Project: Wall Painting

That is my perfect alibi for not blogging the whole week! And I do have proof for it. :) This is us in action as we painted one of the Living Room walls in dark brown (Homestead Brown by Sherwin Williams paints).

(Except the last photo in the lower right corner of the above collage, all these photos were taken in the evening, so the contrast shows well.)

We are becoming "more adventurous" in selecting colors for the wall. Yes, it is still brown… but it is darker shade of brown, unlike the light browns that we used extensively in the Masters Bedroom and Dining Room, and previously in the Boise house.

Al and I finished painting the walls of ...

The Living Room,

The Breakfast Nook,

Some parts of the Kitchen,

And some parts of the Foyer. This is currently my favorite spot that we painted:

And even Kiti and Kiti's wall had a makeover! :)

It felt very good to have accomplished the wall painting!

Moreover, this house is no longer 1 big box or a warehouse. This house now feels warmer, cozier and more comfy. Amazing what colors can do, huh?

I realize though that the photos do not do justice to the paint/color. I took the photos per room in the morning versus most of the photos that in the collage were taken at night. Perhaps if you look back at the photos again and contrast it to the very white baseboard, then you can imagine what the big box looked like previously. :)

How about you? What wall paint colors turned out well in what room of your house?

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Josh's New House

"Auntie Rela, my house is bigger than your house!" That's what Josh says. Sometimes.

So finally, Josh has a new house. Or I should say Joey and Sheng has moved in to their new house!

That's right! New house! Spanking clean, new house!

They moved in more than a week ago. Here are some photos of the move:


There were 4 men, 3.5 women and 1 boy who moved the stuff from the apartment to the new house. (A big departure from the dozens during our Boise moving days!) The men were Joey, Al, Daddy and Tristan (Tristan is a new fried here.) The women were Sheng, Ann and Mamang. The 1/2 woman is me since I was not very functional actually. :(

And of course the only boy was Josh, and his helping was captured by my camera as evidence that he indeed helped, too! (The other 2 children in the photos are Tristan and Marisa's children - Jad and Jasele.)

And for the record...Budget truck rental services is not good at all. Their 1-800 number took a reservation. Then when it was time to get the truck from the assigned branch, the branch said that there was no reservation. Then the branch would not call their 1-800 number and instead had Joey call the 1-800 number. The nerve! Joey had to be the one to connect the branch to the 1-800 number. No good system and procedures. No good customer service.

And you wonder how they even can imagine to compete with U-Haul? Maybe just from a capacity standpoint. Meaning, they are just the overflow from U-Haul. When all U-Haul trucks are reserved and unavailable, then people go to Budget truck rental. Boo... Boo... Not a good business model.

Anyway back to the new homeowners...Exciting times are ahead - filling up the home, decorating, arranging, painting... Home Depot and Lowes are going to be their new favorite store soon!

Have a great week-end!

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Vamos a Hablar Espanol

You never know when a second language comes handy! In my case, it is in the search of someone who will help us in the garden.

We bought trees and shrubs already only to "realize" that lots of muscles are needed to work the the limestone bedrock underneath. We could dig up to 4 inches only and beyond that, a pick axe is needed. So we needed someone else to do this in order to save our time for "higher-value and higher-leverage" :) activities.

So I dug into my rolodex and got this:

So I called "Juan dela Cruz"...
Me: Is this Juan dela Cruz?
JDC: Yes.
Me: I'd like to know your daily rates.
JDC: (Silence)
Me: If I want to have some plants planted, how much would you charge?
JDC: (Speaks to someone else in the background.) I need to see your yard.
Me: Oh, there is nothing there. I just want some plants planted.
JDC: (Speaks to someone else in the background again.) I need to see your yard.
Me: (Silent. Thinking...)
JDC: (I think this is what he said...) Can you wait for 3 minutes?
Me: Yes, sure.
Then the phone was silent.

