Alan In Austin

The Cup Cake Contest Downtown Austin. Mikah Kirkpatrick and Sandy represent Waltons and win best Chocolate!

I really, really love living in Texas! We are having such fun here. I was born in West Texas but my family moved us to Arizona when I was very young. Arizona was a great place to live. I graduated High School and returned to Texas for my College Education. My heart has always been in Texas and a few years ago we had the opportunity to move my family back here. It has been a great experience we have made tons of new friends and we really enjoy the pace of life.

Learn more about Austin Texas: roundrockhomes@gmail.com

alan Kirkpatrick, Realtor

Find your new Home in Austin: WEBSITE

Round Rock Texas is a great place to live and to raise a family. Filled with warm loving people, quality schools and Friday night lights. October is a beautiful thing in Texas. Stony Point High School celebrated their homecoming with a victory over McNeil

The Stony Point Choir sings the national Anthem along with the choir from Hopewell middle school.

The Tigers beat the Mavs 21-14 to advance their record to 6=0 and 4-0 in district play. It was an awesome night that featured the Stony Point award winning marching band playing a selection of Journy songs including "Don't Stop Believing".

That is Zak Kirkpatrick on the drum set.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ROUND ROCK TEXAS JUST NORTH OF AUSTIN: roundrocktexas@gmail.com  WEBSITE

The Homecoming dance featured Midnight Riot a band that includes Amanda Kirkpatrick on vocals and Zak on drums.

Looking for a design specialist for that empty listing. I hightly reccomend Anna Light of Accepts by Anna. Extremely professional, she will add a touch of class that will put your listing at the top of buyers list. She is connected to some of the best furniture and design companies in Austin. She can decorate by room. She will cusult with buyers and use their furnishing or she can contract to make your listings look like a modle home.

You can reach her at: turnannalifht@yahoo.com or call 512-587-8377

 A recent trip to downtown Austin put me in direct proximity to a huge chocolate cupcake. Ha

My daughter is a pastry chef and she entered a cupcake contest downtown and won best chocolate cupcake. While viewing all the great entries it was difficult not to take this huge cupcake home!

One of the must See's if you are downtown in Austin is Waltons Bakery. http://www.waltonsfancyandstaple.com/home.aspx 

You will love what you see. You can grab a great deli sandwich and finish off your meal with a hand crafted  coffee and a pastry. So much to choose from you will enjoy making your selection.

 Waltons is another great excuse for seeing 6th street in downtown Austin.

WEB http://alanmaz.actris.mlxchange.com/

 email me at roundrockhomes@gmail.com

 ENCOURAGING WORDS at www.alanmaz.blogspot.com

Protect your clients and yourself. Don't be afraid of short sales but do be prepared.

1. Qualify the sellers financial status. Not every home in jeopardy of foreclosure is a candidate for a short sale. In order to qualify the seller for a short sale you need to gather information about their financial condition:

-request copies of the sellers most recent loan payment coupons and statements

-Gather information on all debt obligations the seller faces.

-Contrast the sellers debt obligations with their real assets, for example if the seller has ownership of other real property, a high wage, sell-able assets the bank may be unwilling to grant a short sale until those assets are liquidated.

This information will help protect you from lender fraud.

2. Gather a property profile from a title company prior to getting the listing.

-I was doing some research on a property recently the clients wanted to list. Once I had the property profile, I realized that the owner of record was different. In addition a mobile home now resided on the property but it did not show up in the records. Needless to say a great deal of work is ahead of the current owners.

3. Refer your clients to proper legal counsel. Financial distress can snowball quickly and overwhelm your client. They need to fully understand their rights and obligations. They need clear understanding on what the benefits of short sale would be over a foreclosure. Whither or not they act on the referral you will have written proof that you made the referral.

Thin you might be a candidate for a short sale? Email me at roundrockhomes@gmail.com

Have you been thinking about putting your home on the market?

There may be no better time than right now. The market has really been moving this year with the 8000 dollar tax credit to first time home buyers. The movement has caused a kind of domino effect.

