Matt Stigliano

For Your Protection, Get A Home Inspection.

If you're thinking about buying a home in San Antonio, Texas - get an inspection. I can not stress enough the importance of a home inspection for any home - new or re-sale. Even if you're building your dream home with a builder you trust - get an inspection. Am I driving the point home yet?

A professional, licensed home inspector will check the major systems of your home and find things you and I don't see. That's their job. When choosing an inspector in San Antonio, look no further than Mike Leahey of Precise Home Inspections.

Mike has done quite a few inspections for my clients and everyone of them loves him when he's done. He's brutally honest, fair priced, and always thorough. He loves educating my clients (and his clients) about their homes - giving them the ins and outs of the new home, showing them why something is great or not so hot (not technical inspector terms).

Precise Home Inspections

The name says it all. Mike Leahey's work is precise and he truly loves what he does. He gets his inspections delivered on time and spends as much time educating and demonstrating as he does crawling through attics, poking around in garages, and checking for leaks. And the best part? All at a reasonable price.

Next time you need an inspection on new construction or a re-sale home in the San Antonio area:

Mike Leahey

Precise Home Inspections

(210) 782-2518

TREC License # 4844

photo courtesy of Melody Salazar

Salazar Staging - serving San Antonio, New Braunfels, and Canyon Lake.

You've heard it before.  "Stage your home to sell."  Whether on the internet or on TV, staging is a hot topic.  When the problem arises that your home isn't selling or you want to enter the market with a bang, Salazar Staging can be your local solution.  Offering a full range of consultation, design, decorator, and even furniture rentals; Salazar Staging is your one stop shop in the Austin to San Antonio corridor.

Selling your home is all about making the buyer feel like they are already in their new home.  From the moment they walk through the door they should be able to envision themselves living in your house.  Remember, you're selling them their future.  A successful stager can help you do just that.  Melody Salazar of Salazar Staging is a certified real estate stager and interior decorator and has an eye for the perfect touches.  She specializes in budget staging as well, trying to keep costs low for the homeowners of San Antonio, New Braunfels, and Canyon Lake.  With Melody, no job is too big or too small.

What does it take to stage your home?  Let the pictures do the talking.

If you're thinking of selling your home, why not give me a call and we can discuss staging your home for success.  I will arrange for Salazar Staging to visit with you at the same time, so the two of us together can show what can be done to get your San Antonio area home to sell faster.

If you're currently working with a Realtor® is San Antonio, you can call Melody Salazar direct at (830) 626-8967 or have your agent arrange a visit with her or connect with her right here on ActiveRain.

The Tap Exchange in San Antonio, Texas.

The Tap Exchange isn't your typical "drink 'em as fast as you can pour them" bar.  It isn't your typical "we're all wearing turtlenecks and drinking martinis while listening to ambient trance" bar.  This isn't your typical "dive" bar.  It's not even your typical Texas "icehouse."  The Tap Exchange is a "pub" in the greatest sense of the word.  Having traveled the globe and drank in some of the best pub's on earth, it's something I consider myself an expert on.  Having an English wife only makes me a little more of a pub-aficionado.

What is different between a "pub" and a "bar"?  Well, technically there may be no difference in most people's mind, but a good pub provides three things in my experience.  Awesome beer.  Awesome food.  Great atmosphere for conversation.  And here in San Antonio, we have what I would call a Class A example of a pub - The Tap Exchange.

I first was introduced to The Tap Exchange on Twitter.  Someone I knew here in San Antonio had mentioned Franziskaner Hefeweissen on tap.  Having spent a lot of time in Germany, this is perhaps one of my all time favorite beers.  My ears perked up and I tweeted, "Where?"  The answer came in the form of Jimmy from The Tap Exchange.  I didn't know it then, but Jimmy is the owner.

Jimmy immediately started talking beer with me and you could tell he was excited to talk about his passion.  We chatted back and forth about beers of the world and his knowledge was beyond my own.  I know what I like, he knows why I like it and how they make it.  A man with a passion for quality and a wide variety of tastes, Jimmy loves his job.  You can hear it in every word he says.

My own experience at The Tap Exchange.

I was sold on The Tap Exchange before I ever went there.  I knew it would be a great place.  When I did visit, not only did I experience the three points of beer, food, and conversation; but I also got to watch Stanley Cup Playoff Hockey with Jimmy himself.  The staff knows their beer and are more than willing to provide suggestions.  Once they saw what I liked most, they provided other suggestions to play off of the ones I enjoyed.  They were all friendly and talkative and sitting with Jimmy, we covered beer to hockey to business to real estate to social media.  A true "pub" allows you to do this.  It fosters it.  It requires it to thrive.

After a few beers, I was getting a little hungry, so I ordered up a Patty Melt.  I am a huge fan of the Patty Melt and it takes a superb one to get me excited.  The Tap Exchange didn't disappoint.  When I lived in Los Angeles, I was hooked on Jerry's Famous Deli and their Patty Melt.  Move over Jerry's there's a new favorite in town...and San Antonio is a lot closer than Los Angeles!  Talk about delicious.  To top it off, I had the sweet potato fries (I asked for a mix and match order of half sweet potato, half regular fries).  One bite of the sweet potato fries and I was ready to ditch the regular french fry for good.

Specialty Beers at The Tap Exchange.

