Randy Elgin sells Affordable Homes for sale in the San Antonio, TX area

San Antonio Gated Communities - Is There An Added Value?

Based on a quick analysis of San Antonio Gated Communities and non-gated communities in some northwest Bexar County subdivisions, it appears that the homes in gated subdivisions bring a higher price per square foot than those homes that do not have controlled access.

The San Antonio Gated Communities that were in the analysis include: Woodridge Village, Finesilver and Jade Oaks. The Non-Gated subdivisions that were included in the analysis are: Braun Oaks, Camino Bandera and Woodridge.

There are a lot of San Antonio Gated Communities throughout all areas of Bexar County and it needs to be understood that just because a community has controlled access doesn't necessarily mean that a resident will be safer living there than possibly 2 blocks away. Before deciding on a community to live in it is always recommended to research the crime information for that area.

The way I conducted my analysis on San Antonio Gated Communities was to pull up the last 12 months of data on all the sold properties in controlled access subdivisions and break them out by the Mapsco Grid. I then looked at similar communities within those grids to find subdivisions that were built within a the same time frame as well as similar builders since that can definitely skew the results. I also pulled out those homes that had swimming pools.

Overall San Antonio Gated Communities had a higher sold price per square foot than the homes that were not in a San Antonio Gated Community. I also broke down the data into two story homes versus single story homes, and what I found is that since two story homes tend to be a bit bigger than the single story homes, the sold price per square foot is typically lower. Now this is very common regardless if you are in a gated community or not.

Single story homes in San Antonio Gated Communities that were reviewed typically sold for 6%+ more than their comparable neighborhoods. Two story homes in the San Antonio Gated Communities sold for 8%+ more than their counterparts in non-controlled access subdivisions.

If you would like a specific analysis conducted on your home please select San Antonio Real Estate Market and I will be happy to discuss it with you.

Answer: Based on the data that I reviewed it appears that there is an added value to living in a San Antonio Gated Community.

Selling your Affordable San Antonio Home and how buyers search should be on the forefront of your mind. It has been shown that buyers will start their search for a home as early as 18 months prior to purchasing and over 90% start their search for the home they ultimately purchase on-line.

There are many strategies and thoughts on what price your Affordable San Antonio Home should be listed at from the start, however everyone should realize that the bait should be appropriate for the trophy you are trying to catch! Like my mom use to say... You can catch more flys with honey than you can vinegar!

As you prepare your San Antonio Home for viewing to the general public, you will need to ask yourself several critical questions about your home and answer them as if you were the buyer interested in possibly buying it. The first question you should ask is would I qualify to purchase this home ie. Is It Affordable? Is your home the smallest in the neighborhood yet you want to compete in the same price range bracket as a home that is 1,000 square feet larger?

Buyers search for Affordable San Antonio Homes on a lot of different websites many of which have either the same or very similar search functions. Some of these websites have map search capability and others rely on you knowing the zip codes where the buyers want to live. Regardless, it all comes down to the very first parameters that the buyers enter and those are Price, Number of Bedrooms, Number of Baths and many times the size of the home in units of Square Feet. A lot of these websites have links directly into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for their local Real Estate Board such as the San Antonio Board of Realtors or SABOR.

Ultimately setting up the listing and more importantly the sellers to be successful in selling the Affordable San Antonio Home, it is crucial that all the details about the home be entered correctly into the MLS so that when that information is sent out into the World Wide Web that a big impact is made and captures the attention of as many buyers looking to find that "DEAL" they just have to go see today.

Select San Antonio Real Estate Home Search to find an affordable San Antonio Home today.

Select contact Randy Elgin – REALTOR® to ask me a question.

Request a Market Overview of your home if you are thinking about Selling your Affordable San Antonio Home.

Bring Your Home for sale in San Antonio Up-to-Date

Searching for a fast way to catch attention and bring out the best in your San Antonio house? Go from drab to dynamic in just days with these hot color trends.

The colors

Without a doubt today's popular color trends reflect the warmth and beauty of nature - with a touch of elegance. Blue Iris, Caribbean Sea and Ochre are a few of the new offerings to be found on the palette for 2008. Close behind is green - in fact, green is so popular it is considered by many to be the new "neutral" color to be used in almost any setting. Search for natural hues reminiscent of flora and fauna tones.

The style - Find out about the Newest color trends

The future - What is in and more importantly what is out! To find out more about updating your home click Bring Your home for sale in San Antonio up-to-date.

Credit Scores and Credit History

Credit scores and good credit history is the name of the game when purchasing an Affordable San Antonio Home. So many buyers today are getting great interest rates on the loans they are getting, yet they are not getting the best rates.

There are many lenders out there that will lure an excited buyer into their lair (office) with the statement that credit scores and credit history don't matter and yet they do! Here is a perfect example: a 0.5% increase in interest rate will increase the monthly payment by 5-7%. So if you are a veteran wanting to make use of your VA Benefits and you have a 650 middle credit score the interest rate could be around 4.50%. If your middle credit score was 700+ then your interest rate would be 4.00%. A fifty point difference may or may not be too hard to over come and yet that is dependant on your credit history.

Lot's of time there seems to be a lot of confusion about how to improve credit scores and what is entailed in looking at credit history. My recommendation is always to consult a lending professional that you can sit across the table from and review your credit information in detail. Just because the world wide web has a lot of sites offering self-help doesn't mean that the site you land on will explain the issues in a way that is understandable or outline the proper steps to higher scores.

Select San Antonio Real Estate Home Search to find an affordable San Antonio Home today.

Select contact Randy Elgin – REALTOR® to ask me a question.

Request a Market Overview of your home by selecting San Antonio Real Estate market.

Home ownership remains at the core of the American Dream

A recent Fannie Mae study reveals that the majority of Americans still aspire to own a home—and for good reason. Owning a home is critical to financial stability and wealth building. A home serves as a forced savings account and provides a solid asset, as well as a place to live. Despite the recent market upheaval, the vast majority of Americans still consider home ownership to be important to the economy and preferable to renting. Since the end of World War II, promoting home ownership has been high on the list of the federal government’s priorities, and will continue to be so. For more reasons why now is prime time to buy a home, contact me and I’ll send you a free ebook about why now is a Great Time to Buy an Affordable San Antonio Home.