Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: January 2009

I blogged earlier about buyers looking at a house many times before submitting an offer, and I wanted to go into further detail about the listing situation of that same house.

Some "friends" of mine put their house on the market about 8-9 months ago.  We talked about the house, the work needed, the updates needed, and of course, the price.

Updates and price were way out in opposite left fields. 

They put in some brand new, nice hardwood floors and kitchen counters.  However, that was it. They didn't and wouldn't change the appliances and they were original from the 70's.  They also didn't update any of the hardware like door knobs or cabinet pulls.  The house was very "dated" and brown!

Before they did the floor and counters, I had suggested selling it "as is" so the buyers could come in and update things themselves, but that it would not be the best idea to update one or two things in this price range when the entire house needs updating, especially with the leopard print counters they chose.

They decided not to listen and do the two updates.

Then, it was time to put the house on the market. I didn't list it. Price was too high. I referred them to someone else who might work with them.  He didn't work with them either.

My "friends" chose a new agent to list their home.  Why?  "With him being a new agent, he needs the money more than the other guy, so we think he'll do more to sell our home quickly!"

HUH?

First, they want to over price by about $100k. Second, they want to use a new agent who has no idea how to market their home in order to get anywhere near their over priced amount?

An appraisal said they could get around $550k. So instead of pricing it near that, they priced it at $650k in order to have negotiating room.  Then, price reduction to $585k.  Then reduction to $550k.  Then, a certain brokerage who had this listing, did a "silly" nationwide price reduction on all their listings and this was reduced to $470k. 

Now, it was on the market for over 6 months.  Even though it's now priced well below the appraised value and below the tax assessed value by thousands, it's still sitting there because now it looks bad with an original asking price so high.

After another couple of months at $470k, priced aggressively, they get an offer at $430k.  Thinking it would be easy to negotiate them up because the buyers have to know how low the house is already priced, they counter. This goes back and forth 6 times!

Final agreed upon price is $440k.  Why?  Because the sellers showed they were desperate to dump the property after so many months and so many price adjustments starting out way above any realistic number imaginable.  They might as well have just gift-wrapped the house and given it away over the Holidays!

Sellers, look at why you're selling.  Is it to just get the highest possible price you can no matter how long it takes though your net number continues to decrease each day, week, and month you're on the market?  Or, is your goal to knock out the waiting period, and get to your net number as quickly as possible?

REALTORS® are interviewing you more than you're interviewing us.  We don't want to spend our time and energy marketing a home that isn't going to sell as quickly as possible. Think about that before your next REALTOR® interview.

When buyers look at a house more than 2 times, do you think they're trying to "talk themselves into the house"?  For the most part, a buyer looks at a house, decides to submit an offer, negotiates, and during our Texas "option period", they go back to the house and look at it again during their inspection and decide if they want to really move forward.  Sometimes, a buyer will look at a house twice before sbumitting their offer to make sure they're ok with the "option money" they might lose, though it's usually just only $100.

If you're a seller, and you see the buyer has made 5 appointments to view the house, what do you think?  9 appts?  12 appts?

I have a "friend" who is selling his house.  It's been on the market for about 8-9 months.  I didn't list it and neither did the person I referred them to because they wanted to list way too high.  They're excited because this couple has seen the house 4 times and they were waiting for an offer because the buyers "had to" like the house to see it so many times.  Then, 5 times, 6 times, 7 times...

They were very excited.  I didn't want to burst their bubble, but I explained that a buyer looking at a house that many times is trying to "talk themselves into the house".  They didn't understand.  I explained how most people know if they like a house or not after seeing it the first time, and maybe a second.  I said, if they needed to see it 7 times, one of them really doesn't like the house and the other is probably trying to convince the other about how great it is.

I further explained that if one really doesn't care for it, that the offer they receive is going to be fairly low and along with the low offer, they're going to be hard to negotiate with as they probably won't come up very much as the one person doesn't care if they don't get the house.

These buyers saw the house 9 times before submitting an offer. My "friends" emailed to brag about how they got an offer.

However, before having an executed contract, the buyers had seen the house 12 times!  Yes, 12 times!  My "friends" emailed to further brag about how the buyers "bought" the house (though it doesn't close until the end of the month), and bragged to another friend about how I didn't know what I was talking about.

I shrugged it off until I got further details. 

All I've got to say is, "Original asking price was $650k.  Offer was $430k.  After negotiating back and forth 6 times, the contract price is ONLY $440k!"

Ok, I've got one more thing to say, "WHO WAS RIGHT?!?!"

Here are some of the latest pictures taken of our house.  As you can see, the scaffolding has been put back up in the front to get ready to tear down the elevation and redo it. I can't wait for it to look correct!

We also have the new delivery of the rest of the brick so they can finish the back of the house and also redo the front porch area.

We also have our insulation throughout the house.  We upgraded to insulate the entire garage since Mike uses it as a workshop year 'round too, so it's nice to have it insulated to help control the temperature.

The Low Voltage wiring panel was moved to an interior wall, so that's great.

They insulated the windows in the kitchen... oops!  When are we going to get those windows correct?  The electrician was also supposed to move all the electrical outlets to a horizontal position in the kitchen before insulating, but apparently the insulators didn't get that message.

You see that big window in the front room there?  That's going to be my 2-story office!  I'm going to be downstairs this time, with Mike upstairs.  We have it the opposite in our current house.

It looks like we're seeing some progress though it's still not anywhere near 100% correct from all the earlier mistakes.

Does anyone else see all the "orbs" in the pictures?  Was this an ancient burial ground?  What's going on with that?  I have many more pictures from today with even more orbs... not sure if they are "in the house" or following my in-laws around.  Scary!

And the saga continues...  it's pretty obvious we're not closing in January, which was our original close date.  We're also not going to close early February which was our second date.  We're now looking at end of March, possibly April.

My husband was in Austin last week looking at the house.  He was so enraged about the "white" mortar that we paid to upgrade, that I went down last Friday to see for myself so we could figure out what to do.  This is what they call "white" in Austin.

Does that look like white to you? 

Below, is "white" in Dallas from the exact same builder.  What's interesting is one of the new higher ups in the company just relocated from Dallas to Austin and they asked him what Dallas used for "white" mortar, and the guy, silly him, said they use WHITE sand to make WHITE mortar.  Boy, did the Austin people look "silly" to find out you don't use brown sand to make WHITE mortar!

So, they can't take down the entire house, as that's not in the schedule.  We're going to wait it out and see what the final color is once it completely dries as the builder thinks it's so dark because we've had such cold weather. It was in the 70's yesterday and 80's today, so it should dry out some and show a more accurate color. From what we're hearing, people in Austin don't "upgrade" to white mortar very often as most people are ok with the standard, boring grey mortar.

Also, they are going to take down the entire front porch area and redo it.  It looks horrible, and I recommend a urine sample from those brick people.  I don't have a good picture of that to show you,  but trust me, it looks bad.

Even though our move has been postponed another few weeks, I've already started to put my marketing in place to drum up business.  I've gotten some hits on my site, and I'll probably have to refer people out if they decide they're ready to buy or sell before I get moved down there. YEAH!

Last week, I sat in the Professional Standards & Grievance Committee training class as everyone on the committee in their respective states must now retake the class every year instead of every two years.  Seven hours of more roll playing...

I guess they make us take it so often because even though you go over the same stuff over and over again, every once in a while, something new sticks in your head.  I had that experience last week.

Cooperation verse Compensation.  Did you realize those are two different things?

You can agree to Cooperation with another broker allowing them to gain access to your  houses and show your listings, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Compensation.  Did you know and understand this?

For the above situation, I'm not talking about where you put the co-broke commission in the MLS and agree to compensation according to your board rules. I'm talking about when you get a call from an agent outside your MLS and board area, and they want to show your listing, or someone within your area who is not a memeber of your board. 

For example, I get a call from an agent in San Antonio saying he's going to be in town and would like to show his client (ie probably a family member or friend) one of my listings.  I can agree to cooperation and allow him in the door.  That agent's mistake is that he didn't ask about compensation.  See, my listing agreements state that if a non-MLS agent submits an offer, he only receives X% and not Y% as stated in the MLS. 

Why is this?  Because non-MLS members don't have the necessary tools to represent their client to the fullest when not from the area, not familiar with the area, not being around to help with inspections and mortgage, etc... that leave the work up to me to do to make sure the transaction closes on time.  That means I'm doing twice the work and Mr. San Antonio agent gets to go back to San Antonio, sit back, and call for updates so he can let me know where to send the check when it closes.

Are you following?  To help sum up, non-MLS members shouldn't assume they will be compensated just because the listing agent agreed to cooperation with them in the showing process.  Always ASK!

And keep in mind, this doesn't just go for out of town agents.  This goes for the Ma and Pa real estate companies who decide they don't want to be a member of the MLS and board in the area. Without being a member, they do not have the Supra keycards to gain entry.  I can agree to cooperation with them, but they better understand that doesn't automatically grant them compensation.

For the buyers out there, if you're wanting "representation", you should think long and hard about using a professional who has all the necessary tools to represent you fully.  Don't chose someone just because they're licensed in the state if they do not regularly work in the area you're wanting to buy in.

In my market, we have a showing service who sets up all our appointments, Centralized Showing Service.  It's great.  1 call can set 10 appointments for the day, or you can even login to their website and schedule it from there. Very easy.

Within this system, they also send out an automatic email to showing agents from the listing agent asking for feedback on the showing.  You can have your system set to send out an email however many times you want.  I usually do 3. If they don't answer by then, they're not going to answer.

When I show properties, I always try to give feedback.  Not just basic feedback like, "Buyers liked the house" or "Not on short list." How is this feedback useful? I call it meaningless feedback as there is no meaning behind it.

Feedback like, "The buyers didn't like the size of the yard or that the master bedroom is at the front of the house" is something that the sellers can work with.  Feedback like, "The house was so cluttered, the buyers couldn't see past the sellers stuff" is something that the sellers can work with, or at least the listing agent so they know what their next conversation will be with their seller.

As many of you know, my house is currently on the market.  We had a showing on Saturday and the buyers were at the house about 25 minutes.  That's a good showing!

I got a call Saturday night saying that these same buyers wanted to come back for a second showing on Sunday afternoon.  FABULOUS!!  We spit cleaned the house and made it shine better than the day before, though it was already looking its best.

I waited and waited, and finally saw the feedback on the website, "Shows beautifully....it is on their short list."  And??  What the heck does that mean?  They were only at the house less than 15 minutes the second time.  In my experience, the second showing is usually longer than the first showing if they really like it.  How does that feedback help me?  How do I know how to help compete with the other properties on the short list?  Do you not like the color of my brick?  Do you like the openness of the floorplan?  Do you not like that you would need to clean 4 full bathrooms?  Do you like the huge backyard and covered patio??

Why couldn't you provide usable feedback so I know why my house doesn't fit their needs?  I appreciate you taking the time to give "feedback", but what you gave is meaningless.  It doesn't help me as the seller, but it also doesn't help you as the buyer's agent.  Maybe your buyer had a couple of concerns and that's why they aren't jumping to write an offer. If you don't ask about those concerns, I can't help you gather the further information.

If you're going to take the time to give feedback, please think about how your feedback impacts your own buyers as well.  And if you know these buyers ruled the house out, maybe give some constructive feedback in case you have other buyers you want to show the house to.

I can't believe no one noticed my change... I thought it was really obvious, but apparently not...

I changed my profile picture!  Doesn't it look completely different than the old one?? LOL

NEW Donna 2009                                                OLD Donna 2006

I really liked my picture and didn't want to replace it, but come next month, it was going to be 3 years old.  I always tell people they need to use recent pictures so others can recognize you when you're out and about. However, I had not changed in the past 3 years, so I didn't bother to update my picture.

However, I figured, I'm starting over in a new area, I need to order new business cards, and with new cards, why not put a new picture.  Even though they look almost the same, I think you can see the "experience" I have gained over the last three years. My eyes don't look like they sparkle as much.

And looking at them side by side like this makes my neck look weird... maybe I need to redo the new one...  now it's got me not liking the new picture. I'll have to think about this one some more.

Texas is not taking bogus appraisals lightly.  And maybe *bogus* is a strong word.  They're not taking *fluffed* appraisals lightly.

I received an email from TALCB, the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board.  I don't know all the facts as to how they got involved, but they are definitely investigating some appraisals that have been done recently.

The email reads as follows:

"Rest assured that neither you nor the referenced transaction is implicated in the work I'm doing.  However, your sale was used as a comparable in an appraisal report under investigation and, for that reason; I'd like to ask you a question or two.
In MLS #10000000 (attached) you described travel vouchers as part of the incentive/bonus for purchasing.
1.  Were the vouchers included in the transaction?
2.  Would you know, or could you estimate, their cost to the seller?
Thanks"

When I first got it, my intial reaction was that I was in trouble as it doesn't say anything like HI, or How are you doing, or My name is... it just starts out saying "Rest assured neither you... is implicated..."

Wouldn't you think you were in trouble if you got an email starting out like that even though they're trying to make sure you're not in trouble?  I read the email a couple of times before I even looked at the bottom to see who it was from.  Yikes!!  The actual Licensing Board. 

Then, I was wondering which property were they investigating.  This is a low-end neighborhood so I can't imagine too much could be gotten away with.  My listing they were asking about sold for $126k and comped out about $130k.  It was one of the largest homes in the neighborhood at, if I remember correctly, 2500+ sqft.  Someone probably tried to sell one of the 1200 sqft homes using my sale.

However, I liked receiving this email.  It shows tha sellers can't overprice and just get an appraiser to agree to the price. The state is looking at appraisals closely, and if they see something with a T not crossed and an I not dotted, they're going to come after you.

Make sure your sellers are pricing properly, and if buyers' need closing costs, but you're listed at the top of the market, someone has to bend.  You can't just roll it all in unless you want it kicked back.

And if you're a seller, please price your home properly.  You can't get $200k just because you want $200k if you live in a $150k neighborhood. It's not going to happen.

I'm going to just vent for a minute, because I don't think I've done enough of that.

Look at these pictures:

Do I even have to explain what's wrong here?  I want to scream.  We sent my in-laws over to the house today because we had not heard from our new builder since we met with him over a week ago.  We were afraid nothing was getting changed, and of course, we were right.

However, they did start to stucco and brick the house.  What that did was make two HUGE mistakes scream out at me.  Look at that squared window!  It's supposed to be arched to match the other front window at the study. It's an flow thing.

Also, look at the roof line.  I'm completely missing a roof line above my window!  How could such a mistake happen.  In all my almost 9 years, I've never had a client's house built with the wrong elevation.

My husband was right (did I just say that??).  We should have bought pre-owned. We're just two completely jinxed people and this isn't working out...

As many people know, I'm in the process of moving to Austin. Before that can happen, we need to sell our current house.  To prepare for selling, we did many things around the house to get it in top showing condition.  It looks very nice, if I do say so myself.

One of the things we decided to do was spread down some Rye seed as Rye likes to grow in the Winter.  This will make for a green lawn and will have better appeal to people instead of the dingy looking yellowish brown, dead looking lawn as bermuda grass goes dormant in the Winter.

Well, we have found a design flaw in Rye grass... it doesn't like anything but "water" being used on it.  Oscar thinks he's doing the right thing by helping water the lawn, but he's actually making it worse.  We don't have any other choice unless we ban him from the yard and only allow him to water the mailbox, so we live with crop circles in the backyard.

Hopefully, buyers will understand and not look at it as a diseased yard.

The ad was titled "Aggressive Seller w/ Machete".  Does that grab your attention?  What was your first thought when seeing it?

My initial thought was that there was another story about a seller going psycho because he couldn't sell his house and chopped up his family.

When you click into the story, it says:

Motivated individual with an attitude just whacked a million and some change off of this 6200 square foot Penthouse on east Superior. Panoramic views included.

Ahhh, I see.  He used a Machete to drop his price.  And as a seller, it looks like he's being reasonable by including the Panoramic view in his price.  What if someone doesn't want to pay for the view?  Does he put up a smoke screen so they can't be seen?

Would a heading like this get you interested?

Do you eat Black Eyed Peas on New Years?  We moved to Texas when I was 8, and that first New Years' was interesting.  We had dinner at the Black Eyed Pea Restuarant even though no one in my family eats peas or beans, well, except Alyssa now as she loves the stuff that makes me gag.

There is lots of information about this "tradition".  Which side are you on? 

Are you on the side where the tradition was made up and created by Elmore Torn, Sr in 1947?  Or are you on the side that truly believes you need to eat black eyed peas to make it through the new year?

See, Black eyed peas were a staple in the south for workers.  It wasn't until WWI when this food was eaten by the middle and upper class to take the place of meats as those were getting scarce and expensive.

Elmore thought every other major holiday was known for a food.  Thanksgiving & Christmas is Turkey, Easter is Ham, Fourth of July & Labor Day is hotdogs and burgers... New Years needed a food.

As I sat in the restuarant and watched people eat these nasty looking things, I wondered why anyone would make such a tradition.  Yuck!

To this day, I've never had a black eyed pea, and I probably never will.  Good luck to everyone in the new year whether you eat those things or not!