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

Since we've been contemplating the move to Austin, it's given me an opportunity to see how other parts of the state, possibly even the country, do things.  One of those things is the Fence around a property.  This might not seem like a big deal, but in all actuality it is a fairly big deal as it's an aesthic thing...

Look at this picture.  What do you see?  I see a confused fence that doesn't quite know which way it was supposed to be put up.  Are the "climbing bars" supposed to be facing in the backyard, or facing the other way?  I think this is a horrible look, and I can't believe this is called "Good Neighbor Fencing."  I had never even heard of Good Neighbor Fencing until reading the MLS listings for the Austin area.  I often wondered what it meant, and then a builder explained it to me.

What's good about "Good Neighbor Fences"?  Is it good that both neighbors agreed to have something look horrible surrounding their property?  Is it good that instead of one person feeling their yard looks bad while their neighbors' looks good that both neighbors get to look at something bad?

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the side of the fence that has the bars.  When I was younger, that's how I was able to be nosey and see over to the neighbors yard, by climbing the bars.  Also, it's good for planting vines against as it's easier for them to climb.

I bring this up because it's not just in Austin like I thought.  I was in Houston yesterday just to look at one house, and I noticed the fencing there too.  Do you think this looks good?  Do you think this is a good compromise between neighbors to both get screwed out of a nice looking fence?

Here are examples of what it looks like when it's all one direction or the other, as this is my current yard. Keep in mind that I have an 8 foot fence, so it has extra climbing bars, whereas most fences we saw in Austin and Houston were only 6 foot fences. Maybe the solution is for everyone to go to board on board fences so the middle bars are covered up completely?

What is the traditional way in your area, and which direction do you like and prefer?

Can you see the image?  Can you see her spinning?

Which way is she spinning?  Is she spinning clockwise?  If so, you are using your right brain. 

Is she spinning counter clockwise? If so, you are using your left brain.

Stare at her for a couple of minutes. See if she'll change her direction.  I can see her both ways which means I use both sides of my brain.  My husband and mother can only see it going one way.

Here are some of the differences of left verse right brain:

Left: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at Parts
Right: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Look at Wholes

Does the direction you see the girl fit you?  Is it opposite you?  Did you stare at it long enough to see if she would change direction? 

Sometimes, when I look at her, she doesn't go in circles anymore as she changes directions so quickly, she's basically just moving back and forth.

I'm curious as to what others see.

If you can't see the image, go here and take a look:
http://www.beckersblog.com/images/content/200814_1.gif

Man, I absolutely HATE wallpaper, and I hate wallpaper borders even more.  And that made it very ironic that I found myself having to pick out new wallpaper border for our kitchen.  My husband LOVES the current wallpaper because it looks like a faux finish.  We have such an open floorplan that he likes how the kitchen and nook have a different look than the family room.

I, on the other hand, want to tear that stuff down so quickly!  He did finally grant me "permission" to tear it down as long as I repainted a faux finish.  Huh?  There isn't enough actual wall space to spend the time to learn the technique and actually apply it. 

But, I do know that the original border HAD to go.  Here is a picture of the psychedelic monkeys that the previous owners picked. You notice how often the pattern repeats? It's like on an every 10 inch repeat cycle.  Do you realize how many psychedelic monkeys that is looking at you everyday?  The border had to go.

Most stores around here don't sell wallpaper much anymore, much less borders, so I had to go online.  I was not happy about this.  I told my husband that if he was addimant about the wallpaper, that he should look for the borders.  He, for some reason, couldn't find any, but I think that was an excuse... so, here I am, a wallpaper hater, looking at wallpaper borders.  Since I was adamant about not making the final choice, I found 5 options for him to choose from.  Do you think he made a choice?  No, he sent back 2 telling me to choose.  So frustrating...

Anyway, here is what I chose.  I chose this one because we were very limited in what we could chose because it had to be at least 10 1/4 inches wide to cover up the previous border.  Also, the wallpaper is much more yellow than I would like, so it's heard to match much of anything else, especially to the rest of our decor, so I had to chose something with constrasting colors.  So, needless to say, I don't care for the selection, but it's better than the monkeys.

Here are some pictures with some decor back in place.  What do you think?

The grapes are a little too purple, but the monkeys were way too dark, so this will have to do.  Just changing the border has definitely brightened up the kitchen quite a lot.  I didn't think to take actual before pictures, but I should have.  If you have dated wallpaper or borders, making a change could change the entire look of the area.

