Apex Properties Blog and News:

The property inspection is a key piece of the escrow process where the buyer conducts their due diligence about the property they're considering purchasing.

The inspector is a licensed professional that typically comes out to the house in the first 3-5 days of the contract period and checks out every system in the house as well as reviewing the appliances and finishes of the home. They then produce a 30-60 page report detailing their findings.

The challenge with this process in the Real Estate industry is two fold:

1.) Because the inspector can't guarantee anything going wrong in the future, lots of the language in the report is written with feeling of open ended concern or warnings about monitoring conditions to make sure future problems don't develop.

Here is the thing. Every house is pretty similar barring some catastrophic developments. The problem with these reports is many times it ends up sounding like the house WILL have problems later, even if they won't.

2.) The second problem is that city and county building codes change every year or two and if the inspector is using a software that shows the most up to date codes, pretty much every house thats built in 2023 or before is going to start having things called out in the report that are not "to code."

Thousands of people live in homes and meticulously maintain them and never have any issues with any of their home's systems. That same home could then get inspected and have 30-40 pages of items called out as not being "up to date."

If you're a first time home buyer, that could be scary when you read a report talking about how out of date everything is.

It's critical that the buyer's agent walks the buyer through the report and helps them actually understand the true condition of the house, looking "through" the potentially alarmist language to understand why it was written that way.

Perfect Example: Many years ago an inspection was done on one of my listings and the inspector wrote the following:

"Hairline cracks observed in the foundation which is normal, but should be monitored going forward as widening of existing cracks could indicate future foundation problems."

The buyer terminated during the option period because he said "he didn't want future foundation problems."

I called the buyer's agent to explain the report clearly states everything is normal and is simply giving the same cautionary advice that would be written about ANY house.

Unfortunately, that agent was very inexperienced and was not able to convey this to their first time home buyer. The buyer got cold feet over a perceived future problem that didn't exist.

Yet another reason to always ask the agent you're considering working with, about their personal production.

There is nothing rude about verifying that the person you're asking to guide your Real Estate journey over the next 2-4 months has been down that road enough times to know how to get to the finish line and how to read an inspection report.

HAR just released the Full February Market Report.

You can read the full report here and as always, my thoughts are below:

Something interesting may be about to happen.

Inventory is creeping up to the highest level we've seen in the last 5 years. With nearly 50,000 properties listed across Houston, we're at a 4.4 month supply and it will be interesting to see if there are more sales than new listings in the next 2-4 months and where that takes the supply level.

Prices are still up ever so slightly at a 2.3% increase year over year, but that's also one of the smallest gains we've seen in over a year.

That said, people are still moving here. Builders are still building like crazy, and I think the demand should be strong enough to keep us in a stable market.

Also, we do have about 400 MORE pending sales than we did at the same time last year so that's an indicator we very well may have a higher transaction count coming in this Spring quarter.

If you're thinking about moving, please reach out to me to talk about your Real Estate goals.

HAR just released the Fresh Report detailing the high points of the Houston Market at the close of February!

Right off the bat we see property values still holding at 3.5% higher than last year. March through May are always the highest volume selling quarter of the year so it should be interesting to see if the market holds this 3-5% increase we've been seeing over last year as we see the total sales volume ramp up.

New listings are approaching a multi year high at 31,298 and I think the reason for the build of the inventory is from two things:

1.) Total buyer demand has definitely reduced from the 2020-2022 market. Tens of thousands of people moved here from other states at that time.

2.) Homeowners will always have life events and changes pushing them to move, despite possibly having a phenomenal mortgage rate.

The challenge these sellers are facing is that the rates are not so rosy for new buyers and consumers are definitely being more discerning with the available options...and yet, prices are still up 3.5%. This means it is absolutely critical to prepare the home for sale to appeal to the maximum number of people and price it correctly to maximize the traffic on the listing, which generally leads to selling for the highest possible price.

I am looking forward to another robust spring quarter of home sales. This next 3 months is the historical "best time" to sell a home at the highest value of the year thanks to the buyer demand.

If you're thinking about moving, please reach out to me to talk about your Real Estate goals and I'll help you achieve them.

