Candy Evans is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters, bloggers and consultants. She reports on Dallas real estate for WFAA-TV’s Daybreak with Ron Corning, and is frequently called as a real estate expert by other Dallas media. She is also a real-estate editor for CultureMap Dallas. She even has her own web-based Real estate show called, The Party Line.
Candy has written for AOL Real Estate, and is a guest blogger for Joel Kotkin’s The New Geography, Inman Real Estate News plus a host of national sites. Candy was a longtime contributing editor to Dallas’ D Magazine and sister pubs, and in 2007 founded the wildly successful Dallas real estate blog, DallasDirt. That’s where she broke the news on where former president George W. Bush bought his Dallas home in 2008.
She is the founder and publisher of an exciting platform of Dallas-based real estate sites including SecondShelters.com, devoted to the vacation home market, and her signature CandysDirt.com, everything you need to know about real estate in North Texas. And yes, we are still psyched about the GOLD! In 2013, CandysDirt.com was named Best Blog by the venerable National Association of Real Estate Editors, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious journalism associations, and the only association for journalists covering real estate, home and urban design.
We see a lot of fabulous homes, but few grab our attention like a Pottsboro property that just hit the market, located about an hour north of Dallas. This is a perfect weekend house if we ever saw one!
The barndominium at 192 McClain Ln. is a sight to behold, an enchanting and unusual house made to look like a rustic wood barn with lots of high-end features for the discerning buyer. It has five bedrooms, four full bathrooms, two half baths, and 5,293 square feet on two stories, sitting on 10 acres close to the Texas-Oklahoma border.
Located two miles from the shores of Lake Texoma, this residence was built as a vacation home by DFW residents looking to create a gathering spot for four adult children, grandchildren, and family friends alike.
I’ve found an exceptional equestrian property sitting on almost 10 acres on the shores of Lake Ray Roberts, about an hour north of Dallas.
The expansive home at 7621 Sierra Lane in Pilot Point is a true luxury horse estate with a gorgeous custom home. Its Southern-style exterior leads to a high-end transitional interior with 20,437 square feet. You’ve got to see this in person to truly appreciate how unusual it is for our North Texas market.
“This is a remarkable plantation-style home set on a picturesque 9.72 acres with a luxury swimming pool, outdoor areas, and multi-stall barn,” said listing agent Jason Haugen with eXp Realty. “It’s right next to the equestrian trails on the shores of Lake Ray Roberts — everything about this property makes it a dream for the serious horse lover.”
This estate has six bedrooms (including two masters), five full bathrooms, four half baths, four living areas, two dining areas, on three stories with an elevator and a gated entrance and guest quarters, built in 2015. Can I give you a tour?
Interesting that Texas is becoming a popular destination for people in colder climates seeking warm weather, while we are escaping to cooler climes including McCall, Idaho. One of the top ten most popular vaca home spots is Hallettsville, Texas, a rural stretch in Lavaca County between San Antonio and Houston. (more…)
This summer marks the 125th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park, the great national treasure and home to half the world’s geysers, grizzly bears, wolves, bison and elk. The lure of Yellowstone draws millions of visitors every year, and this year may be a bonanza.
Now you can own your own small (or large) piece of Wyoming at one of the finest residential and lifestyle club communities in the northwest: the Snake River Sporting Club at Jackson Hole.
Located just south of the confluence of the Snake and Hoback rivers, about 12 miles from the town of Jackson, the Snake River Sporting Club offers 800-acres of unbelievable lifestyle experience. Live and play here when it’s 110 degrees in Dallas, and just be kind enough to put all the fun on Facebook. Owner/investor Christopher Swann says it is the perfect marriage of rugged nature and authentic western lifestyle. I have already mapped the mileage to Dallas: 1309 miles. A 20 hour drive or a direct 3 hour flight on America. Or there is always private.
Learn from the experts on what is hot in the vacation home market, and see the whole panel discussion from the National Association of Real Estate Editors 50th conference, after the jump!
The sudden death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia this weekend in West Texas throws yet another Texas ranch property into the spotlight: Cibolo Creek Ranch, owned by Houston billionaire and Washington D.C. insider John Poindexter.
Poindexter says he invited Scalia, age 79, to his ranch this weekend as a guest along with about three dozen others. One of Scalia’s sons was to come but cancelled at the last minute. Poindexter says Justice Scalia was animated and engaged during dinner Friday night, but did retire early at 9 p.m. saying it had been a long week, and he was tired.
Poindexter tried to awaken Scalia about 8:30 the next morning, but the Justices’ door was locked and he did not answer.
Three hours later, Poindexter returned to the ranch after an outing. He and a Scalia friend from Washington got into the room, and discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled, indicating that perhaps he had died shortly after retiring the night before.
“He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap,” he said.
Established in 1857 by Milton Faver, known as the first Texas cattle baron west of the Pecos, Cibolo Creek Ranch is now a five-star resort, a rugged oasis of a retreat, once a grouping of real life forts where Indian attacks were fended off. One of the more artistic forts remaining is “El Fortin de Cibolo.” Many millionaires and celebrities have visited the 30,000 acres near the Chinati Mountains including Mick Jagger, Julia Roberts and Tommy Lee Jones. One of the Dixie Chicks, Emily Erwin, was married there. Rooms run $350 to $700 per night. Cibolo Creek Ranch was bought by Poindexter in 1988 when it was not in the best of shape. He meticulously renovated three of the forts into a luxury, 33-room resort with a pool, dining room, horseback riding facilities, hunting and private airstrip. The atmosphere is comfortable luxury — lots of sinkable leather chairs and sofas, luxurious rooms with a ranch theme. Located about 30 miles south of Marfa, most guests fly in by private plane to the airstrip or fly to Midland and drive 3.5 hours to the remote ranch near Shafter and Marfa.
Poindexter was profiled in this 2006 Texas Monthly story by John Spong, when he was trying to buy 46,000 acres of Big Bend Ranch State Park. He was described by Spong as a rather “stiff dude” who has never married (“It wasn’t that I didn’t like the ladies enough; it’s that I liked them too much.”) – ha!: (more…)