I was searching through the MLS today trying to find a house for a relocation person.  Our houses are mostly brick and after a couple of minutes of scrolling through listings, they always all seem to look the same... until one grabs your attention.

Granted, this is not "good" attention per se, but it definitely makes you do a double-take. I was looking at these houses and it seemed that several were missing a window.  Do you ever run across houses like these?  What do your buyers think?  Do they think the house looks odd and they cross it off the list?  Do they think they could put a big shrub in front so it's not noticeable (be careful with this in North Texas because you don't want big shrubs or trees around your foundation).

If the house is perfect on the inside and meets all your buyers' needs and wants, but they can't get passed the aesthetically unpleasing look of the front of the house, what do you do?  Do you give them suggestions on how to get used to the look, or do you tell them we'll continue to look, though maybe you've already seen 50 houses and this one is perfect?

Does the look of the outside effect resale that much?  Could you lose a sale because you're missing a window?  Are you a seller wondering why your house hasn't sold and you're beginning to wonder if your house is one of those that looks odd?  What do you think?

Many suburbs of Dallas, TX made CNN Money's top 100 places to live list for 2008.  What I find interesting is that 10 cities in the Dallas area made the list, but only 1 city from the Austin area made the list, Round Rock.  Of those 10 cities, I have to admit, I'm shocked by a couple of the cities that made it, but as to not offend anyone, I will not mention which ones are unbelievable.

This is interesting because Austin is constantly and consistently on the list of one of the best places to live.  They're supposed to have a great housing market, and all the nature is supposed to make it a great family-oriented place. 

However, to only have 1 city on the list, why does it keep ranking high as one of the best places to live and raise a family when Dallas is left out?

My husband has been trying to convince me to move to Austin for months now, and I thought we finally agreed to stay in Dallas.  A couple of weeks ago, he mentioned how Austin is ranked 6^th as one of the best places to live.  He couldn't show me where he saw that.  I'm assuming he was thinking of the list I just saw that has Round Rock ranked 7^th.  He forgot to look at the rest of the list to see where other cities ranked.

Where we currently live, Richardson TX, we're ranked #18.  Granted, in 2006, Richardson was ranked #15 so we've gone down the list, but Plano TX was ranked #11 that same year and didn't make the top 100 at all this time around!  I think Richardson is doing quite well.

Other cities in the Dallas Metroplex that made the top 100 list are:
McKinney #14
Carrollton #15
Allen #20
Euless #34
Frisco #38
Denton #57
Garland #67
Lewisville #69
Grand Prairie #96

He's still trying to talk me into Austin, but I'm not so sure anymore...

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

** Picture courtesy of the CNN Money website though courtesy of the City of Richardson.

My community, Woods of SpringCreek in Richardson, TX finally received the turnabout they've been talking about for years.  Telecom was a dead-end street, but it was never finished off because the plans were to make it a through street. 

With enough support from the homeowners, we convinced the City of Richardson to not allow it to be a through street and to keep the traffic away from our small, quiet community.  They then agreed to connect two different streets in order to make traffic flow from Plano into Richardson, Los Rios and North Star.

Here is a view from above showing how Telecom stopped at some trees, and how North Star made a pretty sharp turn west in order to connect to Los Rios.

Now, we have a turnabout at the end of the street and much needed landscaping has been put in place so it's nice and pretty to look at when you're at the community park or just walking your dogs or kids around the neighborhood.  We also know that we will remain a quiet area without any through traffic coming by at all hours of the days and nights.  This was all made possibly with some bond money, and some funds from our friendly neighborhood who own the private property across the street from our community.

This is how the street used to end, with just some ugly baracades...

This is what the landscaping now looks like.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

Last June, I blogged about Richardson TX becoming the new Cancer Hub for the area.  Well, it's a year later, and they're almost done with the buildings.  Each time I went in for my pregnancy follow ups last year, I would watch out the window as they were working.  At that time, it seemed like they were moving so slow, but they were just putting in the infrastructure like the new parking lots, driveways, and sidewalks.

The last couple of months has seens a huge transformation.  Once these buildings get complete, it's not only going to be a huge complex for Richardson to be proud of in order to help those in need, but, not to be selfish, but I think it's also going to bring a lot of doctors and others to the area and help boost our appreciation a bit more.  That's always a good thing!

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

Brand New Gated Community just starting building it's first spec home, Cantera.  Cantera is in North East Richardson TX where I refer to it as the "Red-Headed Step Child of Richardson."  I call this area that because it's the city of Richardson, but it's Collin County and Plano Schools, so we sometimes get overlooked (I live about a mile from this new community).

