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The Crossland Team
Sylvia Crossland, Broker Steve Crossland, MPM (512) 301-5811 |
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Featured Listings
How does your Austin lawn look in the 100+ degree drought?
July 4, 2009
We just had 12 days of 100+ degree heat in June 2009 in Austin, and we’re in the middle of a severe drought. As I drive around, showing and previewing homes in Austin, I see a lot of brown lawns. Even well watered lawns are suffering with brown spots, fungus, sun burn, thatching, grub worms, etc. This is just how it goes in a hot Austin summer. Most people know and understand this.
So imagine the shock and surprise that Sylvia and I recently experienced when the lawn shown in the slide show below, from one of our recent listings, was declared to be “dead” in numerous spots by an ultra picky buyer who, along with assistance from their Realtor, successfully extracted $650 from me and Sylvia under the threat that our seller would be sued otherwise. The amount demanded was purportedly so they could replace a pallet and a half of what they claimed was “dead” grass. The slideshow below was taken the morning of closing. You be the judge as to the condition of the yard being delivered to the buyers on closing day. If you just bought this home and drove up to move in on a 100 degree day, would you be upset and would you threaten to sue the seller for neglecting the yard?
A pallet of grass covers 400 square feet of lawn, so a pallet and a half is 600 square feet of dead grass that you’d need to observe in these photos in order to agree with the amount of grass in question. That would be roughly ten 6ftx10ft areas of “dead grass”, or six 10ftx10ft areas ( 6 bedroom size areas). Do you see 600 sqft of grass that’s even brown in color, much less dead?
Yes there are some brown areas, but they are not dead. No competent landscaper would claim that this yard suffers from 600 square feet of dead grass. Yet the buyer’s and their agent were able to obtain two bids from landscapers for about $650 each for the replacement of 600 square feet of dead grass. I’m wondering if either of the landscapers actually visited the property. I showed my landscaper these photos and he laughed out loud and said “I wish half my yards looked that good”. Unequivocally he said he would not recommend replacement of any of this yard, that it was all normal for what he is seeing all over Austin and that they are fighting this battle on most of the yards they service.
Why didn’t we just say “no thanks, the grass looks fine and normal. It looks in fact exactly like the other yards in the neighborhood, if not better”.
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How to Handle Tenant Deposit Disputes
June 29, 2009
As a green, freshly minted apartment landlord with zero property management experience in 1990, I one day received an abrupt and stark introduction to the world of security deposit disputes. This occurred roughly three days after mailing my first deposit accounting to a departed tenant, from which damage deductions had been assessed.
The tenant response was a phone call of raw anger, yelling, threats, accusations of dishonesty, and some colorful language. I responded to this verbal assault with relative calm, given that I was caught completely off guard and at first, literally wondering if the tenant was joking, so ridiculous were the protestations.
I muttered short statements of fact in between the barrages of verbal hostility.
“We found fish tank rocks in the disposal and it had to be replaced”.
“Your dog left pee stains on the carpet and those had to be removed”.
“Someone punched two holes in the back bedroom door and the door had to be replaced”.
These, in my mind, were indisputable facts, not matters of subjective pettiness. I really couldn’t even believe the conversation was happening. Little did I know about the interesting psychology and visceral anger that deposit deductions evoke in some tenants.
The closest I can get to understanding is the jolt of anger I feel when I get nailed with a $2 late fee at Blockbuster. It’s rather curious. I know I was late. It was my fault. I did it. I remember dropping the movie in the slot at 10PM the week before, knowing I would get a late fee.
Yet, while standing there in front of the cashier, paying for a new movie and being told I owe $2 late fee for the previous movie, I feel an almost uncontrolable urge to argue about it, to demand to know “which movie” it was (even though I already know). When was it due. And to say how stupid the fees are and how it was better the old way when there were no late fees.
Lucky for me, the person in line ahead of me already made a complete ass of themselves doing all of the aforementioned, and holding up the line in the process, so I control myself and make no mention of it other than to say “ok” when the cashier asks if I want to pay the late fee now.
But it nevertheless is a curious feeling that defies logic. The notion of feeling victimized and abused for being held accountable for not keeping an agreement for which I had full and complete control, but nonetheless did not perform as required.
So, if a perfectly sane person such as myself, who believes 100% in personal responsibility and accountability, and who tries to live his life in accordance with those principles, can feel an emotional jolt of anger over a $2 late fee at Blockbuster, I can only guess that a tenant opening up a deposit refund statement might possibly feel something as strong or stronger upon seeing hundreds of dollars in deposit deductions, no matter how justified and no matter how much they may have been expecting the outcome.
