Cody

The following story was written by Stewart Lytle and appeared on the front page of the Home Center section of The Dallas Morning News on Sunday, April 29:

When Mary Poss listed a $4.3 million home in Preston Hollow for sale recently, she knew she wanted to advertise it on the Luxury Portfolio International web site.

Limited to homes priced at more than $750,000, the high-end real estate web site markets more than 25,000 properties a year around the world. This site translates the home advertisements into nine languages, in more than 200 countries and in more than 60 different currencies.

So Poss was not entirely surprised when she got calls about the house from a potential buyer in India, but she also heard from buyers in Paris, France and Paris, Texas.

“I thought that was pretty funny,” she says. But not unusual.

The Ebby Halliday Realtor, who was the president pro tem of the Dallas City Council, says, “Every single day someone from around the world is moving to Dallas.”

A big reason, she thinks, is Ebby Halliday Realtors’ affiliation with Luxury Portfolio International. The site was created in 2005 by the Leading Real Estate companies of the World, which Ebby Halliday helped start 48 years ago.

It is targeted at the affluent homebuyer. According to an independent research firm, the typical visitor to LuxuryPortfolio.com has a household income of $1.32 million, owns a primary home valued at more than $3.8 million and a secondary home valued at more than $5 million.

“Luxury Portfolio has established itself as the go-to website for today’s affluent consumers, delivering the industry’s most comprehensive online information on luxury homes, markets and trends and representing quality companies, agents and service in markets worldwide,” says Paul Boomsma, president of Luxury Portfolio International.

In addition to bringing the affluent buyer, Luxury Portfolio’s reporting system allows brokers to share with their sellers not just how much traffic each house receives, but where the prospective buyers live and what language they viewed the site in. 

Ebby Realtor Heidi Loewinsohn attributed a recent sale to the network because of the data she could give her client.

Loewinsohn was working with a corporate CEO to sell his 5,000-square-foot house in Flower Mound.

Because it was listed with Luxury Portfolio, the CEO could see who was looking on the web at his $845,000 house sitting on 4 acres near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Almost 20 percent of the interested home lookers were from the Washington, D.C., area. Another 11 percent were from San Francisco, CA, the web site told him.

“That information was very helpful to him. We were able to target some additional advertising in those markets,” she said.

The home was sold in a matter of  weeks to a Major League Baseball player.

The site is also useful for out-of-town buyers, who have no clue what Realtor could help them buy a new home in an unfamiliar city.

“We are known for the best locally branded companies in the world, and we maintain that reputation by holding our firms to a higher standard of quality and service,” Boomsma says.

Stephanie Pfeffer, the network’s executive vice president, put it more succinctly. “We are the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

The National Association of Realtors has designated this weekend, April 28-29, National Open House Weekend. If you’re considering buying a home the large number of open houses this weekend in North Texas offers an ideal opportunity to tour available properties.

From urban to suburban, large to small, there’s something for everyone – and the best place to start your search for a home is the award-winning website ebby.com, where you can search all the open houses in the North Texas MLS.   

The site offers two exceptional ways to search for your dream home: the Ebby Open House Tour and the new, state-of-the-art Proximity Search.

The Ebby Open House Tour feature allows users to create their own custom open house tour, complete with turn-by-turn driving directions. Visitors may browse all open houses for a specific day or time period based on their criteria. Properties of interest are added to a cart, which is used to generate a tour map. To create an Open House Tour, visit ebbyopenhouses.com.

The Proximity Search feature is perfect for finding homes within a certain distance of a specific location or landmark. Users may search by proximity to jobs, schools, parks, entertainment centers, medical care, or just about anything they choose.  Additional fields are available to further narrow your search. To use the Proximity Search, visit proximity.ebby.com.      

“Best of all, these features are available for all open houses in the Multiple Listing Service, not just properties listed by Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®,” says June Feltman, Director of Special Projects for The Ebby Halliday Companies.

The National Association of Realtors estimates 90 percent of today’s buyers use the Internet in their home searches.

“At Ebby Halliday we are constantly focused on innovation, and to do that in today’s market, you must be focused online,” Feltman says. “We are actively pursuing online features that will continue to make ebby.com the go-to source for North Texas real estate.”

Ebby.com recently added another award to its long list of accolades. The Website Quality Certification (WQC) is presented by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World to member companies that have demonstrated excellence in website design, functionality and execution.

