Scott08

Anecdotally, I think lots fronting Memorial Drive there are a hard sell. My guess is unless someone buys the house to rehab it, it will eventually end up being a spec McMansion that will also take a long time to sell due to location.

Never thought much about the lack of trees in the front. My back and side yards have four trees total and are pretty shaded. Some houses on my block have front yard trees but not all of them a la 16th street a few blocks over. I used to have brick planter boxes in the front but they were in pretty bad shape so I took them down a few years ago. There are still two "mini-slabs" where they used to be...maybe outline them with some landscape timbers, fill them back up with dirt and plant some flowers or plants. I personally think the front yard's too small for a big tree, many of the yards that do have them also have crumbling sidewalks and driveways from root damage. If I decide to relist, I might also attack the kitchen. I think for around $1500-2K I could place some cabinets along the one wall that doesn't have any (you don't see it in the pictures) which would add not only more space but would make the kitchen more "conventional." If $5K investment could get me my asking price then I'd be all over it.

I've had one realtor from this forum PM me with some very lowkey advice that follows what most people on here are saying, that is try to identify what problems might exist, wait a while, then relist. The ones I referred to earlier are unsolicited pitches, each implying that my realtor was at fault and that they can make lemonade from lemons.

Thanks for all the good suggestions. Although I'm still not absolutely convinced my price was too high, that is certainly a huge factor that's somewhat intangible...i.e. just because other houses in an area sell for a certain range doesn't mean others will find yours in the same ballpark. I also believe had I kept dropping the price, eventually someone (perhaps a flipper) would have bought it but fortunately I am not in a position where I have to sell at this time, just wanted to. Like most Americans a lot of my nest egg is tied up in my house so I do have to temper my sales price with my future needs. One unexpected side effect is the avalanche of form letters in my mailbox this week from realtors all saying they can sell my house where the first one failed. Not sure if this is a sign that the market is good or just desperate?

There was originally a picture of the front of the house, but my realtor thought maybe the blue color was scaring people off so he removed it. I'll have to dig for one or take another. Exterior is decent, roof and paint less than two years old. Garage is kind of ugly but I'm using it, it could use a coat of paint or new siding. I'll be honest and say curb appeal may be lacking. Front yard grass is good, driveway side has some plants growing, but nothing decorative in the front. Backyard has grass and uhhh...evidence...that a dog lives there but far from being unsalvageable.

Here is the link http://harlistings.marketlinx.com/SearchDe...p;AgentId=janel thanks. We dropped the price twice in $5K increments, the original asking price was $249,900. I asked about dropping it once more but it was already near the bottom of the area's prices, look under North Norhill in HAR. In the surveys, only two people thought the price was too high, all others said it was in line for the area so I don't think that was the main/only factor.

The HAR link is gone, at least from the public site. Any way a realtor can still retrieve it?

They are the numbskulls who built townhouses literally ten feet away from the railroad tracks on Heights Boulevard. "The arrogance of builders" my realtor buddy says. Don't know what that says about their company other than maybe a really bad choice in one location. I'll be amazed if anyone ever buys those houses.

The contract with my listing agent expired August 31, my home in North Norhill didn't sell after 7 months on the market. There was around 30 showings, one open house, two price reductions, but the only offer was one from a potential flipper at $50K under asking price. Feedback from the showings was pretty limited, most didn't even fill out the survey, the ones that did were fairly vague on the house's shortcomings. Almost all liked the location, felt the price was in the correct range for the neighborhood, but no one bit. Anecdotatal evidence (not on the surveys) was that perhaps the porch being enclosed, the bright blue exterior paintjob, and the modernist kitchen may have been turnoffs. I'm really disappointed, no one puts their house on the market not to sell. I don't know who or what to blame. Is the house really an albatross, did my realtor not do his job?, or is the economy just in the pits right now? I've decided to do nothing for the immediate future. My options include starting again with a different realtor, digging in and continuing with some of the improvements I would like to do for my longterm happiness, and/or have someone tell me what to change to make my house more marketable. Any suggestions or observations would be welcomed.

You might put up with that if you like the external/internal style of the house better. As I've been looking at townhomes the last year or so, style and layout have been more important to me than parking although that is a concern also. Perhaps priorities would have been a better choice of words.

I've noticed that in townhouse association fees too. The new paradigm is no fees at all where the old school ones are frequently in the hundreds per month. That extra fee could buy that much more house. Must make it really hard in the resale (your example condo's fee is more than my current mortgage!)

I'm with the OP that a private driveway adds value in RM because of the lack of street parking, just not sure how much in $$$$ that translates too. More of personal preference/need thing as opposed to value thing. Nice to know that that the $800K plus homes (YIKES!) offer driveways.

Geez, missed this thread when it first started...We used to drive down and troll lower Westheimer during high school in the mid '70's. Really took off during the '80's when we'd ride our motorcycles down there, park in the Wendy's lot and watch the world go by. Then one night the popo came in droves and forced everyone out of the neighborhood. The sport bikers moved on the James Coney Island down past the Galleria but eventually got pushed out of there too. Maybe I'm too old to be in on the secret, but I don't think there's any "cruising" strip anymore like there used to be.

