We have several people to celebrate this newsletter. First, we have two new Mr. Ito’s! One moved into a medical center area apartment and one moved into a Clear Lake area single family home. Annoura Realty is always happy to support new expats for Baylor College of Medicine and Mitsubishi Chemical! We also welcomed a new Japanese expat family from Nippon Steel, The Toyoda family. With his offices in the Memorial area, they opted for a single family home in Katy. Mariko was hard at work helping everyone these past couple of weeks, good job M! On the sale front, repeat client Nick closed on his Cottage Grove home last week, so congratulations to him! Meanwhile, we put several homes on the market these past 2 weeks. One was a home in League City on Edinburg which was so popular it was leased in single digit days. For sale, we listed a home on Creekside and also have a home on Sun Harbor currently on the market. Our agent Shantel Looker has two listings on the market. One is a 2 acre waterfront lot on the north shore of Clear Lake and one is a single family home with a pool in Dickinson. We have four condos for sale in the Ponderosa Forest complex (also down in Dickinson), with one also on the market for lease. And, speaking of leases, we have two other properties on the market for lease right now. One is a cute two bedroom condo near UHCL, and the other is a single family home in Bay Glen on Chestnut Springs. On the radar for newcomers: expats from the Government of Japan, Shin Nippon Machinery, Mitsui, Baylor College of Medicine, MD Anderson, and Toray!
Annoura Realty Group is constantly thinking about special things to do for our clients! One of course, is our famous Welcome Bucket, which is given to all newcomers when they move into their new homes. This branded bucket contains everything a new person might need when they move to a new country, in order to get their new lives started: dish soap, clothes detergent, paper towel, toilet paper, (lots of) snacks, water, beer, even shampoo, conditioner, and body wash! After attending a real estate conference and listening to a famous speaker, Susan learned that it is also very important to remember our past clients, and especially past clients who recommend new clients to us. It is to them we owe a huge thank you for helping us grow our business. So, Susan found a custom box company who helped her design a custom box with our logo and colors. Then, she chose a few special items as the gift inside the box, added stuffing, some marketing items, and a hand written thank you card. Each box is labeled for delivery and/or is ready to be shipped to the people who send us a new client! Last week we shipped two boxes and hand delivered four. We have seven more to deliver and will knock those out right away! If you know anyone moving to Houston or who wants to change houses and move within Houston, or is moving away from Houston and needs us to help sell their house, please let them know about Annoura Realty Group! Our five man team would love to help, and be sure they mention your name so we can thank you with a special Thank You Box!
The second half of July seems to be somewhat calming down. The huge rush of juggling 20 different people at the same time is completed now that everyone is moving into their selected homes one by one by one. On the buy side, Vivian and Patrick safely drove halfway across the country from Connecticut to Cypress, successfully signing their documents on take 2 with a mobile notary who met them along the way! That was an exciting story to follow! On the list side, Gina’s condo was delayed because Salvation Army got backed up from Hurricane Beryl and could not go out to empty out her unit. We are hoping they pick it up in the coming days. Our personal rental on Saint Cloud will switch tenants at the end of this month/beginning of next month when Cody and his wife move to Colorado for new jobs (congratulations on getting your PhD’s!) and our newest Kaneka expat moves in. James’ Chestnut Springs lease just hit the market for lease and will be a good choice for anyone who wants their kids to go to Ward Elementary. Here is a link to that listing: www.har.com/32928972. On the horizon, we have several move outs at the end of this month, which means we have a lot of make readies on the schedule! One is a lease listing in Bay Pointe, one is a lease listing in League City inside The Landing. One is Gina’s condo’s lease listing in the Bay Area, and the fourth is a lease listing for a condo on Richmond. On the sale listing side, we have another FOUR upcoming! One is a cute two story inside Brittany Lakes, one is a one story inside Bay Glen, one is a one story on a huge cul de sac lot in League City, and one is beautifully update corner lot townhome inside the gated community of Park Shadows. With these 8 listings all coming at us, we are making schedules for the turnovers and lining up vendors while also handling several insurance claims for damaged houses from Hurrican Beryl. Never a dull moment!
Coming to Houston is a new Mitsubishi Chemical expat who Mariko will be touring this week and a new Baylor College of Medicine doctor family who did a vitual tour and chose a nice unit in the Medical Center area. Excited to meet Asami san when she and her family arrive in late August.
As always, if you know anyone moving to Houston, away from Houston, or even within Houston, please don’t hesitate to let us know! We launched a new Referral Campaign and are personally thanking anyone who refers a new customer to us! Be sure the new person mentions you referred us and we will reach out to you right away!
