Austin Real Estate ... Texas Realtor®

If you are considering the purchase of a new home in the Austin, Texas area, you might want to consider having an informed Realtor represent you. Here are a couple of good reasons why:The builder's sales agents always seek the best deal for the builder. They represent the builder, not you. Not all new home sales are recorded in the Austin ...

Here is some good news for people who are looking to take that big step of owning a home. This past Friday (November 6, 2009), President Obama signed into law an extension of the up-to-$8,000 tax credit offered by the federal government to first-time home buyers. First-time home buyers cannot have owned a home in the 3 years prior to their ...

Many people who want to buy a home in the Austin, Texas area (including first-time buyers) need to know more about the steps involved in buying a home. Here are some notes (most describing the process for buying a resale home) that are intended to help you understand what you need to do and might expect when you set out to buy a home:Choose a ...

The program hosts and guests on the CNBC network know a lot about the financial world. I often watch some of the shows to see what is happening and to see what I can learn. The terms they use show me how little I know! However, when the Dow is headed up, I know that is in the right direction. If it is going down, I understand what that ...

In an earlier blog, I discussed the cyclical nature of the Austin Texas real estate market. When viewed over a several-year period, the market cycles are predictable in many ways. What cannot be foreseen from the historical data is what will happen in the future—what the highs and lows of the market will be. Just a year or so ago, homes in ...

Do you wonder what the typical cycle of business activity in Austin real estate looks like? The graph below, published by the Austin Board of Realtors® in a February 2009 report, shows that listing and sales activity follows a pretty repeatable pattern every year. What varies the most is the height and depth of the cycles. (Based on ...

Being close to jobs, shopping, and downtown Austin is important to lots of homeowners. But how do you do that if you can't afford a home in Tarrytown or other expensive areas?  There are a number of options available to you in SW Austin, including the neighborhood called Legend Oaks. If you are looking for a nice home in a quiet, ...

        Maybe I can best answer this question with an illustration that many people can relate to. Have you ever gone to buy a new or used car, and dreaded dealing with the salesman? I believe the reason for this discomfort is knowing that you do not know what the salesman knows. You're not sure that you are ...

          The old song from my growing-up years told of an ant that thought it could move a rubber tree plant. Because it had “high hopes, high apple pie in the sky hopes,” it kept on pushing on the plant. Against all odds, the ant finally succeeded!The song’s message: Persevere ...