Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: November 2008

How was your extended Holiday week, thus far?  In some ways, I can't believe it's "only" Saturday, and in other ways, I can't believe it's "already" Saturday.  This week was so great.

Usually, Alyssa is home all day with me only 2 to 3 days in a row.  Other times she's in school or with my mom part of the days.  She has been home since Tuesday afternoon.  That's 4 1/2 days of constant her, and the weekend isn't over yet. 

I can't believe how much she has learned in just these 4 days.  She knows her head, nose, mouth, ears, feet, toes, and hands.  She hasn't gotten her eyes, fingers, knees, elbows, or legs yet.

She likes to "Growl like a Lion" as two of her toys always tell her to do it.  I just think it's funny that I've been trying to get her to bark and meow for months, but she decides to roar instead.

The biggest thing she learned this week?

She is no longer on a bottle! She turned 1 two weeks ago tomorrow.  Since the day after that, we did a semi-slow switch over to milk, and a slow switch over to a sippy cup.  She drinks water, OJ, Apple juice, and Grape Juice all in a sippy cup, and has for months.  However, she has been refusing to drink milk from a cup.  My husband thinks it's fine for her to use a bottle and even said she can drink from a bottle until she's 2 if she wants to.  I completely disagree!

Friday, we woke up, and I decided that was it.  No more "Mrs. Nice Mom" and giving her a bottle after 10-15 minutes.  I just handed her a cup of milk and told her to drink it when she wanted it.  She ended up drinking all three cups of milk that day, with a couple of bribes of horsey rides on my back, like she understands bribes.

Today, I decided the same thing.  She got up.  I gave her breakfast.  I handed her a cup of milk.  Every time she picked up that cup, I got a huge smile on my face as it was a personal victory.

The funniest thing she did today?  I was sitting on the couch, she brought me a diaper, turned around and walked away.  I asked her what the diaper was for, and she turned back to look at me, walked over to her changing pad, and laid down.  LOL!!  She's 1 and she brought me the diaper!!  That was too funny!

Those with kids will understand my giddiness.  Those without kids, I hope you have someone in your life that brings you the same joy!  I'm lovin' this week! 

Today, I spent a few hours on the phone trying to figure out when and how to switch my license over to a new broker along with a new Board.  In Dallas, it's easy.  You go to a new Broker, they fill out the forms for you, and viola, it's done.

Changing Brokers AND Board is much more complicated.  I actually have to go in and sign a "Resignation of Membership" form.  I find that very interesting.  I also have to have my current board submit a letter of "good standing" in order to get my dues to transfer.  That was the best news I heard all morning, I don't have to "double pay" dues like I thought I would have to do if I stayed through January.

The yearly dues have National and Texas dues in them, and if they're paid at one board, those transfer to the next one.  I would only have to repay "local" dues.  The lady I spoke with at the current board even said that if I submit a nice letter, and they submit it to accounting, that I might get part of my local dues back also, but more than likely not.  Writing a letter is worth a try, otherwise, it's only $98 I would lose, which is a lot less than the $419 I thought I would lose if I didn't transfer in December.

Another big difference between the two boards is, at my current board, you cannot obtain access to the MLS without sitting through the orientation and the MLS training classes first.  At the new board, they're going to give me 90 days to take the classes.  That fits my schedule so much better!

My lockboxes are allowed to be de-programmed at my current board, and then re-programmed at the new board.  The new board cannot program them without this deprogramming first.  Otherwise, my current board will buy them back from $40 each.  $40??  That's less than half of what they cost!  I'm glad I'll be able to reuse my current lockboxes.  And, from what the Board guy said, he hasn't seen the ugly grey boxes in a long time so I could go ahead and have my phone programmed to open the blue, infrared boxes, whereas in Dallas, it's a waste of time since you never know which lockbox is going to be on the house and you have to carry the access card with you anyway.

I can't say this step is taken care of as I have to do it when I'm closer to changing, but I'm glad I got a lot of these questions and issues out of the way. It's going to be a much better time to switch in January instead of December.

If anyone else has completely changed areas and brokers, and you have some insight into more questions I should ask, my ears are open.

Last week, Alyssa got her 1 year pictures.  I know I posted her Birthday pictures, but so many were asking me about her "official" pictures, and they were just emailed to me this evening.

