Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: August 2006

YES, it's actually true!!  It started raining here about 5 minutes ago.  It's not just raining, it's pouring!! 

We've had something like 18 consecutive days over 100 degrees and 40-42 days total over 100 this summer, the  hottest being on July 18 at 107.  The foundation companies are loving all the business as no one can keep their yards and foundations watered in a proper way with this heat.

Looking out my window, it's almost like when you've got to go to the restroom really bad, but there's never a good time to go so you hold it and you hold it... and then all of a sudden, WHAM!!

The thunder is actually a very welcoming sound right now!

Can I just say how awesome it feels to have an actual chair with support!  For the past 7 years, I've been using this rink-a-dink chair with no support whatsoever.  Heck, it cost like $25 or something like that.  I bought it when I was in an apartment.  When I bought my first house 4 years ago, I didn't bother to get a new one, though I thought about it... yesterday, it happened!

I bought this chair from Office Depot, Antique Brown Leather.  It was originally $179 and I got it for $99 PLUS I had a $20 off coupon from my Bank of America Power Rewards card!!  What a deal!  This chair goes up and down and all around and it even has arm rests!!!  I can actually rest my arms on the chair instead of on my head leaning over my desk.

I'm saying all this, because since I've gotten the chair, I've been so productive!!  I had an awesome listing appointment today, and I have another listing appointment tomorrow!!  Granted, it's not the chair's fault, but I sure do feel better putting my presentations together while sitting in a very comfy chair!!  The right equipment will always make the difference.

I've been in the Dallas area since 1984.  I grew up in Richardson, went to college in Arlington, then moved to Lewisville, Far North Dallas, then to Sachse, and now I've come full circle and have been back in Richardson almost a year.

Richardson has always been known as the "Telecom Corrdor" because there are so many telecom companies right off the main highway, Central 75.  You had Nortell, SBC now AT&T, Ericcson, and many more.  Over the past few years, since telecom kinda went bust, we've had new tenants move in.

Back in 2003, there was over 7 million sqft vacant and ready for lease.  As of June 2006, that is down to only 3 million sqft.  3 million sure seems like a lot, but it's filling up fast.  Telecom still occupies about 60% of the buildings, but with other companies coming in, it's welcome even more companies that wouldn't have thought about the area.  The main new tenant is Countrywide Home Loans.  Their offices sit right in the middle of the Eiseman Center for entertainment.  You can't get better advertising than that!

Even Fossil moved their small office to the main Corridor a couple of miles away from their headquarters.  Overall, this area is leasing for $2-3 sqft less than North Dallas which is bringing everyone this way.  Plus, with the DART rail system, easier access for employees if they don't want to drive to work.

Overall, Richardson is seeing a face lift and it's for the better.  I'm watching my property values go up and up as more of these people are wanting to be closer to their jobs.

Here's more of the story.

Back in July, a Builder's rep was murders in a model home, stabbed 27 times.  There is a reward being offered and it keeps going up and up as people are eliminated as suspects and more information turns into nothing.

The theory goes back and forth as to whether or not she knew her attacker.  First, they were saying it was a crime of passion so she had to know him/her.  Then they were saying the motive could have been robbery gone bad since she's missing a watch that she was wearing during bank footage earlier that day.

I spoke with the police for about 30-45 minutes about what I thought I knew, but apparently I was no help.  I have a seller in that community who has been wanting to put her townhome on the market, but now there are currently 22 active, whereas, before the attach, there were only 15 active...  lots of competition and they're probably going to sell lower than anticipated... we'll see what happens when the new phase opens next month.

For the second straight week, gas prices have come down.  The Texas average is down $0.08 to $2.80 for regular.  The national average was down $0.07 to $2.91 a gallon.

Corpus Christi wins again with the lowest prices in the state, down $0.11 to $2.64 a gallon for regular.

I'm seeing more and more stations at $2.69 which is a good thing.  I plays "Tour Guide" for the first time yesterday.  Four hours of just driving around with these out of state buyers so they could see what the different cities have to offer.  We're so spread out here in the Dallas area, that we only made it to about 5 cities, but that was enough for one day.

Ok, so we have the lowest credit score across the country, but at least people aren't drinking their credit down the tubes!  I saw this list on Forbes after I heard about the list on the radio yesterday.  DFW is ranked #27.  We're behind cities such as Kansas City (#16).  I guess there is nothing better to do in Kansas City except drink since a friend of mine says people don't relocate there unless they're foreced to.

We got beat out by Phoenix (#22)... isn't that a bunch of older, retired people for the most part?  Yes, I know it's getting younger and younger every year, but Phoenix is none for the place to go to retire.

