I remember doing a paper in college about the olfactory sense, which is the technical name for our sense of smell.  The olfactory sense is generally believed to be the most closely linked to your memory, and it is some 10,000 times stronger than your sense of taste.  Also, certain scents will produce a highly emotional reaction.  You can probably think of at least one perfume or cologne that reminds you of someone in your past.

Why is this important to real estate?

Well, allow me to explain, if you will (and I guess even if you won't).  I have probably shown several thousand homes to home buyers over the course of my real estate career.  Patterns emerge, and trends occur with buyers.  When buyers are looking at a good number of homes, I have found it helpful and natural to designate each home with a shorthand of some sort:

• "The house with the skyline view"
• "The one with the tile roof"
• "The place with the incredible landscaping"

Of course, all of these are positive attributes, right?  On the flip side of the coin, think about how it would make you feel if your home received one of these descriptions (all of these are real, from buyers I have worked with):

• "The dog pee house"
• "The house with the weird smell"
• "The stinky house" 
• "The spice house" - This was from ethnic cooking of some sort, as I recall

Not as appealing, is it?  It probably won't surprise you to learn that the dog pee house didn't make the top three for my buyers. 

All homes have some sort of scent/odor, so it's hard to make it completely neutral.  Sometimes, frankly, the scent is too strong in the other direction (i.e. it smells heavily perfumed, which is equally distracting).  I think the worst possible combination is when there is a bad smell that is clearly (though not completely) covered with an air freshener:

"Is that rotten laundry smell with a hint of lavender?  Ahhhhh....nice."

"WOW!  Is that damp mustiness and lemon freshness combined?  I like it!"

No one says these things.  You must eliminate the source, not just spray Febreze and call it a day.  For the record, I like Febreze for the most part, in case you were wondering.

The best solution is to allow someone else (such as your real estate agent) to give you the lowdown on this.  We tend to get used to the smell of our own home, which is why it is sometimes jarring to sleep in another house when visiting relatives.  If you are wondering if your home has a distinct smell, I would recommend going outside for a few minutes and then coming back in.  The results may surprise you.  This method sort of cleanses your nasal palate, so to speak, and you may discover a problem that you didn't realize existed. 

Essentially, you are just going for a clean scent or something that may evoke a positive memory.  Real estate trainers the world round recommend baking something or at least using a few drops of vanilla on a cookie sheet when doing an open house.  There are tons of other techniques, but this post is really just to teach you the importance of this (often overlooked) angle when selling.

Take it from me: when you are trying to sell your home, smells do matter!  You want them to focus on your granite counters, or your high-end flooring upgrades, or your designer paint colors, not the cat boxes.

If you are considering selling your home anywhere in the general Austin area, please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly.  You can visit my primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  I hope to hear from you soon!

I have loved the Stone Canyon neighborhood for years, having assisted many buyers and sellers in the area.  We have some very good friends in this subdivision, and I always enjoy getting a chance to visit the area parks and trails with our kids.  One of the agents who works for our company has lived there for eight years, and she knows the area inside and out. 

Located just off of Highway 620 next to the Round Rock Medical Center, it offers strong amenities, natural beauty, and high-quality homes.

Currently, there are 27 homes available on the MLS in Stone Canyon, with an average asking price of $237,758.  The average square footage for these homes is 2,668, for an average price per square foot of $89.78. 

There are 7 homes under contract right now in Stone Canyon, with an average price of $224,614.  The average square footage on these homes is 2,119, yielding an average square footage price of $106.00.  Although this represents a big increase in the square footage amount from the previous six months, the home size that is selling readily is quite a bit smaller than before.

Over the summer months, there were 20 sales closed within Stone Canyon.  The average listing price was $242,789 and the average sales price was $237,278.  This means that homes sold for  97.8% of the list price.  This number is exactly the same as it was for the first six months of 2008.  The average number of days on the market was 63 days, which is less than the average for the Austin market right now.  The square footage of the homes sold averaged 2,647, and the price per square foot for the sales was $89.65.

If you are a homeowner living in another neighborhood in or near Austin or Round Rock and you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you.  All of my contact information is below.

If you are considering selling your home in Stone Canyon (or anywhere in the general Austin or Round Rock area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly.  You can visit my primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com. 

Thanks for checking out this brief analysis!

