Killeen Fort Hood Real Estate News

Home for rent in Killeen

redoak — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:27:23 +0000

Rosita Oak Drive, Killeen, TX

# of bedrooms: 4

# of bathrooms: 2

Approx. Sq. Ft.: 1671

Rent: $1250

Security Deposit: $850

Pets: Dogs allowed, $250 deposit for each (non-refundable)

Four bedroom ENERGY STAR home in the Spanish Oaks Subdivision available 1 June: Ten minutes from Fort Hood. Master bath has garden tub and separate shower, twin closets and twin sink vanity. All kitchen appliances included, exceptional cabinet space, large kitchen dining with bay window, separate utility room, covered patio, six foot privacy fence, lots of mature trees Subdivision has HOA paid by owner and park. City supplied trash can.

Does advertising on Facebook pay?

redoak — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:45:21 +0000

Almost 1 billion users log into Facebook at least once a month, but the company itself makes a miniscule profit for each account, and makes most of its money through allowing companies to advertise on their page. However companies are complaining that it is difficult to make efficient use of Facebook. GM has said that it will stop advertising on Facebook by mid-summer because ad agencies and third-party companies stated that the company wasn’t getting enough returns through Facebook advertising to justify a $10 million annual investment. A spokesperson for GM’s advertising claims that Facebook does not entice costumers to consider the advertisers products. This doesn’t mean that GM won’t have a Facebook page for its brand and model but it won’t pay for anymore advertising on the site.

On the opposite side of the scale, Ford Motor Co. wants to increase spending on Facebook advertising this year because they believe that Facebook gives the company an opportunity to build long-term relationships with customers. The company loves the way their news stories fit into the subsribers news feed because they are in the center rather than in a right-hand column. A spokesman for the company says that the success of the Facebook ads should not be measured by numbers of clicks or a single transaction but rather a holistic relationship with a potential customer.

From our experience, while it isn’t a complete waste of money to advertise on Facebook, there is a much cheaper way to generate advertising on Facebook, and that is through Word-of-Mouth (WOM) advertising. This is when someone samples/buys your product/service and are satisfied with the quality of your offering and tell their friends and families about the experience they had at your business. Facebook is PERFECT for this because it allows WOM to travel much faster than it would be in any other medium, and the best part is that it is free. The people that you might reach will be less than it would be if you were t

Killeen City Council to meet for the first time since recall

redoak — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:26:46 +0000

A full council was sworn in Tuesday for the first official meeting of the Killeen City Council since a recall election removed five members in November. New Killeen mayor Dan Corbin and five council memberswere sworn in after Saturday’s election results were made official. Council members taking the oath office were Wayne Gilmore and José Segarra from districts 1 and 2; and Elizabeth Blackstone, Jonathan Okray and Jared Foster, the three at-large members.

Mayor Dan Corbin urged the council to gave city staff guidance on protocol for city meetings. Corbin suggested that all council meetings and workshops should be televised and archived online. He also requested that the start of workshop meetings be moved from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to allow working people the opportunity to attend those sessions. All of these moves were made to improve municipal government transparency, lack of transparency was one of the main reasons why the mayor and five other city council members were recalled.

Prior to the swearing in ceremony, former Mayor Timothy Hancock announced that 38 voters within District 2 were given incorrect ballots that did not give those residents an option to vote in the District 2 council race, however since Segarra won the race by 80 votes, the ballots had no effect on the outcome of the election.

Home for rent in Copperas Cove

redoak — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:37:50 +0000

2202 Scott, Copperas Cove

# of bedrooms: 3

# of bathrooms: 2.5

Sq. Ft.: 1906

Rent: $1250

Security Deposit: $800

Pets: At owners discretion, $250 deposit each

Letter about home refinancing draws caution from HH broker

redoak — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:07:42 +0000

Here is a copy of my letter to the editor of the Killeen Daily Heard.

To the Editor:

I would like to comment on the Letter to the Editor date May 5 (regarding refinancing home loans through the VA).

After reading, I have to say not so fast. Refinancing is not for everyone and is not something to jump in to blindly. Before seeking out a refi one has to answer a few questions. The most important one is: Are you planning on staying in the home at least five more years? This fundamental question will point to the practicality of a refi.

