Realtors - how's the market doing? (Austin, Georgetown: sales, real estate, apartment)

[mrsengle]

I know it's doing really well, but I wonder if it's doing multiple-offers-in-the-burbs well.
Some friends of mine purchased a home in Cat Hollow a couple of years ago, but it took a long time to find a place because of the insanity of demand. Has this leveled off?

[centralaustinite]

Not a realtor but what I hear is that the top end is softening a bit but anything below $350K goes immediately, usually with multiple offers.

[RunninJT]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Not a realtor but what I hear is that the top end is softening a bit but anything below $350K goes immediately, usually with multiple offers.

A house down the street from us went up for $340k a few weeks ago, the highest any house in this neighborhood has ever listed for. No idea if it has sold yet or not but I am thinking it is time for us to pull the trigger on our house and get out of here. Were scared though. Scared we wont even break even, scared we will end up in a bad location and never find jobs, scared in general. But eventually we have to put up or shut up.

Mostly scared of getting completely screwed over by realtors.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by RunninJT

Mostly scared of getting completely screwed over by realtors.

Why? Have you had a bad experience in the past? What happened?

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Not a realtor but what I hear is that the top end is softening a bit but anything below $350K goes immediately, usually with multiple offers.

Not sure where you've got your number of $350k. That price might go quickly in East and South Austin and many other "hot" areas, but it's not really the price in the burbs. It would depend on what burbs. Under $200k will go rather insanely quickly. Under $250k, pretty darn quick if in the northers burbs. Not as in the Southern burbs. Over $250k, they are steady in the North, but unless it's the low end of a higher end neighborhood, it's not as quick. Over $250k in the Southern burbs, you're just a regular house waiting for a buyer.

[RunninJT]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

Why? Have you had a bad experience in the past? What happened?

Its a long story but the highlights are: She was both the sellers (a close personal friend) real estate agent and ours. She charged 3% for the seller and another 3% for the buyer, which I thought was dubious. She convinced the seller that she needed to raise the price of the house after we had agreed on the price, this was in order to "cover undisclosed charges". She was also a friend of the seller and convinced her that she desperately needed her as a real estate agent for everyone's safety, at the time we did not see the harm in it. Hindsight and all that, at the time we had 0 experience in buying/selling a home.

My only experience with house buyers around here have been with flippers who buy up the local houses and flip them. Seen a couple house owners here who sold their houses to their realtor only for it to get flipped for a hell of a lot more than the original sale. No offense man but it seems realtors entire business model is taking advantage of guys like me who are naive. I just want to sell for 300k and get out of here with enough for a down payment on another house, and not get worn down to <200k and leave with barely enough to rent with when I get to Washington.

The only advantage I have right now is that we are not desperate to move ASAP. We can stick around another year and be fine with it. Unlike the last few people on my block who moved that practically left skid marks on their way out.

Honestly I think we need a sticky thread that realtors can use to warn guys like me on what to look out for in a realtor, the warning signs for instance to find somebody else.

We are not rich, hell we are not even really middle class. But we have a house that has now basically doubled in value and can move into a better house somewhere else. But there is no cushion for this. There is no fallback, nobody is going to bail us out if it goes sideways. We have 1 chance to get this right and if we screw up or get screwed over then thats it, we are back in an apartment or renting a used rotted out trailer again lamenting on where things went wrong.

Terrifying to say the least.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by RunninJT

Its a long story but the highlights are: She was both the sellers (a close personal friend) real estate agent and ours. She charged 3% for the seller and another 3% for the buyer, which I thought was dubious. She convinced the seller that she needed to raise the price of the house after we had agreed on the price, this was in order to "cover undisclosed charges". She was also a friend of the seller and convinced her that she desperately needed her as a real estate agent for everyone's safety, at the time we did not see the harm in it. Hindsight and all that, at the time we had 0 experience in buying/selling a home.
.

THERE IS YOUR PROBLEM, RIGHT THERE! please don't that!

[Trainwreck20]

Never use a realtor to buy a house that is also representing the seller. I don't care what papers they sign.

