From BMWs To Boots: Finding Real Estate Rhythm In Texas Small Towns

Small town Texas has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute you’re ordering deer corn on Amazon, the next you’re swapping a BMW for a Bronco and timing showings around dirt roads and sunset traffic on two-lane highways. We pull back the curtain on life and real estate just beyond Austin, where Smithville, Bastrop, Lockhart, La Grange, and Taylor each offer a different blend of history, community, and opportunity.

We dig into what actually changes when you buy or sell outside the city: wildlife exemptions and what they require, how “paved road access” affects value, and why water and utilities can make or break a subdivision. You’ll hear why film crews love Smithville’s preserved storefronts, how Bastrop delivers genuine farm-to-table, and what makes Winchester’s post office moonlight as a steakhouse worth the drive. Then we unpack the big forces reshaping the map—Lockhart’s growing artist scene, Samsung’s arrival in Taylor, and the infrastructure investments pushing land prices from modest to eye-widening.

This is a story about fit as much as financing. We talk candidly about culture: how closed circles open under growth pressure, why local relationships still decide how smooth a deal runs, and what it means to show up prepared—from boots to backroad etiquette. If you’re craving quiet nights, creative energy, and a reachable airport, these towns can deliver the sweet spot between charm and convenience. And if you’re selling, learn how to position rural features that urban buyers skip right past, like fiber lines, well performance, and driveway access.

Curious where your lifestyle belongs on the map? Tap play, take a scenic ride through Central Texas real estate, and discover the town that sounds like you. Enjoy the conversation? Subscribe, share with a friend who’s house hunting beyond the city, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Theme

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the House Next Door. With Barbara Gillio. And Anthony Harris. Where real estate meets reality.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Yes, welcome back. So what are we talking about today? We're gonna talk about small town charm. And the small.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

And I think you're new to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

I am new to small town.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

I think you traded in the BMW for a Bronco.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I did. And I am I am new to small town charm. I thought that living in Liberty Hill, I'd have a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

No, it was in a very manicured neighborhood. You know, it was a good one.

Deer Corn, Wildlife Rules, And The “Amazon Test”

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I'm gonna get to the best part already. We're just gonna no spoiler. Barbara called me the other day and she's trying to get her ag exemption for her house. And she wildlife exemption.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I have to keep it. I have it, but I have to keep it in place. So I have to prove that I am taking care of the wildlife that is traipsing around.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Apparently, she bought deer corn and salt.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yes, these salt licks for the deer, mineral salt licks.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And so then she asked a neighbor or something, and the neighbor was like, Oh, you can't do that. You can't feed the deer.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Yeah, that wasn't part of my exemption.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Barbara calls me and says that she needs to take back her deer corn. I was like, Well, where did you get it? And she was like, Amazon?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yeah, I Amazoned it. I don't know why that's so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

But it you think I guess because I was raised in Bath Shop, I would have never thought to Amazon deer corn would be a good one. Well, that is very suburban of me. We go to the feed store that's on Main Street in Chestnut. We go pick up the deer. Well, it's not even Main Street, it's like Farm Street. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Well farm, yeah. Well, and I know I could have gone to tractor supply, but I was like, it's so much easier just to Amazon deer corn, right? And then I don't have to lift it.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Well, then I was like, so how are you going to return it? Are you gonna go take it to the UPS store and drop down 40-pound bags of deer corn? How many did you buy?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Just one. Okay, that's not too bad. It's not that bad, but yes, I eat Amazon deer corn, and I I do now in retrospect look at that. I'm thinking, yeah, that's a very suburban thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I think we should do a poll.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

How many people Amazon livestock feed? Yeah. Or livestock items.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Well, I know my sister does.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So where does she live?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

She lives in Shandon, California, which is very rural. Sounds she ordered an ultrasound machine for her goats from Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So let's do a poll. I think there's a way for us to do a poll, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So go to our website, housenextdoor tx.com.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

And somehow, some way there might be a poll there.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yep. And tell us if you think that it is too city slicker to order livestock supplies, farm equipment, livestock supplies on Amazon. Because I think it's fine. But Anthony has shamed me. He has shamed me.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Maybe, maybe the consensus of our audience is that it's completely fine and that's the new way of doing it.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, maybe it's not, but maybe it should be.

