Yesterday I was pulling up lease and sales listings for a client who wants to either buy or rent in Southwest Austin. I came across a lease listing in a great neighborhood in MLS area SWW that has been on the market for more than 130 days. Sylvia was sitting at her desk and I remembered that she had shown that house to a leasing client several months ago. “What’s up with that house on {Street name}?” I asked her. “It’s been on the market for 135 days!”
Sylvia said, “It’s in bad condition, the fence is rotted and falling down, the carpet is dirty and stained, it stinks inside, the yard isn’t taken care of, it’s outdated with ugly pink decor and bad wallpaper, it needs paint and it’s over priced”. OK, that explains it.
Are there really Property Owners and leasing agents who are so out of touch with reality that they allow this to happen? Absolutely. Cheapskate owners and incompetent Realtors seem to find each other on a regular basis in the Austin real estate market. The outcome is rarely good.
I showed the house yesterday anyway, partly because there were only a handful that fit my client’s search criteria, and I wanted to see it for myself and let the client rule it out herself instead of just not showing it. Upon viewing the property, it now has a new fence, and there are paint cans and supplies in the middle of the floor in the garage, but everything else Sylvia said is still as she described. Looks like the rental market may be slowly teaching the landlord a lesson, but it’s still pretty late in the game to be hearing the wake-up call, and the home needs much more than a new fence and some paint.