Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

Yesterday, while I was out and about, I spoke with two of my ActiveRain friends on the phone.  Paul Slaybaugh called me and we chatted for awhile, then he had to go because he was busy with his two sons.  I later called Adam Waldman and he had to call me back because he was watching "Hard Knocks", the Dallas Cowboys training camp show on HBO, with his son. 

After speaking with each of these guys, I thought about the time flexibility that real estate can afford to us, and how fortunate I am to be able to make a good living in a business that allows me still to have ample time with my family. 

As I was driving, I stopped at a light near my office and looked in my rear-view mirror.  I noticed an older lady driving and speaking in a very animated fashion to the younger lady who was her passenger.  I don't know if she was a real estate agent or not, but it reminded me of many meetings that I have had with clients, driving them around and getting to know them. 

You mean I can actually get PAID to make friends?

In a sense, yes.  I certainly can't claim that everyone in real estate conducts their business in the same way that I do, but I typically end up befriending my clients during the sales process.  Additionally, through my online social networking efforts, my friendships have begun to pay dividends in the form of solid referrals, one of which I closed last week. 

In my humble opinion, the essence of good marketing begins with personal networking. 

I have owned my own brokerage for almost four years, and I always tell my agents that clients are not typically brand-loyal when it comes to real estate.  In other words, most people are more interested in their agent as a person than with the specific company affiliation.  Of course, there are exceptions, but generally people tend to use the agent that they like and who provides the necessary information. 

When it comes to real estate sales, WE ARE the product.  Rather than being traditional salespeople, we are responsible for selling ourselves as people first.  To my way of thinking, this should be the easiest sale of all.  If you are not comfortable in your own skin, this is probably not the right field for you.  However, if you can manage to package yourself as the likeable, honest provider of local info, you are well on your way to capturing the business. 

As real estate agents and brokers, we are business owners first and foremost, and I think it's important to keep that in mind when dealing with our clients and potential clients.  If you treat it as an actual business, you don't sweat each individual transaction, because you are focused on the larger goal of growing your business over time, and maintaining your reputation so that you can keep the doors open.

In a nutshell, self-employment is not for everyone, but it is the only choice that I can imagine making if I had it to do over again.

Copyright 2008  Jason Crouch   Austin Homes

Well, the pattern held again for me this week.  I have been in real estate for over a decade now, and pretty much every time I decide to leave town (which has been more rare lately), my business activity seems to explode.  Thankfully, I have a business partner who is great about covering for me when I am away. 

I received offers on two of my listings, and my business partner got an offer on one of his as well.  That may not sound like a tremendous amount, but it is the biggest flurry that we have had in months on our listings.  It seems that I occasionally reach a point when I think that I don't want to list homes anymore, then they all start to sell again.  Overall, the activity picked up dramatically during my getaway to Houston with my family to visit our in-laws and to just be tourists for five days. 

In addition to the good stuff, it seems like the bad things tend to happen during my "away" time as well.  The main page of our site disappeared from Google's index on Sunday evening, only to reappear in a slightly stronger position on the first page last night after we got home.  I credit this one to prayer. 

Not surprisingly, my cell phone apparently decided to give up the ghost (needs a new battery - won't hold a charge) at the same time that a high-maintenance buyer's agent was trying to reach me about one of the aforementioned offers.  I plan to devote an entire post to this agent soon.  It will not be pretty.

I sincerely don't know why I don't leave town more often (barring, of course, the obvious logistical details of travelling with three children and arranging for special care for my mother-in-law who lives with us).  It seems that I almost always end up making a killing financially when I do.  That being said, I am also terrible about checking my voice mails when I am trying to have a good time and relax, so I end up getting a ridiculous number of messages -

"You have....one hundred sixty seven....new messages."

Okay, that is a (slight) exaggeration.  I'm sure that my friends who call on the front end of my vacation (just before I change my outgoing voice mail greeting) assume that I have ditched them and their relationships completely by the time I get around to calling back 10-21 days later.

"Hey, man, sorry it took me so long to get back in touch.  I have been BUSY lately!"