So, my point in opening up with all of this is simply that, as landlords, it should come as no surprise when we receive angry protest from a former tenant who wants to argue over deductions that were made from the security deposit. I view it almost as a sort of temporarily insanity that comes over the tenant, and I don’t take it personally.
And, as a landlord, knowing that this situation is more likely than not, no matter how careful and fair you thought you were being in assessing damage deductions, you should have a clear and pre-established set of steps to follow when dealing with such disputes.
Step 1 – Set Expectations in Writing
I won’t cover the entire topic here, but in a previous blog article I wrote entitled “Why I Never Do Move-out Walk-throughs with Departing Tenants“, you’ll find a move-out instructions letter that I send to all departing tenants explaining what must happen if they wish to avoid deposit deductions. Feel free to borrow from mine or make your own, but have something that you send to tenants upon receiving a notice to vacate. This helps the tenant understand what needs to happen, and it serves as the first in several simple steps that protect you legally and make it more difficult for a tenant to paint you as an unreasonable landlord out to rip people off.
I am NOT Austin’s Coolest Dad Apparently
June 24, 2009
A mere two days after Father’s Day my 13 year old daughter informed me that, although I’m a really good Dad, I’m not the coolest. She was having a sleepover last night and, again, the issue of when “lights out” shall occur came up.
She begged me “please Daddy, don’t come in and make us go to sleep at midnight. That’s so embarrassing! Nobody else’s parents make us do that”. She wants to be allowed to stay up as long as they want, which on occasion I’m told has extended at other parent’s houses till 5AM when the last kid falls asleep.
“Really?’, I said incredulously. “They just let you stay up all night”. “Yes”, she said. “I don’t believe you”, I said. “I think the other parents just fall asleep and you stay up later than they want”.
Then she told me the tale of the “coolest” Dad ever. While sleeping over at another friends house, the girls were still up at 1AM playing cards and were hungry. Her friend’s Dad then drove to a Wendy’s at, 1AM, and returned with cheeseburgers and frys, which the girls consumed with delight sitting around the breakfast table.
“Wow”, I said. I needed a moment to digest that. I thought to myself “that’s rediculous ridiculous … and pretty cool”. How can I compete with that?
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I Need to Get Stupider so my Website will rank Higher
June 19, 2009
I’ve been doing some housekeeping lately on the Crossland Team website. This involves looking at website stats to see how people find us, re-evauating page titles and other “on page” aspects of search engine optimization, as well as “off site” aspects such as where our inbound links come from and how many we have, and looking at website visitor habits, such as which pages are read the most.
I also ran the website through the Website Grader by Hubspot, which provides a website “grade” along with a list of detailed analysis and suggestions for improvement. Take a look. The CrosslandTeam.com grade is 96.3 (out of 100), which is pretty good, but there are things I can do that will supposedly improve our search engine ranking.
The most interesting possible improvement is this:
E. Readability Level: Advanced / Doctoral Degree
This score measures the approximate level of education necessary to read and understand the web page content. In most cases, the content should be made to be simple so that a majority of the target audience can understand it.
Translation: I need to dumb down the writing on this website! It’s too hard to read according to the Website Grader.
Austin Real Estate Market Update – May 2009 Stats
June 18, 2009
The Austin real estate market continues to chug along in a manner that would be considered unimpressive if not for the fact that it was expected to be doing so much worse by so many. Average sold prices are down about 3.5% and the Median is down about 2.25%. We’ll take take that. I’m not complaining.
| Austin Real Estate Sales Market Update May 2009 | ||||
| Houses only (condos, duplexes, etc. not included) compiled from Austin MLS data | ||||
| Apr 2009 | May 2009 | May 2008 | Yr % Change | |
| # Sold | 1522 | 1610 | 2060 | -21.84% |
| Avg List | $245,130 | $268,001 | $274,380 | -2.32% |
| Med List | $198,170 | $199,970 | $203,037 | -1.51% |
| Avg Sold | $234,444 | $256,603 | $265,878 | -3.49% |
| Med Sold | $190,000 | $195,250 | $199,788 | -2.27% |
| Sold/List % | 95.64% | 95.75% | 96.90% | -1.19% |
| Avg SQFT | 2136 | 2208 | 2154 | 2.51% |
| Med SQFT | 1950 | 1989 | 1945 | 2.26% |
| Avg $ SQFT | $109.76 | $116.22 | $123.43 | -5.85% |
| Avg DOM | 74 | 75 | 61 | 22.95% |
| Median DOM | 44 | 43 | 36 | 19.44% |
| # Expired | 391 | 383 | 516 | -25.78% |
| # Withdrawn | 648 | 590 | 598 | -1.34% |
| Not Sold | 1039 | 973 | 1114 | -12.66% |
| Not Sold % | 40.57% | 37.67% | 35.10% | 7.33% |
One interesting thing to note is that the “Not Solds” have dipped down to 38%, barely higher than the 35% for the same month last year. This is the first time the Pending/Withdrawn listings (not solds) have been less than 40% of the total departing Austin MLS listings since June 2008, when they represented 37% of the departing listings. We hit 61% in Jan 2009 and 62% in Nov 2008, which meant a lot of sales efforts were ending in failure last fall and winter, but things have improved a lot since then.
