The annual Clear Lake Cup softball tournament happened yesterday inside the grounds of NASA! Susan and Koh took part as members of Team Izakaya Wa. This is always a fun tournament because a lot of the players are Annoura Realty Group clients! Teams met at 8am for warm ups, then games started at 9am. Izakaya Wa has won this tournament year after year and this year, we just couldn’t hang on! Congratulations to Clear Lake United. They had a massive home run in the last inning and ran away with the coveted Champions Cup!
The Austin Board of Realtors has a new President, Brandy Wuensch! On December 11, ABOR held a breakfast celebration to swear in their new president and to celebrate their new graduates of the Texas Realtors Leadership Program. Because Brandy is a member of the NAR Leadership Academy, several people in the class of 2024 flew in to Austin from all over the United States to celebrate her swearing in. Jason from Minnesota, Felicia from California, Annie from Wyoming, Suzanne from Illinois, and Janette from Kentucky. Susan was the closest person, driving in from Houston! It was a great mini-reunion with these classmates and we were very happy to celebrate one of our colleagues becoming the top of Austin’s real estate association. Congratulations, Brandy!
December 3, 2024, a special unveiling of a park bench inside the Japanese Garden took place. This Japanese Garden is located inside Hermann Park and is complete with a pond, tea house, and walking trails. Friends of Glen Gondo gathered together for a special park bench dedication in his name. Glen’s bench is set nestled in front of a bamboo backdrop along one of the walking trails. It is a perfect place to sit and reflect on the preciousness of life. One cool fact: Glen’s father, the owner of the first Japanese restaurant in Houston, also has a bench inside the same Japanese Garden! This amazing Gondo Family has blessed Houston with their Japanese influence through food. We will always remember you when we buy sushi at H-E-B and now we can remember you when we stroll through the Japanese Garden at Hermann Park. We miss you, Glen.
Happy Annoura Realty News has Mariko back from Japan! While she was gone, she had several clients move into their new homes. Congratulations to Mr. Nakagawa of Shin Nippon Machinery and thank you to Mr. Kato for the referral! Also, congratulations to Kuraray’s Mr. Ueno, who moved into his new home in Clear Lake, zoned to popular Ward Elementary. One more move in was Mr. Kaneta of Kaneka, who moved into a beautiful townhome inside the Annoura Realty Group portfolio. We will be happy to take care of you over the next several years! On the sale front, Susan listed another one of Shojiro’s investment homes, after an extensive remodel, new roof, and staging. We were super excited to get an extremely strong offer within 24 hours! Made it through the option period and through the appraisal process last week and now we are just waiting for the buyer’s loan approval. Targeted closing date will be Dec 30, another international remote online notary closing! In other listings news, Susan brought to market a friend’s home in Northfork last Friday. This home is so clean and in such great condition, we’re hoping it goes fast! Take a look at the details and pictures here: www.har.com/94356317 . Coming up in the next couple of weeks, a new expat family working for Kao Corporation will be moving to Houston and a new Inpex expat family is also on the way. As we wrap up 2024, we look forward to an exciting 2025 and welcome any of your referrals! If you know anyone moving to Houston, please make sure they tell us you referred them so that we can give you a special gift!!
Mid December already and we have just two more weeks left in 2024! Time moves so fast these days. For our family news, Zach performed in a school musical, The Addams Family, playing the role of Lucas. He and his cast have been practicing after school day after day for a month and it was so neat to see how the show came together. Zach had a solo and we were super proud of him getting up on stage to sing in front of everyone! Good job, Zach! With the holidays coming soon, Joe has come back from Austin and is now enjoying his winter break. Ty comes home TOMORROW! We are super excited to him back with us for TWO WEEKS! Zach has school until the end of this week and then the 5 Annouras are heading to Pagosa Springs to reset and recharge. It’s a busy time of the year as we do our end of the year financial planning, pay for property taxes (ouch!), and try to get out Christmas cards (going out this week, finally!). Good luck, everyone, getting through the final weeks of the year!
