Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: January 2007

I received a call a couple of weeks ago from a home owner asking for a listing appointment.  Her home is currently listed on the market, and she's in a city further north than what I usually take listings in, so I asked her how she found me... THANK YOU ACTIVE RAIN!

I also asked her if she thought the house hadn't sold because of the agent, or because of the house.  She asked what I meant about it being the house's fault.  I asked some leading questions, and it looks like it is partially the house's fault for it not selling, not necessarily the agent's fault... but, the agent is a part time agent, and probably not living up to "my" potential of an agent to do everything to get the house sold.  Apparently, she put a sign in the yard, lock box on the door, listed it in the MLS, printed up 100 flyers to give the sellers, and did an open house...  it's been almost 4 months... there is plenty more to do, so I also fault the agent.

Anyway, I met with them last night and things went really well.  I told them I couldn't talk with them in specifics when it came down to price since they were already listed and I can't give advice and opinions while under representation.  They understood, but they also knew the numbers since they had another agent come a couple of days earlier.  I bypassed my opinion of sales price, and hit on another point of marketing, which is to help the sellers compete with the builder in their neighborhood and offer the buyer's agent 4% to help them look past a couple of the negatives about the house and actually show it to buyers.  I explained that I would still receive 3%...  They thought that was a great idea.

I received a call today from Mrs. Seller:  "My husband and I were talking after you left and we really liked your idea about offering more to the buyer's agent.  However, we were wondering if you would like 4% also?"

Me: "NO, of course not!!  I'll work for much less!!"  (j/k)

Mrs. Seller:  "We feel that if we offered you extra, you would work even harder to sell the house.  We also feel that if it doesn't sell in 60 days, then we could drop your commission back to your 3%.  What do you think?"

Me: "Ummm, I don't understand... I don't usually accept that much money for doing such an awesome job for my sellers..."  (j/k)

What do you think I said??  I was driving when she called, so I told her to email me so I could email her a new disclosure form, as the previous one is no good, and also so I could email her a revised listing agreement showing 8%, with 4% to each side...  Her listing expires Jan 31, and I'll list it Feb 1, if they complete all my staging advice before then.  We're meeting Thursday at 2pm to stage the house.

I don't know how many more times I could thank ActiveRain for new business since it's happening regularly, but I don't think thanking AR each time for the first year is too much... and I have this as a public post so people out on the internet can see that blogging definitely makes a difference in our lives and business... THANKS AGAIN, ACTIVE RAIN!!

This is amazing!  Pizza Patron claims that 60% of their customers and 45% of their franchisees are Latino and that accepting the Mexican Peso in place of cash is going to benefit their customers.  However, they will not accept peso coins, only peso bills.  Each cashier will be given a chart with the conversion rates on it and will give change back in American money.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  On one hand, this is very common along the border where people are constantly going back and forth.  Dallas is the furthest known city from the border to accept this.  On the other hand, why should we be accepting another country's currency?

Currency rates change daily.  Pizza Patron will be calculating 12 pesos to equal a dollar. However, the current exchange rate is only 10.94 pesos to equal a dollar.  The difference is to charge for the convenience of allowing the pesos to be used which will help offset the costs of converting everything back to dollars at the bank.  But, what happens when 13 pesos equals a dollar, or 15 pesos... do the restaurants change their conversation charts daily or weekly to keep up?

Here's the full story.  What do you think?

PRICE REDUCED!! Great House built in 1999 in move-in ready condition! Hardwoods in the formal dining and on the stairs. Laminate wood in the kitchen. Loft upstairs has closet and could be walled-up into 4th bedroom. Master has double sinks, garden tub, separate shower, & walk-in closet. HUGE backyard with plenty of running around room for entertaining. Floored Attic, under stairs storage,Dry Bar, Garage Door Opener & much more...Roof 04, HWH 06.

City of Sachse but in Collin County and Wylie ISD which means lower taxes & higher rated schools!

Click here for the visual tour:
http://www.visualtour.com/shownp.asp?T=738822

This area is very close to main highways and the NEW Firewheel mall at 78 and 190 (George Bush).