She did really well in the dress. I think she really loved the dress.  Then, I changed her outfit, silly me, and she decided to get upset.  It was very hard getting her to smile after that, but we got a great one with her screaming.

I really liked the purple feathers, and I wish she would have cooperated, but we still got some really cute ones all in all.  Even when she's crying, isn't she cute?

Dr. Pepper company is giving out FREE Dr. Pepper!!  Can you believe it?!  Now, many of you across the country are asking yourself, "What's Dr. Pepper?" since it is not a national brand.  But in Texas, Dr. Pepper is huge!  Cross the border, and you'll be lucky to be able to find it in most places.

Dr. Pepper was created in Waco, TX in case any history buffs wanted to know that.

Anyway, Dr. Pepper made a bet earlier this year that if Guns 'N Roses released their much talked about album, Chinese Democacy, before the end of 2008, that they would give away FREE Dr. Pepper.

Well, the album that has been in the works since 1994 is finally hitting store shelves on Sunday.

Beginning Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 12:01am, there will  be coupons available on the Dr. Pepper Website for 24 hours for a FREE 20 ounce soda.

The coupons will be honored through February 2009, so you might want to set your printer to print more than just one.  I'm setting a reminder in my calendar so I don't forget.

We have a FRAME!  Yeah!  And that "yeah" is said with a shrug, as I'm still not excited about the move. I can't believe how quickly they got this done after dragging their feet for months to get started in the first place.  Windows should be in by now as these pictures were taken on Monday.

Look at that lovely 4 (FOUR) car garage!!  And that is actually said with excitement!

The kitchen and nook look huge. The main kitchen is going to be darker than I want, but not as dark as their original plans as I made them put larger horizontal windows.  They took out the main window for some stupid reason, and they refused to put it back in.  Whatever... at least I got larger windows than the other house they built like this.

And this is the roof Tech Shield, radiant barrier stuff.  Looks like just plain aluminum foil, but it's going to help keep the utility costs down.  We looked at getting it done to our current house, and even scheduled the appt after getting estimates, but then decided to move instead.

All in all, it looks like things are moving along. It's hard to build a house and not be there.  I usually go by the houses quite often for my out of town clients.  However, I don't have anyone to do that for me there.  My in-laws were nice enough to stop by, but it's not a hop, skip, and a jump away to ask them to do it very often. 

We're still looking at the end of February or early March.

I was over at a real estate forum yesterday, browsing around like I do a couple of times a week to see what kinds of questions people have and to see if there is anything worth commenting on.

Yesterday, a lady posted a question that is summed up like this:

"I'm looking to buy a house.  I've bought two others before so I know what I'm doing and don't need any help, so I'm looking for a Realtor to rebate me back most of the commission. I have already sold my house out of state so there is no negotiating multiple deals for the rebate."

What do you think the responses were?

There were a handful of common-folk, meaning non-licensed people, chiming in saying that what she was asking for was fair since she had the buying experience.  Huh?  Has she bought a house in her new market and especially in a market like we're in today?

There were a handful of common-folk giving examples of the deals they received, however, every single one of them had a house to sell in addition to the one they were buying, so their Realtors received compensation off two deals, not just one.  And I believe all of their Realtors received the full buying commission, they just did a reduced commission on the listing side of their previous house.

Then, you have all the responses from the Realtors.  I've got to tell you, many Realtors don't agree on anything.  Many rather argue a point to death just to prove they're right and another is wrong.  What did they say in this case?

Every Realtor responded with statements that this lady was not going to get what she was asking for.  They responded saying that she didn't have any negotiating power on the purchase side because she didn't have a house to sell in order for the agent to make up some of the time and energy spent holding this buyer's hand.

The bottom-line response was that NO, a good Realtor was not going to rebate their hard-earned money back to a buyer just because they had bought a house before, several years ago, and mainly because the buyer was new to this market and would need a lot of guidance on what areas to look at, what are taxes like, what are schools like, and the normal first time home buyer questions since this market is very different than the market they were coming from.

How could this lady get what she is asking for?  One suggestion would be to find someone else she knows who is buying and/or selling and give them as a referral to the same Realtor.  Then that Realtor would be working in volume and it might be well worth giving a little rebate.  Another suggestion would be for her to ask the Realtor who sold her last home to give her a referral of an agent in the new market she's moving to.  That way, the Realtor would already expect to pay out a referral fee, but instead of paying a referral fee to the other Realtor, the Realtor in the new city could rebate that amount to the buyer.

