Any thoughts?

Sherman D. Durst

We have a variety of homes for every lifestyle.

We will help,

Sherman D. Durst

7.56 Acres—beautifully treed just 6 miles north of town on paved county road.  $175,000                     

15.3 Acres—deep water Pedernales River, 10-minutes from town, paved road frontage.  $250,000                                           

15.4 Acres—horses love it, you will to.  Coastal filed with views of LBJ Park.  #57243         $315,700                                                    

18 Acres – varied terrain and hardwood trees in excellent Harper School District.  Restrictions allow 3-year and newer manufactured home.  Livestock ready.                                                                               

22.2 Acres – wooded tract with pond, great views & fenced on three sides with live oak, post oak, Spanish oak with little cedar.  Numerous building sites.  #60540 $269,500                                                                         

22.41 Acres – wooded hillsides and field land along creek bottom.  Several building sites, great views, well & only minutes back to Fredericksburg.  #61427  $380,970                                                                                                        

42 Acres – scenic Hill Country tract with 1000 feet of Kenner Branch near Enchanted Rock.  Granite outcrops, pond site, cedar elms, live oak, persimmon & mesquite, whitetail, turkey & hog.  #62655 $396,180                                                                                      

44.02 Acres – super views, hardwoods, lots of grass, on private road.  Easy drive to Fredericksburg, Johnson City & Marble Falls, fabulous building sites & good for livestock.    $396,180                                                                                      

60 Acres – secluded ranch with rolling terrain, year around pond, 10-acre dormant field balance of the property in live oaks, Spanish oaks, post oak & cedar.  #62280    $450,000                                                                                                        

85 Acres – near Enchanted Rock with highway frontage, two creeks including 1037 feet along Crabapple Creek, granite outcrops, wooded with live oak, post oak, cedar elm & cedar.  You’ll see whitetail, turkey & wild hogs.  Property is perimeter fenced with well.  #55555  $853,060                                                                                                                                                                                    

 100 Acres – recreational ranch is perimeter fenced with hunter’s cabin & double wide mobile, storage building & barn.  Property has a dormant field at the front and elevates to the rear of the ranch.  Well & septic.  #60498    $695,000                                 

151.6 Acres – hills and canyons on a secluded Mason Co. ranch that has been family owned for 70-years.  Heavily wooded property and a great hunting tract next to large ranch holdings with a real hunter’s cabin.  #60033 $682,200                                               

215.85 Acres – only 10-miles from town w/water well, septic, hunter’s cabin, equipment barn & livestock barns, wooded with Spanish oak, live oak, post oak and cedar sanctuary for deer.  Excellently located off the main road surrounded by larger ranches.  $1.295M  218.8 Acres—gorgeous Llano River frontage and great hunting ranch all in one spot, 30 mina north of Fredericksburg. Swim, kayak, fish, hunt and more. #62894   $1.150M                                                                                                                                    

287.4 Acres – off the main road, great access & surrounded by larger ranches is this Hill Country treasure with high elevations & flowing creek featuring a natural rock  bottom blue-hole pond.  The property is wooded w/oaks, cedar, elms, hickory & wild cherry.  Cabin with outside patio, nice kitchen and dining area and screened porch. #60290 $2.3M                                                           

490 Acres – get the best in this Llano County ranch featuring springs, large pond, creek, high elevations, granite outcrops, deer, turkey & wild hogs w/excellent forbs.  Quality cabin sleeps up to 8 w/equipped kitchen and outdoor fireplace.  Superb views of Enchanted Rock. #60823 $3.676M

Call us with any questions about these properties.

Let it rain,

Sherman D. Durst

Are there reasons for optimism in the Texas Hill Country?

Our recent numbers compiles from the MLS are as follows:

                                                        2010                     2011

 New                                                  143                       216 

Sold—Units                                        61                         57 

Sold—$$$$                                      $17,808,681         $19,571,581 

Price Changes                                   53                         154               

Back From Under Contract               11                         20 

Sales Breakdown (2011):

8—acreage tracts

1—commercial

4—lots

38—residential

6—tracts in rural developments

Home Sales Breakdown (2011):

24—in City of Fredericksburg

14—outside of city

17 homes under $200K

12 homes $200K to $300K

  4 homes $300K to $400K

  1 home   $400K to $1M

  4 homes over $1M

                                                          2010                     2011 

Entire MLS:Units                                                 110                       113

$$$$                                                  $31,316,265         $49,700,844

Some reasons for optimism, Texas job growth double the national rate, government budgets are getting real, four years of pent up demand for retirement, moving to a new location, buying a house, buying a second home, or buying a ranch.   People have always wanted to come to the Texas Hill Country for second homes, to purchase ranches and recreational properties, and to retire.  Good news for our area. 

We are hopeful for 2011,

Sherman D. Durst

Information placed on the Internet is immediate. With the many forms of syndication, blogs and posts, a person might discover the initial information, but often they won’t read or find the follow-up corrections.   The Internet is first and foremost a marketing tool for people or entities that use it. The fallacy of the Internet is that no one really moderates the truth or information that a company or person posts to their website or associated sites.

