Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

I have been working on improving my video skills lately, and since I had my pocket video camera with me today during my time with my family, I decided to shoot a few quick videos and incorporate them into a restaurant review.

Mighty Fine Burgers has three locations in the Austin metro area (one in north Austin, one in south Austin, and a brand-new location in Round Rock near Teravista). 

To say that the food is good is a vast understatement.  Everything that I have had there is excellent!  In fact, they are typically swamped, so we tried to time our lunch during their "down time". 

I hope you enjoy the video - big thanks to Jeremy Blanton for his help in using Windows Movie Maker!:

 

Thanks so much for checking out my video journal of our time at Mighty Fine Burgers!

After numerous requests, I decided that it was time to post some new photos of our sweet new baby girl, Genevieve ("Jenny").  I took these pictures over the past day or two.  THANK YOU for all of the incredibly kind baby gifts that you have sent!

In this first picture, Jenny appears to be making a speech, perhaps about the condition of the national economy:

 

 

 

Our 3-year old, Abby, LOVES the new baby! 

 

I'm sure I will have plenty of additional pictures to share in the upcoming weeks!  Have a great Sunday.

 

 

One of our agents listed a terrific former model home in Kyle (due south of Austin).  Located at 442 Summer Lane in Four Season Farms, it is priced at $175,000.

Features:

• 2118 square feet per tax records
  3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms
• Built in 2004 by Perry Homes (former model home)
• Ready for quick move-in!
• Spacious, private master suite w/ double Corian vanities
• Separate Shower
• Great wall of storage cabinets
• Large walk-in closet
• Full sprinkler system
• Smart Home wiring
• Recent Carpet Throughout (April 2009)
• Located minutes from I-35 and 130 toll road
• Near new retail shopping!

 

I just got a new listing a couple of days ago in the gated Enclave at Round Rock Ranch.  Although we have all heard, "shows like a model" more times than I care to count, this home actually does show extremely well. 

Features:

• 2676 square feet per tax records
• 5 bedrooms or 4 bedrooms + office
• 2.5 Bathrooms
• Native stone exterior
• Gated community!
• Extensive ceramic tile flooring
• Large gameroom
• Master and three bedrooms upstairs
• Designer paint colors
• Formal living and dining rooms
• One block from pool, playground, and elementary school

I hit the half-million point mark on points last week.  Actually, the AR guys were kind enough to give me a "new dad" gift by rounding my points a little bit so that I could hit exactly 500,000 (see screen shot at right).  

When I started on ActiveRain back in August 2007 (20+ months ago), I never would have conceived of having a point total in this range.  I just knew that I enjoyed the interaction and the friendships that I was developing.

Then, along the way, something else happened.

I realized that I really love to write, and write I did.  I have composed almost 800 posts on this blog to date.  I have written posts for SEO purposes, posts about my family, silly posts, tutorials, market reports, posts that I was dared to write (seriously), and posts to help others.

I haven't had as much time to write lately, primarily because of our latest addition and my wife's pregnancy prior to that.  My family needs me more than my blog needs me - it's that simple.

I am happy to report that I have closed a handful of deals this year already which came directly from ActiveRain.  In fact, now that I have been doing this for over a year and a half, I am astounded by the number of direct consumer contacts that I receive now, many of whom claim to have been reading my blog for months.

Think about that for a second and let it sink in.  

Since consumers rarely comment on my posts here, I really have no way to gauge how many of them are reading my stuff unless they call or email me.  However, I have a far larger audience than my comments would indicate.  

I got curious today to see which one of my posts has generated the most traffic overall.  I wasn't really surprised to find that it is this one:

Austin Texas Relocation Package

In fact, that post (which only garnered 30 comments) has had 18,512 clicks as of today.  Yes, you read that last line correctly.  That means that over 18,000 people have come across this post, most likely because it holds the #1 or 2 position on Google AND Yahoo for this term and its variants.  

I am currently working with some clients from New York who found the relocation package post first, and it served as the portal to the rest of my blog.  They are looking to move this summer sometime, and they will probably spend $500,000 or thereabouts on a condo downtown.

I guess I just wanted to share this stuff with you in order to encourage you to continue writing.  If you feel discouraged because you aren't getting leads, GIVE IT TIME.  Keep cranking out good, original content and you WILL be found!

Thanks for reading!

 

     

 My RSS feed is http://activerain.com/jasoncrouch/rss.  

According to a U.S. Census Bureau report that was released in March, Austin is the second fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States, ranking behind only Raleigh, NC in terms of percentage growth.

Austin grew by 3.8% during the period from mid-2007 to mid-2008, hitting a population of around 1.7 million.  This seems amazing to me, since I remember the metro area was under 1 million when I started as a real estate agent in early 1997. 

The metro area includes Round Rock, which also serves as the international headquarters for Dell Computer.  That fact alone has transformed Round Rock from a humble suburb to a thriving city of its own.

Austin continues to be one of the most desirable places to live and work, and our real estate market never experienced a "bubble" to pop, so prices have remained relatively strong here, although we have had some declines, depending on the specific location.

For 2009, we have seen strong demand, with most of my agents reporting that they have been involved in multiple offer situations in the first quarter of the year at least once (I had two myself). 

To see the entire press release from the Census Bureau, visit:

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/013426.html

If you are considering moving to the Austin, Texas area, you may be interested in checking out my online relocation package here:

Austin Texas Relocation Package

Please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 or email me at jason@austintexashomes.com.  You can also search for Austin homes at our primary website - www.austintexashomes.com. 

Once again, Austin has been recognized nationally with positive economic news.

