Oh, it's not Sunday yet?? Sorry, but I couldn't wait. This picture just looked too good to pass up. We've had 17 days over 100 degrees and many of those days broke record highs getting up to 106 and 107 on several of those days!!
The lake levels are so low right now they're the 5th lowest in Lake Austin history. If you're going to go out this Holiday weekend, or any day, please be aware of the dangers of the lake. There are unexpected islands all over the place.
Here are some islands that we had to navigate around.
The water is so low, many docks weren't meant to float that far out. Many docks have collided into each other, and many docks have run out of ramp room.
There is currently only one public boat ramp still open on Lake Travis, Mandfield Dam park, and it's expected to close mid-week this next week. If you keep a boat on the water, you might want to think about taking it out or you might not be able to get it out later.
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
There are many places around the Austin area for fireworks this year. Here are but a handful of them. We'll probably be going to the Hill Country Galleria, or if Alyssa falls asleep too early, we'll just watch them from our balcony.
Tonight, July 3, you can see fireworks from Carlos 'n Charlies off Lake Travis. We plan on grilling some dinner on the patio at my in-laws and then heading out on the boat to watch the fireworks from the water.
Bee Cave- Hill Country Galleria- This is the 2nd annual celebration. It starts at 6pm and there are two live bands playing, Low Expectation Band and Band of Heathens. The jumping water will not be active since the concerts are preforming right there.
Lakeway- Lakeway City Park- The park will open at 4:30 and you cannot park at the park. You will need to park at Lakeway Elementary school or Emmaus Church. Many activities for the kids along with drinks, food, and live music. A laser light show will start at 9:15 and fireworks at 9:30.
Austin- Auditorium Shores- More than 100,000 people, so come early and bring a picnic to get your spot before someone takes it! Fireworks will begin at 9:30, and will end with the 1812 Overture.
If you would like further information about other activities in the area, here's a great write-up that lists more places.
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Have you heard of Tweet Lister? I heard about it last week, and immediately posted a listing on it to see what would happen.
It's pretty neat because you just enter the address, and pick a couple of features of the home, and the tweet is automatically created for you.
You can enter a link for pictures or a virtual tour and that's included also.
Then, you can tell it how often you want the tweet to go out. I put mine as every 2 days, and low and behold, every other day, the tweet goes through without me doing a thing! When it tweets, it's automatically hitting my Facebook page too.
Talk about getting the listing in front of people over and over again without actually spending the energy to write the same thing over and over again!!
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Did you know that you can control the ads that you see on the right when you're on Facebook? I had no idea until I saw an ad that I so didn't like, and I had my mouse over it, and I saw these little faint graphics of a thumbs up and down.
I clicked the thumb down to see what would happen, and then another screen appeared asking me why I didn't like the ad. I thought that was pretty cool... I wonder if the feedback goes back to the person who created the ad, or if it's just for Facebook's reference.
Since then, I've given 2 more ads a thumbs down. One, it makes me feel better and two, I never have to see the ad again... unless it comes back in another form I assume.
Has anyone else utilized this up and down thumb to control the ads they see?
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been posting pictures of some "creatures" in and around my house. Can you guess what this one is?
I walked into my Toilet Room, as it's the little room in the bathroom that separates the toilet, and I usually don't turn the light on in there because there's a window or because I have the light in the main bathroom on.
This evening, it was already dark outside, and I didn't have the main light on. I just walked right into the Toilet Room, and casually turned the light on, and then JUMPED and screamed, and RAAAANNNNNN!
I had never seen a scorpian in person before, only in books! I coulda died if I stepped on it, I think...
And granted, it wasn't that big, but when it's unexpected, it seemed HUGE to me!!
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Last week, we ventured out to Lake Travis to show you some waterfront Homes. This past weekend, we ventured out to the other side of the Mansfield Dam to check out Lake Austin.
Lake Austin is MUCH colder than Lake Travis because it's a constant-level lake that is fed through the Mansfield Dam from the bottom of Lake Travis. The water at the very bottom never sees the sun, so it stays cold and that cold water is what feeds Lake Austin.
As you go further down the lake, it warms up about 5 degrees... but when we were out, it was 106 or 107, something HOT like that, so the water felt GREAT!