As you may have heard, on July 30th, 2008 President Bush signed into law the Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008 in order to help stimulate the economy. Among other items in the bill, Congress created a new home buyer tax credit.  The Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008 authorizes a $7,500 tax credit (which is better than a deduction!) for qualified buyers purchasing homes during the period from April 9, 2008 until June 30, 2009. 

If you recently closed on a home (i.e. on or after April 9th, 2008), this is also available retroactively for you.

The tax credit is for anyone who has not owned a home within the last 3 years (this qualifies you as a "First Time Home Buyer" under this new law).  You must purchase a new or resale home as your primary residence in order to qualify for the tax credit.

The maximum credit amount is $7,500.  The full credit will be given to single taxpayers with incomes of up to $75,000 or married couples with incomes up to $150,000. However, some homeowners with higher salaries can also qualify for partial tax credits for home purchases.

Owe little to no taxes? No problem...this is a tax CREDIT, not a deduction. Typically this involves the government sending the taxpayer a check for a portion or all the amount of the tax credit left after the rest is paid towards taxes owed.

So...this would mean if you owe $1,000 in taxes and qualify for the $7,500 credit, you not only have unexpected money to pay your taxes but still have $6,500 to spend on home decorating, landscaping, your kid's college fund...you stimulate the economy with your savings however you decide. All that money you saved to pay Uncle Sam? Yours to keep. 

"So, is there a catch?" 

Well, yes, sort of. 

The tax credit is really a loan.  It is an INTEREST FREE loan, but it is a loan nonetheless.  You have 15 years to pay it back (that's approximately $500 per year interest-free for 15 years), if you sell your home and do not make a profit prior to paying back the loan, the loan is forgiven. Should the tax credit be given to someone who is deceased prior to loan repayment, the loan is forgiven as well.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to help answer them for you, or you can speak with our mortgage broker anytime. 

Overall, this is an exciting bonus for homeowners & it's time allotment means many have time to build a home & still qualify...& enjoy an unexpected $7,500 at tax time.

If you are considering buying a home in Austin (or anywhere in the general central Texas area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you find the right place.  You can visit our primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  Thanks!

Before you decide to skim this post which may appear at first glance to merely be a story about a local restaurant, please know that it has a valuable real estate message.

I took my family to Red Lobster on Sunday after church.  As always, the food was great, but the service was not exactly perfect.  For some reason, I have noticed a disturbing trend these days with wait staff - they DON'T WRITE STUFF DOWN.

Is this supposed to impress me somehow?

"Wow, honey, did you notice that the guy didn't write down any of our complicated order?  I mean, there are five of us here.  If he gets it right, I think we should double his tip."

Actually, I usually tip very well, because I used to be in restaurant management in the mid-90's, so I know how hard the average waitperson works.  However, when my order is messed up, I get more perturbed if they didn't write it down.  It makes me assume that they weren't paying attention. 

Listening is a critical sales skill for ANY service provider, and the same goes for us in the real estate and mortgage industries.

About 6 years ago, I got my very first sale over the $1 million mark.  Thankfully, we have had a good number of them since.  I blogged about the entire story once, but I don't need to provide lengthy details here in order to make my point.  The buyers had worked with me several years earlier, then "put things on hold", then re-surfaced in 2002.  It turns out that they had worked with two other agents for long stretches of time, while searching for the perfect place. 

They told me that they had always found me to be trustworthy, so they returned to let me assist them.  I managed to find the right home on their first visit, and they closed on that home for $1.2 million the next month.

What did I do differently?

I WROTE DOWN her list of needs/wants.  Believe me, it was a long list.  After combing through all of the listings, it was apparent that there was really just one place that would work for them, and it turned out that I was correct. 

I have had countless buyers tell me something along these lines during my career:

"The last agent we tried to work with didn't pay attention to us.  She showed us what she thought we would like, rather than what we really wanted to see."

I am happy to state that I have built my business over the past 12 years by being a good listener.  Pay attention to your clients!  It pays off.  I tell home buyers the same thing when we are actively looking - I will honor their criteria until they tell me to make a change.  If we begin looking at properties and it becomes obvious that they can't find what they need, I present options.  They can raise the price range, or they can change the area of town.  Usually, it is the former, but I let THEM dictate this decision. 

I have mentioned this quote in the past, and I don't know the source, but I have never forgotten it:

God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.  We should listen twice as much as we speak.