What a great location, close to everything! Updates include Master bath, Kitchen with tile counters, backsplash and appliances, light fixtures, canned lights, wood trim, paint, and siding. Features include split bedrooms, vaulted ceilings, wet bar, two patios, 1200 gallon Koi pond, HUGE backyard with dog run, sprinklers, security, CAT 5 wiring, many built ins and much more! The grill in the back stays! This house is a MUST SEE! ONLY $147,500!!
Click here for the visual tour 

 Bedford is in the heart of the HEB area (Hurst, Euless, Bedford).  So much is going on around here with many new shopping centers and restaurants. Check out, http://www.mapdallashomes.com/ to see an Aeriel view of the neighborhood.

I'm livid!!  I just went to check all my vFlyer activity for the weekend and there were absolutely no viewings on Saturday or Sunday and Friday had very few showings for ALL my ads.  I went into Craigslist to check my account and they "Staff Deleted" all of them.  Keep in mind that Staff Deleted is completely different than a post being "flagged" by others.

Has anyone else checked their accounts?  I have emailed vFlyer support about this as I'm curious on why they didn't send out an email like they did last time.  I prefer vFlyers because of the tracking, but I'm about to be forced to go back to Postlets if this doesn't get resolved.

Anyone else who uses vFlyer, please bombard their Tech Support so we can get this resolved ASAP!

The email address I used was the address they emailed me from: support@vflyer.com

There are a couple of new shows on HGTV that I've watched a few times, House Hunters and Hidden Potential.  These shows really tell me how much my buyers choose houses that THEY love and not choose houses for themselves that I love.

House Hunters is where they take people out and show them house after house.  I remember when I first saw it, the people were given the choice of three houses and they had to make a decision.  The last time I saw it, they made a comment to the effect of, "three weeks and several houses later, choice #4 is such and such house."  That's great that they're now acknowledging that it takes more than seeing just a couple of houses to make a decision.

Hidden Potential is where you take a couple that has looked at several homes already and they're just not finding what they like in their price range.  Typically, these buyers are trying to get into a pricey neighborhood for the lowest end of the price range possible and then they're not happy with the condition of the homes.  Hidden Potential takes them to three houses with a designer and he completely redesigns the houses on his computer.  Then the buyers go "WOW!"  The problem with this show is that you take someone's budget of 300k, and you show them houses around $200k, but you show them $100k worth of improvements to the house. What they don't acknowledge is that if you're buying a house in a $200k neighborhood and you're putting in $100k of repair, you just over updated your house and there's a huge possibility that you're never going to see that money back on resale.

Anyway, back to the point of this post... On both of these shows, I listen to what the buyers are saying that they want and watch intently as the hosts are explaining the different features and the Hidden Potential of each house.  I then make my educated guess on which house they should choose.  I have been correct ONCE!!  That's right, only once!  Can you believe that?!  This is my job, and it takes into account my degree in Psychology and I've been picking the wrong houses for these people all these years!  It's no wonder why I get so shocked sometimes when my buyers call and say they want to write an offer on such and such property though I'm prepared for them to say the other property.

No matter how much training you've had over the years with reading people, most are still going to shock you with their decisions.  I mean, a family that keeps talking about how they need more space and an extra bathroom actually "settles" for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home just because they liked the designers plans... I don't get it.  If I was the agent working with them, I would keep reminding them over and over again about resale and how 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths will resell so much better than a 2 bedroom with 1 bath any day of the week!  My job is also to remind them that the point of their move was for more space and how does 2 bedrooms accomplish this.  I wish they would do follow ups on these people later to see when they resell and why.

Does anyone do any better when guessing which houses these people are choosing on the shows?

I have the sense of a HUGE accomplishment today!

Whenever I would show 2-story houses that had a "dust collector" above the front door, I would tell myself that if I ever had a house like that, I was going to decorate it, and it would involve one of those treasure chests. When we bought out current house about a year and a half ago, it actually has the "dust collector"!  I was so excited.  For those of you who don't know what a dust collector is, it's a plant ledge that just collects dust, mainly because it's too high for you to dust it.

