(Home loans) The Rosedale Neighborhood and Park
No commentsBy Ki Gray
During the 1800s, the neighborhood now known as Rosedale was farm and dairy land, and even later, in the early 1900s, the area was used primarily for plant nurseries and florist shops, and remnants of those days remain. This lovely area, which retains the look of abundant growth, is still heavily covered with foliage, trees, shrubs, and flowers, and is also quiet and peaceful.
Most of the homes in the area were built in the 1930s and 1940s, and are unique and historic, with numerous cottages, wooden bungalows and brick homes. The Rosedale neighborhood is located in the northern part of central Austin, and is bordered by Lamar on the east, Shoal Creek to the west, North Loop/Hancock Drive to the north and 38th Street to the south.
One of the central features of the Rosedale neighborhood is Ramsey Park, which is a beautiful park with a large swimming pool, tennis courts, a playground, picnic areas and hike and bike trails, all under a canopy of leafy shade trees. There are roughly 1,200 homes in the area, most with easy access to the park, as well as many other attractions, businesses, and neighborhood hotspots.
One of the biggest employers in the Rosedale area is the medical community, since Seton Hospital is situated on the southern border of the neighborhood, and the hospital is surrounded by various medical buildings, doctor’s offices, and other health-related professional establishments, including Shoal Creek Hospital, which is just a block or so from the Seton complex.
There are also quite a few historic homes, many of which have been recently renovated, including the Seiders-Peterson home on 40th street, in the heart of Rosedale. There is also a local library in Rosedale, called the Yarbrough Library, which has a yearly holiday party and festival for residents, and the library is located on Hancock Street.
Another well-known yearly event in Rosedale is the annual 4th of July parade and carnival held at Ramsey Park, with games, booths, contests, and various kinds of foods and beverages, and the yearly festivities attract a throng of crowds every year.
The inhabitants of the Rosedale neighborhood are a diverse mixture of people, including young families, professionals, and older residents, some of whom have been in the neighborhood for years, and have raised children and grandchildren, many still living in Rosedale themselves.
There is also a popular art gallery in the Rosedale area called Images of Austin, and the gallery features the work of Mary Doerr and Ginny Findeison, and many of the works represent the various beautiful sites of Austin, as well as the southwest and central Texas. The gallery is located on Burnet Road.
Directly across Lamar from the Seton hospital area are two other prominent attractions for Austin residents, the Central Market complex, with its patio cafe, occasional live music, and various esoteric items, as well as a plethora of foods, wines, and other products, and the Heart Hospital, which gives residents even more access to top notch medical care. There are many small shops and boutiques in the Central Market complex, many with unusual and one of a kind selections of art, glass, jewelry, clothing, and other goods and crafts.
The Rosedale area blends the old, quaint, and historic aspects of Austin with the new, urban, professional aspects, and the mix is sure to please even the most selective individual, so for those who enjoy easy access to the University of Texas, downtown, and the Capital, as well as quiet, tree-lined streets with historic and unique homes, come to Rosedale, and you might just want to stay!
Ki is a real estate agent in central Texas. His works with people interested in Austin real estate. His site has a graphical search of the Austin MLS along with information on Rosedale Austin homes.
Tips for Selecting the Best Market for Real Estate Investing
By Ben Needles
There are many great real estate markets to invest in. And the only way you can take advantage of that as a real estate investor is to choose one and get started. Use these tips and you will be well on your way to earning a lot of money investing in real estate.
TIP #1 Decide What You Want
Like anything else you need to see the goal before you can reach it.
First you need to decide on your goals, or what you want to achieve through your real estate investments. Then you can choose the strategy or approach that will best allow you to achieve those goals.
For example, do you want to achieve passive income that will be a greater return on your money than the stock market, or do you want to be financially independent through your passive income on rental property? Or do you want to be an active investor and create a business of rehabbing and flipping properties?
If you want passive income determine how much you need to make a better return on your money or how much you need to be financially independent.
TIP #2 Determine How Much Investment Capital You Have to Work With
If you have little money the best way to start making money is to invest in rent-ready, or currently rented, properties with a nice positive cash flow. Even if you have cash you may still elect to go this route, or you may choose for a bigger payday upfront.
In the case that you are just starting out, it is best to find low cost houses. The investment for the initial purchase is much lower and the rehab can be done for less. The rule of thumb is not to put more money into the rehab (not including the purchase price) than you will make on the deal. ($20,000 rehab gets you a $20,000 profit.)
You can make money in real estate without money, but that takes a large time commitment and a bit of luck. Otherwise you need some type of funding, whether you purchase with cash or hard money, buy and hold for rental income or rehab and flip, you will always need some reserve money when purchasing real estate.
TIP #3 Choose a Real Estate Market that is Good for You
Not all real estate markets are conducive to purchasing property for cash flow; most of the state of California for example; and of course some areas are better than others. And the best real estate markets for investing in properties for rehabbing and flipping are ones that people are buying homes in, obviously.
Before investing in a market outside your own do some research using sites like the government census website. Prosperous investors know they are in a good real estate market for their investing goals before they start.