Geographic Competence In Small Town Real Estate

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So look at us. I know perfect.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Um so yes, we're gonna talk about small town life and small town real estate, um, outside of a major city like Austin, where we live, because we're in Austin selling houses and doing real estate all the time.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

And the unique thing is that our area, every little town around us, is very different.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, very unique. It's not like Austin. Austin is its own little beach.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

But Austin's its own.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

And then it's kind of fun to still sell in Austin, but when you're in these smaller towns, you finally get to tap into these areas where normally I wouldn't sell because I didn't have the geographic competency. You didn't know about oil rights or yeah, you gotta know about uh you have to know how to pronounce the names of the towns.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Carmine, Car Car Carmeen, Carmeen, not Carmine, Carmeen.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

And I always want to say it's Fayette County, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

No, you call it Fayette.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

I want to call it Fayette country.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Fayette, Fayette, Fayette. It's Fayette.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

It's Fayette County.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Fayette's the real way.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

But I want to say Fayette because it sounds better. So, you know, things you need to know before you sell real estate. Gotta be able to pronounce the names right. But typically I wouldn't sell in Bassdrop, Elgin, Lagrange, Carmi.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

And Lagrange is becoming your new area.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

I'm in Lagrange all the time now. But when I was in Liberty Hill, or even when I was in Cedar Park, I would never come down this way because I just didn't know it. And you kind of have to live here to know it. Yeah. And places that you know that I would also work up in Temple and when I was up in Liberty Hill, which is a northern area, and you gotta you don't have to live there to know it, but you really do need to be there and know it.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

The agents are very different there.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Very different. Yes, extremely different.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

And Waco, heaven forbid.

Film Sets, Historic Charm, And Smithville Highlights

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah, it's just a whole different piece. So you really there are places where I go that's outside my geographic. But it's been really interesting to now being on this side of Austin, the more southeast side, and I've been in the northwest side, I feel like I have all these small towns that I have geographic confidence in. Yep. And it's really cool to to sell in them. And also just to you meet people and you're like, oh, your personality would just be perfect for Georgetown. You're a Georgetown person, or you are gonna love Bath Shop. Where before I couldn't, I didn't have that geographic reach. And it's so cool because these towns, like you said, they're each one is very, very different. And for people who don't live in Texas, this might be kind of boring, but probably get a thumbs down on this review. It's it's just uh about small town living.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I think the the goal of this podcast is just to show the charm in each of these areas for the people that are looking to relocate to Austin or to the Austin area, and they're not familiar with the neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Um it's Smithville in particular, is where we are, is uh I just love how much historic charm there is. It looks like it's a film, and yeah, and the film industry is always here. There's been so many films like The Hope Floats Home, and then there was gosh, what was that one? There was another film.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Friday Night Lights was filmed in Smithville, yeah, part of it, and Transformers.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Golf. There was a golf movie that was filmed here because they needed it to look 1950s, and the downtown still looks 1950s. It has really retained star Bernie.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

That's a movie. I don't know if it ever caught on. It has Jet Black in it.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

I've never even heard of Bernie. Was that filmed here? Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

It's funny because I was watching it with one of my friends and I knew about it, but it wasn't coming to my mind that it was Bernie, the one that was filmed here, and we're watching it, and I was like, that looks like Bass Drop. Right. And he's like, That looks like Lufkin. And I was like, That looks so much like Bathstrop or Smithville.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

I googled it, I was like, Oh, I knew this.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, and I think the film industry loves this area because it it is so quaint and charming, and it feels like a Hallmark.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

We had a Hallmark movie filmed in downtown Bathrop.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

You did?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Uh-huh. Angel Swings?

