Fun facts about Austin Texas.

 

 

On your first visit to down town Austin you might have to walk around this statue on Austin's Congress avenue. Unless you know the story you are left to wonder: what's up?

Here is a brief version of the story courtesy of: Humanities Texashttp://www.humanitiestexas.org/programs/tx-originals/list/angelina-eberly

 

Angelina Eberly

July 2, 1798– 

August 15, 1860

On Austin’s Congress Avenue stands a striking bronze sculpture of a woman firing a Howitzer cannon. That woman is Angelina Eberly, the heroine of the little-known, but distinctly Texan, Archive War of 1842.

Eberly was born in Tennessee in 1798 and came to Texas as a young woman. By 1839 she was widowed and running a boarding house in Austin. That year, the Texas Congress moved the Republic’s capital from Houston to Austin.

President Sam Houston, however, wanted to keep the capital in the city that bore his name. So when an invading army from Mexico reached San Antonio in 1842, ole Sam took advantage of the alarm to secretly order that government archives be transferred from Austin back to Houston, effectively moving the seat of government.

But as the boxes of land titles and other documents were being stealthily loaded onto wagons, Eberly spotted the activity. She made her way to an armed cannon to defend the city. She fired it, alerting the citizens of Austin. The archive conspirators bolted, but were caught less than twenty miles outside of town, and the vital documents were reclaimed.

The archives remained in Austin, and Austin remained the capital of the Republic—and subsequently of the state, when Texas joined the United States three years later. Eberly died in Indianola in 1860. Her gravesite is lost, but her likeness still stands guard over the streets of Austin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your visit. There are a lot of facts about Austin and the surrounding hill country that amazes even the "Local" population.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need to find a home in the Austin area!

Regards
Bob Kenney, Realtor

Mobil/Text:  512-922-4922

I have several inquiries about where the cities of Rollingwood and Westlake Hills are in relation to down town Austin. Just Minutes!!

The City of Westlake Hills, http://www.westlakehills.org/ was founded and incorporated as a village on September 9, 1953.

The city today is comprised of 2,560 acres (four square miles) with approximately 40 miles of public streets.

source: http://www.westlakechamber.com/pages/Home/


ROLLINGWOOD, TEXAS. http://www.cityofrollingwood.com/  Rollingwood is near Loop 1 south of Austin in southwestern Travis County. It was founded and developed by George B. Hatley in 1955 and by May 1963 the community incorporated as a municipality with a mayor-council form of government.

Source: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hjr12

Both of these towns are unique in the Metro area because they are incorporated municipalities and have their own form of government and law enforcement. They share some services such as public schools participating in the Eanes ISD and cooperate with emergency services and Zip Code.

The physical boundary separating these towns from Austin downtown and it's urban neighborhoods is Lady Bird Lake (formerly town lake). Adjacent to the multi functional Zilker Park, https://www.austintexas.gov/department/zilker-metropolitan-park  and the Zikler botanical gardens, http://www.zilkergarden.org/ . These towns are highly sought after locations for their ease convenience of commutes, community involvement, access to recreation areas and LOCATION.

when I 1st moved to Austin I ended up in "Austin City Limits" but it was across from Rollingwood, http://www.cityofrollingwood.com/ on 2244 (Bee cave Road) It was an amazing place to begin in this great city. 10 min to downtown, 20 min to airport, schools, shopping, parks all w/in minutes.

Today there is a lot of renovation and newer homes being built after tearing down older smaller homes in  the communities that sprang up in this area in the 1970's/1980's. The demand for new homeowners and the lack of large land left for residential development means that real estate prices in this area have seen a significant appreciation over the last 10 years.

If you are thinking about moving to Austin and would like more information about this area or any area of Central Texas please contact me and I will be glad to assist. I have experience in listing and representing buyers in this area for over 12 Years.

look forward to hearing from you.

Bob Kenney,
Realtor
® 
Mobile/Text : 512-922-4922

Did you know Austin is home of the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) the first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the U.S.?

 

Content Courtesy of : COTA   http://circuitoftheamericas.com/

 

Circuit Of The Americas is a multi-purpose facility that will host the most prestigious racing events in the world, including the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™. It is the first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the U.S. Built around a state-of-the-art 3.4-mile circuit track with capacity for 120,000 fans and an elevation change of 133 feet, the facility is designed for any and all classes of racing – from motor power, to human power.

