Austin Real Estate, Kyle Real Estate Celeste Messer

I was at the Buda Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday and a representative from the Texas Film Commission was speaking. I was surprised that many at my table were not aware of the film industry's presence in Texas, Austin or even in our own little community. A few people didn't even seem aware that the television show "Friday Night Lights" is shot in Austin.

So thought I'd take a moment and let folks now about how little Hollywood in Texas.

Over the years Austin has built up quite a reputation for being "film friendly". There is a 'vibe' about the area that the movie iindustry likes. It doesn't hurt that we can claim ties to such folks as: Rene Zellwegger, Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Quaid, the Owen Brothers just to name a few.

But more than that the film, television and related industry means a lot to Texas economy. The chart below shows 2007 figures...anyway you slice it there are some big bucks involved.

Unfortunately the other states caught wind that there was money to be had if they too could have the film makers come to their fair states. New Mexico and Louisiana's government ponied up and offered 25% incentives. My understanding means that at the end of the filming, the state will write the studio a check equal to 25% of what they spent in the state. This compares to the 5% figure that Texas offers.

But it gets even worse...from a Texas perspective that is...the great state of Michigan...they offer a whopping 40% incentive. And guess what...they have 40 productions that went their way this year.

The sad thing is that many of the directors and producers would like to shoot in Texas but the incentives offered by other states make it almost impossible to do so. Recently Disney productions gave instructions to their location scouts, to not even go to states that don't offer the deep incentives. Don't even consider them!!!

The thing that is great about Texas from a filming perspective, is that we are such a large state with such a range of topagraphy, from desert, to hilly, to ocean front, they can shoot pretty much anything here.

So the film community and commission are trying to get the state legislation to enact better incentives. This is a big industry and we'd like get a piece of the pie.

Hey...if you want to be an extra, there's always something happening around town...give a yell and I'll tell you where to look.

In the meantime if you want to buy or sell a home in the Austin and surrounding communities, as always, we'd love to help you out. Email us at info@adkor.net or call us at 512-449-6070. You can also see what homes are available in the Austin area by checking out our website www.SoldByCeleste.com.

Here's a quick snapshot of what happened this past week in the Kyle Texas Real Estate market.

You can see that 32 homes went on the market this past week in Kyle while 28 went under contract. It appears that the sellers know the 'slower season is coming up so 26 of them changed their prices in hopes to entice some offers.

Along this same line I received a call from a past client asking about market. He then asked what was the 'best' month to list his home. As he was a numbers kind of guy we decided that I would pull 2007 data and look at how the home sales were spread by month. (We also looked and saw that 2008 January through August were holding to the same pattern.)

We used the date the house went under contract, not the date it closed. Usually the escrow period (the time from contract to close) is 30-35 days. We wanted to see when the buyers were actually out there making offers.

The numbers supported what my client and I had discussed, the last three month of the year and first month of the new year were significantly slower than March through July.

My client isn't in a hurry to sell as he has some things to do in order to get his home "Sale Ready" and he has holiday plans. So he's thinking he may target February-March to put his home on the market.

Now other people may not have the luxury of waiting, you may have gotten a transfer and you 'have' to sell now. Others are hoping to sell their home so they can 'move up' to a bigger home while taking advantage of the lower interest rate and the current market.

What's critical at this time is to make sure your home shows well. It's like going into a used car lot, the car that has just been cleaned, and polished and looks great is likely going to move faster than the one that is dirty has some scratches and needs a new paint job. Though the second car might be running great, it gets bypassed as people like the one that "looks" brand new. So it goes with selling your home. Some easy no cost/low cost things to do to spruce up your home can be found on our web site Staging to Sell on a Budget.

If you would like to check out all of the active homes for sale in Kyle, or Hays County go to Austin Home Search. Or if you have any questions about Kyle Real Estate, Buda Real Estate or Austin Area Real Estate just give a yell. Call us today at 512-449-6070 or email us at Info@Adkor.net and let us help you with your area Austin Real Estateneeds. Find out why Adkor Realty is truly...A Different Kind Of Realty

When I show single familyhomes in the Kyle or Buda areas, people always ask me to compare the two communities. Though the two communities share many things, such as schools, stores, parks and restaurants. from a real estate market standpoint each are very different. I'll be breaking out a few of these differences in a series of blogs comparing the Kyle and Buda market. In the meantime I wanted to point out how the new construction sales have compared to the resale market over the last five years in these two cities.

Notice in the chart below how the percent of new construction sales (the Blue Value) for Buda has consistently grown over the last five years. Yet for Kyle the percent of sales of new single family homes has decreased when compared to the homes bought and sold in the resale market for the same time period.

