The Case for Being Nice

we will default to nice not only because it comes naturally but because it gets results.

Home Warranty Coverage – What does it do for me?

The mystical home warranty. This blog tells more about general home warranty coverage, what it costs, and includes a few tricks of the trade you’ll need to know when reporting any problem to your warranty company!

What can you get for $89,000 … we saw the craziest house today

So we saw the craziest house this week. The common thought today is that we wait and prices will go down, interest rates will get even lower and you will get this great house at a steal of a price.  So a steal house for $89,000 in a neighborhood selling around $130,000 will include your own green house, extra access to the outside, and about 10 pounds of collected dust from over the years, oh and don’t forget the cat door.

 

Walking up to this home with my buyers, we only opened the front door to satisfy our sick desire to see how bad it could be inside compared to the outside.  Well it started off not too shabby, once we got over the carpet that was beyond its last leg, then we looked up and saw that the ceiling fan had been gathering dust for who knows how long and had we turned it on it would have powdered the entire room.  The layout wasn’t bad, but when you have leaves growing in between window glass, a hole in the wall that is letting in sunlight, and bathrooms that need a complete overhaul (not to mention what might be hiding behind those bathroom walls), it can be hard to look for those “good bones” us Realtors use to validate an investment of a really awful house.  While the house might just need a good scrubbing and some paint and new flooring, with such an intense need to clean my thought always is if this is how the house was lived in, how high is the chance that any maintenance has been done to the foundation, electrical, HVAC, etc?

 

Now this is an extreme example and, to be fair, the house was in a foreclosure situation, which general comes with an “As-is” clause to any offer.  The house made my client’s short list of homes to see because of the price, but they quickly realized that a house priced at a steal of a deal, comes with many other concerns.  Something for all home buyers to consider as we move into another season of real estate for the Austin area.

 

If you see a house that appears to be a steal, call us … we’re as curious as you are. We’ll be happy to assess the damage and the potential return.

 

© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The PERFECT House

© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

NPR Podcast: The Giant Pool of Money

Do you feel somewhat clueless as to how such enormous banks and lenders could have gotten themselves into such a sticky economic position? Kind of like seeing an otherwise intelligent kid with his head stuck between two fence pickets. Or an otherwise intelligent friend get into and stuck in a really bad relationship. Or an otherwise reliable tire shop who fails to tighten the lug nuts on your otherwise fabulous 1972 VW bug. You get the picture.

This is a podcast via Chicago Public Radio & This American Life. It’s a special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. They explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

the really short promo version: http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/promos/355.mp3

the full version: http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/player/CPRadio_player.php?podcast=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/xmlfeeds/355.xml&proxyloc=http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/player/customproxy.php

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© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

hey, ACL schedule is out!

 

 

woo hoo! ACL 2008 schedule is out. I’ve attached a .pdf (08_aclmf_grids1) or you can get your own at http://www.aclfestival.com/schedule/day2.htm.If you’re a visitor to Austin and tempted or considering buying real estate in one of the healthiest markets in the country, then click around the blog for market info and search away at www.searchAtown.com. Call us if you need professional advice and direction.

rock on.

 

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driving is a lot easier

My father is following a bit too fast in his father’s footsteps. You see, Grandpa had full blown dementia at 80 and Dad, at 78, appears to be not too far behind. He often references his 20 years flying jets for the USAF in relation to his driving skills (Dodge Magnum, one of the sexier cars he has owned) … says with the same intonation every time, “driving is a lot easier.”

Why is this in a real estate blog? Well, real estate is real life and as our parents age and their needs change and increase, we find ourselves wondering how to best take care of their needs and shouldn’t we all have a guest house in the back yard or 1-story homes with an extra guest suite so we can take care of them?

Our 2-story, multi-level 70’s home with 2 steps down into the living and a steep driveway and 2 sets of steps situated somewhere from the curb to the front door and a guest room that also serves as an office. You get the picture and perhaps your set-up is similar. Oh, and I live out of state. So my sister has the same musings … too bad there isn’t a small cottage behind their house (4 acres in Des Moines) but the guest room upstairs or the old teenage room in the basement … not an arrangement for Dad.

Real estate is real life and driving is a lot easier.

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© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Mashup

This is an Austin, TX real estate blog. This post is about the ACL Festival. What ties the two together is that ACL brings thousands of people into Austin who, while they are here, fantasize about living in Austin.

First, the ACL info. The Festival lineup is being released tomorrow. Here is a link to a mashup to help you figure it out pre-release: http://www.aclfestival.com/mashup

And for real estate, here’s a link to help you fantasize: www.searchAtown.com

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© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

Bad Fences, Bad Neighbors

 

 

 
 

  Originally uploaded by thenelsonproject
 

Mr. Rogers sang “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” and asked “won’t you be my neighbor?” Unfortunately, we rarely get to pick who lives next door. If such a selection process were possible, there would indeed be something to sing about and fewer movies.

Much had been said, written and aired about neighbors. In a 1989 movie, “The’burbs,” new neighbors create a nightmare for Tom Hanks. “The Neighbor” (1993) features a dangerous psychopath whose pregnant neighbor reminds him of his dead mother.

In “The New Neighbor” (1953), a man moves into a new home to discover his neighbor is a slob and a mooch and has a dog that digs up gardens. Eventually, their conflict escalates into full-scale war with cheering crowds and television coverage. And who can forget Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as battling neighbors in the “Grumpy Old Men” movies.

But that’s the movies, and nothing like reality. Right? If you said “yes,” you must live a long way from anyone else. Anyone who has owned a home for just a few months has a story to tell about the neighbors.

