January 2009

Should Buyers be required to guarantee a timely close?

January 31, 2009

One of the most frustrating events that can happen in a real estate transaction is a delayed closing. Frequently, there is a domino effect that is launched when a closing is delayed. Though each party is responsible for their own contingency plans in the event of a delayed or busted deal, I’ve seen delayed closings [...]

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The Real Estate Agent of the Future

January 27, 2009

This news article came into my email today, about the “Real Estate Agent of the Future”. Like a lot of the drivel fed to Realtors, this story is a jargon-filled write-up of nothingness, but it did get me thinking about how much things actually do stay the same, with regard to relationships, no matter the [...]

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Austin Rental Market Update for 2008

January 23, 2009

The rental market for single family homes in Austin continues its march upward. Rent prices increased about 6% in 2008 over 2007. Remember though that the 2008 average rent amount of $1,424 per month in Austin is still less than the year 2000 average rent of $1,497/mo. and the year 2001 peak of $1,524/mo. The [...]

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Black Friday for the Crossland Team

January 17, 2009

Yesterday was not a good day for the Crossland Team. In our office Sylvia and I have a whiteboard mounted on the wall where we write our listings and our pending closings. After yesterday’s closing, we have no more pending sales written on our board. We have listings, but the showings are slow and we [...]

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Nuwire Investor’s interview with me and Sam Chapman

January 16, 2009

A Nuwire Investor reporter interviewed me recently about the Austin real estate market. Me and Sam Chapman (another Austin KW agent and blogger) were quoted heavily in the article. Nuwire Investor focuses mainly on alternative investments. On their website, they describe an alternative investment as “any investment that falls outside the realm of traditional stocks, [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Update – Dec 2008 and Year End

January 14, 2009

The Austin real estate market for December 2008 ended better than I predicted. The Austin market held up well throughout 2008, all things considered, and within the context of the national economic climate and the fierce headwinds created by fear and negative consumer sentiment. Before we get into the December stats, the YTD stats and [...]

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The Increasing Uselessness of the American Tradesman

January 8, 2009

I’ve been using repairmen and vendors to repair rental and rehab properties in Austin for almost 20 years. It is with increasing disappointment I must report that the percentage of useless dimwits is increasing. Most recently I’ve spent a great deal of time facilitating “do-overs”, or return calls to properties to fix things that were [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Outlook for 2009

January 7, 2009

Well, 2008 is behind us and it seems like every Realtor in Austin except me and Sylvia are saying “good riddance”. For reasons I won’t fully go into in this blog post, Sylvia and I actually did better in 2008 than in 2007, by almost every measure. It was another record year for us, which [...]

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