Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

This is my fifth or sixth post about our 11-day family road trip.  If you want to catch up, I would just recommend reading the past few posts to see what happened before this one. I am too lazy tonight at the hotel to upload pictures.  Sorry.  :)

I have to admit that I am enjoying being away for awhile, although I bet I will sleep better at home than I have while traveling.  That being said, our road trip has been a successful one to this point, even if we hit some bumps on the road (both figurative and literal).  While we were in Atlanta, we did some of the standard tourist things, including visiting the Georgia Aquarium, which is one of the largest in the world, and well worth the trip, even if it is a little pricey for admission.  I think it was around $115 for us and the kids, but it was the cleanest and most well-organized place like that which we have ever seen.

We also spent some time at Centennial Olympic Park, where we got a chance to see the dancing Olympic ring fountain (kids loved it).  My wife visited the High Museum of Art while I was at RE Tech South, along with the kids' museum and the Science Center.  On Saturday (our last full day in Atlanta), we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts, where we saw a lifesize Big Bird, along with many other Jim Henson creations.  I often reflect on how much Henson's work impacted me as a child, and its durability is obvious when I see my kids watching "The Muppet Show" DVD collection in 2010. I managed to take quite a few pictures before we were told that this was strictly prohibited.  Oh well....

We saw a terrific one-man puppet show from Paul Mesner, which was an adaptation of Jon Scieszka's "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs".  Only afterwards did I realize that it was only one guy doing everything behind the scenes.  Amazing talent.  Our two older daughters had a chance to make puppets in the workshop following the show, and my wife bought a Wembley puppet from Fraggle Rock for sentimental reasons.  We're both basically just big kids, frankly.

After saying goodbye to our very gracious hosts, Ken Cook and his lovely wife, Myra, we hit the road bound for the Mobile, Alabama area.  We stopped in Montgomery to take a break, where we visited their Museum of Fine Arts.  We fed some geese, and we saw a large blue heron up close.  The museum was great, with a large kids' section, and it was FREE, which made it all the more appealing. The grounds were gorgeous, with a huge pond right next to the building.

We arrived in Mobile last night around 8pm.  After we found the hotel and ate some dinner, we ended up stranded on the highway with a VERY flat, undriveable tire.  Rather than unload the entire van and kids in the cold, breezy weather, I found a roadside assistance place on Google and called them.  This actually turned out to be a huge blessing, since he arrived AND finished replacing the tire in less than an hour, AND it was inexpensive.  I promised to blog about this experience in an effort to garner more business for him, and I will do that soon.  After chatting with Steve, the proprietor, about our upcoming trip to New Orleans (where I'm sitting now), he took the time to email me today with some suggested kid-friendly activities in the city.  What incredible service!

This afternoon and evening, we had a great time in New Orleans, just exploring Jackson Square and the French Quarter, where I am enamored of the architecture.  I took a TON of pictures - this town is a photographer's paradise.  I plan to upload them to Flickr and maybe Facebook as well later. 

We had dinner with my friend Lisa Heindel, who suggested a terrific place called Mulate's around the corner.  The seafood was fresh and delicious, and there was authentic live traditional Cajun music throughout, which we all loved.  My kids danced for awhile, too!  I highly recommend allowing Lisa to choose your destinations if you come to New Orleans for the NAR conference in November.  :)

One cool side note: we got a chance to witness a Bruce Willis movie being filmed, just by being in the right place at the right time.  Apparently, it co-stars Morgan Freeman and Mary Louise Parker, too.

Funniest quotes:

At the Georgia Aquarium (from Brandon, when we walked past an empty case with a piece of coral in it): "I guess that's the coral corral."  He is master of the deadpan - he comes by it honestly, believe me.

At the Montgomery Museum (from Abby): "If they have a bathroom here, I will use it.  If not, I will pee in my pants."  This was uttered so matter-of-factly that it made me laugh out loud for quite some time. 

Tomorrow, we are hoping to take a riverboat cruise, then hit the road, where we will travel through Baton Rouge and Lafayette on our way to stay with family in the Houston area.  If you actually read this whole thing, I commend you. 

Thanks for reading!

This is my fourth post in a series about my 11-day family road trip.  At the moment, I am sitting in the Marietta, Georgia home of Ken Cook, my BlogTalkRadio co-host on Social Media Edge, listening to him play guitar for all of us.  I just completed two days at RE Tech South, which I'll write about in another post sometime soon, perhaps after returning to Austin. 