You have to compare the fees to refi to the actual savings. Whatever it costs to refi, it is a loss that has to be paid before any savings are realized. So if it costs $8,000 to refi and your monthly savings are $75.00, it will take 107 payments to be rid of the fee and then you can see savings. That is well over eight years.

The first place to look when you want to refi is the bank that holds your mortgage. They may have a “streamline” program to refi. This will save you many of the costs such as appraisal and survey fees. Those two alone count for around $1,000.00 in refi fees. Also be prepared to change the term of the note to 15 years. The shorter the note the better chance you will have to save a lot of interest. Fees for refi are generally added to the balance of the note at the time of the refi.

This leads to the second question: Are you in a position to absorb the refi fee. If you have a VA guaranteed loan, more than likely your VA funding fee was added to your mortgage and it takes a number of years to get that paid off so that you can begin building equity. This usually takes two or three years.

At this point, if you refi, you are once again going in the red and can stay there for a lot longer than a few years. The third question is: What is the likelihood that you will be selling in the next five years. If the answer is very likely, refi is definitely not for you. When you put your house on the market you will have a whole new set of fees that can easily pass ten thousand dollars. So who does a refi fit? It is a homeowner that has substantial equity in the home to absorb the fees from the refi and potential sale of the home. A safe number is 20% of the current market value of the home. It is the homeowner who is in their retirement home. That is planning to stay at least ten more years. It is the home owner that will realize an interest rate decrease of at least 1.25% and can move to a fifteen year note.

Please, do your homework before you jump. There are many offers out there that will tell you that you will have no out of pocket expenses, and you can even skip a payment. That is very true, but what is the whole truth? Be wary of the offers that come in the mail or emails. Talk to someone local and face to face in addition to a VA loan officer.

China’s tamer inflation is not all good news

redoak — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:22:23 +0000

In April, inflation rose 3.6% according to the Chinese government’s National Bureau of Statistics, which is down from 3.8% in March. This is a signal that the massive inflation in China is slowing down, which is an obvious relief to Chinese consumers whose wages have slowly increased but not enough to match the pace of inflation. Inflation cooling off in China is good news but there were some bad news on the production front. The pace of industrial growth in April fell to 9.3% which is more than two percentage points lower than the March figures of 11.9%. In fact all of the industrial sectors saw slowing growth, from light and heavy industry to state-owned facilities to even facilities that are funded by foreign countries.

The main concern the Chinese government had during the country’s rapid economic expansion was dealing with inflation. However due to the recent reports of their economy cooling off, efforts might be made to boost their own economy rather than tame inflation. The pace of industrial growth is a signal of concern because in April the projected rate was 12.9%, with the real figures being more than THREE percentage points lower than the expected rate. Weaker growth in industrial production along with less inflation can signal that there is a slowing in spending (production matches demand) and lending. The People’s Bank of China has focused this year on freeing up credit by gradually injecting funds into the money supply and cutting reserve requirements for banks. The problem with this strategy is that it doesn’t help cool off inflation, in fact it increases the pace of inflation. The goal for the Chinese government is f

Property Tax Appeal Procedures

redoak — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:27:41 +0000

Property owners have the right to protest actions concerning how their property tax appraisals. If you feel an appraisal value is incorrect, contact the appraisal district office in your area, for example Killeen’s office is (254-634-9752). The local appraiser will discuss the appraised value of the property and the how the value was estimated to you. If the local appraisers explanation doesn’t satisfy your inquiries, you may have your case heard by the appraisal review board (ARB). The ARB is an independent board of ordinary citizens that reviews appraisal protests. They can order the county appraisal district (CAD) to make the necessary changes.

At the hearing, you or your agent may present evidence physically (or notarized) for the ARB board to review, a CAD representative will do the same. The ARB board will make its decision based on the evidence presented, often the CAD has the burden of establishing the property’s value with the majority of the evidence presented. Don’t try and contact ARB members outside of the hearing as it is against the law.

After the ARB decides your case, they will send you a copy of the order by mail. If you’re not satisfied with the decision you must file an appeal within 60 days if the date you received the boards order. The case may be reviewed by the District Court, Binding Arbitration or State Office of Administrative Hearings. All appeals require payment of certain fees and deposits. For more information on the subject, contact your local appraisal office.

