Kathy's Real Estate Chat

Want to add more curb appeal to your home? Interested in getting your home ready to add to the inventory of Dallas homes for sale?

Refreshing the look and functionality of your front yard is an effective way to boost the curb appeal and overall appearance of your home. Our real estate agents recommend the following options to quickly refresh your front yard. 

Clean Up Your Outside Areas
Nearly every home has items scattered in the front yard. Maybe your kids have left their toys out, or perhaps you haven't been vigilant about putting up your garden tools. Cleaning up these items is a fast, easy way to instantly improve the appearance of your home's exterior. If you're lacking storage for your outside items, invest in an outside cabinet, storage shed, or storage chest. 

Lay a Fresh Layer of Mulch
The vibrant color of new mulch looks fantastic against your garden, lawn, and home. An added benefit of laying mulch is that it will help control weeds around your trees and bushes and in your flower gardens. To provide your plants with additional nutrients, lay a layer of compost before you put down the fresh mulch. When your plans include adding your home to the list of Fort Worth homes for sale, small additions, like fresh mulch, instantly make your home more attractive to potential buyers. 

Add a Walkway
Stone pavers are a fantastic option for creating a walkway; you can customize the color, size, and layout of the pavers to better complement your home's exterior style. 

Incorporate Features That Invite Wildlife Into Your Yard
Pollinators, like butterflies, bees, and birds, are beneficial to your yard and to the environment. Pollinators are essential for ensuring that plants remain genetically diverse and assisting flowers and crops with dispersing their seeds. Daylilies, sunflowers, and verbena are all lovely additions to your yard that attract bees and butterflies. A water feature, like a fountain or pond, often attracts birds, including water-loving hummingbirds. 

Replace Worn Out Items
If the stones used to line your garden or the gravel in your driveway are looking old, dingy, or damaged, consider replacing them. Outdoor materials are made to be durable, but they don't last forever and will eventually start to deteriorate. Replacing these items as they wear out helps you minimize the work and cost of keeping your yard looking its best. 

Add Landscape Lighting
Not only does landscape lighting provide much-needed light at night, but it ensures your walkways are safe and accessible. Solar lights are a terrific, eco-friendly option, or you might choose smart landscaping lights that you can operate and put on a timer with your smartphone. 

By making a few small changes or additions to your yard, you can give it the refresh it needs to enhance your home's curb appeal.

Want a home with more outside space? Contact us today to put your home on the market!

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Fort Worth's Log Cabin Village offers visitors a glimpse into pioneer times. Located near our Fort Worth homes for sale, this site is a museum where you can explore and interact with the perfectly preserved exhibits. 

About the Village

The Log Cabin Village is a historical site operated by the City of Fort Worth. Its goal is to preserve examples of pioneer architecture and help show modern Texans what frontier life was like. The site contains several historic buildings that were moved from other parts of Texas. 

The village is located at 2100 Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth, Texas, and is open between Tuesday and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Admission costs $7 per person aged 18 to 59 and $6 for children, teenagers, or seniors. Groups of 10 people or more can get tickets for just $5 per person. The last tickets are sold at 3:00 PM, so be sure to arrive before then if you haven't bought your tickets in advance.

Exploring the Cabins

The Log Cabin Village's historic structures are the site's main attractions. These buildings are mostly log cabins that were built by settlers during the 19th century. Each one is a simple home made from cedar and oak planks with just one or two rooms. Each one was deconstructed, moved to the village, and carefully reassembled on the village's grounds. Later, the village acquired the one-room Marine Schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, and an old gristmill attached to another log cabin. 

Each of the exhibition buildings is equipped with detailed labels stating what each part of the structure was used for. There are also historical interpreters on hand to answer all of your questions and offer additional information on pioneer life. Our real estate agents love how they use the art of storytelling to bring their audience closer to the real people who once lived in these old buildings.

Other Attractions

Once you've spent some time touring the cabins, there's even more to do on the village's grounds.

Visiting the thriving herb garden and nearby drying shed demonstrates how the settlers lived on the frontier. There are also many walking paths you can take to get a closer look at the natural landscape and imagine yourself in an earlier time.  

Finally, you can stop by the village's gift shop to pick up some souvenirs. This shop stocks all kinds of memorabilia, but it's especially well-known for its stick candy and old-fashioned soda pop. You won't find treats like these at your local grocery store! 

Make Your Home on the New Frontier

The Fort Worth area's history is rich and – thanks to projects like the Log Cabin Village – has been carefully preserved for future generations. You and your family deserve the chance to experience it. Contact us today to start looking for your next home in our vast selection of Fort Worth and Dallas homes for sale.

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According to the American Horse Council, Texas is home to nearly one million horses. It's no surprise that there are so many great equestrian centers and stables around Dallas homes for sale. 

Rocking J Stables - 2802 S. Country Club Rd., Garland, TX 75043
Love horses, but you don't have much riding experience? Rocking J Stables offers two-hour guided trail rides just down the street from Garland homes for sale. Groups have a maximum of four riders, so everyone feels comfortable and gets plenty of attention from the guide. The trails are also accessible to anyone who boards a horse at Rocking J, which is named for owner Anne Young's horse Jude. 

