Central Texas Real Estate

Dell Inc. earned the No. 33 spot on this year’s Fortune 500 list. The Round Rock computer maker was one of only three Central Texas-based companies that made this year’s list.

Dell’s (Nasdaq: DELL) 2008 revenue totaled $61 billion—virtually unchanged from 2007. The company’s rank improved one place, from No. 34 on last year’s list.Fortune said that ever since founder Michael Dell returned to the helm of his company in 2007, Dell has launched a series of initiatives to help it compete. But the results of those efforts have been mixed.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (Nasdaq: WFMI) also made the cut again this year, ranking 324th, a significant improvement from its 369th place position on last year’s list. Whole Foods’ revenue of just under $8 billion is a 20 percent improvement from 2007.

The only other local company on this year’s list of the top 500 was … read the full story in the Austin Business Journal

April 22nd, 2009 | Category: Current Market Conditions, Employment | Leave a comment

Good news today!

(Forbes.com) – Texas has nine of the top 20 best cities for job growth in the United States, according a new study. Texas dominated every category, led by number one-ranked Odessa.

Others on the list are Longview (3), Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood (5), Austin–Round Rock (6), McAllen-Edinburg-Mission (7), Laredo (8) and Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown (10). Next come College Station–Bryan (16) and San Antonio (20).

The study used job growth data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 333 U.S. regions.

April 15th, 2009 | Category: Current Market Conditions, Employment | Leave a comment

It’s Friday and I hope things are going well wherever you find yourself in the world today.  We’ve had a great week, with a recent spike in real estate interest and activity in central Texas over the past few weeks.  Spring, as you may already know, really begins our year in real estate if you look at the market from a *cycling* perspective.  Spring and Summer markets usually are the most active, with Fall coming in third and winter, a distant fourth.

I guess the most common question we get is what impact we’re feeling from the stock market, general economic climate, and the mortgage industry restructuring currently underway has had on our market.  From what we’ve seen, the single largest impact is simply the lack of quality listings on the market right now.  We still have plenty of great properties on the market, but the competition for the “cream of the crop” listings has increased signficantly, leaving the less desirable properties sitting on the market significantly longer than we would have seen a year or two ago.

There are 2 things (as I see it) that cause this - 1) Sellers may not be able to afford to sell their home at current pricing and 2) Sellers may not believe they’ll actually make money in the current economic environment.  While both of those may be true for some, that’s not what we’re seeing on a regular basis.  I think that’s true for less desirable properties, but not so much for properties that are in good condition and located in desirable areas.  Add the difficulty of selling in other parts of the country to the inability to relocate even within intermediate timeframes, and you start to imagine some of the difficulties in putting together the right buyer with the right seller.

From a buyer’s perspective, there are some great deals out there and we certainly have a lot of interest in foreclosure and short sale properties.  Sellers seem to be more flexible as we shift to a buyer’s market in many areas, and that’s certainly understandable.  Our market in central Texas remains very stable in most subgroups, unlike much of the rest of the country.  As a result, the central Texas market remains a good buy for many.

What does all of this mean for you?  A little patience and perseverance goes a long way.

If you come to the table with both of those, you’ll do well.

If you’re planning on relocating to central Texas this year or maybe even next year, why not give us a call and put someone on your side who understands the market?  I think you’ll find us to be an invaluable planning asset as you map your way to success.  We’d love to talk with you to help you establish your winning team.

I hope your Friday is the best even and that you have an even better weekend ahead.  That’s it for now.  Have a remarkable weekend and see you on the high ground!

Trey

April 3rd, 2009 | Category: Current Market Conditions, Listing Agency, Residential Real Estate | Leave a comment

Good morning everyone!  Just wanted to chime in to say hello and yes, I know I haven’t been great about posting more here on the blog.  The spring and summer markets are prime time in central Texas, as they are in a lot of places, and we’ve concentrated most of our efforts in direct service for the past few months rather than keeping up the blog.

We’ve had an excellent spring so far, and average about 300 new visitors every month.  Hopefully you’re finding our website useful.  This site was always designed with the consumer in mind.  We strive to put everything on here that you might need when searching for a home in the central Texas area.  There are always things we could do much better, and those where we could have done much worse.  If you have input or ideas for services or items we don’t  currently offer, please offer a post to this message so that we can work on those projects for you.  Your input is critical.

This site has been in operation since 2003 and we’ve really enjoyed working on it with you.  The real challenge in any sales career is really interacting with clients and establishing those long term relationships that really matter.  We’ve had the great opportunity to meet with the best clients in the world, numbering in the thousands.  For those of you who have not experienced our people or the services we offer, you might try giving us a call or even sending us a message.  We’re not about sending you mile after mile of useless junk mail or spam.  That’s not what we do.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to *really* talk with one of our agents - you’re missing out.  You really are.

I’ve been in your situation many times in my life, and I too would hesitate to call if I thought I was going to talk to someone who’s really just out to make a sale.  Of course sales are great when they happen, but our feeling is that if you’re taking care of someone like they’re your own flesh and blood, they will certainly take care of you - not the other way around.  So far, that’s exactly the way things have turned out.  I think it all starts with the brokerage and the broker providing the correct working environment and I have no reason to feel otherwise.  For example, there are no sales quotas or sales meetings within our company, where hoardes of salespeople sit around “listening” to how many sales they have to make this month.  There is no such thing in this company.  Agents don’t enjoy that pressure and clients certainly don’t need to feel the results of that pressure with the agent they’re working with. It just doesn’t make any sense.

if money were the main objective for staying in this business, I certainly may have left this business long ago.  In uncertain economic times, it’s easy enough to find reasons not to accomplish your goals, whether the goal is starting a new career, making a move, or buying/selling your personal home.  But for every disaster story you may hear about, there’s also the flip-side, such as this story where a young couple that moved in with an ex-husband.  Interesting times ahead, I’m sure.

