7806 Lowdes Drive in Cherry Creek! The antithesis of my previous post!

If you read my previous post about the dirtiest ceiling fan in Austin, please know there is none of that nonsense at 7806 Lowdes Drive Austin TX 78745. If you or someone you know does not buy this house---I may just have to-- because it's so BAD ASS! Located in the Cherry Creek neighborhood in South Austin (shout out to the 78745!) ---super close to Central Market South, Westgate Shopping Center (Yoga Yoga,  Whole Earth Provisions, Amy's Ice Cream and a Movie Theater, that's right.). Come see why Cherry Creek and it's "all of our houses don't look alike" vibe is so desirable.





Owner removed a half wall and opened up the space between living and dining, well done owner.

  
















This total remodel of the master bath is spatastic. Not to be confused with spastic---SPA-TASTIC!

 



This room makes me want to curl up with a book and a bag of gummy bears and not come out for like 4 hours.

 














If you don't want to climb that tree, you may be dead inside.





Come on in and have some gummy bears!

  



So, yeah---this is a pretty cool joint. If you want more information click here. Or just get in touch with me!

And remember---no filthy ceiling fans ---not now, not ever.

Dirtiest Ceiling Fan in the World to Convey with Purchase





The dirtiest ceiling fan in Travis County



So, here we have another stunning MLS (MLS = Acronym for Multiple Listing Service, A proprietary member owned database that expresses listings held by member Real Estate Brokerages. ) photo that a Realtor KNOWINGLY uploaded into the Austin  MLS in an effort to- I don't know, GROSS ME OUT?

This photo of this dirty, dirty ceiling fan is kind of sad. It's as if it's saying "Hey, I know I am a filthy ceiling fan and if you turn me on, I will fling five years worth of accumulated filth into your eyes and mouth, but why don't you stop in and see me anyways?" or maybe it's saying "Dirty ass ceiling fans in dirty ass houses need love too."

Whatever this photograph and the Realtor who posted it is trying to communicate, I don't want to hear it.

Here's the crazy thing folks---when we load photos into the MLS it is laborious and slow. It is very hard to load something by mistake and if you do, it's very easy to remove.

This kind of sloppy work always reminds me that some of my "competition" out there is no competition at all!

Oh snap! Look out! I am in a throwing shade kind of mood! I have been watching too much Ru Paul's Drag Race on Netflix! Is that possible?

Summertime Selling Season!

Summertime is always a busy time for Realtors. This year I have been lucky to be representing some sellers with some pretty amazing properties for sale!

Like this one that sold near the beginning of the year on the Eastside in the Holly Street neighborhood.



and this is just the kitchen, the rest of the place was equally as cool

Presently, I have a gorgeous condominium over at SATSUMA 53 available! It's a 1/1 1100 sq.ft. It's right up the street from Foreign & Domestic and walking/biking distance to all of the cool stuff on North Loop.


For more information about 508 East 53rd St. #203 click here

And then there's this AMAZING remodel in the University Hills area. 4 beds/ 2.5 baths with 1900+ square feet and a 2 car garage. New HVAC and roof  as well as artful finish outs in the baths, kitchen and throughout!



For more information about 5712 Wellington Drive click here

This is just a sampling of what I have working right now. Hit me up if you want to talk Real Estate! Or other stuff---like good places to go swimming or thrift stores or libraries or sno cones!


TAX Benefits of Owning Investment Property

While I dutifully recorded my own tax deductions this year, it put me in a list making mood. Here's a list of some of the tax benefits of owning investment property.

• Depreciation

Depreciation is a deduction available to real estate investors. It allows you to deduct the cost of assets such as buildings and substantial improvements to buildings over a period of time defined by the IRS. The cost of a building can be depreciated over a period of 27.5 years. This is done by dividing the cost by 27.5 and then subtracting the resulting quotient from the property's income each of 27.5 years. If the cash flow on a property is just above the property's carrying costs, this would result in your making an actual profit but not paying any tax.

• Expense Deductions

Just about every expense associated with rental property is deductible. Mortgage interest, real estate tax, maintenance, property management, even your transportation costs to visit the property are all expenses, fully deductible in the tax year they are incurred.