About the Author (text)
For market selection tips and market research information please contact me: hutch@montgomerywholesaleproperty.com. For great wholesale rental property, visit: http://www.MontgomeryWholesaleProperty.com ; For great wholesale properties for rehab best html menus
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National Bank: How to Fix the Housing Crisis for Less than 700 Billion
By Ki Gray
Recently the news has been dominated by developments with the 700 billion dollar bailout package, and rightfully so. 700 billion is an astronomical sum of money. The first problem is that the 700 billion dollar bailout adds a huge amount of money to the national debt. Not only that, some have hinted that the bailout is so large it could actually lower the US Credit Rating. The second problem is just as serious. There is no guarantee that the bailout will work.
The idea behind the bailout is that by taking on billions of dollars of toxic loans the government hopes to “influence” banks to start lending again. The past attempts of the government to “influence” banks have all failed. The fed lowered the fed rate to influence banks to lower mortgage rates. While the banks were appreciative of lower rates they did not lower mortgage interest rates. In fact after the fed cut rates the banks increased mortgage rates because they saw negative prospects in the housing market.
In a similar way, after the US government takes over the toxic loans away from them the banks could continue to see negative prospects in the housing market and therefore would continue to have strict lending practices. The idea of spending 700 billion with no guarantees seems like a poor use of capitol.
When people hear the word “National Bank” the first thoughts are of a socialized banking system. A national bank would not replace the current banking industry. It also does not “introduce” government involvement into the banking industry. With the Fed influencing interest rates and the government rushing in to bailout every bank that runs into problems the government already has a large hand in the banking industry. I don’t want to argue whether the government should have a role in the banking industry. Currently the government already has a significant role in the banking/mortgage industry. My argument is that if the government does have a role it should be effective and cost efficient.
A national bank would be a cheaper and more cost effective way to steady the financial markets. To understand how a national bank would work lets first talk a little more about what is currently causing the housing crisis. The mortgage market operates a little like a basketball game. Lenders go from one extreme to another. For awhile lenders will lend to anyone that walks in the door with a pulse. During these periods lenders accept less and less qualified applicants in an attempt to gain market share. Then the lenders get freaked out (often because someone realizes they have been giving out billions in loans to unqualified applicants that are unlikely to pay their mortgages) and lenders run to the other extreme and practice extremely restrictive lending practices (the insurance industry sees the same cycles but that is another topic).
If you haven’t already guessed currently we are in the second scenario with lenders practicing extremely restrictive lending practices. The problem with the second situation is that such extreme changes shocks the housing market and basically causes a financial crisis. The banks are in a catch 22. If collectively the banks don’t lend the housing market will continue to deteriorate. But no one wants to lend because they are worried the housing market will continue to deteriorate because collectively they are not lending. It’s kind of like at a party where you don’t want to be the first person to jump into the pool because if no one else does you look foolish. Substitute looking foolish with going bankrupt and you kind of see where banks are coming from.
The great depression and the S&L crisis were both basically examples of this same problem. Initially during the great depression the conventional logic was the government should not intervene. As the stock market continued to drop (it dropped over 80% in less than a year) and people realized how bad an economy can get (pretty bad) the idea of government intervention seemed more palatable compared to the alternative.
So now during periods where lenders are freaked the government attempts to “influence” lenders. The problem is its extremely expensive. Currently the government is taking on years and years of bad loans in an attempt to “influence” lenders to loosen their current restrictive lending practices for the next 6 months to pull us out of the housing crisis. This is kind of like trying to influence your local school to spend money on new textbooks by building them a new school. Not only is it ridiculously expensive after you build the new school you have no guarantee they will buy the textbooks. It’s not simply a poor use of government funds it’s utterly outlandish.
So how would a national bank operate? During periods where banks are giving out loans to everyone that walked in the door the national bank would practice have average lending restrictions with interest rates slightly higher than what is available at most banks and give out very few loans. When the banks became ultra restrictive the bank would again have average lending restrictions. During these periods it would give out more loans.
So the government would not practice the outlandish lending practices we saw during the boom they would not be as restrictive as the banks are now. In fact this would probably do more to influence banks lending practices than the 700 billion giveaway. Remember how we talked about banks not wanting to lend money because no one else was lending money therefore making them nervous about the prospects of the housing market. Knowing that money would always flow provides some stability to the market. Also it would be much less expensive. Having the government provide some loans over the next 6 months with average restrictions during a low point in the market would be much better than taking on years of crappy loans given out during the peak of the market to very unqualified home buyers.
Would some banks go under? Yes. But you know what they should. Bailing out foolish banks that threw caution to the wind and had wildly risky lending practices almost guarantees that we will be faced with another housing crisis in the future. Instead we should allow some of these banks to die. First it prevents these banks without a sense of risk from causing these problems again. Secondly, it influences other banks to exercise more caution during boom times. The bailout sends a message to banks that during the boom they should ignore caution because the government will come in and take all their bad loans away like some kind of bizarre magical bad loan tooth fairy.
I realize this article might bother people that want the government to have no role in the banking/mortgage market. But if we accept that the government already has a role in the banking industry (the possibility of the government taking itself out is pretty much nill for the next decade) to stabilize markets at the least it should do so in a way that is effective and cost efficient.
Escapeso Realty is a small company in central Texas. Their site has up to date information on the Austin real estate market. It also has a search of the Austin MLS for visitors and a tool that tracks mortgage interest rates.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
