One of the more recognized architectural landmarks in Austin is the Pennybacker Bridge. I’ve explained to out-of-town clients — sometimes to their astonishment — that a view of our simple, elegant little bridge is something of great value in the Austin real estate market….
Touring the W Residences, I got to see the inside view of their high-rise condo-style Juliet Balconies. If you image-search “Juliet Balcony” you’ll see exactly what they look like in traditional form — and it’s just what you’d think. A small ledge with a railing, or even just an attractive wrought-iron barrier on a floor-depth window. The W provides a modern version….
All of Austin smells like grape Kool-Aid right now because our mountain laurels are in full bloom. This is a native plant that grows both wild and in tended gardens throughout the Austin area. The flowers are not only gorgeous, they give off a strong smell. Some call it grape gum. To me, it’s exactly …
Ohhhhh, how I love my new house. I don’t have any good photos yet, but here’s one I Tweeted of my smart, old cat trying to get herself in trouble. This photos shows off some of the gorgeous wooden beams that frame the inside of the house.
I learned the most depressing thing today. My favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite pencil in the whole world, the Dixon Film Marker 2225 is DISCONTINUED. This fine fellow bemoans the death of the Blackwing 602 — another discontinued pencil, much adored and much missed — and suggests some alternates. Including my beloved Dixon 2225. This guy talks about alternatives for folks in the medical field who used Dixons to mark on X-rays. He suggests a Stabilo, but it’s just not the same. It’s not black. It doesn’t have the brass cap. I might try it, but not without a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat!
Perhaps it’s silly to be so attached to a pencil, but … a predictably fine writing instrument is just such a small yet deep pleasure.
I am a huge fan of virtual tours. I work with a great photographer who creates virtual tours for almost all of my listings. I don’t think a listing is complete without a virtual tour — ideally one that includes a floorplan and 360-degree panoramic views. Here’s a terrific example — and as a matter of fact I’m holding open this listing for my colleague, from 1-4 on Sunday. Come see me!
And yet I see multi-million-dollar listings all the time sans virtual tours. I simply don’t understand a listing agent who finds this acceptable. A friend once quoted a REALTOR who said, “Well! A virtual tour never sold a house!” First of all, I doubt that’s true. I would be willing to wager a good bit of money that I could find some buyer, somewhere, for whom a virtual tour clinched the deal. After all, one of my fellow JB Goodwin agents once received an offer from a buyer who discovered her listing via Twitter. He was transferring from another city — and he bought the house sight unseen. I guess you could say it was my colleague’s tech-savvy, multi-platform marketing that sold the house, but I’d wager my firstborn that her listing also had a virtual tour.
But even if you set that aside — or even if you think it’s true that a virtual tour never sold a house — isn’t it quite simply something for the seller and the buyer to enjoy? In the past, I’ve sure loved the virtual tours for every house I’ve bought or sold. It generates interest, excitement, and good feelings between the agent and her clients. It gives the buyer something to share with all of her friends, before the transaction closes. If it’s a well-built tour (good photos of a properly staged property), it’s just plain FUN to look at all of the rooms, the garden, the pool. Oh but don’t get me started on the too few good … and too many BAD … pool photos I’ve seen!
With the way real estate is going in Austin — where so many low-inventory pockets have turned into strong seller’s markets — I fear that some listing agents are getting a bit lax. Multiple offers after a day or two on market will delight almost any seller, but the intensity such a situation means it’s more likely that the deal might go pear shaped. And then you’ll be glad if you have a robust, sharp listing to return to the market.
Recently, I was quoted in an article about the fantastic investor market we’re enjoying in Austin. Since I’m a writer by nature, I actually sent Realtor.com a somewhat lengthy piece so they could pick and choose a quote. Here it is in its entirety.
Conditions in Austin are perfect for investors, and most REALTORS are now working this part of the market from at least one angle.
Statistics from the start of the year indicate a drop in inventory, which is as low as 4.1 months across Austin. In some parts of the city — for example Northwest Austin where I do most of my business — we’re seeing 2.2 – 2.7 months, which puts those areas firmly in a seller’s market. At the same time, apartments continue to enjoy high occupancy rates, with the average exceeding 95% at the end of last year. Although the apartment building industry is booming, most projects aren’t expected to complete until 2013 or later.
