Walker Texas Team

As you know, the first impression matters when selling your property . A home should be visually appealing to help improve the chances of a quicker sale, at the best price possible. As a seller, you should do everything you can to spruce up your property to help convince potential buyers that the property is worth the asking price. The following simple tips will help your property stand out during viewings. Make Repairs Ensure that all necessary repairs are taken care of before showing your home. Check the cabinet doors, are they closing properly? Check the faucets, are they drip-free? Are there any scuffed up walls that need repainting? Does the HVAC system run properly? These are all important to check, as they won’t go unnoticed by others. Clean Up A dirty, cluttered property is not very appealing to buyers. Ensure that everything is as clean as you can get it–appliances, toilets, showers, sinks, etc. If you’re still living in the home and have furniture and all of your pe...

Buying a new home can be both exciting and stressful. If you’re thinking of moving to Texas for the first time or moving to a different area in Texas, there are some things you should do to improve the odds of getting the home of your dreams. Get Familiar & Strengthen Your Credit Buying a home is going to be one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, and you want to make sure you have a good credit score. The higher your credit score, the better interest rate you’ll receive. It may seem crazy, but just a .5% difference in a mortgage rate can mean tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. You definitely want that extra small percentage taken off your rate if you can get it. In general, you’ll get an average rate with a 650-700 credit score. Any credit score higher than that and you’ll have a great chance of getting a nice reduction. You’ll want to sit back and wait to buy a home if you have a score lower than 650. It may be tough, but down th...

When it comes to buying or selling a home, there are a wide variety of factors to take into consideration. Aside from the location, layout, and amenities of a home, there are several important factors to consider when it comes to the home’s exterior. Here are some of the biggest considerations that should be carefully thought of and weighed out in relation to buying a home. Landscaping While it may be nice to have large trees that produce spectacular colors during the fall, eventually all of those leaves are going to come down on the property. One of the biggest things that often goes overlooked when buying a house is how much work it is going to take to properly maintain the landscaping. If there’s a lot of work that needs to be taken care of each week, its either going to consume your free time or cost you to hire people to maintain your yard for you. If you opt to outsource your landscape maintenance, you’ll have to pay someone to come and mow the lawn, trim the bushes an...

Purchasing a home is often one of the largest financial decisions one can make in their lifetime. Understanding the process of buying a home prior to starting your search can greatly help reduce the uncertainty and anxiety throughout the process. Meet with a Lender One of the first steps you want to take is to meet with a lender if you plan to use financing. While many buyers may feel that this is jumping the gun prior to going to see a property, in reality you want to make sure that you are looking at houses in a price range that you will ultimately qualify for a mortgage. In addition, once you are ready to put in an offer you will need a pre-approval letter to submit along with it. Having this step behind you takes away the stress of having to get it done after identifying a property. Start Browsing Once you’ve met with a lender and have a good sense of the price range you should be looking in, you can start taking a look at various real estate websites. Many major sites ...

Born in San Marcos, Texas , Lucious Jackson played college basketball at Pan American College and was a member the U.S. Olympic basketball team that won the gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Mr. Jackson is a very humble man. He doesn't offer up much information about his glory days as a basketball player. He once said he wants to be able to walk through a store and be unrecognized.Instead, he would rather be known as the amazing grandfather he is. "This is how I like it," Jackson said. "I'm Lucious. I'm Luke. That's who I am. That's something I did, and I look at life that way. That way I'm at peace with myself, and I don't have to put on airs about myself. I know who I am. And that's a good thing to know who you are." On September 24, 2016, San Marcos' Calaboose African American History Museum opened an exhibit in honor of Lucious Jackson. This exhibit features different documents, memorabilia and other notabl...

The Calaboose African American History Museum is located in the heart of San Marcos, Texas. The Calaboose was built in 1873 as the first Hays County Jail. Whensoldiers came to town for entertainment and to mingle with locals, they went to racially segregated United Service Organizations (USO) facilities. The African American USO was in the Calaboose! The mission of The Calaboose African American History Museum is tocollect, preserve, and interpret the history of African Americans in San Marcos. They feature many useful exhibits including Lucious Jackson, Eddie Durham, and a few Military exhibits. Military exhibits feature Buffalo Soldiers of the Texas frontier and the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, the nation’s first black military pilots. The Calaboose museum works hard and tirelessly to make the African American history be known and come alive. They are working to partner with local organizations to bring to light the rich history of Texas. The locals know t...

