The Houston Heights is an eclectic neighborhood that combines the history of its past with some modern quirks. It’s character and eccentricity all in one. It’s a family-friendly neighborhood, but far from the suburbs being just a short drive outside of downtown.  You’ll see lots of action in the night life scene, including live music, bars, and restaurants.  However, one of the most recognizable locations within the Heights is the historic 19th street where you will find the iconic Heights theater. The Heights Theater opened in 1929 and was kept sacred in the possession of Heights locals. However, in October of 2015, the property was purchased by Dallas developer Edwin Cabaniss. In about a year, the theater was beautifully remodeled with an honorable nod to its original design. The Heights theater has since then become a hub for live music, art and culture in Houston. Just a few blocks away from the 19th street theater is the Heights Boulevard Art Trek. The pieces sprinkled throughout the Heights hike trail are a part of the community’s sculpture project which has been installing new pieces every few months. This piece simply titled Humpty Dumpty by Yuliya Lanina, is one of the latest installments. The brightly dressed egg with realistic legs in heels and hosiery is stealing the hearts of locals. If you travel a few more blocks down Heights boulevard, you’re sure to see the iconic Donovan Park. The castle themed playground leaves plenty of room for imagination to roam freely. It is known to transport adventurous tykes to a fairytale land of dragons and princesses. The wooden play area has been a staple to the Heights neighborhood since 1996 when members of the community voluntarily teamed up to build the fantasy play land. It has been an icon and popular family hot spot for over 20 years. The Heights is a community of collaboration and companionship. And whether you’re a family of 4+ or single and ready to mingle, there are so many places to explore and new discoveries to be made in every corner. 

Selling a home in today’s market can be a bit frustrating. There’s all sorts of home staging and property preparation advice out there, and some of it seems daunting or impossible to follow unless you already live in a haute home or have a serious bankroll set aside to whip your place into shape. You can’t turn a rancher into a Victorian – so don’t bother trying. But you do have more control than you may realize over how desirable your listing looks to potential buyers. In order to know what turns a buyer on you need to know what turns a buyer off. Here are 6 big-time turn-offs that make buyers cringe at the thought of purchasing your home. 1. Cluttered, dirty and/or “fragrant” houses. You already know this one. Every seller does. Yet, even in 2016, the era of Houzz and HGTV, buyers across America walk into homes that would make your mother cringe every single day. The people who come to see your home are making one of the biggest decisions they’ll ever make. Cluttered countertops, neglected toilet seats and unattended litter boxes not only invite the viewer to turn up their nose, they practically compel a buyer to walk away. Luckily, you have all the control in the world over how your house looks to your would be buyer. Some sellers find it helpful to think not about de-cluttering, but about pre-packing. Everything that is not part of the home’s decor or furnishing and that is not a must for your daily functioning should be boxed up, and neatly packed away in the garage or a storage unit. You’ll have to pack it all up anyway when your home sells, and doing it in advance just makes it more likely the place will sell, stat! Also, no matter how long it takes for your home to get an offer, do not show it without it being completely and totally tidied up: no laundry or dishes piled up, countertops freshly wiped down, mail and paperwork put away and smelly dogs or litter boxes cleaned and/or out of the house. Get every family member on board, kids/cats/canines included, and create a morning or evening cleaning ritual to minimize mad, pre-showing dashes. 2. Overpricing. Buying a house in today’s market is hard work! On top of all the research and analysis about the market, buyers have to work overtime to separate the real estate wheat from the chaff, get educated about short sales and foreclosures and often put in many, many offers before they get even a single one accepted. The last thing they want to add to their task list is trying to argue a seller out of unreasonable expectations or pricing. When buyers see a home whose seller is clearly clueless about their home’s value and has priced it sky-high, many won’t even bother looking at it. If they do love it, they’ll wait for it to sit on the market for a while, hoping the market will “educate you” into desperation, priming the pump for a later, lowball offer. Ultimately, you decide what to ask for your home. But you deprive yourself of the professional counsel and expertise you’re paying for if you fail to listen to your agent’s advice and insights on the subject of listing price. They will point you to other properties that have sold in your area with similar features and use that data to help you understand the right price range for your home. Worried about setting the price too low? Get buyer’s brokers’ feedback with an advance broker’s open house, and work with your agent on an advance plan for bringing the price down if you get no showings or buyer interest. 3. Deceptive listing descriptions or pictures. Here’s the deal: you will never trick someone into buying your home. If listing pics are photo-edited within an inch of their lives, buyers will learn this information at some point. If your neighborhood is described as funky and vibrant, because the house is under the train tracks and you live in between a wrecking yard and a biker bar, buyers will inevitably figure this out. And misrepresentation alone is enough to turn otherwise interested buyers off. In cases where the buyer feels misled, whether or not that was your intention, they can’t help but wonder: If they can’t trust you to be honest about this, how can they trust you to be honest about everything else? Buyers rely on sellers to be upfront and honest – so be both. If your home has features or aspects that most buyers will see as negative, your home’s listing probably shouldn’t lead with them. But neither should you go out of your way to slant or skew or spin the facts which will become instantly obvious to anyone who visits your home. And in any event, your pricing should account for all of your home’s features, pros and cons. 4. New, bad, home improvements. Many a buyer has walked into a house that has clearly been remodeled and upgraded in anticipation of the sale, only to have their heart sink with the further realization that the brand-spanking-new kitchen features a countertop made, not of Carerra marble, but brand-new, pink tiles with a kitty cat in the middle of each one. Or the pristine, just-installed floors feature carpet in a creamy shade of blue – the buyer’s least favorite color. New home improvements that run counter to a buyer’s aesthetics are a big turn-off. In today’s era of frugality, buyers just can’t cotton to ripping out expensive, brand new, perfectly functioning things just on the basis of style – especially since they’ll feel like they paid for these things in the price of the home. Check in with a local broker or agent before you make a big investment in a pre-sale remodel. They can give you a reality check about the likely return on your investment, and help you prioritize about which projects to do (or not). Instead of spending $40,000 on a new, less-than-attractive kitchen, they might encourage you to update appliances, have the cabinets painted and spend a few grand on your curb appeal. Many times, they will also help you do the work of selecting neutral finishes that will work for the largest possible range of buyer tastes. 5. Bad photos or no photos at all. Some of the listing photos that make it online are shockingly bad. They have dumpsters parked in front of the house, piles of laundry all over the “hardwood” floors touted in the listing description, and once, even the family dog doing his or her business in the lovely green front yard. Listing pictures that have put your home in anything but its best, accurate light are a very quick way to ensure that you turn off a huge number of buyers from even coming to see your house! The only bigger buyer turn-off than these bizarre listing pics are listings that have no photos at all; most buyers on today’s market see a listing with no pictures and click right on past it, without giving the place a second glance.  Before your home is on the market, ask your listing agent-to-be to see the online marketing for their current listings, to get a feel for how they operate. After your home is on the market, don’t neglect to check top listing sites to be sure that the pics for your home’s listing represent your home well. If not, ask your agent to grab some new shots and get them online (and say pretty please, pretty please!).