 

Circuit of The Americas is ideally situated on a 1000-acre site in southeast Austin, approximately two miles from Austin Bergstrom International Airport, with scenic views of downtown.

 

Far more than a racetrack, Circuit of The Americas is a world-class performance, education and business center that will feature:

• Racing-focused amenities including a private Motorsports Driving Club and a Karting Track
• Public spaces for private events, seminars and conventions
• Visitor attractions that include an expansive live entertainment space, retail center and museum
• A center with research facilities and robust services and amenities to power a broad range of business, technology and education allies
• 40,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Conference/Media Center
• 5,500 sq. ft. medical center, offering paramedic services and EMS & medical student training
• Area for law enforcement vehicle training
• Fire and rescue training areas
• Driving academies
• Educational programs

 

An amazing facility and one of Austin's true 7 wonders!

 

Photos: courtesy of Bob Kenney - Inaugural F1 race 2012 

 

What is the favorite whine of Austinites? "I want to go to the winery!"

Hers is some fun and perhaps surprising facts about Texas wine production.

Information courtesy of: Texas wine and Grape growers association.
Link: http://www.txwines.org/facts.asp



TEXAS WINE INDUSTRY FACTS

Texas is the site of the first vineyard established in North America by Franciscan priests circa 1662. As European settlers followed the development of mission outposts, they brought more grapevine cuttings, further developing the industry through the 1800s.

Today Texas has approximately 4,400 acres of producing vineyard farmland. The U.S. Department of Treasury through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially designates American Viticulture (Grape Growing) Areas, or AVAs. Texas has eight AVAs although many vineyards exist outside the specified AVAs. For a wine to mention an AVA on the label, 75% of the volume of wine must come from grapes grown in that designated region.

Texas has eight recognized American Viticultural Areas (AVA).

Texas High Plains: Located west of Lubbock in the Panhandle at an elevation of 3000-4000 feet, the climate of this appellation is very dry. While the AVA encompasses over 8 million acres, there were approximately 3500 acres dedicated to grape growing in 2005.

Escondido Valley: This appellation established in 1992 covers 50 square miles in Pecos County in far West Texas, located near Fort Stockton

Texas Hill Country: Located west of Austin and San Antonio, this appellation, like Texas, is large. It is the second largest AVA in the USA, containing more than 9 million acres. Two smaller appellations, listed below, have been designated within the Texas Hill Country due to the unique microclimates they embody. Many wineries are located in this scenic area.

Bell Mountain (within Texas Hill Country): Designated in 1986, it is the first established AVA in Texas, covering five square acres about 15 miles north of Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg (within Texas Hill Country): This viticultural area covers about 110 acres with approximately 60 under vine.

Mesilla Valley: Located at the far western tip of the Texas border north and west of El Paso, this area is hot and dry with a long growing season and approximately 40 acres of cultivated grapes.

Texas Davis Mountains: With about 50 acres planted with vines, this west Texas appellation is cool and wet at an elevation ranging from 4,500 to 8,300 feet.

Texoma: Located in north-central Texas, this area contains approximately 3,650 square miles along the Texas-Oklahoma line.

Texas Wine and Wine grape Industry Profile

• America’s No. 5 grape and wine producer
• Contributes more than $1.83 Billion of Economic Value to the State of Texas
• 420 growers covering 4,400 acres
• 100% for wine
• 273 Wineries (G permit issued by TABC as of January 18, 2013)

Texas Hill Country vineyard's 

 

For more information or questions about real estate and moving to Austin please feel free to contact me.

 

Regards,

 

Bob Kenney, Realtor

®

 

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

 



What Palm trees in Texas? Yes Austin is the place that intrigues and surprises people from all over the world. We have an amazing country side, away from the Capital of Texas, that even amazes and mesmerizes Texans1 this is an overlook of one of the many lakes in the lake region to the west of Austin.

Keep you eyes open for more beautiful photos of the area...

Let m know if you want a view like this!

Bob Kenney,
Realtor
®
 Email: bobkenney@reillyrealtors.com
  

How come some of the listings I see on public search sites do not reflect current status or correct pricing?

