I bring up this because of my deep belief in Jason and his teams tactics and knowledge. I first learned about Jason Hodge a while back when I had an injury and needed someone to assist me in a greater capacity than a personal trainer though less capacity than a doctor and physical therapists.

Jason's field is in Medical Issues, hence the name Medical Fitness Pros! Basically he takes on cases where individuals need much more specific advice and much more knowledge than your average trainer. His nutrition assistance and eye for what to do with medical conditions makes him one of a kind in our community. Basically he is a Jewel here in Katy TX! He's published in All Local Magazines and newspapers regularly and frankly can do more for most people than many of the doctors and therapists that I've delt with. He deals with Katy Nutritionists info as well as Dietitian info as well!

Recently a friend of mine attended a bootcamp in Katy and injured his hamstring. I sent my friend to Jason with expectations that it would take weeks to bring resolution to my friend, named Amol. It took Jason 30 minutes to figure out that it was other muscles that were weak that were causing the pain in Amols hamstring and within one session Amol was able to come back to bootcamp and with the instructions Jason gave to the bootcamp instructor Amol is now doing great and getting exactly what he needs! This kind of care is rare!!

Anyhow - I know it's unusual to use this REW blog to speak about Katy Nutritionists or Katy Dietitians much less Katy Personal Trainers but I truly wanted to get the word out about this gentlemen as well as his team and his new and wonderful Katy real estate location on Mason Road. If you ever need assistance please give him a visit!

The Market For Katy Homes

The market for Katy homes is buoyed by the fact that the Houston economy continues to be extremely vibrant and employers created 94,700 new jobs from January 2011 to January 2012 with a major portion of that job growth having been in the energy exploration and related industries. With its geographic proximity to the "energy corridor", Katy has benefitted greatly from the growth in the oil and engineering segments of the job growth. Katy home sales have improved significantly with the Cinco Ranch - Katy segment of the market experiencing among the highest growth in the entire Houston Metropolitan area. The other areas experiencing this revival of the market are the Woodlands and inside loop 610.

The fact that the Katy / FortBend County area is touted by Forbes as having "the most affordable housing" in the U.S. would tend to indicate that the market for Katy homes and Katy real estate in general may reasonably be expected to improve significantly. We may actually be seeing a return to normal following the downturn that began in the last quarter of 2008. In short, the future looks bright ahead.

View Firethorne and Katy Real Estate using my website.

There are also many new waterfront and water view lots that will be available soon. The interesting thing about Firethorne is it's price point. There are few subdivisions that overdeliver and when asking around you'll hear again and again about the value of Firethorne. The residents there just rave about it!

I have a website dedicated to homes and real estate in Firethorne as well as many other top Katy TX subdivisions. Please view it here: http://www.jdavidbell.com/firethorne

While talking with another seasoned real estate agent in my office a few days ago, I discovered that there is a fair amount of confusion regarding what Cinco Ranch is and what it isn't. The other professional real estate agent asked me "what is the difference between Cinco Ranch, Cinco Ranch West and Cinco Ranch Southwest?" After explaining the difference, he asked "well, isn't Kelliwood, Cross Creek Ranch, Pine Mill Ranch and all those other neighborhoods out here a part of Cinco Ranch?"

I thought that if a seasoned real estate professional who offices right in the heart of Cinco Ranch is confused about what Cinco Ranch is, it might be worth clarifying for the general public and decided that it might be worth writing about.

First, Cinco Ranch is an award winning master planned community developed by Newland Communities and has been ranked as the number one master planned community in the nation almost every year for the past ten years. Over the twenty plus years that Cinco Ranch has been in existence, it has grown to encompass over 8,200 acres and has generally set the standard for the development of property in the entire Houston Metropolitan Area, Fort Bend County and, to a large extent, throughout the state of Texas and across the nation. While Cinco Ranch was by no means the first "Master Planned Community" in the nation, the development has, over time, set the standard for establishing a community and lifestyle where families choose to live and businesses want to be. Many will remember Reston, Virginia which was developed in the 1970's and was conceived and executed to be the development of not just a residential community, but rather an entire city from the ground up from a single land use plan designed to create a new city with all of the attrubutes of an actual city (residential, commercial, public areas, schools; etc.) all clearly defined in the land use plan adopted from the outset with all areas specifically designated.

