From the category archives:

Austin Real Estate

The Changing Face of Texas – Population Forecast

July 28, 2010

A portion of our Texas Real Estate License dues goes toward funding the Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. The Real Estate Center provides agents with press releases we are allowed to share. Below is the latest, which discusses the demographic shifts and population growth of Texas, both past future. At the bottom [...]

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The Joys of Downsizing to a Smaller, Better Located Austin Home

July 23, 2010

The Crossland Family has Super-Down-Sized from our nice, big, 2-year old custom home in Oak Hill to a crappy old 1970s house in Westlake. Now Me, Sylvia and our two teenagers are “crammed in” to an 1859 sqft rancher compared to the former 3316 sqft home, and 3701 sqft in the home prior to that. [...]

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Sellers – You Don’t Have to Read Your Buyer’s Inspection Report

July 17, 2010

As the seller of a home, do you have to read the buyer’s inspection report if the buyer presents it to you? No, you don’t. And if you are a seller represented by the Crossland Team, we advise that you don’t look at or read a buyer’s inspection report because we don’t want you getting [...]

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Austin Pending Sales Update – Through May 2010

June 25, 2010

Take a look at this chart showing the number of homes that go under contract, or “Pending”, in Austin each month over the past several years. The green line is 2010. I could almost stop writing at this point and just let the chart tell the entire story. But have a careful look at the [...]

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How Long Does it Take To Add a New Listing to Austin MLS?

June 5, 2010

I just finished adding one of our new listings to the Austin MLS. Years ago, this took about 15 minutes. There was far less data included and only 8 photos with no comment space for photos, no pdf attachments, and far less space to type the general description of the property.Today, a nearly overwhelming amount [...]

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Is Rental Property Investing in Austin Still Profitable?

May 30, 2010

As someone who’s bought and sold a bunch of rentals, and helped other investors buy, sell and manage investment property in Austin for a number of years, I’m about to ask a question that might seem counter to my professional mission of being in service to real estate investors. Is rental property investing in Austin [...]

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Tax Credit Effect on Austin Real Estate Market

May 16, 2010

The $8,000 buyer tax credit ended April 30, 2010. Take a look at the following graph to see the effect the tax credit had on buyer activity in Austin TX. This shows Pending activity for Austin MLS listings going back to Jan 2005 through April 2010. The green line is 2010. The previous years of [...]

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Travis County Property Tax Protest Season is Here Again

May 5, 2010

I just received my property tax appraisals from Travis Country Appraisal District (TCAD) and Williamson County Appraisal District (WCAD) for 2010. Doesn’t look like I’ll need to protest any property values this year. Some properties are borderline high, but not worth the time and effort to dispute because a) they are close enough, within a [...]

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With Buyer Tax Credit Over, What’s Next for Austin Real Estate

May 2, 2010

With the April 30th expiration of the home buyer tax credit, it’s time for buyers, Austin sellers and Austin Realtors to figure out what happens next. Austin Sellers who didn’t get offers might wonder, “are the buyers all gone now?” Austin Buyers who didn’t get their act together and claim the tax credit might wonder, [...]

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