Hi Jason,

Good question and one that has, depending on who you ask, fingers pointing in every direction! The advent of such sites as Zillow and Trulia (the 2 best known but not the only 2 search sites for real estate) has been the development of local MLS (Multiple Listing services).

These services act as the bulletin board for realtors to post (list) their listings and leases in a given market area. These listing are pretty complete and comes with a set of rules the users need to follow in order to use the service. Like reporting all price changes, changes of status and sold information once a transaction if closed. There are usually fines associated with violations of these things and the separate entities do best to police themselves and their members. Accuracy is probably 95%

At some point in town these 3^rd party sites , Such as Zillow/Trulia, came into being and the MLS's communities saw this as an opportunity to broadcast their members information onto a wider national platform. I most cases costs of sharing the information was minimal because there platforms do not typically charge to list the properties.

How can they do that? Because they do charge advertisers that are attracted by volume of visitors to their site. So for these companies the more listings they have the larger number of audience they attract. They also can tap the Realtor® market by selling placement services on each property landing page. Ever see the “Neighborhood expert” spot? Well I can tell you from experience they are not experts in the neighborhood they appear next to. They have just paid to be placed there as the expert..Never mind going down that path but it is a little misleading to say the least..

So now you have all of this information posted on sites not under the same guidelines as the original host site. Some of these sites data fields don’t match up the same, sometimes the data is corrupted, sometimes the changes to status and price to not make it to the 3^rd party site, some times the changes make it but the site reads it as a duplicate and does not publish the changes. I ave hear a lot of excuses from various 3^rd party sites over the years.

These sites have different ways of advising the public on what estimates are for home values although usually those values have noting to do with market activity in a given market place more to do with public tax evaluations and other public information. In Texas sale information is not made public, the 3^rd parties respond well if you want more accurate information to be given by us release the sold information to us. By law it just does not work that way so they go ahead and publish information that is inaccurate and helps create this market confusion over prices.

It is a nasty spiral and one that is about to change. A lot of MLS's around the country are not sending the information to these 3^rd party companies anymore. This will leave them looking for other ways to generate traffic to their sites. In that past they have down played the accuracy of the information saying it is not our data we just show what is given to us. Being a realtor and have data misrepresented on these sites and trying to get the information changed is not an easy task.

I actually had one client call and started crying on the phone that she had just gone on and done an estimate on one of the 2 biggest sites and they told her she had lost value in her home over a 4 year period and lost all of her equity. I of course panicked because I knew that was not even remotely possible because of the property she purchased. The comps showed her not only was her equity protected but she had actually realized a a nice appreciation. We sold her home and she now does not visit those sites anymore.

So there are many reasons the data may be different. The feed with the updates not working, service agreement that bought original data to the 3^rd party site is out of contract and they just not updating stale info. Duplicate listings from different sources some being updated some not being updated. Agent has not updated the info on the original MLS site.

The best solution would be to contact the listing agent (If you can find their name since even that information is blocked by 3^rd parties sometimes so they direct you to a paying advertising agent) and ask what the status is. Anytime you are looking at real estate it is a good idea to verify all information before you act.

Hope this helps.

Please feel free to visit: http://www.austinhomelistings.com/agents/robert-kenney/

For real estate information in the Austin and surrounding areas.

Regards

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

I want a friend who’s Real Estate License has expired to represent me as an agent, but no Realtors are willing to help me find a home? What is going on?

Hi Jean,

Thanks for the question.

So to answer your question. You want a Realtor® to search the market for a suitable home, Make appointments, provide you with current data and advise you on the market and what you should pay for a home, write the contract and have your friend receive the commission?

First of all your friend can not receive commission from a real estate transaction because he/she are not licensed. If they have an interest in participating in real estate transactions such as yours here is my advice:

You should suggest to your friend that they reinstate their license. Then they would be able to refer you to a licenses, practicing Realtor® and ask for a referral fee. That way your friend generates some funds for referring his excellent client and the Realtor® actually doing the work and assuming all of the responsibility and liabilities, that go with that work, gets paid for their service to you. A win win situation for everyone.

Please feel free to give me a call if you need more info.

Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922