New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan recently wrote about this DJ posing as a financial advisor. It was one of those setups like you see on TV. They removed his dreadlocks and body piercings, put him in a suit, taught him some basic scripts like “a 401K is the way to go“, and had him meet with actual financial clients to discuss their financial needs and how he can help. When he went for the “close”, all but 1 client said they would work with him. He had zero experience, no qualifications (though I’ll bet his conversational skills helped). But since he looked the part and knew some buzz phrases, and the prospective clients didn’t know the right questions to ask, he was able to win their trust just by being nice and personable. The point of the experiment was to illustrate that the vast majority of financial clients do ... Read more

As the owner of a business where 100% live answer is not possible or cost effective, I do receive my fair share of angry voicemails from people wanting to talk to a human right now. It’s kind of interesting actually. I received this one just recently. Many would just delete it, as I usually do with rude voicemail tirades. We receive all manner of unbelievably incoherent, garbled and plain crazy voice messages from people. But as a blunt-spoken no-BS type of person myself, I appreciated this voicemail. I played it proudly for my wife. And I played it for my assistant, “listen, … this is great!” And now I’m blogging about it. The caller scolds me with the blunt, to the point assertion, “if no one is available you get no sales“. Listen to it again yourself. It’s perfect! It’s the kind of communication I respect. Clear, concise, to the ... Read more

Update August 2018: The Austin Board of Realtors has Discontinued use of the Coming Soon Status. It caused more trouble that it was worth. Austin Realtors can now enter For Sale listings into the Austin Central Texas MLS before the listing is ready for showing. For up to 14 days prior to the “Active” date. And, therefore, buyer agents and buyers can get a “heads up” on listings that are (supposedly) about to come onto the market live in the MLS. What Problem Does This Solve? During Austin’s red hot seller’s market of the past 5 years, it had become increasingly frustrating for Buyer Agents and Buyers trying to operate in a low inventory market. We heard tales of buyers literally driving zig zag through neighborhoods looking for “Coming Soon” signs. Every new listing that popped up live in MLS became a Red Alert fire drill, as I wrote about ... Read more

What effect does "negative cash flow" real estate have on the growth of your Net Worth over time?

What is your Austin home worth, right now? When considering a sale, it’s generally worth “market value”, defined loosely as the highest price a buyer would pay, and that a seller will accept in an open, competitive market. This assumes neither buyer nor seller are under any undue stress or duress external to the transaction itself. Many homeowners want to know their home value even when not considering a sale. Such as when protesting assessed property value at Travis County. Or maybe you are just curious, or you want to update your Net Worth spreadsheet with a current value. If you don’t want the “market” to determine your home value, because you don’t want to sell, there now exists a plethora of “Automated Valuation Model” (AVM) tools that will tell you the supposed value of your home online based on mathematical algorithms and data. The most well know is perhaps ... Read more

Historically in Texas, homes have appreciated at 4.5% annually (according to Texas A&M Real Estate Center). This is the expected appreciation we use when making real estate investment assumptions as well. For example, a $200,000 home would increase in value to $209,000 if appreciation was 4.5% for that year. If you wanted to save for 1 year a 5% downpayment for a $200,000 home in Austin, you would save 5% of the future value of the home, not the current value. You would save for a $209K purchase, $10,450, not $10,000, if saving just for 1 year. Starting in about 2012, homes in Austin have appreciated at a much greater rate, closer to 8% annually. This makes it harder to save for a down payment, like chasing a vanishing horizon. Also, there are no more $200,000 homes. The median value of a home in Austin is now about $400,000 if ... Read more

The Austin real estate market has begun to level off and slow down a bit, but that fact is not yet fully reflected in the market statistics, other than Days on Market creeping up. Nevertheless, Median Sold price is up to $322K, an increase of 8% over August 2017. I see more price drops coming across the listing update feeds I follow as well, and I also see more “back on market” listings.  This softening of the Austin real estate market may more fully appear in the September through December stats as I expect Days on Market to keep rising and price increases to slow. Real Estate cycles in Texas have traditionally run 4 to 7 years. We’re in year 7 of a continuous increase in prices, which is outpacing the very strong job growth Austin has enjoyed over the same period. But prices have run away from wages. Austin ... Read more

