Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Amber Alerts Go Wireless!


CLICK HERE to sign up for wireless Amber Alerts to be sent directly to your cell phone so you can be on the look out for missing/exploited children as soon as the event happens!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Country Home on 1/2 acre lot in Thorndale, TX

 Welcome to 306 W. Moerbe St in Thorndale, TX. CLICK HERE to see a virtual tour of this lovely home. Located on a large .5 acre lot within the city limits, this home is close to schools and in a wonderful. quiet country setting. Offering 3 spacious bedrooms and large, open living areas, the seller has recently replaced much of the carpet and repainted the interior of the home. The large lot has been used to build a huge workshop with electrical, plumbed out for a half-bath within an office space. Compressed air is also installed in the shop.

This home is offered at only $175K and is the lowest with these features, size and shop included within the Thorndale, Taylor and Thrall markets. Call today to schedule a showing!

This information is brought to you as a public service of the The HBH Group Realty Team with Keller Williams Realty. You may learn more about us at our websites located at: http://www.TheHBHGroup.com/ and http://www.TheHBHGroup.biz/ or contact our offices at (512) 439-3772 or toll-free at (877) 268-1877.

Foreclosures are Abundant! And YOU CAN BUY THEM CHEAP!

 Yea, right! I work a good bit with investors and most seem to think that foreclosures are a steal and you can rob the bank when you purchase them. Well I would like to act as the Texas Mythbuster when it comes to foreclosure properties in the Austin area. There are several reasons why foreclosures in this area are not as attractive as the general public believes and I would like to use this article and possibly a few more to dispel this myth. Here are a few important points:

  1. Once a bank has foreclosed on a property, the real property becomes what is known in the banking world as an REO (real estate owned by a bank). Banks have complete departments that work maintaining their inventory of properties and often these properties are purchased at the same cost as what the bank had loaned against the asset with other costs added on top when they calculate the value of that property.
  2. I suspect that in many areas of the country the market is moving down so fast that banks are much more flexible on what they will sell these REO properties for, since they could be loosing value every day as the market values deflate. This is NOT the case in Central Texas and the bankers know it. They also know that we have many active RE investors here that are in the market buying properties now.
  3. The bank REO departments have very little maintenance costs associated with an REO property. They turn off all the utilities, and really only have taxes and HOA dues to maintain each property, so costs to let them sit are almost nill. Since the market here is fairly stable, holding a property for longer term is not a problem for a bank. When my job depends on how much money I make for the b, I am much less motivated to wheel and deal here than in other areas. Further, there are usually several signature authorities that approve deals for the bank, making it harder to get all the parties within the bank to come to agreement when the deal is a money loser.
  4. Some of the toughest deals I have been involved in recently are bank deals because of these reasons. Even when the banks are involved in negotiating a short sale, the motivations are just not there to reduce price to the point where it is attractive to most investors. We see many properties here that end up in foreclosure because of bank inflexibility. And before the properties go to auction, the banks buy them up at the mortgage amount and take them into REO inventory to wait out the process to get their whole investment sums back.
  5. I talk to brokers all over the country and they all tell me things are more loose where they are. Banks are flexible; often willing to take a loss than to go into foreclosure and my team and I have just not seen that in this area.

For these reasons and more, I encourage my investors to get the properties from an individual BEFORE they go to a bank or even to a short sale. The deals are better and more flexible. Closing go smoother. Everyone walks away happier.

If however you choose to shop for REO/Foreclosed properties in Central Texas, remember the following:

  1. Make sure you have the patience of Job - the wheels of bankdom grind VERY slowly!
  2. Expect that you will not get a steal of a deal! There just are not many out there. Invest for the long term to get appreciation which in this market is steady and solid.
  3. Remeber that many of the short sale and foreclosed properties here were taken with 100% finance situations in place, so the "deals" are even less in this sort of world, especially when the banks are looking for 100% recovery of their losses.
I would love to hear from others around the country with your experiences in working with the banks, HUD's, VA's etc. Is this just a Central Texas issue or are things tough all over when dealing with financial organizations?

