Whether you buy an existing home or plan to custom build, a new home is exciting. Many buyers find a house they love and fail to research the neighborhood. While granite countertops and high ceilings are tempting, don’t buy, or build, a home in a neighborhood not suited to your needs, or one that shows signs that your investment may not be a wise one. Here is a checklist of things to consider when selecting a neighborhood.

Location: This may seem obvious, but above all else, don’t buy a house in an inconvenient location. Check out the area and see where the nearest grocery store, dry cleaners, and restaurants are. Drive your morning commute and decide if it’s a drive you can make (twice) five days a week. You define what a good location is for you and your family, so be sure to move to an area that fits your definition.

Future indicators: Check with the local planning office and see what, if any, plans have been made that will impact the neighborhood you’re considering. You don’t want to move and have a road expansion envelope half your front yard or have a land developer cut down most of the trees in the neighborhood.

Sights, sounds and smells: Your home should be a delight to the senses. You need to visit the neighborhood at various times during the day to see if there are any sights, sounds, or smells that are deal breakers for you. Drive through on a Saturday and during a weekday to observe traffic patterns, children playing, and also note any unleashed animals, if that’s a concern for you. You may not see any train tracks, but if you’re in the neighborhood every morning you’ll soon realize a loud train whistle is part of the daily routine. Bothersome noises may never go away, and even if you get used to them, they will hurt your resale value. Walk the neighborhood and check for any hints of sewage issues that you may be able to see or smell.

If you’re searching for a neighborhood that meets your criteria, let Texas Homesites show you Texas communities that will exceed your expectations. There is land for sale in master planned communities and golfing communities in Texas. For more information on Texas real estate, find Texas Homesites on Facebook and Twitter.

A city that grew and developed alongside the university for which it is named, College Station, Texas is a wonderful place to call home. Here is a brief history of the unique Texas town.

College Station’s beginning is inextricably tied to the founding of Texas’ first institution of higher education, Texas A&M, in 1876. The campus quickly became the community’s focal point, and the U.S. Postal Service named the area “College Station” in 1877.

In 1930, the community just north of College Station (known then as North Oakwood) was incorporated as part of the city of Bryan. College Station continued to grow, and in 1938 the citizens voted to incorporate the city. John H. Binney served as College Station’s first mayor. The first city council meeting was held on February 25, 1939 in the Administration Building on the Texas A&M campus.

In 1942, Ernest Langford, known to many as the “father of College Station,” began a 26-year stint as mayor of College Station. Following World War II, the College Station population continued to grow, with the non-student population reaching almost 8,000 by 1950.

The city owes its name, and its existence, to Texas A&M’s location along a railroad. Today, the College Station-Bryan area is the sixteenth-largest metropolitan area in Texas, with a population of about 203,000 people. Estimates predict the Bryan-College Station population will reach approximately 260,000 by the year 2030.

The secret is out, and new land buyers are increasingly considering the Bryan-College Station area as the perfect spot to build their dream home in Texas. Texas Homesites can show you land for sale in the master-planned communities like King Oaks. Only four miles from Bryan-College Station’s many amenities, King Oaks offers serene one- to three-acre home sites. For more information on the Texas real estate market, find Texas Homesites on Facebook and Twitter today.

If you’ve never done any landscaping, you may be unprepared for what awaits you once you’ve moved into your new custom-built home. Perhaps you want to redo your existing backyard but don’t know where to start. Here are some basic guidelines on planning a backyard where you and your family will love to spend time.

Assess your space: Consider not only how much space you have, but how you want to use it. Do you have children and, if so, do they spend much time outside? Would they enjoy a pool, or would they rather have a large area to play ball and throw a Frisbee? Also consider the pets you have and whether they require a fence, or whether you want a privacy fence. If you decide to put in a pool, your homeowner insurance may require that you install a fence. Think about whether or not you want to give up yard space for a patio or deck for grilling and outdoor dining. These are all important considerations to think about before you shovel any dirt.

Visualize it: You wouldn’t begin building a house without a detailed plan of the finished product, and this rule applies to the backyard as well. Make notes on which areas are shaded most of the day and which areas receive direct sunlight, as this will affect where you put certain plants. You may want to work with a landscape architect, who can offer practical suggestions and draw you a detailed, artistic rendering of the anticipated product.