Cinco Ranch is a master planned community that consistst of three basic areas, currently referred to as Cinco Ranch, Cinco Ranch West and Cinco Ranch Southwest. Cinco Ranch is generally considered to be that portion of the whole master planned community that lies between George Bush Park on the east and the grand Parkway (Hwy. 99) on the west. It consists of numerous "Villages" of varying lot sizes with specific deed restrictions and required builder's guidelines. there are residential neighborhoods, commercial and business centers, churches, lakes, neighborhood parks, playgrounds, an 18 hole golf course, numerous amenities and five campuses of Katy Independent School District schools. The homes in Cinco Ranch were typically built between 1991 and 1999. It does not, however, include all of the land, residential developments, commercial or office centers, churhes or schools within that same general geographic area. There are numerous other residential developments within that area on land that is not a portion of the land that was or is owned by Newland Communities. These include many well know and highly desireable neighborhoods such as all of the Kelliwood neighborhoods which were developed by the Kickerillo Companies, the Green Trails and Grand Lakes neighborhoods developed by Trendmaker Development Company, Canyon Gate at Cinco Ranch developed by Land Tejas, and many other residential developments such as Nottingham Country, Memorial Parkway, Oak Park Trails, Highland Trails, Chesterfield and numerous other communities. Many of these developments are completely surrounded by Cinco Ranch itself and it is often hard to distinguish where Cinco Ranch ends and the other development begins. these neighborhoods are not a part of Cinco Ranch, the homeowners are not a part of the Cinco Ranch Homeowner's Association and the residents are not permitted access to the recreational amenities of Cinco Ranch.

Cinco Ranch West is that portion of the Cinco Ranch Master Planned Community that was built on land acquired by the developer after the initial tracts of land were fully developed and is generally located west of the Grand Parkway (Hwy 99) with the Grand Parkway on the eastern boundary and Katy Gaston Road on the west. Again, the development followed the same general land use designs that proved so successful in the original Cinco Ranch with numerous "Villages" of varying lots sizes with distinctly differing home sizes and price ranges, commercial and office areas (notably the LaCenterra shopping center), a branch library of the Fort Bend County Library, apartment sites, churches, parks, playgrounds recreational amenities and five school campuses of the Katy Independent School District. The various "Villages" range from nice, but reasonably affordable homes all the way up to gated custom home neighborhoods with homes ranging in price to well over $1,000,000.00 and everything in between. Typically, the homes in Cinco Ranch West were built, sold and occupied between 2000 and 2009. Again, there are other residential developments in the same general geographic area including the master planned community of Seven Meadows (also developed by Newland Communities), but not a part of Cinco Ranch. There are also neighborhoods within the geographic area such as Falcon Point, Silver Ranch, Falcon Ranch, Pine Mill Ranch, Falcon Rock, Pin Oak Village and several other residential developments surrounded by, adjacent to or otherwise considered to be in the Cinco Ranch area. Several of these neighborhoods predate the development of Cinco Ranch and were much sought after residential destinations many years before the development of Cinco Ranch began. Many of these neighborhoods have more or less lost their individual identities and are generally considered as neighborhoods within the Cinco Ranch area. These neighborhoods have their own amenity packages including, in some cases, a championship golf course, a country club, tennis and swimming centers, neighborhood parks and playgrounds, but the residents are not members of the Cinco Ranch Homeowner's Association and are not allowed access and use of the Cinco Ranch amenities.

As all of the "Villages" within Cinco Ranch West were nearing completion and being completely built out and occupied, Newland Communities negotiated the purchase of another 2,800 + parcel of land adjacent to the existing Cinco Ranch to continue development. This tract of land plus additional smaller purchases of land contigious to Cinco Ranch or very near to the borders of the community brought the master planned Cinco Ranch development to its current size exceeding 8,200 acres. The most recent portion that is known as Cinco Ranch Southwest extends westward from Katy Gaston Road all the way west to FM 1463 which almost abuts the easternmost corporate limits of the city of Fulshear. Construction of new homes began in Cinco Ranch Southwest began in 2008 and 2009 and continues today. There are numerous "Villages" within the area that are completely built out and occupied. Neighborhoods range from lot sizes of 45' in width with moderately priced homes to lots of 80' to 90' in width with home prices ranging up to the high $700,000.00 range as well as a custom home neighborhood with larger lots and custom homes priced to over $1,000,000.00. Substantial business and commercial development has followed these rooftops and there is plenty of commercial property with professional services such as medical and dental offices, banks and other financial institutions, restaurants, coffeee shops, and all manner of retail shopping venues and all of the service industries providing necessary services. Additional schools are already under construction including elementary, junior high and the Katy Independent School District's seventh senior high school.

