Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: September 2006

During my trip to Nebraska, we went to a few of my in-laws' homes.  Within a couple of them, I found something that looked like this:

This oven and stove combination is Frigidaire.  It's the craziest thing I've ever seen!  No way would this ever last in my house as I like to keep pots on the stove as they cool, and some times just because I'm too lazy to do the dishes right then and there.  With a stove like this, you would have to cleanup immediately.

The funny thing was my Husband's grandfather was very proud of it and stated that it "came with the house when we bought it."  Just because it comes with the house doesn't mean you need to keep it.  Mike's grandmother liked to cook on gas, so there was also an antique gas stove in the basement.  Even the gas stove looked to be 50+ years old... Auburn people don't believe in updating homes.  I wish I took more pictures!!

Have you ever heard the term "Straw Buyer"?  I read about this for the first time today.  A straw buyer is someone who buys a property only on paper, straw.  Their name appears on the deed, but only as a cover up to the person who actually owns it.  Apparantly this was really big in the 80's, but it's making a comeback.

In Frisco, in Collin County, which is the next county north of Dallas, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on, which some people are calling mortgage fraud.  You know all those emails you get from Nigerian people?  This is a Nigerian person who actually made it work.  People actually answered his cry for money.  He asked people to buy properties in their names and that he would be responsible for all the mortgage payments.  He also would then buy the properties back and forth with people to increase the values.  This sounds like a CA or NV thing, not a Dallas thing.  The particular townhomes he did this with went up in value from $381k in 2004 to $670k in May of 2005.  However, after so much flipping, many properties went into foreclosure in the original owner's name and the bank is now trying to sell to loan off for only $451,900 and have reduced it to $439,900.  They probably won't get that if they bought it for $381k just 2 years ago.  We're having steaday appreciation, but more like 3-5%, not upwards of 120+%.  The average in this particular community is $228k.  Big difference!!

Here's the entire story.  Stay away from those Nigerian scams that we've all been warned about!  If it's too good to be true, it's not true!!

Nebraska, home of the Huskers... I just spent 4 days in Nebraska looking at corn and bean crops with every turn of my head. This was a very "different" experience for me. I'm definitely a city-girl compared to the way they live in Auburn.  Everything revolves around Saturday football!

I fed some pigs, ,I chased some turkeys, I was stampeded by some cows, ,
and I rode not just one, but two combines. And I didn't just ride in them, I actually DROVE them! I have a job waiting for me if I ever decide Dallas and Real Estate isn't for me anymore.
Each time someone would tell me that I needed to see a combine, I would think to myself, why do I need to see someones trash, as I was thinking "compost". A combine is definitely not a compost!! I rode an 11 ton, green John Deere, and a HUGE red one, , and I don't remember the brand of that one, but it wasn't John Deere. For those farmers out there, it was an 8 head thinga-ma-bobber.

Of course it rained the day we decided to go to the family farms, so it wasn't the cleanest experience, and my truck is filthy! I think the grossest (most gross?) part was when the nasty pigs where eating out of my hand.

It's no wonder why I'm so busy... as people are getting better jobs and employment rates going down, people are buying houses!!  I think the scare of the higher interest rate is behind most people.  They tickled 7% for a couple of weeks, but are now around 6.5% and lower for your typical conventional mortgage.   

August's job growth added 22,600 jobs whereas July added only 12,100.

Unemployment dropped in August to 5.1% from 5.2%.  It doesn't seem like much of a change, but it is.  Across the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, unemployment is down to 4.9% from 5.3% in July.  We're doing better to get back to last year, as last year's unemployment was only 5%.

All my relocation buyers are always asking me how the job market is doing and I always respond that it must be doing well or why would all these people, including them, be relocating here.  Yes, there have been layoffs, but there has been much growth as the numbers show.

Lake Lavon is the main lake that supplies most of Dallas county with water.  Currently, the lake is almost 16 feet below normal (about 15.7 feet).  If it continues to get lower and lower, they have threatened to go further with the water restrictions.