My take on this is that in 2004 there weren't many resale options for buyers in Kyle and New Construction was starting to boom so first time buyers were flocking to the builders. While Buda on the other hand had been more a more established community and therefore there were more resale options for the entry level buyers. (Keep in mind that actually the figures for new construction are higher than these as this data only reflects home sales that went through the MLS system.)

Celeste

What is it with all of the homes for lease in Kyle?

When I first moved to Kyle Texas six years ago you never saw a FOR LEASE sign in the neighborhoods. Then a couple of years ago it seemed that you couldn't go down a street without seeing one. You can see in the numbers below that this trend seems to have leveled off.

The two major factors I saw causing the investors to come to Austin Texas in droves were 1) The California housing price boom and 2) The popularity of books and tapes about real estate investing such as "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and the Carlton Sheets tape series on purchasing a home with zero down.

Regarding the California home price boom a few years back, many Californians made so much money on the sale of their homes that they headed to places like Texas to cash in on what they considered to be an area that had not yet been hit by the price boom. Investors were buying homes left and right I heard of stories in which a single investor purchased 10 homes in a neighborhood! Their goal was to purchase homes in neighborhoods that were primarily owner occupied.

With regards to purchasing homes with zero down programs. Lenders were much more willing to lend money a few years ago than they are today. In addition some potential buyers were disappointed to learn that while some books touted that you can purchase a home with zero money from your pocketbook and walk away with a check in your hand, failed to mention that this is illegal in the state of Texas. (That's not to say there weren't deals to be made just as there are today...for those that have the money. If you do...call us!)

Anyway back to the leases in Kyle Texas. Because the prices of single family homes in Kyle were lower compared to a comparable home in Austin, Kyle got more than its' share of investors. You can see on the chart that we saw a huge spike in the number of leased homes between 2004 and 2005. This was when the California investors were heading our way.

The good news is that you can see in the estimate for this year, (I took the current leased YTD and doubled it to estimate the total years leases), we are continuing to see a leveling off. Again you can attribute this to the California Sales Market. Many of the leases in the last couple of years are actually lease renewals, that is one tenant moves out another moves in, rather than a lot more homes going to an investor. Actually with the markets taking a dip in areas such as California, Las Vegas and Phoenix (the states most of my investors came from), some of the investors found their cash assets were no longer what they were and with the Texas taxes and home management fees, they decided not to hang on to their properties. Many are selling them, or, unfortunately many are walking away. In the upcoming Travis County foreclosures auction scheduled for August 5th, 52 properties up for auction are owned by out-of-state residents. Some of these will likely go back into the hands of a owner occupant. So like everything else in the world around us, real estate goes in cycles and things seem to work themselves out. You just have to hang in there long enough to see it.

How much does it cost to Rent a home in Kyle? Or conversely how much rent can I expect to get if I wanted to rent out a home in Kyle?

For a few years because there were so many homes on the market the lease prices were kept low. Tenants had a lot of options out there to lease and therefore if a landlord didn't want the home to sit vacant he/she would be very competitive in the pricing. However there are less on the market now (only 22 active in all of Kyle) and you can see on the chart below that we are starting to see the prices drift up a bit. I would expect when the Hospital, Target plus and other future businesses start opening we'll see an increased demand for the rentals which in turn will in turn cause prices to go up as well. (The 2008 average lease price is the average lease price for all homes that went under contract from January 2008 to mid year.)

If you would like to check out all of the active homes for sale in Kyle go to Austin Home Search. Or if you have any questions about Kyle Real Estate, Buda Real Estate or Austin Area Real Estate just give a yell. Call us today at 512-449-6070 or email us at Info@Adkor.net and let us help you with your area Austin Real Estate needs. Find out why Adkor Realty is truly...A Different Kind Of Realty!

I enjoy eating as much as probably anyone I know...when I think back on vacations even from years ago I can likely tell you what I ate. Well that being said, one of my favorite restaurants in the entire Austin area happens to be in our little town of Kyle...honestly it's in Kyle...it's called Bordeaux. It happens to be one of my daughter Alayna's (she's 24) favorite restaurants as well. So I decided to take Alayna out to dinner last night. When I am here to say that we had a fabulous dinner.

We decided to start with the special Appetizer Of The Day. It was a Caprizi salad with tomato, mozzarella, pesto, basil and a type of thick vinagerette reduction, (can't remember how they described it but it sounded good). We lived in Venezuela for several years where we were introduced to this simple salad and we always enjoy it . We also ordered the Stuffed Mushrooms and Alayna ordered a cup of the potato-bacon soup.