I guess the Denver/Boulder (#15) people need to drink to stay warm.  I always thought of Denver as a very conservative place.

Providence is #9.  Maybe those numbers were skewed because of lack of actual people there.  When you're dealing with millions of people in Dallas, I can see how Providence would squeeze there above us.

I was surprised to see Vegas (#14) and New Orleans (#24) out of the top 10, but I guess they were counting residents, not visitors...  Very interesting list in deed.

The Dallas market, on average, has the LOWEST credit score across the country at 650.  Houston is second with 652.  The average across the country is 678.  The average for Dallas used to be 635 a few years ago so we've definetly improved since then... but maybe it's because of all the relocation coming into the area with their good credit.

Minneapolis and Boston are #1 and 2 with 705 and 704 respectfully.  Then, DC takes the #3 spot with a sizable jump down to 691.

I think being ranked the lowest is an important factor in our appreciation levels, or lack there of.  People don't have the money to afford more house, and until salaries increase and people can actually pay their bills on time and raise their credit scores, they're going to get higher rates and lower priced homes.

There are several things you can do to raise your credit score. 

• The most important is to pay your bills on time, even if it's just the minimum.  Each 30 day late lowers your score that much more.
• Also important is to keep under a 50% balance on your credit cards.  If your cards are max'd out, but you pay your minimum on time each month, they don't care because your balance is too high and you're a higher risk to continue to charge things and pay them off.  If you're allowed a $1000 balance, stay under $450 or there abouts.
• If you don't have a credit card, get one, but maybe start with a secured credit card.  A department store card doesn't look as favorable so it doesn't help your score like a Visa or Master Card would.
• Do not close credit card acccounts that you're not using.  Credit history is very important and if you've had that card for multiple years, that looks really good as revolving credit.  You might want to buyer dinner with it every now and then and pay it off, but it's not necessary.  Just holding the account open will increase your scores.

There are many other things that can be done, but without seeing what we're looking at, the above are tips I've learned over the years.  If you're curious about more of the metro areas and how they rank, you can see the list here.

In North Texas, we're built on red, clay soil.  The soil expands and contracts as it dries up or gets wet.  As the soils move, it moves the slab.  Small, hairline cracks in the brick and mortar are not much cause to be alarmed.  When the cracks become larger is when you have an issue.  You'll also notice squiggly cracks at the corners of windows and doors.  A big tell is when doors stop to latch when you close them.

Right now, we're on water restrictions.  Most cities can only water on their trash days.  I'm lucky, as my city has two trash days a week.  The majority of the areas only have 1 trash day a week, which is only one watering day a week.  Also, you cannot water between 10am and 6pm.

You are not restricted when it comes to soaker hoses and hand watering.  Many people have blamed the restrictions for causing foundation problems, but for under $50, you can go to the store and buy soaker hoses to place around your entire house.  Hoses should be about 18 inches from the slab as you don't want water to be trapped under the slab.  This $50 or so could save you thousands!!  There is no excuse to not water with soaker hoses.

Most cracks don't signal foundation problems.  Some times a crack is just crack... at the speed some of these houses are put together, it's sometimes called bad workmanship!

Whenever I go on a listing appointment, I pull up an Archive search to see the listing history of the property.  Whenever a buyer wants to write an offer on a property, I again pull up an archive search on the property.  Many times, agents think that if they just relist a house, the listing will refresh itself and gain a lot more activity.

This is true, to an extent.  It'll get more lookers, but when they pull up the history, you better be prepared for questions as to why the house hasn't sold yet.  Last year, I finally cancelled a listing that had been on the market for a year and a half.  We were priced about $20k lower than the builders same floorplan, but couldn't compete with the builder's incentives.  Plus, the seller required a 4 hour notice for showings, and she denied 4 out of every 5 showing requests... how does that sell a house?

So, I started getting calls from agents wondering why the house was priced so low and what was wrong with it.  Nothing is wrong with it, except the seller won't let people in to see it... we would go in circles. 

Make sure you pull up the property history so you know more questions to ask if you see the property has been listed with 3 different agents in a 6 month span...  you might not want to work with the seller as it's not always the agent at fault for a house not selling!!

The city of Dallas, is proposing a new law that would prohibit droppy pants within the city limits.  Droopy pants have already been banned from the Dallas school districts, but this is going to take things further.  One of the councilmen said, "It's an embarrassment to our city if we can't keep our pants up."

My initial thought about this is that it's about time!  I'm so sick of looking at people who walk with their legs two feet apart just to keep their pants up, but they're still falling down anyway.  And they usually wear a belt.  Isn't the belt there to keep them up?  I've neer understood how this "fashion" has stayed so long.  I guess it makes them wear clean underwear since people are going to be seeing it all the time.

