Texas Realty Blog

Austin Residents Await Opening of Town Lake Park

Ok, so a park opens in Austin. You may wonder why you'd care.

Well, Town Lake Park has been 20-years in the making in Austin and is actually a big deal locally. The $7.5M park is located in a great area of town near the Long Center and Palmer Events Center. The reason for excitement of Town Lake Park is that the new, expensive park will host a variety of features that captures the essence of Austin.

One blogger noted that Town Lake Park does not quite live up to the original vision presented almost 9 years ago. The July 2006, the Austin Chronicle detailed the cutbacks. Still it has been transformed into a wonderful space.

If you Google "Town Lake Park",  you'd bring up many stories on what it is and what the features are.

READ MORE ONLINE

Austinist blog, which is always on top of the latest news...

Austin Statesman: Soon-to-be-renamed Town Lake Park opens Aug. 29.

City of Austin Town Lake Masterplan and Kvue News Station, which has great photos of the project

Photo courtesy KVUE news station.

Texas Realty Blog Updates

Just a reminder that we're working on updates to the blog this week.

Another update! Our team is preparing a podcast so you can listen to the latest Texas Real Estate news each week! View some of our test audio slideshows on Blip.tv.

Please be patient with us as we're finalizing changes this week and next!

Leander Crossing Set to Break Ground in 2008

According to the Austin Business Journal, 1,110 homes and apartments and 800,000 sq. ft. of commercial is planned for Leader, Texas.

Leander Crossing will feature more than 500,000 square feet of retail space, 300,000 square feet of office space and about 1,100 single-family and multifamily units.

Ryan Betz, president of Betz Co., says he's working with potential tenants for the retail portion, and won't release names yet. A source familiar with the project says Dillard's may be a possible tenant, and that the project could resemble Austin's The Domain project because of its mixture of large retail, housing and office space.

Betz declines to disclose the projected cost of Leander Crossing, but says the residential portion and some smaller retail will break ground in 2008, and construction on larger commercial sites will follow in 2009.

Read previous articles that may interest you...

1. Study shows retail needed in Leander.
2. Leader to get metro rail in 2008.
3. The Domain debuts.

Austin Entrepreneur's Real Estate Tech Tool a Hit with Agents

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dylan Schleppe, Austin entrepreneur who launched DriveBuy, a real estate tool that allows home buyers to quickly and efficiently get detailed listing information by simply sending a text message from their cell phones.

I've been using Dylan's system for some time now and love the ease of use. See our Blip.tv video podcast for more information about Dylan's background, features of DriveBuy and some hot tips agents.

CLICK TO VIEW SLIDESHOW on SLIDESHARE.NET

 

TOP FEATURES

• Buyers get instant information on properties via text message.
• Without speaking to an agent, you can get the home's square footage, number of bed and bathrooms, price, and other basic information.
• The agent can text message e-flyers or additional information to you within seconds.

TIPS FOR AGENTS

• Respond to inquiries immediately with additional information.
• Do not attempt to leave out important details that buyers want, such as price and basic featuers.
• Do not call the buyer unless they show interest or ask.

Dylan's father was a custom home builder, so he's always had a passion for real estate. His software development background led him to create this easy-to-use real estate solution that will help agents, builders, buyers and property managers.

Read more: DriveBuy Technologies | Real Estate Mobile Text Message Marketing.

Texas Realty Blog Updates Coming!

I just came back from Keller Williams Annual Mega Agent Camp. Dustin Luther (RainCityGuide...correction from earlier) provided tips on how to have a successful blog.

Dustin now works for Move, Inc. now as their Director of Interactive Marketing and has a very cool ponytail.

UPCOMING CHANGES
Per Dustin's advice, bloggers should blog about local content as much as possible. I blog about Texas real estate because it's more of an interest to me and fits the buyers we work with, which are investors and relocation clients.

1. To provide more content investors and relocation buyers, we're going to add pages at the top of the blog for the major cities in Texas.Each city page will have content that describes the city, why people live there, video, photos and latest blog articles.
2. Updated look and colors. To be honest, when I first started blogging, I had no idea if I'd stick to it. Now that we're pretty successful, it's time to customize and add better buttons so you can easily reach us and comment.
3. Put new local content on separate, community-specific blogsites. Of course, that community content will be highlighted here, which apparently does not hurt Google rankings as long as we're not using the entire  article.
4. Add buttons for easy access to listings in Houston, San Antonio and Austin. We will link to MLS for Dallas.