Currently, in most areas, you can only water on your trash day between 6pm and 10am.  Some areas even restrict watering from 3am-8am.  When I say trash day, that's different in difffernt cities.  My city has two trash days.  We're only one in a handful.  Everyone else only has one trash day a week... not much watering going on.

If stage 4 comes into effect, there will be no automatic sprinkler systems allowed, period the end.  There will only be hand-watering and soaker hoses allowed.  That's because a lot of water is wasted in the streets, sidewalks and driveways with the sprinklers.  When hand-watering, the water will all stay on the grass and around the foundation so less water will be used.

I, personally, don't have the patience to hand water, so I guess our grass will dry... but it's almost dormant season anyway.

Don't EVER use Nations Residential Service for your home warranty company!  They are only a Texas based company, so this won't affect many of you, but I know there are tons of people across the country who are buying investment properties in Dallas and much of Texas, so this will effect you.

I have been a big proponent of Nations for several years. Many of my own buyers and sellers have put this coverage on their homes. Over the years, I would get calls or emails every once in a while from one of my clients saying how they called Nations, but their claim was denied and they had to pay this and that. I just shrugged it off saying I'm sure they had a reason for denying the claim... WRONG!!

I have had Nations on my personal house since I bought it last July ‘05. First, the garbage disposal goes out, but it's a Saturday, and the warranty is only good during weekdays, so unless we wanted to not use our kitchen sink for 3 days, we had to go buy a new disposal ourselves. Second, our garage door opener stopped working, bad gear. I have the Preferred Package with the Upgrade Package and the upgrade package covers garage doors... oh, but the upgrade package actually only covers the garage door if you also have the basic garage door coverage. That is complete BS! Why would I need to pay extra for an upgrade package to cover something when it's not even covered in that package?

Third, our AC goes out mid-July. It went from a 16 degree differential down to a 4 degree differential. I call Nations, they send someone out, they fill the unit with Freon, wrap duct tape around a hose thingy and say it's fine. At that time, my husband pressed the technician for an explanation of needing to add so much Freon. The tech's response was that he was only topping it off, though he added quite a bit, and that it's quite common to need to add Freon every once in awhile. Fourth thing that happens is a month ago, a few days before the warranty expires, one of the water heaters is acting up, so we call Nations again. This time, they say it's an improper install of the water heater so they can't cover it, but they'll gladly charge us over $800 to fix it. We asked what he meant by improper install, and he says it's installed per city code and city ordinances, but it's not installed per home warranty standards... WHAT?!

At that time, we let the warranty lapse and did not renew it because of the bad experiences. Two days ago, we call Nations and tell them that the AC was not fixed when their people were out 6 weeks ago. After getting the differential back up to 16 degrees, just 6 weeks ago, it's now back down to 10 degrees. Can you say leak?? The same people came and looked at it and confirmed there's a leak. Will Nations cover it? NO! They claim since we don't currently have coverage, there is nothing they can do. Oh, YES, there is!! They can warrant the work of the AC company they sent out here. By the way, the company is now denying adding Freon so they're saying there was no leak when they were here 6 weeks ago. How can you go from 16 degrees, down to 4 degrees, back up to 16, and now back down to 10 without there being a leak, Freon being added, and yet that same Freon leaking back out?

The basis of this blog is to make sure no one else falls into the trap of Nations Residential Services! This is posted on two of my blogs; this will be emailed to the news media; this will be sent to the president of Nations, to their sales rep, to the BBB, and also to our attorney.

DON'T EVER USE NATIONS RESIDENTIAL SERVICES!!!

I just saw this video and I was watching with my jaw on the floor.  This is a reporter who has been doing a series of reports on a Real estate scam.  He's interviewing a gentleman, and right before the guy can start talking, they're attacked by the lady accused in the scam.  She throws some water, shouts some explicits and then here comes her husband... boy did they get into it.  The reporter is shown all messed up with a bloody face.