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Oh, is that the one that they had to create snow when it was like summertime?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yes, it's the middle of June, 105 degrees outside, and they had kids in puffer jackets.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Oh my god, you gotta love it. Why didn't they at least film when it was January? I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, the film industry loves this area just because it's so quaint, historic, charming. I mean, I love just walking down town bathrop, and there's this restaurant called the Storehouse that I love. And then next to it is this copper shop place where you can get like it's potato, sweet potato moonshine drinks, and they are amazing. I I know it sounds like really kind of like redneck, but it is so good. And then you can just meander down to the bookstore, the painted porch bookstore.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

And they have a cat inside.

Off-Road Showings And Country Gear Reality

SPEAKER_01 7:56

They do, they have cats and they have book clubs, and there's just it feels like small town America. Yep. But then at the same time, I'm like, I gotta get into Austin, and it's you know, forty 40 minutes away. Yep. No big deal.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

And that's the beauty of and from Bath Shop, it's 30, 25, yeah. You you just the airport's yeah, you're you're right there by the airport.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

It just Formula One feels like you're in this whole other world, but you're really in a major city. Yeah, just on the outskirts, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yep. Um, and the unique thing about our area too is we're in between Austin and Houston. Houston's and two hours away.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Um two and a half. It's an easy straight shot though. Going 75 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

If you're going to Lagrange, Lagrange, it's only an hour away.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

And or an hour and a half away, it's it's not bad at all. And Lagrange is this cool so LeGrange is famous for Z Top song, right? But it's really famous for the the Chicken Ranch, which was the whorehouse. The best little whorehouse in Texas.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

And so Z Z Top wrote a song about the whorehouse. And I showed a house, or not a house, but a really cool property where they were saying the ceiling fans were from the chicken ranch in the Grange. Yeah. So it was this, it was this old sign shop.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

And Bass Trop has um the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yes. So I drive by that on my way to my house. So every time I drive to my house, I drive by the gas station where the original Texas chainsaw massacre was that was the gas station where they stopped. And so if you go in in there and it's a tourist attraction, it was packed for Halloween, and they have like you know, macabre stuff hanging up. And is it you can rent one of the Airbnbs?

SPEAKER_00 9:38

No, thank you. I will stay at my house.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

But yeah, it's a it's a destination. I get stuck behind people who are looking for it, and I'm like, just go, just turn. I know what you're looking for. I need to get home.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

No more bleeps in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

So far, no more bleeps or shag carpet. Yes, or shag carpet. None of that today. Hey, I was showing out in um Carmin yesterday, and it was Is that the one that you put on your story? Yes.

Winchester’s Post Office Steakhouse

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Like you really have progressed into the small town realtor. Yes, and it was so cool because one So the pictures like just of her hood in the middle of this lot that has trees and out in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Out in the middle of nowhere, and it's so cool now. I have a Bronco. I used to drive fancy BMW because that's just what I did.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

The Joneses drove.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I lived, I mean, I lived in fancy suburbia. I mostly was in Austin and Georgetown and Leander and Liberty Hill, and I just I never went off a paved road. Okay. Now that I live in small town.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Small town, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

I am small. I am off-roading quite a bit, even when I don't mean to.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Even when it's a paved road.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Even when it's a paved road. And so I was showing this a lot in That's one of our selling points. There was a paved road. Yes, that is. That is actually a feature, a selling feature, because this did not have a paved road. It's grass. And so you're just bumpity bumpity bumping. I'm so glad I have my Bronco because I I could not do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

In the BMW.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah. And I can't show up in heels or anything like that. No, it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Do you even own a pair of heels?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

I do, but I don't wear them anymore.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Oh, on your video that you just posted had the green heels. I was reading the comment, and someone was like, When I saw these shoes, I thought of Barbara, and then it was Barbara's video.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