Every aspect of the ebby.com site was reviewed to ensure exacting standards were met in numerous key areas, ranging from design and content to human interactivity to search-engine optimization.

“It is vital for a real estate firm to have a current, easy-to-use and relevant website,” says Pam O’Connor, president and CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®. “By earning the Website Quality Certification, Ebby Halliday, REALTORS® has demonstrated that it offers fundamental online resources to home buyers and sellers, which are further supported by the expertise that only a dedicated real estate professional can provide.”

For more information about Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®, visit ebby.com.

Kendall

Celebrity homes are always a hot topic. The world was amazed when Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s purchased their mega mansion. And, remember when heiress, Petra Ecclestone paid $85 million in cash for Candy Spelling’s 57,000 square foot estate (which by the way was listed AND sold by our Luxury Portfolio International counterpart in Beverly Hills, Hilton & Hyland)? But around here, it’s even more exciting when a celebrity is selling a home, especially when it’s listed through one of our very own Ebby Halliday, REALTORS agents! If you caught the celebrity home segment on The TODAY Show this morning, you saw the impressive Oklahoma ranch of NFL great Terry Bradshaw, listed by Ebby Halliday’s Laura Brewer.

This Love County,OK ranch sits on more than 700 acres and was custom built with six bedrooms and six and two-half baths spread across over 8,000 square feet of living space.  The outside living area offers more than 1,000 square feet of space with a kitchen, firepit and bar. Truly a ranch, this estate also boasts a four-stall stallion barn, 20-stall show barn, 54-stall mare barn and a covered arena.

Also, featured in the segment is Rosie O’Donnell’s waterfront Miami mansion, listed by our fellow Luxury Portfolio International member, Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell.

See below for the full clip from The TODAY Show. And, be sure to check out more information on the property, here on the Luxury Portfolio International site.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kendall

Are you struggling to decide whether you should rent or buy a home? Well, according to CNNMoney, the very clear answer in today’s market is that buying a home is more affordable than renting. In fact, in nearly all of the top 100 housing markets (save Honolulu and San Francisco) it is more affordable to buy a home than to rent. Home prices are falling while mortgage interest rates are low and rents are on the rise.

Ken H. Johnson, a professor of real estate at Florida International, believes home prices nationally have bottomed.

“The ship has turned,” he said. “Markets should slowly start to recover. Housing will return to its traditional role of a safety investment.”

This is very welcome news in the housing market and even better news if you are searching for a new home. Visit CNN.com for the full article by Les Christie. And, if you want to see the available options in your area of choice, visit Ebby.com to start your home search today.

Kendall

While we aren’t sure why the second richest man in America can’t buy millions of single-family homes, we certainly think he knows what he’s talking about. In a recent sit-down on the “Squawk Box”, the billionaire told Becky Quick that single-family homes are a very attractive investment right now. Buffett said that houses are currently even better than stocks, if held for a long period of time and purchased at low rates. He advises taking out a 30-year mortgage and refinancing if rates go down.

Buffett goes on to talk about other investments and the future of Berkshire Hathaway. For more from Warren Buffett, read the full CNBC article here.

For a comprehensive list of homes on the market, visit ebby.com. And, for more information on buying a new home or refinancing your current mortgage, contact a professional at  Home Team Mortgage.

Cody

We mentioned last week that Ebby.com earned the Website Quality Certification from Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.  This week the full report arrived and we’re proud to announce that we received a total score of 58 out of 60! 

We’re also proud that Ebby.com is regularly recognized with current awards for its outstanding features.  A single award is noteworthy, but we believe that online innovation requires constant progress.  That’s why we strive year after year to attain current recognition, which indicates our website is meeting the demands of today’s consumer with the most up-to-date technology available.  Speaking of, you’ll be seeing some great new features from Ebby.com in the near future – stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are some highlights from Ebby.com’s official report card:

USABILITY:

The website is very easy to navigate; we did not encounter any errors.  Given the amount of interactive content it did not take long to load.  The property search feature is the very first thing that you see and there are multiple ways of approaching your search.   

DESIGN & WEBSITE CONTENT:

The look of the site is consistent with the Ebby brand; every element looks clean and harmonious.  The photography is exceptional, makes every listing look special.  There is a ton of community information; even someone with no knowledge of the Dallas area will get a great overview from this site.  Beyond the basic community information there was a wealth of “goings on” in the area.  This would be very appealing for someone moving from one community to another; doesn’t only market the Ebby brand, but it’s a great sell for Dallas.