So, to pick up where I left off before, we spent most of Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama.  My wife Pam and I fell in love with the Inverness/Hoover area, where we stayed.  It was hilly and treed and lovely.  Even the air smelled sweet outside our hotel - it seemed to be a fragrant tree of some sort.  The weather was just about perfect that day, clear and sunny and about 70 degrees.  In fact, I haven't experienced a day like that in awhile.

We decided to spend the afternoon in the Birmingham Zoo, after reading some great reviews online.  We were NOT disappointed.  In fact, it might have been the finest day at the zoo that I have ever had, although part of that was almost certainly because of the weather.  The drive there from our hotel took us through a portion of town that felt like a charming small village with blooming springtime foliage.  I felt a little bit like I was in the movie "Pleasantville" (if you haven't seen this one, it's a long explanation). 

Following our visit, we tried to find a local restaurant via Yelp (and some other websites) that would be somewhat authentic and good, but the place we chose was out of business.  So much for that idea.  We ate at O'Charley's instead, which turned out to be....not all that clean and...pretty expensive. 

We drove into Atlanta and arrived here Tuesday night around 8:30pm. 

I find it to be an amazing tribute to the power of social media that I first met Ken in person that evening, yet I brought my entire family to stay at his home for almost a week.  Read that sentence again.  Yes, he invited all of us to stay here without ever meeting us in person.  :)  Ken and his wife Myra have been more than gracious hosts, and I will truly miss them when we leave.  We've had a terrific time so far, and we'll be back on the road Sunday.

Funniest quote:

From Abby (4) - "There's no giraffes or pigs, so I don't like this zoo."  I can't honestly say that I have ever seen a pig in a zoo, but there you have it.

Next stop: Mobile, Alabama

Trying to help my good friend Jeremy win FREE CHICKEN FOR A YEAR!  Help him out now!

I awoke this morning in Jackson, Mississippi.  I am now in Birmingham, Alabama.  Tomorrow evening, I will arrive in Atlanta.  I could stop there, I suppose, but I'll tell you a little about our day instead.  :)

Our massive road trip continues, and I am still loving it, despite a couple of near-setbacks today.

As always, we got checked out of our hotel room about 5 minutes before noon (it's just plain hard to do it much quicker with four kids in tow).  We wanted to check out the planetarium and/or the art museum in Jackson - both were closed.  Unfortunately, we didn't figure that out until we arrived there.  To put things succinctly, Monday is not the best day to visit that particular town.  The Old Capitol Museum looked interesting (also closed on Mondays - shocker!).  We did, however, visit the War Memorial on State Street to see what it was.  I made sure to take the kids' pictures next to something called the "Gratitude Train", and I promised myself that I would look it up. 

Here's what I found, if you're interested (if not, just skip it - I'll never know anyway):

The "Merci Train" was a train of 48 boxcars (one for each state at the time) filled with gifts given to the American states from the French people in appreciation of the 1945 American "Friendship Train" boxcars which had been filled with food, given by the American people to war-ravaged France.

At the War Memorial, they have these super-heavy metal doors leading into another set of glass doors to get inside the building.  Once they open, they fit into recessed pockets like a lid on a box (i.e. no air space between the door and the wall).  Unfortunately, my wife didn't know that, and she almost lost the tips of three fingers when opening one of them.  No, I am not exaggerating.  One of her fingers is in a splint now that I found at Walgreen's for her.  If much more pressure had been applied to the door, I think our trip would have ended way eariler than intended.  Yikes.

So, we got a chance to see the Natural Science Museum in Jackson, and the kids enjoyed it, although I thought it was going to be bigger, frankly.  The outside "maze" that someone recommended was falling apart and muddy inside, but the kids seemed pleased overall. 

The baby had a pretty good day, but our timing was a little off with lunch and her nap was delayed accordingly, which made her fussier.  Thankfully, my wife earned her PhD in child entertainment years ago, so all was well.  ;)

We tried to eat an an authentic local place while in Jackson, but the two places we wanted to try were....closed.  One of them closed just before our lunch time - the other one was out of business.  We ended up eating a VERY late lunch at O'Charley's near the mall.

Along the way to Birmingham, we realized that we had booked a hotel in the wrong city.  That could be a minor problem, huh?  My wife was able to book us at the Homewood Suites, which is awesome, since it's a longtime family favorite. 

Tomorrow, I think we're going to check out the zoo with the kiddos, then head to Atlanta by around dinnertime.  If you're going to RE Tech South, please make a point to come say "Hi" to me.  I attended an event recently in Dallas, and only later did I realize that there were a handful of people that I wanted to meet who were there but we didn't get a chance to talk. 

Funniest quote from today:

Following our breakfast at the hotel, the lady working there changed the TV channel to the new "The Price is Right". 

