Carolyn Shipp Mineral Wells Texas Real Estate

This week I am providing a snapshot of residential real estate activity for our entire Palo Pinto County. This will give you an idea of what has happened in our market for the week beginning 9/12/2011 and ending 9/19/2011.

Currently at $84,900

Palo Pinto County has 378 active residential listings. Prices range as low as $4900.00 for a time share condominium to as high as $32,900,000.00 for a 3,290 acre ranch with four residences. The average days on market is 232 for these properties. The lowest day being 1 and the highest days being 1,525.

During the week we had 2 properties sell. One being in Possum Kingdom Lake and another in Mineral Wells. Prices were $14,200.00 and $165,000.00 respectively, with the average days on market at 100.

Currently we have 5 properties pending. These range from $33,500.00 up to $369,900.00. Only one of the propertes is a foreclosure at $48,900.00. The average days on market: 180

Total foreclosures for the county: 18
Prices range from: $22,500.00 to $695,000.00
Average Days on Market: 221

For properties with a contract that has some type of condition before it can go pending, we have 7. Prices range from $84,900 $135,000.00
up to $230,000.00. There are no foreclosures in this category.
The average day a home spent on the market: 218

As you can see, our rural county has had a busy week in real estate. If you have any questions or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed and it's time for the Crazy Water Festival already! This year we have changed things a little so that we will be having activities on Friday and Saturday. If you are looking for a fun and lively event, then this will definitely be a great time for you, your family and friends!

Early morning, children's area

Friday evening beginning at 5:30 p.m. we will have the car-cruise and car show. Live Music, wine and art will be available and on display. Evening winds up about 8:30 p.m.

Saturday the festival itself begins!

Main Stage Area - Live Music All Day Featuring:

Steve Poltz
Salim Nourallah
Carrie Elkin
Stan Crawford
CrazyWater
Joshua Ingram & American Combo
Jimmy Baldwin and Vaqueros Electronicos
Coe Boys
Adam Hull
Doug and Jill Bryan
Christa Russell

Throughout the day we will have the Crazy Water Dunking Booth, a 5k trail run, Crazy Beer, Rahr's Crazy Beer, the Crazy Cyclocross and much more! Come taste some of the Crazy Beer in the Crazy Beer Garden behind the Famous Water Company, visit more that 75 vendors and just have a wild and crazy day!

Also note that if you would like to become involved with the festival, we would love to have you as a volunteer. It's a great way to get know your community and neighbors. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone and I'll let you know what areas we still have available. (You can e-mail me through ActiveRain.)

Chalk art from last year

GREAT ENTERTAINMENT....GREAT FOOD....GREAT FUN!!!!!!

October 7th - 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Little Rock Schoolhouse

October 8th - 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. at the Famous Water Pavillion Area.

You can also visit www.crazywaterfestival.org for more information.

Real Estate in Mineral Wells is a little unpredictable right now, as it is in many places. This is only a snapshot report for our residential properties in Mineral Wells only. It does not include outlying county areas.

Lowest priced active listing at: $22,000

Currently, we have 126 active listings ranging in price from $22,000 to $32,900,000.00. The highest priced being 3,290 acres of land.

116 active lisings - currently for sale (10 of these are foreclosures) $22,000 to $32,900,000

6 active contingent - which means that there is a contract, but there is some type of condition that has to be met in order for the buyer to purchase the home (such as getting financing.) $84,900 to $159,900

4 pending - waiting to go to closing (2 of these are foreclosures) $34,900 to $175,000

The average days on the market have been 174, with the shortest period of time being 6 days and the longest 922 days.

Lowest price sold for past 30 days

Within the past 30 days, we have had 11 residential properties sell, ranging in price from $33,500 to $385,000.

6 were sold for under $100,000
4 were sold for under $200,000
1 sold for under $400,000

The average days on market for a sold listing were 120. The shortest being 3 days and the longest at 286 days.

Two of these sold properties were foreclosures.

As you can see, we have a very diverse selection of homes and property for sale in Mineral Wells. If you would like more information on our area, please feel free to contact me at any time.

and it is pretty simple. Know your market, your area and experiment! As we all know, real estate is local. What works well in one area does not work as well in another. Some people love open houses, others not so much. There have seen so many mixed reviews and articles and thoughts about open houses, I decided to determine the answer for myself (which is what I would suggest anyone do.)