Would you do me a favor?  If you’re reading this, please respond to this post with your comments.  I’ve been writing for 2 1/2 years now and we’ve never had a response on the blog.  Maybe what I’m writing about is not the correct subject list, or maybe we just need to ask you to interact.  I’d love to continue writing here, but if it’s not interesting or not providing the information you need, we may be able to better place our efforts elsewhere.

So long for now.  I hope your market is great and we look forward to meeting each and every one of you!

Trey

March 26th, 2009 | Category: Current Market Conditions, General, Real Estate Humor | Leave a comment

Interesting article in the Austin-American Statesman this morning (click here to view article) claiming that a local Austin property owner’s group is suing one of its property owners over the failure to obtain approval prior to installing a galvanized metal roof on his home.  Pretty unfortunate situation, considering the fact that the roof cost approximately $30,000 to install.  Thoughts?

March 10th, 2009 | Category: Residential Real Estate | Leave a comment

Looks like the market in Baltimore, Maryland is heating up, and not in a good way. Baltimore police arrested an ACORN activist for essentially staging a sit-in while protesting the foreclosure crisis. Looks like they’re serious about not actually living in the home once it’s been foreclosed! Pretty much a no-brainer there.

According to FoxNews.com, “Founded in 1970, ACORN is a community-based, grassroots organization that primarily focuses on — among other social issues — health care, affordable housing and voter registration programs. Its large-scale voter registration drives most recently came under scrutiny during the 2008 presidential race, during which ACORN reportedly gathered more than 1.3 million voter registration forms in 21 states. Approximately 400,000 forms were reportedly rejected for duplications, incomplete forms and fraudulent applications.”

ACORN claims that they need more time to let the new foreclosure-fighting agenda from President Obama’s administration to take hold, which they’re not likely to get. Aside from you real estate pros out there, anyone else have any comments about the ACORN agenda?

February 23rd, 2009 | Category: Government at Work, Mortgage, Residential Real Estate, Special Programs | Leave a comment

Now that we have another $785 billion on the table in an effort to improve the economy, it’s interesting to see the number of opinions discussing the wisdom and effectiveness of such a move.  For example, there’s a not-so-bad editorial opinion in the Austin-American Statesman that discusses this very issue, and it seems to reflect the majority opinion here in central Texas.

I agree with the piece, as not everyone who is seeking government help is a “deadbeat,” for many people were doing very well until they recently lost a job with the economic downtick we’ve seen in the past couple of years.  As for the others, I honestly believe that many of these people were probably not aware of the disadvantagese of both subprime and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).  For the former, we’ve held conversations with many who could not be convinced that subprime mortgages were not the way to go.  In my own opinion, they are certainly NOT the best way to purchase a home.  A way, no less - but not the best way.  As for the latter, I sincerely doubt that most people realize the damage that ARMs can really do when the rates begin to vary.  I have never recommended ARMs to any client I’ve ever represented and further, never worked with a client who evenetually chose one.

From a big picture outlook, what we’ve seen is a great encouragement from government at all levels, to push home ownership levels to a point beyond realism.  If everyone owns their own home, that’s a great thing right?  Yes, it sure is - until we get to a point where those same people are losing their homes because they could only marginally afford it to begin with.  I would argue that it’s much worse to lose a home you once had, rather than just to have rented or leased your home all along.  Maximum home ownership should still be pursued as a philosophy, but there should be qualifications and standards. 

In hindsight, we’ll now get those qualifications force fed to the community-at-large by those who probably should have set those standards (or at least kept them) long ago.  These standards existed once when there was common sense in government and industry, and when proper accountability was a virtue in this country.  And they will exist again.

How do you feel about the newest bailout attempt?  Do you agree with the notion that $275 billion will be handed out to those who are experiencing mortgage-related problems, or would you rather see the market self-correct?  Your comments are sincerely appreciated :-)  If you’d like to leave a comment, please click on “Leave a Comment” above, under the title bar of this post.

February 23rd, 2009 | Category: Current Market Conditions, Residential Real Estate | Leave a comment

February 19th, 2009 | Category: Commercial Real Estate, Current Market Conditions, Residential Development, Residential Real Estate | Leave a comment

San Marcos — A discussion of the Sink Creek Interceptor wastewater line, an item tabled by the San Marcos City Council at its Feb. 3 meeting, is back on today’s agenda.

Tom Taggart, director of Water and Wastewater, said the discussion is intended to bring council members up to speed on the project, and to address concerns some residents have voiced.

The gravity line, which will eventually go all the way to LBJ and Craddock Avenue and replace up to three lift stations, was scheduled to be complete by Feb. 5, said Interim Director of Capital Improvements Sabas Avila.

However, it has been delayed for up to two months because contractors used an inferior type of pipe that will have to be replaced, he said.

“The contractor deviated from the …. read the full story by Anita Miller in the San Marcos Daily Record

February 18th, 2009 | Category: Government at Work, Residential Development, Residential Real Estate | Leave a comment