These days, it seems to be tougher and tougher to find good homes for sale in the $200K range in southwest Austin. If this is your dilemma, this home might just be the solution.
Located off of Slaughter Lane near Mopac in the Sendera subdivision, this home offers a lot of bang for the buck!
FEATURES:
3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Bathrooms
1772 square feet per tax records
Built in 1997 by Milburn Homes (now DR Horton)
Wonderful tree-covered backyard!
Deep lot with lots of large oaks!
Wood laminate floors in family room
Great plan includes upstairs gameroom and covered patio
Open kitchen with stainless steel appliances
Backs to Green Space
Located in Bowie High School district
If you are looking to move to Austin sometime soon (or even just move UP within Austin), give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love the chance to help! I can be reached on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com. Our Austin Texas real estate website is at www.austintexashomes.com. Thanks!
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?
We recently listed another property built by Grand Haven Homes in the Brodie Springs subdivision. This property has a LOT of space, and is conveniently located near the intersection of Brodie and Slaughter Lane.
FEATURES:
5 Bedrooms, 4.5 Bathrooms
5600 s.f. per builder
3 Living areas, 2 dining
2-story home
0.36 acre lot (15,681 s.f.)
2-car side-entry garage
Stone and stucco exterior
Granite counters
Awesome gourmet kitchen
Jetted tub in master bathroom
Built in 2008 - ready for immediate move-in!
Fabulously upgraded
If you are looking to move to Austin sometime soon (or even just move UP within Austin), give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love the chance to help! I can be reached on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com. Our Austin Texas real estate website is at www.austintexashomes.com. Thanks!
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?
I suppose you could consider this to be an update post of sorts. I had agreed to let everyone know what happened with my buyers from this post from a few weeks ago: Requiem for the Self-Employed Homebuyer.
In a nutshell, I was working with what in previous years would have been considered "perfect" buyers(780 FICO scores, 20% down, $500,000+ purchase price), but they were turned down by FIVE lenders because they had only 16 months of self-employment, despite being in the same field for about 10 years.
The fifth lender seems optimistic,but he was unable to get it done, despite more time passing. There were also five other offers that were turned away by the seller during the past two months (three others initially when we made ours, along with a lowball and a recent cash offer).
I am VERY HAPPY to report that we are closing in the next couple of days (probably Monday) and the lender expects funding to happen on Tuesday.
That will be one of the best Tuesdays I have had in awhile!
So what happened? Well, we ended up extending things so long with the sellers that the buyers managed to get their 2008 tax returns completed. Since the numbers matched up with their P&L statement that they had provided before, the fifth lender (sixth attempt) was able to get it done!
What are my personal lessons from this transaction?
Have patience - This required me to pull from my last reserves of patience
Be nice - I know this may sound a little bit.....overconfident, but I am convinced that we won the initial negotiation AND managed to keep the sellers on board because they simply liked me and we had a good rapport
Be persistent - I literally hand-carried the buyer's loan file to multiple lenders in an effort to find someone to take this loan, which I considered a worthy risk to any bank
Keep an open mind - I ended up learning about several different loan products that I was previous somewhat unfamiliar with, including "hard money" loans and wraparound mortgages (I was determined to find something that would work for my buyers)
Be flexible - In order to make it work for the sellers, I had to give a slight commission concession at one point. I would always rather give a little to gain a lot!
Looking at this list now, I realize that these lessons/tips apply in ANY transaction. We work in a "people" business. As such, it's important to maintain an attitude that is conducive to getting things done, plain and simple. I have always viewed it as my job to help my clients to get the home that they really want. In fact, we very rarely lose a sale once a contract is in place. For me, that is the essence of success in my business.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Speaking of Tuesday, be sure to tune in and listen to me and my co-host Ken Cook every Tuesday at noon Eastern (11am Central, 10am Mountain, 9am Pacific) for "Twitter Tuesday", which focuses on social media and its various applications in business: http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc
I fully realize that this is just anecdotal evidence, but I can't help but think that the buying activity has picked up dramatically in Austin, and here's why:
I have had multiple offer scenarios TWICE in 2009 already!
In January, I wrote a post about a multiple offer deal (six total offers) that I was working on which clearly demonstrated just how tight Fannie Mae guidelines are for the self-employed: Requiem for the Self-Employed Homebuyer
Before I go any further, I will mention that the buyer reference in the above link was turned down by FIVE lenders, but they are now approved! I had a bunch of my AR friends ask about this one after it was written. We are now supposed to close by Monday. But I digress...
Today, I received two offers on one of my listings (could have been three, but the third agent decided not to enter the bidding war). We had lowered the price a little bit, in an effort to drive more traffic because they are moving up to a larger home.
This home will likely go under contract for a few thousand dollars above the asking price, as did the other home in January. In 2008, I don't recall ANY multiple offer situations arising for my clients.
