[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] okay I guess we're ready to start well I guess what part of what part of the country do you live in oh okay well I'm also in Dallas
[speaker001:] I'm in Dallas Texas what about yourself okay
[speaker002:] the reason I ask is the last two conversations I've had or have been out of state
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but um have you always lived here in Dallas and
[speaker001:] no I've lived here for almost five years now
[speaker002:] I see
[speaker001:] and I'm a uh before that I was at school in Rochester New York and I'm originally from Boston
[speaker002:] oh well you are seeing quite a different climate and quite a different neighborhood
[speaker001:] that's right but I like it
[speaker002:] you probably have enjoyed getting away from the snow
[speaker001:] well I missed it at first but now I go back there and I'm a real wimp about the cold so I like it here it's nice
[speaker002:] yeah well that's good I I have lived in Texas essentially all my life and around in Texas and and
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh I have traveled up in the northeast and around and have enjoyed it but uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I don't know I'm not sure I would want to take on those winters I'm getting older and
[speaker001:] I know
[speaker002:] uh not sure that's really something I wanna do I live uh over in the Lake Highlands area if you're familiar with that area
[speaker001:] yeah um tell me where that is um
[speaker002:] okay uh you
[speaker001:] I probably do know but I don't know by that name
[speaker002:] this is pretty well where LBJ and Audelia Skillman cross
[speaker001:] okay sure
[speaker002:] we're just north of uh White Rock Lake
[speaker001:] oh okay yeah I know that area that's a nice area
[speaker002:] well we have some very nice house homes here in this area um my particular I guess they want us to describe the area so um my particular area the homes run anywhere from about sixty five eighty thousand dollars on up to probably half a million
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh that's quite a range
[speaker002:] yes um the homes that were here earlier were smaller now they've gotten larger and larger as as they've developed the land and of course it's pretty static right now and all the values over here have dropped off because of the economy
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] how about you
[speaker001:] well I am um I'm gosh I'm barely in Dallas I'm just north of Addison Airport up on the tollway
[speaker002:] okay uh okay
[speaker001:] and I guess we have a similar situation I mean we've got houses two streets away that are probably around seventy eighty thousand and then we've got Bent Tree right across the street
[speaker002:] um-hum okay
[speaker001:] so I don't I don't even know how high those go but some of those are pretty big
[speaker002:] yes those are over a million
[speaker001:] yeah so it's that's the strange thing about I guess Dallas because back where I'm from you wouldn't have that sort of a variation at all they'd all be pretty similar to one another within a a couple miles so
[speaker002:] well we have suffered from real lack of land use planning in Dallas not as bad as Houston
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but exactly what you're describing is what happens all over
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah I've noticed that
[speaker002:] well now do you live in a a home or a zero lot home or
[speaker001:] um-hum uh we've got a house let's see we moved in about four years ago and it was it had previously been unoccupied but it had existed for three years this is a whole block of homes that uh a builder built all of them and I guess he he did some crazy thing to get some extra money from the bank and then ran away
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] type of deal so the whole block was all foreclosed
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and so some were vacant for quite a while before they you know they finally sold them because there were so many
[speaker002:] well your was your house in good shape was it damaged
[speaker001:] yeah no the only thing that we were worried about was the air conditioner because they'd have it just running constantly with the doors and windows open
[speaker002:] oh it was oh
[speaker001:] but uh yeah so we just you know we bargained to get an extra warranty on that
[speaker002:] I see
[speaker001:] and um we're really we haven't had any problems and you know we had originally thought we'd have to get a fix up special or something because being from the Northeast we figured we couldn't afford anything but the prices are much lower here and this was definitely not a fix up special but I'll tell you it takes all my time between we put in our own sprinkler system and I just finished repainting the exterior and you know making drapes and buying furniture it's just a money pit really is
[speaker002:] yes I
[speaker001:] so
[speaker002:] am familiar with that I where I live is a house that's seventeen years old when I bought it
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and we bought it from someone who was in it but before they had it I found out after I had been in the house it had it had sat empty for the better part of a year
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I'm not sure what happened but I do know the folks that we bought it from had done virtually no maintenance for for about four years
[speaker001:] oh no
[speaker002:] I I I found a lot of things which