3.23 acres with a 20×20 workshop and 20×20 stables

Large Kitchen Area

5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms

deer and other woodland creatures

large kitchen and storage can accommodate guests

freezer area in butler’s pantry

woodland views out of the family room

bonus studio off of the garage

posh laundry and craft room

2 RV hook-ups for your Aggie weekend guests

Back Exterior

bonus workroom upstairs off of the master bedroom

9 minute commute to A&M University, 17 minutes to the Health Science Center

9 minutes to the College Station Medical Center

Exterior North

You can’t beat the commute!

It’s outside city limits but only minutes to various businesses in the Brazos Valley.

Call me to schedule a tour today.  And don’t forget to mention where you know

the music from above:)

Happy fall,

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

LaundryRoom- just one corner

town. Not a washateria where you pay to use a commercial machine.  But I mean the best utility/hobby/washing area ever!  It is 140 square feet of organization, efficiency and wash command.  A most important realm for large families.

The location of this luxurious laundry room (and other fabulous amenities) is 51 Pamela Lane in College Station (MLS # 59974).  This is a five bedroom three bathroom house on 3.23 acres with a hidden bonus room upstairs and an additional studio downstairs, off of the garage.

Results from the Bryan Broadcasting Corporation promotion have not yet been announced – their website says to check back soon for the winners.

Happy washing!

LaundryRoom- second corner

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

(979) 422-9763

One of the best kept secrets for beautiful country living in Bryan TX is North Country Estates.  Located on Tabor Road just 5 miles east of Hwy 6, North Country Estates offers the convenience of location to everything Brazos as well as quietness and privacy from too much city .  The majority of the home sites are approximately 1.5 acres in size, while there are several others much larger.  There were 7 homes sold in the subdivision in 2009, the average size was 2413’ living area, and the average price was $265,771.  North Country Estates has a Homeowner Association too! 

Click to search for Homes in North Country Estates or any other location.

Contact Ken Smith at (979) 204-4955 with questions or to schedule a private tour of available properties.  Feel free to visit  Ken Smith’s Website  to find very valuable real estate information. 

OK, the secret’s out now, but it’s not too late for you to experience beautiful country living in Bryan Texas.   Homesites in Phases 5b and 12 are currently available for purchase. 

Renovate

BRYAN, TX — Well, I’m not really doing any major structural repairs…No one will notice if I add-on a little room here…The city is just out to make an extra buck on my renovations.  Yes, we’ve heard all the excuses for not pulling a permit on your little bathroom upgrade.

Think about it from a community position, though.  If you don’t visit the City of Bryan website to apply for a permit, you’re jeopardizing your good neighbors in the loss of utilities or phone services.  The city makes it so easy now to mail in the short form I highlighted from the city website in the previous sentence.

There are more construction items requiring work permits than I have room or time for here.  Some upgrades you might not think about are:

Water heater replacements

Sprinkler irrigation systems

Carports

The guys at the city are the experts on our safety codes.  If you have a question as to whether or not a permit is necessary, call Greg Cox at 209-5010 or visit www.Bryantx.gov for answers.

Legally, the only reason you don’t have to disturb our friends in Planning and Development is if you are painting, installing cabinets, adding a children’s playscape, building a short fence, or placing a small storage shed on skids.  Everything else has a safety concern…hence the need to call.

Property Tax Assessment

you do? Make sure that your tax value is decreasing, as well. Brazos County mails out estimates for the year 2009 in June. That’s four months away, you exclaim. Yes, plenty of time to investigate your property’s current market value and to prepare your tax appeal, I say.

Your case for a request to lower the property’s value is not simply based on your feelings about higher taxes. You’ve heard Benjamin Franklin say it – in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. So don’t be shocked to find yourself in a recession and asked to pay higher property taxes this year.

There are several options when appealing your tax value. One is to hire representation. You could pay a licensed property tax consultant to analyze the tax records, perform an appraisal of your property, and represent you before the county appraisal district review board.

Another option is for you to do the research yourself and represent yourself at the hearing. As a property owner, you will still need an appraisal from an expert to enter evidence in your hearing. Kelly Seaton with Verdad Valuation Services
can provide you with that appraisal.

You may view your county tax information at the appraisal district, 1673 Briarcrest Drive. Request to see your complete record. Note the comparable properties on the record card. See why the tax district thinks your property is worth more.

When you file for your appeal, pay attention to the deadlines and remember to show up for your hearing! Take all of your documentation from the appraisal and your notes. You may want to practice your testimony ahead of the scheduled hearing. The burden of proof is on the property owner – you have to give facts as to why your property is not worth the assessed amount. Facts, not feelings.

If at any point in the process you have questions call your REALTOR for advice and information. Hopefully a bit of research and persistence will decrease your property tax value and possibly your monthly mortgage.

Kind regards,

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

P.S. Some lenders may only credit your tax escrow for future increases(reserves the bank holds to pay your annual tax bill) and keep your monthly payments the same. Reserve the celebration until you know all the deets from your mortgage company.

1. What percentage of all Texas homes are financed by subprime loans?

a. 1% b. 8% c. 17% d. 33%

2. True or False? Average interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage are about what they were 5 years ago.

3. T or F? In 2007, homes priced $500k+ represented a higher percentage of the total homes sold in Texas than any previous year.