My second thought was, don't the council members have more pressing issues to deal with than how people wear their pants?  There are so many streets with pot holes, there are sidewalks that are very dangerous to walk on, and even though they passed a law about panhandling at the street corners, it still goes on...

Louisiana and Virginia have tried a ban like this in the past and nothing ever passed... maybe Dallas will be the first.  Here's the full story.

The property at the corner of very busy Royal and Inwood was finally settled.  It will be turned into a very Elite Neighborhood called the Creeks of Preston Hollow.  Perot's company, Hillwood Residential will be working the deal.

They are anticipating building 17 properties within this 22 acre area.  Some will be spec homes and others will be custom.  Lot prices alone will range from $1.5- 3.5M and the homes themselves will range from $4-12M.

So, if you're going to spend anywhere near $4M, wouldn't you want the entire house to be custom?  I can't believe they would build a spec in this price range.  They're going to start building and then a buyer, with lots of money and power, will come by and ask for this wall to be moved and this room to be added and on and on.  With this type of money, they should all be custom homes.

Specs are good for the under $200k price (in the Dallas market), but once you get higher than that, the buyers like things to be custom to their likings... maybe the builders will allow these "Elite" buyers to at least pick the flooring!!

How many areas out there are using the new slate blue colored infrared lock boxes instead of the ugly beige lockboxes?  I liked the old ones because you could keep you eKey in the holder while you show, whereas the new ones require you to carry the darn eKey with you as all you do is point it at the box.

Supra has offered us through December to turn in all of our old lockboxes and buy the new ones for only $10.83 a piece!!  What a deal!!  After December, they won't even look at the old lock boxes and the new ones will cost full price at $96 and some change.  Two of the lock boxes I turned in were brand new!  They still had the CBS code paper on them.  I had just bought them about 3 months ago...

We were supposed to go to infrared about 4 years ago when they gave us new eKeys, but about 50 people got the wrong eKeys and instead of trying to figure out who those people were, they just decided to not do infrared... here it is over 4 years later, and we had a massive eKey exchange about 2 months ago.  I was one of them.  My cradle was not on the recall list... but it was, indeed, the wrong cradle as it drained my battery on showing day!!  I had the pleasure of going into their offices the next day with a very "pleasant" attitude (those of you who know me know it wasn't pleasant).  They immediately gave me a new cradle and all is well now.

Anyway, who else across the country has this new lockbox from Supra? 

I met with my old neighbors today as they are relocating to North Carolina and they saw my sign across the street which made them remember to call me!  I actually met with the husband last week to go over everything and he was to translate to his wife since she couldn't make our appt and there wasn't a good time last week for her.

Well, I was at my listing across the street switching out the lockbox since we got new infrared lockboxes.  I noticed both cars and a handy man's truck were all across the street.  I decide to go over there and see if they had packed up anything so we could list it.  The house was in shambles, but they're aiming for this week on the market.

Anyway, I digress...  We're discussing the Net Sheet and possible outcomes with different offers.  We are discussing closing costs paid by sellers for the buyers.  In this immediate neighborhood, the average amount of closing costs paid for by the sellers is $2635.  The wife doesn't understand this.  She's like, can we not sell to buyers that don't have money?!

LOL!!  Out of reflex only, I chuckled... I looked at her like she was crazy, and I repeated her question back to her to make sure I heard her right, and she was like, Yeah, can we not sell to someone who doesn't have money?  If they can't pay their own closing costs, why should I pay them?  Can't they save?

Back up, I told her.  We went back to the numbers where I show her how sellers don't technically pay the closing costs, but that the buyers roll the closing costs into their mortgage.  She starts to understand again.  I point out the number $138k and remind her that this is the average sales price including closing costs.  I point to the number below it around $135k and remind her that is the number without closing costs.  She says, Awww, but I want to sell at $150k.  I say, that's a completely different conversation!

Anyway, I thought it was funny that they wanted to make sure the buyer had money before buying a house.  Wouldn't we all love buyers like that? 

Broke in Dallas...

Is this happening in your market?  I was just reading an article on CNN's site about how people in some markets have sold their home to take advantage of the high prices, and are RENTING until the market cools off.  Talk about throwing money away! 

Say their rent is about $1200 a month, that's $14,400 for the year, plus there is no tax benefit of interest rate or taxes to write off.  Without the write offs, they're throwing away, on average (in my market) of about $300 a month.  Add that to the renting, they are throwing nearly $18k away just to hope that the prices come down a few thousand dollars?  This makes no sense.  This boggles my mind even more because if someone is used to living in a nice home, how could they fathom living in a 2 bedroom apartment?  I would also assume rent would be well over $1200 a month which makes the numbers above much higher!

