Scott Hayes's (scotthayes) Blog

This morning, I read a post on a website where the author of a book, was defending some points in the book. As I read on and on, my head began to swim. After about seven paragraphs, two subject changes, and lots of rambling, I tuned out, not even a third of the way through. One of the comments to...

If you read the typical article about real estate and politics, the question that is usually posed, is how  elections affect real estate. But are we in a market, where we need to ask, how much of a role real estate will affect the outcome of the 2012 elections? There are numerous ways which real ...

The City of Austin has a very strong recycling program, that is offered to customers of the garbage service. The foundation of the program is the 90 gallon blue cart. The cart takes all the recyclables and is picked up twice a month. And best of all, the items don't have to be separated. There ar...

Austin sets itself apart from other cities, because of it's uniqueness. While other cities rely on chain restaurants and big box retailers, the Capitol City is known for its iconic businesses. The Go Local Card Austin celebrates that by offering 10% discounts to many of these familiar names, old ...

Look at this terrific update in Picadilly. Recent roof, flooring and paint. Well laid out floorplan, with two large living areas. Newer air conditioning unit, nice backyard, and open, bright floorplan. Large study, which could be used as a great guestroom.                      

There have been some nice changes at Activerain lately. My favorite might be the much improved Activerain app. The old app left a little bit to be desired. One could read posts, check their account and perform a few other tasks. But the new and improved version is worth some applause. After readi...

To say Kyle, Texas is undergoing a real estate recovery is an understatement. Kyle, Texas is seeing a real estate explosion. Nestled in the heart of the fast growing Austin- San Antonio corridor, Kyle is experiencing great growth. July saw more than twice as many homes sale, as this time last yea...

Is the Austin, Texas market on it's way to a real estate recovery? In an ongoing series, we look at the numbers, and the analysis behind the numbers, to see if the Austin market is truly recovering. The Austin Board of Realtors recently announced that 25 percent of all home sales were cash purcha...

Austin and greater central Texas is experiencing a nice real estate recovery. News of a 20 percent decrease in inventory, is a welcome change from recent years. Although Austin never suffered from the same precipitous drop in values as other regions of the country, we did see a substantial increa...

I'd be remiss if I didn't admit to not writing a monthly newsletter. As real estate professionals we get clients, become part of their family for a bit, develop a good, if not great repor, then fail to stay in touch with them. We get it drilled into our head, that's it much easier to market to c...