All Forum Posts by: Bryan Noth

Welcome to the BP forums @Andrew Judy!

Tesla has just filed to build another factory near its current Austin campus, likely involved in the production of batteries.  The amount of land initially purchased had many suspecting Tesla may have had larger plans than the Gigafactory alone.  Sources had indicated that Tesla was looking to strengthen vertical integration as a company.  Those suspicions seems to be materializing with this recent news and filing for "Project Cathode".  

Worth noting, Tesla filed for another mystery project last year dubbed "Project Bobcat" last year though details have not emerged on that filing.  

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

@Patty Tran @David Brent @Dan Hunter

The County Tax Assessments have made considerable improvements in the past few years.  Protesting used to be very effective as @Ryan Kelly mentioned. I believe the quality and extent of research the county office does now has dramatically decreased the ROI of protesting. I assume that is what prompted these companies to switch to a hybrid fee model to support some of their time invested. I have personally seen diminished effectiveness of protests for my properties in multiple counties across Austin and San Antonio.

@Aaron Hanson

Might want to tread lightly on what you as the buyer do for preparing the property as it is not yours to clean yet. Sounds like liability to me and @Patrick Britton gave their valuable input as an appraiser. 

Typically sellers prepare for appraisers and it can help but sharp appraisers are looking at the comparable sales and will build their valuation on that (especially if it is residential, commercial and multifamily can have their value determined differently).  

An appraiser determines the value based on the data they have at hand.  For example, let us say there are three recent sales for very similar properties: (1) at $400,000 and (2) at $405,000 and (3) at $500,000.  Many folks jump right to the last number and figure the $500,000 is accurate of the moving market, especially if it is the most recent sale.  However, an appraiser may keep the other two values because that sale data is also accurate of the market trends.  In fact, they could choose to discard the $500,000 altogether or weigh it less because it is an outlier.  

One the companies that was considering the North East Austin multi-billion dollar development has apparently been named by several sources as Applied Materials Inc.

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

@Zain Malik definitely get an attorney involved, and for clarity, I am not an attorney so this is not legal advice:

Typically a property cannot build over or remove a right of access easement but there any many stipulations over how long that has been in place, which of the easement and survey records are indeed accurate, and if street parking is still considered reasonable access.  

@Jerel Ehlert is a active forum member and local attorney, any input here?

The article notes that the company names have not publicly been disclosed yet but that negotiations were underway with Hutto's Economic Development Committee.  This happens to be quite close to Samsung's recently confirmed plant in Taylor.  

Hutto has already begun to feel a surge of growth and is sandwich between Austin - Round Rock to the West and Taylor to the East.  The projected site sits right along highway 79 (running East to West) and connects directly to toll road 130 which circumvents Austin along the Eastern border and has been eyed for many major distributors and manufacturers.  

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

Free article link here for the Pearson Ranch Development in North Austin, site plan photos included as well:

https://www.kvue.com/article/m...

@Mike B. and @Carson T.

The surrounding suburbs are certainly gaining traction.  Lago Vista was 'out there' 10 years ago, Manor used to be 'the country', Taylor was a quaint historic remote town.  

I think some stretches have potential, but Temple/Killeen as an option to Austin may be more of a stretch, especially when you have towns like Jarrell in between.  Jarrell has seen enormous growth in recent years and considering you can get a home for 200s to low 300s the proximity to price variable looks strong.  There is also a lot of infill area between Temple and Austin, and 45 minutes only gets you to the suburbs not into the true City of Austin.  

As @Robert Eyers said, the Leander location looks strong as an investment.  It has quite literally been named as a top region for relocation and growth with massive projects currently in development.  I would not let go of that property personally.  

However, if your goals are incontrovertibly tied to maximizing cash flow, then the Temple area certainly runs much higher in the rent to purchase price ratio.  

This is a collosal development project in Northwest Austin and in a rapidly expanding growth sector near the new Apple Campus.  The project when fully completed in 10-15 years will have:

• 2.6 million square feet of class A office space
• 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurants
• 2 hotels
• Thousands of high end residences
• 30 designated acres for parks

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...