Should you refinance?

Have you been thinking about refinancing your mortgage? Been wondering how much you might save? Check out this great mortgage savings calculator for a glimpse at what refinancing may mean to you.

Now may be the time to refinance. It may also be the time to consider selling your home and moving to a home that better meets your needs. Give us a call - we can share what is happening in your area, and refer you to our fantastic mortgage partners for more detailed information on what a refinance might look like for your situation.

Remember your pets this holiday

This is a special request from our client care coordinator, Grady. Grady wants to make sure all of our clients, friends and colleagues remember that human food isn't good for dogs - and asks that we remind all of you to remind all of your guests to please not feed the pets any human food - not even a tiny little bit. And let's be honest, can you argue with such a cute little guy??

Check out this list of foods and plants that are toxic to pets. Thanks to our friend Marilyn Nichols at Happy Puppy Tutoring for sharing. Contact us for Marilyn's contact information or check it out at the bottom of the linked article.

And remember - just because something isn't on the list does not mean that it is safe!

Wishing all of you and all of yours a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

More funds available for appliance upgrades....

Reminder: The purchase period for the Texas Appliance Mail-In Rebate Program will begin on December 20, 2010.

Additional Funds Added to Mail-In Appliance Rebate Program

The Texas Comptroller's office is adding more money to the upcoming ENERGY STAR® appliance mail-in rebate program to allow more Texans to take advantage of rebates. An additional $8.5 million is being added to the initial $10 million. The money is from unused public sector energy efficiency funds transferred from the State Energy Program to the rebate program. All funds are part of the federal stimulus program. Consumers can start buying appliances on December 20 and, after installation, mail in a completed rebate application form and a copy of the receipt to apply for the rebates. The mail-in rebate program will remain open until the available funds are distributed.

Application Form is Now Available

The application form for the Texas Appliance Mail-In Rebate Program is now available. Consumers can begin to purchase eligible ENERGY STAR® appliances on or after December 20, 2010. An application form is not required at the time of purchase, but is needed at the time of installation for disposal or recycling information.

PDF icon Application Form for Texas Appliance Mail-In Rebate Program (PDF, 240KB)


Helpful Information

You may also want to review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for basic information on the new program. You can also view easy steps to follow if you plan to participate in the program. Or download a printable version of the "How to Apply" Flyer (PDF, 187KB).

Let's get rid of the riff raff......

Every once in a while I think of a way to change things for the better. I actually had this thought last night - it was random but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. And then this morning I had coffee with my buddy Tony, one of the most respectable, honorable real estate brokers I know. Tony and I have similar philosophies on giving back to the profession and come from a "colleague" perspective verses a "competitor" perspective.

So here's the deal. It's too easy to get a real estate license. If you have a thousand bucks and a few days, you can take the classes you need to satisfy the TREC educational requirements and sit for the exam. And the exam? It's not hard. At all.

This setup has allowed a ton of people to become licensed to help people buy and sell real estate. But it's kind of like Spandex...just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Because it is so easy to get a license, we often hear people say "oh, I don't like my job so I am going to become a REALTOR" or "oh, I got fired so I'm going to...."

Today Tony told me a story he had heard....this agent went out to meet with the seller of a 750,000 home. The seller said "I'll have to be honest with you, I don't work, and I'm thinking I should just go get my license and sell my own place, and save the commission."

Thankfully this seller was smart enough to know, that just because someone has a license to do something, it does not guarantee that they are good at it.

But anway, enough of that. The bottom line is - there are too many agents, too many part time agents, too many BAD agents. So here's my solution.

Let's increase renewal fees to $5000 per year. Yes, five THOUSAND dollars per year. Now before you have a total tizzy, let me finish.

The base charge for renewals would be $5250 bucks. Plus satisfaction of stringent educational requirements (I'll save my thoughts on the status of quality education for another post). And, for every transaction you have completed in the past 12 months, you get $1000 credit, up to a total of $5000 in credit.

So in the end, if you are actually DOING real estate, the renewal is reasonable. If you are just "playing" in the field - it's not so reasonable. My theory is this - such a change would force licensees to either be GOOD at what they do (demonstrated by doing it over and over and providing quality service), or they simply could not afford to continue to renew their licenses.

That's Plan A. Plan B is similar, only it would require the sponsoring broker to pay an exorbetant fee for each licensee they sponsor. So if the people they're sponsoring are not producing, they'd have no incentive to sponsor them. And again, with verifiable production and no claims, there could be a credit system for the brokers as well. This would eliminate the "Hang your license with me for $100 a month and don't bother me and I won't bother you" type of brokerages.

Or Plan C....do both.

Those are my 2 cents for the day.......

Action or reaction

You've seen me post some messages from my friend George Kahn on this blog - and today I can't help but share the one he sent out this morning. George has a way of knowing just what I need to hear on a pretty consistent basis...

In Newton's Third Law, action and reaction are interchangeable; the distinction between action and reaction is purely arbitrary.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

But in life, there is a definite difference between my actions and my reactions.
Today I choose action.
I could easily spend the day
reacting to what is given me
holding grudges,
getting mad at something that someone has done to me.

