Looped In

Meet Marissa and 2022's housing market Things have been on the move at the Houston Chronicle. Rebecca Schuetz has switched to focus on housing, and we're welcoming a new real estate reporter to the team: Marissa Luck! Marissa answers some tough questions -- like which pet is really her favorite -- and talks about what the upcoming year has in store for the Houston housing market. Hint: It won't be...

Mayor Sylvester Turner's decision to go against staff recommendations and instead direct millions of city money to a project with ties to his longtime law partner is attracting national scrutiny. City hall reporter Dylan McGuinness and investigative reporter Mike Morris talk about how the news broke and the potential implications. Connect with Rebecca, Dylan and Mike. READ: Turner fires Houston ho...

Jackie Cooper, the first female president of the Houston Black Real Estate association, has had a lot of doors slammed in her face. That didn’t prevent her from convincing homesellers, homebuilders and even Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to give Black real estate agents in Houston their business. She shares some memories after HBREA created an award in her honor. Connect with Rebecca Schuetz. Read: Ho...

Believe it or not, Texas real estate is being shaped by outer space. As billionaires bent on commercializing travel to the heavens base their operations in remote parts of Texas, those areas are seeing a huge influx of employees and investors. Andrea Leinfelder, the Chronicle’s space reporter, joins Looped In to discuss the impact on the local real estate market. Tweet at Rebecca Schuetz and read...

Right now, there is a fight that could change how commissions work that is winding its way through the court system. In it, the defendant, who thinks that real estate commissions are too high, is pointing to the United Kingdom as an example of how things could work. So we spoke to real estate agents in different countries to see how real estate commissions – and the home selling process -- work in...

When asked about the future of real estate -- are we in a home price bubble? will offices fully recover -- real estate economist Jim Gaines is quick to caution that "there isn't an economist in the world that really knows what the heck he's talking about." We’ve never gone through anything like this before, so modeling it is a difficult endeavor. But here is his take on what a recovery may look li...

Many neighborhoods throughout Houston, Texas and the United States have shocking language in documents restricting how the land can be used. “None of the lots… shall be used, owned or occupied by any person other than of the Caucasian Race," reads one example, the deed restrictions of Oak Forest. Making it easier to remove racist language from deed restrictions has been one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick...

Rebecca visits her dad and share news on her refinance. But a lot has changed since she was shopping for a new mortgage. She chats with Frank Nothaft, chief economist for the real estate analytics company CoreLogic, about what is causing rates to go back up and what he thinks the impact will be on affordability, home prices and home sales, then touches base with loan officer Jennifer Hernandez abo...

In the aftermath of Houston's litany of hurricanes, floods and storms, renters are realizing that renter protections in Texas are anemic at best. If the apartment's condition has deteriorated to the point where it impacts physical health or safety and the landlord does not make timely repairs — usually defined as seven days — renters are supposed to be able to move out. But if tenants and landlord...

The commission a buyer's agent earns is in the spotlight because of how they're set up. While the buyer's agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the homebuyer, their commissions is largely set by the homeseller before the property is listed on an agent-to-agent database known as the multiple listing service. Even though this is the setup, buyers' agents are required to work in the homebuyers' bes...

Even as Rebecca interviewed people who had shaved hundreds off their monthly mortgage payments — giving them increased financial security in the midst of a recession — and spoke to coworkers and friends about how the historically low rates had benefited them, she put off doing one of her own. After low mortgage rates won a 2020 Loopie Award for Brightest Glimmer of Hope (Besides the Vaccine), her...

Every year, Looped In celebrates by recognizing the best and worst of Houston real estate. In 2020, there was a lot to choose from. The pandemic and the need to socially distance has shaped the way we interact, which has shaped the spaces we interact in. Home sales and renovations boomed, while offices were thrown into uncertainty and hotels and small retailers floundered. Some have closed for goo...

Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/houston-real-estate-agents-less-commission-records-15857087.php  REX: And you don’t think they’d compensate you after everything you’ve done f...

Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/houston-real-estate-agents-less-commission-records-15857087.php REX: How our properties work is we list our properties at 2 percent. And we do...

Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/houston-real-estate-agents-less-commission-records-15857087.php Agent: So if I were to bring you a client to purchase this property, do you gu...

Looped In host Nancy Sarnoff packs up her bags and moves to Canada, with a detour down memory lane. Connect with Rebecca Schuetz and Nancy Sarnoff.   Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Realtors banned from racist postsThe National Association of Realtors tackled racist social media posts at their annual conference. On this episode of Looped In, Nancy Sarnoff and R.A. Schuetz discuss the background leading up to the vote. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.c...

We’ve all heard of coworking. But cohousing? Not so much. That’s because there are no cohousing communities in Texas, something a group of Houstonians in the East End are planning to change. They’re designing a 33-unit condominium where a sense of community will be the key amenity, a need for which they believe the pandemic has underscored. Think shared meals (or, during socially distant times, ou...

Kirby Liu of Lovett Commercial and Jason Long, a partner with architecture firm OMA in New York, discuss POST Houston, the redevelopment of the 16-acre downtown post office property. They highlight some of the architectural oddities they unearthed from the midcentury structures on the site and discuss the challenges of leasing, designing and developing a mixed-use project for a post-pandemic world...

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been quietly postponing real estate foreclosures through executive orders, shutting down the facility where those auctions are held and providing relief to struggling homeowners and landlords. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz. Read: Lina Hidalgo quietly postponing Harris County foreclosures with executive orders     Support the show: https://offer...

Convenience store owner Charlie Patel has spent the past two decades selling birthday cards, candy bars and small gifts to urban office workers. With most of his customers still working from home, he's had to find ways to adapt to the current reality. Patel explains how he's surviving. Read: 'Downtown is dead.' How COVID-19 turned Houston into a ghost townConnect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Sch...

The late Gerald D. Hines adopted Houston as his hometown in 1957 and became one of the world's foremost property developers. Hines -- the man and the company -- was the subject of one of Looped In's earliest episodes. It’s time for another listen. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz.   Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See om...

Virtual tours and contactless showings. For those on the hunt for a new apartment in the midst of a pandemic, seeing the place before signing a lease involves navigating a series of precautions put in place to protect leasing staff and renters. Looped In hits the road to see how things have changed. Connect with Rebecca Schuetz and Nancy Sarnoff. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.c...

The office is about to undergo its biggest change since the cubicle. Thanks to the pandemic, companies are rethinking the amount of space they occupy and the role it plays in their corporate culture. Lauri Goodman Lampson, who has designed workplaces for some of the world's biggest energy firms, reveals what some of them are planning for a post-COVID world. Connect with Nancy and Rebecca. Support...

Nancy and Rebecca talk to housing consultant Scott Davis about how the new coronavirus is informing the way builders design homes and how past pandemics led to lasting changes in the way we live. Connect with Nancy and Rebecca   Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your...