Your Local Weekend Reminder:

There is a Meet the Homebuilders Open House at Mueller Central from 1 to 4 p.m. It’s amazing how Catellus can send a notice a few days in advance, but still have hundreds of people in attendance. This announcement was sent a few days ago on March 29th.

Want to talk with Mueller’s homebuilders or just need an excuse to stop by Mueller Central?

Join Catellus and representatives from David Weekley Homes, Meritage Homes, The Muskin Company, Saldaña Homes, Standard Pacific Homes and Streetman Homes at Mueller’s "Meet the Homebuilders" open house. The event will take place this coming Sunday, April 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mueller Central.

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There was a really good question on the Yahoo Group for the upcoming Mueller Austin new home community. The poster asked a question that I hear every now and from buyers who are looking to save money when purchasing a new home. They asked if the builders give incentives if purchasers did not use agents.

MY RESPONSE:

"Builders calculate real estate agent fees into the price of the home and pay for your agent. The best builders encourage you to get representation, especially since it’s "free". Standard Pacific, for instance, likes it when buyers are informed and have their own representatives because it takes the liability off them and makes the sale go more smoothly.

Unscrupulous builders try to force buyers to use their mortgage, title company, and have no agent/lawyer because you won’t have anyone on your side. I’ve represented many new home buyers and have caught extra fees, addenda that I would not want them to sign, etc."

Here’s how the rebate works for some builders:

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The Apple iPhone is one of the hottest upcoming tech product releases this year. Samsung is due to launch their copycat device April 1st, but Apple (Computer), Inc. must be banking on the iPhone’s success. The company is now hiring all levels of employees for their new iPhone Division in Austin. I’m not sure if all jobs will be local, but the opportunities range from telephone support specialists to highly-paid division managers. This is just one example of how commercial and residential real estate are in demand due to job growth.

Even Texans are often unaware that Apple has support operations based in Austin, called their Applecare Division. Austin is the high-tech capital of the world. Tech and manufacturing companies like Samsung, AMD, Applied Materials, BEA, and Dell call Greater Austin home. Read the list of our region’s largest employers.

For those of you who know someone relocating to the area or a local who is interested, search for Apple jobs at http://jobs.apple.com.

Read the Apple iPhone Support Representative job description and about the recent Applestore launch here in Austin. PC experience is a plus!

And remember, Mac users are people too…

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One of my favorite sources of local news is the Community Impact Newspaper. It’s fairly new, but is a good way to get a heads up on upcoming development. They have a pretty sleek interface and post useful market updates.

Community Impact posted an update on the $90M behemoth MetroRail project that Capital Metro took on as part of their long range transit plan ( All Systems Go). I’d previously reported on the Dallas-Austin-San Antonio corridor, which is slated to be a big money-maker for future commercial projects. It’s already one of the most heavily-traveled highway routes in the nation.

Whether you agree with the rail or not, here it comes…

Read more: Community Impact Newspaper: Rail on track for 2008 arrival

Transit Station planned for South Austin.

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There’s a lot happening in Austin real estate in April. It’s an
exciting month because buyers and sellers prepare for their
next move while investors get ready for the summer rush.
For our team, April is a significant month because we’re hosting
several training sessions for Keller Williams agents and their guests.

March is ending with a bang as well. I was invited by Gary Keller to a boot camp for the Top 100 Keller
Williams agents in Austin today. I have a great deal of respect for many of the other agents and broker-associates who will be there and look forward to seeing them at our classes.

Here are our upcoming classes, events, and speaking engagements:

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I attended an East Austin Economic panel discussion last week, hosted by Peoplefund. Interest in East Austin has grown since I first started following the area in 2002. My first purchase in East Austin was a duplex in the Oltorf area in 2003. I didn’t have enough money for the down payment, so borrowed funds from my 401k, then lived in one unit while renting the other side.

In 2004, I purchased a home in East Central Austin, zip code 78702. My street housed drug dealers, prostitutes, and gangs. All of whom felt no problem with doing their business outside in the middle of the day. By that time, I had obtained my real estate license, so served as my own buyer’s agent. I’ll never forget a comment from the listing broker, who was frustrated with my request for him to quickly respond to my offer.

He asked "Why do you want to buy this shack in the ghetto anyway?"

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Your Local Weekend Reminder:

A friend sent a link to the Louisiana Swamp Thing & Crawfish Festival, which is March 31st in Downtown Austin. I love food festivals, but never have time to travel.