The video is just over 3 minutes, but it's worth watching.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=86053&catId=104

I have a listing that is very colorful.  At our initial listing appointment, they asked if they should repaint the house more neutral, and I told them that I felt it looked great, and that buyers could see past the colors if they didn't like it.  I said that because the walls weren't pink or purple or blue or lime green or anything not considered a "today" color. 

The entry and combo formals are a mustard yellow, very common.  The Family room is a moco shade of brown, again, very common.  The Kitchen is a slate grey tone, and it all looked really nice.  Our comments throughout the listing were about 60/40 on the paint.  If they like the floorplan, paint shouldn't deter a buyer from spending $50 on a few gallons and buying some brushes.  Each time we received feedback that the buyer didn't like the paint, my sellers asked, again, if they should paint. My response was always, what about all those buyers who have loved the paint and made nice comments... you can't please all the buyers all the time.

At the end of the day, the buyer on the house is color blind!!  He loves the "Green" entry and formals!  He even asked if he could buy the furniture since he assumes it matches.  Too funny!  I almost gave into my sellers' continuous questions about the paint, and I just saved them much needed money, time, and energy to not repaint.

Every time I talk with an out of state prospective buyer, one of their first statements is, "You're not from Texas, where are you from?"  I'm like, why do you say I'm not from here?  They're like, you don't talk funny like them, you must be from the mid-west.  Today's call though Iowa.  Iowa?  Does Iowa have an accent?

I've been in the Dallas area for over 22 years.  People from around here say that I'm supposed to say I'm from here since I've been here more than half my life.  I didn't realize that was a rule, so I've tried to use that as an answer, but they don't go for it... where are you from, where are you from?

I'm originally from Sea/Tac and I moved here when I was 8 (did I just tell my age?).

The buyer today wants to write a full price offer on one of my brand new listings because the virutal tour looks great, his wife told him to buy it, and I "sound" honest.  Hmmm, do those thick accents not sound honest?  I thought it was an interesting comment he made.  I just respond, "Ahhh, shucks!"

I heard on the news this morning that the Texas State Fair held it's official, Annual Fried Foods Contest this weekend.  I've been here 22 years, and I've never heard of a contest for the best fried foods, but I wish I had, as I would have loved to have been there.  One of their new entries this year was Fried Mac 'n Cheese!!  Mac 'n Cheese is one of my all time favorite foods.  It's something that I never grew out of, except I grew out of the blue box and powered cheese and make homemade style.

I can't believe the fried Mac 'n Cheese didn't win.  Something like Fried Pralines won, yippie.  What's hard and unique about frying a praline?

One of the other unique entries was Fried Coke.  I wonder how they did that...

Either way, all these fried foods will be available at the Texas State Fair that is opening Sept 29 and typically goes 3 weeks.  My mouth is already watering for the Funnel Cake!!

I received notice from my HOA last week that the city council is discussing new rules for sex offenders.   They're wanting to map out certain areas and say that they're not allowed to buy houses there.  But, the downside is that they don't want a bunch of sex offenders all piled up in one area of the city.

My community was built in several phases, but mainly in two distinct phases.  My section has an HOA and the other section doesn't.  Before I bought the house last year, there was apparently a vote to force the other section into the HOA, but they fought it as they didn't want to spend the $360 a year for a governing party looking over them.  You can definitely tell the difference between the two sections because with the HOA, you can do anything to your house without any approval, and barns in the backyard are just not sexy...

Anyway, part of the proposition is that any community with an HOA would be an area that the sex offenders could not buy property as the HOAs can opt to keep them out with their bylaws.  The problem resides with the connecting section of my community that isn't part of the HOA... we would be keeping them out, but yet, they would be right there... very interesting duscussion this meeting should be.

Do other areas across the country have rules within their cities or communities about sex offenders?