We hope to have the project completed as soon as possible, but at least by September! Let us know if you have any other feature requests or feedback.

What do you love versus what do you hate?

   

   

City of Austin Adopts Anti-chaining Ordinance

The City of Austin takes pet care and advocacy seriously. City leaders have unanimously passed an anti-chain/tether ordinance that goes into effect October 1st 2007.

At first glance, the ordinance may seem strange to "outsiders" or non-pet owners. Once you read the actual information on the city website, you understand that the purpose of the ordinance is to keep outdoor dogs from becoming vicious.

ANTI-CHAINING ORDINANCE DETAILS

• You cannot chain or tether little Fido to any object.
• If you have six or more dogs that are less than 6 months old, their enclosure must be 50 feet from an adjacent residence or business.
• If Fido lives outside, your yard enclosure must be a minimum of 150 sq. feet for each dog 6 months of age or older.
• You can temporary tether Fido under certain situations, which are provided on the city website.

Get advice on alternatives to chaining as well as full ordinance details at: City of Austin - Anti-chaining Ordinance for Dogs At-a-Glance.

Texas not too "risky" according to MSN

MSN released some predictions from PMI Mortgage Insurance Company on risk factors in the Top 50 top U.S real estate markets. Like most forecasts, these should not be taken as gospel.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.'s new U.S. Market Risk Index tries to assess the future direction of markets across the U.S. by looking at recent price volatility, affordability... and employment, among other factors.

On average, there's a 34.6% chance that home prices will drop in the nation's top 50 markets in the next couple years, with many of the riskiest markets falling in areas that saw steep run-ups in prices in recent years, followed by decreased affordability and drops in the rate of appreciation.

The good news is that Texas cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio were not considered "risky" by comparison with Dallas fairing the worst. My opinion is that any market, in any area can be risky if the buyer makes risky decisions.

See them now! Price risk for the top 50 U.S. markets

 

Listings and Property Alerts 8/17/07

Latest Listings and Ads for Greater Austin as of August 17th!

Alert: Mueller Austin Homesites Available

The Mueller Austin community is the hot new master-planned subdivision in East Central Austin within minutes to Downtown.

There's waiting list of borrowers who were standing in line to buy. Some of the May lottery winners apparently already found homes. I heard through the grapevine that 23 lots are available for building homes through Streetman and Standard Pacific.

Interested buyers can check with the builders on which sites are available. They should be cautioned that the on-site representatives are always the builder's paid advocate, so smart buyers have an agent represent them when purchasing new homes.

More information on Mueller Austin.

Check out floorplans for Streetman and Standard Pacific.

Mortgage Fallout Creates Buyer's Market in Texas

I've spent the past two days in the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) certification course, which is why my posting are late. Well folks, the sky is falling when it comes to loans in Texas (and all across the U.S).

Texas real estate is still very hot, but the seller's market has cooled in most major cities. As you may know, the easier it is to get a loan, the more buyers you have. If it's tougher to get a loan, there are less buyers who are able to purchase a home. With the current mortgage fallout, qualified buyers become a premium and can now better negotiation on the purchase of a home.

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH LENDERS?

The big problem with lending is that jumbo and stated income loans are extremely tough to obtain unless you have excellent credit, a sizable down payment, and will occupy in the property. So what happened?

• Too many loans with "loose" lending guidelines were issued. These loans often did not require proper income verification, offered investors zero-down or low-down loans, or were otherwise risky.
• Foreclosures and defaults skyrocketed all over the country, partially due to these loans, but also because property values fell during market corrections.
• The result: institutional investors who purchase sub-prime and jumbo loans are running scared.

THE GOOD, BAD and UGLY

The bad is that it will take some time to get a stated income, investor or jumbo loans.

The ugly is that home purchases are falling apart on or before closings because the buyer's loan product is no longer available. Investors and other home buyers should now expect to put 5-20% down.

The good is that you now know about this situation, so tell your friends and family to solidify their loan with an FDIC insured lender before they even go out to look at properties. Sellers should verify the buyer's pre-approval letter, which should be submitted with the offer.