First time home buyers start the effect by buying what they can afford, then the sellers who now have cash look to the market for their new home and often will upgrade and buy at the next level. We could see a very busy October and November as home buyers rush to get in on the tax break before it expires end of November.

If you have been kicking around the idea of putting your home on the market email me for a FREE market evaluation: roundrockhomes@gmail.com

Most of you have more than one blog. The post below is from www.alanmaz.blogspot.com I use this blog for our Bible Study and as an outlet for deep thinking. You are welcome to check it out and comment if you like.

HE KNOWS ME... One of the biggest steps in my young christian life was moving from God loves the world and others to a understanding that God loves me personally and knows me. It was always easier to see how God could love someone else. At times I did not even love myself, so how could an awesome Holy, Powerful God love me. Besides isn't he busy with a vast universe. I am only a spec in that universe, surely He would not even miss me if I were gone.

How wrong I was! God did know me and He had singled me out as uniquely important as He has with us all.

"You have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways, before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. Psalm 139:1-4

As I opened to God in my daily life, He revealed how much he loved me and how well he knew me. I am not just another number to God. There is a beautiful passage in Isaiah 49:16 that reads

"See I have engraved you in the palm of my hands"

That passage looked forward to the cross where Jesus' hands were permanently engraved with nails as he was put on a cross. That scar bears my name so to speak. It was for me that he went to the cross. I am engraved in the palms of his hands. Knowing this changes the way we live. It is to higher purpose than survival we are called. We have been created and uniquely designed by God to fulfill His purpose upon the earth. In even the smallest ways of our daily lives we impact the present and prepare the future.

This recent article from Forbes shows Texas business friendly climate is getting attention.

The Lone Star State ranked 8th on this year's list, up from 9th in 2008.

The magazine ranks all 50 states based on costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

Business costs, which include labor, energy and taxes are weighted the most heavily.

Texas ranks No. 1 in the land for overall economic climate and third for growth potential. But the state ranked fairly low (39th) for quality of life and was 29th when it comes to cost of doing business.

Virginia garnered the top spot for the best business climate in the country for the fourth straight year. Virginia is the only state ranked in the top 20 in each of the six categories, and its $325 billion economy is expected to be the 10th largest in the U.S. in 2009.

Rhode Island ranked last on the list with the worst regulatory environment and high costs of business.

Click here for more on the list.

If you are looking to relocate your business or start a new business in a more friendly environment email me at: roundrockhomes@gmail.com

 I have always been a big fan of Charlie Chaplin. I collect his memorabilia and have most of his films on video in my collection. A few years ago I read his autobiography and greatly enjoyed it. Charlie was a great comedian but he was also a fierce business man.

At the age of 8 he was without a father, his brother was off to war and his mother was committed to an institution. He lived on the streets until he eventually landed a role in a vaudeville traveling show. His life was very hard and he learned to appreciate the small graces of life.

Years later after Charlie found great success he did not forget those hard years. Chaplins movies would often make him a million dollars. Just think about that in light of the fact that you could go see his movie for just one nickle. He did not allow the fame or money to make him greedy or unappreciative.

He tells the story of how some actor friends tried to get him to join them in the stock market where they were making tons of money. They wanted him to take the little he had in the bank and millions he had in his mattress and put it into stocks. Their final plea came one day before the great stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. He refused and the rest is history.

As we look at the difficult times we are in right now, it is important for us to focus on the little graces of life. We do have so much to be thankfurl. Chaplin is inspirational in that he looked for the opportunity in the times in which he lived. He used his gifts to bring joy to a hurting world.

roundrockhomes@gmail.com

A Big win for UT tonight against Texas Tech.

In the end, the No. 2 Longhorns' 34-24 victory over Tech didn't erase the heartbreak of missing out on a chance to win last year's national championship. But it had to feel good to get this game in the win column. Tech fought hard and moved almost at will on offense but in the end the Longhorns made the plays on defense to shut down Tech.

Better yet Texas discovered a running game thanks to Tre Newton. He may be a goldmine as the season wears on. GREAT GAME TEXAS!!