Top 5 Ways to be Welcomed to Austin

If you’re moving or thinking of moving to Austin in the near future, Kathy Stafford is here to first welcome, then help. Here are the “Top 5 Things You Should Know When Moving To Austin:”

5. Find a Friend or Two or Three or…You Get The Point

Would you believe there are other ways of finding, making, and maintaining friends outside of Facebook in Austin? A good place to start would be to walk out your front door and say “hi” to the first person you see because with all of the southern hospitality just oozing out of people here in Texas, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t stop and say hi back – there, one friend found. But if you would like to add to that list, here are a few other suggestions:

Just meet up…dot com – Meetup.com is a great place to start. Figure out what you feel like doing today and there is probably a group for that. Wanna go standup paddle boarding in the evenings? There’s a group for that. Wanna meet up, drink beer, and talk about visual design for mobile apps? There’s a group for that. Or do you just feel like meeting new people and doing something different? There’s a group for that!


Volunteer – Find a cause after your own heart and you’re bound to meet someone new. Austin is a large city, but we are an even bigger community. A helping hand can be used in any area of interest you may have – people, animals, music, food, or just picking up trash for the parks to Keep Austin Beautiful – you will be appreciated, feel good about what you did to serve your new city, and meet some new peeps all in one day.

4. There Are Lots of Fun Things To Do With Your New Found Friends

Festivals, festivals, and more festivals – If you haven’t heard, Austin kind of likes music. And with the liking of the music, we like to celebrate it for days on end and we call those celebrations festivals. Just around the corner to kick off the fall is the 2012 Austin City Limits Music Festival – three days, hundreds of bands, thousands of people, countless amounts of fun to be had…and that’s just one celebration. Then wait six months, and here comes SXSW. If a sea of crowds isn’t your thing, map out the closest coffee shop from your new crib and chances are someone with a guitar will be belting some live tunes within the near future.
So there’s this thing called brunch – All the cool kids are doing it and so should you. No kidding, search “brunch in Austin” and you won’t go wrong. Start from the top of the page and make it your month’s goal to try a new one every weekend. We love food here in the ATX, but brunch has a special place in all our hearts.

The choices are endless – At any given moment, something fun is going on in Austin. A favorite place to start is the events page on Austin360.

3. Fitness is Not an Option – You’ve made some friends, you’ve had some food, now you need to go work it off!

Lady Bird Lake, formally known as “Town Lake,” is a must. For one, it’s smack dab in the middle of downtown with city and hill country views in one spot. If you’re a runner or cyclist you’ve got anywhere from 1.2 to 10.3 miles of trails to run. If you love the water, there’s kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing (but wouldn’t recommend eating), and more. There’s an off-the-leash section of dog-park for you and pooch to roam and mingle. Soccer, volleyball, disc golf, you name it, someone’s doing it.
We’re so fit we have a magazine – Austin Fit Magazine is a great reference for what is going on with the Austin outdoors – from yoga, to races, for beginners, to the elites don’t be afraid to break a sweat and get out there.
Just ask Krisstina – Founder and CEO of The GoodLife Team, Krisstina Wise, was nominated for the Fittest Entrepreneur Award earlier this year. Having a full-time life does not keep Krisstina from leading a fit life and believes that “health is a foundational element to true success.” Click here to read more on Krisstina Wise’s ideas of health, fitness, and being an entrepreneur.

2. You Should Rest…Your Head…We Mean Real Estate... How to find the perfect Austin home for you!

Step one – Ask, answer, repeat.

Q: How will I know when the right time to buy is?
A: You will feel it. Or your family will tell you! Timing the real estate market to find the single most perfect time is like timing the stock market. You’ll never really know the “perfect” time until it’s already happened. So listen to your instincts. Everyone knows when they’re ready for a change. Sometimes fear of the unknown or of the complexity of the real estate market hold people back. I train our agents to ask enough questions to get to the core of why a person is moving. If we can understand what role moving will play in creating your “GoodLife” then we can help you act on that instinctual feeling you have to move.
Q: How will I know where to look?
A: First, think about what part of town you enjoy spending time in. Is it central Austin? Out in one of the suburbs? One of the cities nearby? Then start online and see if there is any housing in your price range. One of our associates can then help you investigate the housing in the area and if it’s not affordable for you, slowly expand the circle from your favorite area until you hit the housing that fits into your budget.
Q: What else should I know about the Austin housing market?
A: You should know that the media is almost always 6 months behind the curve on their reporting of what’s happening in the market. You should know many parts of Austin are seller’s markets but not all areas. You should know interest rates are still low. You should know that even though more homes are on the market in the spring, there are still plenty of great choices and if you’re in the market now, you won’t be competing with as many buyers for those homes as you would in the spring. And you should know that our company loves navigating you through all of this as we work toward playing our part in building your great experience

Step two – Contact Me! 512-626-9559

1. Oh, You Want a Job Too? Sure! – Whatever type of businessperson you are, you’ll fit right in.

Big business– Public education, government, technology, health care, and higher education are just some of the big businesses Austin can claim on its resume. The Austin Chamber of Commerce is a good guide for names of employers and numbers of employees. According to the recent Comerica Regional Economic Update, our flourishing technology division is driving the growth of Austin’s local economy.
“After a dip in income growth in Q1 2012, Austin incomes rebounded in the second quarter, to a 4.5 percent annualized rate. As the Austin job market continues to expand, the metro area should see full year 2012 income growth bordering 5 percent, about 1 percent higher than the national forecast,” states Comerica.
After recording a 5.9 percent unemployment rate for the second quarter, Austin is expected to gradually decrease the rest of the year and into 2013 and 2014.
Not really in to “the man”? – Great, because Austin thrives on it’s small, local businesses. We wouldn’t be the city we are without them and we love to shop local. And not to brag, but we were named 2011’s No. 1 of “The 10 Hottest Spots to Start a Small Business” by the Fiscal Times.