April 2006

Tight Austin Real Estate Market Causing Frustration for Buyers

April 27, 2006

We’ve had several deals in the past few days, both on the listing and selling side, in which multiple offers have caused consternation for Buyers who were bumped off of almost-done deals by newer offers. The problem arises when the Buyer believes the Seller has accepted their offer, when in fact, the Seller has simply [...]

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About Blogging – Thanks to Tom at 4WebResults.com

April 26, 2006

It’s been 10 months since I started writing blog articles on this website, and it’s been about 3 years since my good friend Tom Parish told me I should start a blog. I’m sort of stubborn, so it took me a while. Tom’s a Website Promotion and Internet Marketing Consultant. He helps people make their [...]

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Greedy Florida Realtor Serving Himself, Not His Clients

April 26, 2006

I had an interesting call today from a Coldwell Banker Realtor in Florida. He spoke to Sylvia yesterday and told her that he has a group of Florida investor buyers that want to come out to Austin in May and buy a bunch of rental homes. He’s trying to get them set up with a [...]

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Austin job market on fire

April 26, 2006

Austin’s job market is providing plenty of fuel to the real estate market. When people ask us “what is causing the Austin Real Estate market to be so strong?”, a big factor is job creation. See the article below from the Austin Business Journal. Austin’s job market is one of the hottest in the country, [...]

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Texas Property Tax ‘Reform’ – Where’s the Beef?

April 20, 2006

As the first week of the Texas Legislative Special Session winds down, and I read and watch the news stories, I’m under-whelmed. By most accounts, this court-ordered effort to change the way Texas funds public schools will be a success if Governor Perry’s plan passes, which will reduce the Property Tax rate by $0.50. What [...]

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Austin Market Rental Update – Home rents still falling

April 20, 2006

The number of single family homes rented in March 2006 increased a whopping 65% over March 2005. 633 Single Family Homes were leased through the Austin MLS Leasing service this March compared to 382 units in March of last year. This impressive increase in absorption is surpassed however by the even greater increase in supply. [...]

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Austin Real Estate sales surge 18 percent in March

April 20, 2006

Here is another article (see below) from today’s Austin Statesman. It reflects what Sylvia and I have been experiencing – we’re having a harder time finding good clean homes for our buyers. The best homes that are priced right go fast and sometimes it takes a few lost deals before a buyer builds enough trust [...]

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Average Austin (Travis County) home appraisal to balloon 16 percent

April 20, 2006

Today’s Austin Statesman reports that average appraised home values for Austin Travis County will increase 16% over 2005. “Many Travis County property owners could get sticker shock when they open their 2006 property appraisal notices, which are starting to hit mailboxes this week. Preliminary numbers from the district show the average market value of a [...]

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More Local Real Estate Scam Stories

April 13, 2006

Today’s Austin Statesman front page has a story about a woman being arrested for taking real estate purchase deposits from people for houses she did not own or represent. The article says the lady would put up signs in front of vacant houses and on telephone poles in Hays county (South of Austin), and this [...]

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Has Real Estate Become a Technology Profession?

April 12, 2006

Sometimes, on days when technology creates more problems than solutions – which is often, I wistfully wonder how sweet it must have been to be a Realtor in the 1970′s. No pagers, cell phones, computers, printers, pda’s, faxes, internet, gps mapping – not even voicemail. It’s 2006 already, and as I try to piece together [...]

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