Cool Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

DISCLAIMER: I apologize in advance for the sheer length of this post, but I had a lot to say apparently.  I didn't want to include images this time, as I thought they might detract from the message I am trying to get across.

I have seen a bunch of posts with regard to what is "proper" content on ActiveRain lately.  Unless you live under a rock, you have probably also seen these around lately. 

I left the longest comment of my entire blogging career last night on Jessica Horton's featured post (Working the Net or Networking? Which has value? ).  She gave me some good-natured grief about this on Twitter, calling the comment "Lord of the Rings".  Despite the fact that I had mentioned there that I wouldn't write my own post on this topic, I was encouraged today by a good friend to do so, so here we go:

In a nutshell, some people seem to be concerned about the balance of real estate related material written here vs. the "fluff", which is sort of a catch-all term for jokes, recipes, family stories, and other "non industry" posts.  They feel that if too many of these types of posts are made public (instead of Members Only), it could harm the Google juice/power that AR has notoriously harnessed, because Google might somehow devalue the site and see it differently. 

As with the other posts, the stuff I am about to say is my opinion, since I am not on staff at Google, or Yahoo, or any other search engine, so I am not privy to their algorithms.  However, I have been doing my own SEO for my sites since early 1998, before Google was even being used.  Back then, we optimized for search engines like Altavista, Lycos and Excite.  Yes, really.  I feel old now.

At any rate, to make it really easy to understand, Google LOVES new content.  With 85,613 members as of this writing, ActiveRain is generating new pages of content just about every minute of the day.  Every post marked "Public" is a separate page of content. 

With that in mind, AR is viewed by Google's spiders as highly valuable and as an "authority site" for real estate.  You have probably read anecdotes of members who have had pages indexed onto the first page of Google within a few minutes of posting.  This is because Google is constantly spidering this site looking for new pages. 

Does it spider "Members Only" posts?  Not really.  There are tags called "nofollow" tags that will disallow those posts from being indexed in the search engines, and they are automatically generated when we post to Members Only. 

Google cares about the page's structure, along with its content.  The skeletal structure of EVERY SINGLE page/post on AR is built and optimized in exactly the same fashion.  If you look at the bottom of this page (which is the same basic look across the board here on AR), you will see the following keywords and links:

Find TX real estate agents and Austin real estate here on ActiveRain.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
© 2007 ActiveRain Corp. All Rights Reserved 

Also, every single post is titled with "REAL ESTATE BLOG", followed by the author-assigned part of the title.  Clearly, this is adequate to make Google understand that the hundreds of thousands of pages generated here are real-estate related, even if the body of the post itself is about the weather, or a chocolate pie, or an unfunny joke.

I don't want to make this overly technical for those of you who are not into SEO at all, but I think I can make this even more clear, even for newbies.  I did a bit of research just now by viewing the source code for my blog in particular, and I found the following meta tags there:

<meta name="description" content="Austin Texas Real Estate Blog (and other stuff) on the ActiveRain Real Estate Network." />
<meta name="keywords" content="ActiveRain, Real Estate, agents, Network, Real Estate Agent, Mortgage, realtor, social network" />

The only part of this italicized part that I wrote myself was "Austin Texas Real Estate Blog (and other stuff)", as that is the title I originally chose.  The rest of that is automatically generated for me by the AR code.  Keep in mind that THIS is what Google looks at first.  I counted four real estate terms there.  There are a couple of other things in the inherent structure that I could point out if you are really interested, but I think the point is made for my purposes here.

So, what does this mean to you and me anyway?  Well, for one thing, ActiveRain has done things right and has garnered a lot of Google juice by setting up the structure of this site correctly from day one.

Basically, it would be very difficult to derail this by writing about whatever the heck you want to write about.  In fact, I think we could all stop writing real estate posts and concentrate on jokes and recipes for several months without affecting the "balance" to the extent that it would ever be detrimental to our Localism posts.  They will continue to be indexed by Google and Yahoo.  Don't sweat it.

Personally, I enjoy sharing many facets of my personality along with stories of my family.  I would guess that 4 or 5 out of 10 of my posts are truly about real estate.  I want the consumers who find me to feel like they know me already.  These are the easiest buyers and sellers in the world to convert to sales.