As additional evidence of improvement in the buyer activity, I have worked several Saturdays this year with buyer clients, and at least three times we have encountered other agents showing the same houses that we were about to see. This has happened with both new and resale homes. A few years ago, that was a common occurrence, to be sure. However, in 2008, I wasn't running into fellow agents in the trenches.
March is shaping up to be my best income month since 2007, and I am sincerely hoping that this carries forward into the typical spring and summer selling season. With the $8000 tax credit for first-time buyers in place, I already have at least five clients who are going to take advantage of this. Frankly, I should be able to exceed last year's income by May or June at the latest. This post, however, is not really about me. It's about maintaining some measure of focus in a hurricane of difficult economic times.
I don't mind admitting that my income for 2008 was at best subpar, at least for me. I could probably get just about ANY office job and make as much as I made, along with having benefits. However, I still feel that my earning potential is the very best in this business, which I chose as a career 12 years ago.
I saw economist Ted Jones speak today, and he was talking about the outlook and his own forecasts for the upcoming 2-4 years, both locally and nationally. Not everything he said was rosy, of course, but I didn't expect it to be. He IS an economist, after all. I was thinking today about having weathered a ridiculously tough year in this business, and how blessed I feel to still be left standing at the cusp of what should prove to be a great year for us financially.
The time has come to innovate in order to survive, and I feel more prepared for that than ever before. I am good at what I do, and I have an arsenal of new tools to help me achieve my goals now. Since the new year started, I can attribute SEVEN clients to my blog and other social media involvement so far.
Here are a few resolutions that I have made - join me if you like:
There's no need for excuses anymore.
This is not the time for complaining, whining, or finger-pointing.
I have decided not to allow fear to rule the day in my business or my life.
I shared in a post last week that my personal keyword for 2009 is "UNAFRAID". With that in mind, it's time to get over it and move forward. The catchphrase that Ted Jones used today was "Get Over It" when he showed this short and funny video, and it struck a chord with me for some reason. Maybe it will resound with you, too. It just makes the phrase a bit easier to remember: GET OVER IT!
In case you didn't already know (i.e. you don't normally read my blog), Ken Cook and I have been hosting a one-hour show called Twitter Tuesday every week at 11am Central (noon Eastern, 10am Mountain, 9am Pacific) on BlogTalkRadio. We have a guest or two each time, and we talk about various social media topics and using them to grow your business.
Sometimes, we just riff on each other and use funny sound effects and music to make each other laugh. It pretty much depends on our mood.
Currently, we are averaging 222 listeners per show for February.
I think we will likely shatter our listener record once again, with this week's incredible guest, Shel Israel.
About Shel Israel
Shel is the co-author with Robert Scoble of "Naked Conversations", which is a terrific book about how blogs are changing the way that businesses talk with customers. It is considered to be a seminal book on the topic of business blogging. He is also working on another book, "Twitterville". Shel's blog, Global Neighbourhoods, is ranked #59 on Ad Age's "POWER 150" list.
Shel is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on social media, and he has addressed well over 10,000 people on this topic, including engagements for the following organizations:
Intel, San Francisco and Las Vegas
SAP, Palo Alto
Dell Computer
US Embassy, Rome
Microsoft Corp., Redmond & Brussels
L'Oreal, Paris
Wells Fargo Bank, San Francisco
Hitachi Data Systems, Santa Clara
CNET, San Francisco
Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park
GlobalSpec, Saratoga, NY CK
Amazon.com, Seattle
Executives & Gov't communictors, Ottawa
Government Communicators, Toronto
National Booksellers Conference, Las Vegas
Seattle Chamber of Commerce
Please join us for what should prove to a highly educational time with Shel on Tuesday!
You can access the live show OR listen to the recorded shows anytime right here:
My cousin has his home listed with me, and we are hoping to get it sold soon, as they are looking to purchase a larger home for their growing family. We have reduced it by $15,000 now in an effort to stimulate enough interest to get it sold in the next couple of weeks. We had a very interested buyer who spent 40-45 minutes looking at it yesterday, but we have no offers as of yet.
Features:
3 bedrooms, 2 baths
1673 s.f. - built by Scott Felder in 1997
2 Dining areas (formal dining and breakfast)
Designer colors
Terrific neighborhood amenities - pools, playground, basketball, clubhouse, fitness center
Fireplace with built-in bookcase to the side
Extended patio and wood deck in the back
Large corner lot
Very convenient to toll roads (45 and 130)
I created a virtual tour using photos at Real Estate Shows for the home just now:
If you have any interest in taking a look, let me know. The price is relatively firm, because they really need to get this amount in order to afford their new home.
Feel free to call or email me anytime - I live a few blocks away and I would love to show it to you. Thanks!