There are 49 homesites, and the lots themselves are selling for what my house costs!  The finished products will range from $700,000 to upwards of $3M!!  They have already sold 10 lots so they're well on their way.

5 Builders plus the Developer are building in this small community, so we're sure to get a wide variety of elevations so they don't all look the same.  Lot sizes are all over the board from 75 X 150 to something like 200 X 250.  Many of the trees are remaining, which is unique in our area since most developers like to just knock them all down and start over.  The mature trees will help create privacy around many of the homesites.

Cantera has an onsite pond and park area, and the elementary school is right around the corner which helps make the community very family oriented.

For further information about this new development, please don't hesitate to give me a call or email.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

** Pond and Park picture courtesy of Cantera's website.  All others are originals.

WOW!  Can you believe it?  I check my emails yesterday, as I do every 2 seconds, and I get the ActiveRain newsletter.  I usually skim through it fairly quickly, but then head to the featured blog pages if a title caught my attention.  I was scrolling and scrolling and about to click out of that and into my next email when I saw a face I recognized. 

It was MY face!  I was highlighted in the Member Spotlight section.  They even mentioned my birthday and my daughter.  How very interesting.  I had just assumed that they were taking excerpts from the members' profile for the spotlight.  I had no idea a real human was writing them, and then also writing personal stuff that didn't come from the profile.  The person who wrote it even knew Alyssa turned 8 months old a couple of days ago, and I didn't even do an 8 month blog.

Member Spotlight

Donna Harris, ASP (Re/Max HiNet) Donna Harris is an Accredited Staging Professional and RE/MAX agent in the Dallas TX area. She just celebrated her birthday on July 11th, and her darling daughter, Alyssa, just turned 8 months! Donna also belongs to "24" - the Unofficial Jack Bauer Blog Group. View Member

I would just like to say THANK YOU to ActiveRain for continuing to make this site personal and not letting automation take over.  I would also like to thank the numerous people who have contacted me since the newsletter came out.  I guess people actually do read newsletters instead of just hitting delete as I admit to doing sometimes.

Keep up the progressions ActiveRain!!  Slow and steady wins the race!

The City of Dallas has been going Green through many initiatives.  The most important is that Dallas, TX now has new building standards and they are Green, and we're talking both commercial and residential buildings.

"Dallas is the number one municipal purchaser of renewable power in the nation, boasts the largest clean vehicle fleet of any city in Texas, and is the only pilot city chosen for the EPA's Sustainable Skylines Initiative aimed at improving air quality."

You can't get much Greener than that these days, though there are still improvements to be made. If you would like further information about Dallas going Green, you can go to their website.

Richardson, TX's Corportate Challenge is almost upon us.  The deadline for the registration fee is July 31 at 5pm.  The Corporate Challenge is set up like the Olympics where you have different events on different days.  The Opening Ceremony will be on August 22 with events starting on August 23.  The Closing Ceremony (Party) will be on October 22.  Yes, this is a 2 month long challenge.  Is your company signed up?

Here is a link for the promotional video.

Money raised goes to the Special Olympics.  In 2007, the teams raised $90,100.

For further information about the events and the teams participating, go to the main website.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

**Graphic courtesy of the corporate challenge website.

Out with the old and in with the new.  Richardson's Heights Park will be getting new playground equipment.  On average, playground equipment should be replaced every 20 years, and the Heights Park equipment is 40 years old.  The replacement had been postponed many times because the neighbors like the equipment and thought the pieces looked different and unique to today's parks.

However, after reviewing all the equipment, they have come to the conclusion that the equipment is a safety hazard as there are areas where you could get your head stuck, or arms and legs could get entangled.

The main concern of the residents is to be able to reuse the current equipment somewhere so people could still view it, and that is going to come true.  Much of the equipment will be used as art within the new park and some will be placed in other places around the city. 

I think this is a great idea.  I remember playing at the park when I was little.  The rocket was so cool, being able to climb so high.  I always enjoyed the "old-time" equipment.  Times have changed and safety concerns have changed.  All I can say is that I played on that equipment, many others played on the same type of equipment, and we're all still alive.  But just like kids and their car seats, standards change, so The City of Richardson is changing as well.

The new park should be done shortly, as they started removing all the old equipment yesterday.

Here's the full story from The Dallas Morning News.
Here's further information from the city of Richardson website site.

** pictures courtesy of The Dallas Morning News and The City of Richardson websites.

The City of Richardson is having a VIN Etching event on Thursday, September 18.  It will be held in the Cisco Systems parking lot (near Renner and Jupiter) from 9am until 2pm.  Did I mention this is FREE!!  The only thing the city is asking for is for each person to bring 2 canned goods. 