[riaelise]

If you are in the sub-300k market in the northern suburbs you will be hunting for awhile. Take it from my mom. House after house under contract within days, multiple offers, cash buyers, etc. However she ended up in a nice, beautiful community in Georgetown that was nicer than many of the communities found closer in at the same price. The over $300k market in my area may not have contracts within days, but they don't sit long especially if they've been updated. It is a good year to be a seller in my neighborhood, despite not being a masterplanned community. There is a demand and if the home shows well and is priced well, the house is gone. not bad for homes that are asking for over $400k and aren't particularly close in. Our old house could probably fetch 350k at this point and sometimes we wonder what would get if we had held on for another two years, but the question is - where could we move to? there's no way we could afford the same sized house in our neighborhood now.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by RunninJT

Its a long story but the highlights are: She was both the sellers (a close personal friend) real estate agent and ours. She charged 3% for the seller and another 3% for the buyer, which I thought was dubious. She convinced the seller that she needed to raise the price of the house after we had agreed on the price, this was in order to "cover undisclosed charges". She was also a friend of the seller and convinced her that she desperately needed her as a real estate agent for everyone's safety, at the time we did not see the harm in it. Hindsight and all that, at the time we had 0 experience in buying/selling a home.

My only experience with house buyers around here have been with flippers who buy up the local houses and flip them. Seen a couple house owners here who sold their houses to their realtor only for it to get flipped for a hell of a lot more than the original sale. No offense man but it seems realtors entire business model is taking advantage of guys like me who are naive. I just want to sell for 300k and get out of here with enough for a down payment on another house, and not get worn down to <200k and leave with barely enough to rent with when I get to Washington.

The only advantage I have right now is that we are not desperate to move ASAP. We can stick around another year and be fine with it. Unlike the last few people on my block who moved that practically left skid marks on their way out.

Honestly I think we need a sticky thread that realtors can use to warn guys like me on what to look out for in a realtor, the warning signs for instance to find somebody else.

We are not rich, hell we are not even really middle class. But we have a house that has now basically doubled in value and can move into a better house somewhere else. But there is no cushion for this. There is no fallback, nobody is going to bail us out if it goes sideways. We have 1 chance to get this right and if we screw up or get screwed over then thats it, we are back in an apartment or renting a used rotted out trailer again lamenting on where things went wrong.

Terrifying to say the least.

Wow, that's quite a story. I can tell you that I've been a full time realtor for almost 17 years now, and my business is not to buy houses and flip them. My business is to help buyers buy and sellers sell. I'm about educating my clients about the process, every step, so there are no surprises if/when something comes up.

There are agents out there who buy houses below market because sellers don't want to do the updates that it takes to get their houses to market value. Some people think that updates "add value", but in many areas, the updates only bring the house up to current market condition. Just depends on the age of the house.

It's hard to make a list of reasons to get a new realtor because sometimes it's just perception. I've been told by some people that I'm rude, though most interpret it as being bluntly honest with the facts. I'm not here to sugar-coat anything. I'm here to tell you what you need to hear to make the best decisions. Sugar-coating only makes people upset/angry when things don't go their expected way.
Good luck on your sale when you decide to sell.

[TexasHorseLady]

A lot depends on the area and price range; however, I've been reviewing the up to $500,000 price range in a variety of areas around Austin (been showing houses in the $300-450 price range to various clients in areas from Lago Vista and Liberty Hill to Bastrop and in between, sometimes in one day). While that range MIGHT not be gone in a day, two weeks or less is not unusual, and multiple offers are not unusual. Contingencies are more common than they used to be, as well, with people having their house under contract but needing a place to move to.

Anything in the $250,000 and under range is going to disappear in most markets from what the stats and the agents' grapevine is telling me, unless it's a real take it down to the studs re-do, and those take a little longer but still sell. Up to $450,000 is still pretty hot in some areas. Above that is really depends on the area and how much above that. Lago Vista, for example, is averaging around 60 DOM for all price ranges, while Georgetown, with around ten times as many sales in the $500 and under range, is averaging 85 DOM for $300-500,000 and 47 DOM for under $300,000.

As always in real estate, it comes down to location, location, location.