What to Expect When Building to Order

When considering building a home for the first time, there is responsibility on the part of the builder and the buyer to explain and understand expectations, procedures and timelines. Making assumptions can lead to tension and hinder the enjoyment of the building process. This has more to do with understanding when decisions need to be [...]

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Institutional Branding and Personal Development: Social Media ROI

Is the topic of social media becoming a little tired? Perhaps. Although there hasn’t been major innovations on usability, studies certainly support advocacy towards employing such a tool to build brand awareness, fire-up fans, build a strong referral base, and encourage customer loyalty. As a consumer, I am more inclined to make a purchase decision [...]

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Smart Design II

Building a home is quite different than buying a completed one. Although there are some strategies and priorities that overlap (size, price range, location), building a home is as much process as it is about product. There is old saying that circulates in and through the industry that states that “if your marriage can survive [...]

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Choosing Exterior Brick, Stone and Colors

Unless you are purposely trying to create a Southern Colonial look for your home, it seems that most clients have graduated from red brick to one that includes warmer earth tones and tumbled antiqued textures. Do not misunderstand me, red bricks are beautiful in the right home with the right style. But lack of imagination [...]

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Super Bowl and Commercials

Everybody wants a deal. I do. You do. Your mom and dad do. We want to feel good that not only have we purchased something we love, but that we negotiated down to the penny. Marketing departments and sales people’s job is to educate and build value. Commercials help with branding, name recognition and communicating [...]

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Style Without Breaking the Bank – Design Smart

Thank you for all that responded to the poll! Most of you decided that a model home needs to show design style without breaking the bank. So, I allowed myself a mid-upgrade budget, without over improving the home where the appraisal would be compromised and standard features would be disguised. Ok, we want style: Traditional, [...]

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Designing a Model Home

    I am going to give you a blank check with a challenge. Build a new model home. At first, the excitement of the design savvy begins to tingle and warm our creative juices like that first taste of a rich Cabernet, and we start thinking and acting like a design diva. We want [...]

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Ten Easy Steps When Choosing Stucco Colors

Colors in generally are tricky. They look one way in the sample, another way on the wall, and they change according to the type of light, the amount of light and the colors of items surrounding them. The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors, so it is to not surprising that understanding [...]

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Cold Enough?

Having grown up in Canada, I am used to the cold physically, although I can admit that after nine years living in the warm South, my tolerance has thinned out as I was tempted to bring out the heavy winter artillery of my fashionable hat, gloves and scarfs. Unfortunately, most of them remain in Canada [...]

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Podcast Interview with Kathy Tautenhahn – Cornerstone Mortgage

Mortgages have become a sensitive issue given the changes in the underwriting guidelines. It is more imperative in today’s financial environment for potential buyers prepare themselves properly when considering a purchase. Newmark Homes Houston has recently signed and affiliated business arrangement with Cornerstone Mortgage which offers a wide variety of different financial packages for buyers. [...]

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