As if I have been too busy to call for five minutes at some point?  But I digress, as usual.

I have a list of "to do" items for tomorrow that could choke a horse.  I have to meet with a client, finalize at least one of the offers, conduct some agent training, follow up with about 70 emails or so, exercise, blog, pray, spend time with my family, sleep, eat, achieve immortality, and floss. 

I can hardly wait to leave town again.  Seriously.

Once again, the Austin economy has managed to make it onto an encouraging list.  Yesterday, Austin was named #5 on Forbes.com's list of places where home prices are likely to rise.

The study looked at the following criteria to develop this list:

• Projected housing starts
• Job growth figures
• Cost structures for local businesses
• Composition of local economies

The text of the whole article is here:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/25/housing-prices-rising-forbeslife-cx_mw_0825realestate.html

Clearly, this is very good news for those of us who are involved in selling Austin Texas real estate.  Recently, the chief economist at Texas A&M, Mark Dotzour, predicted that Austin would likely recover much faster than the rest of the country.  His prediction was that we would see a big swing between now and next summer sometime, probably in the spring.  Dotzour also estimated that Austin will add roughly 8,500 new jobs in the next year.  To read the entire article with his findings, you can visit:

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/08/18/daily13.html

If you are considering a home purchase here in the Austin area, I would love the opportunity to help you with this.  I have been selling homes in Austin since 1997, and our team is knowledgeable with regard to almost every area of central Texas. 

Here is my online relocation package if you are interested:

Austin Texas Relocation Package

Having lived here since 1988, I can assert that Austin is an absolutely terrific place to call home.  I hope you decide to join us here!  If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to contact me.  My cell phone number is 512-796-7653 and my email address is jason@austintexashomes.com.  I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Jason Crouch, Broker/Owner - Austin Texas Homes, LLC

I had to look up the last time we left town overnight, and it has been almost a YEAR!  I actually wrote this post during our trip last September:

Blogging on the Road

Since my mother-in-law lives with us and she is wheelchair-bound, it is very difficult to coordinate out-of-town trips these days.  Tomorrow, we are headed to the Houston area for a few days of R & R with the kids.  My mother-in-law's helper will be staying at our house to help out.  One stop during our trip that I am really looking forward to is seeing NASA for the first time.  My son started asking about it recently, and we promised to make a trip during the summer.  Since summer is almost over, we decided that there was no time like the present!

I had no idea how much stuff they have to do at NASA.  From the website, it looks like a lot of entertainment, including various theaters, tours, galleries, and rides.  I'm sure we will take lots of pictures during our time there. 

My in-laws (wife's dad and stepmom) are very sweet and I have always appreciated the fact that they enjoy books as much as we do, or perhaps more, if that is possible.  Pam's stepmom is in the midst of working on a young adult novel, and my father-in-law wrote a Christian-themed novel years ago.  Needless to say, they are both highly intelligent. 

On a side note, I think my wife is the smartest person that I know.  I'm not sure why I wanted you to know that, but she truly is.  I can't imagine anyone else that I would rather have teaching my children.  She is well-versed in so many different areas that it boggled the mind sometimes.

We will be staying in Pearland for the next few days, and sightseeing around Houston.  If anyone in that area wants to meet us for lunch, let me know.  I don't plan on writing for a few days, but I am always up for some company or to meet a new friend.

I look forward to sharing some family-themed posts when I return next week! 

I finally experienced Dot's Place cuisine for the first time tonight, and I left happy.  We were looking for a place nearby to take our three children and my mother-in-law, Jackie, who is in a wheelchair now.  It turns out that Jackie had been there a good number of times before, so she was excited about the prospect of returning. 

The original Dot's in north Austin burned down, and they moved to the new location on Heatherwilde Drive this past year.  I had heard good word-of-mouth about the food, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was even BETTER than I expected.

The location is pretty plain, to be frank.  The decor is very basic inside.  They inhabit the former Mr. Gatti's location facing Pecan Street near the Sonic, and it appeared as though they kept all of the old furniture. 

