Lubbock, TX

407 TOPEKA is located in North Lubbock in the prestigious Renaissance Park addition. It is very convenient to Texas Tech and Lubbock Christian Universities, Downtown, University Medical Center and Covenant Health Systems. It is offered by The Sellers Realty at $375,000 and features too many amenities to list. This one owner custom garden home is just what you have been looking for in Lubbock. Luxury, style and class awaits you in this one of a kind Lubbock Garden Home. Call The Sellers Realty @ 806-445-3639 or 806-778-2486.

There are numerous ways you can have an effect on this season's environmental impact right in Lubbock, Texas. Basic goals in environmentally-friendly shopping can include buying locally-produced and grown food, purchasing locally created gifts and reducing consumption while recycling as much as possible. Here are a few "green" suggestions for this holiday season:

• Buy locally grown and produced food for your holiday meals. Texas produces many fruits and vegetables year-round which are available at farmers markets and some grocers. Check packaging to see where the item was grown or produced.
• Support your local artisans and buy local arts and crafts as gifts to support your town's culture. Check the internet and newspaper for local arts and crafts shows.
• Give gift certificates to a local one-of-a-kind local restaurant.
• Consider giving gifts that aren't "things" but experiences like tickets to a concert, yoga lessons, cooking classes or tickets to the local museum. Often these gifts are more meaningful and greatly appreciated.

Buying locally supports local jobs and local businesses in Lubbock. When you buy gifts and other products from smaller local shops, your help support your communities' businesses and jobs. That's good for you and for your community.

You can also live a "greener" life year-round in Lubbock when you live in a traditional neighborhood development like Vintage Township. Designed to be a walk-able community, Vintage Township is a community where you can live, work, play and shop right in your neighborhood. When built-out, Vintage Township will have homes in all price ranges, a neighborhood school, shops, offices, restaurants, plenty of recreational activities and even it's own Farmer's Market to purchase locally grown produce.

We invite you to explore all that Vintage Township has to offer...start your tour now by visiting our online Town Plan. If you visit any Friday or Saturday between December 5^th and December 20^th you can enjoy Vintage Township's Winter Wonderland where it's guaranteed to snow every 20 minutes.

Total property sales in Lubbock were down from 252 in October 2007 to 192 in October 2008, a -23.8% change.

Total Dollar Volume went from $33,996,167 to $27,328,527, a -19.6% change.

Average Single Family Sales Price went from $134,905 up to $142,236 a +5.4% change.

Median Single Family Sales Price went from $108,575 up to $115,475 a +6.4% change.

Total Active Listings went from 1,813 down to 1,529 a -15.7% change.

Total Pending Sales dropped from 212 to 139, a -34.4% change.

Months Inventory went down from 5.6 to 4.9, a -12.5% change.

*months inventory estimates the number of months it will take to deplete current active listing inventory based on the prior 6 months sales activity.

Did you happen to notice that the AVERAGE price and MEDIAN price has actually INCREASED!!!

The number of sales has decreased, as well as the amount of active listings. The number of listings being lower is a slight advantage to the SELLER in this market. The BUYER cannot be quite as picky. It is taking fewer months to a listing than this time last year.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THAT I CAN SEE FROM THIS DATA AND MY WORK IN THIS CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET IS THE LACK OF CONSUMER CONFIDENCE......PEOPLE IN OCTOBER WERE PLUGGED INTO NEWS ABOUT THE RECESSION AND DID I MENTION THAT WE HAD A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? PEOPLE WERE WATCHING THE NEWS AND NOT BUYING AS MANY HOUSES. FEWER CLOSED IN OCTOBER AND WITH THE PENDING AMOUNT, I'M SURE FEWER ARE CLOSING IN NOVEMBER AS WELL.

HOWEVER, WE HAVE NOTICED THE MARKET BEGINNING TO PICK BACK UP AFTER THE ELECTION.

INTEREST RATES ARE STILL PRETTY GOOD, DAYS ON MARKET ARE NOT BAD, AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF NICE HOMES FOR SALE IN LUBBOCK.

SO, REMEMBER whether Buying or Selling...It's Always a SELLERS Market!

When you look at the wealthy people in our nation, the majority of them made their money in real estate. It always has been and always will be the most stable and profitable investment around. What makes it so good? There are two reasons. First, land is a finite asset. They aren't making any more of it, so it will always be a limited supply. Second, people will always need a place to live. During tough times folks may find a way to live without cell phones or a car, but they will always need a place to call home.