As a result, the lease market is extremely tight. So far, rent prices for single-family homes have not significantly increased, but time on market is remarkably brief. REALTORS who represent tenants must be well versed in how to prepare their clients for making an immediate offer on a property … the moment that property hits the market. Additionally, representing tenants is a terrific way for REALTORS to fill their pipelines. With the city’s steady job growth, it seems like a fresh wave of Austin residents arrives daily.
These welcome new-comers will often rent for a year, but how better to scoop them up as down-the-road buyers than to quickly find them a great place to lease? Some clients may even decide that purchasing a home right away is smarter than leasing; converting renters to buyers isn’t at all unusual.
Add to all of this the fact that mortgage interest rates are at a historical low, and you have a recipe for a terrific investor market. I’m working with quite a few investors — some new to the business, others seasoned pros — across all property types. Price-wise, the sweet spot is roughly $125-175k. Some investors prefer to pick up and fix distressed or foreclosed properties before entering them into the rental market. Others want top-notch houses that can be lease-listed immediately after purchase. More than once I’ve seen a carefully selected property lease within a week following an investor’s purchase.
This hasn’t yet translated into an overall increase in sales or lease prices, but I’ve helped buyers to negotiate multiple-offer situations several times during the last month. In those cases, the properties sold for near- to slightly-over asking price. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if sales data for the first quarter of 2012 averages out to an increase in sales price for several sections of Austin.
Obviously, I’m biased — and I’m a property investor — but I firmly believe that now is the time to purchase rental units in Austin. Facilitating careful choices, paying close attention to the market, and staying at an investor’s comfort level are just three ways that a seasoned REALTOR will help a buyer who wants to become a landlord. It’s often an active investment, but it’s a solid one, and I can’t recommend it highly enough!
I love my new house! Ohhhhh, how I love my new house. I am at a slight risk of becoming a shut-in … I love it THAT MUCH.
I don’t have any good photos yet, but here’s one I Tweeted of my smart, old cat trying to get herself in trouble. This photo shows off some of the gorgeous wooden beams that frame the inside of the house.
Josie on the High Beam
My daughter was none-too-pleased that Josie wandered out onto the high beam. I told her not to worry. Josie is 17 years old, and has been halfway around the world. She’s not likely to go out by GOING out on a limb. Or beam as it were.
The house is in total disarray. We don’t even have all of our stuff yet. Our movers were overmatched by the end-of-March rush, so we agreed to take our second delivery tomorrow. We’re getting by just fine. ^_^
Next step is unpacking, and then comes THE HOUSEWARMING PARTY. I can hardly wait! My birthday is in two weeks. Is it unrealistic to hope for a party combo? Hmmmmm!
Oh dear! Where has Julie been? That’s a great question! I’ve been … MOVING! I do have a house, but it looks like this:
So, as you can see … I ain’t got a home. We’re remodeling our current house before putting it on the market. We wanted to let our contractors in as soon as they were available, so we bugged out about 10 days early. Our house is going to look AMAZING when it hits the market, so if you have any friends looking for four bedrooms in RRISD — all Exemplary schools (Caraway | Canyon Vista | Westwood) — send ‘em my way!
All of our worldly belongings are in storage, and we’re living in an extended-stay hotel for one more week. Oh, and “we” = my husband and I, our daughter (5), his son (18), a 75lb dog, a smart old cat, and a dumb middle-aged cat. We’re quite the travelling menagerie.
We’re scheduled to close on our new house this coming Wednesday, but there’s been a bump in the road on the lending side, so we may have to push to Friday. Never a dull moment!
More stories from the front lines early next week, from the REALTOR who has no home….
One of the more recognized architectural landmarks in Austin is the Pennybacker Bridge. (The Wikipedia write-up of the bridge is quite good.) I’ve explained to out-of-town clients — sometimes to their astonishment — that a view of our simple, elegant little bridge is something of great value in the Austin real estate market.
Shot with my phone on a brisk winter day -- it's greener in the spring!
