Apex Properties Blog and News:

Feb. 3, 2022

Protesting Taxes

Question: Who would like to pay less taxes?

By now you should have received your assessed value statement from your county assessor's office.

If you agree with the assessed valuation that this year's property taxes will be based on, then you're all set.

But what if you think they have assessed your property and the valuation is too high?

You can file a protest!

If you live in Harris County:
Here is the link you need.
If you live in Fort Bend County,
Here is the link you need.

You will also need to provide the taxing authority with comparable sales to support your case.

If that need to protest your valuation arises, simply email our team with your property address, and we will send you a list of the similar sized homes in your immediate subdivision that sold in 2021 as a guide to see if they are way off.

The deadline to file your property tax protest could be as early as April 1st for homestead properties, so we only have about 60 days to do this research.

If we can be of assistance to you with this process please reach out anytime.

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.

You can't change your destination overnight...
...but you can change your direction overnight.
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Jan. 28, 2022

Renovating

To renovate, or not to renovate:
That is the question.

How much should you be spending to get your home ready for sale?

This is a question that we get asked daily, and like most other things the answer is "it depends."

Without seeing any one particular home its difficult to give a blanket response.

That said, EVERYONE benefits from taking an honest, fresh look at their home through the eyes of the buying public.

If selling a home is in your future, we strongly advise you to give me a call and set up a prelisting walk through.

This way we can help you maximize your value and take the most money from the sale.

NOT doing this will, most definitely, cost you thousands of dollars. I know, because I've shown countless homes where it is clear the listing agent didn't help the seller prep the home, and the result is a disaster.

We also have pretty much every contact you could possibly need to help you prep your home for sale, or just to stay and enjoy it.

Even if you plan on staying in your home forever, We'd still like to be a resource for you. If you need a plumber, landscape designer, electrician, or any other service provider, please reach out to our team.

We have the contacts and the relationships you need.

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.
Perseverance is the hard work you do
after you get tired
of doing the hard work you already did.
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Jan. 21, 2022

How inventory impacts the market!

I know that table is a little bit of an eye chart but study it for 10 seconds and read on.

This is the inventory level and 12-month sales history in the 10 square miles around my office, from $300-800K price point.
There are currently 295 homes actively listed, and over 5,000 homes have sold in the last 12 months.
This ratio represents less than a 1 month supply of homes. I have been tracking this every week for the past 3 years and despite interest rates ticking up a little this past few weeks, were actually dealing with the all time low level of inventory.
4 months of inventory is considered a "normal market" favoring neither buyers or sellers. We're running at just under 18% of the total listings required to be considered a balanced marketplace.
So what is this lack of inventory causing to happen in real life?   
We just closed on a home today with our buyer clients that we had to bid $41,000 over the list price to win over 10 other offers.
We just listed a beautiful home in Cinco SW last week, for nearly $800,000 and we already have 3 offers and they are wayyyyy above asking.

We are about to list a past client's home in the next few weeks that they just bought last April for $350K. Our list price now? At least $400,000.
Texas seems to be on an incredible run and it does not seem to be letting up for the near future.
If you are thinking about selling your house this spring or summer, and you want a team that will work to help you maximize your price in the marketplace, please reach out.
We will walk you through the whole process: Helping you prepare your home for market, preparing and presenting your listing for maximum value, and guiding you through the negotiations to the closing table.
We are here every step of the way.
The person who takes 1 shot needs everything to go right. 
The person who takes 1000 shots is going to score at some point.
Find a way to play the game that ensures you get a lot of shots.
-James Clear
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Jan. 20, 2022

Mike Ferry Conference

I just spent the Week in Vegas and I didn't gamble!

My business partner Kris and I attended the Mike Ferry Organization's Production Retreat this week in Las Vegas.

We spent 3 days in a very large conference room at Caesar's Palace with Mike Ferry and nearly 3000 other top producing Realtors and made plans to improve our businesses in 2023.

We covered a wide range of topics including developing a stronger mindset, sales skills, ideas for improving customer service, and developing business                                                                                                             maturity.

Kris and I are 2 of the top agents in our office, but it's always beneficial to go and spend time with people doing more than you are.

This conference gives us that chance to go and learn and grow with like minded PRODUCTIVE Real Estate Agents from around the country. When you meet them you realize they're just normal folks that have made developing a professional business a priority, and they have consistently worked at it for years.

We are looking forward to continuing to grow and we are so grateful to get to know and serve YOU along the way.

I hope you have a safe and happy weekend and I look forward to talking to you next week. We are here to serve you if you have a
Real Estate need.

Please call me anytime if you've got questions about the market or if you'd like to have any kind of Real Estate conversation.

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.
The edge is in the inputs.
The person who consumes from better sources,
gets better thoughts.
The person who asks better questions,
gets better answers.
The person who builds better habits,
gets better results.
It's not the outcomes. It's the inputs.
-James Clear
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Jan. 13, 2022

December market update

 

Notable changes:

Lots of folks think of markets in terms of "good" or "bad" but in reality it's more useful to think of them as cycles. Real Estate is typically a very long term game, so it's critical to know what's going on in the cycle to help you make a good decision.

When you have a 2 year run like we had with prices rising dramatically, it's a natural progression to have a period of slowdown.

This allows different groups of people to get involved that otherwise might not have. First time buyers and anyone with a VA or FHA loan really struggled to compete this last 2 years and they now have an opportunity.

As you can see, the monthly total transaction count dropped pretty significantly from over 11,000 to 7,634, but that being said...nearly 8,000 properties still changed hands last month.