Maybe it makes sense in areas where the average prices are well over half a million and they're anticipating the prices coming down by tens of thousands of dollars, but I don't see it happening.  I guess I'm still warped by the prices of Dallas being under $200k and never seeing a bubble, except when I chew gum!

Can anyone give a good example of someone they know that this has worked for?

I learned something new yesterday which was confirmed today.  In Texas, once you do a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) on your house, you cannot refinance the house until the Heloc is paid in full.

I had a listing appt yesterday where I feel so bad for their situation.  They originally bought the house with putting down 20% and waiving escrows.  After a couple of years, they got behind on taxes and decided they needed to refinance the house and roll the taxes into the mortgage and get everything caught up.  It's now a couple of years later, his ARM has gone up to over 11.5% and when he inquired about a refi, he found out he didn't refi a couple of years earlier, it was in fact a Heloc.

At that point in the appt, I just got to look down at my hands on the table and say ohhh and awww.  I was speechless. I had never heard of such a thing, and it was confirmed today that the Heloc rule is true.  It's so sad when mortgage people don't explain things fully to people.  What where they doing giving 8% on a refi two years ago anyway?  I asked ifhe had questioned the rate, and his reply was that he trusted them and didn't know to ask. 

So sad...  hopefully I can help him out of this situation.

Gas prices eased a little this week.  In Texas, the average is around $2.87 with the lowest amount in Corpus Christi at $2.75 a gallon.  The national average was down $0.06 to $2.98.

I still don't think that gas prices effect where people buy houses.  We have the DART train that runs through parts of the Dallas area, and I haven't really noticed the parking lots more full (fuller) than usual.  People in Dallas love their cars.  They like to show off their cars.  They're not going to park their nice, expensive car in a parking lot to take a train to work.  How would they be able to volunteer to drive to lunch and have everyone ohhh and ahhh about their car?

With the Kroger grocery card, I get $0.10 off per gallon, so I paid $2.76 last time I filled up!

Foreclosures are going up an up in the Dallas area.  Year to date, it's now reported to have had over 28,000 foreclosures.  3800 are threatened to face foreclosure next month.  It's really sad, but all these people who got put into ARMs and didn't really understand what would happen, are in big trouble trying to scrape together a mortgage payment. 

I had a listing appt this past Sunday where her ARM adjusted and she can't afford her $1600 a month payment though she has a roommate splitting part of it.  Her ARM adjusts every 6 months, and she wants to sell before that, but has no money to pay the taxes at closing, though she would get her escrow account back.  Big dilema, but I hear it more and more.

Other numbers are that Dallas County is up 32%, Collin County is up 38%, and Rockwall county, which you usually don't hear much about, is up 68%!!!

In many areas across the country, it's easier for people to get out from a foreclosure because they'll have equity in their homes.  The Dallas market has always been much less expensive, around 18% before national average, and there is no equity for these people to get out of their homes.  Even the real estate bust of the '80s was only seeing about 2000 foreclosures a month.

We're in a sad situation.  Here's more.

WOW, what a surprise.  I was nominated as the HouseValues' agent of the month for the second time.  Last year, July 2005, I was called with a warning about the announcement.  Today, I found out as I was checking my emails and going to the HV forum and saw a post congratulating me.  I'm like, what?  No way!

I can't believe no one let the cat out of the bag.  I even spoke with someone at HV for over 45 minutes yesterday, and not a peep out of him.  I guess I know who can keep a secret!

Last year, getting the HV agent of the month added a lot of hits to my website, so I'm hoping it'll do the same this year. 

Here is a link to the HV blog site posting as well.

The city of Grapevine is asking for a one cent sales tax increase for the November election.  When I was first reading this information, I was think to myself how much of an increase that was and why would they need so much.  Then I got to the numbers part of it, and the increase would put them even with the majority of the North Texas area at 8.25%. 

Personally, I think all the areas should have the same tax rate as we all drive all the roads and we all go to the stores and restaurants in different cities.  It's annoying when you go to one mall to buy something because you were just killing time in between appointments, but then they have to do a tax adjustment if you return it at another mall in a different city and/or county.

They said they're doing it to be able to connect Grapevine with the historic Ft. Worth stockyards in 30 minutes.  Grapevine thinks this will help tourism.  Whatever... it's about time they catch up with the rest of us paying taxes out the wazzoo.

Here's the main article.