South Austin Texas Real Estate blog: June 2009

OK, this is Texas, it is a place known of the hot summers and this year the summer sun is out in full force, at 8:00am yesterday it was over 80 degrees, I had appointments to show homes at 11:00 am til 2:00... if you have lived around these parts you know we are walking down the streets and around the backyards in 95-100 degree heat. 

This year we have had the typical August dog days of summer hit us in June, 12 days of over 100 degree heat, many record breaking for that day, 103, 104 degrees.  No matter where you live, when the thermometer says 103 that my friend is hot, I don't care if it is a dry heat, or a steamy heat, that's HOT!

I found this really cute cute cooler for my back seat that will hold 12 small water bottles, it's compact, made of cordura cloth and features a big Star on a blue and red background.  Not only is it very lightweight and insulated to keep cold drinks cold, it folds up when not in use and stores easily.

When I go out with clients I have found that taking a small cooler of water helps us all, we need to keep hydrated and I can buy a 12 pack of small bottles of water at the cost of 3 large bottles at a drive thru.  Water is better than sodas because it does a super job of keeping one hydrated... plus you don't have to guess at who drinks carbonated soda, who drinks only natural juice or who prefers sweet tea as to unsweet tea, now in Texas that is an important thing, sweet tea or non sweetened tea. 

How do you deal with the summer heat and showing clients in your area, I am always open for suggestions and maybe you have a good trick or two I can use.

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in South Austin Texas or the surrounding areas, such as Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs, give me a call and I can help you.  Don't forget the deadline for the $8,000 Tax Credit will be expiring before you know it, time to start looking for your new home now.  call Gail Tassey, Realtor ® at 512-217-9482, visit my website, http://austincomeshome.com or shoot me an email @ austincomeshome@gmail.com

ALTHOUGH I WASN'T BORN IN TEXAS IT IS MY ADOPTED HOME NOW AND I TRULY LOVE IT HERE, I CAN ATTEST THAT THESE ARE FACTUAL STATEMENTS. 

THINGS I LEARNED FROM BEING RAISED IN TEXAS

Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road
with their feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes on earth and 4,998 live in Texas .

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000
live in Texas , plus a couple no one's seen before.

If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

'Twiced' is a word.

People actually grow and eat okra

'Fixinto' is one word.

There is no such thing as 'lunch.'
There is only dinner and then supper.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you
start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

'Backwards and forwards' means I know
everything about you!

Djeet is actually a phrase meaning 'Did you eat?'

You don't have to wear a watch because it
doesn't ma tter what time it is. You work until you're done
or it's too dark to see.

You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

You measure distance in hours. Like its 6 hours from Houston to Dallas .

You'll probably have to switch from 'heat' to
'A/C' in the same day.

'Fix' is a verb. Example: 'I'm fixing to go to
the store.'

You install security lights on your house and
garage and leave both unlocked.
 
Yes, Friday night high school football games is serious football!

You carry jumper cables in your car . . .
for your OWN car.

There are only four spices: salt, pepper,
Tabasco and ketchup.

The local papers cover national and
international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

100 degrees Fahrenheit is 'a little warm.'

We have four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer,
still Summer and Christmas.

Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time
known as 'goin' to Wally-World.'

A cool snap (below 70 degrees) is good
pinto-bean weather.

A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or
pop. .. . . it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example:
'What kind a coke you want?'

Fried catfish is the other white meat.

We don't need no stinking driver's ed . .. .
if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

If you understand these jokes please forward
them to your friends from Texas (and those who just wish they were).

EVERYONE can't be from Texas .
You might say it's a gift from God!
 
 
Fler's are you know, rose, tlup  you know fler's ( flowers )
 
If I wern't born in Texas I want to get  there before I die.

And the most important thing we learn growing up and living in  TEXAS is...

            IN GOD WE TRUST  AND
                    WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY
 
Love Y"all"
Dad

Zillow is engaged in conversation with Sky Realty Austin, President, Curtis Reddehase about the fact that Sky Realty office is no longer syndicating listings to Zillow and like minded sites.   Following is the letter that a Zillow representative wrote to Curtis and then Curtis'  reply. 