It was my video, and I have those shoes. They're so cool. It's you know, now I wear boots and I have to spray my boots with bug spray because I get chickers so bad.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Is that normal? Yeah, well, I've never heard of anybody spraying their boots with so that might be a new suburban country thing. But it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, you have to spray your boots with bug spray because when you're but we're also proud of our boots.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

We're not putting bug spray on our boots.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Oh well, mine aren't fancy.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Mine are work boots.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah, mine aren't like what is it, Lucesi's or whatever. You can tell I don't know any name brands of anything.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Mine are Ariot. Or is it Ariot?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

I don't know. But mine are just cute. They have cactuses on them, but they're work boots. And I have to wear, you know, I have to spray them because I get chickers that go all up my legs and then bite my legs. And then this time when I came home, I took my boots off outside but brought them in so I didn't get copperhead snakes in them because we have copperheads out here. And that's another small town thing I'm having to adjust to.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Uh-huh.

Local Dining Culture And A Memorable Wine Fiasco

SPEAKER_01 12:17

And then I immediately hosed my legs off. So with like really strong sew, so I wouldn't get chickers. And you know what? So far, so good. No chickers. And it's been 48 hours. So these are things I didn't have to deal with in Georgetown.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

And let's talk about Winchester.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Oh, yes. Winchester. I drove through Winchester on the way.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

And you've been to the restaurant, right? Yes. Murphy's. And so Winchester has this post office, the Winchester Post Office, but it's also a steakhouse. The post office is open during the day, and then at the evening it's a steakhouse. And I I think that more people come on the evenings than actually live in the town.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

And they have a bean bar.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Oh, yeah, they do. They have a great salad bar, and it it's not much for atmosphere.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

It is kind of a whole it is though, because you have a post office. That's that's old. And all the artifacts that they have inside the building, like they literally have things from 1900.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

That's but it's not a tape like white tablecloth situation. It's more of a vinyl tablecloth situation. And it which is fine. This is not like a classy choin or anything, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

But it's so good.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

It's so good. And the steaks are so reasonably priced. I mean, you can get a huge steak.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

And they're good.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

And it's so good. And the drive out there, it's so pretty. You've got all these uh prairie lands and you know deer that are eating Amazon deer corn. It's very fat on it. And horses and bales of hay and old barns. Again, it's like two-lane highway. It's this picturesque moment driving out there and then kind of go into this, you know, edgy, and by edgy I mean more uh rustic edgy, you know, not fancy.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, rustic, rustic, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

You know, we we have wine choices, red and white.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

If that it's not they're probably old wine. Yeah, probably never.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So it's it's not where you're, you know, it's not Austin.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

They don't have champagne.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

No, but that's that's the charm.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

When you ask for it, what did they look at you like?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I didn't. I knew better after you know, ordering Amazon corn online. I'm not ordering Prosecco at Murphy's Steakhouse. But yeah, my kids, they they come from Austin to go to Murphy's and they'll yeah my grandpa comes from Dallas to go. See, it's it's he got and it was on day trippers. Oh, yeah, and so it's gotten national exposure, it's really a cool place. Yeah, and so again, these are all these little treasures that are just hidden outside of Austin.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yep. And and I think Lockhart's becoming so Lockhart's always been the barbecue capital of the world or something.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Because that's the original blacks, right?

unknown 14:59

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

That's where I think so.

Microcosms Around Austin And Georgetown’s Shift

SPEAKER_00 15:01

So apparently there's multiple blacks. There is like part of the black family?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yes. So I think the original one is there. I mean, I'm not a barbecue connoisseur. I know I live in Texas and I'm a realtor and I should.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Do you think Winchester knows that word? Connoisseur.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Connoisseur, no, they don't. No, I don't want to shame. I'm not gonna word shame. I'm not gonna not even word shame. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna shame Murphy Steakhouse now. Speaking of which, my stepdad, who's volatile in public places, he's just gotten to that age where you can't trust him, you know. You just you need to put him on a leash. He's gone to Yes, he's gone to Murphy's several times and we're not taking it.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Does he like it?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

