Texas Realty Blog

Be Nice to Apple Employees in Austin

Some people are still unaware that Austin has been home to divisions of Apple, Inc. for many years. I started working at Apple Austin back in 1999, but have friends who had come on board in the early 1990s. I left Apple to continue my real estate career, but of course, still have a passion for all things Apple/Mac. Apple Austin is the campus for parts of the service and support side of the company. Austin is also lucky to have several Apple Retail Stores.

The first was in Barton Creek Mall and the latest is at the very cool new Domain Shopping Area in Northwest Austin. So, the reason I say you should be nice to the Apple Employees, especially those in Austin, is because of the recent announcement that every employee of the company will be given a FREE iPhone.

My friends from Apple say they will receive their iPhones around July. Surprisingly, none of them plan to sell their gadgets, but I'm sure they can be convinced.

BUT DEE, HOW IS THIS REAL ESTATE?

Well, sometimes we just like to blog about what we like! But, if you want real estate, here it is... Apple is a small, major employer in Austin whose stock skyrocketed due to the iPhones. We hope the success of the iPhone leads to establishing even more stores and further job growth in Greater Austin, especially since Apple recently began hiring for their iPhone Division here.

Read more about the $12M Announcement from Steve Jobs and the iPhone Support jobs here in Austin.

You may also be interested downloading some Austin City Guides to your iPod.

Web 2.0, Podcasting: The Next Generation of Real Estate

So what is the future of real estate marketing? When new real estate services or models are introduced, it's often followed by the glum predictions from industry soothsayers who proclaim the end of the real estate world as we know it.

For example, when the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) became available online, some "old school" real estate agents disagreed with allowing free access to listings. Some thought agents would no longer be needed because the internet would replace them. Although there are new business models, there will always be a need for good, trustworthy real estate professionals who use the latest tools to connect buyers with sellers.

REAL ESTATE WEB 2.0, TEXT MESSAGING and PODCASTS

"Web 2.0" is the latest buzzword for the more interactive "second coming" of the internet, where there's more interaction between buyers, sellers and the founders of a given website. YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, etc. are all examples of the new social media sites that have created fame for the person next door.

Will Incentives Shorten Days on Market?

I blogged last week about how to properly xeriscape your Texas lawn. I have two listings that are on the market longer than average partially due to the fact that they do not have a lawn in back. Some home owners think xeriscaping means "adding lots of rocks" when proper xeriscaping actually encompasses hardy plants that do not need much water...but I digress.

The purpose of this post is discuss whether buyer or agent incentives can affect your home's time on the market. For the aforementioned listings, sellers have reduced their prices and offered buyer allowances for decoration, landscaping, etc. but they still haven't sold. We've now talked about the king of all incentives...the real estate agent commission bonus.

Now I know the agent bonus can be controversial, so hear me out!

FACTS OF THE CASE

• The sellers have had many showings, but no offers, which means they're within at least 6-10% of the right asking price. Although they initially listed higher than my recommended 30-day sales price, they've both lowered at least once. Both homes are large for their areas, so they're a little tougher to price.
• The showing feedback statistics gathered via HomeFeedback.com show that 50% of the buyers like the property, but just do not want to make an offer. They're choosing other homes instead.
• There's a great deal of competition in this area from new home builders who are offering incentives to both buyers and agents.

THE RESULT

The conclusion was to offer an agent incentive instead of lowering the price so shortly after the recent reduction. So far, we have noticed an increase in the number of showings but are attempting to track the true reason. In upcoming weeks, the seller can still think about the additional price reduction. At that time, they can also decide whether to keep the agent incentive as well.

Remember that the #1 way to get a home sold quickly is to price it at or slightly below market to invite the greatest number of offers in the shortest period of time. At times, it may be difficult to properly gauge the "right" price, so be responsive to your market conditions.

What do you think? Is the agent incentive a useful tool or does price really make the biggest difference?

Dell Children's Medical Center Opens in Austin

I wanted to attend the open house at Seton's Dell Children's Medical Center yesterday, but couldn't make it. As you may remember, I was in a wreck a few weeks ago on IH35 and it turns out that the insurance company totaled my car. I'd love to recount the woes of that situation, including having three days to purchase a replacement car. Like a bad relationship, I have already moved on. :-)

Anyway, I'm excited about the children's hospital because of so many reasons that it's hard to write them all down. Although it's sad to think about sick children, it's very heartwarming to know that Austin, Dell and Seton will play a part in helping many kids get better. Seton even donated a piece of adjacent land to the Ronald McDonald House, which provides shelter for families of the children who have longer stays.

THE POSITIVE IMPACT

• The Dell Children's Medical Center will be the largest of it's kind Central Texas.
• The hospital was green built and will continue to cherish our environment in future efforts.
• Austin will attract even more high-quality physicians and staff to this east central location.
• This medical center is only the start in the goal for Austin and University of Texas to have a stronger stake in the biomedical research industry. UT's medical research facility will be completed in the next few years.

By the way, if you didn't know about the upcoming biomedical research facility at Mueller Austin, you should keep up with this blog!

The Statesman provided great detail and nice pictures of the hospital itself. It's actually pretty modern and welcoming. Seton will soon consolidate their offices to this location, so their staff will be together in a central location.

Read more at the Statesman: The next level of care for kids.
Volunteer or donate to the cause.

Copeland Group Films 'Flip that House'

Exciting News!

Our team just filmed the first shots this past Friday for our upcoming episode of the Flip That House television series on TLC!  The show normally features two real estate investors in 15-minute segments, but they will bring back five of their favorite flippers for an All-Star series week. Each all-star flipper has a full half-hour show dedicated to their latest project.

