Time for a “tail” of a good deed…

Raylene Lewis is notorious around Century 21 Beal for finding stray and lost animals and rescuing them. Friday was just another example of this Realtor going above and beyond to help animals.

Raylene found a beautiful dog lost and in danger on Texas Ave near the College Station police station on Friday morning. The dog was very near being hit by a car so she stopped and picked up the dog. The dog had no collar so she took the scared dog to her vet at Wellborn Animal Clinic. The vet checked out the dog and found no microchip. (and, yes Raylene paid the vet bill)

Later in the day Raylene picked up the dog to try to find the owner. Through Craigslist the owner was found Saturday morning. The owner had lost the dog Friday morning and was desperately hunting. When owner and dog were matched up there was a great deal of tail wagging and tears.

THANK YOU Raylene Lewis for going above and beyond to help this dog and owner find each other.

Thomas and Kathryn Holmes married 1972.  They amassed $10,000,000 in brokerage accounts and security certificates. Kathryn died and her will said her son from a previous marriage was the executor. Kathryn intended for her children to get her share of her estate.  Thomas died 9 months later (of a broken heart?). His son, Harry, from a previous marriage was the executor of Thomas’ estate.

Looks like the kids of Kathryn would get half and the kids of Thomas would get the other half.   Not so!

Because the bank accounts were structured as JT TEN and JT WROS (joint tenancy) all the money went to the husband when Kathryn died. Then when Thomas died everything went to HIS kids.

Her will gave everything to her kids and his will gave everything to his kids but….

Do you think either Thomas or Kathryn understood that the money would go to only his kids? Probably not since each had a will leaving what they had to their kids BUT the Texas Supreme Court said too bad!  They said the law is the law and ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Thomas’ kids got everything!!!

Now, go check your bank accounts. Check the bank accounts of your parents and make sure you talk with your attorney about this! This is a new ruling and your attorney may not even know about it yet.

Susan Hilton

We made a quick U-Turn and started down a side road.  After a few minutes we started to doubt the decisionand what did we see? A small sign encouraging us that the Lavender Farm was “this way”.  A little further and we again doubted our decision… and another sign.  Only a few more miles and we saw a big sign saying “Lavendar Farm”.

What a cute place!

We drove in to lavender plants on both sides of the driveway. Off to the left was a gazebo, pond and a beautiful home.  To the right was a quaint store.  My who would have thought the store would have been full!  There were about 8 people in the store in addition to the staff.

The store was full of lavendar items like candles,cookies, sachets, bath salts and more. There was jewelry,, wall items, bird houses….

Next time you want to have a picnic in the country or want a great gift or just want to do something new, try out a Lavendar Farm!

Century 21 Beal, Inc.

979-764-2100

• Foreclosure in Bryan
• College Station Foreclosure

Every once in a while you get something by email that is just too funny not to share. Al Flores created this short FUNNY video using College Station real estate agents as the stars. Can you figure out who they are?

Thanks Al!

Susan Hilton
Century 21 Beal, Inc.
979-764-2100

• College Station Real Estate
• College Station Foreclosures
• Bryan Real Estate
• Bryan Foreclosures
• College Station Homes for Sale
• Bryan Homes for Sale

Bryan & College Station – Your real estate agents at Century 21 Beal are learning again!

The real estate sales agents of Century 21 Beal are getting ready for the annual retreat where a few days are spent away from working “in” the real estate business and instead we will be working “on” our real estate business.

This year’s retreat will have speakers and events covering the following topics:

• Pricing your Brazos Valley Home using the Absorption Rate Analysis in our quickly changing real estate market

• Farm and Ranch – how to better market our farm and ranch properties

• Commercial Real Estate – how to market and sell commercial real estate in Bryan and College Station

• Century 21 – online marketing on a national scale

• Realtors Preparing for the Future – investments and retirement

• Effectively Managing a work and home life

• Tax planning for the real estate sakes agent and the real estate investor

So, know a real estate agent at Century 21? Know that your Century 21 Beal Realtor is the BEST trained real estate agent in town!

Susan Hilton

century 21 Beal

979-764-2100

Rhonda Fry and other agents from Century 21 Beal were out on property tour last week and these funny photos were taken.  Sometimes real estate is a stressful profession and it is great that while we do our job we get to have a little fun along the way!

Who knows – she may even be participating in the March of Dimes Jail & Bail?

Susan Hilton
CENTURY 21 Beal, Inc.

979-764-2100

Katherine Massey Century 21 Beal Realtor

Susan,
 
My husband Chris and I have been extremely impressed with Kathy Massey, our Century 21 Beal Realtor. I first contacted Kathy back in the fall when my husband first heard about his transfer to Dallas. Kathy took the time to give us some good, solid information even though we were not ready to list the house at that time. We went back to Kathy and got our house listed February 1st. We got a contract that evening and a second the morning of February 2nd. I think our house is attractive, but Kathy’s pricing advice put us in a great position to get two full-price offers quickly. She’s been so patient and friendly through the whole process and continues to be so as we work towards closing. 

Thank you.
 