Although Texans have our share of food celebrations, the #1 event I’d like to attend is the annual Fiery Foods Festival, which is usually held in New Mexico. More than 10,000 crazy people try the hottest sauces and foods on earth. We think I can take out most of the other attendees since my tolerance for hot foods has been called "not normal". 

Other food-related events that are coming up soon:

• The 22nd Annual Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival March 28-April 1.
• Houston is having their own Crawfish Festival on March 31st and the Bayou City Festival in May. They  also host a  Hot Sauce Festival in September.
• The Poteet Strawberry Festival is pretty big too.

If you want to see some crazy art, listen to the music, and try the goodies at this upcoming crawfish festival, go to Roadway Productions | Swamp Thing and Crawfish Festival. Send a link to your favorite food festival and we’ll post here!

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Outlet Malls used to get a bad rap back in "my" day, which was 1980s and 1990s. During that time, outlets were seen as the no-man’s-land of bad fashion (in the 80s? How can that be true?). At outlet malls, you’d get the rare opportunity to buy leftover fashions from several years ago in brands you never heard of. The best part is that prices were rock-bottom cheap.

Things changed in the late 90s and early part of this decade for our friendly regional outlet mall. The proliferation of huge higher-end outlet malls with premium brands began. In Texas, we currently have premium outlet malls in San Marcos, Round Rock, and more recently, Houston. These larger outdoor malls are more aesthetically pleasing, have more established brands, and are a good draw to any city since they are a destination site. 

Read for yourself on the Houston Premium Outlets: Construction begins on Houston Premium Outlets

Read our past stories on the Round Rock Retail Outlet and the San Marcos Premium Outlet.

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Your Local Event Reminder:

Bootstrap Austin is a local entrepreneurship group that I am involved in. The Sustainability Subgroup has the next meeting set for March 29. We received more information about the group and their next event, so I wanted to repost here. Sustainability is often a "buzzword" to some, but the issues are not just real estate related.

Sustainability Bootstrap Subgroup Meeting

Topic: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

When: **March 29, 2007 – 7 pm to 9:30 pm (movie at 8:15 pm)*

Where: **Austin Java – Barton Springs (back patio). 1608 Barton Springs Road

FREQUENT QUESTIONS

• What is Sustainability? Sustainability is how we derive our food, fiber, feed, fuel and fertilizer from the land base. By using renewable energy supplies, energy efficiency, and embedded energy reduction, as well as re-configuring supply chains to use less energy, we find ways to maintain and restore the Earth such that it can in turn maintain and restore us.
• Who should come? Individuals and companies involved or interested in permaculture, green building, renewable energy and fuels, energy efficiency, composting, organics, local food, transportation, triple bottom line, water conservation, etc.
• What do we want to do? We want to explore how the disruption of price increases in energy and all its ramifications will make it possible for people to start or grow a business.

*Movie Showing*

We will the 56 minute movie of how Cuba dealt with an ‘imposed’ Peak Oil situation. See
http://www.communitysolution.org/cuba.html

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I am a moderator on a popular national real estate investment forum called REIclub.com. Flipping properties is a hot topic. Television shows make it seem like an easy feat to buy a property, fix it up, and sell it for profit.

Since the market has tanked in other states, we been getting a lot of questions on REIclub.com about flipping properties in Texas. Generally, it’s a bad idea to invest outside of the neighborhood you live or work in unless you have experience. If you want to flip properties, follow this advice:

• Read Rick Villani’s Flip Book before they even think about buying a potential property. Also take a look at the other books I’ve recommended on the left-hand menu.
• Research, ask questions, and network on sites like Creonline.com, Reiclub.com, and TheCreativeInvestor. Have a thick skin because these are true investors who will be brutally honest. Remember, it’s all in the spirit of helping!
• Use more reliable sources like your local real estate investment club and Rehablist.com. Keep in mind that even deals through these channels should be thoroughly evaluated.

As an example, here is my response to a recent question on Reiclub.com about flipping properties in Austin and Dallas. http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php/topic,26238.0.html

Feel free to email our team, send a chat, post here, post on Reiclub.com, etc. for additional advice before you get started in investing. If you make the right choices, you can avoid hurting sellers, other buyers, and your family. You can also secure a very nice living and enjoy the freedom real estate can offer.   

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