News

Financial Website Calls Plano The Best-Managed City in The U.S., Fuels Rivalry With Fellow Collin County Suburbs

By Joanna England / February 5, 2013 /

According to 24/7 Wall Street, our neighbors to the north in Plano live in the best-managed city in the U.S., beating Madison, Wisc., and Irvine, Calif., for top honors. Just how did they come to their conclusion, crowning one of the most popular Dallas suburbs as king? 24/7 Wall St. has completed its second annual…

Love Your Mama: Real Estalker Picks Up Hicks Story, Quotes Our Fabulous Candy Evans

By Joanna England / January 25, 2013 /

Love this sassy little write-up on the Hicks estate, which is marketed by Douglas Newby & Associates, from Your Mama at The Real Estalker: Like we usually do when it comes to dissin’ and discussin’ high-priced real estate in Dallas Your Mama gave the deliciously dishy Dallas-based property gossip Candy Evans a ringy-dingy and asked if…

Thinking of Making a “Z” Sale? Yesterday Was Your Last Day to Skirt The New MLS Sales Disclosure Rules

By Joanna England / October 16, 2012 /

I spoke to MetroTex Association of Realtors MLS Director Cathy Faulkner yesterday about “Z sales” coming to an end. In the luxury market, “Z sales” gave lofty sales prices a sense of anonymity.

I won’t bore you with the technical details of what a “Z sale” is exactly. Check out this site for a primer on the practice. The gist is this: sellers who were gun shy about disclosing what they paid for a home listed on MLS put a “Z” instead of a big number followed by a lot of zeroes.

Dallas Realtor Jeff Duffey says the death of the practice “will never affect approximately 99% of the real estate market areas throughout North Texas.” However, he estimates roughly 20 percent of the sales in high-end neighborhoods such as the Park Cities, Preston Hollow, and Turtle Creek are “Z sales.”

More Museum Tower Drama: Washington’s Cultural Landscape Foundation Puts Nasher on ‘Endangered List,’ Blames Museum Tower

By Joanna England / October 4, 2012 /

The plot thickens! The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Washington-based center bent on “increasing the public’s awareness and understanding of the importance and irreplaceable legacy of its cultural landscapes,” has included the Nasher Sculpture Garden in their Landslide 2012 list of endangered cultural landscapes.  In 2012 construction was completed of a high-rise condominium overlooking the Nasher Museum…

Saving the Environment One Drop at a Time: Starting Today, I’m Going Tankless

By Candy Evans / August 9, 2012 /

Busy day here yesterday at the ranch, as we emptied and discarded these babies for an Eternal GU 195S on demand hybrid gas fired water heater. In effect, we are going tankless. Woo hoo! These two hot water heaters are 12 years old, about the age when they start to break down. One broke on Christmas Eve,…