Real estate community quizzes Houston’s mayoral candidates at HAR event
More than 200 brokers and agents attended the Houston Association of Realtors’ 2015 Mayoral Forum recently at River Oaks Country Club. The group posed a series of questions to candidates Chris Bell, Marty McVey, Sylvester Turner, Stephen Costello, Adrian Garcia, Ben Hall and Bill King. The size of the panel required that each question go to only a few of the candidates, but attendees had the opportunity to address concerns about specific housing and program issues in the city and get a flavor for the positions of the candidates.
••• Martha Turner Sotheby’s International agent Andrea Bauer started her equestrian endeavors riding Hunters and Jumpers at the Houston Polo Club when she was 8 years old. “I rode competitively until I was 18, then had to stop to go to college,” she said. “At that time they did not have any equestrian organiza- tions at colleges in Texas, as they do now.”
Three years ago, Bauer decided to return to her “greatest passion” and went back to the Polo Club to ride under the direction of instructor Merrily Quincoces. “I competed in my first horse show in November,” Bauer said. “I was very nervous, but we did pretty good.” Bauer recently competed again at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy at the Spring Flower show and with her mount won the championship of their division. She rode Patisa, who belongs to Quincoces.
The best part, according to Bauer was that her mother “who always attended every one of my horse shows when I was growing up” was there along with Bauer’s two sons to cheer her on.
••• It’s good to be John Daugherty’s Vicki Lehner, who kicked off her summer with a private concert featuring flaming-tressed, blues goddess Bonnie Raitt as part of the Music with Friends series at Zilkha Hall. Within days of the event, Lehner was on to Napa Valley, to enjoy the fourth annual Napa Valley
Jazz Getaway hosted by pianist Brian Culbertson and featuring dozens of artists including Al Jarreau and Chaka Khan. The nine-day event featured 50 wineries, private estates, special dinners and brunches and private concerts at each winery.
••• Jobe Ganganan, who worked as enforcement attorney advisor for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the bureau in charge of the new changes to closing procedures and documents coming into law — came to Texas as the guest of Champions School of Real Estate to share details of the many changes that will be effective Oct. 1. Ganganan gave a two-hour detailed outline of the changes to four audiences within two days at Champions School of Real Estate in Dallas and Houston last week. Any loan or real estate company which would like the video of the seminar is invited to contact Kendra@ChampionsSchool.com.
••• Your columnist left the heavy rains of Houston a couple of weeks ago for … the heavy rains of Western New York. Even the annual flock of cottage ducks are looking for high ground these days.