When we entered, we were facing a food line that looked much like a small cafeteria.  Despite the good stuff that I had heard, I was a little concerned, since our kids are pretty picky eaters, especially my son.  They had a very rudimentary menu posted on the wall with pricing for everything.  The adult plate was $8.50 for an entree and two sides, and the kids' plate was $5.50 for the same thing with smaller portions.

They had a good variety of entrees to choose from, including fried catfish, chicken and dumplings, beef tips and rice, roast beef, chicken fried steak, chicken with broccoli-cheese rice, and a couple of others.  The vegetables and sides were pretty standard fare (green beans, mac and cheese, corn, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.). 

All three adults in our group must have been in the mood for fish, as we all had the fried catfish tonight.  The older kids both had chicken fried steak, and our toddler daughter had chicken and dumplings.  My wife made the remark of the evening,

"These chicken and dumplings will make you get religion!"

In fact, she liked them so much that she decided to bring an order home for later. 

ALL OF THE FOOD WAS EXCELLENT.  It reminded me a lot of my grandparent's cooking, and it actually made me miss them even more, as they have been gone for years.  The mashed potatoes could have actually been made by my grandmother.  Yes, they were that good.

I couldn't help myself - I had to have some of the cheesecake, which is part of my wonderful and comprehensive weight loss plan.  :)  I would have had another one if we were not in public.

I highly recommend Dot's Place if you crave country homestyle Southern cooking.  My sole complaint is that they are not open as often as I would like.  They do most of their business during the Monday through Friday lunch time (open 10:30 - 2:30) and they are only open for dinner on Thursdays and Fridays from 5:30 - 8:30, and closed on weekends.

I have found a new place for lunch with clients or my family, and I look forward to returning.  Our bill for a family of six (three adults, three kids) was just $53.  I will be back. 

Thanks, Dot!

I am currently 38 years old, as of this past weekend.  Having been married for 15 years now, I have been around a lot of couples, both with and without children.  Obviously, I also see a lot of married couples when I am trying to help them to buy or sell Austin real estate. 

As such, I realized something the other day.  Those who are looking to buy a home often make the same statement as those who are considering having a child:

"I'm not sure if we're ready to..."

• I'm not sure if we're ready to buy a home just yet.  The media keeps talking about how bad the economy is.
• I'm not sure if we're ready to have a baby.  My friends and family tell me it will change my life.

In my opinion (which is pretty much all that my entire blog consists of, now that I think about it), the same response is appropriate in both cases, assuming that bad credit is not the issue at hand.  When someone says that they are not ready financially to have a baby, I have always heard the response, "You will probably never feel ready, so you might as well do it."  Please understand that this is not a flippant remark.  Truthfully, looking back on it now, I don't think I was in a great financial position to have either of our first two children, especially my son, who is now nine years old.  However, I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

When considering a home purchase, it feels much the same way.  Maybe money will seem a little tight initially.  You will be dealing with unknowns, and new issues that you haven't had to address before.  Apartment living is nice when you are young, but eventually it's time to grow up and get your own place.

Is it a good time to buy a home in Austin, Texas?

The quick answer is, "It depends."  Do you have some money saved up for a down payment?  Is your credit in decent shape?  What kind of home are you looking for?  I just helped a client this week to purchase a foreclosure which appraised at $70,000 above the price that they paid.  Not too shabby, huh? 

If you are looking for a "deal", they do exist, but they are not as prevalent as you might think.  However, I can virtually guarantee that from a long-term perspective, a home purchase will provide a very solid return, along with the accompanying tax writeoffs and your enjoyment of the property itself. 

When I bought my home six years ago, I experienced a few days of buyer's remorse while my home was under construction, thinking that I had overstepped my abilities at the time to afford this home.  Now that we have been here awhile, I am VERY happy that I bought when I did, as interest rates were low, and my monthly payment now seems low in comparison with friends of mine who waited to buy.

