Military Warriors Support Foundation and the San Antonio Food Bank. The home at 650 Winding Ravine is starting to take shape and we can’t wait to see the finished product. Ray Stadler has been building new homes in the San Antonio area since 1995 and has been very active in giving back to the community. While we wait for the home to be finished, check out the video of the footprint of the home and the surrounding land in this drone shot aerial video.