Team DiMuria Katy Texas Blog: February 2008

The Berryhill Baja Grill has a new location at the Villagio Retail Center in the heart of the master planned community of Cinco Ranch. The menu includes many Mexican favorites like fish tacos, Chimichangas, enchiladas, and some of the  best tamales you will find.

Berryhill serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner...and fitting in with the Katy Texas lifestyle...it is a great place to bring the kids!

Berryhill also has a full bar with large TV's always playing sports...great for a night out with the guys! This place is a very nice addition to the Katy and Cinco Ranch landscape and fits nicely within the scope of Villagio!

The reasonable prices and good food make this a favorite for those looking for something just a little bit different.                

If you are one of the 4000 people BP is moving to the Houston area...you need to consider Katy at the top of your list! Katy has a wonderful school system www.katyisd.org that we are proud to have our six year old attend. We have beautiful master planned communities like Cinco Ranch, Grand Lakes, Seven Meadows, Kelliwood, Green Trails, Windsor Park, Nottingham, Westheimer Lakes North, and more! Three local malls add to the many shopping choices, and we are close to I-10, Westheimer Parkway, and the new Westpark Tollway...all for easy commute times.

We at Team DiMuria would love to set up an area tour with you and show you why we feel Katy is the best place in the Houston Metro area to live, work, and play! Call or e-mail us for a relocation package...or go to our www.KatyHomeFinder.com website and fill out a relocation form.

L & M's THE EYES OF TEXAS contest to find the best old church in Texas

OK...to be true to this contest I have to admit a couple of things:

1. I am kinda new to Texas (only 3.5 years)

2. I am from NY...so naming cattle has not been one of my normal daily activities.

This is the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio. I Happened on it a couple of years ago when we visited San Antonio. Being a NY Italian boy I must say this is one of the most beautiful churches in the U.S. It was built in the 18th Century and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The workmanship and attention to detail give a hint of Notre Dame in Paris...just beautiful!

Next...the naming of the mascot...I assume that the name Ms. Molly means we have a female here....so I am going to go with.... SALSA

http://activerain.com/mets

Houston Texas is the 4th largest city in the U.S. All the things you expect from a large U.S. city are just as true in Houston as any of the other major cities. What makes Katy...and Cinco Ranch special is the ability to feel as if you are on vacation when you break away from your work day!

The Katy area seems to us to be an oasis in the middle of a traffic filled, noise filled, oil based Juggernaut called Houston. The area boasts three malls for shopping, loads of restaurants, the great KISD School District, lakes, parks, bike trails, and close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and the Texas Hill Country.

The KISD Schools in the Katy area South of I-10 are considered among the best in Houston...it is the main reason we chose to move to the area (our son is six years old and is in Kindergarten). The area also boast a huge number of fine preschools with flexible hours and great child/teacher ratios.

Cinco Ranch in particular boast 7 (soon to be 8) area pools, a Beachclub, a Waterpark, a nature trail, lots of pocket parks, walking and bike trails, tennis courts, the Cinco Ranch Golf Club, and the entire Master Planned Community has all its common areas maintained by the Cinco Ranch Home Owners Association!

Cinco Ranch also has wonderful community programs! The Cinco Ranch Ladies Club has many members and lots of off shoot programs like a cooking club, golf club, book clubs, etc... You will love being part of this thriving community! The amenities and schools have Cinco Ranch known as Kids Town USA!

We live in Cinco Ranch and love allowing our son to ride his bike or walk to his friends house without worry! At Team DiMuria we specialize in knowing about all our area subdivisions and helping clients find the perfect area for their special needs. Give us a call at 281-492-5916...or go to our website at www.KatyHomeFinder.com for lots of Katy and Cinco Ranch info!

Cinco Ranch High School has the honor of being nominated for the national no child left behind blue ribbon schools program. This honor is given to schools throughout the nation that demonstrate academic superiority or have consistent improvement in student achievement.

To get nominated for this prestigious honor a school must have at least forty percent of its disadvantaged students show dramatic improvement on state tests over a three year period in math, reading, or English....or the student body must must perform in the top ten percent of test scores in math, reading, or English.

These schools must not be shown to be persistently dangerous and must show good yearly progress to be considered for the blue ribbon. Cinco Ranch educators will find out later this year if the high school has been selected as a Blue Ribbon school.

I brought this point up in a previous post. I am convinced that doing both is a conflict of interest and you cannot in good faith represent your client's best interest as a Realtor and also as their mortgage broker or banker.

Your level of representation as a mortgage consultant is in and of itself different than the level of representation you would have as a buyer agent. As a buyer agent you work for your client. You owe all your allegiance to them. If you know of a situation that would allow your client to save money, you would be required to tell them and do your best to help them get that money saving deal.

As a mortgage broker or banker...you do not work for the client...you work with the client and for the bank and yourself. Your job is to maximize profits for the bank and yourself...that is how you get paid!

If you are practicing both right now let me pose a question to you: "Do you always waive all fees that could be waived, get your clients the lowest and best deal for them regardless of how it effects your pay...in other words...Do you always make the minimum payable amount?"

If you cant say yes to that last question how can you truly be working in your clients BEST INTEREST!

We here so much negative news about how buying real estate is a bad investment at this time...one NBC so called expert advised potential buyers to hold off....he said the should rent instead of buy!

We wanted to share some statistics from the Houston and Katy Texas Market. These statistics pertain to December 2006 vs. 2007 and show why all real estate is local! All stats are provided by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR).

Average Single Family home price 2006- $204,843, 2007- $216,433, increase of 5.7%

Median Single Family home price 2006- $150,000, 2007- $153,630, increase of 2.4%

The 83,432 homes sold in 2007 makes it the SECOND BEST YEAR ON RECORD for the Houston/Katy Market!

Please feel free to contact us about any of your Katy area real estate needs. We are always available to answer questions, give area tours, or just tell you why we think Katy is one of the best areas of the Country to live, work, and play

!

The active adult community of Heritage Grand in the Master Planned Community of Cinco Ranch is a very hot commodity. Located in Katy Texas just south of I-10, the area has been dubbed med-center west because of the wonderful array of state of the art medical facilities and Hospitals. Katy is also the home to two area malls, the Katy Mills Mall and the LaCenterra Mall at Cinco Ranch. These malls are loaded with great shopping options as well as a large number of restaurants and offices.

The amenities in Heritage Grand are also impressive. The community has its own pool and spa, fitness center, computer center, putting green, shuffle board court, and walking trails throughout. The homes located in Heritage Grand will either be patio homes or townhomes. the patio homes have the front lawn, trees and bushes maintained by the home owners association. The townhomes add the exterior maintenance as well as the roof and property insurance. Resale prices in 2007 ranged from under $150,000 to around $275,000.

Another benefit of living in the Katy/Houston area is the wide range of activities that will be available to you. Houston, as the forth largest city in America has everything you would expect from a large metropolis. Sports (like the Astros, Texans, Rockets, etc...) Broadway style plays, wonderful music venues, and the World Famous Houston Rodeo!

Cinco Ranch is one of the largest Master Planned communities in the Country. It offers for it's residents the BeachClub, the Cinco Ranch Water Park, the Nature Preserve, Tennis, Lakes with boating and fishing, and the Cinco Ranch Golf Club (which has reduced fees for Cinco Ranch residents).

Heritage Grand - Cinco Ranch is one of the most affordable high amenity neighborhoods in the United States and with it's great weather (average winter high temps of 65 degrees), medical options, shopping options, and nearby amenities....it may be the perfect place for you to fulfill your retirement dreams!