This all came about because of the Sky Realty public stance on no longer syndicating listings.The following is comment on my post We no Longer Syndicate Our Listings

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Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:41 PM: Curtis, Spencer from Zillow here. You and I have never met, and I regret that. So please don't take this to be rude when I tell you, respectfully, that this is a very bad business decision for your company, your agents, and most of all your sellers. It is the responsibility of brokers and agents to make sure that their clients' listings are wherever buyers are looking. Zillow has 8.9 million unique visitors and our traffic is growing 72% year-over-year. In most cities, we're the #1 or #2 real estate website. In fact even in Austin, where we have notoriously bad public record data on Zillow, we have a ton of traffic. We have many, many buyers on our website. Not putting your listings on a website with that many visitors -- especially when it's free to you to do so -- is a disservice to your sellers, and I'm sure it's coming up in you agents' listings presentations. The benefits of putting listings on Zillow are: 1. Exposes the listings to potential buyers (9M uniques, 25% of whom say Zillow is "their primary real estate shopping website") 2. Shows your seller that you're working to sell the home (CAR Study: 73% of sellers visit Zillow, frequently to check to see if their agent listed it there) 3. Sends free traffic to the broker website (each listing on Zillow has at least 2 links to the broker website from the listings page) 4. Improves search engine traffic for the broker website because of all the links from Zillow 5. Marginalizes the "Zestimate". When a listing is added to Zillow, the Zestimate comes off the map page, and is pushed all the way down the listing page. Also, we recalculate the Zestimate based on the property attributes in the listing feed, so the best way to improve and marginalize an inaccurate Zestimate is to list the home on Zillow. By painting the issue in a sort of "us vs them" light, you're trying to create a conflict between real estate media companies and brokerages where none exists. Yes, Zillow makes money on advertising, just like newspapers do. But it's free to put your listings on Zillow, and we have buyers. Brokerages who don't help their agents and sellers market their homes where buyers are will see their listings business evaporate as more and more sellers become sophisticated about how to market their homes online. Respectfully, Spencer from Zillow spencer@zillow.com

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 Here is Curtis' reply that is posted publicly on the Sky Realty blog page.

I do not think your comments are rude. I feel you are not qualified to determine what decsions are good and bad with respect to our company and our clients.

Let me take this opportunity to clarify that we pulled our feed on the broker level. We let the agents do what their clients want. I will say that at each listing appointment that a seller brings up your name, I will send them a link to this blog and let them chose.

Ok Spenser you say "So please don't take this to be rude when I tell you, respectfully, that this is a very bad business decision for your company, your agents, and most of all your sellers. It is the responsibility of brokers and agents to make sure that their clients' listings are wherever buyers are looking"

I say the only context in which I have discussions about Zillow is how far off your valuation are from what we value our clients home. So I do not understand how it is a bad decision to keep my clients from your poor home evaluations. Why would my clients want their home on your site just to have buyers think that it is in no way worth what they are asking. You have no clue as to what is good for our business. I do not think subjecting my clients to your bad valuation is a bad business decision.

Spenser you say "In fact even in Austin, where we have notoriously bad public record data on Zillow, we have a ton of traffic."

I say that all you have is a great deal of traffic that is misinformed. Zillow has done absolutely nothing positive for any of the agents in my office, and that I can see for any of the REALTOR community in Austin.. In fact I had an agent come to me this morning in frustration that his buyer is questioning his valuation of a property based on the information that is coming from your site that has as you say "In fact even in Austin, where we have notoriously bad public record data on Zillow, we have a ton of traffic."

You see Spenser agents all over this town have had to battle "notoriously bad public record data on Zillow" just do their job. I see no evidence of how Zillow is making a genuine effort to work with the REALTOR community and be a positive productive partner in the business of selling real estate. I see more evidence of how you make my job harder. It is truly a shame to se all of your resources work so hard against us and our clients. "Free" is not a reason to put a listing on your site. You should encourage us to put listings on your site by offering something of value.

If your data is so bad and you know why do you offer it? 

Spenser you are no one to tell me that my clients should mixed their professionally valued listings with your "notoriously bad public record data on Zillow". I work to hard to have you mess it up. I think their listings are safer off of your site than on it.