The biggest difference between the two lakes is that Lake Austin has many more homes actually situated on the lake as "water front", and the majority have docs, whereas the Lake Travis area had much fewer homes right at the lake.
And don't forget that you can always use your Multi-Million Dollar Lake Austin Waterfront Home as a laundry dryer!!
And did I mention that there were at least 20 "For Sale" signs hanging from the docks?
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
For the past couple of weeks, I've been posting a "How Was Your Weekend?" blog. People have seemed to enjoy seeing how my family and I spend time together, so here's another weekend.
We went to the Bee Cave Galleria, also known as the Hill Country Galleria, where they have this area of shooting water. Great, FREE Entertainment!
We went out on the boat to check out Lake Austin. The water is much colder than Lake Travis, but with it being 107 degrees, the water felt awesome!! These are half of my in-laws with Alyssa and her shades.
This is the "360 Bridge" that crosses over Lake Austin.
We went to the Lakeway City Park. There was no "beach" that we were told a lot about, but we found where the beach usually is along with a sign that says to Swim at Own Risk! It looks out of place these days!
And we found the ducks hiding in the shade.
And my daring Alyssa decided to try to climb the clmbing tower... she got pretty high before she slipped, but then she caught herself, but then she got scared of it.
And it wouldn't be a hot, summer day without playing out back in the pool and using the pool water to water the flowers again...
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Have you signed the petition for the HVCC? Have you seen the petition?
It's amazing that so many people are complaining about the HVCC, there's a petition to do something about it, however, only 40,178 people have signed it.
Aren't there 1.3 MILLION REALTORS® out there? With that number alone, there should be several hundred thousand signatures already... but there aren't.
Aren't there like 5 appraisers for every Realtor? Ok, I know there aren't that many, but there have to be several hundred thousand appraisers across the country.
Why aren't they all signing this if they're that upset? Have most given into the "lowest bidder" for the appraisal mentality?
I heard an appraiser was finally questioned when he kept winning the lowest bid, because he had done 3 appraisals in a week within a 150 mile radius... how does a "good" appraiser complete a "good" and valuable appraisal being knowledgeable of all those different areas being 150 miles away? This appraiser, in no way, could be knowledgeable about all those different areas... but he was the lowest bidder!!
I'm not saying that I condone what some appraisers were doing in the past, but we need to move forward. I don't believe the HVCC is the way to move forward. It's creating a backlog in underwriting and it's getting really ridiculous.
Please sign The Petition here, and then post which number you were when you signed it.
Austin, TX real estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
Taylor Morrison builds a quality home. There are many features that come as standard instead of being charged as an upgrade. Taylor Morrison is building in both the 80' section and the 70' section. The main difference of the homes, besides the size of the lots, is that the homes in the 80's have tile roofs whereas the homes in the 70's have regular composition shingles.
Here are some pictures of one of the model homes:
Below are some pictures of an inventory home they have available in the 80' section. It is a 2 story home that backs to a greenbelt area for privacy. There are 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, a 3 car garage, a study, gameroom, and a media room. So much space to spread out. There is also an outdoor kitchen with fireplace and grill. The home is slotted to be completely in August, so excuse the construction still evident in these pictures.
What did you think about those windows in the Family Room? And how the Stone Fireplace went up just as high? The Gameroom has a Balcony off the back which is another great place to entertain. All of this has been reduced from $622,405 down to rock-bottom of $579,346!!
Austin, TX and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.
This blog is to help educate Buyers, Sellers and even other Realtors across the country. Each market is different and the way Real Estate is done is different. Austin Real Estate is completely different than Dallas, California and Florida and everywhere else in between. Some times there will be other things besides real estate as I like to rant and rave as much as the next!! Come back often! Donna Harris, REALTOR® with RE/MAX Promote Your Page Too
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
There are many places around the Austin area for fireworks this year. Here are but a handful of them. We'll probably be going to the Hill Country Galleria, or if Alyssa falls asleep too early, we'll just watch them from our balcony.
Aren't there 1.3 MILLION REALTORS® out there? With that number alone, there should be several hundred thousand signatures already... but there aren't. 
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