Tips for a Vacation in Austin (home loans)
No commentsBy Ki Gray
With gas prices and a failing economy, families are not able to travel across the country to vacation as much as they used to. Instead of driving to Walt Disney World, why not try vacationing in our own backyard, Austin style.
Austin and the surrounding area has many wonderful, family oriented vacations spots. Zilker Park is one of them. The park is located at 2100 Barton Springs Road and is in the heart of Austin. The park has many things to enjoy. The Botanical Gardens in Barton Hills is a great place to start. The garden has many varieties of flowers and ponds. They have also recreated a dinosaur habitat. The park also offers plenty of slides, swings and even its very own miniature train, The Zilker Zephyr. It winds through the park taking its riders through the 30 acre park. The park also offers a natural spring to swim in. Barton Springs is a wonderful place to cool off on a hot summer’s day.
Another place to visit in the Austin area is Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center. The center is located at 4801 La Crosse Ave. in Austin.
The center has 16 unique gardens to visit. Anyone who loves the outdoors and wild flowers will find something they love at Lady Bird Wild flower Center. Each garden is themed and show case native flowers.
The center also has several trails you can hike on. Take a tour and see all the wonderful and beautiful flowers. The center also has seeds and plants for sale. The center also has events scheduled all year round. You’re sure to find something that will entertain the whole family.
If you have smaller children, then The Austin Children’s Museum is the place to visit. With over 12,500 square feet of gallery space there is plenty of room to explore. The museum is a hands on learning place, where even the young at heart can still learn.
The Children’s Museum is located at 201 Colorado Street in down town Austin. Kids and adults can learn things like where milk comes from, or be a rock star on stage in the music gallery. With so many things to do and see, this will keep the family busy for hours!
Want something a little more luxurious and relaxing? Why not take the short drive out to Bastrop to the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa?
This luscious resort is settled in the lost pines of Bastrop. There are so many things for every member of the family to enjoy. If golfing is your game, then the Lost Pines Resort is the place to be. The resort has its own 18 hole golf course.
If you are adventurous, then take part in a white water rafting trip down the Colorado River. The resort will make all the arrangements. It’s sure to be exciting.
If you’re not into white water rafting, how about visiting the resorts very own water park, which include a two story water slide, a pool, and a lazy river if you just want to float on a inner tube and relax.
After a long day of rafting, why not relax in the resorts world class spa. Lay back and enjoy all the amenities a spa has to offer.
Don’t forget to enjoy many of the restaurants the resort has to offer. When the day is done, head back into your Lost Pines Resort rooms. They are luxurious and relaxing.
Vacationing has never been easier or closer. Instead of driving across country, just try your own back yard, Austin, Texas!
Escapeso Real Estate is a company that focuses on the Austin real estate. Their site has a graphical search of the Austin MLS along with a free mortgage calculator.
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The Fall of the Owner Builder Construction Loan
By Chris Esposito
Owner builder construction loans have not been immune from the pains within the mortgage industry over the last couple of years. In fact, there have recently been some major changes within the world of owner builder construction financing that are worth examining. It’s time to take stock and fully assess your current options for the new realities of today’s market.
Over the last couple of years, as liquid capital has been evaporating from the pool of mortgage financing around the nation, owner builder construction loans have been morphed and altered dramatically. If you built your own home a few years ago, you probably wouldn’t even recognize the form and structure of the owner builder loan today. Simply put, there’s a new reality for owner builder construction. If you want to build your own home, then you need to understand the options currently available for financing and assess the advantages and disadvantages to determine if being an owner builder is right for you.
The latest change in owner builder financing occurred when MidCountry Bank decided to indefinitely suspend the origination of any new construction loans. MidCountry was one of the last bastions of nationwide lending for owner builders, and this recent shake-up means that you must now look upon this specialized financing in a whole new light.
When nationwide financing was available, guidelines and rates and terms for owner builder loans were more or less uniform from state to state. If you were building your home in Maine, your cousin in Arizona could basically expect to receive the same guidelines to build his house. In addition, nationwide lending meant owner builder programs were much easier to find. In other words, it was much simpler to find a bank that provided loans nationwide than it was to deal with a multitude of local banks that may or may not provide construction lending at all.
The good news, however, is that there are still owner builder loans available around the country. With tightening capital, lenders have been forced to scale back guidelines and increase costs of specialized products.
Nowadays, you may find that the lender requires a small down payment, as opposed to financing every penny of the costs to build, including closing costs in the past. Or, you may find that the requirements to qualify for an owner builder loan have grown stricter. For example, guidelines nowadays will most surely address specific details, such as the sale of the borrower’s current residence or the review of actual bids and estimates.
Despite the tightening of the guidelines, owner builder construction will still provide the same basic benefits that should make the program well worth your time and effort. You will still be able to manage the construction of your new home without having to hire a general contractor. This means you will still earn a large amount of instant sweat equity by cutting out the costs of a GC, and you will still be able to manage the process yourself to ensure the home is built exactly to your own specifications.
Most owner builders will save anywhere from 20% to 35% during construction. If you look at the big picture, these overall savings make owner builder construction still worth your time and effort, despite the increase in financing costs around the country for these specialized loan programs.
So, as much as things have changed, the basics are still the same. If you want to be an owner builder, take a deep breath and always look at the big picture. It helps if you work with someone who knows the financing options and has been through many projects before. Even in today’s financing market, an owner builder construction loan doesn’t have to be overly complicated. But, you will need to understand the current options available.
Chris Esposito specializes in owner builder construction loans, providing financing through the Owner Builder 101 program. If you would like to learn more about building your own home without the costs of a GC, visit www.OwnerBuilder101.com, or call (877) 876-3688.
The lowdown on foreclosure listings on all properties for auction, forced sale or re-sale.
By Joseph Smith
Foreclosure listings are probably the most lucrative, ‘gold-mine’ real estate opportunities. With price cuts that go up to, and can exceed, 50% of the market price, these listings are the best place to start looking for a future home or a high-return property investment. Foreclosed properties have been on the rise all over the country since 2006, meaning that literally thousands of foreclosed properties are available for sale in any state of choice.
With economic downturns, over-development and a weakening dollar, many homeowners are finding it more and more difficult to pay off mortgages and keep up with fluctuating inflation percentages. This results in ‘delinquent’ payments and normally after the third or fourth missed mortgage payment the government or a bank repossesses the property in order to auction it off.
Auctions make these properties available for much cheaper than the market rate. This is largely because the banks and the government do not like their money tied up in real estate (much the way car auctions for repossessed cars work) and want to sell off the property as quickly as possible. If a buyer has a little bit of experience and common sense there are some great deals to be had on auctioned foreclosures.
Foreclosure listings nationwide, especially in the residential real estate market, offer some excellent properties in a way that gives back to the community as well and should be looked into for both home ownership and investment purposes.
Joseph Smith has been educating buyers on the finer points of foreclosure listings purchase at TopForeclosureListings.com for over nine years. Click here to visit and read more advice on finding foreclosure listings by state.
Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 4:45 pm 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.