Terrie (and Chris)

PS – You can reach Kathy at 979-764-2100 or katherinem@century21bcs.com

College Station Texas Real Estate – College Station Realtor

Real estate is an interesting business. We deal with people at their bests and at their worsts! We see clean houses and houses no one should live in. We work with people who are understanding and those who are demanding. We find pets left in houses, appliances and sinks removed, wires cut, houses flooded, carpet removed, clients that lie but more often than not, we get to meet WONDERFUL people. Most of our clients are kind people who enjoy working with us to achieve their goals of either buying or selling real estate. Most of the time we not only have a real estate transaction together but we also build long term relationships and friendships.

Enjoy Raylene’s stories. They are only 2 of hundreds of experiences we have on a regular basis.

Smashing Success

A story like this will probably have some considering the need for a real estate driving course and designation. Raylene was having an open house for agents on her very first listing. New to the business, she was doing her best to make the right impression both with fellow agents and her sellers

She had provided a nice lunch for the agents and was collecting business cards to hold drawings. Apparently the pull of these caravan drawings was just too much for one busy agent who, although she didn’t’ have time to stay for lunch or tour the property, stopped by to drop off her business card.

The agent was in an obvious hurry. She quickly parked, grabbed a business card, and hurried into the house. Depositing her card with the many other agent cards, the woman quickly retraced her steps to her car.

A few moments later, however, she came back inside. Raylene asked her what she thought of the house.

“It’s great, but I think it needs a new garage door.”

“Really, why?”

“Because I just drove through it!”

 Experience #2

 If you ever have clients get in your car with children carrying buckets, you might want to bail – literally. Texas agent Raylene Lewis had no idea why three or the four small children in this large family would be carrying small, pink plastic buckets.

She soon found out. As they began driving the day’s showings, two of the kids threw up into their buckets. “The clients said they just had to have a house that day. I dropped them off at a new home community.”

Susan Hilton – Realtor & Sales Trainer for Century 21 Beal

Want to Search the Bryan/College Station Real Estate MLS? CLICK HERE!!!

View Susan Hilton’s profile

Staging is one of many things a real estate agent works with sellers on. This is a good, reasonable and honest thing to do to showcase a home in the best possible light. But, staging a home for an appraisal is a completely different thing!

When a lender (mortgage broker) calls a staging professional to stage a vacant home to make it look like someone is living there, red flags should come up. Remember, it is very common for an AGENT to call and ask for a home to be staged. It is very uncommon for a lender to do so. It is especially odd when the staging is only needed for a few days and just long enough for a few photos to be taken while the appraiser is there.

Questions should be asked – is this vacant home being staged to sell or is it being staged for a refinance? Would the second one be wrong? YES!

When a property is staged to sell, it is showcasing the home to show the “highest and best use” of the property. When a vacant property is staged for an appraisal, there is a good chance some type of refinance scam is taking place.

Don’t participate! The housing market does NOT need any more problems!

Susan Hilton – Realtor & Sales Trainer for Century 21 Beal

Want to Search the Bryan/College Station MLS? CLICK HERE!!!

View Susan Hilton’s profile

Foreclosures and strange things seem to go to together. Bryan-College Station has significantly less foreclosures than many other parts of the country. We are not in a struggling enconomy. We are not seeing entire neighborhoods boarded up and standing vacant. We also didn’t see the huge rise in values that many makets experienced. We didn’t see “investors” purchasing properties before they were built with plans to sell before the properties were complete.

As the community and as real estate agents in Bryan-College Station, we didn’t make a fortune in the real estate market like others did but we have had a nice steady increase in values. Remember slow and steady wins the race and certainly keeps us all sane!

Even though we have not had the huge rise in foreclosures, we do have a number of foreclosure properties and most sell very very quickly. Lenders are interested in putting these properties on the market as close to market value as possible yet sell them within the first 60 days. The holding costs for these properties are significant to the lender.

Now for the strange in the forclosure market…

• How about walking into a vacant home that has a room where your cell phone immediately stops working and there are shotgun shells on the floor. Then when you check a little further you find laser sensors for lighting and hidden rooms in the slab which are found only when the carpet is removed. The hidden rooms are large tubes built into the slab that will hold several people plus food and water for weeks. We found 2 rooms and the new buyer found a third.
• We walked into one home to find a notice on the cabinet telling us that the house contained a bomb. The bomb squad had to do a complete search. That was exciting!
• Or walking into a mobile home that someone had left their dogs when they moved away. The property was covered with animal feces and dead animals. Shoveling it out was the only way.
• How about the woman who was viewing a property, fell into a hole waist deep of water and rotten eggs.
• The house that a local gang decided was the best hangout in town. They “tagged” (spray painted) the inside and repeatedly used it as a hangout.
• A property with chicken feet left in the back room. Lots of chicken feet!
• A property where the old owner takes EVERYTHING – I mean everything from the counters, sinks, wall plugs, light fixtures, light switches, toilets, faucets…
• House where people used a white toilet in the living room for an end table.
• Property that has so much “stuff” in it that you can’t even walk inside. When you carry all the stuff outside to the front yard the pile is so high and so think you can’t even see the house from the street.
• Or the family that moves into a house because they wrote an offer on it and they want it – they didn’t buy it – they just wanted it.

Yes, life as a Realtor is odd dealing with the public yet when you add in the strange things that happen with a foreclosure, life is NEVER boring!

Susan Hilton – Realtor & Sales Trainer for Century 21 Beal

#1 in Real Estate in Bryan and College Station Home Sales

Bryan College Station Real Estate & Community Blog

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