I have a nice property located on the main street that is the North/South route into and out of Mineral Wells. The home has been renovated, has updated appliances, updated wiring, plumbing, everything and is zone commercial and residential. The location is excellent for a small office but has parking for residential off the main road and a side road. Perfect opportunity for me to have an open house as countless people will be driving by day in and day out and will be able to see the banner announcing when it will be and at what time. Truly, I expected to see several couples or interested parties come through based on this fact alone. But, we advertised and let people know.

The day of the open house arrives, I get there a little early and pop my cookies in the oven to cook, turn on all the lights and turn up the heat a bit since it had been very cold the previous night and there was quite a chill in the home. As I walked through opening blinds and closet doors for people to peek into, I made sure there wasn't anything that needed to be picked up or straightened. The home looked ready to go and I went into the dining room to decorate the table for refreshments. A Spring platter was put out with a bright and happy tablecloth and I was all ready! The place looked great and I couldn't wait to show people the built in cabinets and huge kitchen, the crown moldings, etc.

An hour into the open house and my broker pops by to see if I need anything or need any help. Nope, I said, all is quiet. I haven't had anyone come by yet. She stayed for a little bit, but then had errands to run and left. I had brought some work with me, so I had things to do while I waited...and waited...and waited. A couple of hours go by...still no one...funny thing runs through my mind...I remember my sellers telling me that when they had had the home for sale as FSBO, they had open houses quite often and didn't even advertise and would get "tons" of people in and out during their open house...hmmmm.

It's the last hour and still no one. I had a couple of clients to contact, so I made some phone calls, worked on my newsletter for next month some more and low and behold, saw some people walking up to the front door. The two ladies pop their head in and ask if they could just walk through and look. They lived next door and knew the owners and wanted to see if the house looked the same. Sure I said, take a few cookies as well!

In the end, it wasn't a waste of my time as I was able to get some work done, but it also confirmed what I had felt in the beginning...Mineral Wells typically does not have a high success rate for showings at open houses. I try to go to any open house I see, whether it be for one of our listings or another real estate office. Most often, the response that I receive when I go is that I've been the only one to show up or maybe one or two others have come by. But, in the best interest of my sellers, they really thought it would be a good idea.

So, if the question is in your head...Should I have an open house? Visit a few open houses in your area first. Try to determine if you feel it has been a success or if you think that people really don't have an interest and talk it over with your sellers. Some care, some don't. But, the true test is experiment. If it works out and you have a good turnout, all the better. If it turns out that it wasn't the best use of your time, well you now know and will be able to educate your sellers the next time one mentions that he/she would think it would be an excellent idea. Your experimentation and expertise is what is going to help get the house sold and the better you know your market and what people like and don't like, the more success you should have in selling your properties.

There was a fair amount of activity last week in Palo Pinto County real estate. We had a few sales, put some properties into pending status and have many that are active.

Currently we have 834 active listings in our county. These listings include land, commercial, residential and multi-family properties. Prices range from $5,000 all the way up and through the $1,000,000.00 price point.

3 properties sold during the past week (11/9/09 - 11/15/09).

(1) 2 bedroom, 1 bath brick home that sold for $65,000.00. (Mineral Wells)
(1) 21 1/2 acre tract of land that sold for $75,900.00 (Graford)
(1) 3 bedroom, 1 bath home that sold for $159,000.00 (Possum Kingdom Lake)

5 properties were pending through 11/15/09.

(1) 3 bedroom, 1 bath bank owned home listed for $19,900.00, (Gordon)
(1) 3/4 acre lot listed for $54,000.00. (Possum Kingdom Lake)
(1) 2 bedroom, 2 bath home listed for $59,500.00. (Mineral Wells)
(1) 3 bedroom, 1 bath home listed for $65,000.00. (Mineral Wells)
(1) 1 10 acre tract of land listed for $100,000.00. (Mineral Wells)

Unfortunately, 18 properties expired. These people may renew with their agents, go with another agent or opt to keep their properties off the market for a period of time.

Normally, November through February are fairly slow for the real estate market in Palo Pinto County. We will be keeping an eye on things to find out if the home-buyers credit will make a difference here.

**All information was obtained through our local multiple listing service.**