I would rather take the first step,
be pro-active
moving forward
There is an excitement in taking the first step
a sense that
I have the ability to make a difference
in my own life
as well as for others.

Contact my for George's email address and get yourself added to the Passion Party mail list!

TAR to allow anonymous Ethics Complaints

This just in from my morning Texas Association of REALTORS email!

Podcast: Why anonymous ethics complaints will be allowed
Listen now to find out how the new professional standards citation policy—which streamlines complaint resolution as well as allowing anonymous complaints—will elevate the ethical standards of Texas REALTORS®. Also, get details about how your experience, income, business practices, and more compare to your colleagues.


Now I'm not really excited about the "anonymous" part of the new complaint process. I think if people want to file a complaint, they should have backbone enough to sign their name to it, but I DO support the other changes that come with the change, and here's why.

The current process, although fantastic for major complaints from consumers and other REALTORS®, requires that the complainant spend an incredible amount of time dealing with the whole process. What ends up happening is if we as Texas REALTORS® are not personally impacted by the improper actions of another Texas REALTOR, we do nothing in terms of working to "right the wrong" for the rest of the folks.

Why? Because it takes too much time. We are currently required to submit the complaint, substantiate the complaint, then sit in an actual hearing to submit the complaint to a panel (I'm way over simplifying here but you get the point). So, if one of our colleagues in the field is doing something that violates our REALTOR® Code of Ethics, and we have already (hopefully) called them or emailed them letting them know that there's a violation going on, we have to spend hours trying to get the person to comply. That's hours away from what we do to make money - helping people buy and sell Real Estate.

I'm not saying that our actions are right. I'm saying that's what we do. Unless we or our clients have a personal financial impact from the wrong doings of another REALTOR®, we often don't take the time to work to correct the issue.

And it's not that there are no issues. Give me thirty seconds on Craigslist and I can give you a list of violations. But am I going to spend time trying to correct each wrong? Absolutely not. And here's why.

Agent training is a broker responsibility. As a broker, I am responsible for the actions of my agents. If I am made aware of an issue, I guarantee you that it will be corrected immediately. I also guarantee you that if one of my agents is contacted by another REALTOR® and made aware of an issue, they will correct it immediately on their own, without my prompting. Why? Because they know that is what is expected of them.

Austin, and I'm sure many other cities, have a few brokerages that appear to write their own rules. Or maybe they just have no idea that there ARE rules. These companies and their agents do pretty much whatever they want to do. They may or may not be made aware of any problems, and if they are, they may or may not do anything about it. It is my opinion that some brokers, both large and small, have no interest or desire to make sure their agents are following the license law or our REALTOR® Code of Ethics. They either don't care, or more likely, have no idea that there is a violation because they don't know the license law or Code of Ethics themselves.

SO....that's why I think anonymous complaints are fantastic. Consumers and agents can submit a complaint and know that it will be addressed without the consumer or agent having to spend their own time doing it.

*Steps off soap box*

Give what you can - with Passion

Very enlightened words from my friend and colleague in the mortgage business, George Kahn.

As we move through life
from survival to significance
the big change is in what we give.

When I was young I thought that I had to build wealth before I could give.
Then I realized that I could do service, and give my time to things I cared about.

Giving time can be the greatest gift
It actually doesn't matter what, or how much you give.
If you give what you can, with passion
you can change the world.

"We make a living with what we get,
but we make a life with what we give."
- Winston Churchill

George Kahn

Contact me for George's contact info. Do you want to be included in his daily Passion Party? Shoot me a note and I'll get you connected!

What's going on in the local housing market?

The latest edition of our Housing Trends newsletter is now available for online viewing.

Remember, we can help you with your sale, purchase, property management and apartment locating needs. Please, don't keep us a secret!

Bathroom Remodels Becoming More Popular

Two questions we are often asked by clients is "what room should I remodel first" and "how much return will I get on my remodel investment"?

Most home owners choose to remodel the kitchen first - but as we are monitoring trends, we are seeing that more and more owners are starting with the bathroom.

Check out this article for more on the current trend. And remember, when you need a referral for quality contractors, please get in touch with us and we can assist.

Please don't keep us a secret!

Texas cities hold top four job-growth spots

This just in from the Austin Business Journal: Austin and the three other major Texas markets registered the nation’s strongest employment gains during the past five years, according to figures released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Austin came in No. 3 with 56,100 new private-sector jobs created between June 2005 and June 2010. Houston topped the list with 129,800 new private-sector jobs followed by Dallas, with 71,300 jobs created. San Antonio ranked No. 4, with a gain of 32,600 positions during the same time period.

Los Angeles posted the nation’s sharpest decline since 2005, losing 376,400 private-sector positions. Other big drops were reported in Detroit (down 328,800 in five years), Chicago (down 253,000) and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (down 165,800).

Eighty-four major markets suffered declines in private-sector employment during the half-decade; only 16 finished on the upside.

The news was a bit better for the short term, with 24 markets enjoying increases between June 2009 and June 2010.

Austin had the biggest one-year gain, up 8,400 private-sector jobs. Dallas ranked third, with 4,800 private-sector jobs created between June 2009 and June 2010.

Chicago had the biggest one-year drop, down 83,400 jobs.

Read more in the Austin Business Journal.