Market Analysis Summary

• South Padre Island Area Sales Analysis
• Corpus Christi Area Sales Analysis
• Rockport Fulton Area Sales Analysis
• Galveston Area Sales Analysis
• McAllen Texas Area Sales Analysis

• building Hurricane Resistant Structures: high off the ground to protect from water surge and flood damage, building to intense construction standards to survive high wind damage, and to have such structures certified by the insurance industry.
• also by protecting the beachfronts with concrete walls or artificially enhanced dunes (geo-tubes), and implementing beach re-nourishment in areas where there is erosion. Or by building homes far enough back from the shoreline and/or behind an anchored structure such as a roadway.

Median Prices in all the Texas Gulf Coast Markets increased in 2007

• As painful as it might be to realize that your house isn't worth what you thought, asking too much in a slow market is a mistake.
• You'll also need a reality check when it comes to the physical appeal of your home. In the days of bidding wars and waiting lists, buyers were so happy to land a house that they scarcely noticed carpet stains and chipped paint. Today they are picky about the cosmetic stuff.
• Take advantage of flat fee listing services to save on commissions and apply that savings to reduce your price. See the Texas Gulf Coast Online Flat Fee listing service for details at TexasGulfCoastOnline.com/FlatFeeMLS.aspx.
• Don't play a game of hoping the right buyer will come along just in time.

• If you're purchasing from a developer, push especially hard. They can't afford to wait.
• Builders are doing anything to move their inventory, because it costs money to carry it.
• To compete with the big boys, sellers of existing homes are also sweetening the pot. Feel free to ask sellers to cover closing costs or several months of mortgage payments.

• If you got out of the market when prices were high, bank those proceeds. Check out the Rental Rates tool and Rent vs. Buy tool in the links section below.

• A lot of homeowners out there are living under a roof they soon won't be able to afford.
• Of all the nonsense that the boom has wrought, little has been crazier than the proliferation of adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, often called exotic mortgages because so few people understand them.

• With loan volume dropping, banks are willing to negotiate to get your business.

• Lay off the home leverage, and go easy on the remodeling projects.

• Negotiate an exit strategy in your sales contract, especially as lead times for construction grow longer in some markets. For example, state that if the builder doesn't break ground by a certain day, you can get out of the contract.
• If you're deposit money is going to sit there for an extended period, as the developer to pay interest.
• Get in writing what changes that can be made to the project once the sales contract is signed. Finishes and appliances might not be set in stone at the time you sign the deal.
• Try to find out the current state of the local market and gauge whether the developer is offering incentives to lure new buyers – which, though attractive to buyers in the short term, can put a downward pressure on prices.
• Check out the Texas Gulf Coast Online Buyers Club for an even better way at TexasGulfCoastOnline.com/BuyersClub.aspx

Whether you are buying or selling, TexasGulfCoastOnline.com and AliceDonahue.com Real Estate have put together special programs and strategies to help you come out ahead in today's market.

Contact us today and find out how!