2023 Bum Steer of the Year

[utee94 15863]

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

We actually have a pair of "influencers" living on our block.  They have a super-detailed, ultra-curated Instagram image.  Luxe interior decor and photoshoots, an image of an amazingly fancy "retro" life.  Think this sort of look:

In reality?  They're trash.  Their house looks like shit -- there's just a couple of interior rooms that are clearly just photo studios that they decorate for various shoots and act like that's how they live.   She posts about how much she loves this holiday, or that holiday....never seen a single exterior decoration.  The exterior of the house is dumpy and not maintained.  She poses for all kinds of pics with her retro bike in a cute outfit in the park, that sort of shit....but we've never seen them even so much as take a walk (and they have a kid of stroller age).  And occasionally, they fight so loudly the cops are called.  

They are a joke to the entire block.

Cute outfits in the park, you say?

Someone with 34k posts on surly, should probably know the rules.

[Brisketexan 105340]

Just now, utee94 said:

Cute outfits in the park, you say?

Someone with 34k posts on surly, should probably know the rules.

Not gonna dox my neighbor.....especially as I revealed that they are a domestic violence shitshow.

It's actually kind of sad.  But it's been eye-opening to the young people on the block to see that the life that influencers CLAIM to live is...fake.

[HamsterHookah 112]

22 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Not gonna dox my neighbor.....especially as I revealed that they are a domestic violence shitshow.

It's actually kind of sad.  But it's been eye-opening to the young people on the block to see that the life that influencers CLAIM to live is...fake.

It's actually very well known to most people with high-speed internet and born past 1980.

[texasdago 7579]

52 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Not gonna dox my neighbor.....especially as I revealed that they are a domestic violence shitshow.

It's actually kind of sad.  But it's been eye-opening to the young people on the block to see that the life that influencers CLAIM to live is...fake.

Wait wait wait... is iiiiittt...

[Brisketexan 105340]

1 hour ago, HamsterHookah said:

It's actually very well known to most people with high-speed internet and born past 1980.

Well, they knew (we all knew) that to be the case in the abstract.  But seeing the stark contrast firsthand is a pretty powerful point of emphasis.  Seeing someone post pictures like they live a blissful creative life in an impeccable house of style when you can walk out your door and see their run-down sad house punctuated only by periodic fights of kicking on doors and threatening to kill each other sure casts the contrast in sharp relief.

[conVINCEd 21469]

19 hours ago, Axle Hongsnort said:

Wow, really? Not sure what era you refer to, but I graduated from the business school in 96 and to think close-in houses were plentiful for the $30k contingent is laughable.

My landlord offered to sell me the house I was renting in Wilshire Woods (just east of 35 and 38th)  for $100k, in 1998, owner financed at a competitive rate for the time.  I passed. 

[hornian 5223]

1 hour ago, conVINCEd said:

My landlord offered to sell me the house I was renting in Wilshire Woods (just east of 35 and 38th)  for $100k, in 1998, owner financed at a competitive rate for the time.  I passed. 

[conVINCEd 21469]

1 minute ago, hornian said:

I’m not sure if you’re mocking me for being stupid, or not believing that offer was made.  He was moving out of state and wanted out of the landlord game.  It was a shitty house in a good neighborhood on the rise.  I loved living there.  I just looked it up on google maps and was shocked it hasn’t been torn down.

 

[DixonHur 11376]

1 hour ago, conVINCEd said:

My landlord offered to sell me the house I was renting in Wilshire Woods (just east of 35 and 38th)  for $100k, in 1998, owner financed at a competitive rate for the time.  I passed. 

Too close to home for me.  I turned down my landlord's offer to buy the duplex I lived in in French Place, walking distance to UT. 

[texasdago 7579]

22 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I’m not sure if you’re mocking me for being stupid, or not believing that offer was made.  He was moving out of state and wanted out of the landlord game.  It was a shitty house in a good neighborhood on the rise.  I loved living there.  I just looked it up on google maps and was shocked it hasn’t been torn down.

 

Nice garage do... uh... wait.

[ztejas 43538]

24 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I’m not sure if you’re mocking me for being stupid, or not believing that offer was made.  He was moving out of state and wanted out of the landlord game.  It was a shitty house in a good neighborhood on the rise.  I loved living there.  I just looked it up on google maps and was shocked it hasn’t been torn down.

 

100k in 98 for that piece of shit seems steep. 

[conVINCEd 21469]

9 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Nice garage do... uh... wait.

What’s weird is that the stall on the left was the one car garage, which appears to be converted into some kind of office with the door there.  The stall on the right had been converted into a banquette/utility room despite still having the exterior appearance of a garage bay.

11 minutes ago, ztejas said:

100k in 98 for that piece of shit seems steep. 

I decided to pass, but the price seemed fair at the time based on the research I did.  I would’ve needed a roommate to make it work at the time, and everyone living there was graduating.  I didn’t feel like taking that risk at that time, and east of 35 still had a bit of a stigma back then.

[Armybrat 40912]

7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Forget it, he's rolling.  Unless he meant Stacy Park which runs through Travis Heights.  

I had a condo out of grad school (early 2000's) off Reagan Terrace.  I looked it up and hasn't really appreciated as much as I thought it would given the explosion of prices in Travis Heights.  $180 20 years ago to $460 now.  That's a lot but nothing compared to the rest of close-in South Austin.  I did notice from the photos that nobody has done anything to it since I lived there save for some appliances.  

My parents’  $19,500 house (1,600 sq.ft. 3/2) they bought new on Elmhurst in East Travis Heights (east of I-35) in 1959 sold last fall for $875,000. Dad sold it in 1993 for $65,000 after Mom passed away in 1992.

crazy.

[Firemans4Horn 18123]

Texas had 400 cops standing in a hallway as 19 4th graders and 2 teachers were murdered. And a governor that said “it could have been worse”

 

but yeah Austin is the bum steer of the year. 

[hornian 5223]

59 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I’m not sure if you’re mocking me for being stupid, or not believing that offer was made. 

Mocking you for passing that opportunity. 

[YGIFS 19452]

Mocking, mocking, mocking   /aMisterBabuBhatt

[hornian 5223]

36 minutes ago, ztejas said:

100k in 98 for that piece of shit seems steep. 

Not really. My aunt bought a similar house in 78723 in 2003 for about $113K. I rented from her for 9 years (along with roommates), she sold it for about 2.5x in 2012 (plus the rent covered the note). I think it was TCAD valued at close to $600K in 2022. 

I kicked around buying it from her, but moved northwest instead, and can't complain. The first house I bought in 2012 for about $230K (with all of $7.5K down on a FHA loan) I sold a few years later and cleared over $100K after commissions, put that into my next house that I lived in for about 5 years, and cleared over $300K after commissions, which let me do a ton of upgrades on my current house, where, if you beleive the FMV appraisal I have from last year, i'm already sitting on over $500K of equity. Not bad for putting $7.5K down on a house 10 years ago. Even if it doesn't go up from here, I've done alright with Austin real estate, and this is the house I intend to live in until my kids are out of high school unless I am compelled to move out of state by some stupid laws in the next few years. 

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

On 1/4/2023 at 11:12 PM, Brisketexan said:

Fieros were real shit, I guess.

They were panty droppers, for sure.

[texasdago 7579]

Austin's not weird anymore...

West Campus Co-ops: Hold my kombucha...

(This is only two...)