Considering the fact that a good number of members have already referred business to me over the past few months, why would I want to stop writing this way?  I write for consumers sometimes, for my friends sometimes, for my family, and even for myself.  

The first AR closing that I had found me on a post that I had written about my CHURCH.  I made about $12,000 on that post, so it had some very tangible value to me.  Obviously, it was not Members Only (thank God!). 

In essence, Google is a fickle mistress sometimes and they want it to be hard to "game" their system.  They are constantly tweaking their algorithm and dialing variables in and out with regard to importance.  If there is ever a temporary effect on the indexing of our posts on ActiveRain, it is something they have done in the Googleplex, not anything that you or I can do here at AR.  It would simply be really hard to ever have much effect on how Google views this site, as it is already well-established as a real estate authority site.  Yes, that is just my opinion, but it is not an uninformed one.

On a separate note, I use StatCounter to track my AR blog visits (which are just over 100,000 now), and I see where the consumers enter my blog initially.  Currently, they are coming directly from Google and Yahoo.  I don't think any serious buyers or sellers are merely surfing around AR randomly like we do, studying the mix of content.  They come to specific posts, then they choose to stay or go.  With that in mind, why not have something interesting for them to look at while they are on your blog?  You got them that far - is it time to show them more market data, or do you think they might enjoy a funny story?

As a further illustration, when I have buyers in the car with me, I could probably talk all day about real estate and nothing else.  Do you think they would be looking forward to our next meeting?  Doubtful.  Wow - I just managed to relate SEO to real estate.  Cool!

I don't claim to be an SEO expert myself, but I have done a lot of my own optimizing over the years, and I can recognize what works and what doesn't.  Obviously, this is a somewhat complex subject, and I hope I haven't oversimplified matters.

Overall, my opinion on this subject is: Write whatever and whenever you want to, just make sure you are writing something!  If you are not taking advantage of this FREE opportunity to market yourself, you are missing the boat. 

I choose not to hide my light under a bushel very often, making the majority of my posts Public.  If you aren't comfortable doing that, by all means, don't.  However, don't be scared to share personal stuff at the risk of harming this enormously powerful (real estate) network. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my exhaustive treatise on this topic!  If you have any questions about what I have covered here, let me know.

My son has always had a good sense of humor.  In fact, my favorite video of him ever was taken when he was about four months old, laughing hysterically as I played, "Peek-a-boo" with him.  Thankfully, the clip is not marred by my appearance, so it's really just a very cute baby in a diaper on the floor laughing like crazy.  The funniest part to me on this particular piece of film was when I could just say the word "peekaboo" without hiding my face and it would still send him into a fresh fit of hilarity.

Recently, I have come to realize that he is truly witty.  Rather than just "getting" a good joke, he is producing some fine comedy of his own.  Additionally, like his mom and dad, he is a deep and profound thinker.  I once shared with a friend here that my mom used to call me "The Little Philosopher" when I was about six.  My son would be worthy of this title as well.

Here are a few examples that have occurred over the past three days:

He has finally shown interest in learning to ride a bike (we have some long-standing balance issues to work on).  The other day, I took him to the local elementary school parking lot to work on this, which provided some great father and son bonding.  It was hot and we were both pretty tired and headed home.  Brandon suddenly said, "Biking is a great example of perseverance."  What could I say but to agree completely?  Smart kid!

In the car on the way home, before putting on his seatbelt, Brandon took off his shoes and put his feet up in the dashboard and leaned back like he was waiting for me to serve him some grapes.  I joked with him about something, then he said, "It's like I say, 'The best parents are humorous parents.'  Well, I don't always say it.  I said it twice.  Once before, and once just now."

Brandon picked up a copy of People magazine that was in our kitchen.  I didn't know he had any interest in reading that at all.  He brought it back, stating with no small amount of disdain in his voice, "I was curious to read about this two-year old who is treated like the President."  He was talking about Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.  I had to agree with him again.

In the car on the way home from church yesterday, Brandon asked, "What does touche mean in French?"  My wife Pam said, "It means touched.  Like in fencing, when someone touches you with a sword."  Then, he asked, "What does en garde mean?"  Pam replied, "It means you should be watching out and be prepared."  After a pause of a few seconds, Brandon said, "I guess French people aren't as violent as I thought."  I could only laugh.

