Jump to content

Catpfish

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    782
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Catpfish

  1. Didn't realize that movie was produced by Al Ruddy, the co-creator of Hogan's Heroes and producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby. Quite the range there.
  2. Been an agent for 30 years and I can count on 2 hands the number of flip houses that I've seen that were done correctly (permits, licensed contractors etc) and that I would even consider buying. I try to prepare clients for the shit show that follows the inspections if I can't talk them out of it from the beginning. Probably less than 25% choose to move forward. You would think that the "professional" flippers would be better but that is not my experience. They've just learned where to cut the corners they can hide. Broad strokes and all, but that's been my experience
  3. Be careful with the lower rates or rebates associated with smart thermostats. Some require you to allow the provider to access the thermostat and they can regulate your settings without your knowledge.
  4. Not to pick nits, but there is no guarantee that they'll accept the sales price. I've seen several times that they will adjust the sales price (one instance +20%) based on the time of the year bought and I've seen them take the sales price as the taxable value when the house was "undersold". It really depends on the situation and, probably, how they are feeling that day because not a lot of what they do makes sense.
  5. To further expound, let's say that home was on the tax rolls for $650,000 when she bought it. That value was "established" on 1/1/2021. Your friend bought in 7/2021 and still kept the original homestead exemption from the previous owner for the rest of the year. However, when she filed the homestead on 1/1/2022, there was no homestead protection because the old exemption had "expired" and hers was just taking effect. That is what I mean by the tax appraiser gets one bite at the apple to catch up. Her 10% cap would come into play as of 1/2023.
  6. Maybe I am mis-remembering, but it wasn't really a waiting period of 12 months. You had to be the owner/living in the house as of January 1st to claim the exemption. Buying in 2021 means that you couldn't claim the exemption until January 1, 2022. The tax appraiser still gets one bite at the apple before the homestead would kick in, meaning that even though homestead is filed, they aren't limited to a 10% increase that first year. That could be where a big part of the surge in taxable value comes from. Also, I don't think there was ever a rule that said you HAVE to get a valuation equal to what you paid for the house. As a matter of fact, I know someone that bought in 2021 and when the valuations came out, the Williamson county appraisal district used their own purchase price (plus an estimated increase in value of about 20%) as a direct comparable against them.
  7. That might have been the only chance Tech had to win a bowl game this year. The John Denver/Henry Deutschendorf, Jr bowl since he attended Tech
  8. How much were they? I just bought our season ticket seats without asking. To paraphrase, there's a me born every minute
  9. I would like to partially withdraw my smartass comment. Don't think he'll make Dallas, but he is pretty solid tonight
  10. He kind of skates like he's on his brother's coattails
  11. None of the big names are here. Mostly the Texas Stars lineup from last year with a few additions.
  12. If you are wanting some of the more drought resistant hybrid strains, you'll have to go with sodding as they grow from runners, not seeds.
  13. When I built my house about 8-9 years ago, I had my sprinkler system designed by a irrigation specialist (some on the board will know whom I'm talking about). Instead of spray heads, we went with MP rotators because they are more water efficient. They spray larger droplets so less wind and evaporation loss. The drawback is that they don't put out the volume of water that the spray heads do. I think they run about 0.4" per hour. I've also upgraded the controller a couple of times to the most advanced available. It factors in soil absorption capacity, type of plant, evaporation rates etc., and then cycles through the zones to prevent runoff and maximize absorption. I think I'm the most efficient I can be with hybrid bermuda (TexTurf 10). That said, we are limited to watering once a week and my system will run 9 hours through 13 zones, so the grass is surviving in areas and struggling in others as my ground is heavy clay. We also installed a flow meter a couple of months ago and the system runs through right at 4,500 gallons each week The other thing that we did, and I would recommend this to anyone that is building or putting a sprinkler system in, is to install a drip irrigation system for the slab. When the system was installed, a trench was dug 2 feet deep and about 12 to 18 inches out from the slab. One drip line was laid in the trench and then a foot of soil was added. A second drip line was added with a soil sensor, so that the slab is automatically watered whenever the minimum moisture baseline is reached. Right now, the slab is being watered twice a week for an hour each time (about 380 gallons each time). We are on some of the worst clay in the Central Texas area and, so far (knock on wood), we haven't had any issues and we have monster cracks outside of the "good grass" area with some that are 3-4 inches across and who knows how deep. All of that said, the shitastic private water company that supplies the water can't provide the volume to run the sprinkler system (it can take 80 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket with the faucet wide open, so around 4 gallons a minute). I've had to install a 2,500 gallon tank with a water pressure activated pump to get the sprinkler system to work. So if you are outside of city water supply, make sure you are aware of both the pressure and volume that the water provider actually supplies and the effect that can have on your system.
  14. To be honest, you are going to be hard pressed to find any land for sale at a price that will still support farming...especially within 20-30 minutes of any population center of 15,000 or more (the actual number is WAG, but you get the idea).
  15. I don't have to worry about fences anymore (live in the used to be country), but I must be the outlier. I always wanted the rough side in my yard. Makes it a lot harder for neighbor dogs to push through pickets and kids can't climb on the smooth side near as easy.
  16. A few years ago, a guy that owns several self-storage and RV/boat lots in NE Travis county told me RV/boat lots throw off about $3,000/ac/month and the self-storage (not climate controlled) throws off about $10,000/ac/month. Those both could be a little higher now.
  17. Awesome news. He has been selected as one of three senior finalists. If he gets 80% of the vote, he'll be inducted. Hopefully, he'll make it before ALS takes him.
  18. What about something with an electronic access card/badge reader? That would prevent the remote buzzing in and would make it pretty easy to block access for those that give their card out more easily. Unless you can geo-fence the cellphone app down to very close proximity, you are going to have a real issue with restricting access. Not that I have any suggestions as to actual hardware, just issues that I thought of in regards to phone apps
  19. Is the replacement due to damage or just age? Have you had the roof looked at for damage? First choice would be insurance claim. That said, I agree with the others that most buyers don't give a shit on metal vs asphalt shingle. However, they are being a lot more picky on the shape of the roof and AC systems than they used to be.
  20. Behind and catching up, so pardon if this point has already been made. To me, the more likely scenario is that China would like to see this go on as long as possible to deplete US defense stores (mainly ammunition) and to make the American public as war weary as possible. I would guess that that would significantly boost their chances in a shooting war with Taiwan, especially if American isolationism can be stirred. Might be far fetched, but the playbook has been used before.
  21. Is that a bonus purple dildo included with the picture?
×
×
  • Create New...