September 2008

How to Evaluate a Texas Real Estate Offer

September 29, 2008

I recently did a walk-through on a property that was closing with our buyer the next day. The contract stated in Special Provisions paragraph 11: “home and carpet to be professionally cleaned prior to closing date”. Upon viewing the property, the sellers had not completed the carpet cleaning. The seller was at the home removing [...]

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Texas Economist Dotzour’s Take On Proposed Bailout

September 28, 2008

Below is the Texas A and M Real Estate Center Mark Doutzour’s take on the financial bailout. As usualy, he puts everything into a nutshell quite well. COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – As negotiations continue over the proposed $700 billion bailout of the nation’s financial system, Dr. Mark Dotzour, chief economist for the Real [...]

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View Austin Real Estate Listings from your iPhone

September 28, 2008

Realtor.com has a nice iPhone specific url that allows you to view real estate listings from your iPhone. I’m not sure what percentage of U.S. listings are fed into Realtor.com, but I would be suprised if it isn’t most of the major metro area MLS listings. And they are all at your finger tips with [...]

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Austin Sales Market Update for August 2008

September 23, 2008

The average sales price for houses in Austin in August 2008 remained about level, decreasing slightly (-1.96%) to $259,500, down from $264,695 a year ago. Median sold price rose slightly (+2.05%) to $199,000. The number of failed sales efforts, or “Not Solds”, (expired or withdrawn) was 46% for August, up from 41% last month and [...]

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What is Your Debt Share of $700B Bailout?

September 23, 2008

As the U.S. government debates a $700 Billion bailout for the financial industry, what does that mean for you and me, and our kids? One summary I saw broke it down like this: About $2,300 per American About $6,000 per U.S. household The tally for all the various rescue measures launched by U.S. authorities this [...]

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Dotzour’s Take on Mortgage Solutions

September 18, 2008

My favorite economist, Mark Dotzour from the Texas A and M Real Estate Research Center in College Station has some thoughts on the mortgage mess. DOTZOUR: STEP ONE, RECHARTER FRANNIE COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – As long as the federal government continues to indicate they are willing to redraw the promises contained in mortgage [...]

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Austin Continues to be Economic Top Performer Nationwide

September 17, 2008

The Austin Metro area ranks 4th among the country’s largest metropolitan areas on the Milken Institute and Greenstreet Real Estate Partners’ 2008 Best Performing Cities list. Texas as a whole did well, with Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Killeen, and McAllen joining Austin in the top 25 of large metro areas. The top “small metro” area [...]

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Mortgage Rates Drop Below 6%

September 12, 2008

Loan rates are back in the 5%s and may keep falling. I’m not sure if this will create any notable demand increases in Austin, but buyers and investors do at least perk up when rates drop below 6%. On the downside, the “number of loans” limit recently fell from 10 to 4, meaning if you [...]

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Cheaper Austin Homes Staged Better than Higher Priced Homes

September 7, 2008

I’ve been previewing and showing homes in a variety of price ranges and areas of Austin lately. Would you believe currently that homes in the $150K price range in Cedar Park and Leander are staged better and show better than homes $300K-$400K Circle C and SW Austin? Well, that’s what I’m seeing the past couple of [...]

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Real Estate Repair Negotiations – What is Reasonable?

September 4, 2008

I continue to be amazed at the number of agents who cannot grasp a simple concept when it comes to repair negotiations and who respond to reasonable, normal requests as if the sky is falling. My concept of reasonable is, in a nutshell, what would an ordinary buyer and seller consider reasonable, and what is [...]

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