Yesterday afternoon, we had some friends over (every Sunday afternoon we host our church small group) and the adults were talking.  We started laughing really hard about something, and Brandon ran over and started laughing louder than everybody.  Abruptly, he stopped laughing and said, "I don't get it."  He did this just for a laugh from us, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is my son.

Lastly, today he was looking at the comics from the Sunday paper, and he asked, "When you were a kid, did you like Opus?"  Pam said, "Oh, of course I did.  But back when we were kids, Bloom County wasn't so political.  Do you know what 'politics' means?"  Without missing a beat, Brandon replied, "Yes.  Politics means boring."  Agreed.

Thanks for reading!  If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy reading some of my other posts about my family here:

My Kids' Greatest Hits - A Collection of All Posts About My Children

I have been selling homes in and around Austin, Texas since I was 26 years old.  For those keeping track at home, that was over 11 years ago.  During my time selling, I have worked with hundreds of buyers, the majority of whom were married couples. 

When working with first-time buyers (and sometimes with buyers who have been around the block a few times), I consider it part of my service to "counsel" husbands on what to expect during the process.  In other words, it is likely that we will have a conversation along these lines at some point (for our purposes, we will use Mike and Susan as the names for this happy couple):

SUSAN: I don't like this house.  The living room is too small and the kitchen is kinda cramped.

MIKE: But look at all of the room for the big screen TV!  Also, the bedroom has hardwood floors.

ME: Mike, it really doesn't matter what you say at this point.  I can assure you that you won't be buying this house.  Susan is not sold on it, and it's really her decision, believe me.

MIKE: But it has...

ME: Mike, seriously.  You are not really part of this process as much as you might think.

MIKE: Okay.  I hear you.

Perhaps I am not quite that harsh, but this is not very far from the truth.  In my experience, I have seen precisely ONE MAN who was able to "win" the debate on which house to purchase, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.  It was Dan the Man.

I use Dan the Man as a cautionary tale for men who think that they are going to control the purchase process.

Dan and Marie (not their real names) were part of a relocation account that I handled several years ago.  They made a few visits to the area to look around with me.  Marie seemed to want a newer home, while Dan leaned toward older places, like their previous home in Houston.

So, in the end, it came down to two very different properties.  One was about two or three years old, with all of the expected neighborhood amenities, and it was in great condition.  Clearly, this one was Marie's choice. 

The other home was about 30 years old, with shag carpet, sunken living room, and a dark hallway leading to the (admittedly large) bedrooms.  It also had some giant shade trees in the backyard.  This was Dan's choice.

I watched Dan wear Marie down at every turn, singing the praises of "his" choice.  In the end, he prevailed, but at a cost.  He had to promise to do a LOT of updating along with some minor remodeling in order to get the house he wanted. 

Although they had been together for many years, I don't actually know if they stayed married. 

So, what's my point here anyway?  Well, I have used Dan as an example, both because of his singular success being the only male to win a home choice debate (it was exhausting to watch), and because of the ridiculous amount of additional money that he had to pour into the home in order to please his wife. 

Ultimately, I suppose the jury is still out on that one.  Even though Marie didn't get the house she originally wanted, she made the older house into one that she could tolerate.

Thanks for reading!

I have a long-standing pet peeve that I wanted to vent about today.  I have been actively selling homes for more than a decade in and around Austin, but I have noticed a disturbing trend.

When one is a bad or clumsy dancer, he/she is said to have "two left feet".  I would like to coin a phrase today for agents who write directions incorrectly on their own listings - two left hands.

I have a GPS system in my vehicle, but it doesn't get every address in outlying areas of town.  I also have a pretty good sense of direction.  I am good at following instructions if given properly.  The key words in the last sentence were "if given properly".

PLEASE take the time to get the MLS directions right if you are a listing agent!  The last several homes I have shown have all had incorrect directions.

Let's see - "turn right on CR 198" - seems easy enough.  Wait.  There IS no right on CR 198.  What the heck?

"Turn right on Maple, then left on Main."  Oh, I see.  You meant it the other way around.  Makes perfect sense now. 

Have you actually visited the property in person?  Maybe this is the first step.  Believe me, I am not really super detail-oriented.  I consider myself more of a big picture kind of guy.  So, if incorrect directions bother me somewhat, it might actually make someone's else head explode.