You might have heard that saying about the number of fish there are in the sea – the sea of prospective dates and mates. The same goes for homes on the market. Even when the market heats up as it’s doing now, it’s not uncommon for a buyer to visit 10, 20 or even more homes before finding the property they want to make their home. These numbers can be daunting, but even the most particular buyers, even buyers who are frustrated by how many homes don’t seem like the right fit, can take heart in this one truth of dating that also applies to house hunting: You only need to find ONE. So the next question is this: how do you know which fish is the one you should take home – I mean, make your home? To help, here are six signs that a given home you’re viewing might in fact be “The One”: 1. You instantly feel possessive about the property. When you walk into ‘The One’ no matter how long you’ve been house hunting, you’ll get an involuntary surge of energy to do whatever it takes to make that home yours. If you’re at an Open House and other buyers are viewing the place, you’ll start to feel competitive. If you’re at a private viewing, you’ll start to talk numbers and offer logistics. For that matter, some buyers start making calls to their financial planners, generous parents, and contractors from the front porch steps of their “One” – during the first viewing! If you walk through a place and leave with your heart or mind set on making it yours, it might be “The One.” 2. You start to see its flaws as adorable quirks. Train tracks 10 feet from the bedroom window? Next door neighbor that runs a pigeon-sitting service? Okay – I exaggerate! But if you find yourself viewing a home with traits that you would normally deem undesirable or as deal-killers, yet you like the place so much that you instinctively compile a mental list of reasons those traits just don’t matter, you might have found “The One.” Smart buyers should be aware of a syndrome some call “Pottery Barn Psychosis,” whereby the aesthetics of a wonderfully staged home with amazing curb appeal can hypnotize a buyer. This syndrome renders buyers blind to the negative property features, which would be glaring or grave concerns if the place weren’t so stinking cute. It’s fine to make a conscious decision that the pros of a place outweigh its cons, and even to consciously re-rank your priorities in light of a particular property’s advantages. But throwing reasonable guidelines for your home out of the window because it’s just so stinking cute is about as savvy as doing the same with your dating prospects – not a setup for success. Buyers can avoid falling victim to Pottery Barn Psychosis (and the Buyer’s Remorse that often follows suit) by writing down your absolute musts and deal-breakers before you ever step foot in a single property – and by revisiting this document before you write an offer and again before you remove your contingencies. If you find yourself viewing a home with traits that you would normally deem undesirable, yet you like the place so much that you instinctively compile a mental list of reasons those traits just don’t matter, you might have found “The One.” 3. You immediately envision your own family, furniture, decor, daily activities or remodeling choices in/to the home. If you find yourself, during a property viewing, measuring the dining room with your footsteps to be sure your Grandma’s table will fit, discussing whether the wall between kitchen and dining room can be removed or your mind’s eye photoshopping a given property to insert your bedroom set, your dining table and favorite wall hangings into place it’s entirely possible that the home you’re viewing could be “The One” for you. 4. You lose interest in seeing other homes. When you find “The One,” your interest in seeing other homes dissipates, instantly – no matter how many homes you’ve seen or how long you’ve been house hunting. 5. The bathroom and kitchen don’t disgust you. We humans are born with only two fears in life: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. By about eight months old, we start to acquire new fears. Chief among them: the fear of other people’s kitchens and bathrooms. Other people’s kitchens and bathrooms hold definite gross-out potential. There’s just something about what goes on in those rooms that seems exceptionally intimate and even unsanitary. So, if you happen to find yourself falling in love with a home’s river rock shower floor or drooling over the pot-filler, countertop or farmhouse sink, that’s a sign that you’re falling head over heels with a home that might just be “The One.” 6. The money, time and energy spent feels worth it. Home buying is an expensive, time consuming proposition. And your years of budgeting of earned you a nice nest egg, but it didn’t come easy, there might be many a Saturday night at home and a brown bagged lunch reflected in your down payment savings. If you view a home that make all of those sacrifices suddenly feel like the best, most worthwhile decision ever? You, my friend, might have found “The One.”