Any other suggestions on when a Realtor should rebate back commission?  My suggestion is for Realtors to stand their ground and explain why they earn what they earn.  In this specific scenario, this buyer was brand new to this city.  She doesn't know the areas, and she doesn't know this particular market.  The Realtor is going to be holding her hand through way too much of this buying process, I don't see how a Realtor could fathom giving back most of the commission to someone she doesn't even know. She's not a past client, she's not buying multiple properties, she's not a friend or family member...

Now, if this lady were to find a house and called a Realtor and explained her situation and said I want to put an offer on this house, I know I want it, and I want a rebate since I did the leg work, and you just need to negotiate, that might be a different story...  but with the facts that were given, would you give back a large chunk to this lady?  My short answer is NO, what's yours?

I hope everyone will give a nice warm welcome to my friend Robert Bailey.  I've known Robert since 6th grade.  He has a twin brother, Richard.  I have no seen Robert in years, but thanks to joining Facebook yesterday, we have reconnected, and guess what, he's in the real estate industry!

Robert works with Primelending here in the Dallas area.  If I was staying in Dallas, I know I would be working with him.  But to all my Dallas friends, keep Robert in mind when your buyers need to get approved!

He hasn't started his blog yet, but I'm sure with some extra encouragement, he'll be writing like there's no tomorrow.

Well, I gave in last night, and joined the ever looming, Facebook.  Are you on Facebook?

Thus far, it's a tad frustrating as every time I want to make a change to my profile, previous information disappears or changes.  For example, it didn't like my Re/Max office name.  It kept trying to put me in the Lubbock office.  Huh?  Also, instead of Re/Max, it had me working at my first brokerage, Ebby Halliday.  I had to change this 6 times for it to stick.

It took me some time, but I found a Re/Max group, and I also found the Realtor Referral group.  I'm hoping to expand my exposure for referrals.  However, when doing searches to find other Realtors, do you realize how un-user friendly this site is?

It's like all the site wants to do is hook me up with high school people.  Yeah, it's nice to see some old faces again, but am I going to hit the "add friend" button for everyone?  What if they reject me?  What if old high school grudges come back? 

I've already cringed at quite a few people.  I'm wondering if I would accept their invitation if they invited me as a friend.  On that flip, I'm wondering if I invited someone I haven't seen in 15 years to be a friend, would they accept me?

The jury is still out, but I would love to connect with some ActiveRain people on Facebook if you're out there?  I'm under Donna Richey Harris.

I'm at the corner this morning needing gas. My car is on fumes.  I look at one sign, it's $1.84.  I look at another sign, it's $1.84.  I look across the street at the third sign on this one corner, and the sign is $1.81.  Where do I go?

That's right, I go to the one across the street at $1.81.  I push the button to start filling up, but the button says $1.83.  How can this be?  The sign says $1.81 and there are no people outside changing the numbers so it can't be a recent change...

I'm a little upset.  These days $0.02 can be a lot when you're putting over 20 gallons in your car.  Then, I got out my trusty little calculator to make sure the math in my head was correct. 

With the 21.621 gallons I put in my 4Runner, they screwed me out of $0.43.  I decided to let it go this time only because this was the first time in about 2 years that I actually filled up for under $40!!  I couldn't believe it!  The total was $39.76 whereas the totals were well over $80 just a few months ago.

What are you paying in your area, and have any gas stations tried to pull a fast one on you?

I sometimes wonder is Buyers' agent actually explain things to their buyers in terms that they'll understand.  If they do, why do so many things happen that don't make sense.

My latest example is this:  I have a listing under contract. The buyer did their inspections and presented an amendment to the contract.  My sellers countered back. 

The counter included agreeing to one repair, giving the buyer a $500 repair escrow, and leaving the $1200 fridge that is barely 2 years old.

When I presented the fridge, I reminded the agent to let the buyers know that if they feel they don't have a need for the fridge, they could always sell it on Craigslist or at a garage sale and probably get a good $500-700 for it, but we were neither doing nor compensating for any other repairs on a house that had been completely updated and was a great deal.  The sellers didn't want to move the fridge out of state so leaving it was no big deal.