I’ve been protesting property tax values with Travis County for 30 years. Not only for myself, but back in the 1990s, into the 2000s for my property management and real estate clients as well. And also assisting by providing market information to clients and others who ask for help from our Free CMA page, which I think I first put up in 2005. For 2023, TCAD valued a property I owned in Southwest Austin in Legend Oaks neighborhood at $677k. This was excessively high, by more than $100k, but I was unsuccessful at the ARB Hearing (Arbitration Review Board), despite presenting clear objective data. They did lower it to $651k though, still about $100k too high. So for the first time ever, I filed for a Binding Arbitration hearing, paid the $500 deposit, and hired an appraiser to value the property for me as of Jan 1, 2023. TCAD generally ... Read more

The recent lawsuit involving the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and subsequent news coverage have sparked significant discussion within the Realtor community. I’d like to take this opportunity to share my perspective on the home buying and selling process, how Realtors are compensated, and the concept of ‘Uncompensated Effort.’ Realtors earn what is known as a ‘Success Fee.’ Essentially, we provide all our services for free until the transaction is closed and funded, at which point we receive a commission. Efforts that do not result in a closing are what I call ‘Uncompensated Effort.’ Every Realtor incurs this overhead, and it’s an integral part of a system that benefits consumers. Both buyers and sellers appreciate this system because it allows them to access services at no cost, even if they never purchase a home or their property doesn’t sell. For example, a buyer might contact an Austin Realtor based on ... Read more

Wow, 24 months of inventory for DT Condos as of June 20, 2024. This is extraordinary. And we see an inverted price pattern on the right side of this chart telling us at a glance that listings are over-priced for demand. (Mine is one of them). In a *rising* market, Actives can be priced higher than Pendings, which are priced higher than Solds (skate to where the puck will be).  In a declining market, those price relationships result in a 2 year inventory. Pricing has to catch the falling market. As I am my own seller on my Seaholm unit, I ask myself, should I cut the price by 10%, or hold tight and wait for the market to rebound in perhaps two years? FYI – ChatGPT create this chart upon my instructions. Charts like this tell stories that are easy for buyers and sellers to understand.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the “Chevron decision” heralds what could be the end of the absurd Emotional Support Animal (ESA) scams that have plagued landlords and property managers since HUD administratively stretched Fair Housing laws to include anyone claiming “anxiety” or “whatever”. This administrative rule—not a law—created a loophole that tenants have widely exploited. By purchasing a bogus $50 “doctor’s note” online, tenants can present themselves as “disabled” applicants and scare landlords and Property Managers into granting their “request for reasonable accommodation” for their 100-pound pit bull, under threat of a HUD lawsuit for “discrimination.” We are not talking about legitimate Service Animals, such as seeing-eye dogs for the blind or extensively trained PTSD alert dogs for combat veterans. Those are 100% legitimate disabilities and those specially trained animals should never be declined by any landlord, under actual law. Instead, we’re addressing self-proclaimed “disabled” tenants who ... Read more

Web Certain brings a new facility to online property marketers - news from around the web relating to property marketing - enjoy!

Suffolk estate agents, Bychoice, have incorporated a Suffolk property marketing blog into their range of services. The blog discusses all news which could impact on property values - or on the issues which affect property buyers and sellers.

A new construction news source goes live today bringing news from around the web on issues relevant to construction which have been reported online!

DTI figures reported by Contract Journal suggest that orders for construction in February were substantially down.

Status: do przedaży. Oryginalny Clochard z Paryża w drewnianej ramie. Akwarela Alice Huertas.

Status: WYNAJĘTE. Mieszkanie do wynajęcia Bielsko-Biała: 2 pokoje z msc. parkingowym. Nowe budownictwo Bielsko-Biała, oś. Apartamenty Olszówka, ul. Kustronia. Wynajem mieszkania.

Serwis Internetowy Nieruchomości ROTUNDA.

Rocana's recent experiences at ISKCON Portland temple.

Discussion between Rocana dasa and Bir Krishna dasa Goswami on ISKCON North America.

Ongoing Chakra debate regarding Srila Prabhupada's instructions on association with his Godbrothers

We've now completed a fresh re-install of the Krsna Blog, and have archived older Blog content elsewhere in the site. The following three threads had to be manually re-built into the new Blog database, so all the posting and comment dates are the same. All three posts are still open to new comments. The new Krsna Blog Archive is now housed in the Vada section of the site [link]. The Krsna Blog should now be restored to perfect running order, and we look forward to your continued participation here.

