The last newsletter came out on the eve of the results for the Houston Association of Realtors Board of Directors election. We are excited to announce that Susan won in her Medium Firms category and will be a new member of the board of directors in 2023! The Houston Association of Realtors has over 47,000 members. It is such an honor to be elected by her peers to serve on the leadership team. Thank you to all Houston realtors who campaigned, voted, and supported Susan on her journey and congratulations to all the newly elected board members!
It was a busy couple weeks at the Annoura household! Joe had his new student orientation at the University of Texas for three days. Susan and Koh drove to Austin with him for the ‘parents orientation’ program, where they were able to choose several different topics to learn about. While there, Koh met up with his track racing colleague Dean Haraguchi, while Susan met up with her classmate from Armand Bayou Elementary, Julian Hang. From Austin, Susan flew to Fargo, North Dakota to go watch Ty wrestle in a national wrestling tournament. Ty went as part of Team Texas, having qualified in Fort Worth in a previous tournament. It was a whole new world for Susan to see thousands of top wrestlers from all over the United States compete in various weight classes and wrestling styles. She got to see Ty win two matches in Greco Roman, which was very exciting! In the end, Ty went 2-2 in Greco and could not advance, but it was a great experience for him. With an extra day on hand, Susan went sightseeing in downtown Fargo and when her flight was cancelled, she ended up in the back of a Surburban with 6 Team Texas coaches, who drove all night long back to Texas!
Tax free weekend for back to school stuff is coming up! Wait until Aug 5-7, 2022 and you can go shopping for many items WITHOUT paying sales tax. Qualifying items include school supplies, clothing, footwear, and backpacks under $100 per item. Items NOT qualifying include specialized clothing used for sports, accessories including jewelry, and watches/ watch bands. For a complete list of tax exempt goods and school supplies, click HERE. Can you buy items online?? I’m glad you asked! Yes, you can buy items online, but the shipping counts towards the total price, and remember that each item can only be a max of $100. So, if you buy something online for $95 and the shipping costs $10, then your total price is $105 and is now NOT tax free because the item is considered $105, which is over the $100 maximum.
Instead, I remember my parents took me out for dinner with my two best friends and their families. I think we went to the Strawberry Patch on Westheimer (now the location of Pappas Burger) and our parents said we could go on a trip to California the summer before we all went off to college. I remember we flew into Los Angeles, borrowed a relative’s car, and drove on the Pacific Coast Highway all the way up to San Francisco! Fast forward 32 years and my first son just graduated high school. Every day for 20 days, it seems like he was going to graduation parties. Most were at friends’ houses, some were at restaurants. I felt like we should do one but was worried how to do it?! Thanks to Mariko helping to buy all the decorations, Seiwa Market for preparing several sushi trays, my parents making fruit trays and more sushi, Koh and Fayth cooking and cleaning, and friends bringing over games and chairs, we were able to throw a huge graduation party for Joe at our house. Double spike ball nets, pool volleyball, golfing games, ping pong, Uno, and lots of food, drinks, and photos. At the end of it, we were all dead tired, but it was totally worth it. Joe turned around and left for New Mexico for a 2 week Philmont hike (with the boy scouts), comes back for a weekend, then heads to Austin for his University of Texas new student orientation! This summer is flying by…
The Houston Association of Realtors is one of the largest realtor associations in the United States. There are over 46,000 members! Leading the association is a Board of Directors who is elected by the members every year. Candidates run in different categories, depending on the size and location of the candidate’s company. Once elected, each director serves a two year term. This year, the election will take place July 26-August 1 and all members of the Houston Association of Realtors can vote. Susan will be running this year in the Medium Firms category, which is for candidates whose companies have 5-24 Realtor members. To see her campaign video, click here: https://youtu.be/YtUIKq-jg9s . Thank you Sandy Thompson for letting us use your office to shoot some of our scenes and to Mariko Fujita for being my creative director! If you are a realtor or know of any realtors, please ask them all to vote on July 26 when they get their ballot via email from BigPulse. For a list of all the candidates, please check out www.har.com/election. Please support Susan, who will be running in the Medium Firms category, as well as her colleague Peggie Pentecost, who will be running in the Largest Firms category. They both serve on the Women’s Council of Realtors, the Houston Rodeo, and the HAR Global Advisory Group. Both would appreciate your vote!