Phone rings after a few minutes.
JDC: This is JDC.
Me: Oh hi.
JDC: I need to see your yard.
Me: Ok. (gives address)
JDC: I will be there at 4pm.

So meanwhile, I looked up the English-to-Spanish translation of the things I wanted to ask and say...
How much do you charge per day?
¿Cuánto cuesta por día?

How much do you charge to mow the lawn?
¿Cuánto cuestan a cortar el césped?

How much do you charge to plant trees?
¿Cuánto cuestan a plantar árboles?

How much do you charge to plant shrubs?
¿Cuánto cuestan los arbustos a plantar?

How much do you charge to pull the weeds?
¿Cuánto cuestan a tirar la maleza?

How much do you charge to paint the fence?
¿Cuánto cuestan a pintar la valla?

Will you take x dollars?
¿Va a tomar x dólares?

How do I pay you?
¿Cómo puedo pagar?

Do you take cheques?
¿Cheques?

When can you do this?
¿Cuándo puede usted hacer esto?

What day can you do this?
¿Qué día se puede hacer esto?

Can you do it today?
¿Puede hacerlo hoy?

Can you do it tomorrow?
¿Puede hacerlo mañana?

Can you do it on Thursday?
¿Puede hacerlo el jueves?

Do you take the soil and sod with you?
¿Toma el tierra y césped con usted?

At 4:30 pm, phone rings.
JDC: I did not get the number of your house.
Me: Ok. (gives house number)

For all the preparation and research I did and for all the 12 units of Spanish in college, I could just utter one phrase (¿Cuánto cuestan?) which made JDC smile. (Or is that a smirk? Maybe he thought I was "trying hard".) I think we could actually understand each other in English with a little help from his companion.

Bottomline, here are the really, really inexpensive rates:
1. Planting 8 plants (5-10 gallons) - $60
(compared to another person I asked earlier at $25/tree)
2. Painting the fence - $100
(compared to $1000 quoted by another)
3. Pull weeds - $20
4. Mow lawn - $40 (pretty standard)

Viva, Mexico!

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Austin vs Boise Taxes

When we were looking at houses in Austin last year, we liked the much lower prices of the houses - ~$100/sqft for Austin vs ~$142/sqft for Boise. What shocked us though was that the Austin property taxes were much higher at 2-3% of appraised value versus Boise property taxes of 1.205 (2006 rate).

However, we needed to consider that Texas has no state income tax. So we were curious how the higher Austin property taxes would compare to the lower Boise property taxes PLUS Idaho state income tax of 1%-7.8%.

Here's a comparison:
Boise Property Taxes and State Income Tax
a. Assumed House Appraised Value = 300000 (300000 - 89000 (2007 exemption)) * 1.205%
Property Taxes = 2500
Assumed Income = 100000
State Income Tax = 7800
TOTAL Taxes = 10300

b. House Appraised Value = 400000
Property Taxes = 3700
Assumed Income = 100000
State Income Tax = 7800
TOTAL Taxes = 11500

Austin Property Taxes assuming worse case at 3%
a. Assumed House Appraised Value = 300000
Property Taxes = 9000

b. Assumed House Appraised Value = 400000
Property Taxes = 12000

CONCLUSIONS:
- For a 300K house, Austin taxes is lower by about 1000.
- For a 400K house, Austin taxes is higher by about 500.
- The higher the appraised value of the house, the higher the Austin taxes. However, at the 300K-400K house price range, the difference is not significant (but of course, I did not apply any statistics to it!)
- The higher the income, the higher the total Boise taxes. Since the ID state income tax rate is a large multiplier, this would have a significant effect to the total taxes in Boise.

Also, this is not an apple-to-apple comparison because a 300K house in Boise would be about 2100 sqft while it would be a 3000 sqft house in Austin. (I've got to say though that the finishing workmanship of the Boise houses are definitely better than over here.)

All in all, I think we did okay on the Austin house since the total tax did not change significantly and we also have more room! Moreover, there is also a possibility that the Austin property taxes in the Hays county would be decreasing on a yearly basis until it "stabilizes" at the 2% level. I look forward to those days!