Although Cinco Ranch has been the dominant community in the area for many years with the development of lots and sales of new homes as well as resale home transactions eclpsing the volume in any of the other developments (and in many instances, the combined total of all other area neighborhoods), Cinco Ranch has obviously set the standard for residential and master planned community development in the entire market area. No other developer can begin to match Cinco Ranch in terms of recreational amenities, open greenbelt space, lakes and water parks, tennis courts, parks, playgrounds and hike, bike and jogging trails as well as the sheer amount of landscaping and other improvements of common areas, but unless the developer of a residential community in the area makes significant effort to emulate the land use plans of Cinco Ranch and includes substantial open greenbelt areas, hike and bike trails and other recreational amenities, that neighborhood is doomed to failure from the outset. It is almost an absolute certainty that prospective home buyers in the area will see Cinco Ranch and if the other communities they visit pale in comparison in terms of overall feel and amenities offered, there is no way that the community can compete and survive.

There are literally dozens of other residential communities in the geographic area commonly referred to as the Cinco Ranch area and the homeowners are not a part of the Cinco Ranch Homeowners Association and do not have access to and use of the Cinco Ranch amenities, but the mere existence of Cinco Ranch has set the tone for the entire area and visually it is quite difficult to tell if you are in Cinco Ranch or another well designed and executed development.

Cinco Ranch's Symbol History

Often I run across this sign as I drive though Cinco numerous times daily in my normal routes. I'm a local real estate agent and my office is in Cinco! After all this time here I needed to find out where this symbol came from.

Turns out that Cinco Ranch is over 20 years old and they recently celebrated their 20 anniversary. Katy Texas, the home city of Cinco Ranch, helped them celebrate as well. After all, Cinco has been a top performing Master Planned Subdivision here for many years and often Cinco Ranch real estate tops the nations list as Highest Selling Master Planned Community.

Homes in Cinco Ranch were started on 1500 acres originally. This acreage was pieced together from 5 different families. It's after these families, the original families that had the land, that Cinco Ranch's symbol comes from. I'm not sure if this was the case before Newland Communities took over the development though it's highly likely.

It was with the vision of Newland Communities that Cinco Ranch became the incredible real estate beacon that it is today. It's family oriented approach centered around a solid and beautiful area, development of lakes and retail areas, that Cinco has become such an innovative, happy, and high selling community!

Homes In Cinco Ranch Katy TX

Homes and real estate in Cinco Ranch have exploded. Residential homes have taken up most of the land that was acquired for itself. Cinco has since purchased another 700 acres followed with it's last acquisition of 500 acres totalling 2700 acres in total for real estate development. All this being said and its still a fact that they will complete all residential real estate building in the next 3 years!

Yes, Cinco Ranch after 20 years, is only now 3 short years from being built and sold out! It's crazy to think just how quickly the past 20 years have gone. Learn more about this community on my website.

View My Cinco Ranch Real Estate Website Below

Please use the below links to learn more about my Katy Real Estate Website which focuses on Cinco Ranch Homes!

Katy,Texas is no longer a land of vast prairies. If you arrived in the late 1800's, you wouldn't have found much except long stretches of prairies, herds of buffalo, and Indian tribes. Times have changed over the past 145 years. The railroad that once passed through Katy has come and gone. Today Katy, Texas homes can be seen in the many suburbs that surround the Houston area. If you prefer the small town appeal, then perhaps you would prefer Old Katy with a population of just over 12,000. The surrounding suburbs of Katy make up the rest of the growing towns population . Katy, Texas homes have a median house value of just over 95,000. The price range may vary according to your specific needs. Contacting Katy Real Estate will put you on the right path towards finding your dream home.