The City of Richardson breaks records each and every year for their different canned food drives, and this will be no exception to add to those records.  Most dealerships would charged hundreds of dollars to etch your VIN in each and every window, but FREE is a great price.  The Etching will be provided by the North Texas Auto Theft Task Force.

Some insurances are even giving up to 10% discount for this anti-theft device.  If it happens to rain, like the last time this was scheduled, there is already a rain-day scheduled for the following week on September 25 at the same Bat time and the same Bat place.

That's right, FREE slurpees at 7-11.  They used to offer the slurpees for cheap cheap in years past, but recently, they've started giving out FREE slurpees on my birthday.  At first, I thought it was a tribute to me.  Now, I know it's a tribute to me!!  j/k

So, where ever you are today, stop by and get your slurpee.  It's supposed to be 100 degrees in Dallas today, so I know I'm going to venture out and get one!!

**graphic courtesy of slurpee.com

Is it wrong to write a blog wishing yourself a Happy Birthday?  Good, because I wouldn't want to be uncouth!  So, today is my birthday.  Usually, once the 4th of July comes, the rest of the next week usually goes by so slow and I can't wait for my birthday.  This year was completely different.

This past week went by so quickly. I have no idea why.  Maybe because birthdays aren't as exciting anymore?  Last year for my birthday, I had the most exciting day and that's because it was the day I found out I was having a girl!  How can this birthday compete with that one?

I'm not sure any birthday could ever match up to last years'...

Any suggestions on how to bring the excitement of birthdays back to life?

By the way, just because it's my birthday, I have arranged for 7-11 to give out FREE slurpees to everyone today, so no matter where you are in the country, go get yourself a FREE slurpee on me!!

My husband and I used to spend time together in the middle of the day at the lake a few times a month.  We like to wakeboard.  We would each get some work done first thing in the morning, grab some lunch, and then off to the lake for a couple of hours.  We would always be back with a couple of hours left in the day to do any end of the day follow up.  So, we would never be unavailable for an entire day, or even several hours.  It is literally only a couple of hours, and I would treat it as an "appointment".

Yesterday, was one of those days.  We had not escaped like that in over a year, since I found out I was pregnant last April.  Then, this year thus far, I was sick, he was sick, then I was sick, and he was sick... he just got over pneumonia, and we took advantage of it.  I dropped Alyssa off at daycare, and we gassed up the boat, and off to Lake Ray Hubbard in Rowlett, TX!

Like all Lakes in the Dallas area, Lake Ray Hubbard is a man-made lake.  As the story goes, during the building of the lake, it started raining for days and days, and the workers left all their equipment at the bottom as they couldn't get it out.  This is also why you have to be careful driving around the lake because there are tree stumps everywhere as they were never finished being cut down.  If you've never been to the lake before, I highly suggest finding out where you should ride so you don't ruin your boat with the tree stumps.

Anyway, two summers ago, it rained so much, I didn't go wakeboarding a single time.  So, in essence, yesterday was my first time to wakeboard in about 2 years.  Scary, huh?  I got out there, and I can definitely tell you that it's not like riding a bike.  To an extent, it's like riding a bike because you know all the fundamentals... but the muscle strength is not there anymore.  It's going to take some time to work up that strength again, but in the mean time, as you can see in the pictures, the water was great, the weather was great, and the time alone was great.  We were back by 2pm in time to finish up the day and got all calls and emails answered.

Do you ever escape in the middle of the day to take time for yourself?  What do you like to do?

Each year, new words are added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  Some of those words this year are "Air quotes", "Dirty Bomb",  and even "Edamame". 

With all the mortgage controversies over the past few years, it's a wonder why it took so many years to get the word "Subprime" into the dictionary.  The official entry says it's an adjective and dates back to 1995:

"1 : having or being an interest rate that is higher than a prime rate and is extended especially to low-income borrowers <subprime mortgages> 2 : extending or obtaining a subprime loan <subprime lenders> <subprime borrowers>"

I find it interesting that even though the practice has been around since the mid-90's and foreclosure have been on the rise for the past couple of years because of subprime, that the word is just now making into the book of definitions. 

What makes a word eligible to be an acknowledged word?  The old saying used to be "Ain't ain't a word because ain't ain't in the dictionary," but the word ain't IS in the dictionary.  It has several definitions and they date the word back to 1749.  Why did it take so long to be put in the dictionary?

Are their words that you use in everyday language that are not in the dictionary?  My husband says I make up words, but I know they'll be words soon enough!!