• Capital Gains

When you sell a rental property, the profits are taxed as capital gains as opposed to ordinary income. The difference is important, because the maximum capital gains rate is 15 percent, whereas the maximum tax rate on ordinary income, as of 2010, is 35 percent.

• 1031 Exchange

If you plan to sell your rental property and buy a larger one, there is only one smart way to do it: through a 1031 exchange, also called a deferred exchange. In this process an exchange facilitator takes the cash that comes out of your sale and holds it until you close escrow on a replacement property. You must identify that property within 45 days and close within six months. It must be purchased for more than the price for which you sold your first property. If you keep using exchanges to sell and then buy, you defer the tax due forever.

• Tax-Free Cash-Out

When you sell without doing a 1031 exchange you pay taxes on the profit; when you take cash out through a refinance, the money is tax-free until you sell. If you never sell, you never pay taxes. This is an excellent tax strategy for retirement: once you pay off or pay down the mortgage on a rental property you can refinance it and take cash out and still have the monthly rents coming in.

What Did You Say?

So have you seen this ? It's only awesome pictures of Ryan Gosling with phrases every lady would want to hear from Ryan Gosling superimposed over them. Simple but genius. Genius but silly. Silly but serious.

If anyone said any of the things on the following list to me I would be as happy as this guy.


this guy

• Hey, let's drop what we are doing and go to the library RIGHT NOW!
• You should totally have another milkshake!
• How did you get to be so good at everything?!
• Do you want to watch the movie "Fletch" with me for the 10th time? I just watched Fletch for the ninth time but I think I'm gonna go for ten.
• Did you see that study that came out that said drinking Dr. Pepper in the morning is totally acceptable and good for you?
• Hey, I had some free time today so I went to the grocery store and I got all your groceries for you and paid for them and put them away. Is that cool?
• We should have peanut butter and banana sandwiches every day!
• I have killed all of the mosquitoes in the entire world. Just letting you know.
• Instead of sending all these emails, what if we went swimming instead? Without mosquitoes!
• I know---Ira Glass IS really dreamy!
• I think you may be a genius.
• Those pajama pants look great on you!
• You know, you remind me of someone. Oh right! You're like a mix of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, only a little bit funnier!
• I got you this $1 million gift card to amazon.com. I hope you like it!

Places that I Love on the Internet!

This is a map of the Internet. Turn left at the 85,000th little green strand and I will be there!

I love real estate and I work really hard at it a lot of the time, but we all need a little break from whatever it is we do most of the time right? So, when you find yourself with a little break in your day and you want to do some fun and easy internetting---here are some of my favorite blogs to visit on the world wide web. You will notice that a majority of the stuff I like to "waste time" on is funny stuff. I can't ever get enough funny. Ever. My friend Erin often sends out lists of places she likes to go on the www and I am always turned on to something new. I would love to know about some of your favorite places as well!

The Bloggess  Oh man, oh man this lady is funny and manages to write about the mundane in a way that elevates the mundane to the highest heights of hilarity.

27b/6  If you look up "snarky" in the dictionary, there's probably a picture of David Thorne there. He's too mean for some folks, but not for me. Here you will find a collection of David's correspondence with colleagues, random folks that write to him via the blog, neighbors, landlords and educational administrators. He never misses an opportunity to mess with people and the results are pretty brilliant and funny.

Oh, Noa. So Noa Gavin states that she is funnier than your Grandma, which in and of itself is not a ringing endorsement (my Grandma is notoriously unfunny, but she does kind of look like Roy Orbison and that's funny, but not "on purpose" funny)---but Noa is really funny. She writes about politics and crazy stuff that happens to her and she does it all with humor and insight.

Hyperbole and a Half  Great and ridiculous drawings made in MS Paint accompany every story. One of the best blog entries ever (Why I Will Never Be An Adult) can be found here.

Cake Wrecks  Crazy cakes---really crazy cakes.