Don't be the pushy fool who loses an "in hand" client by showing them the wrong homes.  LISTEN (and write it down) and reap the benefits!

Sonoma is a terrific neighborhood located in east Round Rock, just off Gattis School Road.  With two theme pools, two lakes, and a playground area, Sonoma is also located adjacent to the Round Rock hike-and-bike trail system.  It was awarded the prestigious MAX Award for "Best Overall Community" a few years ago.

Currently, there are 36 homes available on the MLS in Sonoma, with an average asking price of $250,730.  The average square footage for these homes is 2,791, for an average price per square foot of $90.54.  This is a drop of about $2/square foot from the previous quarter, and about $8 less than the first quarter of 2008.

Presently, there are 5 homes under contract in the subdivision, with an average listing price of $226,550 and an average square footage of 2,576, yielding an average price per square foot of $87.94.  This is about a dollar less than the previous quarter.  One thing worth mentioning is the fact that one of the homes under contract is quite a bit more expensive (at $320,000), and the other four homes average $203,000.

Over the past three months (June through August 2008), there were 13 sales closed within Sonoma.  The average listing price was $251,282 and the average sales price was $241,286.  This means that homes sold for approximately 96% of the list price.  The average number of days on the market was 83, which slightly more than the overall Austin area average.  The square footage of the homes sold averaged 2,841, and the price per square foot for the sales was $85.63.  This is a decrease of about $5/sq. ft. since the first quarter of the year.

In other area news:

About five minutes from Sonoma, located at the southwest corner of the intersection of the two major toll roads (45 and 130), Stone Hill Town Center is slated to open within a few months, and it promises over 1,000,000 square feet of shopping and entertainment.  Home Depot is already open, soon to be followed by Best Buy, Chili's, several retail clothing stores, a large Cinemark theater, 24-Hour Fitness, and much more.  The developers are estimating that it will open in March 2009.

To read more details about this center and to see a list of stores and restaurants, check out my recent article here:

Stone Hill Town Center - Pflugerville, Texas Shopping - UPDATE!

If you would like to see the proposed layout, you can visit the developer's website and see the site plan here:

http://www.newquestproperties.com/property_retail/property/Stone%20Hill%20Town%20Center/SitePlan/pfu5-07.pdf

If you are a consumer living in another area around Austin or Round Rock and you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you.  All of my contact information is below. 

If you are considering selling your home in Sonoma (or anywhere in the general Austin area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly.  You can visit my primary Round Rock real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. 

You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  Thanks for checking out this brief analysis! 

I am often asked about which areas our company covers with regard to listing properties.  The short answer is that we handle the entire Austin metro area and beyond in about 30 minutes in each direction.  The long answer is that we are able to assist you in any of the following areas (not broken down into neighborhoods - if your neighborhood is in one of these towns, we can likely help):

We have sold homes in every area listed above.

BUT HOW?!?

After looking at this extensive list, you are probably wondering how we can cover so much ground.  Since I have 15 agents on my team, many of whom live in outlying areas of town, we probably have an agent or two in your neck of the woods. 

With regard to my philosophies on listing homes, you can check out the following posts that I have written on this topic:

How to Choose the Best Listing Agent for Your Needs

Top 10 Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Home - In fact, I'll throw in an extra one for you!

If you are considering listing your home, you owe it to yourself to call me first.  Perhaps we are not the best fit for you, in which case I will tell you this, rather than trying to make the square peg fit into the round hole, like some agents. 

I have been in Austin real estate full-time for almost 12 years now.  There are certainly others who have sold more homes than I have, but you would be hard-pressed to find an agent with more integrity than me.  I would rather talk you out of a home purchase or an offer on your home than to assist you in making a bad decision.

If you are considering selling a home in Austin (or anywhere in the general central Texas area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you sell your property as quickly as the market can bear.  You can visit our primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  Thanks!

In a report that was just released via MSN's Real Estate portal, Austin ranked #10 on the list of "66 Cities Where Buying Makes Sense".  Not surprisingly, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and McAllen, Texas also made the top ten!

The study was conducted to determine whether it is a better financial move today to rent a two-bedroom apartment or to purchase a low-priced home.  According to the published estimates, if you purchase an affordable home in the Austin-Round Rock area, you will have substantial equity in four years' time. 

