Inexpensive New Year's Eve Celebration Spots in Austin, Texas
Auditorium Shores at Lady Bird Lake - Eager to enjoy fireworks this New Year's Eve without the risk of burning down your neighborhood? Head over to Auditorium Shores for an incredible display of fireworks alongside live music, festive foods, and a new beer hall. Performances include the Extragrams, El Combo Oscuro, Tameca Jones, and The Texas Gentlemen.
Parlay House Black & Gold NYE Party - This annual shindig is free until 10 PM, so come early and stay late to welcome in the New Year at a cocktail bar donned in only the most elegant black and gold. Super fan of the free stuff? There will even be a free champagne toast at midnight!
Glow In The New Year at Pease Park - Looking for a sober New Year's Eve party with music, giveaways, glow sticks, dancing, and more? Pop on over to the beautiful Tudor Cottage & Terrace at Pease Park at 7 PM to enjoy live music by local pop queen Kady Rain and a mix of other fun and surprises.
Clive Bar's Studio 23 Disco NYE Party - There's no cover all night long at Clive Bar's disco-themed NYE party this year. Enjoy music all night long from DJ Eye Q with a festive balloon drop at midnight.
2023 New Year's Celebration At Pinballz Kingdom - If you're a South Austinite, or just down to have a DD drive you to Buda, you can live out your fantasy of ringing in the New Year at a Pinballz location. They'll even have a special appearance from a local 80’s Rock & New Wave band called Birthday Suit from 9 to 11 PM and an upbeat DJ spinning retro 80s tunes from 11 PM to 1 AM. There will also be a free champagne toast at midnight!
Lustre Pearl's NYE House Party - Another bar with no cover this NYE, Lustre Pearl will be hosting a big house party with DJ Dick Nickson, polaroid pictures, dancing, beer pong, champagne, and a countdown at midnight.
Texas Is On Your Side
Texas stands out as a landlord-friendly state due to its favorable legal environment for property owners. Understanding the nuanced aspects of state and local laws remains pivotal in making informed decisions for property investment. Landlords must prioritize the welfare of their tenants while leveraging the advantages offered by landlord-friendly states like Texas. Check out the following article for more information https://victorsteffen.com/guides/is-texas-a-landlord-friendly-state/
End of Year Summary
The market continues to shift as discussed in our previous posts and the many articles discussing it. Leasing incentives are working very well to secure tenants, so we strongly recommend discussing these with your property manager.
In the coming weeks, we’ll start the process of preparing for the 2023 tax forms. You will get an email with the subject “Stone Oak 1099 Address Verification and E-Delivery Notice”, and we strongly recommend signing up for electronic forms instead of paper ones for security purposes. There are many scams these days, and some of them stem from stealing information through the mail and then socially engineering a scam with the information they have gathered. See the section below about scams as well.
We appreciate your business and trust in us throughout 2023, and look forward to continuing to earn your business and work with you in 2024.
2023 Holiday Season Closures
You can find our updated holiday closing schedule at this link. Everyone here at Stone Oak wishes you a healthy and happy holiday season.
Landlord Insurance Policy
As most of you know, having a landlord insurance policy is a must for anyone looking to lease their home. It will help protect you in unforeseen circumstances that might pop up during your time as a landlord. It’s extremely important to make sure you have the right type of policy and adequate coverage. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when there isn’t enough or the right type of coverage. If you just want to review your policies, need a new policy quote or are interested in shopping your rate to weigh your options, Stone Oak has partnered with Andor Insurance Agency for Texas landlord insurance.
Nature Is Bringing Another Eclipse to Texas
In April 2024 there will be another solar event that you won't want to miss. If you’ve never witnessed a solar eclipse then you should certainly make it a point to try to catch one, if not both of these.
In April 2024 there will be a full solar eclipse, and here is a link to the event info and path. If you’re going to try to watch one or both of these then we strongly suggest going to a location as close to the center of the path as possible to enjoy the best, and longest view. Make sure to track the weather around that time to see where the best place to go will be for clear skies. Here is another link to some info about these events, and there is a lot of info out there as Central Texas gears up for these.
Both of these events will have peak viewing near Austin as long as the weather cooperates but the path is very long for both of them if you’re in a different part of the US. Over the next several months we’ll be providing solar eclipse viewing glasses to all new tenants as part of their move-in welcome gift, and we’re making them available for pickup to our current tenants and clients. If you’re interested in getting some glasses please check in with your property manager so we can arrange for you to pick some up.
Scams Everywhere!
We just want to remind you that we will never call you to ask for your bank info, social security number, or other personal information on the phone or by email. We will also never ask you to pay for anything with gift cards, cryptocurrency, etc. All of our emails will come from our domain, www.stoneoakmgmt.com, or through our software as a long string of letters/numbers from the domain @stoneoak.mailer.appfolio.us. Our property management software includes a texting service that will not match our office number, but if you try to call that number it will go directly to our main office phone line.
Here is some helpful information about Caller ID Spoofing, and other common scams. Here is a recent posting from Chase Bank about other common scams that are good to be aware of.
Please stay vigilant, maintain a healthy amount of skepticism, and contact us directly with the number on our website or our direct emails if anything looks questionable.
Thank you for being a client of Stone Oak Property Management. Please don't hesitate to contact your property manager should you need anything at this time.
Reminders:
Normal Wear and Tear
We have spoken to many of you during the move-out process about what is and is not considered normal wear and tear. Recently, the American Apartment Owners Association published an article that discusses this in-depth and is very informative. You can find that article here if you’d like to learn more.
Maintenance Approval Process Changes
In addition to the info below about funding repairs, we want to notify all owners that we are modifying our escalation process when we can’t reach our clients in order to make sure we are complying with property code requirements. In bonafide emergencies, we are acting within our authority to mitigate damages, however after it has been contained or in non-emergency situations we reach out to our clients for work authorization that is required above the limit set in the management agreement. In those cases, we now have a strict process going into effect that will have a time-based escalation if we cannot reach you. The time frame will be that if we can’t reach you by the 3rd day from when we first reached out we will then reach out to your emergency contact who can aid us in getting authorization or contacting you. If you’d like to update your emergency contact we have on file please contact your property manager. Keep in mind that this contact should be someone outside of your immediate household who you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you cannot be reached by them or us.
Funding Make-Readies & Maintenance for Your Property
Please note that it is Stone Oak's policy that the owner has reserve funding on hand with Stone Oak to help us commence work faster when it comes to make-readies and maintenance on your property. Stone Oak cannot perform maintenance without first receiving authorization and funding, which can slow down the turn-around times of our vendors and their availability in this market. This can also potentially create a negative experience that tenants will remember when it comes time to renew, and we always want to avoid turning over the tenants. Any time we request authorization for work on your property, the best practice is to immediately fund your account when you provide written authorization to move forward. This is as simple as going into your owner portal and using ACH for a free transfer, or if you prefer a credit card the processor charges a fee as part of the transaction.
Keep in mind that tenant charges on your account are not considered an offset to this amount as we keep a strict accounting system for both our and our client's benefits. Any tenant chargeable items will be posted to their account, and once they are paid it is immediately credited to your account. If you have any questions about this reserve amount held with Stone Oak please contact your property manager.