To top off their already enormous selection of beers, Jimmy finds ways of getting beers that are in limited supply or are short term offerings.  If you follow them on Twitter (I've written about their use of Twitter before in "Twitter For Business - Would you like fries with that?"), you'll get updates when new arrivals get tapped.  Just to show you how serious this list of beers is, I asked Jimmy to supply me with a sampling of the special beers he's brought in.  Here's his (incomplete) list: Green Flash West Coast IPA, Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA, St. Arnold's Cask-Conditioned Elissa IPA, Victory Cask-Conditioned Hop Devil IPA, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine, Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale, Czechvar Pilsner, Maredsous 10 Belgian Tripel, Unibroue Maudite Abbey Strong Ale, North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Franziskaner Hefeweizen, Ayinger Brau Weisse, Rogue XS Imperial IPA, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Ska Pinstripe Red, Summit Extra Pale Ale, Guinness 250, Real Ale Real Heavy Scotch Ale, Real Ale Full Moon Rye Ale, and Real Ale Dunkelroggen.

That's serious beer right there.

So if you're thinking of relaxing, having a pint or two, and enjoying some conversation with a few friends (or Jimmy himself), head on over to The Tap Exchange in San Antonio, Texas.  Tell them @rerockstar sent you.  You can find The Tap Exchange at 22250 Bulverde Rd, #106 (at Evans Road), San Antonio TX 78259 or call them at  (210) 396-7917  or email them at info@thetapexchange.com.

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Welcome home to Stillwater Ranch.

If you're thinking of building a new green home in Northwest San Antonio, Stillwater Ranch and Imagine Homes may be the perfect place for you.  Imagine being only 2 miles from Loop 1604 (map), but feeling more like you're living in the Hill Country.  A serene setting with open spaces, a community lake, and wooded areas all around you.  Imagine Homes (along with Wall Homes and New Leaf Homes) have started building in this master planned community and once you've seen it, you'll start imagining yourself living there too.

Imagine Homes has already been recognized for it's use of green technology here in San Antonio, but have you ever experienced the difference their homes make?  Using tankless water heaters, low-e double pane windows, native Texas drought tolerant landscaping, Demilec spray foam insulation, and many other features, Imagine Homes is able to build a home that not only will save you money on your electric bills, but will also help you be a responsible steward in our community.    You won't believe how cool your attic can be until you've seen the model home (a Lilac floor plan) in Stillwater Ranch.

Of course, like any great neighborhood, Stillwater Ranch has a fantastic amenity center.  Pool, tennis courts, playground, and basketball court all combine to make this a recreation paradise.  Prefer to do some walking?  Hiking trails through out the development will continue to expand as the community grows giving you safe walking paths through the entire neighborhood.

Still in the early stages of development, you can choose your lot and build a new home to match your needs and desires.  If you've never seen Imagine Homes list of standard options, you'll be amazed at how much they offer you without adding extra to your cost.  Of course, if you want to upgrade or change, they are more than willing to work with you in making it happen.

If you'd like to take a personal tour of the model homes and available lots at Stillwater Ranch in San Antonio 78254, give me a call at (210) 240-6222 or visit my website for more contact info.

If you're looking for a purchase without going through the "build a new home" process, search for available inventory homes at Stillwater Ranch at RErockstar.com or use the handy search widget below:

Want more photos of land, new homes being built, and the area around Stillwater Ranch in San Antonio?

photo courtesy of bgilliard

I hate this sort of phone call.

I'm picking up the phone in just a moment. It's the sort of phone call I hate to have to place. I have to let a client know some news that changes everything for them today. As of this morning, they were happy people. This afternoon, they won't be. We've been looking for a property for them for two weeks now. We're looking at foreclosures mostly and we finally found one that was going to serve their needs. We wrote a very strong offer after I did my research on the property. Full price because we didn't want to lose out and we knew the seller's situation thanks to their listing agent. We wanted to go in strong to secure the home for us. We sent the offer in and received a counter.

Yes, a counter offer. On someone who was heading down the path to foreclosure. Seems the agent miscalculated the payoff amount. This seller is desperate to sell to get through this with barely a scratch and we were willing to help them (and get the house my clients wanted). The note came last night and I spoke to my clients. They weren't pleased, but they agreed to work it out. We made a verbal counter offer and I received email notification early this morning that we were good to go and I could get counter-signatures.

Then the emails came.

The first one asked me if we could make the option fee as a money order because the listing agent's client didn't have a bank account set up yet in their new hometown. Ok, fair enough. I arranged it. Signatures and money order will be in place today at 2:30. Sweet. *Beep beep* My email again, better check it. Ugh. Seems the agent not only miscalculated the pay-off value, but also didn't find out that the bank have moved to foreclosure status and assigned a lawyer to the case. Suddenly, we're now looking at a short sale. My clients aren't interested in the short sale wait. I guess we'll find out what my client's think when I pick up the phone.

Agents - stay on top of the foreclosure process.

If you're going to list and work with foreclosures, short sales, and cases where it's getting close; please keep up on the property. I know we're dealing with sometimes irrational and logic-defying banks, but this has wasted my time, the client's time, and probably frazzled them one last time. My clients did all they could to help your client. My clients were willing to go above and beyond what they wanted to initially do. They actually were trying to get a new house and to help your client (yes, they really cared). All of it? For nothing. Now we're faced with the truly irrational and logic-defying status of a short sale. We're going to see if we can push it through anyway, but had the listing agent just stayed a little more on top of the case, I might not be making this dreaded phone call.

In a city like San Antonio, we have far less foreclosure (or near) inventory than many cities. If we work hard, we can clean this inventory up. But only if we work hard, smart, and efficiently and stay on the ball with the status of our listings. So please, I beg you, check where your listings stand right now - and update, correct, or change if necessary.