I wanted to decorate it, but when it came down to it, I didn't really know what I wanted to do for that spot.  My husband was very much against putting anything there because "who is going to dust it?"  I told him that the point is that no one dusts it, the stuff just sits there and looks pretty.  So, all this time goes by, and I had secretly been looking for a reasonably priced chest and I would build around it.  I looked several places, but I was not going to spend $100+ on something to collect dust.

I received a referral last month from an agent in California.  They came into town and we were looking at many houses.  While looking, I had mentioned my plans for the "dust collector" but hadn't been able to find any chests worth the price.  Before these buyers left town, they stopped in a store and called me.  They said they were there and that they had tons of chests at 50% off!  It's weird because I had gone to that store, but not that location.  It turns out that the location they were at was one of the biggest in the area so they carried more things. 

The next day, I drove up there, and I got my chest for only $34!!!  I brought it home, and my husband was like, "we're not putting that up there!"  I was like, "Oh, yes we are!"

I bought that chest about a month ago, and yesterday my husband looks at me while watching TV and asks, "Are you ready to put that stuff on the ledge?"  I immediately jumped up and got my jacket on so we could bring in the HUGE ladder from the backyard.

I have a huge sense of accomplishment that I had been wanting for many years and finally did it.  Yes, it's something simple, I didn't cure cancer or anything, but it's my own creation and I like it.  It's a chest, a chair, a throw blanket, and a plant that was just sitting around the house. All for under $65!

As for Mike, he thinks it blocks out too much sun, but we'll just have to open the windows in the front formals!  I told him I would climb up there twice a year to dust, but that means he's going to have to bring in the big ladder from outside!  I wonder if that's going to happen....

Back around September, I got word of some potential "deals" in a particular area of Dallas.  When I heard what was going on, I immediately knew of some investors that would be interested.  After getting more and more information, my initial investors were like, NO WAY!

There's a builder in a community that has apparently put 13 people into foreclosure situations, in which I won't go into details, as they confuse me as it is.  The lender liked talking with me and working with me so she said that if I got the home owners' permission to talk with her in detail, we could do some business together.  I have the contact information for 5 of the owners. 

Because these homes are being built and money has disappeared, there are thousands of dollars of liens on these properties.  One of the owners was VERY serious of getting out from under the home and said he would do whatever it took to get the house sold...

Fast forward to November when I blogged about meeting a builder who needed a new Realtor.  I took this builder out to the houses and he immediately wanted all of them except one.  We immediately put an offer in on one of the properties.  Of course, the offer was contingent upon all liens being removed as the lender wouldn't approve a short sale with those liens.  The owner had to jump through many hoops to get the lien releases signed, but he didn't mind.  We were set to close the Friday before the New Year when one of the lien holders took off to Mexico and didn't return until yesterday, but alas, it closed.

Within this ordeal, one of the lien holders didn't want to release his lien.  He kept upping the amount of money he wanted to release it.  Finally, the owner tells him that this is ridiculous and why does he keep changing his number.  It turned out that the person with the lien likes to buy foreclosures, fix them, and flip them, and he's sore that the owner didn't allow him the opportunity to buy the house.  The owner so graciously gave him my name and number and told him that I was working with the lender on several of the homes and that I could get him into one of the homes...

Remember the builder above who liked all but one of the houses?  This new guy is going to buy that house, cash!! I now have a buyer for the remaining 4 houses!!  Short sales are never fun to go through, but if I had walked away from this situation at the beginning just because the first investors wanted nothing to do with this mess, I never would have found another investor!!  Granted, this lien holder guy does have his real estate license, and we'll be working out referral fees, but it's still business I wouldn't have had if I didn't decide it was worth going the extra mile with the work.  Lately, I've been finding lots of new clients in the most unsuspecting ways.

Also, a big THANK YOU to the title company as they did a fabulous job running around town with their notary stamp for the lien releases!!

These brand new license plates are now being offered in Texas for $30 (in addition to regular registration fees).  I'm definitely getting one.  However, for another $40, you can customize the 5 letters. 

I need help trying to figure out something catchy that wouldn't already be taken. I assume REL8R is already taken, though I'll still try for it.  Does anyone have any other ideas for 5 letters relating to real estate??