There are many types of real estate to invest in and many ways to invest. Some people think buying a house and flipping it is investing. However, this is really more like generating income. True investment is long term and focuses on building equity. To be successful in real estate investment you must be patient and understand the big picture. Let me illustrate this with an example. Suppose you have a rent house that rents for $800.00 per month and the monthly payment including taxes and insurance is $650.00 per month. What are you making? Nearly everyone will say you are making $150.00 per month if you have no repairs or no vacancies. That doesn't seem like enough money for the hassle and so they never invest. However, this thinking is completely wrong. The $150.00 only represents your cashflow which is just a portion of your entire return.

Here is what your actual monthly return would look like:
Cashflow - $150.00 ($850-$650)
Appreciation - $333.00 (Based on $80,000 value and 5% annual appreciation)
Mortgage Reduction - $50.00 (Based on the first year of a 30 year loan)
Income Tax Savings - $50.00 (This is an estimate that depends on your tax bracket)
Total Monthy Return - $583.00

Wow! That's exciting stuff! I owned four rental properties before I really put all of this together. You can see there is a huge difference between the $150.00 return most people assume and the $583.00 return that is actually taking place. That return is awesome and better yet it will only increase with time. Rent will continue to go up and drive your cashflow higher. Over time you begin to appreciate on your appreciation, so that number always grows like compounding interest. Your mortgage reduction increases with each payment as you pay more principal and less interest. So, the $583.00 per month should be the worst you ever see with this particular property. Imagine if you had ten of these properties doing this for you every month. What if you had one hundred? Then you begin to see the power of investing in real estate.

There are some key concepts you can see through this illustration. First is the power of leverage. In the example above I can make $333.00 per month in appreciation on an $80,000.00 property without needing $80,000.00 to buy that property. The appreciation is the same for me if I buy a house outright with cash, or if I finance the whole thing. It doesn't matter. If I wanted to make a return off of a million dollars in the stock market I would need to find one million dollars first. If I want to make a return off of one million dollars in real estate, I could do that with only one hundred thousand dollars, and probably even less.

Second, you actually save on your taxes by owning property. How can you save on taxes when your properties are making money? The answer is through depreciation. Remember there is reality and then there is the way the government looks at things. In reality your investments continue to appreciate in value, but for taxes the IRS allows you to depreciate them. You can depreciate a property over a life of 27.5 years. For our $80,000.00 property we would deduct the value of the land, say $10,000.00 and give us a depreciable amount of $70,000.00. Divide that amount by 27.5 and you can deduct $2545.45 per year in depreciation. You also deduct for repairs, taxes, insurance, and interest. After all those deductions and depreciation you should show a loss that you may be able to use to offset other income and save on your taxes.

Third, real estate investments are indexed for inflation. As inflation rises, so do your rents and property values. It is very rare to see properties go down in value unless they were overvalued to begin with. The rare years where real estate loses value are typically followed by years of higher than normal appreciation that offsets the short-term drop.

When I began in real estate six years ago, I didn't even own a home. Since then I have purchased 19 rental units and a home. I no longer worry about my financial future. The formula for my future success is already there. All I have to do is be patient and let the system work. It's no get rich quick scheme. It's hard work invested in the right place.

Our office administrator at Exit Realty is Melody Mullen. She came to work for us straight out of college at Texas Tech, and has been with us for three years. When Melody first started, she and her husband were renters. After she learned about the true value of owning property she decided to buy a home. She accomplished that goal within one year of working for us and in the last two years she has built her investment portfolio to six rent homes, with many more to come.

Hopefully this gives you an insight into the world of real estate investing and all the possibilities it brings. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity in some fashion as it fits within your own financial goals.

Today was a really cool day! Yes, it was Sunday and I was able to worship God with my congregation, spend time with family,etc. I also got to see Mike and Janet Huckabee in Lubbock, Texas!!! Now, I don't know everything Mike believes or stands for, but I do have a lot of respect for the man. Besides that, it isn't everyday when you get to see a former governor and recent presidential candidate.

Two of my best real estate buddies had been telling me about his coming all week. One of my buddies sent me a text message at 11:45 a.m. telling me that he was going up to Barnes and Noble to see "Huck" and that he was going to be 1st in line. Huckabee did not arrive until the advertised time of 2p.m. Well, my friend was 1st in line and was nice enough to get Mike Huckabee to sign a book for me. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE LINED UP AROUND EVERY AISLE OF THE STORE AND DOWN THE SIDEWALK TWO STORES AWAY TO SEE MIKE HUCKABEE! There must have been nearly a thousand there waiting to see the Huckabees and have their books signed.

I got several pictures of Mike and Janet Huckabee and was encouraged to see so many West Texans gather to support Mike Huckabee. Maybe they were just there to "DO THE RIGHT THING." That is the title of Huckabee's new book. There are still many in this country that want to do the right thing and we want a president who will do the right thing!

Let's all pray for our leaders to DO THE RIGHT THING!!!

Let not your hearts be troubled,

Jeff and Lisa Sellers

www.thesellersrealty.com