We had a tough time deciding on our main course. Alayna was deciding between the meat choices while I was looking at the seafood options. The special of the day was a scallop dish that sounded really good but I kept coming back to the Mahi Mahi and Tuna Steak.

When the waitress came over (and I am so sorry I forgot her name as she was helpful and attentive), I asked her which of the two she recommended and in a heart beat she said the Tuna. She backed up and immediately began raving about the Mahi Mahi as well, but you could tell she really liked the Tuna. That did it for me and I closed the menu. Alayna decided on The Pepper Crusted New York Strip. So with that decision made we sat back to wait.

Now before I tell you what I thought of the food I need to explain that I don't have sophisticated taste buds, I am an expert in real estate not in food. I love watching the Food Network but that's about the extent of my technical knowledge. I just love to eat. While I'm confessing things I probably should also admit upfront that a "must do" any time I go back to Indiana to visit family, is to make a stop at White Castles... Yep some people call them "sliders" 'cause those li'l burgers are so greasy...but I love them. Love, love, love them! It may be all of the memories associated with eating them growing up...but anyway... back to the present. As I was saying...

We didn't have to wait long before the appetizers were served. They looked great and I immediately set to work and cut a bite of the Caprizi salad. Like I said, Caprizi salad was a staple in Venezuela so I knew it would be good....but this caprizi salad...well it took caprizi salad to a whole new level...it was one of those times that I took a bite and immediately told Alayna to take a bite as well...(not sure what she was doing in organizing her plate but I couldn't wait for her to try it so I could share the enjoyment). I was not disappointed in her reaction, like me, she took a bite and in a nano second her eyes lit up. She agreed...it was wonderful.

We also had the stuffed mushrooms and the potato-bacon soup, which were both great too, but there was something about that salad....wish they'd put that on the menu as a regular item 'cause I for one would order every time I went it was that good.

We could have easily finished the appetizers and called it a day (especially considering that they also served a loaf of wonderful warm bread) but we wanted to save plenty of room for what we knew was coming. So we reluctantly pushed what was left of the salad and mushrooms aside. (The waitress was kind enough to box them up so we could take them home. I don't know about everyone else, but my daughters and I love taking doggy bags home. Probably not something the 'rich and famous' do, but I for one love my leftovers.)

And boy are we glad we left room for the main course. When the plates came out they looked scrumptious. New York Strip and Tuna Steak... Two distinct meals and both oooooooh so good. My mouth is watering again just thinking about it.

The servings were very generous proportions, way more than we could eat, especially since we ate appetizers as well, and the main dish came with a choice of side dishes. We both opted for the garlic-parmesan mashed potatoes. (Which we always get when we go there.) Once again the waitress was kind enough to box our leftovers for us to enjoy at another time.

For dessert we went with the Creme Brulee and the Ricotta Cheesecake with Blueberry glaze. They also did not disappoint but admittedly we were still on a high from the rest of the meal so didn't give them the attention they deserve.

So I am here to say if you haven't gone to Bordeaux you have got to try it. If you have, you know what I mean and for those of us that live in the Buda, Kyle and San Marcos areas we are soooo lucky to have such a great restaurant in our own back yard. So be sure to go back again (and in my case again, and again, and again.) And if you are lucky enough to live close by, they have a take out menu. If you ever want to serve a romantic dinner for your mate, this is a perfect option if you don't/can't cook. Bordeaux will cook it for you and you can plate it with some flowers, wine and you're all set.

To the particulars....Bordeaux is located at 108 Center Street in Downtown Kyle. It's really easy to find. If you are on IH35 you just take the Kyle Highway 150 Exit East (Exit number 213), go over the railroad tracks and Bordeaux will be on the right just before the Courthouse Building. The restaurant opens Tuesdays through Saturdays at 5pm.

I wouldn't recommend taking kids as it's a small quiet restaurant and likely you and your kids wouldn't be comfortable as they'd have to keep their voices down etc. Also there is no 'kids menu' and it's not a 'cheap' family place. Our meal with the three appetizers, two main courses, two deserts, drink and a glass of wine ran $100 before tip. Considering for us we had literally three more meals out of our leftovers we totally felt it was worth it.

An added bonus for me was that I found it was really nice, relaxing (and unusual) to have a quiet one-on-one conversation with one of my daughters (versus going out with all four of them at once). We enjoyed it so much that we're planning our next outing. So see ya then!

In the meantime, have a great one!

Celeste

PS...Writing the blog made me so hungry think I'm going to check out my leftovers from last night!