Don't lose an opportunity to get into the market with your own home purchase.  Local Austin economists are predicting a big swing for real estate between now and next spring.  If you delay too long, the interest rates could creep higher and prices certainly will, too.  The bottom line is that you can likely afford to get a nicer home by acting soon.  By the time your "baby" is a few years old, you will be happy that you took a step of faith and bought a home when the economy was being presented as uncertain and unstable by the media.  I have seen this type of economic cycle a couple of times in my real estate career, and I would love the opportunity to help you find the right home.

If you are considering a move to the Austin area, I would love the opportunity to assist you with this.  If you are renting, and you want to find out what you can afford, give me a call to get started. 

You might also be interested in my online relocation package here:

Austin Texas Relocation Package

My cell phone number is 512-796-7653 and our Austin Texas real estate website is at www.austintexashomes.com.  Thanks!  Jason Crouch 

In Pflugerville, along I-35, just north of Grand Avenue Parkway, sits Austin's Park (formerly Austin's Park and Pizza).  Although they still serve pizza, they changed the name awhile back.  I have taken our family there on a number of occasions to enjoy miniature golf, bumper boats, video games, and the batting cages.  They have two full mini golf courses, and they are suitably challenging and fun.

There is also a go-cart track which I think I am too tall to try, along with laser tag, a rock climbing wall, and a tea cup ride, a la DisneyWorld. 

Although my kids had a tough time with the miniature golf course the last time we tried it (lack of patience and fine motor skills, primarily), I think I may take them again soon, since it has been awhile.  The bumper boats are crazy-fun, and an endless source of enjoyment whether you have kids or not. 

It is a pretty large entertainment facility, although it doesn't begin to rival the big regional amusement parks.  I have found that it is best suited for our needs to pay the small entry fee of $5.95 per person to enjoy unlimited video games and the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet.  The food is probably what you would expect (i.e. not steller, but okay). 

UNLIMITED VIDEO GAMES?  This would have been like a dream come true when I was a kid.  I still remember lugging ten pounds of quarters in my pockets until my pants were about to fall down when I was 11 or 12. 

Other packages includes the all day price for every attraction in the park, which is $21.95 for adults, and $15.95 for kids.  Kids under 40" tall are FREE. 

So, if you are a new resident to Pflugerville, Round Rock, Georgetown, or north Austin, and you're looking for a fun non-movie activity for the whole family, look no further.  Give Austin's Park a shot!

Copyright 2008  Jason Crouch  Austin Real Estate

I have been playing here in the Rain for just over a year now, and I have been fortunate enough to have received a good number of referrals from my friends here.  For the past 12 years or so, I have been selling homes here in Austin, Texas.  Since our primary company website gets decent traffic, I usually get a few referrals just from random agents looking on Google or Yahoo.  ActiveRain has enhanced these numbers considerably.

As a result, I have a new outlook on referrals, and I hope other members here share this mentality with me, as it will help all of us.  When I am speaking with someone who is looking to relocate to Austin, I now know that I have an extensive network of solid agents around the country that I can depend on to help any potential clients who have a home to sell.  Granted, this is not a quick process in some parts of the world, but I feel confident that I can find a professional with a moderate amount of research here on AR.  Of course, there are certain cities where I don't have to think twice, as someone has already captured that area in my mind.

This is a big paradigm shift for me, since I never used to seek much referral income.  If someone asked if I knew anyone in (Fort Worth, Scottsdale, New Orleans, Topanga, CA, Long Island, wherever), I would look at them blankly for a second and say something like, "I'm sure I can find someone good there," which meant Googling the area.  In other words, any referrals that I sent kinda fell into my lap.

This is no longer necessary.

Now, my face lights up: "As a matter of fact, I have a good friend there who has been in real estate for eight years.  You HAVE to call him if you are moving."

What a difference a year makes!

The same goes for my listing clients, if they are moving to a new area.  "Have you found a good agent in ________ yet?  If not, I would love to help.  I know a LOT of agents across the country, thanks to my involvement in ActiveRain, which is a blogging and networking site."  Yes, I have said this, pretty much verbatim.

If you are not on the lookout for these types of opportunities, you may be letting some income slip through your fingers.  If you are looking for someone in Austin or central Texas, look no further.  I would love the opportunity to help!  If I am not able to help, I can guarantee that I can find someone suitable. 