The agent kept telling me they agreed to our counter, but were thinking about the fridge.  What's there to think about?  I got an email saying I would get the amendment "today". Then the next day, I was told I would get the amendment "today".

I called the mortgage person the next day and asked if he had heard from his buyers and if he knew if they were moving forward or not as that day was the last day of the option period.  The mortgage guy said he was told the buyers were signing the final amendment and I would get it "today".

I finally got it on Friday.  I read it to make sure everything was on there that we discussed.  I get down to the special provisions section and it says "Seller to remove the fridge."  Huh?  Why do the buyers want the fridge removed?  It's a nice fridge and they could easily get more of their "high estimate repairs" completed with the money they would get.

I called the sellers to let them know I was sending the amendment for them to sign. I told them the buyers didn't want the fridge.  They were as confused as I was. The buyers basically forfeited a few hundred dollars back to my sellers, so the sellers can now sell the fridge and make back the $500 escrow they agreed to along with the small repair, and get out of there with nothing extra out of pocket.

Did the buyers' agent actually explain this to his buyers?  It makes me wonder how things get lost in translation like that...  Maybe I wasn't speaking English?

Mudslides, Earthquakes, and Fires oh my... who would want to live in CA with all this going on?

Every few months, there something going on with California.  There's a mudslide season, there's fire season, and earthquakes can happen at any time.  What season has no issues?

Is it issues like this can help increase everyone's insurance premiums?  If multi-million dollar homes are burning down in flames, and there are several of them, do the insurance companies make up that money on premiums for everyone else across the country?

It's probably not legal to have increases like that, but there is nothing illegal about having "cost of doing business" price increases.

Why do people continue to live in areas that have constant tragedy?  What do these people get out of it?

Just a little rant since the news keeps talking about these fires.  I have the same thoughts when hurricanes, year after year, attack Florida and people choose not to move...

I turned 1 years old today!  Can you believe I've made it one whole year already?  This time last year, all I did was sleep, eat, and poop.  I've come along way in only a year.

I laughed for the first time at 3 months, and rolled over a couple of days later.  I crawled at 7 months, and took my first steps 2 days before turning 11 months.  I fed myself at 7 months and haven't stopped since.

I was born at 7 lbs 4.3 oz and 19 ¼ inches long. I am currently 20 lbs 8 oz and 28 inches tall.  Boy have I grown!  I have 9 teeth...

I've done so much in one year, I have no idea what I'm going to do the rest of my life.

I had two parties, one in Austin and one in Dallas.  The one yesterday had a bounce house that I was too little to play in.  My mommy and daddy took me in it after everyone left, but it scared me and I didn't like it.

My mommy turned our living room into a play pen.  There was a fort with a slide, a ball bin, and all my other toys.  Even though the other kids were mostly older, they all had fun with my toys.

My Grandma made me Butterfly cupcake cakes for everyone.  I don't know if they were good or not as I didn't eat any, but everyone else said they were really good.  My mommy tried and tried to get me to eat cake, but I'm watching my figure ever since I hit 20 pounds!  I don't need cake to put on more weight!

I got lots of new toys, most of them sing and talk.  I love to dance to music and that's what my mommy told everyone, so they all listened and made sure their toys made music so I could practice my dancing.  My mommy and daddy won't open them all so I don't make a complete mess and get overwhelmed, but I'll get a new one every few days.

My mommy and daddy have done a good job so far. I rate them way off the scale over a gazillion points!

Bounce House- $84
Popcorn Machine- $49
Pizza- $77
Watching Alyssa touch the icing on her cake and not eat a bite- $Priceless

We also got 1 year pictures taken at JCP on Friday. THose won't be ready for a few days, and I'll post them when I get them.  They turned out SOOO cute.

I hope everyone is as excited as I am to hear about Alyssa's second year of life and see what more things she can accomplish.

Happy Birthday, Erick!  Today you are 34 years old.  WOW!  I can't believe it.  Just last week, you were 8 and beating me up. Then, you were 9 and beating me up.  Then, you were 10 and beating me up... do you see the pattern?

Now, you're 34 years old. You've stopped beating me up, only because I now know how to hit back, and also because you live across the country.  I know we haven't always gotten along, but we had fun when we did.

You invited me to my first college party and you even "allowed" me to do my first keg-stand when I was only 18.  What fun was that!  I'll always remember that night because I got a ticket on the way back to my dorm.