INTERACTIVITY:

As mentioned before, there are multiple ways to approach the home search and they have managed to cover all of them.  The mapping feature is exceptional; you can really pinpoint exactly where you want to find a home.  As we mentioned several other times, Ebby.com does a good job of remembering people who aren’t familiar with the area.  Most impressive was the short video that explained how to use the interactive map, left no room for confusion.  There are links to all of the social media sites (even the look of that is integrated nicely into the site).  The blog is very good and it is current.  There are property alerts and mobile applications available.

CUSTOMER SERVICE & CLIENT RESPECT:

Very simple and easy to find contact information and inquire about property listings.  Immediately received a phone call to discuss our inquiry further, and also received an email ten minutes after our inquiry submission.

Cody

The following was sent to all members of the Ebby Halliday Companies by President & CEO Mary Frances Burleson.

Indicators point toward a much stronger real estate market for DFW and N. Texas in 2012:

“Foreclosure filings were down 26 percent in January in the Dallas Fort Worth area from the first month of 2011. It’s the biggest year-over-year decline in more than two years.”
          – George Roddy, CEO of Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service

“New home starts may increase 15% from last year.”
          – Dallas Morning News, February 9, 2012

“North Texas’ population growth led the nation with more than 146,000 new residents in N. Texas area from 2008 to 2009 (latest figures available).”
          – North Texas Commission

“Nationwide housing affordability during the third quarter of 2011 hovered near its highest level in more than 20 years.”
          – National Association of Homebuilders

“Mortgage interest rates are at an historic low – the lowest since World War II.”
          – Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac).

“Housing sector (is) now, potentially, a source of growth”.
          – Harvey Rosenblum, Executive Vice President & Director of Research, Dallas Federal Reserve

“Homes put under contract for sale in January 2012 (contract pending) were up more than 19% over January 2011.”
          – The Ebby Halliday Companies

Cody

Ebby.com, The Best Address In Real Estate, just added another award to its long list of accolades.  This time it’s the Website Quality Certification (WQC), presented by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World! 

Read the entire press release below.  And then, for fun, check out the great video at the end of this post which gives some history of LeadingRE, particularly Ebby Halliday’s role in its creation.  Needless to say, we’re very proud of this honor:

PRESS RELEASE:

Ebby Halliday, Realtors has earned the 2011 Website Quality Certification (WQC), presented by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World^® to member companies that have demonstrated excellence in website design, functionality and execution.

Every aspect of the site, ebby.com, was reviewed to ensure exacting standards were met in six key areas, ranging from design and content to human interactivity to search engine optimization.  The WQC was introduced in 2009 to recognize and encourage superior websites among Leading Real Estate Companies of the World’s 550 member firms.  

“With so many people going online to obtain information on homes, communities and everything relating to home buying and selling, it is vital for a real estate firm to have a current, easy-to-use and relevant website,” notes Pam O’Connor, president/CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World^®.  “By earning the Website Quality Certification, Ebby Halliday, Realtors has demonstrated that it offers fundamental online resources to home buyers and sellers, which are further supported by the expertise only a dedicated real estate professional can provide.”     

For more information about Ebby Halliday, Realtors, please visit ebby.com.

Kendall

For the first time in nearly five years, homes sales in the Dallas area are rising!  The Dallas Morning News reports that pre-owned home sales in 2011 were up in the majority of Dallas neighborhoods. And, home sales should continue to climb modestly in 2012.

We have seen this improving trend first hand here at Ebby Halliday. Company President Mary Frances Burleson is quoted in the article:

“Our company had a better year in 2011 than we have had in several years.”

Mary Frances attributes affordable mortgage rates as one reason for the improving housing market:

“I’m not saying it’s 2006 again, but things are doing so much better than they were. I have never seen interest rates this low ever.”

To see the full article and read more of what Mary Frances has to say, check out the front page of the Business section in today’s Dallas Morning News.  DMN subscribers can read the article online here.

Kendall

Good news for home sellers! The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that Dallas-Fort Worth area home prices are set to rise in 2012. After nearly five years of declining numbers, overall home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex should actually rise by as much as 5.8 percent by end of this year.

In fact, the California-based research group predicts that bout half of major U.S. cities are expected to experience price gains this year, including Houston with a gain of three percent in price.

DallasNews.com subscribers, click here, for the full article from Steve Brown.

And, remember to visit ebby.com to find an agent to represent your home.