I have another possible reason for this.  Maybe you are trying to give directions to me as if we are sitting face-to-face (my right is your left, my left is your right?). 

Maybe you are holding a map up to a mirror when you are entering your listings.  That would certainly make good sense, although it does seem a little odd, now that I think about it.

Since I have seen this repeatedly in recent days, maybe someone in that part of town messed up his/her directions, and everyone is just copying and modifying as necessary.

I have even had some that were correct until you get to the street itself - "house is on the right".  You mean in the drainage culvert?  The last time I checked, this direction is called "left".  My mom even taught me a cool trick when I was a kid.  Hold up your hands with palms down (not up).  Stick out your thumbs so that they are perpendicular to your hand, and make your thumbs touch each other.  Which hand makes an L shape?

I think I actually figured out the problem just now.  You are using your feet to type, rather than your hands.  Sorry - my bad.

Thanks for your time!

I put off writing about this for awhile, as I wanted to let it marinate in my mind before sharing it with others.  We attended the "life celebration" (NOT a funeral) for my friend David Wilder, who passed away March 28th.  The event was held on Saturday, April 5th.  I apologize for the length of this post, but I have a lot to say. :-)

A few days before the celebration, Jan Wilder called to ask me if I would be interested in speaking about David at the event.  I told her that I needed to think about it overnight.  I prayed and thought about it and I decided that I simply was too emotional to do this.  After watching a few others speak, I am convinced that I made the correct decision.  It was tough enough to be in the audience and keep my composure, much less on stage.

There were roughly FIVE HUNDRED people who attended, which really was not a big surprise to me.  David was a lifelong salesperson, and a "connector" who managed to stay in touch with everyone.  Once a friend, always a friend.  That just seemed to be a motto that he lived by.

We arrived early, and I saw several people that I hadn't seen since we left our previous church (where David and Jan still attended).  We were directed to the appropriate building, and I was warmly greeted by many friends.  The hugs that I got that day were not the half-hearted kind, but bear hugs, from both men and women.  It was as if everyone wanted to show their love for each other in a deep way.

I was doing fine (i.e. not crying) until we entered the main part of the sanctuary, and I saw a picture of a younger, healthy, smiling David projected onto the screen over the stage, along with his full name and birth and death dates.  Tears came swiftly.

During the actual celebration, one of the themes was "Things Dave Liked", which seemed appropriate.  Golf and food ranked highly.  Drew McHolm, who was officiating, was the pastor of our previous church, and he mentioned offhand that he was "David's best friend".  As others came up to speak, this became a running joke, because they ALL thought they were Dave's best friend.  He had a way of making you feel that way, and when you had lunch or a round of golf, you never felt like his attention was divided.  He was spending time with YOU, after all.  His sincere interest in others was an enviable trait.

So, the celebration lasted a couple of hours, and we sang some of Dave's favorite songs, including "Agnus Dei" and "How Great is Our God".  I have never heard people singing in this fashion before, and I doubt that I will hear it again anytime soon.  Generally, when people are singing in a church, there is a reserved quality to it, but not this day.  Everyone was belting out these songs, and the emotion was palpable.

Near the end, they showed a video with pictures from his childhood all the way through his recent illness.  There were several video clips as well.  David dancing in a goofy way with some friends, David participating in a church drama, and, lastly, David sharing his faith in Jesus in a frank manner, while looking right at the camera, encouraging others to get to know his friend and Lord.  This last part seemed particularly powerful, considering that many of his family members are not believers in Christ. 

David was the oldest of seven children, and I got a chance to speak with two of his brothers and his mom that day.  All of them were struck by how many people David impacted here in the Austin area.  To them, David is that kid from Worcester, Mass.  To us, he was a giant in the faith.  The last person we spoke to before we left was Charlie, who is eleven months younger than Dave.  Pam mentioned to me that she felt comforted while speaking to him, because he looks and acts so much like our friend.   

We spent a total of five hours on that beautiful Saturday catching up with friends, and sharing funny and poignant stories about David.  It was a reunion of sorts, and I know Dave would have LOVED it.  The guy knew how to work a room.

One of our friends made a comment that I will likely never forget, "This is a picture of what heaven will be like." I could not agree more.  There was a church split about nine years ago, and many left in a huff back then.  All of those harsh feelings were forgotten, and I saw people hugging and laughing that I honestly never thought would speak to each other again, at least not here on earth.