Meanwhile, I hope this gives you an idea on what to look out for when considering out-of-state relocation!

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More on Waiver of Escrow

A couple of considerations before you decide to waive escrow:

1. Escrow Waiver Fee -
There will or will not be a fee associated with the waiver of escrow - depending on your contract. In our case, there was supposedly an escrow waiver fee of $800. However looking at our Settlement Statement, there was no item pertaining or even remotely related to the escrow waiver fee.

Anyway, I wanted to point out that this was our first time to learn about being able to do a waiver of escrow that we were so excited about the possibilities. Thus, we did not have the present-mindedness to see if we can negotiate waiving (redundant?) the escrow waiver fee. The good thing is that it seems that we were not charged an escrow waiver fee at all!

2. Your Responsibilities (if you do a waiver of escrow)-
Obviously, aside from paying the non-escrowed items directly and in a timely manner, the lender may require you to provide them with:
- evidence of your payment of the non-escrowed items
- evidence that your insurance is still in force and at the required coverage levels

3. Escrow Reestablishment by Lender -
The lender could re-establish an escrow if these happens:
- you do not pay any of the non-escrowed items in a timely manner
- you do not provide evidences of payment of the non-escrowed items.
- you are in default under the terms of your loan document
Again, depending on your lender's contract, there could be more stipulations on when they can re-establish an escrow account for you.

I am curious though if it is myself who gets tired of managing the non-escrowed items - if and how I can ask the lender to reestablish an escrow account for us? How much would they charge to reestablish an escrow account?

Something that I could dig on more later. But if you know the answer, let us know!

Meanwhile, do the above considerations frighten you against managing the non-escrowed items on your own? Or do they confirm your decision not to manage them yourself? Share your thoughts!

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You Don't Have to Escrow your Property Taxes

One lesson I learned from our recent house purchase is that you have the option to do a waiver of escrow for property taxes and insurance items. By doing this, you are avoiding the opportunity cost associated with those monthly escrow payments and instead use the equivalent non-escrow amounts to grow it to your advantage (instead of the lender enjoying the interest on it.)

You see, your monthly house payment is typically composed of:
- mortgage (and private mortgage insurance if loan is >80%)
- real estate/property taxes
- hazard/homeowner's insurance premiums
- flood/wind insurance premiums

The last 3 are escrow items and if you did have them escrowed, you will be including the estimated amounts for these escrow items in the payments you send to the lender on a monthly basis. However, these escrow items are only due (to the state or the insurance companies) once a year. Property taxes are due in October in Texas (other states may have different schedules but it is still due annually or biannually). Insurance is due a year after you purchase the house. See my point? Escrow payments are collected monthly from you, while actual payments are done annually by the lender to the "service provider".

What that means is that the lender is earning interest from your monthly escrow payments. That gain is on top of the loan interest that you are paying within the mortgage payment. Depending on how much your escrow payments are, the additional escrow interest could be significant.

You can do a waiver of escrow on these and manage them yourself. So instead of the lender taking advantage of this, you are actually the one gaining interest on the equivalent non-escrow amounts.

Why should you take on the headache of managing the equivalent non-escrow amounts yourself? Again, it boils down to what you think your time is worth vs the amount you will be earning for yourself.

Of course, this method does not have its RISKS:
1. You can use the equivalent non-escrow amount for something else.
You really have to be disciplined about saving and growing the amount that was supposed to be escrowed. The good thing is that there are many ways to do this.

One of the most common being - Open a high interest account (money market account or CD or some other more aggressive investments) and do a direct deposit to it on a regular basis. This way, it becomes self-managing and you don't have to spend time transferring from one account to another or from avoiding spending the amount (if you did not create a separate account). (I'll share some more details on how we do it in a future post. Be on the look-out for that!)