For those of you who prefer a warmer climate, then perhaps you should consider settling down in Katy, Texas. With temperatures that don't fall below freezing, you'll enjoy the comfortable weather of Katy, Texas. Homes in Katy, Texas range from simple ranch style homes to more glamorous homes, depending on your style preference and budget. Searching for your new home can be overwhelming. With so many homes to choose from in Katy, you can take your pick. The first step is to decide where you want to reside in Katy. Katy Real Estate can help you narrow down your choices. After all, When purchasing a home in Katy, Texas you'll want to take your time. Why rush a life time commitment? Now that you've found the idea realtor, it's time to get started. Finding your Katy, Texas home will be a rewarding adventure for you and Katy Real Estate!

This 3 to 6 mile walk / job begins at LaCenterra of Cinco Ranch in Katy Texas at 7pm each Wednesday. The run goes East on Cinco Ranch Boulevard to the Lake of Cinco Ranch (Southlake). Go around the lake 1-3 times to get in 3.4, 4.7, or 5.9 miles.

Right before the run there is a FREE BOOT CAMP! Check it out and enjoy! The free mini-bootcamp session starts at 620pm at LaCenterra (in the back next to Kenzos and Fish City Grill). It goes from 620-650pm. It includes running drills and stretches. The we perform bodyweight exercises to round off a great workout! It's not too intense and all levels are welcomed.

Also - A sincere thanks go out to the sponsors:

• Katy Texas Boot Camps
• The Wellness Centre
• Wellness by Carrie (.com)
• SportClips
• Great Pecan Candy Company
• Lukes Locker
• Baker Street Pub
• More sponsors to come soon - check out www.katybeerrun.com for more details!

My brokerage company "Coldwell Banker" is a sponsor.

If you need anything outside of this run such as help with real estate in Cinco Ranch or Katy Texas please contact. me

My website is www.jdavidbell.com

Thanks!

There is an old saying “you never have a second chance to make a good first impression” and this should be considered the guiding principal when preparing to put your home in Katy, Texas on the market for sale. In this real estate market downturn to be successful in selling your home within a reasonable period of time and obtain the best possible price for the home, the home needs to stand out from the competition in the area. Despite the media hype about the depressed housing market in the US, the Katy, Texas real estate market remains robust with property values continuing to increase and home sales continuing at a brisk pace. For sellers, this is both good and bad news. The good news is that homes in the area are selling quickly and at reasonable prices. The bad news is that there is stiff competition for qualified buyers in the market.

Katy Real Estate Key Factors

Obviously, there are several factors beyond the control of the individual homeowner such as the location of the property, the floor plan and age of the home as well as the typical market value of homes in the neighborhood. Since those factors are beyond the control of a homeowner wishing to sell, we will not go into those particular factors in depth, but rather discuss those factors that can be controlled which provide a marketing advantage and, at the same time, focus on those things that are cost effective and have been proven to have a positive impact.

Your real estate's street appeal matters

The first item to be considered is known as “street appeal”. With there being substantial numbers of homes in various price ranges available for buyers to choose from, the initial hurdle is to get the potential buyers to actually view the property. If the home fails the street appeal test, a large percentage of potential buyers will simply cross the home off of the list of homes to consider without even going inside the home. It matters little how well the home shows if the buyers dont actually tour it. Improving “street appeal” is the easiest way to enhance the market appeal and perceived value of the home. Proper landscaping and landscape maintenance is critically important and inexpensive. Make sure that the shrubbery is properly trimmed and add seasonal color when possible. Walk through (or at least drive) your neighborhood and pay close attention to those homes that are visually appealing. The chances are that the homes that are most appealing are the homes with attractive landscaping; not necessarily those with the most beautiful architectural design. Proper landscaping can make a relatively plain house quite attractive and poor landscaping can make a beautiful house appear quite plain.

The next factor to be addressed is the initial impression upon entering the home. The walkways and front porch should be clean, neat and uncluttered. Also, take a good look at the entry door. Does it need to be re-stained or repainted? It is amazing how many homeowners enter their homes through the door from the garage and dont know what condition their front door is in. Prospective buyers almost always enter the home through the front door and the condition and appearance of the entry door has significant impact on establishing the all important first impression.