He liked it, and then he got rowdy and said he got bad service and he didn't like his steak, and he was very rude, so now he's not allowed there anymore.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And storehouse, he's not allowed.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

And he's not allowed at the storehouse either because he's rude when he goes to the storehouse, and the storehouse is by far my favorite restaurant. And they're rest you know, they had restaurants in Austin, and they brought this wonderful community to Bass Drop where it's farm to table. Their actual farm is an urban farm on Main Street in Bass Trop, super hyper local, and all the ingredients are from their farm or other local farmers. The meat is from local farmers. I mean, they're all about supporting local farm to table type and all of the I mean, they they come up with the most amazing drinks, they come up with such wonderful cuisine, they do these wine dinners, it's just amazing. It's such a special, magical place. And the people who run it and the people who work there are just kind, wonderful people. And then enters my grouchy Cremungeon stepdad, who just like waves when he wants to pay the bill, he waves his hand and his credit card in the air. He's like, look at the amex, yes, and he and he calls everybody Darlin. He has to fit in, and nobody wants to be called Darlin or Sweetie, or Sweetie, and then he um he takes his glass and he like slams it on the table.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Well, my favorite is when you told me that he poured out his wine on the floor.

Lockhart’s Arts Scene And Rising Prices

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yes, so we were trying orange wine, which I think is amazing, I think it's very good, but it is an acquired taste for some people. I said, Hey, you want to try some to my stepdad? He we were outside, at least we were outside on the patio, but the tables are really close. Yeah, and he took it and he thought it was disgusting, vocalized it, and then threw the wine, just hooked the wine out of the glass onto the bricks, and this couple was sitting next to us having this lovely moment, and their jaws just dropped because they probably got hit by the whole it's a housewives moment. It was a housewives moment, and it was so I was so mortified, so mortified. So now he's not allowed to go there. And if he's going, I'm not going because I don't want to be associated with him. And then and I look I I genuinely love my stepdad, but he cannot go, he cannot go in public places very much anymore. He's just he's just a canteen for his soul.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

And you took him to go look at some land, yes, and he wouldn't even get out of the car.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

So, and that was in Flatonia, which is another really cool small town by, very small, but there's a beautiful flower garden out there, so there's a whole flower farm, and they bring their flowers to the bathstrop farmer's market, and they put them together in these beautiful vases, and it's just gorgeous. And they do they do weddings, they do everything, and they have this whole beautiful flower farm out there.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Five years ago, did you ever think that you'd live in Smithville?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

No, no, never. And I never thought, I didn't even know where Flettonia was.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

You didn't even know that what or Carmine, Carmen, Car Carmine.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Carmine is if you're not local, Carmen is if you're local.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

I'm local and I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah. So there's just it, you know, there's so many cool little places that are their own microcosm that feel like they're a hundred miles away from Austin.

Taylor’s Boom, Samsung, And Water Infrastructure

SPEAKER_00 18:58

And Georgetown, I really like Georgetown.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Yeah, Georgetown's.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Georgetown is and it's a big town.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

I was gonna say Georgetown's not really small anymore.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

No, but it still has that small town feel, like especially downtown.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

The square is always bustling. I feel like so I moved to Georgetown 20 years ago, and that's when it was really nothing very different. You could buy a house down there for, you know, 200,000, one of those beautiful historic homes. And there wasn't really a whole lot on the square. And where um I believe it's Juliet's now, that was sort of a revolving door of restaurants. I think it started as Mona's, but I could be wrong. It was so long ago. My brain is in periomenopause. But they say that that space is haunted, the upstairs in particular, and that's why no restaurants can really stay there for very long. There's so many and that's the one of the things I love so much about Austin is you don't just live in the suburbs or whatever. You can you can be in these little homework towns and and still work and commute if you wanted to Austin. Yeah. And if you don't have to commute, it's really the best of both worlds.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

And Law Cart used to be like Georgetown, nothing. Yeah. And now they have a square and have a pizza store, like fresh pizzas, and then they have a plant store. Yeah, oh, and it's very lively.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Anthony is all about the plants.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I can't keep one alive.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