Blanco Vista Community See What It Means to Be Perfectly Placed Blanco Vista is a master planned community equipped with many luxurious amenities: a covered playground, fish pond, hiking trails, swimming pool with splashpad features, and the pathed sidewalks that lead to Blanco Vista Elementary School. Blanco Vista is 575 acres of land near the Blanco River in San Marcos, Texas and consists of 9 beautiful neighborhoods: The Oaks, Northwoods, Heritage Point, Heritage Trace, Riverbend, Eastridge, The Trails, The Vistas, and Stonebrook. The houses featured in this paradise are built from 9 builders: Avi Homes, Brohn Homes, Brookfield Residential, Buffington Homes, Castle Rock, Dream Finders Homes, New Leaf Homes, Pacesetter Homes, and Perry Homes. These homebuilders have carefully crafted houses range from $140,000- $500,000 and have a wide range of appearances. Blanco Vista is zoned in the Hays ISD school district which includes the schools Blanco Vista Elemen...

Looking to buy a home? Here are five essential tips for making the process as smooth as possible. Get your finances in order. Start by getting a full picture of your credit. Obtain copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you find. Next, find a suitable lender and get pre-approved for a loan. This will put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. https://goo.gl/IMHGaH Find a house you can afford. As with engagement rings, there’s a general rule of thumb when it comes to buying a home: two-and-a-half times your annual salary. There are also a number of tools and calculators online that can help you understand how your income, debt, and expenses affect what you can afford. Don’t forget, too, that there are lots of considerations beyond the sticker price, including property taxes, energy costs, etc. Hire a professional. While the Internet gives buyers unprecedented acce...

Moving from a small town or suburb to a large city can be an intimidating proposition. Here are a few tips to help make your move as painless as possible. Research before you move . It’s important to understand the culture you’re joining. Do research online and find out about school systems, neighborhoods, parking, weather, public transportation, and laws that are native to that area. If you can, visit a city before moving and connect with someone who’s lived there before. Have a plan . There are a lot of steps to go through before you start packing the moving truck. Find housing before you leave, or at least know where you’ll stay while you look for a home. Never sign a lease on an apartment that you haven’t seen. If you can’t get there, find a friend or an employer to check for you. Have a job waiting for you, or if that’s not possible, know what you’ll do for money in the first few weeks of living there. Try to line up things like driver’s licenses, car ins...

Selling your home doesn′t just mean hiring a realtor to stick a sign out front. There are a lot of preparations you should make to ensure you get the best offer possible in the shortest time. Repair . Just because you’ve gotten used to the cracks in the walls and the rattles in the radiators doesn’t mean a buyer will too. If you have hardwood floors that need refinishing, be sure to get it done—hardwood is a huge selling point. Buyers like to snoop around, so be sure to fix any sticky doors or drawers as well. Finally, don’t forget to address any issues with the exterior—fences, shingles, sidewalks, etc. After all, without curb appeal, some buyers may never get to see the inside. Neutralize . You want buyers to see themselves in your home. If your living room has lime green shag, wood-paneled walls, and all your collectibles and personal photographs, this will be much harder for them to do. Try replacing any bold color choices in your floors and walls with some...

As the events of the last few years in the real estate industry show, people forget about the tremendous financial responsibility of purchasing a home at their peril. Here are a few tips for dealing with the dollar signs so that you can take down that “for sale” sign on your new home. Get pre-approved . Sub-primes may be history, but you’ll probably still be shown homes you can’t actually afford. By getting pre-approved as a buyer, you can save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can’t afford. You can also put yourself in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Unlike pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history. By doing a thorough analysis of your actual spending power, you’ll be less likely to get in over your head. Choose your mortgage carefully. Used to be the emphasis when it came to mortgages was on paying t...

f you’re planning to sell your home, you may be considering updates to get it market-ready. Here are seven ways to instantly increase value. Replace Your Mailbox Small things like the condition of your mailbox and your yard have big impact on curb appeal. Clean out flowerbeds, powerwash stains on the driveway and sidewalk, replace house numbers with shiny new ones, and remove grass and accumulated muck from street gutters. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Get Decorating Advice from a Pro The personal touch you’ve put into the interior of your home is part of its charm, but potential buyers may not see it that way. Meet with a realtor (who may consult with you for free) or an interior designer (who won’t) for advice on how to make the inside of your home most appealing. Create a File for Paperwork If you have the manuals for appliances, energy audits from utility companies, specific color swatches for the paint you’ve used, and invoices fo...

Getting ready to sell your house is a big step, and it can feel intimidating if you’ve never done it before. Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing your house for the market. The Walk Through The first thing that you will need to do is a walk through. This is where you walk through the whole house looking at it through the eyes of the buyers. You will want to bring a notepad and pen with you to make notes about every room. Write down your first impression of each room as if you were seeing it for the first time yourself. Does it feel open and inviting or dark and cramped? Write down everything you see that needs to be changed, moved or gotten rid of altogether. Once the walk through is finished the real work begins. Get Rid of the Clutter The whole point of hosting an open house or house viewing is to get prospective buyers to see the full potential of your house. In order to do this the clutter needs to be removed so that the house takes center stage....