Upon entering the home / real estate, the typical buyer will form his perception of the home before getting past the entry. Make certain that the home creates a good first impression by being light, bright and uncluttered. Dark wall paint colors make the entry seem small, dark and uninviting. Dirty light fixtures or having burned out bulbs or bulbs with too little output tends to make the entry gloomy and uninviting. That initial poor first impression remains with the prospective buyer throughout the tour of the home and has a negative impact on the overall impression. A poor first impression may cause some prospective buyers to choose not even to see the rest of the home.

De-Clutter your real estate for best effect

UNCLUTTER! Another old expression is that “nature abhors a vacuum”. This tends to be especially true regarding personal living space. When people live in a home for any length of time, the number of possessions grows to fill all available space. In many instances, when new possessions are acquired, they are simply added rather than being replacements for existing items. There seem always to be possessions that have sentimental value to the homeowner, but are nothing more than clutter to the average person shopping for a home. Grandmothers favorite chair may have sentimental value, but when it doesnt go with any of the other dcor in the home and has been squeezed into an already fully furnished room, it certainly does not enhance the sales appeal of the home. Its a sure bet that any furniture that blocks walkways or creates an obstruction to normal traffic patterns will have a negative impact when selling the home. Often when collectors of those cute little bunny figurines run out of places to display more cute little bunny figurines, they buy display cases to put more figurines in rather than cease collecting. A room with too much clutter will appear small and will be difficult for a prospective buyer to visualize placing his own furniture and possessions in.

Repainting and replacing worn or outdated carpeting are two of the most important and cost effective means of enhancing the marketability of a home. It is absolutely astounding how many homes have rooms that are painted in unusual and often unusually bright colors. While those colors may be the favorite colors of various family members, it is a certainty that those colors will not have broad market appeal. A teenage boy may want his bedroom painted in the battle red of the Houston Texans or the daughter may like hot pink paint on her walls. Thats fine while youre living in the home, but will certainly pose a challenge in selling the home. Neutral colors in both wall paint and carpets are definitely the best choice for selling a home and have the broadest market appeal.

Selling your real estate in Katy or anywhere...

When it is necessary to update the home to prepare the home for sale, the most important areas of focus are the kitchen and the master bath. Major remodeling of a home will often not increase the market value of the home more than the cost of the remodeling itself. Updating the kitchen and/or master bath often does enhance the market value of the property significantly more than the cost of the updates and proves to be a very worthwhile investment. Refinishing kitchen cabinets or replacing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, replacing counter top surfaces and kitchen backsplash areas are relatively inexpensive and pay big dividends. Likewise, refinishing bath tubs and replacing vanity tops and sinks and updating tile tub and shower surrounds often increases the selling price of a home well in excess of the cost of the updating. Dont overlook replacing old and outdated lighting fixtures in both kitchen and master bath. Light and bright sells; dark and gloomy is a deal breaker.

A word of caution is in order here. Do not get carried away and engage in major remodeling projects that involve adding to the size of the home, raising ceiling heights, adding living space; etc. A rule of thumb is that if it involves changes to the foundation or outside walls, you wont get your money back in increased selling price. The objective is to make the home stand out from the direct competition in the neighborhood; not to turn it into a home like the new dream home you plan to move into once the existing home sells.

Before putting your Katy real estate or area home on the real estate market for sale, it will certainly be worth your time to ask the real estate professional you are planning on listing with to show you those homes that he/she is using as comparables to help you determine the listing price for your home. Set appointments to tour the other homes for sale to deetermine how your property stacks up against the direct competition. Make notes regarding how those homes compare with yours and make informed decisions as to how to make your home the most appealing property on the market in your neighborhood. This is an easy way to accurately judge the competition and determine how to best prepare your home for a quick and profitable sale.

Some sellers feel that, rather than making necessary repairs and updates, they will simply offer an allowance to the buyer for paint, carpeting, redecorating; etc. This is not normally a wise decision. First, if the property does not compare favorably with the other neighborhood homes on the market, it is not likely to be of interest to the majority of prospective buyers.