But he tries. I try better than me.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

I get Ikea ones from Georgetown or from Round Rock.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Round Rock, yeah. And Lockhart's exploding.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

A lot of people musicians are moving there.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yes, and they have really pretty land.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

They do. Um, and they have a gorgeous square, and there's a huge musician community there because they're getting pushed out of Austin because Austin is so expensive. So the artist community's gotta go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

It's starting to get expensive in lock art, too.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

It is, yeah, yeah. And then I kind of feel like that's what's gonna happen, maybe to LaGrange, because it's very affordable there, it's very cool, quaint. It could hit the next growth big time.

Closed Circles, Culture Shifts, And Agent Fit

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Well, and it just makes sense because we're growing out. And uh Taylor was another town I wanted to talk about. Oh, yeah. Taylor has seen Take us home with Taylor. Taylor has seen growth in the last five years that has and Bash Trop, I think, too, because whenever Tesla and SpaceX and Elon Musk companies came in, it really blew up our town. And that's happening in Taylor right now. So there was no new home subdivisions, now there's probably 20. They're and it the problem over there, and I think it's become a problem everywhere, is water supply, making sure that we have water to these rural communities that are able. And they've Samsung is coming out to Taylor, and so they've put a lot of money in infrastructure to make sure that's nice and sustainable.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

That's good that they do that because I remember 20 years ago when I first moved to Texas from California. Yes, I'm one of those, but I did it 20 years ago. So before it was cool, before it was cool. Um, there was nothing, there was a really cool barbecue place there, and you know, and uh I can't even remember the name of it, but it was very like rustic, yeah, and it was so good, and that was about it, you know, and just some old houses. And then when I started doing real estate, I would showed some land and houses out there, but it was still it was I mean, it's so quiet. And I heard the you know, kind of the rumor of if you know they they're kind of closed off to people who aren't from Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Oh, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

And you know, if you've been there 15 years, they still don't consider you a local. And so to have this come in to a town that's kind of closed off like that and protects their charm and protects their city, to have Samsung come and kind of blow them out of the water, that has culturally gotta be hard for the people of Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Yeah, I can only imagine. And it's fueled the real estate market as well because the land over there, so used to the land was$25,000,$30,000 an acre. It's$300,000 an acre.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Wow, that's a big change.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

And it's because developments, yeah, you know, it's um it's insane. Yeah, it is so it's uh You used to be able to get smoking deal.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Okay, but I don't know if you'd want to live there because I mean, and I don't mean this because I'm a realtor.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I shouldn't say You want to live there, I can help you.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

You want to live there, I can help you. But you know, it was very closed off. So it would have been hard for somebody outside of the area to really simulate. But I that has totally changed now.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

And it's it had to culturally, they had to now the real estate market is still pretty close knit.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Um, I've had some deals out there, but I've been accepted in to the cool kids club.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, and it that is true.

Takeaways And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 23:53

It's all about it. It's funny. Um, the last one I had, um, the agent was like, Well, my client's local, he owns ten companies, and we just went through all this, and he's like, Well, I can have this man go out there and this one to go, and they all know each other.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

They all know each other, yeah. And they can make it easy for you or hard for you. Yep, depending on how you come rolling in. Yeah, are you an Austin realtor coming in with you know? BMW, acting like you know it all, or you're a little bit more humble and doing your research before you start showing and having geographic competence.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

So well, I think that wraps up our little small episode.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Small town episode, just chatting a little bit about these small towns and the real estate in them.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

And if you have any questions, me or Barbara can answer them on our website, thehousenextdoor tx.com. Yep, there's a place where you can message us.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Message us.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

So you can text us. I don't know how it works, but I saw it the other day.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

We will get the message and we will answer any questions you have about small towns and weird places.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, or anything about Austin too.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

All right, until next time.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Yes, so please like, subscribe, comment, share, follow, whatever it might be. Until next time.