Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: May 2010

I move the Earth for my Clients!  Really I do! Many agents say they'll move the earth and do whatever it takes to sell a property, but I literally did move earth...

My sign would not go into the rock ground no matter how much pounding with my sledgehammer I did, so I did some manual labor.  I went and got rocks from all over the lot and stacked them up.

I wiggled it a lot and it seemed very sturdy, so I'm hoping the wind and rain will have no effect on it. Man, some of those rocks were heavy!!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* I Move the Earth for my Clients! * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Yesterday, Congressman Ron Paul introduced legislation to extend the First Time Homebuyer tax credit.  He makes a couple of good points, but the point that I think is ridiculous and makes no sense is,

"Renewing the first-time home buyer's credit will help Americans purchase a first home with their own money, instead of having to rely on government-funded or backed programs."

You might want to read it again.  It says it will help people buy with their own money. How does that happen when the tax "credit" is a credit given after a buyer buys the house?  If they don't have money to buy the house in the first place, the tax credit does nothing for them and they will still need other programs to get them money for the initial purchase. They'll be able to double-dip. Government loan in addition to government tax credit.

By the way, has congress forgotten that the government has NO money??  Where is the money going to come from? Who's going to pay for this tax credit?  Oh, silly me, I forgot, we're America!  We can just go further and further into debt and our great-great grand children can deal with it later.

Gimme a break!  Extending this tax credit, until some of our debt is paid off, is a horrible idea!

Press release with more details.

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit - Legislation to Extend is Bad Idea! * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Where have I been? I know, I know, I haven't updated my blog in 3 weeks.  Yes, it's hard for me to believe that also since many times I can post two and three blogs in one day.

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a similar blog, but it was actually about this same time three years ago...

Quit beating around the bush, Donna, why haven't you been around much??

At first, I was able to use the proxy error messages as a good reason to not post so much. Man, those errors were a killer.  Once they were fixed, I've was getting emails and calls from people asking if everything's ok.

Yes, everything is OK!

Ok ok, so the big announcement is...

BabyHarris2 is on the way! Alyssa will be a BIG SISTER!  She's very excited though she keeps forgetting that brother means boy and sister means girl because when you ask if she wants a brother or sister, she always says brother. And when you ask if she wants a boy or a girl, she always says girl. 

She did say to me, "Pink is for girls and blue is for boys. I want a pink room, and the other room can be blue because the baby's a boy." I asked her what we do with her purple room.  Her response, "You paint it, Mommy!"

My due date was hard to pin-point for other reasons I don't want/need to get into, but the consensus is that I'm 12w4d and due December 3, 2010 (though today's appt showed Dec 1) which will put this baby around Thanksgiving just like Alyssa, three years later.

If you like fun guessing games, I set up this game like I did with Alyssa. It was fun seeing all the guesses and who got the closest last time. Even if you feel we don't really know each other, who cares, make a guess anyway, it's for fun!

I'm starting to get some energy back, so I should be around more often again.



Thanks for all the "where are you" messages. They mean a lot!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* ANNOUNCEMENT - Where Has Donna Been? * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

If I could walk and pee, it would save me so much time!  I took Alyssa to the Johnson City Exotic Resort Zoo this week, and right outside our bus, walking along with us is a goat (actually called a sand sheep) going potty. I guess he couldn't hold it...

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Foto Friday - Can You Walk and Pee? * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

I was reading something very interesting today on the Profile of Texas Homebuyers and Sellers report that was published for 2009...

18% of Homebuyers were single FEMALE
8% of Homebuyers were single MALE

WOW!  Those numbers stand out significantly!  I read further to see what the National statistics were to see if Texas was just off, or if this was a trend for more women to buy houses than men.  Nationally, 21% were single female and 10% were single males.

What does this tell us?  This tells us (don't bite my head off as this is my personal opinion) that men have commitment issues in more places than just relationships!!  A single man doesn't want to feel tied down or trapped. He becomes commitment-phobic while in a dating relationship. If he's going to have these same issues in other parts of his life, it makes sense that he wouldn't tie himself down to one particular house. (I know this doesn't apply to all men, and that this is a gross exaggeration!)

This also tells us that women are stronger in today's world and more willing to make such an investment for their futures. After further research, this has been the trend for the past 7 years!

GIRL POWER!!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Single Women Buying More Houses than Single Men * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Seller Financing has become more popular over the past couple of years as the lending rules have become more strict. However, did you know that as of May 2010, a Seller must be LICENSED in order to finance a property for a buyer??

Back in July of 2008, President George W Bush signed into law the SAFE Act, Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act.  The SAFE Act was to be implemented on the state level within one year, and in Texas, that was done during the 2009 legislative session.

There are two exceptions to the new law. The first one is if the home is currently the Seller's primary residence, and the second is if the Seller is financing for a family member.

What does this mean?

This means that Investors that own multiple properties and like to seller finance for people who have less than stellar credit, or even people with good credit, can no longer provide this service without being a licensed RMLO, Residential Mortgage Loan Originator.

What are the consequences?  In Texas, this is a misdemeanor offense...

What I find interesting is that one of the requirements to obtain the license to become an RMLO is "creditworthiness". I would assume this means that even if the Seller has buckets of cash ready to lend people, if his background check and fingerprints come back in a negative way, he can't proceed. He'll just have to sit on all the cash and invest somewhere else...

And most importantly, BUYER BEWARE!!  Just because the Seller offers to finance for you, it doesn't mean he's legally allowed to do it. Do your homework as well!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2010 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Seller Financing Has New Rules - SAFE Act Implemention * was first published on donnahomesblog.com