I remember your 21st birthday when you decided to sample every liquor possible.  I'm so glad I wasn't the one holding your head over the toilet that night! We had to run through the restaurant yelling, "Pregnant lady coming through!" just so people would get out of our way so you wouldn't get sick on them.  Kinda embarrassing at the time, but really funny when Mom and Andy tell the story to people!  LOL!!

Anyway, hope you have a good birthday.  Have a drink on me.

Here's a picture of Erick with my daughter, Alyssa, back in April when he came in town for a visit to see her for the first time.

The Christmas Discount Store, aka Nowlin Trading, has announced this year's location.  And the interesting news is that there will be more than one location.

Nowlin Trading sells anything and everything Christmas at deep deep discounts.  Each year, they open up in a new location. The only way to find out the location if you're not on their mailing list, is through word of mouth.

There is one in Dallas County as well as Tarrant County for the first time.

Nowlin Trading locations:
Fort Worth: 3440 Williams Road
phone: 817.244.2252
Farmers Branch: 3117 Gardenbrook
phone: 214.914.1331

Here is more about the store from NBC 5.

The Holiday Inn Select off 75 Central Expressway in Dallas TX saw it's last moment at 7:59am Sunday morning.  At 8am on the dot, the building imploded.

Up until 7am, people were allowed at the site in order to get a good view of the implotion.  Hundreds of people showed up to watch this building come down.  The highway was closed for a while in order to allow the dust to clear.

What will go in its place?  An 83 acre development of luxury condos, townhomes, senior living and medical offices.  All this is expected to be completed fairly quickly, by December 2009.

Yes, we've got a slab, finally!  We've been under contract for over 3 months now, and we've finally received a slab.  Building in Austin, thus far, takes so much longer to get things rolling than anything I've seen in the Dallas area. Some builders can build a house start to finish in 90-120 days.  Granted, those are lower end homes, but the process of getting permits and clearing the land in order to put down the footprint is all the same process.  Why did it take more than 3 months?

People think Texas is all about "land".  As you can see, our neighbor's house is an arm's length away.  This is VERY typical in most any master planned community.  However, as you can see, we have tons of trees behind us so the backyard will be private.  Plus, I don't think there are any windows in the house that line up with windows of the neighbor's house, so it's still a very private setting.

If you look closely, you'll even see a tree they're trying to save on the left, inbetween the other new house being built.  That tree used to be pretty big with a few branches, but they've had to trim it down in order to not touch either house.  We'll see if it makes it through the entire process or if they end up removing it.

Anyway, I was very excited to see some concrete poured when we were in Austin this past week.  National news says new construction is down, however, this community, Falconhead and Falconhead West are still booming all over the place!

Texas is expected to have about 68% turnout for voting in this election.  Since 1970, only once has the state of Texas exceeded 68% and that was when 2 Texas natives (GH Bush and Perot) were running and Clinton still won.

With the early voting over, Texas has already had 42% of registered voters vote in the top 15 counties in the state, which equates to 3.5 million people.  In the 2004 election, only 2.4 million voted early.

To put things into further perspective, Dallas County had 508,000 people vote which is 158,000 more than 2004.  People are definitely eager to get their voices heard.  With Texas beinng a traditionally Red state, I wonder who all these people are voting for...

Collin County, where I live, had over half of their registered voters out early, as well as Fort Bend which is near Houston.

Predictions show a 68% turnout which would be 12% higher than the 2004 election.  I love stats!  I can't wait to see the final numbers and how everything breaks down tomorrow... I'm so excited!

Since even before Halloween, I received several emails and comments on my blogs telling me I had to post pictures of Alyssa's 1st Halloween.  So, by popular demand, here it is.

We had a kid costume party last weekend, and then she had a parade at her school on Friday along with a Fall Festival.  I couldn't get her smile once in her ladybug costume which is why it's taken me this long to post.  I wasn't sure which pictures to use.

So, instead of trying to find the "best" pictures, I figured I would just show you the wide range of emotion throughout the different events.  Can you tell when she was having the most fun??

As you can see, she loved being back in regular clothes!  And she loves this car that she rides in.  It was an early birthday present from Grandma that she got about a month ago.  She'll sit with her feet on the dash and her arms against the back like she's all "kewl".  It's really cute. 

Hopefully, next year we'll get some smiles!