JP Morgan released their report for the National Real Estate market outlook for 2025 and it is a FANTASTIC summary of all the market forces at work right now in the USA. Read the article here.

Here's a few things that stood out to me:

#1 - They think the housing values will increase by 2-3% in the next 12 months.

This is what we consider a stable "flat" market condition because standard inflation will cause a home to increase 1-3% in value every year.

This is what makes Real Estate an amazing investment over the long term. You lock in a price, and a mortgage term (hopefully a good one) and then the value of the asset naturally increases on its own, and then occasionally gets a turbo boost from the market conditions (see our 2000-2023 market). Meanwhile, your static cost to own it mostly (...ahem...property taxes) stays relatively similar even as the value increases.

I have a theory that some sort of property tax reform will come within the next decade and I think that could turbocharge a market value increase.

#2 - They recognize that while overall supply remains limited, demand is also suffering because the memory of MUCH better interest rates is too fresh in the minds of the public and these current rates are prohibitive to investment and lots of potential buying.

This is one of the most interesting parts of how markets work. There are always multiple opposing forces playing against each other that make up a market. Some people jump to a conclusion that a market is "bad" or "good" based on some of these factors.

This is the part where I tell you the thing I've always told you: Investing and owning Real Estate is like planting trees. The best time to buy a house is 20 years ago and the second best time is right now...because the next 20 years is coming.

#3 - New construction activity is slowing and builders in many markets are slowing or completely delaying breaking new ground on certain projects.

In a growing city like Houston, builders have had a field day for the last 20+ years with essentially unlimited demand. I think this actually will continue to some extent, because as we've discussed before, this state and this town are still attracting people from all over the country, so the negative impacts that affect the whole country are hitting our local builders with far less impact. You can still see thousands of new homes popping up in new subdivisions in every corner of Houston. I just counted and we have 6 new construction projects going for our clients right now so people are definitely still building here.

I don't see this changing for the next decade. Barring a global or nationwide economic fiasco, Houston, and Texas are some of the best economic "high grounds" of this nation.

If you want to get started investing in Real Estate and get your name on some of these properties that are going to increase in value by 50-100K over the next 10-15 years, please call us anytime.

When it comes to hiring a Realtor, there are so many things you should consider. Track record, client reviews, previous listing quality (basically the Realtor's past work portfolio). These are all things you can verify if you just ask the Realtor to provide them.

Since my personal philosophy is all about continuous improvement, I am always looking for the next feature or process to add to my business to increase the value of what we do for our clients and this past couple months I've had a pretty big realization.

I've realized that of the dozens of processes and functions we follow here at Apex, there is NOTHING that is more important than the Pre Listing Walkthrough.

This is the meeting I set with my listing clients where I come out to the house anywhere from 30 days up to a year before they actually plan to list the house.

I walk the house with my seller and I have a checklist we work through where we go through the home and we look at every room together and talk about what we can do to maximize the home's value.

Keep in mind this is generally just minor stuff the seller can correct for minimal expense. We're not talking full scale remodeling here, mostly just cosmetic polishing. Just watching my sales track record, I have come to believe the return on this investment is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400% of the investment the seller makes.

My goal for this meeting is to help my future client prepare their home so that when it goes on the market, there is a much higher chance that the buyers will buy the home for the most money possible, and in a reasonable time frame.

I am so convinced this step is critical because the evidence is stacking up as the years go by. I have helped more than 200 sellers get their homes ready in the last 6 years and typically we're seeing those homes go under contract in less than half days on market of the competition, and generally for at least a full percentage point above the rest of the market's values.

I have also had multiple instances where some sellers have elected to not do the things I suggest, and then they get the negative feedback from showing agents and it's almost always about the exact things I recommended we handle. Then they correct those things, and we go under contract a week later... Interesting.

So of course we have high standards when it comes to transaction processes, photography, video, and proactively promoting our listings to the public, but still I am absolutely convinced that the most valuable thing I do for you happens way before I list the house on HAR and get to work selling it.

If I can help you get your house ready for sale, please reach out to me anytime. I love looking at homes and I love helping people maximize their investments.

HAR has released the full report for the Houston Real Estate Market.

You can read the full report here and also I'll give a little bit of commentary below.