My son said, "I LOVE watching 'The Price is Right'.  It's great to watch dumb people do stupid things for money."  So true, son, so true.

Thanks for reading!

Yesterday, We spent a good portion of our day in Shreveport, Louisiana, where we enjoyed lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger (Yes, really. I couldn't resist the name, and it was a great family restaurant experience - I'll write a real review sometime soon).  After that, we took the kids to Sci-Port, which is a large science/kids' museum nestled on the Red River.  If the weather hadn't been so bitterly cold, we probably would have checked out the steamboat ride, but it appeared to be dormant, waiting for a warmer day.

We drove into Jackson, Missisissippi last night, where I sit writing this now.  If I had it to do over again, I would have stopped in Vicksburg instead, since it sits right on the Mississippi River, right at the state line between the two states.  According to our GPS, the state line is actually in the middle of the river itself.  Vicksburg looked so charming and clean and it had some interesting attractions, so we may actually backtrack a bit and check it out more today.

After arriving in Jackson last night, we had dinner at Keifer's (review also forthcoming).  It's basically the best Greek restaurant in the area, which may not be saying a lot by itself, but their success is well-deserved.  We're staying at a Hampton Inn, which is nice enough, although I wonder why the ceiling in the bathroom is only seven feet.  :)

Our baby, Jenny, remains supremely good and non-fussy, which is part of the reason that the trip so far has been a breeze.  She barely cried at all yesterday, which is a blessing in and of itself.  The timing also worked out well, since she recently started walking, and she is really enjoying exploring new areas and places.

I had a sudden revelation last night that we will be visiting every state capital in the four states we see during our trip, which is at least moderately cool, right?

Here are some of the funniest/cutest quotes from my children (and one from my wife Pam) during the car ride:

In Shreveport, they have some lovely murals on some of the downtown buildings.  Abby said, "I like the murals.  Maybe WE can make a mural on some buildings.  But not on our house, because we live inside our house.  We can't paint the walls." 

Abby later saw a couple of "No Right Turn" signs, and she exclaimed, "Look, there are NO arrows allowed, Dad!  It says No Arrows Allowed."  This actually seems pretty intuitive for a girl who's not quite four. 

Later, when we were trying to find a place to eat, Abby observed that "We have a big family, so we need a big car.  We won't fit in a small white car with a blue flag on it."  Indeed.  I have no idea where she saw a small white car with a blue flag on it, or if she just made it up.  Either way, it was funny to me.

When we crossed the river into Mississippi, my wife said, "Part of the mystery of Mississippi is wondering what ever happened to Mister Sippi."  Yes, it's a groaner, but clever nonetheless.

My son responded with this original joke of his own:

Q. Why is Mississippi like a Martian?

A. Because it has four eyes! (Think about it.)

Thanks for reading!  Next stop: Birmingham, Alabama

As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Shreveport, Louisiana.  The rest of my family is asleep right now, but not for long.  I will be attending RE Tech South on Thursday and Friday in Atlanta, and Pam and I decided to make a vacation out of it.  We're taking a few days to get there, then spending five days in Atlanta, then a few days to get back. We are hitting a different set of towns on the way there and back, so as to maximize the things we do and see.

I am hoping to share some of our interesting experiences here on my blog over the next ten days or so, but it really all depends on how tired I get.  :)

Yesterday was our longest day in the car with the kids (about 5.5 hours or so of actual driving, but we stopped several times, too).  Things went well overall, although our almost-four-year-old daughter Abby was relatively whiny until she finally took a nap.  I am proud to report that the baby (11 months old now) only cried about 20 minutes or so during the whole day.  My wife planned our itinerary to front-load the driving somewhat, so that on the last day in each direction, we'll have very short trips.

During the front edge of yesterday's trip, I started to wonder if we would see ANYTHING charming, since it felt more like a tour of sad little towns that were on a downhill slide.  Frankly, it seemed as though the headstone and funeral businesses were the sole thriving enterprises. 

Things changed as we got further into east Texas.  Somewhere around Palestine the towns and land both just seemed prettier. 

The kids were excited about how many trees there were, since portions of the drive felt like we were in the middle of a pine forest.  My son remarked, "I can't even SEE the tops of these trees!"  I heard several echoes to that effect from the younger kids, too.  "WOW!!!  SO MANY TREES!!!"  As evidence of their homeschooling, they also mentioned that it seemed like we were entering Lothlórien, which is basically where the Elves live in the Lord of the Rings series.

Cutest quote of the day (from Abby): "Dad, maybe when I grow up I can be a gardener and plant a tree."  When we responded with, "Sure you can" she said, "I need to get some tree seeds.  Maybe I can plant an apple tree."  It was such a sincere expression of interest in this task that I told Pam that I might just help her plant that tree when we get back home.