Every year, JB Goodwin hosts our annual company awards at the stately Austin Country Club, which is nestled under Pennybacker, with excellent views of the lake and the bridge. This year I was honored with several awards — chief among them was a President’s Crescent Award, primarily for my work on our Austin Neighborhood Guide. I’m stepping up that work in the coming months, so stay tuned!
Photo courtesy of the Austin Country Club.
2012 marks the 40th year for JB Goodwin, and one of our adoring staff members put together this terrific video looking back at the decades — for Austin, for the real estate market, and for our fearless leader JB. Even if you don’t work at JB Goodwin, this is a fun little time trip. Enjoy!
A colleague told me that she liked my header photo, which “looks like a subway.” What it is, in fact, is a camera snapshot I took last summer when I toured Austin’s Seaholm Power Plant. Since we’re in the throes of South by Southwest right now, and last year’s big dealio was the Kanye West show at Seaholm, I thought I’d chat a bit about the property.
Seaholm is a glorious old building on the edge of Ladybird Lake, a stone’s throw from the heart of Downtown Austin. By 2013 it will be transformed into an arts / shopping / transportation hub. Although the developer’s website still includes links for Condo and Hotel, Shonda Novak reported in the Statesman in October of last year: “Condos had been envisioned for the Seaholm site, but the high-rise will now feature ‘ground-floor retail with approximately 300 apartment units above,’ said John Rosato, principal with Southwest Strategies . A hotel is no longer planned as part of the Seaholm site, Rosato said.”
Regardless, it’s a fascinating piece of Austin’s history — beautiful, industrial, and photogenic. My photos are here … and remember, they were taken with an old phone. It would be a blast to roam free in the power plant on a bright sunny day with an SLR in tow.
And though there are no SXSW events at Seaholm this year, there’s this…. We can look forward to some Digestible Feats at the building this coming April! The annual Fusebox Festival, which I’m anticipating with much glee, will host a pop-up lounge at Seaholm on Sunday, 24 April. I can assure you I will be there!
Austin’s first pop-up craft cocktail bar, standing for one day in the concrete bosom of a art-deco behemoth, will be filled with creativity, hospitality, and extraordinary pleasure. Houston Eaves and Adam Rose, two especially accomplished young bartenders, will lead four bartenders in presenting a menu of drinks designed to satisfy and educate any palate from timid to adventurous, from cocktail novice to cocktail nerd. This bar will exist for one night only; in the morning, you’ll wonder whether anything so fine could have actually existed, and you’ll find no evidence that it ever did.
Ah, this is a Do Not Miss Event! But back to the day at hand, I heard a constant stream of rave reviews following Kanye West’s SXSW show last year; this year the hottest ticket is Jay-Z’s Amex Sync Show. Of course there’s plenty of speculation and rumor about who might be joining him on stage, but I prefer to peruse the Twitter chatter because it shows that social medium at one of its best marketing uses — generating excitement about an event. Check it out.
More often than I’d like, submissions to Ask a Realtor are from frustrated buyers and sellers who are unhappy with their agents. Here’s one that I decided to answer.
Q: We have been with our agent for two months. Two very rocky months. We have been home searching for three months and finally found an agent within the past two months. They knew upfront that we’re on a huge time crunch, that we are first home buyers, BUT that we are going to do whatever it takes to find a home and we expected that from them as well. At one point we were going to walk away and another agent stepped in to help her fellow agent out so the would not lose us as a client.
We have done almost all the work for them. We’ve found almost ALL of the properties, and we’ve almost had to pull their teeth to get them to find out more info about the homes, and to get them to show us the homes. By the time we see the homes other more diligent agents showed their buyer and sold the home right out from under us. Countless times we have been walking through, what we thought was the home for us, only to find out that it was already in COND or CONTIG stage. And today the straw that broke the camels back. We asked the agent if she would be available to show us houses tomorrow and she said “UHHHHHHH, I’m not sure about that!”
I’m sorry but if you know your customer has to be into a home in 45 days that is not the answer to give. Also, we did place a bid on one home and found out that we were the second bid, so we are the back up offer. What do we do about that bid? How do we fire this agent? We signed the buyers agreement but never received a copy of it. What do we do? I’m a first time homebuyer in need of HELP!
–Anonymous in Charlotte, NC
Sounds incredibly frustrating! And truthfully, not every agent is a great agent. Sometimes you do have to cut one loose. My response….