Personally, Sylvia and I have 6 closings this month and we are really, really busy. It’s starting to feel like 2006/2007, but the numbers don’t look like 2006/2007. We’re running really fast on our hamster wheel, but putting together transactions that stick is as hard as ever.
Below is the Year to Date (YTD) chart for Austin, followed by several other charts and graphs that will bring you up to date on current conditions in the Austin real estate market.
Austin MLS Now Allows 25 Photos – Too Many?
June 6, 2009
Our Austin MLS system now allows up to 25 photos to be included with each Austin MLS listing. That’s too many, I dare say. Sometimes I have a hard time even coming up with 12 (the previous limit) photos that are MLS-worthy to include with a listing.
Not that twenty-five Austin MLS photos won’t be appreciated by some listing surfers, but I predict we’re going to end up with a whole lot of crappy photos saying “3rd bedroom” and showing a vanilla wall with a window. Or we’ll start seeing a photo of the doggie door, or the mailbox, or, one of my favorites “front door”, as agents stretch to find additional shots to fill the bucket with all 25 photos.
How many areas of interest are there in a home anyway? We have the kitchen, living(s), dining(s), baths, bedrooms, exterior front and back and … uhh … let’s see, I guess that’s about it.
That would cover 12 shots in a standard 3 bedroom home with 2 living areas, 2 dining and 2 baths. What shall we serve up for the additional 13 photos? We’ll also be seeing a lot of photos that say “another view of kitchen”, which I actually do sometimes already when I’ve run out of interesting or worthy shots. I guess that’s ok. But come on.
An aside: Does doubling the number of MLS photos have any affect on our carbon footprint? Just wondering. I’ll bet it does in various secondary ways. That’s gonna have to use up a lot of extra hard disk space and bandwidth. But I digress.
But here’s the thing. As a buyer surfing Austin real estate listings online, you can only ascertain so much about a property from photos.
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Why I Never Do Move-out Walk-throughs with Departing Tenants
May 27, 2009
I recently had a tenant express frustration over the fact that I wouldn’t come meet him to conduct a final move-out walk-through at the rental property. I’ve been moving tenants in and out of rental property in Austin since 1990, and I’ve learned a few lessons in doing so. One is that there is no upside for a landlord in conducting a final walk-through with a tenant. Only bad outcomes can occur.
Namely, the tenant is going to want you to affirm or state that everything looks “ok” and that they’ll get all of their deposit back. Nowhere in Texas Property Code is this sort of “instant accounting” required. You’d be a fool to agree to say something like that, because a lot of possible damage is not discernible on a cursory walk-through.
Just a few examples off the top of my head are flaes that haven’t hatched yet, carpet stains that were scrubbed invisible that morning but will re-appear tomorrow, the dirty A/C filter your HVAC guy could find sucked up into air intake cavity (as I encountered last month), pet odors that are masked at walk-through but which return in a couple of days, the cat hair blanketing the refrigerator coil, and a long list of other possibilities.
Therefore, even if I wanted to, even if the place appeared to be in great condition with no visible problems, there is nothing I could or would say to a tenant with regard to whether the home “passes” inspection or not. The reason the tenant wants the walk-through – to receive assurances – simply can’t and won’t be provided.
And then, as I learned in the old days when I thought it made sense to do a move-out walk through, an argument ensues. So I just don’t go there anymore.
To better and more fully see my position, there are a few things one must understand.
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Shameless Plea for Votes for Crossland Team Blog
May 26, 2009
The Texas A&M University Real Estate Center wants to know about favorite Real Estate Blogs in Texas. Here is their request in today’s email newsletter, the RECON (Real Estate Center Online).