Overall, this journey has been life-changing for me as well.  I watched people streaming in and out of David's home in the last weeks of his life, many travelling from several states away just to tell him what he meant to them and how he brought them closer to God.  I was among them, of course.  David was 49 years old when he died.  I am 37 now.  This made me begin to evaluate the impact that my life is having on others.  If I die in 12 years, how many of my friends will feel compelled to visit and weep at my bedside and tell me that my words and my actions deeply affected them? 

David affected the course of my life in subtle ways for years - his openness, his boldness, his friendship, and now, even his death. 

A friend of mine made an interesting point the other day while we were chatting in the church parking lot.  He didn't know David personally, but he came to know him through my discussions during our men's group.  He said, "Sometimes I think God takes people like David earlier, because it does make a bigger impact and it often inspires people to carry the torch that they carried."  This is an exceptional truth, as I have found myself thinking along these very lines ("If David isn't here anymore, who is going to be that guy?"). 

With that in mind, Pam and I have decided to join and help our associate pastor who is planting a new church in Georgetown, Texas starting this fall.  I had been considering it already, but now I am certain that this is something I am supposed to do, based on recent events.  Dave was always looking for opportunities to spread God's Word and God's love with others.  How can I impact the largest number of people possible?  By staying where I am, or by starting something from the ground up?  The answer seems very clear to me.

Several of you have asked about Jan and how she is doing now.  Before addressing that, I wanted to mention that the money we raised at the AR Gathering was truly needed.  It took me a couple of days to get it to her, and she later told me that she was down to $39 in her checking account the day before I brought these funds.  WOW!  Talk about an answered prayer.  Thank you again to all of you who have contributed to help her. 

With regard to Jan and her current emotional state, she is struggling mightily with the loss, but she is firmly faithful to God that she will work through the pain.  I would encourage anyone reading this to visit www.carepages.com and sign up to leave her some kind words on the Message Board.  The profile name is "DavidinAustin". 

Someone asked me what happened to David's body, and I didn't actually know until I spoke with Jan's sister.  David was cremated, and half of his ashes were scattered on his favorite local golf course.  His mother took the other half home to scatter at the lake house where he grew up.  This seemed particularly appropriate, since he spent about half of his time in each location.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to send cards, emails, or to call and express condolences for me.  I thank you also for your prayers and kind words when things were uncertain over the past several months.  Your support made things easier to handle.

Lastly, I will leave you with a quote from my wife (which I shared in a previous post): "David got his work here done quickly."  Truer words were never spoken.

God bless you if you actually read this whole post, which is probably my longest ever.  Have a terrific week!

I had a couple of random discussions with my wife Pam while we were out the other day, and I wanted to share this in order to give you an idea of the kind of things that we find funny.

I don't recall how we got on the subject of the phrase "footloose and fancy free", but there we were, discussing it.  I wondered out loud where that term came from originally, since it is so odd-sounding.  Footloose?  Did you break your ankles?  Pam said maybe it meant that your feet were not bound, but that seemed strange to both of us.  Is having loose feet a good thing?  It sounds a bit dangerous if you are trying to walk, or dance, or exist.

Fancy free?  Pam said that this sounds like someone with no imagination (free of fancy).  I agreed, but this doesn't jibe with the actual meaning of the phrase, which I have always taken to mean that someone doesn't have a care in the world.

I would care if my feet were loose and I had no imagination, wouldn't you?  Wouldn't anyone?  Also, why have I never questioned this in relation to the movie "Footloose".  Have you ever really thought about those lyrics to the theme song?

Tonight I gotta cut loose
Footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise
Pull me offa my knees
Jack, get back
C'mon before we crack
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose

If you know me at all, you know that I didn't know all of these words without looking them up.  Reading them on the screen, however, I wonder now why Kenny Loggins wasn't institutionalized in the 80's.  What the heck does this chorus actually mean?  I am surprised that people werent' playing this one backwards on their turntables trying to interpret some secret meaning, like the Beatles' "Revolution #9".  By the way, I did that as a kid with the Beatles tune, and my friend and I could have sworn we heard John Lennon clearly state, "S**t undersea, huh", which is obviously a poke at "Yellow Submarine".  Ringo never was the talented one.

Sorry for the diversion....