4. Of 44 Texas markets, how many had lower median sales prices from January-June 2008 compared to the same period in 2007?

a. none b. 11 c. 22 d. 33

5. How many Texas markets had more home sales in June 2008 than June 2007?

a. 22 b. 9 c. 3 d. none

6. In CNBC’s 2008 ranking of state economies, Texas came in:

a. 1st b. 5th c. 9th d. last

7. T or F? The statewide average sales price in June 2008 was lower than in June 2007 and June 2006.

8. Home many Texas properties had a foreclosure filing in July 2008?

a. 1 in every 252 properties b. 1 in 388 c. 1 in 519 d. 1 in 891

How’d you score?

1. b

2. True. The average rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage was 6.34% on 08-08-2003, and 6.52% on 08-08-08

3. True

4. b

5. c Lubbock and Texarkana had 1% higher home sales; Victoria was up 13%

6. a. Texas was also ranked first in business climate.

7. False. The average 2008 price was $2,300 higher than June 2007 and $9,000 higher than June 2006.

8. d. Texas was ranked 22nd. Nevada had the highest rate at 1 in 106.

So the next time you hear urban legends about the state of our economy, provide them with the facts! It is our responsibility to convey truth to our friends and clients.

Happy New Year!

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

Kelly Seaton

Kelly Seaton says plenty. It’s still a reliable tool to know when a buyer presents the seller with a low-ball offer or when it’s a good deal.

“In June and July when business is booming, sales data was plentiful. Last months sales were a good indicator of a property’s present value,” Seaton said. “When there is a sudden shift in market, this is not necessarily the case. More research needs to done to quantify the stability of an area’s market.”

Who should use an appraiser? Usually, Verdad Valuation sees banks and lenders as their client. Seaton also sees home owners as clients, who just want to get an idea of value on their home pre-sales, before they even become a seller. Or an independent FSBO may try to protect himself from a bad deal, seeking the opinion of an independent third party.

Great technology platforms enable Verdad Valuation to research legal land descriptions or soil types even before setting foot on the property.  “So many resources are available to us through Google Earth and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that help appraisers to examine the real estate from many facets,” Seaton said.

From local residential to rural land appraisal, Verdad taps into 20 years of experience working with industry greats like Reagan Magee of Promise Land Real Estate. Seaton is happy to open his own business  and begin serving customers.  Check out Verdad’s website for details about his work and interesting industry myths about appraisers.

Merry Christmas,

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

It’s like the Dallas Cowboys training camp…

Runningback Marion Barber works hard makes lots of money but there’s no story. Not a peep about him. But if Tony Romo sneezes or Jessica Simpson coughs, BAM there’s your media frenzy. To coin a phrase used by Emmitt Smith about monkeys in the media.

So the hype about the next Great Depression (it’s all caused by Dubya Bush remember – catch me on another day to get me worked up about that unintelligent urban myth) from yesterday is gone today. The hype to make you oogle on Google is just that – to make you stop and stare. The media wants to get you excited to grab your attention to increase media viewership to sell more ads to make a buck. Make cents? Ha, ha.

Don’t be snookered into believing that the media are the authority on mortgage lending. They are the authority on how to grab our attention to increase…blah, blah. TALK WITH YOUR LOCAL LENDER. Don’t speak to someone who doesn’t have an office near you. The “lending crisis” is because big-wigs far away want to control business in your backyard. And they don’t even know what your backyard looks like, sells for, or smells like.

Don’t get worked up on a comment from a part-time reporter from Good Morning America. TALK WITH YOUR LOCAL REALTOR. The “foreclosure crisis” is because big-wigs far away gave money to people who weren’t capable of making a monthly payment. The large lenders gave unqualified consumers too much credit. Literally. Mortgage factories over-extended themselves in risk by giving credit, otherwise known as trust, to already debt-laden consumers. Doesn’t sound like good business practice to me…

If you make a mess in your office, you would have to clean it up. Your cute dog poops in your neighbors yard, who should clean it up? It’s your responsibility. Be accountable for your actions. Where in society did our ethics change to make the government responsible for cleaning up messes. Hurricane Ike? “Federal government come save me.” Billion dollar lending mistake? “Federal government come save me.” Every time we ask the government to step in we abdicate another constitutional right (ok, ok there’s another story for another day).

So who should clean up our credit crunch? Well the Fannie Mae leaders saw the handwriting on the wall back in April. Franklin Raines retired as CEO and Timothy Howard resigned as CFO in May 2008. Retired with their pretty pension plan and retirement package. Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million in compensation last year. And the replacement David Moffett will receive only – ONLY – $1.4M in salary and perks this year. AIG is doing it right, a bit too late. CEO Martin Sullivan was replaced in July by Robert Willumstad. Last week AIG decided to sell off assets to repay an emergency loan from the federal government.

Let me ask the question again…who should clean up our credit crunch? You are actually paying for the clean up. Your hard-earned tax dollars are being reallocated from great programs and infrastructure to cover the as… Uhm , mistakes of Franklin, Timothy, Richard, Martin, and scores of other “leaders” – read THEIVES – who have taken us for a ride.

So there, now you know how I feel, tell us your thoughts on how to fix our financial conundrum. For my opinion on home sales, let’s meet at Starback’s some afternoon

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR