It’s almost the end of 2006, so it’s time for people around the nation to do three things:

1. Summarize 2006, the year "in review".
2. Drink stuff.
3. Predict stuff.

I don’t drink much and enjoy market predictions more than reviews. It’s always fun listening to the smart people tell us which stocks to buy or which real estate markets will be hot in 2007.

I used to buy stocks based on the advice of these experts, but the rest of the world always seemed to disagree with me, as they’d normally tank within months of my purchase. Now, I choose to take most predictions with a grain of salt, but I do see merit in the real estate market predictions that were reported in the recent Fortune Magazine.

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NOTE: This information is part of a forthcoming book, the Gotcha Guide™ to Buying and Investing in Real Estate.
by DeeinAustin™

One of my friends has a Nintendo Wii game console. He falls into the group of people who "aren’t into video games", so I was shocked when he said he wanted a Wii.  I later realized that Nintendo has done a great job creating a fun, interactive games like Wii Sports, where the entire family can get involved. The reason I bring this up is because there are a lot of agents and consumers who "aren’t into internet forums". When they think of forums, they may think of seedy or childish chatrooms where anonymous predators lurk.

Although we should be careful in online forums and chatrooms, real estate-related forums are helpful resources to provide advice to new agents, investors, buyers, sellers, mortgage brokers, and anyone else interested in our industry. I wanted to discuss some of the common forums that I provide advice in, but first wanted to explain what a real estate forum is.

WHAT IS A FORUM?
According to answers.com, a forum is:

1. 1. The public square or marketplace of an
      ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity
      and public business.
   2. A public meeting place for open discussion.
   3. A medium for open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper, a radio or television program, or a website.
2. A public meeting or presentation involving a discussion usually among experts and often including audience participation.
3. A court of law; a tribunal.

On the internet, forums are a website with a back end that allows people to create a profile, then post their opinion or question in a public place. It’s where you can sit back and watch OR login to participate in the exchange of ideas. In a perfect world, users will respect each other’s opinions and provide helpful advice. Since many forums are anonymous (meaning you supply what you want to about yourself), the downside is that there can be spammers, bullies, or people who are more harsh with their words than they would be in person.

TOP REAL ESTATE FORUMS

The forums I use have good moderators who keep control of spam and rude behaviour. I use them to ask for or provide advice about various areas of the business.

1. AgentsOnline.net. This one is pretty active. They have new moderators to help keep people who want to rant all of the time in line.
2. ActiveRain.com. I just joined this one. I like the ability to post blogs and join subgroups.
3. REiClub.com. A real estate investor blog. Very active. I’m a moderator, so follow the rules.
4. BiggerPockets.com. I just joined this investor forum It seems ok, but I see a lot of posts where people are just advertising their service. Not sure why they let these stay, but again, I’m new to this board. I do like their investment articles
5. Creonline.com. Their forum is pretty basic-looking, but they have great articles and other advice for investors.
6. TheCreativeInvestor.com. This one has a lot of resources for residential and commercial investors. You can also post properties.

Before joining any forum, "lurk" around the board by searching for information or questions you’d like. Also read the rules since there are often guidlines on the type of signature you can have or where you can post certain questions. Before posting a new topic, always search the forum to see what’s been said before. It gets annoying to some people when the same question is asked several times within a short timespan. This will also separate good information into several threads.

Check out the forums I mentioned and others. Feel free to post a comment if there are good ones that I missed.

-All Rights Reserved

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Seasons Greetings! We’ll be on vacation through December 27th. We hope all of our friends and their families have a happy holiday season.

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Jean Kwon from the Austin American-Statesman, wrote a article on Austin’s upcoming projects that cater to Austin’s local "creative class".

Austin has had a surge of new developments that seek to accommodate
live/work lifestyles. These include Waterstreet Lofts, at Comal and
East Cesar Chavez streets; 1305 Lofts, on East Sixth Street; Spaces
2525 and The Magnolia, both on South Lamar Boulevard; Sixth and Brushy
at Sixth and Brushy streets; Satsuma53, at East 53rd Street and North
Loop Boulevard; and Willow Branch Lofts on Poquito Street.         

The redeveloped Robert Mueller Municipal Airport site will include
substantial live/work housing, such as flats above storefronts, and the
Domain shopping center being built near the Arboretum will include
apartments.

Although the live/work concept dates back centuries, the modern
interpretation originated in San Francisco’s South of Market area in
the late 1990s, when technology began to create a mobile work force,
Warshaw says. The "true" live/work space is a loft with a studio/office
on the ground floor and a living space on top connected by an open
staircase.But the high cost of developing and affording such large lofts has tempered demand. "I think people would love (live/work spaces) but it’s a question of
cost," Warshaw says. In Austin, "selling a half-million dollar
live/work space hasn’t really been plausible yet."

Recent projects target buyers by creating boutique urban infill
developments with lofts anchored by commercial space at street level.

I’ll be on vacation next week, so may be slow to post, but I plan on writing an update on the upcoming projects. Most are central, where the creative hub is in Austin, but some are slightly further north, as reported in the story when they mentioned The Domain.

The full story can be found on the Statesman’s website.
 

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Here was an interesting read by Ann Brenoff, LOS ANGELES TIMES.

Canadian professor, as part of a broader study on real estate sales
patterns, found that homes where the seller was "motivated" actually
took 15 percent longer to sell, while houses listed as "handyman
specials" flew off the market in half the average time.
         

"It surprised even me," said researcher Paul Anglin, who teaches
real estate and housing trends at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
The study dissected the wording of more than 20,000 Canadian home
listings from 1997 to 2000.         

What surprised him most was how the buying public put style over
substance. Words that denoted "curb appeal" or general attractiveness
helped a property sell faster than those that spoke of "value" and
"price."

Homes described as "beautiful" moved 15 percent faster and for 5
percent more in price than the benchmark. "Good-value" homes sold for 5
percent less than average.

Another finding in Anglin’s study was that the plea of "must see!"
was received about as enthusiastically as a dinner-time telemarketing
call. Homes with listings using the words "must see" had a
statistically insignificant impact on the number of days they took to
sell.

Listings where the word "landscaping" was heralded sold 20 percent
faster, and homes in "move-in condition" took 12 percent less time to
sell than the benchmark, although the study showed "move-in condition"
had an insignificant impact on the sales price.

Read the full article.

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The Austin Statesman reported today that the Austin housing market is still strong despite a slowing market in many areas nationwide. 

Central Texas home buyers have snatched up a record number of homes so far this year. Sales of existing single-family homes rose 6 percent in November
from the same month a year ago. From January through November, sales
surpassed the total number of homes sold in 2005.Last month, 1,902 homes were sold, according to the Austin Board of
Realtors. Prices also showed an increase, with the median price at
$175,000, up 3 percent from the previous year.

The article goes on to say that pending sales were up 14 percent year-over-year at 2,148, which
indicates that December also might be a stronger month.

It is also a
good indicator of positive activity into the first quarter of 2007,
said Charles Heimsath, president of Austin-based real estate consulting
firm Capitol Market Research.

"Ending the year on a strong note is really positive news for
Austin," Heimsath said. "We are certainly a bright spot in the national
housing market because many other markets in the country are entering a
much slower period, and in some cases, even a slump."

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I was talking with a really sharp agent today who will be partnering with me soon. She asked what I thought about the East Austin land trust to help conserve the home prices for residents who don’t want to lose their houses to gentrification.

I’ve been reporting on the issues in East Austin because it’s one of the highest-appreciation areas in the city. This causes a debate with locals on whether the change is godsend or god-forsaken. Most would agree that the sharp increase in home prices is somewhere in the middle.

The Austin Statesman reported Monday on one of the ideas the community had for preserving home prices and/or the tax base for long-term residents. Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, got passed a law last year to set up a homestead-preservation district in East Austin.

The law’s aim is to build affordable housing in East Austin and help
low-income homeowners there stay in their homes. It would plow some tax
revenue from new, high-priced development back into affordable housing
and allow existing homeowners to keep their homes but sell the land,
which would reduce their property taxes and allow them to pay for
repairs or other expenses. 
          