My parents once had a neighbor who owned a racing car – a dragster to be precise. He tinkered with it when he got home after work, and just about bedtime he tested the engine- over and over. That car would shake pictures off the wall.

Cars are frequently points of conflict among neighbors. I know my neighbors were unhappy many times when my younger son gunned his engine, especially at inappropriate times. I apologize again.

Unruly children, barking dogs, wild parties, loud vehicles, litter, blocked views, parked cars. The points of conflict are numerous.

“I have a very bad neighbor problem,” complains a homeowner on the Internet. “I live next door to Freddie Kruger. He is seven years old, throws rocks at us and cusses us all the time. My mother told his mother to make (him) stop, and she cussed my mother out.”

Some of you may have seen the website posted by the Georgia homeowner unhappy over the antics of his unconventional neighbor. You can view all the gory details and some photos at “Redneck Neighbor.”

The antics described on the website involve businesspeople who drive nice cars and live in new homes in a nice neighborhood. Unfortunately, one of them apparently doesn’t care too much about homeownership. The conflict began in 1997 and includes the neighbor’s “midnight requisition” of building materials from the home being built next door. The hot bricks were used to enclose the mail box at the street and to line a flower bed.
In the months that followed, JD #8, short for John Doe No. 8, the pseudonym given the subject of the website, builds a chicken wire fence. First it encloses a Rottweiler trying to get in the Guinness Book of Records for most nights of continuous barking. Later, the fence encloses chickens and geese. The pigs come later.

When the neighbor-from-hell buys a new lawnmower, he can’t wait to cut his lawn. Much to the chagrin of those who live nearby, he does the first cut at midnight. When the neighbors complain, he explains that he was just taking it for a test run.

Taking photos of your neighbors and posting them of a website may not be a good idea. In some states that might constitute stalking.

The problem with neighborhoods is that we really aren’t neighborly at all. How many of the people on your street do you know? I don’t mean just their names but where they work, the names of their children, their hobbies. Knowing, who is old, sick or having trouble might explain the “strange” behavior you observe.

So how do you deal with bad neighbors? When problems arise, try talking. One irate homeowner on the Internet was contracting lawyers because he believed his neighbor was putting up a fence in the wrong place. But he had never talk to the fence builder.

If neighbors are noisy, try asking them to tone it down. In their enthusiasm over their new lawnmower, they may not realize that the neighbors had turned in before midnight. Some Aggies on my street will go to the neighbors before throwing a party and tell them to let them know if they get too loud.

Be calm. Shouting and yelling accomplish little except perhaps to get other neighbors shouting and yelling. Hostility usually breeds more hostility.

Consider the possibility that you are the problem. In that case, an apology might defuse the situation. Try a peace offering. If you raise vegetables or flowers, share them with the neighbor. Even if you are not at fault, it can’t hurt to try a lets-start-over compromise.

When the nice person approach fails, you can always play the lawyer trump card. But when police have returned to the station, the courts have had their say, and your lawyer is vacationing in Tahiti, you will still be living near the same neighbor.

Which brings us to the final solution. Move. Of course, with moving you run the risk of getting new neighbors who make you long for the old neighborhood.

For the record, I have wonderful neighbors.

Contributed by David S. Jones, reprinted with permission by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

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South Austin: where you can be weird and have chickens too.

A gaggle of teenagers strutted into a convenience store in South Austin yesterday sporting various t-shirts…the tag line on the back of one boy left me silently applauding…”Old Austin hasn’t died.  It just moved South.”  Kudo’s to the unknown author–s/he is definitely a keen supporter of the philosophy that makes Austin so appealing: Keep Austin Weird.

When relocating from Vermont to Austin in 2000, the idea of living in a city that prided itself on being weird wasn’t on my list of criteria for a good match.  However, having lived here for the past eight years I’ve come to understand, totally support and am completely hooked on the notion of Austin’s “weirdness” and can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Weirdness in Austin means freedom to wear flipflops on Christmas Eve and not feel underdressed or disrespectful–you belong and are more important then your footgear.  Seriously.

Weirdness in Austin allows you to celebrate Spam AND Eeyore’s Birthday with pure endorphin-releasing abandon.

Weirdness in Austin means looking forward to sitting with friends & neighbors on the banks of Lady Bird Lake watching for millions of bats to leave their bridge home for evening snacking (right over your head).

While this delightful weirdness occurs throughout Austin, it is especially celebrated South of the Lady Bird Lake, thus South Austin. 

In real estate terms, South Austin includes many neighborhoods including Barton Hills, Bouldin Creek, Cherry Creek, Dawson, Galindo, Horseshoe Bend, South Lamar, SOCO, South Creek, Travis Green & Zilker. 

The further south you go, the more lenient the Home Owner’s Assocations seem to be.  One of my favorite Austin columnists has lived in South Austin for 30 years and frequently amuses with accounts of his creative South Austin neighbors… one neighbor reportedly has a large peace sign on his front lawn–very large–we’re talking trampoline turned on its side with a painted peace sign large.

If freedom of expression is very important to you, you may want to explore some of Austin’s South Austin neighborhoods.  Go online, search on “South Austin” which offers links to many neighborhood associations; read their newsletters and check out the neighborhood school(s).   Check in with your favorite Austin realtor who will be a great source of  information about South Austin neighborhoods.

South Austin may be your new home.  You may even find yourself with your own flock of chickens.

… From our favorite south Austin contributor, Patti P …

© Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Reatly, 2008-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Nelson and The Nelson Project at Keller Williams Realty with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.