If one of my clients tells me to list their home on Zillow after reading this then I will have a fiduciary duty to do so. I however, do not have a fiduciary duty to put their listing there with out knowing the consequences.It is not about "us vs them". It is about the fact that you have a great deal of resources and you use them to do more harm than good, at least in Austin. That "notoriously bad public record data on Zillow" causes a great deal of frustration in our market.

I think a bad business decision is to offer bad information to people who trust your site.

Why don't you put your valuable resources to work in a productive fashion?Spenser, I would like for you to take the comments to come back to your developers and work on something that actually brings value to the real estate buyers, sellers and agents that work so hard toward a successful transaction. Come back with something that works in a productive fashion and we can talk about doing business, we are not unreasonable.

 This request is to all of you real estate agents. Please share all of your thoughts both good and bad about Zillow. Let's try to determine whether Zillow has a more positive or negative impact on the Austin market.

Curtis Reddehase
REALTOR/President
Sky Realty

the complete version can be read here.. http://www.skyrealtyaustin.com/blog/talk-with-zillow-about-their-data-in-austin.html

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Also at the Denver RebarCamp this month a Zillow employee was quoted by Larry Holtz a Denver broker, read that blog post here..   http://www.larryhotz.com/realtor-teach-in/

"Topics expanded from just talking about blogs to talking about social media in general. I attended one session in which a representative from Zillow freely admitted that that  his website's estimates of a home value are only right 30% of the time in the Denver area. Still, Zillow operates an automatic valuation model which attempts to determine a home's value through a computer program. But, the program can be notoriously inadequate and even produce dramatically distorted values. Zillow is looking to involve more Realtors in its website."

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 I'm sure that Zillow does want more Realtors involved, we give it to them free and they sell it back to us as Leads.  Not cheaply either.  I can not for the life of me see why we as Realtors(R) are a party to this self inflicted throat cutting.  Realtors need to give the public what they want by freely advising the public of sales, stats or whatever one needs to make an informed decision.  At least it would be factual and not Zestimated.  How can a buyer or seller be informed if the data they are reading is 30% inaccurate?  That's a huge difference.  I suppose back in high school if I were 30% wrong I got a 70% correct and that was C, my mom had a fit, and I too was displeased.  Do you want to conduct your business and be working at a C level?  I don't I want to be an A.  All the time, not 30% of the time.

Something to share with everyone at the end of this fine June day .. as a reflection.  As many of you know I have 3 delightful grandsons.  Of course I am extremely proud of each one of them, but here today, I have to brag on my oldest grandson, Nick...  I was going thru his end of the school year folder and I ran across this poem.  It's his original work and I thought it was wonderful coming from a thoughtful 12year old boy. So here I am sharing it with all...

A POEM by Nick
 
   I sat on the sand
   the Horizon I scanned.
   Holding a shell in my hand
 
  I thought the water talked to me
  I laughed aloud with glee!
  Standing silent before the sea.

Maybe grandma is too proud? I thought it was very well done and I could almost hear the oceans waves and see the boys playing near the lapping waves. Here are the boys, from left to right.. Nick, Bryce and Matt.  How blessed and lucky I am to have 3 such awesome grandsons.

What is selling in Circle C Ranch?  How much is the price per square foot? These are a couple of questions I will attempt to answer here, the data related is from the Austin MLS system, for the Month of May 2009, obtained, June 8, 2009.

Sold Units:  (residential homes)   sold units  29 in May 2009  ....     sold units 19 in May 2008 

 Average Sold Price:          May 2009      $318,988.00     .......       May 2008   $319,125.00

Average Price Per Sq Ft.    May 2009      $111,18           .......       May 2008   $115.15

Average Days on Market     May 2009        97 days                      May 2008    64 days

Averages are just that... highs, lows, everything rolled together and then averaged. It does not represent compariable properties in a subdivision.  Overall  averages are generalization, for a specific property comparable please call me or email for that information when we can do a like kind comparison.

If you wish to sell your home in Circle C Ranch call me and lets talk about your goals.  512-217-9482.

The Village at Western Oaks is a sprawling part of Southwest Austin, its families, business people, singles, everyone can and does live in this tree lined community, home to many great parks, like Dick Nichols public park and pool.