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BLOG?
COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – A recent survey by the National Association of Realtors shows that a growing number of real estate professionals are incorporating online social networking tools into their daily business operations (see story in this issue).That includes blogging.
The Real Estate Center would like you to send us the names and web addresses of blogs you find most useful. Please limit these to blogs covering primarily Texas real estate markets.
Send your recommendations to Associate Editor Bryan Pope. We’ll compile the responses and post the results in an upcoming issue of RECON.
Though admittedly self serving, if the Crossland Blog is in fact your favorite Texas real estate blog, and you find it useful, this is a chance for you to help me and Sylvia. If we get enough votes, hopefully we’ll be featured in a future issue of RECON, which will drive more traffic to our website, and aid in our continued success.
At present, we have 1,124 feed subscribers to our feedburner feed and receive over 10,000 unique visitors per month to the blog. I put a lot of time and effort into the Austin Real Estate Blog, especially the monthly Austin Real Estate stats updates. I’ve been publishing this drivel since July 2005 – almost 4 years now and over 500 blog articles.
So, (final shameless plea), if you can honestly say that the Crossland Real Estate Blog is your favorite Texas Real Estate Blog, I would most humbly appreciate your assistance in making that known.
Vote by emailing TAMU Real Estate Center Online Associate Editor Bryan Pope at bpope at mays dot tamu dot edu (or click here) and telling him you vote for the Crossland Team Blog at www.CrosslandTeam.com/blog.
Thanks!
Steve
Zillow Home Prices Remain a Joke for Austin TX
May 26, 2009
I just received this news flash via email from Zillow:
Home values in Austin increased 8.7%
According to the latest Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, home values in Austin increased 8.7% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the first quarter of 2008. Nationally, home values decreased 14.2% during this same period.
Uh, sorry Zillow, but that ain’t right. The algorithms or data is being used to produce that conclusion need to be re-examined. Let’s look at some stats for Austin and surrounding areas.
Q1 2008 vs. Q1 2009
City of Austin Sales
Zillow says: Sales prices are up 8.7%
Austin MLS says: Sales prices are down 0.65%
City of Cedar Park
Zillow says: Sales prices are up 2.5%
Austin MLS says: Sales prices are down 3.9%
City of Pflugerville
Zillow says: Sales prices are up 11.5%
Austin MLS says: Sales prices are down 3.76%
You can see where this is heading. Never has it been easier for so many real estate consumers to be so misinformed about the real estate market. Don’t believe news headlines quoting any of these internet sites about values.
Shame on Zillow and these other valuation websites for getting it so wrong. What’s even sadder is that I saw in a listing the other day a Realtor comment “priced $20K below Zillow value”. Huh?
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What if Owning a Home was Like Owning Quicken Software?
May 24, 2009
I opened up my Quicken 2006 Software today to catch up on reconciling some bank statements, and downloading credit card charges and stock account info. I was greeted with this message:
After April 30, you will no longer be able to access the following through Quicken 2006:
- Downloads of your bank, credit card, credit union, or investment account transactions.
- Online bill pay activity, stock quotations, news headlines and technical support.How you can stay connected:
To continue using online services, you need to upgrade to Quicken 2009….Click the “Buy Now” button and follow the online prompts.
In other words, the Quicken software I purchased and own has expired. I must either decide to make due with a crippled version with which I must now hand enter all my transactions, or succumb to the extortion known in the software industry as the “forced upgrade”.
What if our future homes work this way? In 20 years everything will be computerized in new homes. What if one day, on the third anniversary of purchasing your new home, you pull into the driveway, activate your garage door remote, and a sweet female voice comes on through your on-board auto/home information system informing you.
After April 30, you will no longer be able to access the following features and functionality of your home:
- Garage door remote operation.
- Automatic sprinkler system.
- Central air and Heat system.
- Commode in the guest bath.
- Hot water.How you can continue using the features and functionality of your home:
To continue using your home comfort features, you need to upgrade to Home Convenience Package 2030.1.b. Press the $ button on your control panel and an operator will be happy to take your credit card information and reinstate the desired features of your home.
I can imagine the screaming in the house from upstairs: “Dad, there’s no hot water and the toilet won’t flush”. And Dad will turn to wife, “For crying out loud Marge, I thought you were going to call and upgrade to the Premium Plumbing 8.0 Hot and Happy service package!”.
Then of course, with that new package you’ll be forced to get rid of your 3 year old water heater and purchase a new, more efficient model, even though the old one still works just fine.
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