2. You can miss the payments to the "service providers".
You will have to manage the payments yourself - know when it is due, send the payment on time, etc. For these payments that come once a year, the state and the insurance companies are pretty good on sending your the estimates and bills. That should be a good reminder for these once a year payments.

And... you should not have to worry about not having the $ to pay for them if you were doing the disciplined saving that we mentioned previously, right???

So do you think it's worth your time to manage the equivalent non-escrow amounts on your own? Do the math! If it shows something significant enough for you, ask yourself - "Do I have the disciple, time and inclination to do manage the equivalent escrow amounts?" If the answer is yes, then go on, do the waiver of escrow and do it yourself! You can do it, too!

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Potential Savings of $600 in Property Taxes

Just got our "2008 Notice of Appraised Value" from the Hays Central Appraisal District stating that our Total Estimated Taxes (property taxes) is $11,634 based on an appraised value of $407,250 and total tax rate of 2.91%.

I learned from one of my favorite blogs (of a local Austin realtor) that "If the appraised value is higher than the amount you’ve recently paid to purchase the home, bring your Settlement Statement showing what you actually paid, and they’ll lower the value to the price you paid without a fuss." The Crossland Team

Takeaways here for ordinary people like me (non-realtors):
1. The Settlement Statement being referred to here is one of the documents you signed during closing. So dig it up from wherever you stuffed it!
2. Key operative term here is "recently purchased"... since the tax year starts on January 1 (2008), then I am guessing that the previous month or quarter does qualify for being "recently purchased". The good thing for is that we bought the house on December 17, 2007 (by the way, buying the house at this timeframe has its advantages too, but I'll reserve that for a future story".

So, since what we paid for the house versus the Appraised Value is lower, we could potentially save about $600 from property taxes. Yoohoo!!! Hays Central Appraisal District - here I come!

How about you? Have you checked your 2008 Appraised Value already?

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Austin Real Estate Musings

Dear Husband and I have decided that Circle C is the location for us.

+ It is near(er) to work. We do not have to deal with the Y (where US-290 and US-71 split). (Am sure, eventually the Y will become a non-issue. How soon? Don't know when, so meanwhile, we do not want to deal with it.)
+ It has a nearby commercial complex. Not much but at least a nearby place to do the groceries - H.E.B. We checked it out and the place was a bit dark (similar feel as Winco). The deli looks delish! Also, they have upo and ampalaya in abundance!
+ Its streets are wide and the sidewalk is great for walking, running and biking!
+ It is very near the parks where we can do further walking, running and biking!
+ It has its own swim center and residents have access to the tennis courts and golf course.

The big thing I am not sure about is the size of the house. The Boise house was 2164 sqft and we were bouncing is a big box already then. A 2400 sqft house in Austin will already be bigger than the Boise house. How much more a 3000 sqft house???

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Shopping for Austin Real Estate

Our real estate agent brought Al and I to different subdivisions yesterday, Friday, for an overview. We managed to cover the master-planned communities near the Dripping Springs (HD) area. Today, we continued to look around the Circle C (SW) area and went back to the HD area as well.

Some observations:
1. The smallest house in these Austin communities are bigger than our Boise house.
2. For the same amount, the Austin houses are bigger than the Boise houses!
3. The property tax in Austin is the real shocker! Boise is at ~1% while Austin is at 2-3%!!!
4. The house elevations (stone, bricks) in Austin make the brand new houses look older :(

Some Pros and Cons
HD Area
+ nice hill country views
+ nice amenities
+ feels more wide open
- high property tax
- 290 has no island (partially with middle lane)
- long commute to AMD
= no information re flood zone (is it safe to assume it is not in a flood zone since it is in the hill country?)

SW Area
+ nearer to AMD, downtown
+ established community, nice amenities too
+ near to establishments!
+ lower property tax
- feels "creepy" because of the dense, mature trees
= out of the flood zone but still near it

What is important?
- Location wrt workplace, school, worship
- Amenities
- Resale value - Location, Amenities, ISD quality

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