Ok, so a park opens in Austin. You may wonder why you’d care.

Well, Town Lake Park has been 20-years in the making in Austin and is actually a big deal locally. The $7.5M park is located in a great area of town near the Long Center and Palmer Events Center. The reason for excitement of Town Lake Park is that the new, expensive park will host a variety of features that captures the essence of Austin.

One blogger noted that Town Lake Park does not quite live up to the original vision presented almost 9 years ago. The July 2006, the Austin Chronicle detailed the cutbacks. Still it has been transformed into a wonderful space.

If you Google "Town Lake Park",  you’d bring up many stories on what it is and what the features are.

READ MORE ONLINE

Austinist blog, which is always on top of the latest news…

Austin Statesman: Soon-to-be-renamed Town Lake Park opens Aug. 29.

City of Austin Town Lake Masterplan and Kvue News Station, which has great photos of the project

Photo courtesy KVUE news station.

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Just a reminder that we’re working on updates to the blog this week.

Another update! Our team is preparing a podcast so you can listen to the latest Texas Real Estate news each week! View some of our test audio slideshows on Blip.tv.

Please be patient with us as we’re finalizing changes this week and next!

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According to the Austin Business Journal, 1,110 homes and apartments and 800,000 sq. ft. of commercial is planned for Leader, Texas.

Leander Crossing will feature more than 500,000 square feet of retail space, 300,000 square feet of office space and about 1,100 single-family and multifamily units.

Ryan Betz, president of Betz Co., says he’s working with potential tenants for the retail portion, and won’t release names yet. A source familiar with the project says Dillard’s may be a possible tenant, and that the project could resemble Austin’s The Domain project because of its mixture of large retail, housing and office space.

Betz declines to disclose the projected cost of Leander Crossing, but says the residential portion and some smaller retail will break ground in 2008, and construction on larger commercial sites will follow in 2009.

Read previous articles that may interest you…

1. Study shows retail needed in Leander.
2. Leader to get metro rail in 2008.
3. The Domain debuts.

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Dylan Schleppe, Austin entrepreneur who launched DriveBuy, a real estate tool that allows home buyers to quickly and efficiently get detailed listing information by simply sending a text message from their cell phones.

I’ve been using Dylan’s system for some time now and love the ease of use. See our Blip.tv video podcast for more information about Dylan’s
background, features of DriveBuy and some hot tips agents.

CLICK TO VIEW SLIDESHOW on SLIDESHARE.NET

TOP FEATURES

• Buyers get instant information on properties via text message.
• Without speaking to an agent, you can get the home’s square footage, number of bed and bathrooms, price, and other basic information.
• The agent can text message e-flyers or additional information to you within seconds.

TIPS FOR AGENTS

• Respond to inquiries immediately with additional information.
• Do not attempt to leave out important details that buyers want, such as price and basic featuers.
• Do not call the buyer unless they show interest or ask.

Dylan’s father was a custom home builder, so he’s always had a passion
for real estate. His software development background led him to create this
easy-to-use real estate solution that will help agents, builders, buyers and property managers.

Read more: DriveBuy Technologies | Real Estate Mobile Text Message Marketing.

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Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature
   from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked
   up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in
   classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus
   Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of
ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a
   line in section 1.10.32.

         The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and
  1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied
by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

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I just came back from Keller Williams Annual Mega Agent Camp. Dustin Luther (RainCityGuide…correction from earlier) provided tips on how to have a successful blog.

Dustin now works for Move, Inc. now as their Director of Interactive Marketing and has a very cool ponytail.

UPCOMING CHANGES
Per Dustin’s advice, bloggers should blog about local content as much as possible. I blog about Texas real estate because it’s more of an interest to me and fits the buyers we work with, which are investors and relocation clients.

1. To provide more content investors and relocation buyers, we’re going to add pages at the top of the blog for the major cities in Texas.Each city page will have content that describes the city, why people live there, video, photos and latest blog articles.
2. Updated look and colors. To be honest, when I first started blogging, I had no idea if I’d stick to it. Now that we’re pretty successful, it’s time to customize and add better buttons so you can easily reach us and comment.
3. Put new local content on separate, community-specific blogsites. Of course, that community content will be highlighted here, which apparently does not hurt Google rankings as long as we’re not using the entire  article.
4. Add buttons for easy access to listings in Houston, San Antonio and Austin. We will link to MLS for Dallas.

We hope to have the project completed as soon as
possible, but at least by September! Let us know if you have any other feature requests or feedback.

What do you love versus what do you hate?

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The City of Austin takes pet care and advocacy seriously. City leaders have unanimously passed an anti-chain/tether ordinance that goes into effect October 1st 2007.

At first glance, the ordinance may seem strange to "outsiders" or non-pet owners. Once you read the actual information on the city website, you understand that the purpose of the ordinance is to keep outdoor dogs from becoming vicious.

ANTI-CHAINING ORDINANCE DETAILS

• You cannot chain or tether little Fido to any object.
• If you have six
  or more dogs that are less than 6 months old, their enclosure must be 50 feet from an adjacent residence or business.
• If Fido lives outside, your yard enclosure must be a minimum of 150 sq. feet for each dog 6 months of age or older.
• You can temporary tether Fido under certain situations, which are provided on the city website.

Get advice on alternatives to chaining as well as full ordinance details at: City of Austin - Anti-chaining Ordinance for Dogs At-a-Glance.

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MSN released some predictions from PMI Mortgage Insurance Company on risk factors in the Top 50 top U.S real estate markets. Like most forecasts, these should not be taken as gospel.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.’s new U.S. Market Risk Index tries
to assess the future direction of markets across the U.S. by looking at
recent price volatility, affordability… and employment, among other factors.

On
average, there’s a 34.6% chance that home prices will drop in the
nation’s top 50 markets in the next couple years, with many of the
riskiest markets falling in areas that saw steep run-ups in prices in
recent years, followed by decreased affordability and drops in the rate
of appreciation.

The good news is that Texas cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio were not considered "risky" by comparison with Dallas fairing the worst. My opinion is that any market, in any area can be risky if the buyer makes risky decisions.

See them now! Price risk for the top 50 U.S. markets

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Latest Listings and Ads for Greater Austin as of August 17th!

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The Mueller Austin community is the hot new master-planned subdivision in East Central Austin within minutes to Downtown.

There’s waiting list of borrowers who were standing in line to buy. Some of the May lottery winners apparently already found homes. I heard through the grapevine that 23 lots are available for building homes through Streetman and Standard Pacific.

Interested buyers can check with the builders on which sites are available. They should be cautioned that the on-site representatives are always the builder’s paid advocate, so smart buyers have an agent represent them when purchasing new homes.

More information on Mueller Austin.

Check out floorplans for Streetman and Standard Pacific.

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