In fact, writing this post has given me a new idea.  I need to promote this concept more heavily on my website!

Yesterday morning, I closed a referral from an agent in Boise, Idaho.  It took me very little time, and the agent called me today to thank me for a job well done.

Thanks for your time!

Copyright 2008  Jason Crouch   All rights reserved  Austin Real Estate

Many moons ago, I worked as a service manager (i.e. in charge of the wait staff) at Souper Salad restaurant on Anderson Lane in north central Austin.  I hired a waiter and waitress who became good friends of mine and when they began to privately express interest in each other while speaking to me, I played matchmaker and I was later the best man at their wedding.  They have been happily married for ten years now, and they have two very active little boys.

Today, I ate lunch at Souper Salad for the first time in awhile.  I guess I sort of got tired of the food when I worked there (and it was free), but I was struck today by how fresh the salad and soup ingredients were when compared with other places I have tried recently.

Souper Salad offers a huge salad bar, four soups each day, gingerbread, blueberry bread, and cornbread, potatoes, and an extensive dessert bar, all for a very reasonable price.  Vegetable beef is offered every day, there is a soup of the day assigned each day, and the other two are up to the manager and/or soup cook.  I was pleased to see that Tuesday is still Mama Mia Chicken day, since it is one of my all-time favorite soups.  The total today for my food with a drink was $9.40.  Tough to beat healthy AND inexpensive in today's market.

Back when I worked as a GM, I was approached by some people who wanted me to help them open a competing, yet similar, restaurant in Round Rock near Dell Computer's headquarters.  I discussed this with them a few times, then it turned out that they wanted me to STEAL the recipes for the prepared salads and soups from my employer.  Needless to say, we parted ways soon thereafter.  Later, Souper Salad opened a restaurant in the exact same strip center, which is still open today.  Good for them!  They have dramatically expanded since I worked there in the 1993-95 timeframe, and they now have locations in 12 states. 

As a father of three, I also appreciate the fact that kids under 4 eat FREE all the time at Souper Salad.  Additionally, the Sunday kids' prices are extremely low. 

Locally, there are five locations.  Three of these are in Austin proper:

One in Cedar Park:

And the aforementioned location in Round Rock:

They will also be opening a new location in Georgetown soon:

Copyright 2008   Jason Crouch   Austin Homes

I have worked with buyers relocating to Austin, Texas for almost 12 years now.  Of course, I also work with sellers and local buyers, too.  Many of the people that are coming from other states are quick to note how friendly everyone seems.

First, it starts at their hotel (or perhaps at the airport) when they arrive.  Those who are employed in the travel and hospitality industries could certainly be expected to be friendlier than average, since their livelihood depends on it.  The same goes for real estate agents (I hope). 

At some point, after we have spent a few hours together, perhaps enjoying lunch, and probably after we have encountered a few local residents, the question arises:

"Is Everyone in Austin Friendly?"

Well, I wish I could confidently say, "Yes, everyone is friendly here", but that would be a lie.  However, MOST people in Austin are pretty laidback and friendly.  I don't think about it that much, since I have lived here for 20 years now, but it is a terrific environment which makes the quality of life superb.  Often, those considering a move are in simple disbelief that Austinites are not cutting them off in traffic, and that we hold doors open for each other. 

I wouldn't say that the pace here is slow, but it is certainly relaxed.  I have always described Austin as an optimistic town with a youthful spirit.  With the dramatic growth that has occurred here over the past couple of decades, Austin managed to retain this vibe today.  With its slogan, "KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD", the city has done a lot to promote local small businesses.  This slogan was so popular that it spread to other cities around the U.S., including Portland, Tampa, Raleigh, NC, Albuquerque, and more. 

The natural beauty of the lakes, parks, and hill country make Austin a cool place to live, so naturally we are a happy bunch.  I can't think of anywhere else that I would rather raise my children. 

Looking for a friendly town?  Look no further - Austin, Texas is the place to be!