The never ending story of Houston Real Estate is that the average sold price is up 4.4% year over year to an average sale price of $406,492.

Inventory is now holding pretty steady in that 4 - 4.5 months of inventory range for the last 6-8 months so it seems we have stabilized into a pretty balanced market. I do expect this to draw down just a tad as we get into the Spring and Summer and I expect to see the inventory level go back up as we get into fall. Moral of the story is this is the time to talk with me about selling if that is your goal this year.

We also finished the month of January with more pending sales than a year ago so we're setting up for a better Feb than last year.

Overall the Houston Real Estate Market still shows signs of stability and growth, although not quite the rocketship we had a couple years ago. :)

HAR has published the Fresh Report for Houston's January Month End Market.

New listings are up significantly over last year (over 20%) and I have to say I am surprised because with as many people that we know that are currently locked into some all time historically low rates, it's interesting to see how many new listings are coming to market.

As we've previously discussed, no matter what is going on in the world, some of the population is always going to need to move, and even these record low interest rates aren't holding everyone in place.

Total listing inventory has swelled to over 30,000 properties, but despite this increase in supply it appears the market is still expanding ever so slightly in price. Average list price is still up over $13,000 compared to last year.

I think the contributing factor is we're still seeing net migration growth in our city and we can see that demand for housing is always inching upward along with the population.

Time will tell of course, but personally I do not see this changing for many years. Houston just has a ton of momentum that has been built over the last 25 years.

I am here to serve you when you have a Real Estate need.

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

Recently I applied for a loan and my phone started ringing off the hook! I don't know if you have noticed this, but in the last 5 years or so, any time you have your credit pulled your phone seems to immediately start ringing with countless credit providers trying to offer to sell you on the same product or service.

Even after you're finished with the particular transaction you pulled credit for, you may find you still get these calls for weeks on end from unknown numbers all over the country.

This is because your information isn't protected and in the interest of "choice" the credit bureaus are ok with your info getting handed out to hundreds of credit providers who pay them for lists of people that have recently had a credit inquiry.

If you would like that to stop, I've learned that it's simple!

Head over to

OptOutPrescreen.com

and choose the "Electronic opt out for 5 years" option.

It will ask you for your basic identifying info which takes less than 2 minutes to enter. You can also send the link to your spouse or frankly anyone else you think would benefit and have them do it as well.

This way, the next time your credit is pulled for any reason in the next 5 years, you won't be inundated with dozens of unwanted solicitations for something you may have already finished purchasing weeks ago.

There is also a permanent opt out by mail option, but that takes a lot longer to implement. 2 minutes to save 5 years of frustration seemed like a great deal to me.

I hope you found this helpful!

I am here to serve you when 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.

HAR has released the full sales numbers report for December 2024.

Sales prices outpaced the previous several months with a full 5% increase in average price over last year as well as the total transaction count with more than 1,000 additional transactions compared to last year. To me, this bodes well for the upcoming Spring/Summer season for Houston Real Estate.

Inventory is holding steady at a 4 month supply and I expect that may draw down a bit if the Spring and Summer shows strong buyer demand.

This causes a thought to spring into my mind, if you've ever considered owning an investment property, we are in the geographical market to do it. If you owned 3 investment properties you saw your net worth go up by approximately $50,000 JUST this last year 

....and you didn't have to do anything but

own those properties and keep the tenants happy.

Some segment of the population is always sitting on the sideline and waiting for the market to crash, but in the face of 7% interest rates this town is still seeing values chug their way upward little by little over the last 2 years.

I invite you to get on the train.

Houston is continuing its incredible run of value stability.

List prices in November were up 4.3% year over year to just over $435,000

Keep in mind, most sold homes transact within 3-4% of list price so we're still incrementally moving upward with home values.

This is in the face of a 23.9% increase in the inventory! 30,927 properties are currently available for sale with more than 11,500 NEW listings hitting the market last month.

If we can see the interest rates cooperate a little bit, I am looking forward to a VERY robust 2025 for the Houston Real Estate market!

If you're thinking about selling a Houston home next year, please feel free to call me anytime. I'd like to help you game plan to prepare your house for the market so you can achieve the maximum proceeds from your sale.