Doris Barnett-e-PRO Professional Trainer

If you are considering a home purchase this spring, why not let us help. There are over 200 Houses that are under $200,000 in Collin county that are going through the foreclosure process. 199,900 4/4 2 car garage

Many of these homes are in good condition; they are simply houses whose owners have hit a crisis point and now these houses are looking for new owners that can and will give them the care a home needs. If you are one of those people who are hoping to find a house that needs a homeowner's care-give me a call. 972-208-9200 or send me an e-mail: Doris@DorisBarnett.com. 3/3 138,900

Let us first get you qualified, that increases your negotiating position and gets you some pull in the buying process. Then we will help with pricing point information, so that you can buy at the right price for a particular area. We do scientific CMAs and that is a feature that we offer to the clients of this company. A scientific CMA follows very specific guidelines and commonly hits the price on the nailhead with which the appraiser will agree when the time comes. Remember as a buyer, a lender will first approve you for the loan and then they will require an appraisal to approve the property that you wish to buy.

Start your spring in a new home, locations are good, prices are better and rates are still dropping. Why wait to start building your wealth? The National Association of REALTORS says that most homebuyers use their homes to help build their wealth and buying smarter gets you started with some equity at the start.

We had a networking meeting today at the Collin County Association of REALTORS and that is normal for a Tuesday we have them every week. What made this week different is that we had the company of Judge Charles Sandoval in attendance and he was in fact our featured speaker. Now he is an elected official and up for election but, all he said about that was don't forget to vote today.

The more important topic that he brought us was that there is a treatment that he found by attending a meeting a year ago in Chicago. He is sentencing people coming through or assigned in to his court to this treatment. He says that maybe 90 percent of his "offenders" are there due to a problem with drugs or acohol. This treatment is helping 70% of them stop the drug use-specifically meth. His cases cover things like burglaries, car breakins and even child abuse cases. All track back to the use of a drug of some sort. In Texas we do have a program in the jail system that takes a year to complete and most of the "offenders" aren't anxious to participate in that one-this other one is an injection treatment and a talking treatment that seems to work pretty well a 70% success rate and they will even ask for this sentence when given the choice of 1 month or 1 year I guess the choice is easy. The best part is the parole officers are the monitoring arm and it actually shrinks the part of the brain that crys out for the drug. He has already put 20 people through the program and the state has jumped on board with an allocation on $180,000 towards the program. It's not enough but, perhaps when they realize that it costs us probably closer to $30,000 to house someone in jail for just one year this is a better plan!

They have also brought it to the attention of the jails. There is a Doctor in Dallas Dr. Urshal who will administer the program for someone outside the correctional system for $12,000. The judge told us that is probably a deal for most meth users. This drug is called Prometa, the one for alcohol is called Vivitral. They are planning to try to get this information to the schools next. I already sent an e-mail to my principal with the information on the programs. What a gift, to have someone in the judicial system who cares enough to really try and solve the problems! He struck me as an amazing man, perhaps you know another amazing person in your town who needs this information. Judge Charles Sandoval is an elected judge for the 380 district court in Plano, Texas.

SO did Swiss Family Robinson for my daughter. We try to encourage her to be as big a reader as we are so this last trip to the library I picked up the 8th Habit by Covey and since we were called out of town on Sunday afternoon-I took it with me-Luckily I am one of those strange people who can read in the car and I did. There's as much to this habit as there was in the 7 habits of highly effective people! I am enjoying it. Just wish I had more time to read.

Heh Texan's, our business is coookin! This week we are seeing 3-4 deals per agent happening. It's almost spring, I guess. The daffodil's have started to bloom and so are our Buyers. Hope that stays true for your areas too! Nice that Dallas has held it's value and skipped out on the foreclosure crisis. We still need to verify that our comps aren't foreclosures just in case, but for the most part all is well. While I have buyers who are interested in HUD properties, distressed listings and short sales or foreclosures we don't have the abundance that is out there in other areas. Perhaps a listing policy only for the next couple of weeks will pay off nicely with the current abundance of Buyers. Need to maintain the balance somehow.

It is nice to hit the streets with buyers and see what we can find in the way of a deal-with the media hype it does bring the buyers expecting to find deals and the sellers are more prepared for lower offers because of what they have seen on TV. It's so nice to see the office this busy again. If you want to see our agents you not only have to feed them you have to be in all day-they are busy helping everyone moving to the Dallas Suburbs.

Of the top ten cities in the U.S two of the top ten are in Texas and both are seeing an INCREASE in home values! What are you saying when someone asks how is the market? I saw an articule yesterday where a long time broker in another southern state was crying the blues over the state of the state in his state. I hope that you are celebrating the state of our state for your customers so that they can take advantage of this incrediblly rare opportunity to grab a slice of the american pie dream of home ownership. By the way have you taken the time to search out a piece of pie for yourself? Isn't it almost time to do so? Then you too can brag about the incredible deal you just closed to increase your own real estate portfolio. Is two a portfolio or do we have to wait to get three? Oh well maybe it's time to look at 4-plexes and stop wondering!

Click this link for Home Pricing Index map of USA

Positive numbers for Texas! from Money magazines articule on First American's Corelogic Home price Index.

12-Month Change by Top CBSAs (Core Based Statistical Areas)
as of November 2007
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown TX 4.16%
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX 3.53%

These numbers may not be so impressive to you if you have been spending time and money investing in the stock market over the past few years but, seriously this kind of growth over a long time is realistic and not something that "crashes" any marketplace! In ten years time you are looking at a potential 35% increase if it keeps up at this conservative rate. Now I saw a growth pattern that went to almost 300% in real estate in another state that is now in the red on the above map link. They can't sell it for that amount today and isn't that the point? Personally, I want to be able to get the money out when I want it or need it! It just seems like common sense that everyone else would feel the same way.

UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE on 10906030 Now $50K under new builds in the area!

We are looking for highest and best offers on this property. I will be happy to get you in just give me a call or check in with CSS if you are a professional. This home is great for people who need an extra downstairs bedroom for their comfort. There are 3 upstairs.