The law could have taken effect in September 2005. But the Austin
City Council must adopt the district first, which it hasn’t done. City officials say the law has major flaws that must be fixed in the
upcoming state legislative session, Rodriguez says he’s agreed to most
of those changes.
         

Housing advocates say city officials are stalling because the law
would require Austin to set aside a potentially big chunk of property
tax revenue for affordable housing.

This is definitely a major issue that will require a good balance of fairness to all tax payers. I don’t think the city is stalling for the sake of drawing the issue out. They have a duty to work out as many kinks in the plan as possible.

Read the full story online at the Statesman: East Austin homestead-preservation district still isn’t a reality.

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There’s a lot of good commercial real estate sources.

One of them is the Texas A&M Resource Center, who reports on all of the latest commercial news. I subscribe to their commercial real estate e-newsletter and am part of the Commercial REALTORS Alliance. NAR (National Association of REALTORS®) does a lot of research related to all areas of residential and commercial real estate.

Since both go hand-in-hand, it’s a good idea to check frequently on their website even if you are only interested in one area.

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I’d previously reported on the development of the Domain in North Austin. I like this development because it is comprised of big box shops like the
region’s first Neiman Marcus and Tiffany & Co, but will also include local favorites. This is the perfect mix that Austin residents have been looking for. We like our local stores, but we also like specialty shops and big-box tenants that match the tastes of surrounding neighborhoods.

According to the Austin Statesman--The first phase of the Domain, scheduled to open March 9, will include 60 retailers and 14 restaurants. The second phase is slated to open in late 2008, bringing more
retailers, three restaurants and a hotel, said Lauren Harris, Simon’s
director of mall marketing for the Domain. A $40 million residential portion of the Domain will have 390
apartments, many of them built atop the street-level shops and
restaurants.

The Domain is a pretty large development, rivaling SouthPark Meadows in hot Southwest Austin. It’s going to be a nice place to live and work, but matches the upscale lifestyle of Northwest Austin residents. The only downside is if there will not be residences for sale in the shopping center. Initially, we thought there were for-sale opportunities, but that does not appear to be the case.

See our previous story on the Domain Shopping Center.

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I thought more Californians hated Wal-Mart per capita than locals, but Wal-mart has Allandale residents up in arms. Allandale is the nice, peaceful community in North Austin. City Council is on the hotseat because residents are saying they weren’t made aware of Wal-mart’s plans to revitalize the aging Northcross Shopping Center.

Wal-mart actually followed all proper notification procedures, but residents thought this wasn’t enough. They want a redeveloped area, but were looking for more of a mixed-use, upscale project.

Per the Austin Statesman:

Responsible Growth for Northcross is having a community meeting
Thursday to organize what it says is significant opposition by some
residents and nearby store owners to the plan. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says the new mall will draw more traffic for
nearby stores and says its 219,000-square-foot store will have a more
upscale design than its typical format.
         

But the protest group says a 24-hour Wal-Mart has no place in a
neighborhood of single-family homes. They say it will bring increased
traffic that area roads aren’t equipped to handle and will hurt
independently owned businesses.

The Austin Business Journal Reported–

In a letter to City Council Member Mike Martinez, Wal-Mart
committed to a 60-day self-imposed moratorium on development of the
site and filing permit applications with the city.

Martinez and other members of the council praised the decision,
calling it a first step toward working together with community
stakeholders. "The mayor and council members worked together on this deal, and I
want the residents of those neighborhoods to know that we hear their
concerns loud and clear," Martinez says.

According to the Statesman, work was slated to start in January on the redevelopment.
Construction of the Wal-Mart would begin in late 2007. The entire
project, to be renamed Northcross Center, is scheduled to be completed
in late 2008.

"City Council Member Brewster McCracken said he plans to talk to
Lincoln officials to see whether they would consider revising the
project to meet standards that offer incentives to encourage mixed-use,
pedestrian-oriented projects along major city roads".

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