With Hurricane Beryl hitting Houston last week, Annoura Realty was super busy helping everyone get their homes cleaned up and repaired. Our company specializes not only in helping expat relocate to Houston, but we also help Japanese investors buy properties in Houston. For those investors who buy through us, Annoura Realty offers property management services. Currently in our portfolio, we handle about 85 properties, so when a storm hits, we are super super busy! Hurricane Beryl brought along very strong winds, which caused many wood fences to fall and lots and lots of tree branches (and entire trees!) to fall. All homes required serious yard clean up from all the tree debris.
On a positive note, Team Annoura welcomed many newcomers to Houston in the first two weeks of July. One of our Daikin expats Mr. Homma, moved in successfully to his Memorial area highrise, while his colleague Mr. Yagi opted to be closer to the Daikin headquarters in Waller and chose a brand new apartment in Cypress. On the same day, NOEX expat Mr. Takemoto opted for the suburbs for the excellent Katy area schools, and Dr. Ishigami who will work at Texas Children’s Hospital moved in smoothly to his Medical Center area highrise. Welcome to Houston, everyone!
July 1, Susan had two sales closings: one was Nick Davis’ downtown area condo, who came out with a full price offer, and one was Ryan and Elaine’s amazing two generation Village home in Towne Lake, who came out with an incredible gain after a wise purchase during COVID. On the newcomer side, Susan toured a new intern with NAIND (Nihon Shokubai), who smartly chose a trendy apartment in Clear Lake. How exciting that he will get to spend the next year at the NAI Houston office! Mariko succeeded in finding a nice home for the 6 member Osada family. We wish Dr. Osada a successful experience working at Baylor College of Medicine.
Susan’s personal rental in Clear Lake looks like it will next be rented to our newest Kaneka expat, Mr. Jeong and his family, as the current tenant has obtained their PhD and is moving Colorado at the end of the month. We wish Cody and Megan all the best! Also on the newcomer side of things, we welcome a new Tokio Marine member and a new Benichu expat. Both toured last week with Susan and opted for spacious units in the same Memorial area, convenient to work and to the Japanese supermarket. Friday we almost celebrated the closing of Vivian and Patrick’s home in Marvida. I say almost because the mobile notary accidentally had them sign on front and back, which the lender said no to! Take two was Saturday, so closing and funding is expected on Monday (today), as they drive their way from Connecticut to Houston and should be here by Tuesday. Special thanks to Perry Homes sales consultant Janet Nicholson for helping us every step of the way! Jenn Tran, thank you so much for the referral!
The past 3 days we had four more move ins. First, we offer a warm welcome to Mr. Maruyama of Mitsui. He moved into his Memorial area apartment on Saturday and his family will soon follow! Speaking of families coming, Mr. Mizuta has his family coming soon, so he opted to move into a neighboring apartment with a much larger footprint. Finally, Mr. Takehara moves into his new residence today as well. Congratulations to all of our newcomers!
In other big Annoura Realty news, long time agent Nan Feng has left Annoura Realty Group to join a team that will help her grow her commercial real estate endeavors. We will miss Nan but wish her all the best and much success on her new team.
On the other spectrum, we are super excited to welcome a new member to the team, Joanna King Mitchell! Joanna and Susan went to high school together and Joanna is now a transaction manager for several Houston agents. Joanna will help all of our new expats after they have chosen their homes. There are still many tasks to go: getting electricity, water, gas, renter’s insurance, paying deposits and first month rent, and getting the keys. Joanna will help everyone coordinate all of these tasks from contract to close, and we are super excited to have her join Annoura Realty Group!
All newcomer clients of Annoura Realty Group receive a special gift from us when they move in to their new homes. We call it a Welcome Bucket, or a SHIN SEIKATSU STARTER bucket, which is meant to help people start their new lives. Inside the Texas branded bucket, which we hope the bucket is also useful to people, is everything we think people will need until they can go shopping and buy things on their own. Some of the things are: dishwasher detergent, toilet paper, paper towel, washing machine detergent, dish washing soap, a sponge, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, even paper plates, forks, spoons, and knives. We also added a few snacks such as chips, gum, water, beer (Texas Shiner Bock beer, of course), juice, and instant ramen. We partner up with our favorite lender, Laura Haines, who we highly recommend if people go from renting to actually buying a home in the future and need to get a home loan. Last week, we made a fresh batch of Welcome Buckets, so we are ready for the next wave of clients! If you know of any newcomers or colleagues newly assigned to Houston, please refer them to us. We love helping expats find their homes! And don’t forget to tell them to tell us that you referred them!