Go green: Carefully consider which trees and plants you want to include in your plan. Even if the majority of the backyard is a large concrete patio or a pool, planting some trees to provide shade is advisable. If there is little room to plant plants in the ground, buy large, attractive ceramic pots. Green will liven up the space.

Nothing completes a backyard like a beautiful view, and Texas Homesites can help. Now is a great time to buy land in Texas, and lots of land is available in the picturesque Texas Hill Country. Select your home site and begin custom building a home in a master-planned community or a golfing community in Texas. For more information on Texas real estate, find Texas Homesites on Facebook and Twitter today.

San Antonio is home to one of the largest military concentrations in the entire country. The army defense industry employs over 89,000 people and provides San Antonio with a 5.25 billion dollar impact on the local economy.

-       Military Bases: In San Antonio, the military bases are a huge part of the city. Bases include Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base, Brooks City-Base, Camp Bullis, and Camp Stanley. All of these bases are home to thousands of American soldiers who help us fight for our freedom. Fort Sam Houston is known as the birthplace of military aviation, and Lackland Air Force Base is one of four Air Force training centers throughout the entire country. San Antonio’s military presence is a great way for visitors to see the past, present, and future of the American military.

-       Operation Finally Home: Because of the huge military presence in San Antonio, it is only appropriate for us to participate in the area’s Operation FINALLY HOME. Vintage Oaks at the Vineyard, one of our local communities, has multiple homesites for injured veterans and recently welcomed Senior Airman Colton Read and his wife, Jessica, to their new home there. Texas Homesites is proud to participate in such a great organization, and we continue to provide homesites for our injured war veterans.

The military in San Antonio is really at the core of the city. The military has an impact on San Antonio’s culture, economy, industry, lifestyle, and people. San Antonio has a rich history with the military and Texas independence. It is only fitting that a city with such a proud history continue the legacy of the United States military.

If you are considering moving to San Antonio or to any of our Texas Homesites locations, check out our free eBook, The Texas Land Buyer’s Guide, to learn more about our available communities with land for sale in Texas.

In some cases, they're receiving an inheritance or a stock grant and are choosing to invest in their future real-estate needs rather than the stock market. In other cases, they're altering their expectations about how long they'll work and the kind of returns they'll earn on their nest egg in order to pursue an emotional investment.

Nevertheless, people who receive an inheritance or other cash infusion are often deciding to put that money into retirement real estate instead of stocks. Others are pulling some of the non-retirement-plan money from their nest egg. Either way, says Suzanne Krasna, a financial planner in Walnut Creek, Calif., the bottom line is to figure out if your income can support the additional liability of this house after you've met other obligations -- such as building an emergency savings account, contributing to a child's educational savings and fully funding your retirement plan -- and after accounting for your current lifestyle.

No one knows how many younger buyers are out snapping up their retirement homes. But real-estate agents and financial planners around the country say they're increasingly assisting younger buyers spending $100,000 to $500,000 for a house to call home in retirement. Partially at play is a cultural shift planners say they see among younger savers who aren't content to just accumulate assets to use in retirement. Instead, this younger generation wants to put some of its nest egg to work today as an investment in family.

Gregg Yaeger, a vice president at Chicago's Northern Trust Corp., says he has dealt with several younger clients doing this in recent years, including a 37-year-old client currently buying a retirement house on a lake in Michigan. "He wants this place specifically to retire," Mr. Yaeger says, "but he also wants it now as a place to build a bank of memories with his kids."

The question many people face is how to afford the future today. After all, beyond the price of the house there is maintenance, insurance, taxes and other costs. Phillip Cook, a financial planner in Torrance, Calif., says he discourages his clients from pursuing this strategy because "most of the rationale is emotional, and financially I think that's a mistake. Do you really think you know where you want to live 25 or 35 years from now?"

Younger buyers, however, don't necessarily see these homes as investments. They recognize that real estate has intrinsic value and that their retirement dollars remain at work in some fashion, since, if they do live in this house at retirement, they can sell their current primary residence to supplement their retirement savings.