Real estate websites thru their MLS provider, syndicate properties by promoting it on hundreds of real estate related sites. Some of these sites do not always keep up with the changes that occur in the listing. For instance, we have any number of buyers who walk through our door asking about a property they found on the internet that sold several months ago.

In the course of marketing a property, it could receive a lot of exposure. This is good when reaching out to find a buyer for a property. The downside is that not all associated sites stay current with changes that occur on a property listing.

Some sites also carry information on the property when it has sold. The informed professional, who works in a certain market can review this information and know if it is good or bad information.

For buyers and sellers this information can be confusing if they aren’t very familiar with the properties they are looking at. In a real estate market like Gillespie County’s, rarely are two properties exactly alike. Therefore seeing something on the internet , does not allow us to truly compare ‘apples and apples’.

As a buyer or a seller, the best source for correct and up-to-date information is a local informed REALTOR. We work in the market every day. We preview a lot of properties, even those we don’t list or sell. This means that we have firsthand knowledge of what is for sale and what has sold. This allows us the ability to make ‘fair and impartial’ comparisons of properties.

We have the most timely information available on properties for sale and those that have sold. We also have working relationships with fellow REALTORS, appraisers, surveyors, builders, inspectors and other industry partners to provide our customers with the very best and most accurate information.

Don’t believe everything you see or read on the Internet. Remember that foremost the Internet is a marketing tool that serves a specific purpose. Life is still about people. Ads don’t sell real estate any more than the internet does. People buy and people sell, and a qualified professional person is who you should want to work for you in anything you are doing.

In places like California, Florida, Michigan, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and in the east coast, not only is real estate still in tough times, but city and state governments are struggling to meet their own payrolls and expenses. After the mid-80’s recession that Texas suffered through, a push for diversification of the economy occurred and is now reaping rewards for all who live here.

It is easy to view everything in hindsight and answer all the questions as to what happened and why? Yet what everyone really wants to know is what is going to happen in 2011?

We don’t have a better crystal ball than anyone else, but we can report that beginning with the November elections a new attitude developed where the public has a sense of calm about the economy and what lies ahead. Activity in the real estate market picked up quickly which turned into escrowed contracts large and small.

We usually see a slowdown occur at some point in December as we near the Christmas holiday. This past year, activity kept building every day to Christmas and the final week of the year it seemed as our door was always being open by a prospect. Of course, not all buyers are serious, but the indicators show people are again asking about purchasing and starting the search of a possible second home, a retirement home or a raw land investment.

Activity must come before you actually show property and write contracts. So if the activity level is indeed a good gauge, then 2011 should be a very good year.

Sellers are still in the same place as they have always been and they are holding steady on their price until they get an offer. When the year end sales data is finalized, we expect to see that unit sales and dollar sales are up for this past year. This is not the story we thought we would be writing around October, when year over year monthly sales were down from May through September.

A number of people expected 2010 to also be the year when we would find who really needed to sell and who could hold on. Overall, our real estate community remains stable. Buyers coming into this market are pleased to see that our prices don’t move up and down haphazardly.

Unless the folks in Washington find a way to mess up this economy, 2011 should be a good year to buy and sell. If you are a buyer who has been sitting on the fence waiting for prices to come down, you instead should plan on buying before they go up. If you are seller waiting on the bottom, then it may have arrived and it is a good time for you to sell.

Internet advertising is a proven successful trend. The National Association of Realtors states that over 80% of all real estate buying begins on the Internet. The remaining buyers usually end up on the internet after selecting an agent to work with.

When you list your property with Fredericksburg Realty, we will use some the old methods named above and we put a lot of emphasis on the Internet. Within days of listing your property for sale on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), your property shows up on over twenty area real estate sites of other brokerage companies that have agreed to IDX or Internet Data Exchange. So when you list with us, you get a whole lot of additional exposure for free.

In addition to this, our local MLS carrier has now added what is called MLS Syndication. Your property is being promoted on all of the following sites and many others that we have not even listed:
Zillow.com Hotpads.com
Overstock.com Google Base RE Search
Oddle My Space Classifieds
Backpage.com Local.com
Lycos.com Military.com
Facebook.com
Walmart.com (corporate RE)
Craigslist Trulia.com
Yakaz.com Cyperhomes.com
Homefinder.com Frontdoor.com
Yahoo.com Homes.com
and more……..

Also, we may feature your property on LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, Google Maps, video, and www.FredericksburgRealty.com. Our company website is linked to numerous other portal sites that provide you with even more exposure. Your property can be viewed anywhere in the world at any hour with internet service.

When you are ready to sell, let us expose your property to as many buyers as possible. When you are ready to buy, don’t hesitate to visit our website to find your dream property in Fredericksburg, in the Hill Country, in Texas or anywhere in the world.

We are here to help you!