The purchase of a home is an emotional purchase and those properties that make a poor first impression are simply eliminated from the list of homes to be considered. The vast majority of prospective buyers desire to purchase a home that they can move right into without having to repair, remodel or update; not one where it is necessary to spend time, effort and money to make it suitable for their family. Those buyers willing to purchase a home needing cosmetic repairs and updating are often those buyers looking for substantially underpriced houses that they can spend a few thousand dollars making needed repairs and remodeling and then sell at a substantial profit.

Cinco Ranch Real Estate Continues To Thrive

"Home Starts" in Cinco Ranch were high enough to put them in the #1 spot with 802 starts! This earns the community the "Most Active Residential Communities in the Houston Area" list.

The top 5 positions are rounded off by including the Woodlands, Sienna Plantation, Telfair, and Westheimer Lakes. Learn more about the story here.

Learn more about "Cinco Ranch Real Estate" and the community of "Cinco Ranch Katy Texas" using these links.

A Katy Texas Realtor Speaks About Mortgage Changes!

While I cannot claim the particular expertise to specifically place blame for the crisis, nor to judge whether or not the governmental response provided beneficial relief and prevented a general collapse of the U.S. economy, there are certain realities that are quite apparent. First, the economy as a whole continues to perform at substantially lower levels than prior to the third quarter of 2008. Residential foreclosures are taking place at an unhealthy and unprecedented rate. Residential property values in major markets around the country have plummeted leaving homeowners “underwater” resulting in actual market values of homes being less than the outstanding mortgage balances. Unemployment remains unacceptably high with a recent report indicating an unemployment rate of 9.1%. According to many credible estimates, when the numbers of those job seekers who have simply given up looking for work and those job seekers who are grossly underemployed are considered, the actual unemployment rate is more than double those figures reported by the government agencies.

Also, the programs aimed at compelling lending institutions to recast mortgages at “affordable” levels to existing borrowers to prevent foreclosure have been abject failures. The majority of the loans that were actually renegotiated have fallen into delinquency after the mortgage was recast at lower interest rates and/or lower principal balances.

A reality of the mortgage market has been that lenders have significantly tightened their underwriting standards and it has been much more difficult for those seeking to purchase a home or to refinance a mortgage have found it much more difficult to obtain financing. A part of the problem has been that there has been, on the part of the lenders, awareness that substantial changes from the regulatory agencies were coming, but there was no definitive information regarding what those new standards and guidelines were to be. The lending guidelines and requirements from the investors changed often; not only from day-to-day, but in many cases more than once a day. Experienced mortgage loan officers were unable to be assured that a mortgage loan would close until the closing and funding had actually taken place.

It now appears that some of the uncertainty is being removed and the powers that be are actually fleshing out what the changes will be. The good news that we have been waiting to hear may, in fact, turn out instead to be bad news. Once again, it appears that governmental regulatory efforts to solve a problem may serve to exacerbate the problem rather than provide a solution.

The major proposal for solving the mortgage crisis is a change to the Qualified Residential Guidelines (QRM). Simply put, the proposed change that appears almost certain to be adopted, is that the required cash down payment of borrowers be changed to a minimum of 20% in order for that mortgage loan to be considered a “Qualified” residential mortgage. This will not mandate that a financial institution is prohibited from making a mortgage loan to a borrower with less than a 20% cash down payment, but it will require substantially more risk-retention for the institution making such a loan. That is likely to result in higher rates for those “non-qualified” mortgages (estimated to be as much as 3% higher) than for the “qualified residential mortgages”.

The new requirement will, undoubtedly, make the purchase of a home, or refinancing a mortgage, unaffordable to large segments of home buyers and homeowners. It is estimated that the requirement could remove as many as 34% of the pool of potential home buyers from the market and data indicates that it would take fifteen years for an average family to save the necessary down payment to meet the “Qualified Residential Guidelines”.

Although an exact date for the change has not been established, it is almost certain that getting a residential mortgage next year will be even MORE challenging than it is now. The implementation of this regulation has the potential of inflicting great harm on the real estate, home building and mortgage lending businesses, but most importantly, on the ability of the public to achieve the “great American dream” of homeownership. Although there still remains a great deal of uncertainty regarding exact changes and implementation dates of specific changes, there is one thing that is likely to be an absolute certainty. That is that if you are considering the purchase of a home, considering selling your existing home and purchasing a new home or considering refinancing an existing mortgage you would be well advised to do that now, rather than waiting until next year.