Tanger Outlet Center Opens in Texas City

As most everone knows, the new outlet center in Texas City, just south of Dickinson, recently opened.

The 350,000-sf retail project was a combined effort between Simon and Tanger, a first for the two companies, which are normally competitors. The retail building was 97 percent leased at delivery with 80 featured retailers and has the potential for a 50,000-sf expansion in the future.

Read more at the Galveston Daily News and CoStar Group.

For more on the Texas City, see NewsTalk Texas.

NEW FHA LOAN REQUIREMENTS

NEW FHA MORTGAGE RULES TAKE EFFECT

New Federal Housing Administration (FHA) rules will effect many first-time homebuyers as well as many current homeowners. 

One rule, which took effect yesterday, disqualifies first-time homebuyers with more than $1,000 in medical or other collections from getting an FHA-backed loan. To qualify for the loan, the buyer must pay off the debt or show that three months of payments have been made.

Meanwhile, all homeowners who have FHA loans will have to pay more in mortgage insurance starting next Monday.

What does this mean for someone that is interested in buying a home? They need a great loan officer that can help them understand how this affects their ability to buy a home. If you are thinking of buying a home, contact me (Robert M. Bragg) at 832.256.8589. I'll help connect you with our lender, and together as a team, we can establish a plan to help you move past any challenges.

View the Full Article Here

HAR ANNOUNCES - 8 MONTHS OF INCREASED HOME SALES

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS ON A POSITIVE NOTE FOR THE HOUSTON REAL ESTATE MARKET

January marks the eighth consecutive month of increased home sales

HOUSTON – (February 21, 2012) — The Houston housing market held to positive territory as 2012 began, with January marking the eighth consecutive month of increased home sales. The year also opened with a continued decline in active property listings and growth in pending sales—a combination that signals a healthy market with a balanced supply of housing inventory, and that puts Houston on enviable footing compared to many other markets around the U.S. that are slowly recovering from the housing downturn.

January sales of single-family homes climbed 9.2 percent versus one year earlier, according to the latest monthly data prepared by the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR). All segments of the housing market grew except the luxury segment—those homes priced from $500,000 and above—whose decline flattened the overall average price.

"The January report shows continued strength in the Houston housing market that we began seeing in the latter part of 2011, and it gives us cause for optimism as we look ahead to the typically active spring and summer buying months," said Wayne A. Stroman, HAR chairman and CEO of Stroman Realty. "We have also seen more jobs being filled locally and you generally don't experience a strong real estate market without healthy employment."

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEO, CLICK HERE.

RESTARTING THE TEXAS BAY AREA BLOG!

With the new school season
in August came new
responsibilities.

It has been some time since I posted here and I was trying to figure out why I lost touch with my Blog. Previously I was trying to post at least twice a month. Looking back, it appears that my last post was on July 29th, just before the new school season started in August. And that's when I found the culprit! The new 2012 school season, and the new change in our home life.

With the new school season, my wife started her full time job with the Dickinson School Distrcit as a 1st grade teacher. Previously, she was working only half days as a pre-school teacher at the same location. Like most families in todays economic times, my wife and I realized that we could no longer keep her at home either full or part time to care for our 3 young children. Instead, we needed her to take on a full time job, and the full time income, so we could keep our family above water. Luckily, we were able to find a great pre-school for our two youngest, and our oldest started attending 1st grade.

My Ipad schedule always
looks full like this.

As a Real Estate Agent, my schedule is "flexible." Well, not really. If you plan to succeed in Real Estate, then basically being a Real Estate Agent is a full time job, with a full time schedule, especially on weekends and after 5:00 pm weekdays when your clients are free to meet. Besides, I don't know many serious buyers or sellers that want a part-time agent. However, my schedule was "flexible" enough to allow us to make the double income family schedule work.

I had to chase down the
bus once since my son
missed it. They won't
let me do that again.

Since my wife typically leaves the house by 7:15 am at the latest, I'm basically pulling kid duty in the mornings. I try to have myself and my 1st grader son almost ready to go by that same time so we can see my wife off to her job. Next I get my 1st grader to the bus stop by 7:30 am...often times with the threat that he is going to miss the bus if he doesn't get moving! In fact, I once chased down the bus to the next stop in my neighborhood since he missed it. Needless to say, the bus driver didn't like that. Once I see him off, its back inside to rouse up the two pre-schoolers, get them fed, dressed, and ready. Its alwasy a challenge to help them feel my sense of urgency as we get ready in the mornings. We try to leave before 8:30 am, as the earliest they can be at school is 8:30 am. Twice a week I'm supposed to be at the Bayou Realtors office at 8:30 am...its hard to be in two places at the same time!

I squeeze in my "Real
Estate Chores" into a
2 hour window each day.

It took some time, but I finally adjusted to this new morning schedule. The afternoons were more difficult! Initially, we were able to recruit my father to assist with picking up the kids twice a week. This was definitely helpful, however, I was still having to pick up kids at 2:00 pm in the afternoon three times a week. Usually, I end up at the office by 9:00 am, and start my "Real Estate Day." After picking up the kids at 2:00 pm, I then have about 2 hours to do some "Real Estate Chores" such as put up signs, take pictures of homes, etc., before I have to be home for my 1st grader to arrive at 4:00 pm. Around 5:00 to 5:30 pm, my wife would get home, and then I could head back out to go on my appointments, just in time for my clients to get off work and be ready for me.

