What’s New in Your Real Estate Contract?

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) regularly tweaks the various contracts, agreements, notices and addenda that home buyers and sellers and their agents use. The common One to Four Family Residential Contract – that is, the contract typically used to resell a home – has had a number of changes that...

Sneak Peek!

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Cameron and Teresa are working now on the next edition of the River Oaks Market Report, set to go to press next week. The “Outlook” edition will drill down into the River Oaks real estate market for 2020 – what sold where and for how much? – plus offer thoughtful insight...

Nosy Questions with Karen Pulaski

January 16, 2021January 17, 2021Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Building a new nest or refeathering an old one? Either way, we can probably agree that the bedroom is life’s most personal space, a retreat that should look good and feel good. After all, we spend about a third of our lives in our bedrooms. Meet Houston designer Karen Pulaski, who...

It’s (Almost) a Wrap

December 14, 2020December 15, 2020Cameron Ansari

Let’s jump right into the numbers. As we enter the final weeks of 2020, here is a snapshot of post-election activity in River Oaks real estate. What’s most striking is that there have been so many newly pending contracts since mid-November. In a typical year one would expect River Oaks buyers...

Add Some Zing to Your Life!

December 14, 2020December 15, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Cameron and I were talking about ginger. It seems like every time you buy a plump hand of ginger at the supermarket the darn thing dries out in the vegetable drawer before you get around to trying some new recipe for Thai-inspired coconut soup. I’ve spent years buying fresh ginger, only...

A Tale of Two Houses

October 20, 2020October 20, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

What are the chances that two of our current listings would both be fundamentally Mid-Century Modern in their DNA and yet so very different? Both homes are located on highly desirable River Oaks streets (albeit on opposite sides of the subdivision), both were built in 1950 and both are exquisitely realized...

Ask the Agents #17: Open House Precautions

September 16, 2020September 17, 2020Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Question: What precautions should be taken for an open house? Answer: Despite six months of COVID-19, the real estate business has not ground to a halt. Or, to put it more accurately, after a hard stop last spring, it is once again percolating along. People feel more comfortable going out, and...

What a Difference a Year Makes

September 16, 2020September 17, 2020Cameron Ansari

When it comes to gauging market activity in real estate, measuring the number of months of available inventory* can provide intriguing insight beyond the usual statistics. Let’s start by agreeing that fewer months of available inventory = relatively more active sales. In other words, less is better. For the sake of...

New Choices in Home-Building Materials

August 9, 2020August 9, 2020Matt Lee

Investing in a home in River Oaks usually means that you are committed to building a legacy that you can share with your family for years to come. It takes work and money to make the idea of legacy a reality and even more work and money to make it endure...

Snapshot of the River Oaks Market

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

We haven’t talked to anyone in the past four months without hearing some version of the same question: How is the real estate market during the COVID-19 pandemic? HAR.com issues monthly updates on the entire greater-Houston market area, as you surely know, and the real estate market varies widely from area...