boilerhorn

Perhaps Willis is just not very good.

And the types of extracurricular activities that might prepare you for a career as a neurosurgeon could land you in jail. In his memoir, On Writing, Stephen King notes, "If you want to become a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." King notes that tends to write about 2x what actually gets published. He also disdains adverbs. Paraphrased: Only use them in dialogue, on special occasions, and maybe not even then. I recommend On Writing, fwiw. I tend to agree, but it might help if you are an out-of-state resident willing to pay full freight. We had a guy like that at my previous job. When we had our annual opinion survey, HR would immediately recognize who it was.

I found value in doing it myself, but I might be the exception. First, I have a couple of friends in the real estate business who pulled comps for me. Second, my property has a couple of unique characteristics (largely relative to the rest of the neighborhood) that would be more difficult for an aggregator to handle. Third, I wanted to understand how the sausage was made. In many cases, I got some sort of reduction. Two times, I cited the CAD's own data to get a reduction - when they showed their comps, their numbers were wrong. Two times, I showed nearby comps to get about 5-10% reductions. Two other times, I got around 15% reductions. One was because of a market pull-back and insufficient comp data. Another was because of a functional obsolescence. Fwiw, the functional obsolescence was dropped because "people will buy anything right now" which was hard to disagree with. I found value in it, but I treated it like a short-term hobby. It's not the best choice for everyone.

Couple of comments based on what I have learned over the years. I have appealed darn near every year since 2008. Out of principal AND it requires the CAD to give you the comps and methodology used for the appraisal. One year, I called one of the tax reduction aggregators and asked to pay for 1 hour of his time. He said he would make more money just processing more appeals, then proceeded to talk to me for 30 mins. He was friendly and informative. First, many of the tax appeal aggregators have worked for the CAD in the past. They make money on volume. I have seen these guys roll in to the TCAD office with a dolly and 4 filing boxes full of properties to appeal. They are chummy with the folks in the office. Second, the land value is not arbitrary. I forget the EXACT methodology, but it is loosely this. They subtract the old land value from the new appraised value to determine a possible "new" improvement valuation. If that new value is 25% (? cannot recall the number ?) higher than replacement value for the improvement/structure across a neighborhood, it triggers a re-appraisal of the land values in the area. Third, commercial property valuations have always lagged in Travis County. In 2013, the Driskill Hotel and related adjacent properties were purchased by Hilton for $85mm. Hilton proceeded to add $8mm in improvements. The 2014 and 2015 TCAD valuations were less than $40mm. This is after a VERY public disclosure of the purchase price. Today, I see commercial property being slightly depressed, given we really do not know what is going to happen with "return to work." Last, the formal appeals process is problematic. After you deal with an uninterested and angry member of TCAD, you can appeal to a volunteer panel. This volunteer panel is composed of 3 retired folks from the community, with little or no expertise in property valuations. In one of my appeals, I showed data to support my claim, noted functional obsolescence in part of my property, etc. One of the panel members said, "I do not understand what Mr. Boilerhorn was trying to say, so I will side with the appraisal office." No attempt to understand, etc. It did not impede my case, as the other 2 members understood. Incidentally, the CAD used "he appeals every year" to kick off their defense of their appraisal. Uh, that should not matter.

Far NW Austin. Up 100% total. Land up 350% Improvement up 50%.

That's the backup plan. Wife and I are fine w/ it. He wants to be his own man, etc. That's just my nature. High LTV makes me nervous, regardless of situation. In reality, we'd really already solved the problem; I was just curious about other folks' experiences in a market like this.

Thanks for the reply. Rate lock has around a week left. You are right that it might not matter. Agree about appraisal company having zero incentive to work with us. They are accountable to the lender. They are using a mix of listings and sales, which I found odd. LTV was high - 90%. Did not want to empty the bank account. May have to go to 95%, which would make me nervous. Upon reflection, none of this is really that strange. Appraiser is accountable to the lender. I was just surprised that it was so far off. Your point about the trailing edge adaptation to new values is likely what is going on. There are tons of folks dropping in w/ 20% over ask, cash only offers in Austin right now. I'll just see how it plays out.

My son is looking to buy in NW Austin. Found a house he liked and offered what is standard in the area: 10-15% over ask. HIs agent was comfortable with that as was the loan officer helping him out. He lost out on 3 other homes in the same neighborhood, as he did not bid high enough. Appraiser shows up and appraises as 1-2% over ask. Appraiser made mistakes in (1) price offered (2) home materials used (3) improvements (4) used ask price of aforementioned homes as comps (not sale prices). Agent said to wait to appeal until after the homes he missed out on closed - so they could update their comps. Appraisal company refuses to review or re-appraise. His options put *way* more money down. change mortgage companies, get new appraisal, and new 1% higher interest rate. Option 1 is possible, but not the best. Option 2 kinda screws him. Is what happened common? I am pretty sure the appraisal company will not be used by this lender again. Also, what would you do?

Sambora will never be confused for Hendrix, Van Halen, Clapton, Slash, etc., but he was definitely influential. He did break a little ground with the voice/guitar effects in "You Give Love a Bad Name," even if he did overuse it at times. In addition, Wanted Dead or Alive is a different level from most other BonJovi songs. The acoustic intro is strong and memorable and the electric solo is one of best from that era. In fact I think I can hum it from memory even today. In terms of overall influence, as @Pato del Muerto notes, was the decision to play Wanted... live and fully acoustic. If it did not kick off The Unplugged series, it certainly added tons of credibility to it. And Unplugged from that era was fantastic. If you were an aspiring musician of any sort, Sambora was a decent musical role model at that time. His riffs were clean, catchy, and accessible. If nothing else, if you mastered Sambora's riffs, you were ready for something more challenging.

