Ronda Allen's (rondawiseallen) Blog

Do you have ICE in your cell phone?  A piece of good advice for anyone - not just real estate agents - is having a phone number in your cell phone under the contact name ICE (In Case of Emergency).  I work with clients.  They ride in my car.  We tour homes together.  We work together in serious c...

As we picked up the pieces after the tsunami that hit our housing market in Summer, 2008, the North Texas region took stock of the situation.  We took a hit, but it wasn't quite the catastrophe that we feared.  Some sections of DFW are still digging out of the rubble, but we're mostly back on hig...

I spoke to a couple today who wants me to take over their listing and help them find their next home in Collin County.  They already have an agent.  But, they sought me out and asked for me to take on their home sale as soon as they can terminate their current listing.  When I asked the reason th...

It would almost be funny, if it weren't so sad.  North Texas worked it's way out of a recession between Summer 2008 and Summer 2009.  We've seen steady improvement in our housing market since then.  But, I see some people in Prosper reducing the price of their homes and continuing to give away eq...

This is Texas.  Bigger is better, right?  This is Prosper, Texas.  Home of the McMansion.  Big, beautiful homes average more than 3500sf on great big lots.  3-car garages are pretty much the norm here.  But, you can also find homes with more garage spaces.  Attached garages and detached garages. ...

This coming weekend, Friday 8/20 through Sunday 8/22, is tax-free weekend in Texas.  We won't be having our weekly resale home tour of Prosper, TX homes this weekend, and we won't be holding any open houses.  Why?  Everybody will be at the malls and restaurants.  I've tried holding open homes and...

What would happen if your home were mis-priced by $100, $10, or even just $1?  What if that amount caused a error so big that your home sat on the market, with only a trickling of showings, for six months to a year or longer?  We have fewer buyers in DFW than we did in 2007.  It's fact.  Even tho...

In one home tour this past Sunday, we toured 12 homes, and 4 of the 12 had errors on the MLS data.  The MLS is a software program, and anytime you have manual input, you have the possibility for human error.  But, when can that slight error be causing your home to be skipped on a buyer's home tou...

When I ask around to other agents in DFW about using twitter.com as a marketing tool, I don't find many who admit to doing it.  When I use http://www.search.twitter.com to run searches, their statements are confirmed.  There seem to be very few of us actively using this tool to make people aware ...

As a home buyer moving to a new area, it can be hard to know how to ask the right questions.  Agents don't always make the search easy on you.  Sometimes, you get exactly what you ask for.  The problem with that is, you don't always see every home that may have interested you.  The example I want...