Haribol. With the Blog rebuild, you'll see that we've now got new comments appearing at the top of the comments list (ascending rather than descending order). Hopefully this will make long blog threads, in particular, easier to read. You'll also note the new XML / RSS icons at the bottom of the Main Index. The Krsna Blog has entered the 21st century, and is now a streaming RSS feed. We're a week or two away from the launch of a major new aspect of the HareKrsna.com site, which will incorporate various streaming aspects.[more]

We are all familiar with the refrain Guru, Sastra, and Sadhu as being the spiritually scientific methodology utilized in order to authorize every aspect of the Krsna Consciousness process. Much heated discussion has taken place within the Vaisnava community regarding the clarification of the position and pre-requisite qualifications of a "bona fide" diksa/siksa guru. Each person, group and/or institution consults the Sastra as well as the recorded statements of the Guru (Srila Prabhupada) and the writings of the Sadhu (past Acaryas) so as to give weight to their opinions on this subject. [more]

In his most recent comment on the "Sentimental Reunion" thread, Shiva das has posted two URL's which allow us to peek behind the saffron curtain and observe the commotion surrounding the recently departed HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami. The debate between GBCs, sanyasis and ISKCON leaders is focused, in part, on Bhakti Tirtha Swami's recorded opinions and comments on the touchy subject of homosexuality in Krsna Consciousness. No doubt the readers have seen the many articles posted on Chakra as this topic has been debated. I didn't feel compelled to add my thoughts on the matter, but as it has come to the forefront in the Krsna Blog, I guess the time is right. [more]

On July 12th, 2005 the Sampradaya Sun began publication as a daily news website and independent reporting organization for the Vaisnava community. The Sampradaya Sun will serve as a full-service news venue, offering in-depth feature stories, fast publication of news and events submitted by the worldwide Vaisnava community, and philosophical editorial commentary from Sun editors and contributing writers. [more]

A review of green belts is needed to help make way for 70,000 new homes in Beds, Bucks and Northants according to a government report. The extra housing, to be built by 2021, comes on top of the 100,000 homes already earmarked to be completed over the next 20 years.

Ministers have changed planning rules for the countryside to favour 'innovative cutting-edge designs' over traditional country house styles...

Farmland values rose by nearly 10% during the first six months of 2004 as a result of limited supply and renewed demand from prospective buyers, according to the latest rural research...

A Sheffield community could change dramatically if plans to build 91 homes on an industrial site are granted planning permission...

Rules that govern green-belt areas around Scotland's towns and cities are to be overhauled, ministers announced yesterday. The Scottish Executive said a review of current policy was needed because of increasing pressure from building developers.

Mr Prescott is pushing through his plans to see 1,400,000 new homes built in the next 20 years...

Planning authorities have upped their estimate of how many houses could be built on previously developed land in England despite the amount of brownfield land available for development remaining unchanged...

Another controversial green belt housing development is under the spotlight this week after the recent explosion of objection to the plan for Top Wighay Farm in Hucknall...

The government's plans to build 120,000 new homes in the Thames Gateway by 2016 will not work without a series of new and improved transport facilities, an official report warned today...

The price of farmland is up to record highs as demand continues to outstrip supply. Increasing numbers of people are opting to quit the rat race and move out of cities across the country, boosting the cost of farmland...

A row broke out today after councillors in Glasgow signed a deal to build upmarket houses on greenbelt land...

More than 100 families have united to fight for their homes, due for demolition in a 6m GBP Kensington regeneration project...

The spread of land ownership is a great good cause, much neglected in England. It's time to revive it...

Residents campaigning to protect a green belt site on the outskirts of Edinburgh have been dealt a major blow after the land was earmarked for housing development by the Scottish Executive.

A decision is due on whether 56 hectares of greenbelt land in Sutton Coldfield will be retained as a site for major investment...

Old town residents regret threat to green belt as Prescott's housing redevelopment plans take shape...

A controversial plan to build nearly 500,000 homes across east England has been given initial backing...

478,000 new homes will be built in the region - which covers the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - up to 2021...

When lan and Nina Graham spotted the 'Woods for Sale' sign on the side of the A40 earlier this year the same idea occurred to them both instantly...

SEERA is today considering proposals to increase the new homes target and the prospect of 720,000 new homes over the next 20 years...

The price of farmland has risen by nearly a third in the past year as a new breed of non-farming buyers look to fields as an alternative to bricks and mortar or the stock market...

The spectre of a Development Land Tax returning to haunt the whole process is a very real threat to development, especially if proposed works are financially marginal...

Housing approval rates are set to increase by a third from the present 6,000 homes per year to around 8,000 in 2007/08....

A new record price for residential development land has been set with the sale of an 11.3 acre site at Stillorgan in south county Dublin for 85m euro...