You may remember Justine Smith, one of our Buyer Specialists, who had just been featured on Flip That House when she joined the team. The producers of the show were following up when they learned of her latest deal with our team's repeat client, Thuy Phan.

THE DEAL

So far, at least three of our repeat client partners will make money on this one. Here's the background:

• We helped our beginning investor, Dan, purchase land that he'd come across as a bird-dog. He's an employee at our own Keller Williams Realty International, so Dan followed the training in the Flip book, which is a team requirement for flippers with no experience.
• Dan decided to wholesale the land just before closing. We had a short time-frame, but knew the potential of the property, so Justine purchased it herself. She then partnered with Thuy Phan, one of our investor clients, who will provide the needed funds.
• We'd originally planned on a spec build, but one of our builder partners (Warren) found a great house in 78704 that he can move to our lot for the show. Once the home is cut, moved and set in place, we'll finish the rehab.

The producers of the show will come out at least two more times to film the house move as well as final rehab. Friday's taping was to learn more about the project, the partnership and plans.

Link: TLC :: Flip that House. Read more about our Buyer Specialist, Justine Smith, and Flip That House All-stars.
 

Read more about the Copeland Group and our investor services.

Multifamily Project in Killeen Delayed...Again

I'd previously reported on some project delays in Killeen for a few of the multifamily builders. Well folks, there are even more delays. We only had one client who put an offer on two of the fourplexes, which were excellent deals, but it looks like the finish out date has moved from April/May time-frame to Fall.

Worst, the builder's representative has not been communicating to agents. Here is the email we received when inquiring about our close date of July 15th...

----------------------------
DEAR  JACQUES

SO FAR WE NEED TO CHANGE THE DATE OF
CLOSING TO 15 SEP BECAUSE OF THE RAIN OUT DAYS

HAILEY

-------------------------

First, who is Jacques? Jacque Walters is our closing coordinator, so perhaps they addressed her. Second, the all CAPS explanation doesn't apologize or fully explain why the dates have changed so much since February, which is when we first placed our offer. Our team's spec builds in Austin (only an hour or so away from Killeen) were slightly delayed because of rain, but not by 6 months.

Just a heads up. Let the buyer beware when purchasing a new duplex or fourplex in Killeen!

Read our previous story on Killeen project delays.

Hays County becoming a $1 million real estate hot spot

Here's a cool read from the Statesman. I've been noticing that homes south of Austin like Buda and Dripping Springs sell like hotcakes. Years ago, North Austin was were most relocation buyers and retirees gathered. They liked Georgetown and Cedar Park in Williamson County, which are still great places to live of course, but Hays and Bastrop Counties are catching on.

Builders have taken notice with some nice new home subdivisions. In fact, the article points out that 41 homes valued at more than $1M were listed in the last month or so. Read more about the trend at the Statesman: Hays County becoming a $1 million real estate hot spot.

Just in case you were wondering...the picture is of the Hays County Courthouse. Not that you want to have business there, but I like the look of the building.

Mueller Austin to Share My Cable Woes

I received heads up of an announcement soon of the cable provider for the Mueller Austin development in East Austin. It's not necessarily ground-breaking news, but they chose Time Warner Cable for the local cable services provider.

I have to be honest and say that, since moving to South Austin and having to deal with this vendor, I'd rather see another provider chosen for this master-planned community in East Central Austin. I'm not sure about providers in your area, but Time Warner internet "flakes" and gets disconnected 4-5 times each day. In some older apartment complexes, Time Warner speeds are slower than my Grandmother's dial-up from AOL in Folkston, Georgia. (Yes, I said Folkston. If you haven't heard of it, it's a small town with dirt roads whose nearest airport is in Florida).

Anyway, at least the Mueller Austin folks are located centrally and will probably have internet cafes on-site.

Read one of our earlier stories about Mueller Austin.

Fort Worth Revitalizing Downtown

There sure is are lot of revitalization efforts going on in Texas! That's a very good sign.

I wanted to note that San Antonio has done a great job over the past decade bringing new life to it's downtown area. I was there a few weekends ago and noted how enjoyable it is to visit. I realized that I didn't enjoy living in San Antonio as much as I enjoy visiting now. Oppositely, I'm not sure what I'd do as a visitor to Austin (that I haven't done already), but I really like living here.

Anyway, there are efforts in Fort Worth to revitalize their downtown, but it's not in the traditional way. Fort Worth will try to have more street events, fairs, and other attractors to keep people coming to the central part of the city. They hope that this will spur interest in downtown, which then leads to development. We'll see if their lower-cost revitalization efforts work. Typically, the city will invest a portion of taxpayer funds into projects or offer incentives to builders.

Austin, for instance, has done a great job of creating more interest in our downtown districts by encouraging mixed-use retail developments so people can live near the places they work. Although fort Worth doesn't have the same goal at the moment, they may take that route later.

Read about it: Bringing People To Downtown To Spur Development | Planetizen.

Just for Our Out-of-State Investors Friends...

This post is based on an email that I sent to our team's Communication Manager to help set expectations for the out-of-state investors that contact us. It seemed helpful, so I decided to post here.

THE CURRENT TEXAS REAL ESTATE MARKET

Texas real estate is still HOT. Austin is one of the hottest cities in Texas. Houston and San Antonio are cash flow markets. Austin and Dallas are examples of top appreciation markets. Agents in our area receive similar calls/emails to this at least once per week:

"I am a beginning/relatively experienced investor from Arizona/California. The market isn't doing so well here, so I've been researching Texas. I have $1M-$5M cash to spend and would like some duplexes/fourplexes/small apartment complex that will have both cash-flow and appreciation. I'd like at least 6% CAP Rate.

I do/do not have partners. I will be coming to Texas/Austin within the next few weeks/months and would like to see properties/land when we're there. Please call us back asap."