Austin Luxury Homes and Living Blog

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.  Booker T. Washington I am incredibly fortunate that approximately 70% of my business this year will arrive through personal referrals from friends, family, past clients and agents wi...

The final installment of the Architecture at the Umlauf Series season is coming and will take place Thursday, November 6th. The monthly series was founded and is produced by two of my associates at AvenueOne properties; Scott Harvey and Carla Umlauf (granddaughter of the esteemed sculptor) and is...

Amy's Ice Cream-Sweet Temptation: Taste an Austin, Texas Original I love ice cream; in fact I would say it is my favorite food in the world. If ice cream had been available in the Old Testament it would have easily replaced the apple as Eve's temptation. History reveals many stories and myths sur...

Well now, Congress finally managed to pass a bail-out..."Recovery Bill" at a cost $700 BILLION. But nothing has fundamentally changed. People from all walks of life are worried because everyone wonders what is going to happen next. Unemployment numbers skyrocketed this past week and worldwide eco...

The next installment of the Architecture at the Umlauf Series is this week. This monthly series was founded by two of my associates at AvenueOne properties; Scott Harvey and Carla Umlauf (grand daughter of the esteemed sculptor) and is sponsored by our firm, AvenueOne Properties. The lectures tak...

I'm sitting in traffic about a quarter of a mile from the stop light at one of the busier intersections in Austin, Texas. Behind me cars stretch as far as I can see. I begin to feel the tension in my shoulders as my frustration starts to build. I am just about to shout (at no one in particular j...

While recently updating my E-key, I noticed that the roster function deleted 78 members and then added 84 members for a net gain of six. Looking at the roster total I saw that there were 10,859 agents currently registered with the MLS system in the greater Austin, Texas area. Now, that is a huge ...

I recently read two very good posts "Is Your Integrity Worth 25 Points?" - Blog Tips for Rain Drips and another by Bob Cumiskey where he describes bad blogging behavior and states "There are a few "so called bloggers" on the ladder who obviously blog just for the points." Both made me realize tha...

August 24th was the 18th annual celebration of The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest here in Austin, Texas.  The event featured many vendors who promoted their sauces along with individuals vying for glory in the hot sauce world. The organizers raise money and collect food for the Capital Area ...

Something Very Different! I just watched the most fascinating new clip on CBS Sunday Morning. Ford Motor Company commissioned an artist and musician to build instruments from the parts of two of the companies Ford Focus models. Not only that but they also assembled a group of musicians to perfor...