Month: January 2008

Google is opening shop in a Downtown Austin historical building. This is great news for Downtown Austin in many ways, not the least of which is the positive buzz created by Google’s move. Google brings with it a certain degree of “brand” buzz that will surely attract even more tech companies to downtown Austin.

There are many great quotes and comments from the article below, but one of my favorites is this:
“High-tech recruiters said Austin is a natural fit for Google, which has nearly doubled its work force every year for the past four years and now has about 12,200 employees worldwide. In addition to the specific technical skills that match Google’s personnel needs, Austin’s youthful, freewheeling attitude that encourages risk-taking makes it a good cultural fit, said Kim Butler of Greywolf Consulting Services Inc.”

Austin continues to attract new and existing companies. This is one of the important factors when considering which direction our real estate market will head in the long term. Welcome Google!

Full article from today’s Austin Statesman below.

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, January 24, 2008

Google is headed to downtown Austin.

The Internet search leader has leased the second floor of the historical Scarbrough Building for an engineering center, said Office Leasing Advisors Inc., the Austin firm that represented Google Inc. in the deal.

Google will occupy 25,000 square feet of the art-deco-style building at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, Office Leasing said.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google did not respond to inquiries about the Austin office.

In recent months, Google has posted Internet job listings for an engineering director in Austin to head up a group of 100 or more engineers. It also has posted listings seeking software engineers in Austin. The Scarbrough office could hold 125 to 150 people, according to real estate brokers.

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I’ve been showing and previewing a lot of property lately – probably more than a hundred homes in the past week. After showing a home and syncing the MLS key each night, the lockbox owners (listing agents) are notified electronically that the lockbox was opened by my key. This normally results in what we call “feedback requests” from other agents. Typically, they will email or call and ask for feedback on the listing.

The other day I received a call from someone asking for feedback on a home. I asked if she was the listing agent, and she said “no, this is the owner”. She was calling from the card I left inside the property (which I always leave in occupied homes so they know that I have been inside).

This is rare, but not unusual. I said simply “I’ll be happy to provide feedback to your agent”. She said, “can you just tell me what you thought and if your buyer is interested?” Again, I said “I’ll be happy to do that if your agent calls me”. After a couple of more tries, she seemed frustrated but finally gave gave up.

Why not tell her directly that they’ve made way too many trips to Home Depot, over decorated the home, screwed up the balance of the home by installing really nice expensive granite counters but also the cheapest pergo flooring (lousy do-it-yourself job to boot), have too many different colors in the house, dog odor in the back room, too many pictures on the walls, and the home is over-priced?

Well, it’s just not a good idea to be saying those things directly to a seller. That’s the listing agent’s job, and the listing agent shouldn’t require my analysis to come to the same conclusion, though I’m happy to offer it. It’s always best to have all communication go through the agents.

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The story below is from tomorrow’s Sunday Austin Statesman. It’s a pretty good overview of the optimism many hold for East Austin’s continued boom. I’ve stayed out of East Austin not because it doesn’t hold promise, but because rehabbing and flipping properties is a specialized and riskier form of investing, and we tend to take a more conservative approach.

Also, once one establishes a set of investment rules that work well, it takes resolve to stick with your criteria, but I believe it’s important to do so. East Austin has terrible schools, street drugs, prostitution and higher crime. It also has many asthetically displeasing aspects (it’s ugly) including many large welfare housing projects scatter about that won’t be going away any time soon. It just ain’t my cup of tea at this stage of my investing life.

That said, if I was 23 and single, as I was when I arrived in Austin in 1985, I would definately be drawn to the vibe and energy of East Austin and could see myself living there. But I don’t see soccer moms jogging with baby strollers through the East side, and that’s one of the barameters I currently look for in choosing an area to invest in.

But I thought this was a good article worth sharing.

Buyers take a fresh look at new and remodeled homes just across I-35 from downtown
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, January 13, 2008

The numbers will probably surprise anyone who hasn’t ventured east of Interstate 35 lately. The 78702 ZIP code in East Austin currently has more than 150 properties for sale, and they’re just as eclectic as the artists who live in that part of the city.

A slew of modernist homes and condominiums are going for $400,000 to $600,000 or more. Remodeled homes are listed for up to $675,000. And four lots at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Harvey Street are on the market for $1.8 million.

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I’ve been out showing homes the past couple of days and once again I observe something that astounds me. Sellers who obstruct the showing of their homes for trivial and dumb reasons.

For those not aware of how showings work in Austin, most MLS listings have the agent showing instructions “Call and Go”, which means if I want to show your home, I’ll call ahead and leave a message, or if you answer, I’ll provide a window of an hour or two of when I’m coming, normally with at least 1 hour notice.

Often sellers call back and want to rearrange the time, or they answer and say that today isn’t a good day. Sometimes it’s not a problem to move their home back or forward a couple of houses on the list. Other times it simply isn’t possible due to routing and timing reasons.

Among the interesting reasons I’ve heard from Sellers the last two days…

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