Austin ranks No. 1 on the list of big cities for employment potential from NewGeography.com.  The Capital City posted modest job growth of just 1 percent in 2008 but that was still better than a lot of other big cities.  That growth, coupled with Austin's long-term potential to continue creating new jobs, garnered it the top spot. 

For the study, they looked at recent data as well as statistics dating back to 1996.  This was so that things wouldn't be tainted (i.e. in order to establish a trend and look at the big picture nationwide). 

Texas dominates a new list on job growth potential among the nations largest metropolitan areas.  Texas major metros round out the top five spots on the big cities list, with Houston coming in 2nd, San Antonio 3rd, Fort Worth-Arlington 4th and Dallas 5th.

For the complete large cities list, visit:

http://www.newgeography.com/content/00745-large-cities-ranking-2009-new-geography-best-cities-job-growth

For the complete list (includes large, medium, and small cities):

http://www.newgeography.com/content/00741-all-cities-rankings-2009-new-geography-best-cities-job-growth

If you are considering a move to Austin, Texas, please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 or email jason@austintexashomes.com.  You can search for Austin homes at www.austintexashomes.com. 

It has been a long couple of days for us here in Austin, but I finally had a chance to sit down and write an "official" baby post for our new daughter:

Genevieve Elise Crouch was born Thursday morning, April 9th, at 1:42am.  She weighed 9 lbs, 11 oz., and was exactly 22 inches long.  Needless to say, I think she is drop-dead gorgeous. 

My wife's labor started around 5pm on Wednesday afternoon and we went to the hospital at 10:45pm, so we were there less than three hours before we welcomed our latest family member!  Here's a little soundtrack music as you check out the pics: http://blip.fm/profile/jasoncrouch/blip/6939047

One reason for the faster labor was the fact that Genevieve kicked during a contraction and broke Pam's water!  I guess she was anxious to get here and meet us.

Pam is truly my hero - this is her fourth natural delivery (i.e. no epidural, no drugs, etc.).  She is a strong woman!  Frankly, she already looks about like she did before she got pregnant!

To those of you who saw my brief updates on Twitter and Facebook, I really appreciate all of the well wishes that we received.  In fact, I was overwhelmed by the response.  Thank you so much.

Last night, our 3-year old daughter, Abby, spiked a fever of over 103 degrees, so I had to take her to the pediatrician today.  Please pray that the new baby will not get sick, since the fever may be viral in nature.  Abby has started on antibiotics as a precaution.

Abby is REALLY looking forward to having a baby sister.  She has been walking around all day saying, "My baby's name is Jenny."  She loves the baby so much that it is tangible.  I still get overwhelmed to think that we helped make a whole new person.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  We will be bringing mom and baby home tomorrow around mid-day.  We plan to call Genevieve "Jenny" for now, since we thought Genevieve was the kind of name that you kind of have to grow into over time.  Abby's full name is actually Abrielle, for those of you who didn't already know.

Thanks again for your prayers and gifts!  I look forward to lots of great updates and photos here in the upcoming months.

 

 

 

Aleah (8 years old) holding Jenny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom, Aleah (8), Abby (3), and Genevieve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Dad!

 

 

 

 

Happy, Beautiful and Tired Mom!

This may well be the shortest post I have ever written.

My wife is in active labor, and we will be headed to the hospital in awhile.

Please pray for energy, patience, and most of all the health of Pam and our new baby girl.

Obviously, I will be back at some point in the next couple of days with updates and photos. 

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us, and to those of you who went to Target and selected baby gifts on our behalf.  It's never too late to buy us stuff from our registry, by the way.  :)  Alternatively, there is no gift better than cash.  Sorry - couldn't help myself there.

See you soon!

UPDATE:

Please Welcome Crouch Baby #4 - Genevieve Elise Crouch!

"Well, no big deal.  That's fine with me,", I thought.

After listening to the voice mail, I realized that I had just lost a potential listing, and I was really happy about it.  In fact, I am generally pleased when another agent takes a horribly overpriced home.  I'm not pleased because I like seeing people suffer.  Instead, I am happy that I have saved myself a lot of headaches.

I had a listing appointment last night, and I made a general comment to the sellers that I think bears repeating here:

Never choose a listing agent based exclusively on the listing price that they give you.  They may be willing to list the home at a much higher price than other agents, but that will not make the market value of your home change at all.

Simply put, listing agents don't magically create additional market value by virtue of their advertising methods, or their good name in the community, or by any other method. 

When listing a home, one of the key factors to consider (especially today) is whether or not it will appraise at the desired price.  "Will a licensed third-party appraiser be able to justify this price?"  If not, then the buyer can't get a loan for that amount!  This will remove 95%+ of the eligible buyers, since cash buyers seem to be in short supply at the moment.

Here's a quick definition of "market value":

Market value is determined by the price that a ready, willing and able buyer will pay for a home.  Period.

As Realtors, we all have access to the same basic data from the MLS system.  With that in mind, we can all see the same comparable sales for every home in the area.  We may differ on fine points, such as the perceived value of upgrades, location, and so forth.

When I am listing a home, unlike some agents out there, I want the home to actually SELL at some point, so I price it accordingly.  Underpricing?  Hardly.  Market pricing?  Absolutely! 

In my entire real estate career, I haven't seen a time when the pricing was more important than it is today.  With pressure from current economic factors, and the underlying related anxiety, home buyers want to make sure that they don't make the same types of price-related mistakes that were made over the past few years.

Price the home correctly if you want it to sell.  I cannot state it more clearly than that.  If a listing agent seems overly willing to go with whatever price you want for the house without any supporting data, be suspicious.  Otherwise, you may end up wasting a lot of time and energy. 

Thanks for reading!

Photo courtesy of The Rocketeer.

    

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