Here are some of the details of what has been going on in the Real Estate market in this area for May 2009.

Currently there are 29 active listings,  priced from $210,000- $334,000. 

Currently there are 19 pending listings.  under contract.

Sold activity for May 2009  9 properties, priced average $229,421 with an average square footage price of $123.11, average days on the market were 60.

For a comparison of the general market in this area.. here are the stats for May 2008.

Sold activity for May 2008 8 properties, priced average $276,425 with an average square footage price of $122.37, average days on the market were 36.

While at first glance it looks like the average price has declined.. but wait, it would have to do with the homes that sold last year, maybe they were larger overall? Perhaps the problem with averages is it lumps everyone together and tries to find an overall.  In pricing a property one always must compare like kinds, that is why a seller needs a professional competent Realtor.  So they do not get generalized comparisons but real like to like.

This is just a snapshot of an area in Austin from May 2008 to May 2009.  If you wish a real comparison to sell your property call me...  or email and I can help you makre your home too!  Gail Tassey 512-217-9482

To those Communities who are contemplating a cancellation of the 4th of July celebration, fireworks.. here is my plea to you.   Think of what you are giving up.  sure times are tough in many areas now, but doesn't that mean we may need a glimpse and glimmer of hope in an evening of fun.  

What the fireworks mean to me, when I hear those "bombs bursting in air"  I can smell the powder and hear the musket shots of the Minutemen, the fireworks of the Revolution the one that separated us from England, the making of our AMERICA the FREE. 

For all our goods and bads we are the ULTIMATE place of Freedom on the whole globe.  America is where most of the rest of the world wants to be or be like us.  Gross consumerism and all.  We are free to dress like we want, have parades that we want, watch on television what we want ... on and on, I could not begin to list the Freedoms we have, but I enjoy them.

How important are dollars in our shrinking economy as compared to the smiles on the faces of children and the lights glowing in their eyes?  Keep our Traditions alive, Play the Stars and Stripes and shoot off those fireworks.   America is watching.  They are in the parks, stadiums, hillsides, riverbanks, and even watching on television.  It is a Community night, celebrating as one big Community, in the glow of the fireworks there are no divisions among us, we are all faces tilted to the air and singing, America the Beautiful, we are proud of our heritage that has spread throughout the world, in just 233 years the people of this country have built something to be proud of.  Just 233 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  How amazing is that when one thinks of the Thousands of years of history of those nations across the water from us!

Celebrate the 4th of July, this year like no other, economy is in the dumps but the Pride of Americans is not.  Our economy will raise up again, keep it going.  Do whatever it takes to show your Community Pride in America and what our Freedom stands for and CELEBRATE!

July 4th is the PREMEIRE HOLIDAY for AMERICA.  It is not religious, it is not from another country and imported.. it is the CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM.  

The American Public needs to continue to recognize and celebrate this most sacred day of our history, if we discontinue the fireworks that is next to telling a child we don't have money for a Christmas present for you.  It is devastating, heartbreaking, and soon one will lose the tradition, then the meaning. 

In bad times, hard times, that should make us closer and we can gather together and still celebrate, with fireworks, so it won't be so grand, it can and must go on. The celebration of FREEDOM is what fireworks are about... sure it a fun night to get together with friends and neighbors too, but its a community bonding.  In hard times we need a bit of joy.  Especially in hard times!

Sure, people will still have picnics, barbeque's, holidays but without the fireworks to celebrate the finalization of the evening it would lose much of its meaning.  Sure maybe not now, but eventually, losing and eroding the meaning the time to be reflective of all those who gave their all for our FREEDOM.

Surely there is time to have a gathering of people and get this done, Community bake sales? Car washes? begging?  If everyone one gave something the celebration would continue, it is our most prized possession,  FREEDOM.. as the song says.. LET IT RING.   now and FOREVER.

So that's my take on it.. if its rambling it's because the emotions I felt when writing it has overcome my ability to think clearing, this is more feelings .. raw..  CELEBRATE AMERICA ... we are a PROUD PEOPLE and we have a right to be.  WE ARE FREE.