The article alludes to the fact that home ownership is typically not a short-term proposition, which is something I have taught my clients for 12 years now.  Flipping homes was never really very prevalent here in Austin, partially because prices didn't increase at precipitous levels.  Consequently, we have weathered much of the worst economic times relatively unscathed.

In the top 24 markets analyzed (including Austin), home values are expected to outpace a 6% mortgage loan very easily.  They estimated that a low-priced home in this area would provide just over $70,000 in equity by 2012 with a loan at that rate.

To see the entire article and list of cities, visit: http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=8378117. 

If you are considering purchasing a home in Austin (or anywhere in the general central Texas area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you find the right home.  You can visit my primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  Thanks for checking out this brief analysis!  

Falcon Pointe is a 700-acre master-planned community in the fast-growing Pflugerville area. As the largest master-planned community in Pflugerville, Falcon Pointe offers homes priced from the $170,000s to $300,000s by leading builders, along with a popular Residents' Club, parks and greenbelt trails. Falcon Pointe is home to three on-site schools, all part of the highly acclaimed Pflugerville Independent School District.

Currently, there are 35 new and resale homes available in the Austin MLS in the Falcon Pointe area, with an average asking price of $257,481.  The average square footage for these homes is 2,967, for an average price per square foot of $88.01.

Presently, there are 4 homes under contract in the subdivision, with an average listing price of $208,280, and an average square footage of 2,193, yielding an average price per square foot of $95.40.  It should be noted that one of the sales was at $155,000, which brought down the average considerably.

Over the past quarter (September through December 2007), there were 9 sales closed within Falcon Pointe.  The average listing price was $243,892 and the average sales price was $227,373 (93.2% of asking).  The average size was 2744 s.f., which put the average price per square foot at $84.00 with the average days on market running at 73 days (slightly more than the overall Austin market). 

I have noticed a trend toward larger homes in Falcon Pointe lately, with several homes over 4500 square feet under construction presently.  These are priced in the mid-to-high $300's.

In other area news:

Located at the southwest corner of the intersection of the aforementioned toll roads (45 and 130), Stone Hill Town Center is slated to open within a few months, and it promises over 1,000,000 square feet of shopping and entertainment.  Home Depot is already open, soon to be followed by Best Buy, Chili's, several retail clothing stores, a large Cinemark theater, 24-Hour Fitness, and much more. 

To read more details about this center and to see a list of stores and restaurants, check out my recent article here:

Stone Hill Town Center - Pflugerville, Texas Shopping - UPDATE!

If you would like to see the proposed layout, you can visit the developer's website and see the site plan here:

http://www.newquestproperties.com/property_retail/property/Stone%20Hill%20Town%20Center/SitePlan/pfu5-07.pdf

If you are a consumer living in another area around Austin and you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you.  All of my contact information is below. 

If you are considering selling your home in Falcon Pointe (or anywhere in the general Austin area), please feel free to give me a call.  I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly.  You can visit my primary website at www.austintexashomes.com.  You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com.  Thanks for checking out this brief analysis! 

One of my favorite hangouts with my wife is Half Price Books, or basically any used bookstore with a good selection.  I have enjoyed reading for my entire life, and I have (thankfully) instilled this love of learning and reading in my own children, who are homeschooled. 

I actually learned to read at age two (true story).  My mom took me to see my grandmother in Corpus Christi for a visit around Christmas 1972.  I was two and several months old.  My mom said, "Jason can read now." 

Of course, my grandmother scoffed at the notion: "He has probably memorized the books that you have.  We'll see how he does with the books I have here."

Later, when my mom came to pick me up, my grandmother said simply, "You were right.  He can read."

This wasn't something my mom specifically set out to teach me when I was that little, but she did read to me a lot.  Since I don't remember learning to read, it feels like something that was just always there.

My mind gets bored easily, so I don't like to be anywhere very long with NOTHING to do.  I read voraciously, and I go through phases - sometimes I read nothing but non-fiction, sometimes only humor, sometimes fiction for months at a stretch.  I usually have at least three books that I am working on around the house or in the car.

The other night, when we were at the bookstore, I realized that many of the books that interested me had personal and intimate inscriptions inside the front cover:

"Dad - This book made me think of you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I love you!  Sarah"

"Tony - Happy graduation!  This is a classic book about making your way as a young person in this world, and I think many of the ideas are still true today.  Love, Aunt Linda"

One of my "finds" was a Kurt Vonnegut book with a handwritten note inside: "Catch 22 - Joseph Heller".  I realized that I had already read that particular Vonnegut book, so I moved on.