Manufacturing jobs finally coming to the U.S.

redoak — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:20:05 +0000

For decades, manufacturting jobs in the U.S. had been outsourced to Latin American and Asia. Many blame free trade agreements such as NAFTA but outsourcing began long before then, in the 1970s. Outsourcing is seen by many as a global “race to the bottom” in which what determines where manufacturing jobs lie is how low the workforce is willing to be paid. In order to adjust domestic workers resort to lower wages to compensate. The movement of manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. ironically during the Great Recession. Examples of companies building factories in the U.S. are Caterpillar, who is building a $120 million plant in Victoria, Texas. Masterlock has agreed to move 300 jobs back to the U.S. from China. General Electric (GE) has decided to reinvest in refurbishing existing facilities in the U.S. to be more environmentally friendly. Whirlpool has decided to build a $200 million plant in Tennessee instead of Asia. The result of insourcing has lead to a $40 billion increase in exports since 2010.

The question is of course why are companies relocating jobs to the U.S. rather than continuing to outsource to Asia or Latin America. Some point to the fact that China’s rapidly improving economy has led to an increase in salaries and expected salaries as well as new regulations and high energy costs have made the cost-cutting benefits of outsourcing neglible. However just because there is a growth of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. doesn’t mean that the U.S. will have as many manufacturing jobs before outsourcing. The main reason is because of robotics, well-progammed machines have lessened the quantity of factory workers needed to create the products. Rote assembly lines, low value-added manufacturing like textiles, furniture and heavy smelting operations like the steel industry may never again be profitable in the way they were after World War II. The labor force has always been able to adapt to new challenges and morph themselves into a workforce that meets the demands of future employers.

Fort Hood wins two environmental awards

redoak — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:48:05 +0000

Fort Hood was the recipient of 2012 Secretary of Defense Environmental Awards, which recognizes the efforts of the recycling team and Fort Hood as a whole. Of all of the U.S. military installations, Fort Hood was the only one to receive multiple awards (there were 10 total available). The awards recognized Fort Hood’s environmental quality as a non-industrial installation and the recycle team for environmental quality on the individual or team level.

Fort Hood is working to close its landfills by 2020, and many of these efforts were included in the award submission packet. The installation award is to recognize some of the many outreach efforts and systems used to educate the community and improve the environment. Some of the outreach programs include annual events such as Earth Fest in April, American Recycles Day in November and working with local youth organizations.

During fiscal years of 2010 and 2011, the recycle program generated $4.12 million with Defense Re-utilization and Marketing Service sales assistance, according to the award application provided by Fort Hood. The money generated from recycling helped pay for the program, as well as capital improvements and other community projects, such as Freedom Fest fireworks, welcome-home celebrations and carnivals. During the same time period, $428,000 was provided to support Fort Hood pollution prevention projects and $164,000 for the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation events. Fort Hood will receive the award in June, along with three other awards from Keep Texas Beautiful.

Home prices lower than never

redoak — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:19:54 +0000

If you ever wanted to buy a home, you probably won’t find homes any cheaper than they are now. Since 2006, housing prices are down 34%, asupply-demand adjustment to the housing bubble. It is likely though that the prices won’t stay this low forever and that the housing market could bottom out. With declining foreclosures, continuing job growth and an increase in construction could signal that the housing slump has flattened out. Some economists such as Stuart Hoffman (chief economist for PNC financial) believe that the housing market will flatten in the third quarter and start climbing next year. Other economists are even more optimistic like Jed Kolko (economist for Trulia’s) who believe that home prices will increase during the summer.

Even though as stated earlier, the low housing prices combined with the low interest rates won’t stay low forever, that doesn’t mean that the rosy forecasts of the economist forementioned will come true. This is especially true if the recovery fizzles and the economy becomes stagnant. Since the Great Recession began, many economists have ventured a guess as to when the housing market will bottom out, some said in the summer of 2009, others said in 2010, 2011 etc. The fact of the matter remains is that as long as the U.S. economy is weak (weak being used subjective here), consumers are unsure if they’ll keep their jobs and the mortgage debt is not cleared out, there is no clear indication that the housing prices will raise in the coming year. What is certain however is that buying a home is cheaper than ever and in fact in many areas around the country, buying is cheaper than renting.