Jose Hallon

Sports are always good. Right? Sports is about competition, about team work, about challenge, all good. However, how early is too early? I remember back to my childhood. My family moved to Ecuador when I was 5 years old. In Ecuador, as is the case in most of South America, soccer is the main sport of choice. Kids get started early playing the game, loving the game, living the game. The same kids would one day choose a favorite team and from then on, follow that team with an unrivaled passion that they can hopefully pass on to their kids one day. I think back to when I started. First grade. The schools formed intramural sports and would have a great opening day ceremony for the children and their parents to enjoy, the parents could see their little ones look sharp in their cute uniforms. Best looking team and best looking princess would be elected, etc. The actual games, where First Grade A would play First Grade B, Second Grade C would play Second Grade D, and so on, took place during regular recess, and parents were mostly absent. We didn't have practices, or coaches even (coach was the grade teacher), we certainly didn't have trophies or medals. We just played to play. We learned the game and enjoyed ourselves while doing it. I don't really remember playing a tournament at that age when, with a trophy on the line, we needed to go to overtime and penalty kicks to settle a winner, because when the bell rang, game was over and it was back to class we go.

Fast forward some 30 years. In the US, on any random Saturday, we see scores of kids competing in any number of sports. Specialization starts early. Tournaments start early. Traveling teams (seriously?) start early. And unfortunately burn out starts early. What happened to letting the kids play? Today, if you don't start early, the feeling is you will fall behind and not get that scholarship. I'll go back to soccer, since that's the sport I love, grew up playing, and still play whenever I have the chance (and my aging body lets me). My two boys (6 and 4) love to play the sport. They love to go out in the yard and kick the ball, pass it around, try to score. On any given day, my 4 year old will come running and say "Dad, let's go play futbol." and I love that. I love that they love it, and I definitely love playing with them. I look at them and enjoy the way their faces beam up when they do a trick they have been trying to do, and I wonder, Would they feel the same way if rather than letting them play, I was forcing them to do so?

I wrote all that to write this. Last season I watched a tournament game in the U7 boys division. The two teams were evenly matched, ended up tied at the end of regulation, went to overtime, and finished the game still tied. Since only one team could advance, they had to take penalty kicks. That means each team picks 5 players to kick the ball and try to score. The winner would be the team who makes the most goals. Now picture this, you have to stand in front of the goal, put the ball down, drown the screams from the parents cheering you on, and the parents trying to psyche you out (you know it happens), you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders, take the kick and if you miss, your whole team lost. After you think about all that, think about this...you're only six years old. Is that necessary? Do we really need to put a kid through that this early to prepare them for life? I get that life is not always fair, and I get that life is not always easy, but doesn't this sound a little too harsh?

I don't pretend to have an answer nor do I pretend to know everything there is about raising a healthy, well rounded individual, but I do know one thing, I'd rather my boys learn to love the game and play forever, rather than them learning to play the game and hate it later.

Hello Everyone, Spring in Texas....looks great so far, doesn't it?. I hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather. Spring is a great time to be outside, to exercise and to be active. It's also generally the time when people start thinking about moving and get out to look at bigger homes, in hopes to get situated by the start of the school year. Especially now with record low interest rates and an $8,000 credit for first time homebuyers*.

Spring also brings the deadline for your homestead exemption filing, April 30th. If you moved at any time last year and you were in your new home as of January 1st, 2009, please don't forget to file for your homestead exemption. It's free and it can save you a lot of money.

To learn more about exemptions, here's a link to the Texas Comptroller page. http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/exmptns.html

And to learn more about the First-time homebuyers credit, here's the link: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/home2.html

I came across an interesting article on Yahoo! Finance. Written by Jay MacDonaldthe article goes over five consumer products and whether or not now is a good time to get one of them. Not surprisingly, Real Estate is among the five at number 3 and is considered a bargain. It pretty much confirms what we agents already know. It is a great time to buy a home, BUT the caveat is It is a great time, IF you have the cash for a good down payment AND a secure job. We all know the home prices have declined lately, again, some places show more of a drop than others, plus money is cheap at the lenders, even though credit ratings are much more important. If you are thinking of buying a home, have the down payment and a secure job, What are the main reasons stopping you right now?

Me parece que ha habido un aumento en el numero de personas que no hablan muy bien el Ingles buscando casa, tanto para comprar, como para rentar. Quien esta informando a estas personas de sus derechos de agencia? Tengan en cuenta que el comprador ya de por si, no estan informados de que no les cuesta nada contratar a un agente comprador, pero en cambio tienen a un representante en el que pueden confiar. Como alcanzamos mas posibles compradores?

You have no doubt heard and read all the pundits screaming The sky is falling! prices are dropping! and all kinds of niceties about Real Estate. While in general this is partially true, it is also true that the worst drops are happening in other areas of the country. However, when you think Real Estate, you need to think locally. What's true in California, will not necesarilly hold true here in Texas. One thing I learned in my career in Accounting and Finance is that numbers don't lie. They say information is a precious commodity, if this is true, I'm about to share some gold with you. I've looked at the January statistics for this region. I noticed the average price of homes in areas, such as North Dallas, Cedar Hill and Carrollton have actually gone up year over year, while other areas, such as Coppell and the Denton area have only suffered a modest drop. Where do you do most of your business?