I got home and was motoring through Johnny Cash's autobiography, titled simply "Cash".  Around chapter three or four, I found something that made me feel sad.  It was an unlabeled baby picture.  It was a beautiful blond child, about three months old, sleeping soundly.  It made me think about the previous owner of the photo.  Did they notice that the picture was missing?  Perhaps it was a father who took this picture of his son along with him when he traveled.  Maybe they were estranged, and he had only this picture to remember his child.

As you can see, I have a pretty vivid imagination.  This is a skill that has served me well through the years, in my marketing, and, now, in my writing/blogging. 

I have had a number of people ask me over the past year where I come up with ideas for my blog posts.  Most of them are triggered by small things that happen around me.  As I approach 600 posts here on ActiveRain, I realized that I seem to always have a running mental list of possible topics.  Sometimes, they turn into posts, and sometimes they are altered substantially by the time I finish writing.  The rabbit trails in my mind are extensive and many are still unexplored. 

I never plan anything very well before I start writing - no outlines, just sort of a vague idea of what I want to get across.  I don't spend much time on the actual writing part.  I think I probably spend an average of 10-15 minutes, unless I have to do a lot of layout on a recap post.  The quick version of my writing seems to provide the best results.  If I overthink it, it comes out less interesting.  My primary advice for those of you who are trying to improve your writing skills is to be alert to your surroundings.  There are a lot of cool things happening that could serve as great topics.  Heck, I got featured once by using an old inside joke with my wife, and just yesterday I wrote a post that mentioned my friend's hemorrhoids.  Don't think too hard - just write.

Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts this afternoon!

I have a friend who, for the sake of this post, I am going to call Ted.  I don't actually know any Teds, so we should be safe using this name.  I am sure you know someone like Ted.  He's the kind of guy who manages to focus on the negative, no matter how well things are going for him.  Also, he is certain to point out how badly YOUR business must be going, with the current economy:

ME: Hey, Ted.  How's it going today?

TED: Pretty good.  I guess you must be just about broke, what with the real estate market in the tank, huh? 

ME: Actually, this has been our strongest month in awhile.  I am working on a couple of closings, and my agents have been busy.

TED: Well, don't get too confident.  The Dow took another nosedive yesterday.

ME: Frankly, I stopped watching the Dow a long time ago.  Every time that I hear about it dropping a lot, it seems like it is at the same level where I saw it before. 

TED: They're saying gas prices may go to FIVE dollars a gallon in the wake of the recent hurricane.

ME:  I hope it doesn't get that high, but I suppose we don't have a lot of choice in the matter. 

TED: Also, I was reading in the paper that real estate sales are down 20% in Austin from last year.

ME: I call this "how to lie with statistics".  Comparing it to last year makes for interesting newspaper fodder, but the trend in Austin is still strong.  2007 was a relatively good sales year, so the fact that it has dropped off doesn't really surprise me.  Prices actually went up a little during the same period.

TED: I have hemorrhoids.

ME: What?  Why are you telling me this?

TED: I ran out of negative things to say, and it was the first thing to come to mind.

ME: You have made me feel tired, Ted.  See you later.

Ted is the kind of guy who can make you feel awkward and sad for having a newborn baby, or getting a big commission, or winning a gold medal.  He drains you, and you likely want to avoid him with every ounce of your being.

I try really hard not to be like Ted, even when things seem to be a struggle.  I can assure you that you probably won't gain any new clients by focusing on the "cons" of the current market.  There are always plenty of arguments in favor of making a move now, especially for buyers (low interest rates, more inventory, etc.).  For sellers, the key is to be honest with them about their prospects and pricing.  If they need to sell, take the listing.  If they are just seeing what will happen, run like the wind.

I was taught to always say, "Great!" when someone asks how business is going.  This strikes me as disingenuous, and I can't bring myself to do that if it isn't true all the time.  However, I do talk about which things are going well, rather than burdening them with my problems or concerns.  If sales are slow one month, I might say, "Business is slower than it was a couple of years ago, but we're having a pretty good year overall.  The market in Austin has held up remarkably well.  If things improve nationally, we are positioned for some great years ahead."

I am not advocating that you present sunshine and rainbows to every client, but don't focus on the lemons if you can avoid it.  No one likes hearing about Ted's hemorrhoids.