A: Have you talked to this agent’s broker? I would start there. The broker is the “company” that holds an agent’s license — examples are Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Remax, etc. The head of your agent’s broker would probably want to know that you’re not getting the help you need, and they may have another agent who can better assist you. They should also be able to obtain a copy of the buyer’s agreement you have with their agent.
You can also contact your local Board of REALTORS. They can advise you on how to get a new agent, while still keeping your back-up offer in place. They will know the rules & regulations for navigating such a change in mid-contract — which will most likely be a somewhat tricky maneuver, but I’m sure it has happened before. A city’s Board of REALTORS is there to help real estate clients and consumers, so they should be happy to assist you.
I don’t know about North Carolina, but in Texas the client is allowed to terminate a buyer’s agreement at any time. However, there may be a “protection period” — which means that your current REALTOR can collect commission for any houses she has already shown you. Again, I’m not in NC, so you need to ask your local Board of REALTORS to explain how your buyer’s agreement works — but in TX the “protection period” often confuses the agents and their clients. Getting clarification from an impartial source may be very helpful.
I am so sorry to hear that you’re not getting the help you need. It sounds like you’re buying in a pocket of Charlotte that is a real seller’s market — a rarity these days! Austin is similarly blessed with a relatively strong economy, and I represent a lot of buyers so I know that it can be incredibly frustrating to buy in these conditions. Good luck, and hang in there!
–Julie
I hope Anonymous gets the help he needs. For every agent who doesn’t have the time to help his clients, there’s a line of eager REALTORs waiting in the wings! Plenty of us love our jobs like a fish loves water. That’s the kind of agent you want by your side!
I frequently participate on Realtor.com’s Ask a Realtor blog. Here’s one about what happens when you put in a back-up offer — a position many homebuyers are encountering in Austin.
Q: We have a back-up offer on a house, what are our chances? What can we do to get the house? We found the house of our dreams but unfortunately, they accepted another offer before ours. Our Realtor suggested that we put in a backup offer, in case the first offer falls through (that already happened once with that seller). The listing agent told us what the backup offer should be (pretty close to listing price, no closing costs). I wanted to make the backup offer more attractive, but our Realtor said that wasn’t necessary and that it wouldn’t make a difference.
We LOVE the house, and would be wiling to pay more than the listing price and pretty much do whatever the sellers want. I asked our Realtor to convey to the listing agent that we’re very flexible.
We’re first time home buyers and heartbroken about not getting the house. Is there anything else that we can do to increase our chances of getting the house, other than pray that something goes wrong with the first offer?
Thanks in advance for your responses! –Mel in Austin
My response to Mel….
A: It sounds like your agent is giving great advice! You could offer the sellers the moon and they still wouldn’t be allowed to drop the first offer in lieu of yours. As the back-up buyer, you’ll still go through full negotiations with the seller. When that’s done and the offer is signed off, you’ll be the official, second position. If the first offer falls though, your offer WILL be put into place as written. So your agent is wise to suggest that you make it a solid offer, but not over the top.
The market in Austin is so hot right now! I’ve been negotiating multiple offer situations for my clients who are buying, and at the same time have been guiding my sellers through how to CHOOSE from more than one offer! It can definitely be very frustrating for buyers when the market is like this. And 78731 is a very competitive market.
For that area, have you considered buying a house that’s not yet remodeled? Perhaps you could find a relatively inexpensive fixer-upper and redo it to your own style. That’s quite popular in NW-Central Austin.
Best of luck! I am sure another great house will come on the market if this one doesn’t work out!
–Julie
I love doing these. I try to do 3-5 per week. They’re an interesting look at what’s on the minds of buyers, sellers, investors, and renters throughout the US. I try to stick to the ones that are local to Texas at least, ideally Austin, but sometimes I tackle a national question. I’ll post one of those tomorrow!
All of Austin smells like grape Kool-Aid right now because our mountain laurels are in full bloom.
This is a native plant that grows both wild and in tended gardens throughout the Austin area. The flowers are not only gorgeous, they give off a strong smell. Some call it grape gum. To me, it’s exactly like the smell of a cold, tall pitcher of purple Kool-Aid. Oh yeah!
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