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The Crossland Team
Sylvia Crossland, Broker Steve Crossland, MPM (512) 301-5811 |
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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 reveals that if ABOR wishes to strictly enforce this new rule, and assess $100 fines to its members for mentioning “MLS search” on websites, it could be a new profit center for the association. There are still plenty of websites using this terminology (Not mine, I’ve removed the offending language since I don’t like paying fines). Am I the only one who finds this absurd?
The rationale for this new rule is that consumers will mistakenly think they are connected to the actual MLS when viewing listings via web portals, which are in fact MLS feeds of most listings found in the MLS, with certain bits of data (such as days on Market) removed. The official justification offered by abor.com is as follows:
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 service representation and agent experience can indeed have significant impacts.
The short of it is, homes listed by Discount Brokers sold for 1.7% less than exclusive-right-to-sell listings, and took 17.1% longer to sell. Given that the typical discount offered by Discount Brokers is 2%, and adding for the holding cost of additional selling time, there does not appear to be any net gain to sellers using limited service representation. The article is printed below in its entirety, or you can see it online here.
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. A combination of positive job growth, low interest rates, and rising home prices in almost all Texas markets provided the fuel to keep the fires burning. Next year should bring more of the same. New housing starts should follow suit, possibly setting a record pace again in 2006.
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 home in area SW already priced on the leading edge of the pricing curve received a total of 4 offers, 3 of which were above the asking price. Hang on … Austin has awoken up from its 4 year real estate slumber, but in 2006 it’s getting ready to stand up and run!
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 hall bath (the master bath had just a sink and commode). We lived there until I was 19 and my brother 16, so it wasn’t just a growing family living in this size space, it was a married couple with two 6 foot tall sons.
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 jobs from the end of 2000 through the close of 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as high-powered tech employers such as Dell Inc. slashed payrolls and some smaller Internet start-ups fizzled. The tech bust also left one downtown office building abandoned midconstruction and put the local housing market on the sidelines during the residential boom.
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. At about 9:00 AM I started calling occupied properties to let the owners know the approximate time I’d be showing up with my buyer, based on the route I had mapped out.
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 market. As jobs drained from the Austin economy in 2001/2002, and office space emptied, so followed the flat-lining of the Austin real estate market. Employment activity and the occupancy rate of commercial space have a direct impact on home sales and rental activity. The people who work and occupy office space in Austin also buy and rent homes. The two work hand in hand.
The affordability of homes and the quality of lifestyle in Austin help attract employers to our city. That growth in turn fuels the economy and the housing market. As we are officially in a seller’s market now in Austin (in price ranges below $400,000), the return of a healthy commercial real estate market is just one of many positive indicators that we are entering another growth cycle.
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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, residential sales are brisk, home prices are rising, and the multi-family rental market is improving.
There are not yet enough Austin renters to lease all of the homes being made available by out-of-state investors. It remains a renter’s market for single family homes in Austin. I believe a turnaround will come, but it didn’t happen in 2005. As I tell every new real estate investor I meet, you’re not buying in Austin for cash flow unless you have at least 20% cash downpayment (and even 20% might barely get you break-even before vacancy loss and repairs). Instead, you are anticipating healthy value appreciation in the Austin real estate market during the next 5 to 10 years as Austin goes through our next growth cycle.
Let’s look at some leasing statistics below from the Austin MLS.
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