Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: March 2008

Don't you love it when you have a client that thinks unrealistically on both sides of the spectrum?  I mean, when they're a seller, they think they can get X amount for their house, but if they were buying that same house, they would only pay Y for it.

I have this great new listing that is priced very well.  It is about 2000 sqft, built in 1996, has a POOL, and is priced at only $219,500.  This is very competitive for this area.  I got a call from a neighbor this afternoon asking about the house.

Neighbor: How much is the house?
Me: $219,500
Neighbor: WHAT? That's way too high!  How much would it sell for without the pool?
Me: Probably about $207k, why?
Neighbor: I have the exact same floorplan, but I have 4 bedrooms, not 3 like your listing so you're priced too high.
Me: Do you have a Study?
Neighbor: No
Me: Then it's the exact same except I'm marketing it as a 3 bedroom plus a study.  What would you sell your house for today if you were selling it?
Neighbor: No less than $210k.
Me: If you would sell for no less than $210k WITHOUT a pool, why is $219,500 too much for your same house but with a gorgeous pool and perimeter fence?
Neighbor: It just is! 

This conversation continued, and it just AWE's me how differently people view their home if they were selling it verse if they were buying it.  It turns out that this neighbor is looking for an investment property for a rental and doesn't want  to spend more than $180k, but he's not going to find that in this area.  He lives right there, and even though he wants X for his house, he thinks his neighbors should only accept Y.

The thing he isn't considering is that if his neighbors all sold for Y, he would never get X because they would all bring down his value.

What are some of the ways you've tried to explain this situation to buyers and sellers?

What a great house in a great community of the Lakes on Legacy.  4 bedrooms, 4 full baths, Study, 4 living areas that include a Media and GameRoom, 2 dining areas, and 3 car garage. All this for ONLY $395,000.

The GameRoom has built-ins & Media Room has built-ins, wetbar, & a full size fridge. The Kitchen is open to the Family Room with an island, many cabinets & abundance of counter space with built-in desk. Master is down and has a sitting area. The master bath is huge including an oversized shower & tub. 3' Plantation shutters, Study, Combo Formals, 8' fence w steel posts, Playset stays... much more! Community Park, Pool and Tennis courts.

CLICK HERE to view the Visual Tour.

FREE All-Inclusive Beachfront Resort to Bahamas or Mexico included at closing!

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

Why are you junking up your signs if you're not going to make sure they're portraying the image of you that puts you in the best light?  If you're going to put sign riders on your signs, you should make sure they're attached securely. 

This sign is two doors down from me.  The house has been on the market since July '07 and has not had a price adjustment of any kind.  Instead, about 4 months ago, this "Special Financing" sign appeared.  In today's mortgage situation, what kind of "Special Financing" are you talking about?  There are no more "outside the box" loans.  Either you fit the mold or you don't.  How can you advertise that the house has special financing when there, more than likely, isn't going to be anything special about it.  What do you think of the agent whose riders are hanging off their sign like this?

Here is another sigh that is across the street from me.  Yes, the same broker, but different listing agents.  If you're going to impress the sellers at your listing appointment that you're going to cut down a few trees to keep flyers in the box attached to the sign, why is it never full of flyers?  Do you get a lot of angry calls from people driving around wanting that flyer?  Probably not since I don't live in an area where you would get too much drive-by traffic, so the agent probably doesn't even know it's been empty for weeks. 

So, if you're going to put sign riders and boxes with your signs, why aren't you paying attention to how they represent you?  A sign rider falling off a sign signals Sloppy Agent to me.  Flyer box that sits empty week after week signals Lazy Agent to me.

I won't promise fancy riders and flyer boxes when I list your house.  I'll promise you a very clean sign with my name and contact information on it, for when each and every buyer pulls up to the house with their appointment to view it, not drive by it.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

Richardson TX has been known as the Telecom Corridor since the 1980's.  This is because Richardson housed some of the major Telecom companies like Nortel, Ericcson, Fujitisu, AT&T, and many others.  Since Telecom took a downward spiral a few years ago, many of the Telecom companies left as well.  Many others downsized their office spaces.