Thanks for reading! 

Next stop: Jackson, Mississippi

If you are a regular reader of my blog, or a subscriber, you may have noticed that it's been a good while since my last post, probably a week or so.  I have a reason for this, I promise.  This was my first year to attend SXSW Interactive, which is FIVE solid days long.  The fact that it's right here in Austin made the decision to attend much easier.  I coined my own term for the event: Geek orgy.  Get it?  Like a Greek....never mind.

Here are a few things that I learned that I intend to implement next time around.  (Yes, I will definitely be back next year.)  I hope you find them helpful.

1. Get a mobile charger for your phone. I use an iPhone, and with the relentless usage of Tweetie, Foursquare, and texting, the battery couldn't withstand my onslaught.  Thankfully, there were lounges available with chargers for pretty much any type of phone around the Convention Center.

2. Use a backpack or one of those wheeled carts, even if it looks a little dorky. I attempted to carry my cinder block Macbook Pro on the first day, and I scrapped that idea in favor of the iPhone for the duration.  Had I thought of it earlier, I would have stuck the laptop in a backpack, which would have made my life easier, in addition to enabling me to blog during the actual event.

3. Wear comfortable shoes. This one probably goes without saying, but I can't bring myself to wear running shoes with jeans when I am networking.  That being said, I intend to acquire some comfortable yet halfway stylish shoes before next March.  I have 11+ months to plan.  :)  The Austin Convention Center is massive (as in, three city blocks square), and the event encompassed the entire building, along with parts of two adjacent hotels.  The parties are held at various locations nearby within a few blocks.

4. Upload your picture ahead of time to the SXSW site. I didn't even think about doing this, but I should have.  Instead, my badge displayed me speaking and sort of smirking in mid-sentence because it was taken at the registration.  I would recommend using your Twitter profile picture, which hopefully is an actual picture of your face.  On an ancillary note, I should have used my office address, rather than my home address, since I had to explain that I'm in Austin because people don't know the suburbs around here, and it showed my home address town on the badge.

5. Don't be shy at all. I certainly wouldn't advocate being an obnoxious blowhard, but I would recommend just practicing the fine art of saying, "Hi".  I had a list of a handful of people I really was hoping to meet, and I met several (although not all) of them.  I didn't have any hidden agenda - I just enjoy people, and I like meeting people that I admire and respect.  Additionally, I found it easier to keep in mind that the other 15,000 attendees are mainly there to network!

6. There's a reason that guys like Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and Gary Vaynerchuk are famous in the business/blogging/new media world. They are interesting and gracious.  Period.  I had a chance to meet Chris on the first day, and early.  He is ridiculously nice in person, and I met two other luminaries just by standing there with him for a couple of minutes.  I heard all three of them speak, and none were disappointing.  Darren even agreed to be on our BlogTalkRadio show soon (http://facebook.com/socialmediaedge).   Since it airs live at 4am Australia time, we have to record it in advance.  Chris spoke with Julien Smith about establishing trust (they did co-author "Trust Agents", after all), and it was both funny and genuine.  The energy in the room during Gary's talk was palpable.  I left there feeling like I used to feel when I walked out of a "Rocky" movie - invincible and inspired.  The dude knows how to work a room.

7. Plan ahead a little more, but remain flexible and go with the flow. If I had been paying more attention before the event started, I would have caught a couple of speakers that I would have loved to hear.  However, if I had scheduled every minute of every day, I might have missed meeting some of the coolest people I came across.

8. Learn where some of the "cool kids" hang out. I did.  And no, I won't tell you, at least not here.  If you're super-interested, get in touch with me and I'll tell you where I would imagine you will most enjoy your time in terms of solid networking where you can actually hear yourself think.  If I make it too public, I risk ruining it next time.

9. Overall, they need to do a better job of vetting presenters/panelists. Although I managed to catch some awesome sessions (most notably the ones I mentioned above, along with a discussion led by Chris Heuer and John Biehler), I also witnessed some supremely boring and sales pitch-y garbage, too.  I have a suggestion if you are planning to sell stuff during your presentation: Don't mislead the audience.  Just call it "Widget I Want to Sell You" or "Walkthrough of My Software".  I had to vote with my feet and leave more than one of the sessions I chose to attend.  I am sincerely considering throwing my name in the ring for a session for SXSW 2011.  Wanna join me on a panel?

Austin remains a terrific town. I'm happy to have called this area home since 1988. It was fun to see the jealous reactions of many of the people I encountered when they learned that I get to live here year-round.