Thanks for reading!
Steve Homer
Broker-Associate, The HBH Group/Keller Williams Realty
Round Rock, TX

This information is brought to you as a public service of the The HBH Group Realty Team with Keller Williams Realty. You may learn more about us at our websites located at: http://www.TheHBHGroup.com/ and http://www.TheHBHGroup.biz/ or contact our offices at (512) 439-3772 or toll-free at (877) 268-1877.

This will bless you!


To all my Christian Music readers:


If you love great Christian music, this group recently presented concerts at my church here in Round Rock, TX and they so blessed me that I thought I would share their ministry with you. The name of the group is Testify and they are from West Monroe, LA. Their music has many different tints and flavors, and you can sample many of their numbers by checking them out on YouTube.com - search for the term testifyfan and you can find several. One of my favorites is: "The Deeper The Valley" (See video below) which inspires me in my personal and business life. You can also learn more about where to get their music at Their Website.

I hope this group and their music is a blessing to you and if you have any clients or investors interested in the Austin Texas area, please contact me!

Thanks!
Steve Homer
The HBH Group Real Estate Team
Keller Williams Realty
Round Rock, TX - The 8th fastest growing area in the USA per Entrepreneur Magazine (2008)

Saturday, April 5, 2008

FREE report on The Austin-RR Real Estate Markets in 2007

 Originally a buffalo-hunting ground favored by Tonkawa Indians, Austin was permanently settled in 1838 as a trading post. The Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is now part of the I-35 growth corridor in the heart of Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Austin MSA experienced the largest increase in income in the state and was one of the country's fastest-growing cities during the 1990s, growing by nearly 48 percent.

Austin, the capital of Texas, is home to the University of Texas, the largest university in the nation. The city supports a politically charged and culturally rich environment. The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University offers a free report on real estate performance projections for the Austin-Round Rock MSA. This is great reading to help you understand the great real estate potential in our general area.

This information is brought to you as a public service of the The HBH Group Realty Team with Keller Williams Realty. You may learn more about us at our websites located at: http://www.TheHBHGroup.com/ and http://www.TheHBHGroup.biz/ or contact our offices at (512) 439-3772 or toll-free at (877) 268-1877.

Panda Express Review on SH 79 in Round Rock

 Panda Express has landed in Round Rock, on a pad site at the site of the Super HEB on the corner of SH 79 and FM 1460. My wife and I had the opportunity to dine there last night and have nothing but good to say about the food. I tried their new Bejing Beef (which was amazing), Chicken and Mushrooms, and Chicken and Green Beans with a side of Fried Rice. The wife had Broccoli Beef and the Bejing Beef with a side of steamed vegetables.

We also shared a Chicken Egg Roll. The food was delicious and FAST and much more healthy than most places you get fast food! We highly recommend this new place to eat in Round Rock.

This information is brought to you as a public service of the The HBH Group Realty Team with Keller Williams Realty. You may learn more about us at our websites located at: http://www.TheHBHGroup.com/ and http://www.TheHBHGroup.biz/ or contact our offices at (512) 439-3772 or toll-free at (877) 268-1877.

Country Home on 1/2 acre lot in Thorndale, TX

Welcome to 306 W. Moerbe St in Thorndale, TX. CLICK HERE to see a virtual tour of this lovely home. Located on a large .5 acre lot within the city limits, this home is close to schools and in a wonderful. quiet country setting. Offering 3 spacious bedrooms and large, open living areas, the seller has recently replaced much of the carpet and repainted the interior of the home. The large lot has been used to build a huge workshop with electrical, plumbed out for a half-bath within an office space. Compressed air is also installed in the shop.
This home is offered at only $175K and is the lowest with these features, size and shop included within the Thorndale, Taylor and Thrall markets. Call today to schedule a showing!

This information is brought to you as a public service of the The HBH Group Realty Team with Keller Williams Realty. You may learn more about us at our websites located at: http://www.TheHBHGroup.com/ and http://www.TheHBHGroup.biz/ or contact our offices at (512) 439-3772 or toll-free at (877) 268-1877.