Tate Farms - 12992 S. Farm to Market 548, Rockwall, TX 75032
Family-owned Tate Farms raises horses and cattle, the two animals most associated with Texas. Their horse boarding facility near Rockwall homes for sale includes outdoor and covered pens, an indoor arena, an obstacle course, and grooming and saddling stations. A number of riding trails wind through 500 acres of private grounds. If you're in the market for a horse of your own to buy or lease, Tate Farms always has many high-quality horses to choose from, along with experienced on-site training. 

Trinity River Farm & Equestrian Center - 8375 Randol Mill Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76120
When you visit the picturesque Trinity River Farm & Equestrian Center, you'll find it hard to believe you're just minutes away from Fort Worth homes for sale. In addition to a full slate of lessons and boarding services, Trinity River recently launched its therapeutic riding division for qualified students. Looking for creative party ideas? Trinity River offers a number of packages that include activities such as tractor-trailer rides, petting zoos, arts and crafts, and hot dog roasts around a campfire.
  Cedar Haven Stables - 305 Evergreen Trl., Cedar Hill, TX 75104
Amy Cristol, the owner of Cedar Haven Stables, was inspired to create this beautiful facility while searching for a pony for her own children. The 25-acre grounds, not far from Cedar Hill homes for sale, feature indoor and outdoor arenas along with trails that include a 25-jump course. Trainer Kelsey Marcus, a 17-year veteran of the equine industry, has a special knack for working with challenging horses. Private and group lessons are available, as well as pasture or stall boarding.

JoMar Farms - 1510 Bois D Arc Ln., Midlothian, TX 76065
After learning to ride as a child, Joni Brown passed her love of horses to her daughter Marissa. In 2006, the women combined their efforts and names to open JoMar Farms. Together, they have fostered a caring and attentive approach that's evident in all their equine services, from horse boarding and training to riding lessons. Their stable is also located close to Midlothian homes for sale. 

If you're buying or selling a DFW home, contact us at RE/MAX DFW Associates to speak with one of our real estate agents. 

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The North Texas housing market is downshifting quickly, with Dallas-Fort Worth being the only U.S. market to see a decrease in home sale prices last month, according to a report released today.  DFW home prices are down 1.9% year over year in July, according to the latest Re/Max National Housing Report.

 

And what a difference a month makes.  Last month, DFW led the U.S. for home price increases, with June prices up 29.3% over the previous year.   In hard numbers, home sales prices in DFW fell to $413,900 in July from $422,000 in July 2021.   Homes in DFW spend an average of 23 days on the market before selling.

 

Higher interest rates and inflation, as well as record home prices, triggered a sharp drop in demand for housing, said Todd Luong, a realtor with Re/Max DFW Associates:  "Here at our Re/Max office in Dallas-Fort Worth, our listings are currently getting on average 2.7 showings per week," Luong said. "Last year, at this same time, our listings were earning on average 5.9 showings per week. That is a huge drop in buyer demand compared to the previous year. Record home prices and higher mortgage rates have forced many potential buyers out of the market, especially first-time homebuyers."

 

While the latest trends may disappoint some sellers, buyers now have more choices and better opportunities for good deals, Luong said.   Luong said that the DFW housing market has been challenged with low inventory for years and reached an all-time low earlier this year, with only a two-week supply. Now, however, inventory is increasing.  "Although buyers have more choices now, it is still not a balanced market as we only have about a two-month housing supply," Luong said. "In a normal market, you have about a five to six-month supply of housing."

 

A new report from Zillow also found falling home values, although the numbers didn't match Re/Max's precisely because of different study methods and different geographic definitions of DFW as a metro area, among other reasons.  According to Zillow's findings, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area's typical home value is $396,904, down 1.1% since June, the first month of decline. Values are up 55.4% since July 2019.

 

Zillow also reported that the mortgage payment on a typical home in DFW is $2,633 a month, including taxes and insurance. That's up 77.4% compared to July 2019.

According to Zillow, inventory in DFW has risen 10.2% since June, and the share of listings with a price cut in July was 22%, compared to 15.6% in June.  Nationwide, after two years of unprecedented growth, home values fell for the first time since 2012 as competition for houses eased, according to Zillow's July market report.

 

The slowdown is being driven by decreased competition among buyers. Zillow's analysis says that affordability pressures have pushed many to the sidelines, and buyers are waiting in the wings to resume their search if and when prices relax a bit.  Skylar Olsen, Zillow's chief economist, called the flattening of home values "a badly needed rebalancing.  This slowdown is about discouraged buyers pulling back after the affordability shock from higher rates," Olsen said. "As prices soften, many will renew their interest, and we will continue our progress back to 'normal.'"

 

Luong said he sees positive signs in the market.  The interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped below 5% after peaking in June. More than 290,000 new jobs were added in Dallas-Fort Worth last year, so North Texas has one of the strongest labor markets in the country.   "Reasonably priced homes that are in good condition and move-in ready are still selling very fast," he said. "However, the bidding wars have subsided considerably across the board."

• Dallas Business Journal, August 19, 2022