Because of many buildings becoming vacant, Richardson decided to start recruiting other companies into their mix.  Fossil makes Richardson their home.  Countrywide took over much of Nortel's space.  It's a whole knew world as you go up 75 Central Expressway.

Here are some of the larger employers throughout Richardson, TX.

Richardson Schools: 5000
Nortel: 4000
Countrywide: 3000
University of Texas at Dallas: 2830
BlueCross BlueShield of Texas: 2504
Verizon Business: 2256
AT&T: 2140
Fujitsu Network Communications: 1500
Cisco Systems: 1400
Rockwell: 1100

There are many more companies in the area as well like Samsung, Texas Instruments (though technically has a Dallas address), and the Richardson Regional Medical Center and new Cancer Center.

Come make Richardson your home.  Even if you want to work in Plano at Frito Lay, JC Penny, EDS, Computer Associates, Dr Pepper/7 up, or any number of more companies, you're just a short 10-20 minute drive away.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!! 

 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

There is a house one street over from me.  It first went up for sale in July 2005.  I remember this because that's when my husband and I were looking at houses because the seller on the house we were buying was trying to back out and we needed a backup place just in case. 

The house, shown here, was very plain and not what we were looking for.  We wanted one of the "WOW" houses in the neighborhood, not one of the ones that neighbors wished weren't next to theirs.

The house was built in 2000, so in 2005, it was barely 5 years old so the house wasn't outdated.  It still met with typical standards at that time.  It was just a plain house that didn't offer anything out of the usual for the price they were offering, which at that time, was too high $459,900.

After being on the market for a couple of years, it finally went into foreclosure as the sellers had already moved and bought another house and were tired of messing with this one, so they let it go.  Even under foreclosure, it wouldn't sell... it finally went to an Auction and sold in December 2007 for $273,000.  Yes, that's over 2 years later.

Of course it had to be an investor who actually ended up buying it because at this point, owner occupied people are probably freaking out about what could be wrong with it since no one else wanted to buy it.  The investors figured a nice facelift of the house was in order. 

The house now looks like this, to the left. To me, just driving by, it looks like a completely different house.  All they did was take the plain, white limestone and put a darker color limestone, but also spread it futrher across the front of the house.  This made the pink brick look less intrusive.  Changing out the ugly fushia door to a brown door along with the brown shutters also make the house look more inviting. Sprucing up the Landscaping also helped.  Now, instead of looking like a basic "A" frame house, it has character.

Are these changes that I could have done if I wanted to?  Yes.  Are these changes that I wanted to cordinate and deal with while living in the house? No.  Are these changes that a typical buyer can picture as they're thinking about buying a house where the outside just isn't as appealing as they wish it were?  Maybe, but highly unlikely.

So, it was originally priced at $459,900 two years ago, which was grossly overpriced for the neighborhood to begin with.  It was sold for $273,000 just a couple of months ago.  Can you guess what the asking price is now??

Nah, I won't make you place guesses and then come back and check.  I'll tell you... It was listed for $419,900 on January 30 and had a price adjustment on February 23 to $399,900. It's been listed for 42 days, and is now priced correctly, but will it sell?  Is there a stigma on this house which will make it sit and sit?  Will the facelift show people the true house that it was meant to be? What do you think?

The Texas Rangers held tryouts for Ball GIRLS this weekend.  Yes, I said Ball Girls, not Ball Boys or Bat Boys.  This will be the second year they have decided to have Ball Girls represent them.

There were about 20 girls fighting for 6 positions.  What's interesting is that these girls aren't there just to run after foul balls and throw them to the crowd. On the contrary.  They are there to also help warm-up the players.  They will field balls hit and thrown.  They will also have to be able to throw that ball back, long and accurately.

In addition to their on the field duties, they are expanding last year's duties to also be spokewomen for the team and appear at promotional gatherings. 

It sounds like a lot of fun, and I wish I still had a good arm... though I'm probably too old for what they're looking for.

Here is more on the story.

Graphic above is from the Official Texas Ranger's website.