Most, though, are like Anuraj Bismal, 40, and his wife, Ann. The pair pulled money from their nest egg and bought 38 acres and a 100-year-old farmhouse in far northeastern Pennsylvania, about 2½ hours from their Montclair, N.J., home because, after each seeing parents die in recent years, they've come to the conclusion that "the moment is now," says Mr. Bismal, a financial executive with a major Wall Street firm. So, the Bismals spend most weekends at their Pennsylvania house, and Mr. Bismal expects they'll spend part of every year in retirement there. "I could care less if I make $1 on this place," he says. "For me, this is very basic: I want to live my life now."

The sense is that the market is in a position for investors to repeat the real estate land grab of the 1980’s – instant riches from quick flips of raw land bought from the government at fire-sale prices.

According to Mike Bryant, a Dallas-based executive with Capmark Financial Group Inc., a California real estate finance company, “Some $300 billion or $400 billion in investment dollars could become available worldwide. There’s about 300 to 400 different funds being put together that are ranging in size from $25 million to $1.5 billion, and even up, who are going to get in there and bid on these assets”.

And these assets are being bought for pennies on the dollar. Take for example the $30.6 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed assets that Merrill Lynch & Co recently sold to Lone Star Funds for a mere $6.7 billion. Or the $22 billion mortgage portfolio that Black Rock purchased from UBS for $15 billion, with the assistance of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a pension fund with more than $100 billion in assets.

People nearing retirement age have been prowling for 100-acre properties and smaller, said Charles Gilliland, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. That's helped lower the average acreage involved in a land sale. But at the same time, real estate agents say some high-dollar investors are looking for a stable place to park their money for a few years, and the have zeroed in on land — lots of land. Both the boomers and the big-money investors have driven prices higher.

But now, both groups of potential land buyers are, to a large degree, on the sidelines watching the stock market and the presidential election. Land has long been used as a shelter from inflation and an investment to turn to during difficult times, but it isn't immune from the economy's gyrations, economists say.

Nevertheless, people who receive an inheritance or other cash infusion are often deciding to put that money into retirement real estate instead of stocks.

Others are pulling some of the nonretirement-plan money from their nest egg. Either way, says Suzanne Krasna, a financial planner in Walnut Creek, Calif., the bottom line is to figure out if your income can support the additional liability of this house after you've met other obligations -- such as building an emergency savings account, contributing to a child's educational savings and fully funding your retirement plan -- and after accounting for your current lifestyle. http://www.bluegreencommunities.com/the-good-life/

Quite frankly, everyone is getting in on this latest land rush in the U.S. From retirees looking for a place where they can spend time with their grandchildren to the young couples that wants to live their life now to investors looking ready to plunk down cash for troubled properties. The bottom is in site and the investors are vulturing above to pounce on distressed assets. But they are not the only ones.

Wealthy individuals, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, retirement systems, schools, International buyers, Baby Boomers and even first-time buyers are all getting into the act.

• Retirees

• Younger Couples

• Investors

• Baby Boomers

• Wealthy Individuals

• Institutional Funds

• International Buyers

• First-time Buyers

The three key factors were simple. Texas is:

1. A Great Place to Live

2. A Great Place to Work

3. A Great Place to Invest

Dave Winans has put together this excellent video that goes into more detail about why Texas is such an ideal place to buy land, and why NOW is the time to do it. Enjoy!

According to Winans: "The combination of Texas’ economic conditions, geographical location, natural resources, infrastructure, political conditions and even the weather have created a perfect storm of opportunity and growth that is greatly outpacing the rest of the nation. Even in a time of national recession Texas holds strong and continues to be the fastest growing state in the nation.

Because of such stability and growth businesses and individuals are flocking to Texas. Of the 24 million people living in Texas 4 out of 5 live within a the triangular region made up of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin… we call it the Texaplex.

By the year 2030 forecasts show that we will add an additional 14 million people to the Texaplex. That’s the equivalent of adding another Dallas / Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin… all within the Texaplex!" David Winans makes excellent points about why Texas is such hotbed for growth.

The time to buy land in Texas certainly appears to be right now. In future posts we'll continue discuss the best places to buy land, and why now is such a great time. Stay tuned.

Both sales and selling prices of vacation homes fell in 2008, according to member survey data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released this week.

