Eric Bramlett's Blog: All Categories

In today’s busy world, it is important to know how to put a feast on the table without a hassle.  The most important part of the holiday season is the family, don’t stress if you don’t have time to prepare Thanksgiving dinner yourself, here is a guide to a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving meal to go that everyone will love.  Whether you want to prepare a portion of the meal yourself or you want the whole meal prepared for you here is a list of places to shop near the Clarksville, Hyde Park and Downtown Austin neighborhoods.  We will start with

1) Wheatsville Food Co-op at 3101 Guadalupe has the bird (un-cooked) for purchase with many pre-made sides such as Vegan corn bread stuffing and many other vegetarian friendly options.  You cannot pre-order your…

The Austin Farmers' Market (AFM), a growers-only market, is a vital part of the Austin Community and the Austin experience.  The market includes local (within 150 miles) farms, ranches, dairies and nurseries.  It is the premiere place to buy your fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs and plants. The AFM is located in the heart of downtown at Republic Square Park (4th and Guadalupe), and in the north central area in Hyde Park (nearby Allandale & Rosedale) at the Triangle Park (46th between Lamar and Guadalupe) in the Triangle complex.  You can shop downtown on Saturdays between 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at the Triangle on Wednesday evenings from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.   

The market is an integral part of the community and the Austin experience.  When you shop…

So...the word on the street from my lender (and girlfriend) is that FHA is going to raise their limits to $417k (the minimum for jumbo loans.)  Her source is extremely reliable - as in "knows people."  They're looking to make this happen by the end of the year.

This is absolutely fantastic, as FHA is one of the best alternatives to sub-prime borrowing.  Oftentimes, borrowers with horrible credit scores can be approved for FHA financing, because the programs are credit history driven - not credit score driven.  We have access to an FHA product that simply asks for 12 months clean credit, 2 years job history, no BK w/in 3 years, and a few other minor details.  Imagine how many buyers interested in spending ~$3500/month on housing can claim that!

The… Read Full Post

We talk about it a lot, & I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread regarding the different audiences for different blogs.  Personally, I have 3 main blogs: REW, AR, & my personal blog (getting ready to add a second personal.)  So...here's how I see audience, I'd love to hear what others think...

1) REW audience: technologically inclined Realtors primarily.  Now....b/c of their SEO qualities, they also gain the audience of the general public.  For instance, if you blog on a community in your city (that doesn't have a ton of competition for the terms) then you'll probably rank top 10 in Google fairly shortly.  So...audience = tech savvy Realtors & Jon Q Public.  A great place to blog about real estate "webmastering" & to put well thought out… Read Full Post

I'll admit...I got into the blogging thing pretty late.  In fact, I used to think that blogging was a horrendous waste of time - for the most part, because 95% of the blogs out there automatically tag their comments with the "rel=nofollow" - which strips the link juice from any comments you leave on your friends' pages.  In fact, WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms around, is installed with the nofollow as a default setting - and there's no way to change it in the "stock" backend of the program!

So...I'm backlink greedy - so what!  I like to make sure that my activities online are proactive in that they build relationships - and they build backlinks.  And it was exactly this backlink-lust that finally got me into the blogosphere.  Ryan… Read Full Post

Technorati Profile

That's all it takes!  I'm claiming my REW blog on technorati - are you? Read Full Post

I was reading through Eric Blackwell's blog yesterday and started surfing through the links he provides.  I have a lot of respect for Eric & took a look at his friends list.  It includes Kid Disco, Morgan Carey, & Jim Boykin.  I'm very familiar with Disco & Morgan, and we interact on an almost daily basis on the forums.  I've heard a ton of great things about Jim Boykin, and decided to surf on over to his blog.  Let me say...I'm hooked.  I skimmed through a few of his posts before landing on a blog titled "forward links: who you link to matters."

We all know & understand that linking to "bad neighborhoods" will get you banned or penalized by G quickly.  Most of us here don't actively link out to bad 'hoods, and have done a reasonable job of removing any… Read Full Post

Downtown Austin is undergoing some pretty major development right now - and it's all driven by the residential real estate & condo market.  Take a look at this graphic.  Pay particular attention to the Frost Bank tower (the building that looks like a giant nosehair trimmer.)  Right now, that's the tallest building downtown at 38 stories.  Check out how many buildings we're putting up that are larger than it. Read Full Post