January 2006

Dumb Rules Realtors Have to Live By – Now we can’t say “MLS”

January 31, 2006

Starting tomorrow, Feb 1st, the Austin Board of Realtors will start assessing fines to agents who use the phrase “search Austin MLS” or anything similar on websites. This is another example of what I consider to be poor leadership and shortsighted thinking in our industry, and by Realtor Associations in particular. A quick Google search [...]

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Do Discount Brokers Save Sellers Money?

January 30, 2006

The January 2006 issue of Tierra Grande Magazine features an article that examines two questions: 1) How does limited service representation affect a property’s time on the market and selling price? and 2) Do agent experience and licensing level make a difference? This research sponsored by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University revealed that limited [...]

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2006 Texas Real Estate Outlook

January 26, 2006

Mark Dotzour, Ph.D., is chief economist and Jim Gaines, Ph.D., is research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. Below is their outlook for Texas Real Estate in 2006. You can also read this at TexasRealtors.com The Texas housing market continued to be strong in 2005 just like we thought it would. [...]

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Austin TX Home Sales Set Record in 2005

January 24, 2006

The article below is from the Austin Statesman. It outlines the kind of real estate market we are seeing now in Austin. Sylvia and I wrote 9 offers for buyers in the past 8 days. Only 4 were accepted – the rest were kicked out by better offers. An offer we wrote yesterday on a [...]

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Average New Home Size Keeps Getting Bigger

January 22, 2006

The average U.S. new home built in 2005 reached a record 2412 square feet according to the National Association of Home Builders. I grew up in San Diego California with my Mom and Dad and one brother in a 900 square foot home. It was a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home. We had 1 shower in the [...]

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Austin in the Wall Street Journal

January 20, 2006

Austin Real-Estate Market Rebounds On Steady Population and Job Growth Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal Online. As Austin’s economy has ramped up again, the region’s promising growth and largely down-home property prices have attracted some of the real-estate industry’s biggest guns. The rebound comes after the Texas capital lost about 31,000 [...]

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Restricted Showing Access Hurts Sales Effort

January 18, 2006

Recently I sat scratching my head wondering why some Austin real estate sellers make it difficult to show their homes. On this particular day, I was scheduled to pick up a Buyer at a hotel at 10:30 AM. We were going to be looking at homes from about 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM that day. [...]

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Office vacancy rate drops in Austin

January 18, 2006

The article below is from the Austin Business Journal. I want to comment on it. When people ask me “how do you know Austin real estate is going to do well in the coming years?”, the answer necessarily includes a list of things. One of the most important pieces of information is the rebound of the office [...]

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Austin TX Rental Market 2005 Summary

January 2, 2006

The rental Market for Single family homes in Austin continued it’s trend of the past 4 to 5 years of over-all declining rents, lower rents per square foot rates, and increased days on market. The rental market for single family homes in Austin continues to be over-supplied even as the Austin economy is doing well, [...]

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