David's Blog

I have been doing a series in my monthly newsletter about getting control of your finances in 2008 - there are 8 steps to the process.  Here is the 4th installment of the series: This month we're moving on to step 4 to get control of your finances.  You've tracked your spending, created your budg...

Saw one of the "snapshots" that USAToday includes on the lower left of the sections of their paper that applied to us here in Austin/Round Rock - it was a list of the top 5 cities  with the lowest percentage of homes purchased in 2007 that are now worth less than is owed on them - Austin/Round Ro...

I found this on the CNNMoney.com website this morning - Round Rock is number 7 on the list of the 10 Best Places in America to Live 2008.  Being a resident of Round Rock myself - I have to agree!  Check out the whole list here: America's 10 Best Places to Live    

I have been doing a monthly series this year in my client newsletter about getting control of your finances this year.  I decided to put these on my blog too.  Here is part 3 of the series: This month we're moving on to step 3 to get control of your finances.  You've tracked your spending, and cr...

I have been doing a series this year in my monthly newsletter about getting control of your finances.  Here is article #2 of my series: After you have kept track of your spending for a month, now it's time to: 2. SET A BUDGET There are not many of us that like to create, or stick to a budget.  It...

I just closed a short sale listing a couple weeks ago that went so smoothly - I'd almost want to do this again!!  Another agent in my office referred this client to me because he had never done a short sale before and wanted to make sure it was handled correctly.  I have taken the short sale cour...

With all the stress of the current economy, local real estate markets and the rising cost of gas, I was prompted to start a series in the monthly newsletter that I send out to my clients that gave them some pointers on getting control of their finances for the year.  Now admittedly, I need to tak...

If you are thinking about shopping for a new home, be sure to check out your credit score.  In the past a 720 could get you the best rates available, but not anymore.  The bar has now been raised to 750 or higher.  You can take steps to improve your score, but you need to know where you stand fir...

Stats for Williamson County for last week:Week of:1/20/2008     # Homes Sold SqFt$/SFList PriceSold PriceDays on Market50Average2126$90$194,257$188,30070 Median1965$87$169,945$166,39539 High5191$192$998,000$975,000465 Low998$47$74,900$70,9110 $ Volume   $9,415,014 

I may be biased, but I think the Austin/Round Rock area is a great place to purchase an investment property.  We are still having steady appreciation - nothing crazy, but nice, slow and steady rises in home values.  The kind that doesn't explode in a real estate bubble.  Well, Entrepreneur.com ha...