As part of a completely different discussion, on our way home from church yesterday, I spotted a truck with several kayaks and paddles in the back (NOTE: Please do not take what I am about to say as a slight if you love kayaking). 

I said to Pam, "I cannot imagine owning a kayak." 

She replied, "I can't imagine owning ONE kayak, much less enough kayaks to necessitate an entire kayak rack!  I also cannot imagine ever seriously considering going kayaking." 

The next portion of her diatribe will give you some idea of her sense of humor, which I love:

"Let's see - I want to participate in a sport where I am not allowed to move my legs at all, because I want to depend entirely on my upper body strength.  I'm strong, see?  Perhaps if I were encased somehow in a fashion that would prevent me from using my lower body.  I need a boat that is easily capsized if I lose my balance.  Then, of course, I need to be placed in water, preferably fast-moving water.  Basically, I need a sport that will cause me to drown quickly if I can't somehow twist myself back above the surface without the use of my legs."

She also suggested that maybe a good new sport would be "extreme kayaking", which would take place on a river of sulfuric acid.  I think lava would be cool, too.

Thanks for reading!  Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our odd sense of humor.

Last night, I went to the newly opened Long Center with my wife, son, and mother-in-law to see Bizet's "Carmen". I remember distinctly that when I was a kid, I never enjoyed the opera quite as much because I had no idea what they were actually saying during the songs, even if I knew the general storyline. This is no longer an issue, since they provide projected subtitles for all of the dialogue and lyrics. Even my nine-year old son was able to follow along easily.

"Carmen" is a relatively long opera, clocking in at just over three hours, which includes two pretty long intermissions of about 20 minutes each between acts. Time seemed to go quickly, thanks to a very talented cast, many of whom are international performers. This was the third musical/opera that my son had attended, and we were all impressed with the production.

Unfortunately, they had sent us tickets for the incorrect date, and since we didn't double-check them before arriving, the four of us could not sit together, but they did make an effort and they found seats for us (two seats each in two nearby locations), despite the fact that this performance was opening night and had been sold out for some time. Needless to say, I was thankful.

Either I never realized it, or I had forgotten how many famous songs come from this single Bizet opera. My son knew at least four of the tunes, including Les Voici, Voici la Quadille", which is perhaps best-known from its appearance in the "Bad News Bears". Another tune that was immediately recognizable was "Habanera". I have heard this countless times, but I never knew how interesting the English lyrics really were. Here's a sample:

Love is a gypsy's child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you better beware.

The bird you thought you had caught
beat its wings and flew away ...
love stays away, you wait and wait;
when least expected, there it is!

All around you, swift, so swift,
it comes, it goes, and then returns ...
you think you hold it fast, it flees
you think you're free, it holds you fast.

The opera center itself is a gorgeous piece of architecture, with sweeping views of downtown Austin. In fact, it boasts one of the finest skyline views that I have seen in recent memory.

Overall, it was a terrific experience, and I would highly recommend attending an event there if you have an opportunity. We will certainly return at some point soon. From my perusal of the program, it looks like they have some great shows planned in the upcoming months.

This home is located in highly desirable Stone Canyon (next to the Round Rock Medical Center off Highway 620), which is the proud home of Fern Bluff Elementary, 5 neighborhood parks, a nearby duck pond and spray park and many other fabulous conveniences that homeowners enjoy! 

This property is just minutes from Lakeline Mall and the newly opened Round Rock Prime Outlet shopping center.  It is also very convenient to I-35 and 45.

• 4 bedrooms, 2 baths
• 2438 s.f. per tax records
• Hardwood floors
• Stainless appliances
• Gourmet island kitchen with skylight
• Recent carpet
• Upgrades galore!
• Built in 1998 by David Weekley Homes (terrific builder)
• 2 living areas, 2 dining areas
• One-story home
• Backyard paradise in cul-de-sac homesite (just over 1/4 acre)
• Shows like a model!

For more information about this home, please contact Jason Crouch at 512-796-7653 or email jason@austintexashomes.com.  If you would like to see all of our current listings, or search the Austin-area MLS, please visit our Austin Texas Real Estate website at http://www.austintexashomes.com/. 

