Friday, January 22, 2010

Notes from Austin Preview Trip

Notes from Austin Preview Trip

Matt and Amy Weseloh

January 2010

 

We took a preview trip to Austin, Texas from January 16th to January 20th 2010.

Why? Matt's employer is centralizing to Austin and has offered a relocation option.

 

The Situation

Matt and Amy Weseloh (and family) live in Watertown, South Dakota.

Their oldest son attends college in Watertown.

Their middle son is a Senior at a local church-based private high school.

Their youngest son is a freshman at a local church-based private high school.

 

They have previously lived in the Dallas Texas area from 1998 to 2005.

 

The Trip Goals

1) Experience Austin firsthand

2) Learn about real estate in the area

3) Learn about the high schools in the area

4) Learn about churches in the area

5) Learn about the employer site


Results

1) Experience Austin Firsthand

We timed our trip so that it included a holiday and would give us one more day to explore the area.  We had both time and budget constraints for this preview trip so our choices (free and cheap) reflect that.

 

There's a lot of free and cheap available in Austin - by the way!

 

First of all - look at our Google Map for highlighted places we experienced.


 

Second of all - review our pictures and their captions



 

Third - get an Austin Visitor's kit from the Austin Visitor's Center


We also recommend getting the GoLocal Austin card which entitles you to discounts at many area merchants and restaurants.

You can either get a card online through the Visitor's Center "Deluxe Visitor's Package" (that's what we did) or pick one up at almost any merchant that lets you use one.


An excellent map for visitors is this one (which we picked up at the Visitor's Center on 6th Street)
http://www.mapamerica.com/Austin

 

As you can see

- we dined (at a lot of unique, neat and not too expensive places - and we just scratched the surface)

- we drove (all around the Austin area in all kinds of traffic - it's all there depending on where and when you're going)

- we hiked (a tiny bit around Mount Bonnell and downtown - and found there are miles and miles of opportunity in and around Austin)

- we listened (we caught free live music at the airport, at Hickory Street Bar and Grill and Flipnotics Coffeespace)

- we watched (a movie at Alamo Drafhouse, people in general - Austin is a melting pot)

- we worshipped (at Holy Word Lutheran in Austin)

We got re-aquainted with both Texas drivers (fast - turn signals optional) and Texas roads (Texas exits/entrances and the unique u-turns under overpasses).


FYI - Our GPS was an invaluable tool to find all of our destinations.

There's a lot of being in the right (or left) lane at the right time...

There are some toll roads - so have some spare change along just in case it's on your way somewhere.

We managed to avoid all of them.

 


One of Austin's slogans is "Keep Austin Wierd".  That's about right - the uniqueness (or wierdness) shows up in all sorts of places.


2) Learn about real estate in the area

We had two realtors recommended to us before our trip and we had both of them "show us around" both the area and a few selected homes that were for sale - just so we could get a feel for things.  We had too many unknowns to get really specific - but it was a very useful few hours spent with each.

 

Here is their contact info:

Jay Ferguson (recommended by company people who moved to Austin last year from Oregon)

Relocation Specialist, CNE

Keller Williams Realty

ph. 512 844 4065



 

Mary Patterson (recommended by local people in the church)

Realtor, GRI, ABR, ASP

Keller Williams Realty

ph. 512 689 4264


 

We were impressed by both and would be happy leveraging either one as we pursue things further.

Because of her affiliation with our church (Mary is the pastor's wife) we will probably continue with her.

We found each to have their own approach and opinions (of course). 

 

We received some PDFs of pertinent area information from Jay and I've put them in the Google docs folder.  

- Austin Area Map

- ActivitiesAndFamilyFun

- 100ThingsToDoInAustin

- Parks and Nature Preserves

 

3) Learn about the high schools in the area

We gathered lots of opinions about the schools in the area and combined it with the information online about the schools.

 

We wanted to get real information from real parents of students in the schools - so we tapped into both corporate employees and parents with high school age kids at the area churches.  This is just the beginning of this information gathering process.  It's a little more intensive for us because we're coming out of a small and private school situation - and are looking at the large and public schools.

 

We understand - so far -

- Your public school is directly connected to your homes location

- Since the population (and tax base) is growing - they are bulding/expanding the schools on the north/west sides constantly

- Different schools have specialties - medical, engineering, fine arts, science, etc. - and of course sports

- A new high school typically is filled by taking the new students and building it one grade at a time (instead of forcing kids to move from existing schools)

- There are LOTS of extracurricular opportunities

 

Here are some more PDFs of school information as well

- School District Links

- SchoolDistrictsMap

- Private schools List 2008-09 Suzzane

 

4) Learn about churches in the area

Our church family is very important to us and we learned in advance that we have several congregations (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod)  in the Austin area.

 

We attended one on the Sunday morning (Holy Word) after we arrived and visited others.  The Google map shows where they are located.

Contact me to find out more about the WELS churches or look them up on www.wels.net.

 

We found that the church family is a terrific way to learn about the area in advance of your visit.  People are very willing to offer their honest and real-world opinions and suggestions.

 

5) Learn about the employer site

I was able to tap into some employees who have recently gone through the relocation process to Austin (moving from Corvallis, Oregon in 2009)

 

These two people responded to my request for information and were very helpful.

- Slezak, Lee J

- Johnson, Michael A (Java Guru)

 

The employer site is an old Tandem computers corporate facility and hasn't entirely undergone the transition to the corporate standards trumpeted by our real estate folks.  It's a comparatively small site (compared to Plano's building) and has a wide variety of office and cube styles.  On the first floor I saw the IT executives offices (very nice), a bunch of inside corridor offices (very reminiscent of the old EDS Education building offices in plano), cubes with half-high community walls (like you'd see in a call center) and full-height cubes.  There were also some first-come, first-served mini-rooms where an employee or leader can go to have a private conference call with network access.  There is an employee cafeteria (very small with limited hours) and an on-site exercise room and outdoor pool.  Neither of my contacts have used them or seen anyone using them.

 

The road to the site is in pretty poor shape and the signs are pretty run-down.  Perhaps we're trying to keep a low-key presence since we have a high-tech datacenter next to the office buildling (and behind all the guards and big fences).