House with .75+ acres or no neighbors (Austin, Spring: for sale by owner, apartment, new home)

[ioda006]

I currently live in Austin.. just moved about 4mos ago, so I know where a lot of stuff is now, but I don't get out a ton.

I'm looking for a house, but I have a special request: I don't want neighbors or I want at least .75acres. I see all these great new homes up for sale, but they're built about as close to each other as my apartment wall is to the apartment next to me, which is just ridiculous. I'm looking for 275 and under. Am expecting too much for my money? I don't even need much room. A 2 or 3 bedroom/1bath house would do it for me.. not so easy to find small houses in decent areas though it seems.

I look on new home sites or realtor.com and it's all just a bunch of these kind of things. Do I just need to get a realtor or is there some other way to find homes like this?

[fourjunebugs]

I have been looking for a home in the Austin area also. I have been using www.austinhomesearch.com. It has been very helpful.

[achtungpv]

There's a nice house around 2,500 sq ft single story + a guest house with an addition 700 sq ft on .75 acre in my neighborhood that just got reduced from $260K. It looks nice from the outside, maybe it's a smoker's house? I thought that was a pretty good price so I dunno why it hasn't sold.

If you want, let me know and I'll find the link on a realtor website and PM it to you. We're about 15 miles from downtown.

[albagal]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

There's a nice house around 2,500 sq ft single story + a guest house with an addition 700 sq ft on .75 acre in my neighborhood that just got reduced from $260K. It looks nice from the outside, maybe it's a smoker's house? I thought that was a pretty good price so I dunno why it hasn't sold.

If you want, let me know and I'll find the link on a realtor website and PM it to you. We're about 15 miles from downtown.

What neighborhood is this? I am also interested in a decent, affordable, good schools neighborhood kind of home? Thanks.

[ioda006]

Hey fourjunebugs - thanks a bunch. I've been limiting myself to realtor.com because I hadn't yet found a good search for austin. Any other good ones out there? I know when I was looking in Orlando awhile back they had a really good one that was a direct MLS search.

achtungpv - yeah sure if you could PM that to me that'd be fantastic. What area are you in?

I'm looking around westlake right now, but most of the prices are a bit out of my range.

[southdown]

I saw a house on 'for sale by owner' www.fsbo.com on Brushy bend/Walsh drive where everyone is on at least 1 acre, but the homes are older and I guess in your price range. It's a great area, just north of Avery ranch and close to the park and nature trails at Brushy Creek - deer everywhere, fab.

BTW I have found when you are doing searches on austinhomesearch.com etc it is best NOT to put in lot size, as the lot size data is often missing - and you will therefore lose all results which do not give a lot size (about 40% of listings). Totally frustrating but that's down to the MLS system and (apparently) listing realtors being scared of approximating lot size as they can get blamed if it's wrong. But they don't mind guessing the house sq ft!!! Mad.

[hamjeepr]

If you don't mind the drive, take a look at Dripping Springs or Wimberley. You can get acreage and a decent house for less money and lower property taxes.

[Rainier2]

Yeah, we live in Dripping Springs for similar reasons. We have a little over an acre, neighbors we rarely see. Prices are getting high out here though I've noticed. Wimberley I think you get a little more for your money than Drippings.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by ioda006

I currently live in Austin.. just moved about 4mos ago, so I know where a lot of stuff is now, but I don't get out a ton.

I'm looking for a house, but I have a special request: I don't want neighbors or I want at least .75acres. I see all these great new homes up for sale, but they're built about as close to each other as my apartment wall is to the apartment next to me, which is just ridiculous. I'm looking for 275 and under. Am expecting too much for my money? I don't even need much room. A 2 or 3 bedroom/1bath house would do it for me.. not so easy to find small houses in decent areas though it seems.

I look on new home sites or realtor.com and it's all just a bunch of these kind of things. Do I just need to get a realtor or is there some other way to find homes like this?

You can use Moderator cut: realtor site link it uses a map instead of just a list) and you can realtime filter on your criteria and the map updates with the houses that match.

I attached a screenshot which shows where those properties are. I use 280K and 1 acre, but it was about the same. As you can see most are outside of the major loops, but they do exist.