Candy Evans

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

House Candy for Holy Week: Live in a Church!

By Candy Evans / April 21, 2011 /

Honestly, only in Texas. If you are still house hunting this week, you’ll get an early seat at church Sunday if you buy this house: 5601 East Side Avenue. Yep, it’s a church all right, the St. John‚Äôs United Methodist Church transformed into a pretty darn big single family home. Location, Junius Heights, not exactly…

Pay $2.5 Million for a Mobile Home, Avoid Real Estate Property Taxes

By Candy Evans / April 20, 2011 /

When my husband teases about getting a mobile home, I threaten divorce. But he may not be so crazy: when you own a mobile home, you own only the home and not the land under it so guess what, no real estate property taxes! Still, you have to rent the land, because the owner has…

Want a Second Home? Ron Paul Selling His Lake Jackson, TX Home — FSBOFB

By Candy Evans / April 19, 2011 /

Ron Paul, the feisty Ob/Gyn (aren’t they all?) who represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas, and who may be making a run for a bigger house in D.C. called The White House, is selling his home in Lake Jackson, and doing it apparently without a realtor. Embracing social media, he’s listed his home on…

Dallas Real Estate in 1986: We’ll Never Party Like This Again. Right.

By Candy Evans / April 19, 2011 /

As I think I’ve made clear, I am tired of talk that luxury is dead. This happens, you see, every single time we have an economic downturn. Luxury items get blamed for the shenanigans of the few who screwed it up for all of us, as they sail on down to South America, chanting, let…

Taxes and Second Homes: Will Buying a Second Home Help Lower My Income Taxes?

By Candy Evans / April 19, 2011 /

God, I wish I could say yes, but more likely, just maybe. Or how about, fat chance? I checked with my wonderful CPA firm, Judd, Thomas Smith & Company, who says you may still deduct mortgage interest on a second home and also property taxes but watch it: that alternative minimum tax, a complicated Congressional…