This post was writen because I read one SAVE THE FIREWORKS by Charles McDonald that stated his town was cancelling the 4th of July Fireworks this year.

We have a visitor at our house, a cute little half grown raccoon.  Unfortunately he appears to be stuck or at a loss of what to do.. this afternoon we brought him some water in a small bowl, i think he is afraid to move and drink it.  We have now put a 2x6 board from the top of the post to the ground hoping he will find his way down.

Unfortunately we have 2 dogs that are not friendly to trespassers.  Squirrels normally have a 60 second lifespan if they wander into the dogs space.  I am hoping this little guy can find his way down the board and wander off into the woods across the street.

In my area, Austin Texas we overwhelmingly use the Supra Lockbox.  Its safe, sturdy, easy to open, did you hear that.. EASY TO OPEN. Let me repeat that EASY TO OPEN. 

Last weekend I was showing some lease property to a very nice young couple and the parents.  In many situations we have holdouts that only put a COMBO LOCKBOX on the property. I understand the combo is for agents who are not members of our MLS system, agents who work primarily in the Lease/Rental field.  OK, I got that, I also know that I found all of these properties on the MLS ...  and in our MLS there is a SECURE way to post the COMBO lockbox combination in an attachment that can only be opened by a licensed Realtor. 

Of the 8 properties I was to show on Sunday, 1 count it, ONE, had a supra lockbox, 7 had combos, how many of the combos were in the SECURE ATTACHMENT? 1 .. yes I said ONE.  So 6 had combos that I needed to find an agent and get the combo from.   Well, lets just make this job a bit harder now, toss another bump into the road, I did sent out emails, I left voicemails.  The evening before the showing.  On saturday.  Sunday I am standing at the door of one of these beauties and calling the agent... PLEASE ANSWER.. PLEASE...  well, answer he did and immediately after I stated what I needed he said, I TOLD HER TO CALL YOU BACK.  huh? He told his assistant to call me back.  OK... well, could I just have the combo and move on here.

Now here is the real brunt of my post, of the 7 combo lockboxes, 3 looked like they were from WWII, I could not not open them, I tried, I tried, I cursed under my breath, I fumbled, I fumed about now, meanwhile the clients are looking at the front yard and not watching my frustration, or pretending to not watch, how sweet that was of them, finally the dad comes up as I am giving up and he managed to open the dang things. 

Why, somebody tell me WHY, for $34.99 you can buy a NEW easy to open combo lock box at Lowe's or Home Depot why would any agent use such outdated, malfunctioning, horrible fingernail breaking boxes I found on those properties?   Are agents so cheap that they will not update their equipment?

Oh, yes, I called those 3 and told them their lockboxes were a disaster and should be replaced. Will they be? Most likely not.  So there you have it activerainers, my rant for the day! Enough to make me give up doing leases altogether.(and I wouldn't be doing this one but its a family friend's daughter...etc..etc..etc)

Just musing today and staring at my keyboard, I was gently reminded by my friend Betina that I have not written a post in a week.  Why?  I don't really have an excuse, reason or can not put my finger on one.  Just haven't had the heart?

So I am determined to pull myself out of this slump, and I started looking at some of my old posts, you do know that they are still active don't you.  Some of them just keep growing, people keep searching for things and viola, an old post pops up.  So that's all good.  While I was looking at my statistics I ran into something that I thought was odd.  Not bad odd, just different, I wrote a post last Sept, 2008 about   Do you charge buyers a transaction fee?  Simple little post for opinions.  to my suprise it was featured and became a source of conversation for a bit. As of this date that post has had over 3200 views.  That completely amazed me.  Most of my old posts have from 400-1100 views. 3,200 people have read that post. Three Thousand Two Hundred!

Why?  I don't think I can answer that.  What I can say is, never forget what you write lives past this moment, this day, this week.  Good, bad or indifferent it is out there.  Say what you mean but don't be mean about it would be a few words to the wise.

Looking to relocate to Austin Texas or surrounding areas like Dripping Springs, Kyle, Buda, South Austin, call me and let me help you realize your real estate dreams.  Gail Tassey 512-217-9482 or check my website for some cool houses listed in these areas.  http://www.austincomeshome.com