Hope to see you here next year!

Not long ago, I was asked by my friend Mike Price to host the "Carnival of Real Estate", which is essentially a gathering of blog posts each week about our industry.  Sounds like fun to me, so I said a hearty "Yes!".  Since I've held lots of contests during my blogging career, I have a little experience in this arena.  :)

First of all, if you took the time to submit something this past week, I thank you all for your submissions.  We all take pride and a great sense of ownership of our writing, and I know firsthand that it can be a personal thing.  With that in mind, I appreciate you all giving me a chance to review your hard work.  This is my first time judging this particular competition, and I consider it an honor.

There were just over 20 submissions, and there were six that I felt really stood out:

First Place -  Searching for Real Estate Made Easy: Geo-Fences Plus Mobile Phones by Chris Thorman of SoftwareAdvice.com.  This is simply an awesome blog post.  It has many solid elements:  it’s informative, current, and well-written.  It has helpful graphics and good organization.  The anecdote at the beginning makes the post more interesting and draws the reader in.  Everyone loves technology, and the internet is certainly the best place to come up with new ways to use it.  Kudos.

In Second Place, I would put this rant (if I may call it that): Can I get proof of a competing offer? The answer may surprise you by Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy.  For those of you who know Jay already, it should come as no surprise that he wrote a terrific post on a compelling topic.  If you haven't had the situation Jay describes come up yet in your real estate career, you will!  I myself have written/ranted on the same subject, and I think it’s a topic most of us have some opinion on.  That fact, and the opener mentioning “slam my head into a wall” draw the reader into the story.  Jay also expresses some strong opinions in his post, which makes it more interesting and comment-worthy.  His structure and grammar are clear and accurate, and he makes good use of the medium with his tone and subject.

Third Place: What are Mortgage Accelerator Programs? by Jim Wang 

This is an article-type post that is truly informative.  It’s conversationally written and Jim doesn't talk down to the reader.  It seems well-researched, and the advice it gives seems wise.  It's also well-structured and well laid out.

Fourth place goes to 10 Most Common Mistakes of 1st Time Home Buyers by Robert Buchholz.  This is a very informative post that could actually help some new buyers, if they follow the advice therein.   If I were a rookie Realtor, I might print this out to give to my buyers, and Robert Buchholz’ name would be there, too, which can only help Robert’s business.  That’s part of the “big idea” of blogging!

Honorable mentions: Hey You Pessimists (Yes you, homeowners): It’s Not Quite That Bad… by Amy Bohutinsky and Investors: Should You Get Your Real Estate License? by J. Scott.  Both of these are well-written and informative posts.  “Not Quite That Bad” has some very interesting & encouraging research with a “killer” graphic.  Which of us could not do with a little good news these days?  “Investors: Should You Get Your Real Estate License?” attempts to give a brief yet through review of the issue, and seems very helpful.

All in all, there some terrific posts for the carnival, and it made my decisions difficult.  In fact, I had to call in some help (my wife read them, too).  I applaud you all.  Keep on making the RE.net a more informative, interesting, and helpful place.

Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fleur-design/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelzimmer

Facebook recently had its sixth birthday.  During the same week, they announced that they had crossed the 400 million member mark (how's that for a bit of alliteration?).  Facebook has morphed from a college photo sharing site in 2004 to a mega-networking platform with multimedia capabilities.  Basically, it's THE place to be these days.

If you aren't yet sure how to use Facebook for business, I might have a nice solution for you next week.

On St. Patrick's Day, March 17th at 2pm Eastern time, 210 Consulting is hosting a Facebook workshop with our good friend Mike Mueller.  Mike will be teaching us how to create custom Facebook business pages.  Mike has created roughly 200 custom pages for his clients, and we are honored that he agreed to teach this for us. 

Included among the topics next week:

• How to build a Facebook page
• How to fully customize your FB page once you have it built
• Creating and adding custom tabs
• The differences between the page categories and which information is displayed with each

The session will last 90 minutes, give or take.  We wanted to make this phenomenal instruction affordable for our clients and friends, so we are only charging $49.  I promise that you will get more value than you pay for this session.

Seating is limited, so be sure to go ahead and register now if you're interested.  Visit http://budurl.com/fbworkshop to save your spot.  I'm sincerely not sure when or if this will be offered again online.  Mike has taught these techniques in person to individuals around the country, but not online in this way before.  He graciously agreed to do this for us since he is our friend. This is (for now at least) an exclusive offer from 210 Consulting only.

If you have any questions at all, let me know. 

We are at 50 registered for this free class.  There still is some time left to sign up.  You don't wanna miss this!