Category Archives: CandysDirt.com

The SecondShelters Story: Why I am so Darn Tootin’ Obsessed with Real Estate and Vacation Homes

Real estate rules. But have I ever told you my story, why I am so obsessed with real estate and why I blog? It goes like this: I was a journalist, a magazine journalist, who covered real estate as a journalistic beat, then got hooked. I realized that blogging about homes and featuring them on the web is really the only and best way to market homes. If you disagree, I want to know. And I may challenge you to an ad dual. Agents in Silicon Valley don’t even bother with print any more: 89% of buyers search for homes on line, and internet buyers’ incomes are 25% higher than traditional print buyers. By the time a certain listing is printed, that home may have a price change or even be sold, if anyone ever reads it. In fact, the homes we feature are selling sell and when we write about a home, the open houses are overflowing. This one sold four days after our posting. From a reader in Plano: Continue reading

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North Texas Mansion Champ D’Or Closed Monday: Meet the New Owners

Could they be buying it as a second or third home?

Champ d’Or closed Monday, April 30, according to Laura Brady of Concierge Auctions. Which means it is official: Shirley and Al Goldfield no longer own the Hickory Creek mega mansion they have been trying to sell almost since the day they completed the 40,000 square foot plus home. Talk about things you might regret: I saw Realtor Marilyn Hoffman a few weeks ago at the patron party for the Dallas Art Fair. She told me she once brought Mr. Goldfield an offer for $44 million he turned down. Another high profile agent tells me he was almost kicked out of the house when he offered to take the listing for an asking price of no more than $29 million back in 2009. We know Champ sold at auction a month ago at a reserve starting at $10.3 million, which means that was the minimum bidding price. Do you recall the story I wrote with another luxury real estate auction house when I asked what would happen if the reserve was not even met?

Posted in CandysDirt.com, Dallas real estate news, emerging real estate markets, House Candy, Real estate market news, Second Shelters | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When the Second Home is Better Than The First: Sean Payton Buys $3.4 Million Vaquero House Complete With Lit Up Disco!

It’s official, he owns dirt in the Lone Star State. Sean Payton and fam are now card-carrying Texans! In early January, Sean and his wife bought a stunning 7,785 square foot home in a delicious part of Vaquero that is honestly one of the most beautiful homes I’ve seen out there, maybe anywhere. I mean, no offense NOLA, but you would not find a house like this in Louisiana. No way Jose. PLEASE check out this slide show for detailed photos. Continue reading

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Fame Put on Foundation Here: Dallas’s Mary Kay Ash Home Hits the Real Estate Market Once Again, This Time a Steal at $3.3

For more details and all the local Dallas Real estate News, click on over to www.CandysDirt.com

Karen Luter of Allie Beth Allman tells me she has been working her fingers to the bone for weeks trying to get this home ready for sale. Will be in MLS next week. Not much besides the price has changed at 8915 Douglas since the late Mary Kay Ash – do I need to add she was the famous founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics?— moved out to return to her home off Boedecker because she thought the mansion was too big. It is ginormous: 12,000 square feet. Built in 1984, but remodeled in 2000. Located in coveted Old Preston Hollow, on over one acre of manicured lawns with fountains, pools, koi ponds, arboretum like gardens, there is Brazilian teakwood flooring, grand sweeping staircases (two or three), statues, arcades of Corinthian columns, wine cellar, walls of beveled glass windows, hand painted murals, original pink quartz-marble hardware, indescribe-able mill work and a pink quartz toilet. Er, commode. I think that lime green carpet on the stairs is the original that hosted many a top producer party. The kitchen has the original white Corian counters and I believe that may even be Mary Kay’s own breakfast table under the massive chandelier. The current owner’s furniture tastes are a bit more “antique” — when I first saw the home years ago, right after Mary Kay had moved out, it held no oriental rugs. Asking $3,300,000 which is less than DCAD appraised value. Formerly listed with Myla Patton of Patton International Real Estate for $5.7 in 2007, then listed with Linda Jordan Hobbs over at Ebby for $4,995,000, which is about what DCAD thinks. Myla was again considered for the listing.

Posted in CandysDirt.com, Celebrity Homes, Dallas real estate news, Real Estate, Second Shelters | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Week Ahead on CandysDirt and SecondShelters: Calistoga, California Here I come

My second home this weekend!

As I have told you, I launched CandysDirt.com on July 1, 2011, my very own version of the super duper popular DallasDirt blog I created for D Magazine and kept going, growing for almost four years. CandysDirt (no apostrophe) is ALSO growing by leaps and bounds — please check it out every day. Like us on FaceBook. From here, just move your mouse over to the right and click on the logo — voila the latest real local Dallas estate gossip! Second Shelters will have some of the same stories, but focus on luxury second home communities. Coming up soon: Calistoga, CA. Read both and I promise you will know more about real estate than everyone. Not only do I have my ear to the ground in almost all 50 states, I read all about real estate trends daily and bring you whatever is behind the pay walls. (My bad!) Plus I have my AOL and Haute Living connections. Lots to tell – check out both blogs often!

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Candy’s Sale of the Week: The Most Perfect Dallas Real Estate Ever, Less Than $400,000

If it were possible to kidnap a house, I’d be down in North Oak Cliff in a heartbeat with a truck.

Actually, I want the fireplace and I want it NOW!

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House Candy: A Kim Schlegel Whitman Home Reduced For Sale in Dallas

Details over on CandysDirt.com.

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Second Shelters Has a Sister Blog: DallasDirt Returns as CandysDirt.com

SecondShelters was created as a blog for the second home house addict — for those who, like me and Martha Stewart, could just be happy house-hopping for the rest of our lives. Yes, we fret over the vines and get mad when the gardners are sloppy, but we love love love homes so much that one is never enough!

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Is Rick Perry’s Presidential Campaign Boosting the Texas Housing Market?

We talked about this yesterday over at NBC Nonstop Nightly with Jane McGarry. In a meeting with a major North Texas developer this week, he said to me: “I do not like Rick Perry all that much, and I do not think he is very smart. However, he is sending out a great message about Texas and we are getting all sorts of out of state interest in our properties. So do I support him for the White House? Heck yes!”

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“I Just Gave My Bank a Free Loan and Paid for the Priviledge of Doing It:” Equity Accelerator BS & More Dallas Real Estate News

Susan Knape of Dallas, Texas thought she was doing something smart: paying AHEAD on her mortgage. In fact, if you open your mortgage statement each month, I will bet you the paperwork is right there in the envelope popping out. I’m talking about the equity accelerator programs offered by JP Morgan Chase, Well Fargo, Citibank and many other banks — I see the offers in both my Citibank loans every month. This program is a way, say the banks, for you to be a good citizen… right? Wrong. It’s a way for them to make more money… all the deets and more on CandysDirt.com

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