Sharees Bazile is a Realtor with Champions Real Estate Group working in Houston
Every week, we ask a Houston real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before. This week, we spoke with Sharees Bazile, a Realtor with Champions Real Estate Group.
Houston Agent (HA): As someone who prides herself on cultivating a smooth and seamless process into or out of homeownership, mutual trust is imperative to your business. How do you instill a sense of trust in your clients?
Sharees Bazile (SB): I instill a sense of trust in my clients with consistent honesty and integrity and a plethora of communication methods. I am always available to my clients via phone, email, text messaging and even through all of my social media platforms. My client’s see my availability as an asset to their services, and trust that I will do what needs to be done to accommodate their needs.
HA: Where do you see Houston’s luxury market going in 2015, do you think it is on the rise?
SB: Houston’s luxury market is definitely on the rise in 2015. According to the Texas Association of Realtors, Houston will see more demand for luxury properties from Texans whose incomes are increasing, enabling many of those homeowners to “move up.” Migration from other states, specifically California and Florida, will also drive demand for Texas homes priced at $1 million and above. From January through October 2014, Houston has seen a 13 percent increase in sales compared to the same time period in 2013. With gas prices decreasing, we are expecting to see luxury home sales increase dramatically.
HA: Newly built homes in the U.S. today tend to be about 50 percent more expensive than their 2010 counterpart, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Have you noticed this trend in Houston, and if so, what do you think is driving it?
SB: Yes, I have noticed that new homes in Houston are presently being priced much higher than their 2010 counterparts, even in the same subdivision. This trend can more than likely be a result of The Great Recession of 2007-2010. New home prices in 2010 were must lower compared to new homes today, so they could compete with the existing homes that were on the market, which were mostly short sales and foreclosures. Today, the Houston market is seeing a significant decrease in distressed homes and an inventory shortage, which has resulted in an increase in home values: supply and demand.