Yeah. I95 from south of Miami to north of West Palm Beach - and perhaps all the way to Jupiter - was a freaking nightmare 25 years ago and it is even worse today.

UNC Still ranked lower than Texas in KenPom: https://kenpom.com/

You called it.

I have a feeling that Bacot will get called for a moving screen before too long. Right when it is least needed.

UNC is pooping the bed right now. Somehow Braun can scream "bitch" at the UNC team as he leaves for the timeout and it's not a technical?

After starting down 7, UNC is on a 38-16 run, which includes a 26-8 run, which includes a 16-1 run.

This is a great thread. I'll follow with a stream of consciousness about my experiences and the experiences of my kids. The multi-tiered approach recommended by @Bateshorn is correct. All of my older kids did that and it worked out very well. Older son did CS at UT and did not get accepted to Northwestern or Carnegie Mellon. Not sure I would have paid for the others, esp. w/ a UT CS acceptance. Youngest son is a junior and will start the college admissions process next year. He goes to Regents and the fields are for football @Lobo and should should not be mistaken for lacrosse fields even though they are used for lacrosse . Older kids went to a top public school in Austin, but Regents was a better fit for him. Small class sizes, more individual instruction, far more open roundtable debates, etc. Is it perfect? No, but it is a good fit for him. I had zero expectations that it would look better on a college app than LASA, Westlake, Westwood, etc. If you want to be an engineer or computer scientist, get through school ASAP and start earning money. Many larger companies put a premium on an advanced degree (for some reason), but many of the smaller and more nimble ones do not. Most folks learn more in their first year out of college than they would learn in 2 years working toward a masters. Opportunity cost is high today. I am in tech and participate in a considerable amount of the hiring. The name schools still carry a decent amount of weight, as the strong peer groups at those colleges usually result in strong candidates. I've hired mostly out of UT Austin. First, it's local. Second, I know that a CS or ECE grad w/ a 3.5+ will succeed. I know her courses, I know the faculty, etc. The same applies for folks from a handful of other schools. The primary advantage of a Stanford, Duke, Harvard, (and dare I say Texas A&M) etc. is the strong alumni network. @CooterBrown dismissed it a bit, but there is a distinct difference for Texas A&M - and some others. Texas A&M grads almost blindly prefer other Texas A&M grads. A Texas A&M Civil Engineer friend notes that it is because he knows they are prepared for what he needs them to do (similar to what I noted in the previous paragraph). It seems to be a bit "blinder" than what I see from Texas grads. The college application process has gotten wild in the past 10-15 years. Rather than applying to 2-3 colleges, strong students are applying to 20. Rather than taking the SAT 1 time (like I did), kids are taking it 7-8 times. The top schools are getting 20 applications per spot and most would be just fine if they were admitted. I wonder if the admissions teams could not save a lot of time by just take the "Random Walk" approach: discard the obvious mismatches and just throw darts.

For what it's worth, the uninitiated answer is 2. Brock Cunningham: 11/23 (0.478) Triston Licon: 4/10 (0.400) With that number of attempts, let's call it zero. McNeil was 57/155 (0.367) By comparison, Texas's top 3-point shooters: Ramey 49/140 (0.350) Carr 47/139 (0.338) Jones 56/175 (0.320) I'm not a basketball stats expert, but those numbers do not seem materially different than what we got from any of the 3 guards above. Plus, he's not quite the defender of any of the above. We only know that Ramey will not be back. Upshot (IMO): he's a less athletic, poorer defending, better shooting version of Andrew Jones.

This. Nova has run a 6-man rotation all year long; they averaged between 25 and 34 minutes per game throughout the season. And Justin Moore led them in PT. Nova played 7 players against Houston. One guy got 2 minutes, one got 25, and the others each had 30+. Moore was at 37 minutes before he got hurt with 35 seconds left. It looks like Moore ruptured his Achilles, which really sucks.

Agree. Anyone who every challenged Iverson's intensity, dedication, and effort either did not pay attention or just did not like Iverson. Nice that they Texas Spring Practice thread has evolved to highlight the greatness of Allen Iverson.

CSB, really. That said, does he know you have a pic of his daughter's ass as your avatar on a fairly public message board. Here's to hoping he does not recognize her.

This. I started watching it based on recommendations here. I think I had a smile on my face the entire time. What a great documentary! Strongly recommend.

You jinxed it.

Edey had 5 turnovers. Ivey had 6 turnovers. Edey should have seen fewer minutes. Barkley: Purdue had the worst game plan I've ever seen.

I laughed out loud. Won a lot of games and almost always underperformed in the NCAA tournament. The 1988 team was a 1 seed and lost to K St in Sweet 16. The 1994 team had Glenn Robinson - #1 seed and lost to Duke in the E8.

With this officiating crew, Texas wins by 10, as there are 10 fewer fouls called. The Cocks have been mauling the shit out of Trevion and Edey and getting away with it. I guess it changes the narrative of "Purdue gets to the Elite 8 after shooting 100+ foul shots in the first 3 games." Regardless, Ivey has come up small. So small, it looks like he drops out of the lottery.