The BIG difference, is that you can see we went from 11,656 sales with 21,759 Active listings in Dec 2021 to 7,634 sales with 33,776 active listings.

This means the ratio of closed sales to active listings has moved from over 50% to less than 25%.

This means...if you need to sell a house for any reason...you need to very closely study what the market and your potential competitors are doing.

Your agent needs to set up your listing to both amplify your features, and also communicate the market feedback to you, from buyers showings, to web traffic stats, and what that means about your path to sale.

We hope you have a safe and productive weekend and look forward to talking to you. We are here to serve you if you have a Real Estate need.

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.

The hard way is the fast way.
Do it right the first time and you won't have
to do it over the next time.

-James Clear

 
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Jan. 13, 2022

(no title) - Post #1224

Lots of folks think of markets in terms of "good" or "bad" but in reality it's more useful to think of them as cycles. Real Estate is  typically a very long-term game, so it's critical to know what's going on in the cycle to help you make a good decision. When you have a 2 year run like we had with prices rising dramatically, it's a natural progression to have a period of slowdown.
This allows different groups of people to get involved that otherwise might not have. First-time buyers and anyone with a VA or FHA loan really struggled to compete these last 2 years and they now have an opportunity.
As you can see, the monthly total transaction count dropped pretty significantly from over 11,000 to 7,634,
but that being said...nearly 8,000 properties still changed hands last month.
The BIG difference, is that you can see we went from 11,656 sales with 21,759 Active listings in Dec 2021 to 7,634 sales with 33,776 active listings.
This means the ratio of closed sales to active listings has moved from over 50% to less than 25%.
This means...if you need to sell a house for any reason...you need to very closely study what the market and your potential competitors are doing.
Your agent needs to set up your listing to both amplify your features, and also communicate the market feedback to you, from buyers' showings to web traffic stats, and what that means about your path to sale.
I hope you have a safe and productive weekend and I look forward to talking to you next week.
We are here to serve you if you have a Real Estate need.
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Jan. 6, 2022

New Year New Numbers

HAR has released the January Fresh Report with year end numbers for 2022 compared to the previous year.
Total Listing volume is up dramatically. 73.1% more listings than the previous year, totaling 21,354 available properties.
Average List price is up marginally YOY at 5.5% to $421,910. We anticipate we're going to see that number flatten out as we move toward May and June as that was when we feel the pricing peak happened and we watched the showing volume drop pretty significantly after June on listings as the interest rates began to rise.
As for the state of the current market, we have seen increased showing activity on my listings immediately after the first of the year, and we have listed 3 new properties so far just in this first week, so hopefully that is a sign of good things to come.
We're going to start this year off with
the best quote from last year:

"Every action you take is a vote
for the type of person you wish to become.
No single instance will transform your beliefs,
but as the votes build up,
so does the evidence of your new identity."
-James Clear
We are here to serve you if you have a Real Estate need.
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April 21, 2021

Buyers and Seller Awareness

Houston we have a problem: (unless you're a seller)

 

 

The story right now in Houston (and much of the rest of the country) is the LACK of available inventory. We ran a report this morning for several zip codes across the west Houston area and we are currently sitting at just over 1/2 a month supply of inventory. Unreal.

The suppression in listings caused by the coronavirus pandemic has caused inventory levels to drop to this short supply. People that might have decided to upsize or downsize have overwhelmingly chosen to stay put and this has tightened the available inventory dramatically.

A typical, "stable market" has a 4 month supply of homes. Of course homes are always coming and going, but what this means is that right now, we're burning through the available homes about 8 times faster than the normal historical rate. This means we're seeing just about every home getting multiple offers, many thousands of dollars above list pice.

If you'd like to cash in on any equity positions on your investment or primary properties, please call us to discuss it.

 

Wednesday Wisdom:

You should be far more concerned

with your current trajectory...than with your current results.

― James Clear

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April 14, 2021

Property Taxes and Some Key Reminders

2 very important dates coming up for TX Homeowners:

 

 

April 30th is the homestead exemption deadline!

If you bought a house during 2020, your application to file for a homestead exemption must be postmarked by then! Applying for a homestead will typically reduce your total property tax bill from anywhere between $500-1000 annually...so its well worth it to take
the few minutes to fill out the homestead application.

>> Here is the homestead application link! <<

May 15th is Property Tax Assessment Protest Deadline.

 

This is the other important date for everyone whether they bought a home last year or not.

If you received your property tax assessment and you would like to protest the county's valuation, please respond to this email with your home address and I will run you the list of all the sales in your subdivision last year.

If the average sold value is below your assessed value, you should definitely fill out the protest form that was provided with your tax assessment notice and supply them with that list of sales as evidence of the mis-evaluation.

>> Harris County Protest Form <<

>> Fort Bend County Protest Form <<

 

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.

 

Wednesday Wisdom:

The reason most people fail instead of succeed, is they trade what they want most for what they can get at the moment.

-Napoleon Hill

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April 8, 2021

Market Updates!

Check Out these numbers:

 

 

The Houston market is up 18% year over year to an all time high average list price of $379,106.

We have less than half the inventory available than we did the same month last year....so this doesn't look to be letting up any time soon.

If you have questions, or want to get involved in this, feel free to call us anytime!

 

Want to know more about how our team works?
Click HERE for our seller info package.
Click HERE to see our current listings.

 

You life experience isn't what is happening to you.

It's what you think about what is happening to you.

Think about that for a bit.

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