2012

Adjusting to a Crazy Austin Real Estate Market May 2012

May 2, 2012

I just did something for which I am, on one level, ashamed. I entered a sales listing into the Austin MLS that is not properly cleaned, prepared, staged or photographed. The yard isn’t groomed. The photos are crappy 4-year-old rental listing photos I took when I started managing the property for the owner. The tenants moved [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Snapshop March 2012

April 12, 2012

This isn’t a full-blown market update, but I wanted to post a few graphs real quick to show current market activity and movement. Let’s start with the graph below showing Average and Median Sold values for homes in Austin for the past 49 months. So, what looked like a pretty bleak December/January (lowest of lows [...]

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How to Write a Competitive Multiple Offer in Austin TX

April 8, 2012

The last time the Austin real estate market saw this many multiple offers was in 2006 and 2007. Back then, buyers working with me and Sylvia won more than their share of these competitive offers by following a simple strategy, which was, make your offer acceptable and ready to sign with no mistakes or weird [...]

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Why My 1 Hour Daily Workouts Cost me 5 Hours Daily

March 27, 2012

As I start typing this blog article at about 6:15PM on a Tuesday, a crazy reality befalls me. It’s almost my bedtime. In less than 2 hours, maybe 3 at most. I have to get to bed around 9PM Sundays through Thursdays because of a new lifestyle commitment I’ve made. And it’s messing up my [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Suddenly Very Hot Spring 2012

March 16, 2012

Almost overnight, with little warning, the Austin real estate market has caught fire. We are encountering multiple offers and buyer frustration. Not everywhere, but in the popular neighborhoods. Let’s look at some Active/Pending stats for popular neighborhoods. Circle C 27 Active Listings. Average Days on Market = 35 31 Pendings.  Average Days on Market = [...]

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Hanging Out With Old People – The Austin Realtor Demographic

March 1, 2012

I’ve been busy the past several weeks attending real estate education events. First was the NARPM Convention (National Association of Residential Property Managers) in Las Vegas last week. Immediately upon return, there was three days in Austin at the Texas Association of Realtors Winter Meetings at the Hyatt. Then last Monday at an all-day Realtor [...]

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Should Austin Realtors Limit Which Websites Display our Listings?

February 26, 2012

When an Austin Realtor enters a listing into the Austin MLS system, we have to make some selections about where the listing will display online. (See screenshot to the left) Of course it will be an “MLS” listing, available to any other Realtor who is a member of the Austin MLS. But we also have [...]

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Why I Dislike Automated Realtor Feedback Systems

February 7, 2012

I showed homes to a buyer yesterday, and now my inbox is filling with these annoying automated email feedback requests. Each time an Austin Realtor opens a lockbox with the electronic key (or iPhone or Blackberry key), the visit is logged and reported via wireless transmission, sometimes in a matter of minutes. If the listing agent [...]

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Austin 2011 Real Estate Sales Breakdown by MLS Area

January 29, 2012

The Austin real estate 2011 sales breakdown by MLS area is below. Most areas of Austin are holding steady. I’ve color coded the results columns of each area to show whether or not that area performed above or below the greater Austin market on whole. For example, let’s look at MLS area “W” (West Austin). [...]

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Forgetting the MLS Key Really Stinks

January 24, 2012

No doubt every Austin Realtor has forgotten – or almost forgotten the electronic MLS key when showing a property. That really stinks when it happens. Me and Sylvia are still old school and carry around these horrible devices. The alternative would be to use an iPhone app that requires a small infrared stick that plugs [...]

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