As most of you know, I have a baby.  She's 7 ½ months old and will be 8 months on the 16^th.  I blog about her quite often as she amazes me so much.  Each day, it's something different.  There are many people within Active Rain that have young children.  I thought it would be nice for everyone to brag about their kids right here, and let's see what everyone is doing.

Alyssa is crawling like crazy!  It's funny that she even crawls because she refuses to sit down much of the time.  She wants to be standing at all times. She doesn't care what she's standing against, but she must be on her feet.  She's also figured out how to pull herself up to a standing position, and even walk along the object she's holding onto.

Alyssa is about to break through tooth number 5.  She has the two bottom middle, and she has the two on either side of the upper middle, which looks almost vampire-like.  The 5^th one about to break through will be the upper middle on her left.  I can see the pearly white at the tips of her gum.  I thought it would be there this morning, but it'll come through in her sleep tonight, I'm sure.

Alyssa LOVES food!  I think her favorites are the ones she can grab and eat on her own which are watermelon and corn on the cob.  Yes, with the kernels still on it!  She'll eat anything put in front of her. I think her most favorite things to eat are magazines and those little postcards that are tucked inside.  I guess she feels she doesn't get enough fiber.

And her favorite word is MAMA!  She says it all the time.  The speech people say DADA is usually the first word, but no DADA in sight!  She's got some other words like LALA and NANA and AHHH and UMMM, but MAMA wins hands down!

What is your little one doing these days?

When a house is listed, one of the first things that needs to be done is to come up with a description of the house.  The description should be something that is going to make people say to themselves, "I must see this house!"  The description shouldn't be something where people says to themselves, "This says nothing useful."  Many listings are immediately eliminated because they don't provide the type of information the buyer is needing in order to make an informed decision to actually take the time to view the inside.

I was looking through the MLS today, and I ran across some descriptions that made me wonder why the listing agent chose such words.  Sometimes, a house is so bad that it's hard to come up with words, but you could still describe the floorplan to help someone picture it.  For the most part, I rather list the updates people have done rather than floorplan descriptions.  This is because in my market, people are low on cash, and they rather not spend too much money updating a house so they like to see that all the work has been done for them.  In a newer home, updates aren't really needed, so I describe the floorplan and features.  When looking at older homes, and the description has no updates listed, that's an immediate clue that the house is in original or bad condition and will take thousands to get it up to par.

Here is a sample of some of the descriptions I found interesting:

"Priced by single-again owner WELL BELOW MARKET VALUE."  I think this says divorce situation, seller very negotiable, come lowball me and I'll except anything to get the memories of this house out of my head.  Or, is the listing agent trying to say that he didn't set the asking price as he knows it's actually too high, so he's making sure everyone knows that the seller priced the home.

"Has security system but not hooked up."  And?  Why would you say it's not hooked up?  Thieves cruise the listings looking at house pictures in order to pick their next target.  You just made this house an easy target as they know there is no security system to worry about.

"Perfectly tailored lighting solutions for every room." Does each light have a specific inseam it needs?  Can you bring the sellers back after closing for alterations if you don't find the sleeves are long enough?

"You have to see the inside of this home to appreciate it." Don't look at the neighborhood.  I know there are cars on blocks up and down the street, but come see the inside and don't worry about those people sitting on their porch cleaning their guns.

"Ceiling fans everywhere" and "sealing fans in every room".  I'm not sure what a Sealing Fan is, but why is this an important feature to market?  It's not like those fans are made of platinum or titanium. Ceiling fans are a given in the Dallas market, so this might vary by area.

"The neighborhood park has baby swings at the playground." How does mentioning baby swings at the park make the house sound more inviting, especially if you're single with no kids? Does this really help sell the house?

Whenever I have a new listing, I email the final version to my sellers and ask them to proof it and give me their opinion.  I ask them if it sounds like a house they would buy all over again.  We make changes, together, if necessary. What are some descriptions that you see that make you cringe?

I've posted different things in the past that are just for fun, and this is one of those things. 

What does your family look like?  Mine is pretty basic with just Alyssa and a dog.  I guess I could have gotten more complicated by putting in the Grandparents and our siblings, but is that a true picture of "our" family.  When it was just Mike and me, I never really thought of us as a "family".  Does two people make a family? 

Since Alyssa was born, now I truly see us as a Family, and the three of us (plus Oscar) are my family from now on.  Even though extended family is there and very evident in our lives, they're more in the background now.

Use the link from my graphic and show us what your family looks like.

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com