If you are looking to make a move to the Austin area, you might appreciate my online relocation package as well:

Austin Texas Relocation Package 

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

I typically try to be on time for all of my appointments.  However, I am typically BARELY on time or perhaps five minutes late.  My wife claims that I don't know how long I take to get ready (showering, etc.), but that's not exactly true.  I simply don't allow enough time to get ready before leaving the house.  So there.

At any rate, I arrived about 15 minutes early today for my showing appointment, which is rare for me.  I know that some of you reading this will disagree with me, but I feel like I am wasting my time if I show up too early.  So, while I was waiting, the phone rang, and it was my client calling.  It turns out that they were running late. 

Of course they were.  I could have predicted that.  In fact, I was there before they even left their home to make the trip.

That happens to me almost without fail.  If I arrive early, they are running 15+ minutes behind, and I get to hang out and wait while listening to the radio or making some calls.

However, in the instances when I am more than a couple of minutes late for whatever reason (maybe 10 or more minutes), those are the days that my clients will definitely choose to arrive 45 minutes early, and "just drive around the area". 

During their perusal of the neighborhood, they will develop a list of 5-9 homes that they would like to take a look at later, depending on the price.  Of course, being the consummate professional that I am, I promise to look up these particular properties to see why they didn't make it onto our list.  Maybe they are too high in price, or too small for their needs, or missing a bedroom, or inferior in some other way.  No matter what, I can guarantee that this will prove to be a futile endeavor, because I ALREADY MADE A GOOD LIST FOR THEM. 

Secretly, when they find these "gems", they seem to assume that I am hiding some of the current inventory from their curious eyes.  Perhaps I don't really want to sell a house at all.  Maybe I am a real estate hobbyist, not a full-time real estate broker supporting my family on this income.  What have I done with the past eleven years of my life?

No, instead I will provide the details for them to see why I didn't choose to show those in the first place.

I guess the moral of this post is to arrive on time for your appointments, but I am in no position to teach this, or to judge anyone else for their habitual tardiness.  Instead, just be prepared with a good book (or your wireless notebook) if you are too early, and be aware that you may end up answering a series of questions about unsuitable homes, or drainage patterns, or unkempt adjacent subdivisions if you are a few minutes late.

Thanks for reading!

Austin has grown pretty dramatically over the past couple of decades.  In fact, since 1990, Austin's MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) has roughly doubled in population during that period, from about 846,000 in 1990 to over 1.5 million today.  Despite this fact, I find this market to be quite manageable in its entirety.  Our team handles sales throughout central Texas.

I have had home buyers and sellers ask me which areas of Austin and the surrounding area I actually work.  Additionally, I had an agent in California ask the same question of me a few days ago.  I thought it might be helpful to provide a list of all of the towns/areas we cover.

Basically, I have assisted buyers in just about every Austin MLS area (i.e. every part of Austin), as well as the following towns in central Texas:

• Round Rock
• Pflugerville
• Cedar Park
• Leander
• Georgetown
• Liberty Hill
• Rollingwood
• Westlake Hills
• Spicewood
• Lakeway
• Volente
• Lago Vista
• Jonestown
• Manchaca
• Dripping Springs
• Driftwood
• Wimberley
• Bastrop
• Buda
• Kyle
• Manor
• Elgin
• Coupland
• Jarrell
• Hutto
• Taylor
• Any homes on Lake Travis or Lake Austin

With regard to listings, we will consider most of the above areas, depending on the circumstances. 

I hope this is helpful.  As you can see, "Austin real estate" actually covers many, many outlying areas. 

I am personally of the mindset that Austin is not too large to handle the whole thing pretty easily, particularly when it comes to representing buyers.  In larger cities such as Dallas or Houston, this is much more difficult to achieve. 

So, if you are looking to purchase in any of the above areas, please feel free to give me a call.  I cannot guarantee that this is a comprehensive list, so if you're not sure, call me anyway.  If I can't help, I can find someone who can. 

If you are an agent with a referral that you are looking to send our way, I will promptly pay a 25% referral fee upon closing. 

I have also handled several corporate relocation accounts, including St. Jude Medical and ERCOT, so I would consider relocation to Austin to be among my specialities.  You might find my online relocation package to be helpful:

Austin Texas Relocation Package

If you have any questions, or if you are considering a move to this area, call me anytime at 512-796-7653 (cell) or email jason@austintexashomes.com.  I look forward to helping you find the right home!