Now my father is covering three days a week for me, and that has made all the difference. Wow...I didn't realize what one more day would mean to me and my business! I am now able to assist in training our new agents at our office, and have more time assisting buyers looking for a home. That one extra day has allowed me to start growing my business, instead of just managing it. I have a lot of thanks to my dad for that. And, in all of this, I have been able to spend more time with my kids...even if its just because I'm moving them from one place to the next.

With the market picking up
we are ready for growth
and expansion! We've added
5 new agents to our office
over the last 6+ months!

This blog post is a little different for me. I don't often open up my personal life on my business blog. However, here it is. What started as just a quick note to say why I've been gone from this blog for 6+ months has become a 7 paragraph dissertation! I never left Real Estate...instead I've been submerged in it. I just haven't looked at my Blog since school started. Anyways...all I can say is that I understand the struggles that everyone is facing, as I face them too. My consistant goal is to take care of my clients, and help them get what they need...whether its selling their house, finding their new dream home, or helping them with some other real estate need. My client's goal is my goal! And I'm thankfull to have the support of my wife and family to help me make that possible for my clients.

Dickinson ISD and Clear Creek ISD Achieve Recognized Status

Dickinson, Clear Creek schools earn high marks

By T.J. Aulds
The Daily News
Published July 29, 2011

The Texas Education Agency is not scheduled to release the latest school ratings until today, but some Galveston County districts already were bragging about their standings before the official notice.

In Dickinson, school administrators were calling for fireworks after they learned the school district would receive its first Recognized rating. Recognized is the second highest rating a school district or school campus can receive under the state’s rating system.

For the full story, click here.

Knowing the Cost of Your Move

This is a first for me, but hopefully not a last. I was contacted by James Kim, and he asked if he could be a guest author and write an article for my blog. I said "sure!" Well, I can say he wrote a good article with some excellent info about Houston, and other areas of Texas. Enjoy...and thanks James!

--------------------
KNOWING THE COST OF YOUR MOVE

Times have been tough. And, honestly, it was hard enough finding a good price on a house before the economy tanked. With everyone tightening their purse strings, it’s important to look closely at the areas you want to live. First, you want to make sure that that wallet of yours can get filled with money from a good job market, indicated by the amount of corporate presence in an area. And, second, you want to make sure that you don’t have to shell out a lot of cash just to get by day-to-day. If all of this makes sense to you, you’ll be happy to know that finding a good area isn’t as hard as you might have thought. Fair warning, though: by the end of this article you might find yourself saying “howdy” and “y’all” while searching for some Austin real estate.

So, first things first: where are you most likely to find a job? Forbes points out several good areas, saying that St. Louis is home to 9 of the strongest companies in the country while Texas goes above and beyond with 38 in Houston and 15 in Dallas. And these are certainly not companies that just earned a Forbes ranking through some fluke of arithmetic or Enron-style accounting. St. Louis holds the famous Energizer Holdings Inc. along with the massive, chemical-dealing Monsanto Company. But again, Texas seems to edge out in front, with Houston hosting ConocoPhillips and Halliburton, Austin hosting Dell and Whole Foods and Dallas hosting AT&T and Texas Instruments (a longer list is here).

“But wait,” you say. “What about those thriving areas of commerce like New York City!?” Simple: those places are incredibly expensive to live in. As you can probably guess, New York City is the most expensive city in the country while the popular destinations of California and Hawaii are tied for the title of most expensive state. You’re going to be paying a lot more for a gallon of milk in New York City than you would in almost any other part of the country. Unless you can safely say that the money doesn’t matter, those are not very good places to move to right now.

With those out of the way, we can have a look at the already solid locations that were previously mentioned. St. Louis, as Forbes points out, follows the trend of most Midwestern states by being incredibly inexpensive – the lowest cost of living in the country, in fact. St. Louis “might not have the reputation for top schools, a low crime rate or good weather,” but you certainly won’t have to pay much to live there. The reason for this is quite simple: the Midwest is landlocked, and that’s not something that attracts the title of “prime real estate.” But Texas? The state that is home to perhaps the best job market in the country right now? It’s also not expensive to live in, and features a cost of living that is low across the board; you can’t make many wrong moves there (and you can always live along the Gulf of Mexico if a beach is a must-have for you).

When you’re looking to move, you have to be realistic about all of your options. Knowing what the job prospects are where you’re going to live along with how much it will cost to live there is incredibly important. For the best of both worlds, Texas is your best bet at the moment, but nothing can beat the Midwest (and St. Louis, in particular) when it comes to just being simply inexpensive. As long as you’re realistic with what you can afford, you should have no problem finding a suitable area to move to, even with things the way they are today.

James Kim writes for Austin Real Estate service Homecity.com. HomeCity combines powerful online Austin MLS search technology and other online tools with personalized real estate services to provide clients with the knowledge they need to make the right buying and selling decisions.

Garza Sports Complex an ‘upgrade’ for Texas City

I am currently at the Texas City Funfest judging fajitas and k-bobs. What a blast. It's my first time to judge, and definitely won't be my last. The event is held at the new Garza Sports Complex in Texas City. What a wonderful complex for Texas City.

Learn more about this new sports complex by checking out the article below.

Garza Sports Complex an ‘upgrade’ for Texas City