Went by Issues at lunch today, he's still got the previous Atomic Ranch on the shelf. Says he should probably get the new one by this time next week. Great store by the way for anyone who's never been there.

Earl Campbell. The most humble sports figure the city ever had.

Just wondering if anyone knew anymore details about Waterhill's bankruptcy? I've had the occasion since I last posted to ride by their developments on W. 8th, Commerce, and Navigation and all of them appear to have just stopped in their tracks. Navigation and W. 8th have a few unfinished houses and lots of land around them...Commerce has lots more partially completed shells. I never really came that close but was kind of interested in the Commerce and Heights projects at one time so I'm just curious what will become of them?

Kind of Frank Gehry'ish, probably either a love or hate kind of thing. Aesthetics aside, very large and unlike the surrounding neighborhood, also in the flood plain I'm sure.

This thread brings up a cautionary tale for me as a potential home shopper. With the whole real estate market being in a general slump I am seeing these "partially completed complexes" in pockets all over the inner loop where I've been looking. Of course, the cheerful salespeople aren't going to tell you that the builder is in dire straits and might never finish the other houses around the one you're buying....but that's exactly what might happen. You end up in a newly constructed house (good or bad) but you're surrounded by unfinished hulks and dirt, hardly the thriving community you envisioned when you bought. I've also seen some complexes where the exteriors of all the planned homes are up but unfinished on the inside. They're actively for sale so I guess the builder plans on finishing them up one by one only after receiving funding for them, sounds really risky to me as a consumer.

What I have found funny about the whole granite/stainless trend is the undisputable fact that it will be considered dated at some point in time, be it already or ten years from now. It's just the nature of people that what floats their boat now will certainly be old fashioned at some point, and it's just as likely that 50 years from now "retro" granite/stainless kitchens will be all the rage again. I rather like the look of stainless steel appliances but am much more ambivalent about granite counters. Like a previous poster the color/pattern of the counters is what makes me smile or go yecchh. My current kitchen is a mix of SS stove and frig, SS and wood countertops, and wood floor. It's gotten decidedly mixed reviews during my current "for sale" period.

The pitched roofs were added sometime, there was an original photo of the house on the Memorial Bend site with a flat roof. There was evidence in the house of a leaky roof when I viewed it and I guess the original owner thought adding the new elevations would fix it. I'm still kind of new to this thing (looking at older houses) but I hate to say that there was LOTS of deferred maintenance evident in the house. Don't know how long it had been vacant but I believe the house was still owned by the original buyer or at least a longtime second owner.

I viewed this house during its previous sale period and to me it was in absolutely horrible shape: walls, floors, ceilings, and exterior all rotting away. So in a way it's kind of nice that it's still standing but about the only mod feature they saved was the courtyard walls of windows. They took down two walls and a two-way fireplace in the kitchen/living area and added the "flyover" at the rear of the center courtyard and the interior archways have no ties whatsoever to the house's style. I'd be really shocked if they can get anywhere close to that asking price.

Brookesmith would still be considered more "transitional" than other nearby areas although it's all relative. I live in North Norhill which is a historic district and considered "desirable" and the Enid address is less than a mile from me. My beef with that house is that they've "granitized" the poor old house, definitely the work of a flipper. Then again, that might just be "what everybody wants."

$400K should get you a pretty good house if you can keep the lot value down. Expect to pay $150K at least in the Heights proper, but you might find something for less if you expand your horizons a bit. I have seen smaller oddly shaped lots in the Heights for less than $100K and you can find prices like that in the Heights "fringe" areas too. I kind of think you need a general idea of what you want the house to look like before you talk to an architect. Either sketch something yourself, or find some pictures of houses you like, then arrange a meeting with someone. Another idea would be to search through this forum for the names of local firms that have been mentioned before, peruse their websites for past projects and see if any of them look like what you're imagining. I have heard architect's fees of up to around 10% of the total project cost but I think that's a pretty flexible estimate. "Superstar" architects will probably quote you a flat fee upfront, but you will find others who love to do cool projects when they can and will probably work within your budget. I would say based on a $100K lot, $300K building/design costs will get you a really cool house.

HappyHistorian's post got me to thinking about what the OP's intentions are? No offense, but HH's reply makes a lot of sense if money/time is no object. For me, those items are important and I firmly believe that modern style good design doesn't inherently have to be expensive. After all, modernism's roots have always included the idea that everyman should be able to live in this style of home. FLW had that vision, as did the California Case Study architects. Two of the architects/designers I spoke with relished the idea of coming up with a cool house that didn't cost a fortune. So MikeHeights, I guess a good question going forward is "how much do you want to spend?"

That is mind blowing to me! I have lived almost 20 years within a mile of that house and have never seen it or any other MCM's in the Heights area proper, closest ones I knew of were in Timbergrove and Shepherd Forest. I drove by to take a look last night and it looks to be in pretty good shape. Kind of a weird block with a mix of single family homes and apartments, but utterly Heights funky like I adore. Hope the new owner doesn't tear it down.