I wrote about Marathon Kids last year, which is a cool fitness program wherein kids commit to finish an entire marathon over a few months' time. In our case, until the beginning of the month, we thought we had more time to complete this task. I could have sworn that the final ceremony was going to be in April, but I was wrong, so we did the vast majority of the mileage over the past 3 weeks and finished last night.
Last year, my wife did more of the running with him, but she is currently 33 weeks pregnant, so that wouldn't work as well this time around. Thankfully, I am happy to report that I lost a few pounds as a result.
Today's medal ceremony was a lot of fun for both of us, despite the chill in the air and the somewhat strong wind. It was sunny and the atmosphere was charged and exciting. They really do a great job of making the kids feel like rock stars.
We arrived about 15 minutes early, which concerned me a little bit, since last year's traffic was hideous. This time, I hit zero traffic and we parked and walked right in. Score!
I got a few brief videos with my new Creative Vado camera (similar to the Flip, which was broken recently by our beloved toddler daughter). Brandon had to squint a few times from the sun. Enjoy:
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?
BuilderOnline.com, which is the website for Builder Magazine, published a list this week of the healthiest housing markets around the country. Not surprisingly, Austin fared well on the list. What I DID find surprising was the fact that Texas has the entire top five.
To compile the list, they analyzed the top 75 real estate markets in the country, ranking them based on population trends and job growth, which are both perennial factors that drive demand for homes. They also took into account current home prices and the number of building permits.
Houston ranked first, followed by Austin, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Dallas. Raleigh, N.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Ind., Fayetteville, Ark., and Washington D.C. rounded out the top ten.
Nine years ago, during the tech bust, some builders felt that Austin was too crowded and left. The bloom is back on Austin's yellow rose now; it moved up the leader board to become the sixth largest home building market last year. Job creation explains the move. While other markets lost employment, Austin added 17,400 jobs last year, 2.31 percent growth rate. It helps that Austin is home to both a major university, The University of Texas, and the state capital.
Existing homes cost a little bit more in Austin than other Texas markets, roughly $190,900, but that's still below the national average. Also, Austin is one of the few metro areas in the country where median prices actually rose in 2008--1.4 percent through the first three quarters of the year. Amazingly, Austin now generates more home building activity than Chicago, which has six times more people.
If you are considering a move to Austin, Texas, I would love the opportunity to help you find the right home. Our Austin TX real estate website is www.austintexashomes.com. You might also be interested in checking out my online relocation package right here:
Apparently, the name change for our fledgling church is already working! Actually, I am joking, but it was a pleasant surprise to have two new families show up last week. As it turns out, BOTH of them had found the church from my blog! This was a terrific feeling.
One lady mentioned that she had been looking for "PCA church Georgetown" on Google, and one of my previous posts was at #1 that day. Later, I did some research, and it turns out that my posts were on SIX of the top ten results for that term. But how?
Apparently, the tags I had assigned to my posts were picked up via various Yahoo pages and MyBlogCatalog, along with the normal AR indexed pages and Localism. Cool!
Our website is currently undergoing a re-design, and it should be finalized soon. Feel free to check it out:
We have decided to wait until September to start our regular Sunday morning services, but we will likely begin a modified and simple service Sunday evenings starting the week after Easter. We will probably have to find a new venue sometime soon, and we will remain there until September, when we move to mornings. At that point, we'll be meeting at Tippett Middle School (off Leander Road just west of I-35).
For now, if you would like to visit, we are meeting Sunday evenings from 6-8pm next to the RunTex store at 809 South Main Street just south of the town square.
Thanks to those of you who continue to pray for the success of our church! We are excited about the upcoming months of work and progress ahead.
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?
In a Top Ten list released today by Forbes.com, Austin, Texas was named the #2 most family-friendly city in the United States!
Having lived in this area since 1988, and as a father of three now, I can attest to this fact. I often tell my clients who are relocating that Austin is a terrific place to start and raise a family.
This particular study focused on affordability for families. To rank the affordability of the country's 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas, Forbes.com used the Economic Policy Institute's Basic Family Budget Calculator.
Austin posted the following numbers in the story:
Median Annual Family Income: $66,064 Average Annual Family Budget: $42,220 Budget as Percent of Income: 64%
The top city was a surprise to me - San Jose, California was at 55% for the last figure.
The entire article is here, and it includes links to all of the cities on the list, as well as those considered to be "least family friendly":
One of the major reasons that Austin consistently gets buyers who want to relocate here is the fact that homes remain imminently affordable overall, with an average sales price in the low $200's for the metro area.
If you are considering a move to Austin, Texas, I would love the opportunity to help you find the right home. Our Austin TX real estate website is www.austintexashomes.com. You might also be interested in checking out my online relocation package right here:
