Austin Texas Real Estate

Recently, I’ve had several prospective clients contact me only days before their property is suppose to go to the foreclosure auction on the court steps. If find myself asking “why do these people wait until it is too late to contact me about listing their home for a short sale?” The answer is not a simple one. I think that there is a lot of psychology that goes into the realization that you are about to lose your home. Most people in financial distress usually put keeping their home as the last priority in making their way out of the financial issues. First on their list are their immediate needs, food, transportation, utilities and childcare.  In Texas, we have an accelerated foreclosure process, the second fastest one in the US. Some of these prospective clients live in states such as California and Arizona where the foreclosure process can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. That is typically not the case in Texas where the entire process can take as few as 60 days. I think that by the time that some of these investors realize that the mortgage lender is not bluffing about their property going to foreclosure and that they are not going to be able to do the loan modification that they thought they would be able to do, it’s too late to save their property from foreclosure. Obviously, if there is a demonstrated financial distress and the homeowner qualifies to do an FHA short sale or a prospective buyer has put in an offer on potentially a conventional short sale, we may be able to get the home saved from foreclosure but with the last couple of calls this hasn’t been the case. Calling the Friday evening before the auction on the following Tuesday is too late. People have to realize that the mortgage banks short sale departments are not open on the weekend and the red tape that is involved with getting a foreclosure postponed can be daunting.  Though not every short sale is successful, giving yourself the time necessary to work with the bank and the short sale realtor only improves your chances of successfully walking away from a property with the bank having taken the hit on the deficiency and you walking away with your sanity and peace of mind. To learn more about short sales, visit my short sale page at http://www.romeom.com/Austin_Short_Sale_Assistance/page_2182165.html .

It seems like every time you read a newspaper, turn on the tv or listen to the radio, there is always some economics expert giving his doom and gloom predictions of another pending mortgage meltdown. Though it is true that we are nowhere near the conclusion of the mortgage fiasco, one thing to keep in mind is that real estate is very much area dependent. What I mean by that is that though parts of the country have become figurative ghost towns due to foreclosures and relocations, Austin is one of the few metro areas that has enjoyed consistent economic growth. The Austin area is not without its fair share of foreclosure and short sales, but those areas primarily affected are usually in first time homebuyer communities in the outskirts of town. You will find the occasional foreclosure or short sale in the heart of Austin, but those opportunities are few and far in between because of the mass appeal of living close to where the action is. At social gatherings, when I meet someone new and I tell them that I am a Realtor, they usually ask “how’s the market?” My usual response is “why do you ask?” It seems that people put too much of an emphasis on the real estate market and how it is doing and how it relates to the overall economy. Purchasing a home does impact and stimulate the local economy, but as with all other investments, there will be periods of appreciation and periods of depreciation. The days of flipping homes based on assumed appreciation are over. Real estate alwasys pays great dividends if treated as a home and an investment.

To learn more about Austin Real Estate, visit my site at www.romeom.com  

As everyone knows, the housing market has faced some critical times over the last couple of years. Home values in Austin have not been so devastatingly affected as in other areas of the country but what today’s market has created is a unique opportunity for homebuyers to purchase a home at a near rock-bottom price at interest rates that hadn’t been seen in over 50 years. The bad news, is that ship is sailing away quicker than you might think. As the unemployment rate drops and the economy begins its slow recovery, you’ll see both mortgage interest rates and home values start to creep up. While this may be positive news to both home sellers and home owners, if you are in the market to purchase and are stuck on the fence, you may soon find yourself blown off the fence by increasing down payment requirements and higher interest rates. Since August of 2010, interest rates have increased nearly a full point. What this means on a typical home loan of $200,000 is a monthly payment increase of $91 or over $52,000 more over the life of the loan. Possibly of greater concern, is the possibility of the down payment requirements increasing to 5% for FHA backed loans and 30% for conventional loans. Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) companies have already raised their minimum credit score requirements making it impossible for some people who were qualified to purchase a home two years ago to qualify today for that same loan. The point of this explanation of the mortgage market is not to instill fear into those who are thinking about purchasing a home, but rather, to help give them the extra push that they may be looking for in getting off the fence and becoming a home owner.

Visit my Austin Real Estate site for more information.

As the first days of 2011 begin, I am reminded of the goals that I accomplished over the course of the year. I am also reminded of the goals that I didn't accomplish. Though possibly difficult to believe, all of my goals are not necessarily real estate related. Don't get me wrong, I always have the long-term goal of being the most recognized name in the Austin Real Estate market, but in the short term, I have to be more realistic and more focused about the goals that I set for myself for this new year. In analyzing my victories and defeats in regards to the goals that I set out to accomplish at the beginning of last year, I find myself making a list of why I was or wasn't able to accomplish every goal I set out to complete. Some goals were probably too easy, and I shouldn't have even included them on the list, while other goals were unrealistic. I mean, did I really think that I was going to run my first marathon without training? As with any goal, it has to be specific and realistic. It has to also be time specific and measurable. In the case of my wanting run a marathon, I had those all of those parameters planned, but I never found the time to be consistent about training. The real point to my writing about goals, is to reinforce and perhaps motivate those who read my blog to plan on making 2011 a breakthrough year. Whether the goals you set are fitness, financial, family or personal goals, the important thing is to have goals and to strive to meet those goals. No one ever accomplised anything by planning to do something. Only through action and perseverance will the goals that you set, ever be realized. Unless you happen to win the lotto :)

 Visit my Austin Realtor site to learn more about me and real estate in Austin.

So you’ve been hard at work with your Austin Realtor searching for the perfect piece of real estate and then one day, you find the home of your dreams at an unbelievable price! The only problem is that it is a short sale.  So what does that mean to the buyer? As I’ve discussed before, a short sale is basically, when a mortgage lien holder agrees to accept less than the full amount owed on a mortgage. The seller has to qualify to put his home on the market as a short sale, but what is required of the buyer? The number one thing is PATIENCE. A short sale does not follow the normal route that a typical resale would. Even though a seller is not going to get anything out of the short sale other than salvaging a piece of their credit, they may still have some emotional attachment to their home. Try and put yourself in their shoes. They may be going through some trying times including, death, divorce or a loss of job, so they might not be at their most rational state. Some buyers, especially investors, feel that a distressed situation requires a low ball offer, kind of a “hit them while they’re down” mentality. In reality, once the seller signs off on any contract, the bank with the mortgage lien must sign off on the transaction as well and this is where your patience as the buyer will be tested. Banks may take weeks, months or in some extreme situations, even years to come to terms that they are not going to be paid in full on a mortgage loan. That translates to slow responses or even no responses to the offers that potential buyers have submitted. A good short sale listing agent will be on top of keeping all of the parties involved in the transaction informed about where the process is. One of the biggest problems that potential buyers may face, is the inexperience of the listing agent in completing short sales. Typically, only about 25% of all short sale transactions are successful, due in large part, to the inexperience and inability that most agents have in “trying” to do a short sale. Before even considering putting in an offer on a home that is a short sale, make sure to have your agent do some research on the listing agent to make sure that he or she knows what they’re doing so as to not waste your time submitting an offer that will fall on deaf ears. In most cases, having an experienced short sale buyers agent and an experience short sale listing agent involved in the transaction will increase the chances of the transaction being approved by the bank as well as cut the wait time dramatically. From a personal perspective, I’ve been able to get a short sale completed in under 30 days from start to finish.

Read my next blog post at http://www.romeom.com to learn about the final steps required to complete the short sale process.

This is the challenge that you’re faced with when you’re an Austin Realtor and you’re competing with 9,000 other local Realtors for the same client pool. With the evolution of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, businesses, including Realtors are scrambling to take advantage of these “free” online tools to stay in contact with current clients as well as to try and attract new ones. Social media has quickly become the mainstream method of communication with 20 to 40 year olds. In fact, in a recent article, many were surprised to see that Facebook had more web traffic than even Google. The only issue with social media versus more traditional media such as television and radio is answering the question of how long will social media be fashionable? It wasn’t too long ago that MySpace was the internet’s darling. I know of several people and businesses that spent so much time developing their MySpace pages that once the site lost the internet’s favor, all of those efforts went by the waste side. Though there is no cost involved with setting up a Facebook account, it certainly isn’t “free”. You can literally get sucked into spending countless hours loading widgets, updating your status, checking out your friend’s status, their friend’s photos, planting virtual crops, watering other’s crops and even sending out “virtual” gifts. With all of the tools at your disposal, it’s difficult to not bombard your audience with so much real estate information that after a while, people start to tune you out because they think that all you ever talk about is real estate. That’s where being balanced about what you post, how often you post and what you post about comes into play. As a Realtor, I’m constantly in business mode, but I want others to know that I do have a life and interests outside of real estate. After all, social media should be sociable right?

To learn more about Austin real estate visit my Austin Realtor website.

I love being an Austin Realtor and working with all types of homebuyers, but I have to say that sometimes it’s hard to work with first time home buyers who have spent too much time watching HGTV and feel like they know everything there is to know about purchasing a home and real estate in general. I just had a listing of mine fall out of contract because the homebuyer expected the 25 year old home with amazing panoramic views to be in near perfect condition based solely on the sales price. If you’ve ever purchased a home before, especially a resale home, you know that it is always a good idea to have the home inspected prior to closing to identify issues and safety and health hazards that may exist. The home inspection is critical in being able to obtain insurance coverage as well as qualifying for a home service contract to further protect your investment. One thing to keep in mind during the inspection and reporting process is that no home is perfect. Even new homes that are inspected by a third party inspector will rarely be 100% issue free. The primary role of the inspector is to find things wrong with the home and report those deficiencies to the homebuyer. The list of deficiencies are then used to either renegotiate the terms of the contract, or if bad enough, to simply walk away from an unsafe or problematic home by exercising the unrestricted right to cancel during the option period. The way the information is presented by the inspector in the inspection report and in person is very similar to the bedside manner of a doctor delivering their diagnosis. It can be truthful and informative, yet shouldn’t make a mountain out of a molehill. An example of this would be that homes built in the 1980’s were not required to have GFI outlets in the kitchen, but under current code standards, new homes are required to have those installed. Inspectors are required to report this “deficiency” on their report, but they should make it a point to express to the homebuyer that this is typical when purchasing a 25 year old home. Though this does present a minor concern, this is a relatively easy fix that can be negotiated into the revised sales price, a repair allowance or the seller can have it updated or repaired prior to closing. To simply walk away from the house because the inspector made it seem that the house is a possible electrical fire death trap because of electrical outlets not  being compliant with current codes is neither reasonable nor a wise expectation when searching for an older home. Unfortunately, some property inspectors have gotten a bad reputation  and are no longer recommended by Realtors or other real estate professionals not because they are too accurate or honest, but because they feel it necessary to justify their inspection fee by pointing out truly useless deficiencies such as missing door stops and chipped wall paint. Again, I’m all for making sure that the buyer has accurate and complete information in making a decision, but sometimes too much information can cause undue worry and kill an otherwise great deal.

For more real estate information, visit my Austin Real Estate website at www.romeom.com