Sales of existing and new vacation homes dropped almost 31 percent to 512,000 in 2008, from 740,000 in 2007 and a high of 1.07 million in 2006. Sales of primary residences declined about 13 percent, from 4.34 million in 2007 to 3.77 million last year.

The median price of a vacation home was $150,000 in 2008, down 23 percent from $195,000 in 2007 and from the record $204,100 in 2005. About 75 percent of 2008 vacation-home sales were located in small towns, rural areas and resorts. Almost 70 percent of vacation housing bought in 2008 were existing homes, and 70 percent were detached single-family structures. Forty-five percent were in the South, and only 15 percent were in the Midwest.

NAR’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found 8.1 million vacation homes nationally, 40.5 million investment units and 75.5 million owner-occupied, principal residences last year. NAR classifies both vacation homes and investment properties as second homes. Trends like these — vacation-home sales down by about half and median price off by about 25 percent in a few years — usually bring buyers into the market. That is, except when buyers are scared stiff and “mattressing” their remaining cash.

The typical vacation-home buyer in 2008 was 46, but 27 percent were under 35 and 31 percent were over 55. Some younger folks are buying for investment and family reasons, while older folks are looking for transitions into retirement housing. Almost 80 percent of vacation-home buyers reported household income of more than $75,000, with the median at $97,200. Sixty-four percent came from two-income households. Some 80 percent of all vacation-home buyers thought it was a good time to buy in 2008.

A vacation property that can be purchased at 30 to 50 percent less than its 2006-2007 asking price is worth serious thought as an investment. While sales and prices of primary housing and vacation homes were sliding into the pits, values of agricultural lands were going up. Average U.S. farm real-estate value, which includes buildings and improvements, increased from $2,160 per acre in 2007 to $2,350 in 2008. Crop land rose from $2,690 to $2,970 per acre, driven by demand for corn-based ethanol. Pasture rose from $1,160 to $1,230 per acre. Agricultural land prices have risen steadily for the last 20 years. The USDA recently posted 2008 land values.

Farm values in 2008 declined only in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland and Delaware. While USDA is projecting a decline in U.S. net farm income in 2009 from about $89 billion last year to perhaps $66 billion, the Department found “the projected decline in farm income in 2009 is not expected to have much effect on national agricultural land values.” (Economic Research Service, USDA, The 2008/2009 World Economic Crisis: What It Means for U.S. Agriculture, WRS-09-02, March, 2009) Farm values are projected to slip by only two percent in 2009 in USDA’s model despite the projected $23 billion loss in agricultural income. Long-term expectations of returns drive farm real-estate values, and these are relatively stable and have trended up.

Farm values rose 12 percent annually for the five-year period, 2004-2008. USDA is projecting a five-year rise of five percent annually. Cash-flow problems will force some farm properties on the market in the next few years, as much as I dislike saying so. Buyers will have opportunities to make long-term investments that are more profitable, less risky and more tax-friendly than stocks, bonds and Madoffs. Country property is broader than farm land. It includes small-town housing, undeveloped and recreational land, timberland, hobby farms, second homes, mineral properties and conservation tracts. Trends in sales and prices for these categories are often better understood regionally than nationally.

The value of timberland, for example, has held its own in much of the South but fell in the North and Northeast. Demand for high-quality northern hardwoods used for flooring, furniture and cabinetry has tracked the decline in new home construction. Southern wood products are less-construction dependent. Buyers should be able to find pretty good timberland tracts (without minerals) for $900 to $1,500 per acre in Pennsylvania and for less than $1,000 in upstate New York. For large-lot second homes, timberland in northern-hardwood areas may be a better value than adjacent farmland. Most country-property purchases are discretionary. Buyers can postpone them, even forget them completely.

Sales of these properties, however, are often forced by the economic vise that is squeezing everyone today. Knowledgeable buyers look for “motivated” sellers, which is a polite way of saying, sellers in a jam. Knowledgeable sellers in a pinch don’t blow off low offers. They work knowledgeable buyers toward a “reasonable” price and make the deal because their alternatives are worse. Several hundred billions of dollars were rescued from the stock market’s death spiral during the last year.

Buyers who think like investors might use some of this to pursue either marginal small farms and discounted woodlands for second homes or the hammered vacation properties – on the beach, in the mountains, along a lake — that NAR reports are still in the eye of the storm.