The Oatmeal    I think the maker of this blog is a programmer/super techy type in his day job. I love the layout of this blog and the size and style of the comics. Whenever I visit this blog it reminds me of reading the funny pages in the paper when I was a kid.

So, there's a few for you! I hope you find something here that makes you laugh and after you have taken a little break at any of these awesome stops on the web, you can go back to being super productive. Like me!

 Productive like me--right after I go check on what's going on at http://wwww.tomhaverfoods.com/   Go there and keep refreshing you won't be sorry!

Fighting the Tax Man! Steps for Protesting Your Property Taxes.

Another in a series of posts about money and real estate and taxes. I know it's kind of dry---but you will thank me someday. That day may be when you successfully contest your property taxes!

Filing the Protest

The first step is to file a protest. The appraisal district has protest forms available, but you can hand write it on a piece of paper and fax it in. It simply needs to identify you as the owner, identify the subject property, and state that you disagree with the appraised value and wish to protest. If you’ve waited till the last minute, it would be best to fax it and then send a follow-up copy by certified mail.

The Informal Hearing

Next, the Travis County Appraisal District will schedule what they call an “informal hearing”. This may be months from now. The purpose of the hearing is for you to present your evidence that the appraised value is too high.

I’m going to stop here and point out a couple of things. It’s important before you attend a hearing that you understand the fundamentals of what the Travis County Appraisal District does. They simply set the appraised value of your home based on what they believe to be the market value. The tax rate multiplied against the appraised value determines the amount of property taxes you pay.

The Appraisal District does not establish the tax rate. Your elected officials do that. You can’t protest the amount you are paying, or the tax rate. All you are protesting is the Appraised Value.

When you show up for the hearing, make sure you bring data to support your protest.

Have Your Fact and Data Ready

Opinions and emotions are not data. In order to change your appraised value, the person you are working with at the informal hearing must have evidence and data to support the change. I’ve sat in the cubes over the years at the informal hearings and overheard other protesters arguing completely irrelevant gripes to the tax people. They don’t care how unhappy you are, how little you earn, etc. You’re there to discuss whether or not the appraised value on your particular home is too high or not, and that’s it.

If you know a Realtor, ask for a written market analysis on your home to determine the market value. You can take that along with you to use as your data and evidence. If your home has condition problems, take pictures and bring those. If you back up to a busy street, take pictures and print out your home’s location on a Google Map, and bring it in with you to show the tax people. Any “fact” that helps you prove a lower value may be helpful, but bring something to show to support it.

If the appraised value is higher than the amount you’ve recently paid to purchase the home, bring your Settlement Statement showing what you actually paid, and they’ll lower the value to the price you paid without a fuss.

You may be angry about the higher taxes, but unless the Appraisal District assessed your home at too high a value, and you can prove it, you have no grounds for a protest and you’ll lose. Since you know an awesome Realtor, me---you can get in touch with aforementioned awesome Realtor and I can do a free market analysis for you to determine the current market value of your home.

Be polite and courteous.

The person helping you at your informal hearing with has dealt with plenty of rude and uninformed people already – all day every day. You’re not going to get far if you present yourself as just another angry, unprepared and uneducated person coming in to yell at them and gripe about your taxes. Be nice, smile, dress professionally and have your facts ready with an extra copy for the appraisal person to keep. Make it easy for them to decide to help you by presenting yourself as a reasonable person who is well prepared and understands the process. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Two Bites at the Apple

If you are not satisfied with whatever reduction offer you receive at the informal hearing, you can move on to a formal hearing in front of a panel of the Appraisal Review Board. There will be an Appraisal District Representative arguing against you in support of the Appraisal District valuation, and a panel of three (usually old) people listening to both sides and making a decision.

If the informal hearing results in a deal you can live with, take it and avoid the time and frustration of the formal hearing.

If you truly are being hosed with an unreasonably high appraised value, then try your luck at the formal hearing. But know that once you forgo the offer made at the informal hearing, the formal hearing can result in an even higher value than what you passed up at the informal hearing. Your informal hearing deal ends when you decide to try your luck with the ARB.

For more information, check out the Taxpayer’s Rights, Remedies and Responsibilities document published by the State Comptroller.