School Ratings in the Austin Area
This post was originally published in May 2020. However, with the number of people moving here, we wanted to move this post back up to the top as it has proven to be useful. Realtors are prohibited from endorsing schools or suggesting that a school is good or bad; however, it is THE thing that […]
How Should I Bid?
How should I bid? We get this question all the time. All we can do is guess based on what we’re seeing, but what we’re seeing is so crazy that we often get incredulous looks back. If it helps, here is data and pie charts that look more authoritative. Feb. 2021 Austin Market Survey March […]
Is Austin Overpriced?
As the madness of the Austin real estate market in 2021 continues, the question of “is Austin starting to become overpriced?” often comes to mind. Austin typically has a fairly low cost of living in comparison to other large metropolitan areas, making it a favorable place for employers as well as homeowners. However, in the […]
Five Star Agent Award
The Five Star Agent award is presented to agents who work with Fast Expert and have received more than 15 verified reviews with an average of 5 stars. This showcases an agent’s ability to provide a positive experience for their clients. We’d like to congratulate our agent, Jeremy Smith, on being recognized as a Five […]
WHY Austin is the Nation's #1 Hottest Market
This video is SO on point right now, and explains better than anything else we’ve seen WHY Austin is the nation’s #1 hottest market right now. Note also that although we’re getting migration from other places too, like New York and other big cities, many of the reasons for California’s migration match their reasons as […]
FAQ: "How far away are things?"
We are often asked how long it takes to drive places, so this is our attempt to be as objective as we can with that question. Our software makes these maps with downtown (place of most common interest) as the center, and predicts a drive time TO there at 8:30am. If you count from outward […]
Austin Real Producers Top 500 and Five Star Professional Awards
After a year filled with unprecedented challenges for the market, we’d like to congratulate our agents Jeremy Smith and Hillary Smith on receiving two impressive awards and recognitions: Austin Real Producers Top 500 and the Five Star Professional award. Determined by 2020 sales volume, the Top 500 ranking highlights leadership in sales performance by agents […]
More On 2021 Madness
In my last four posts this year you’ve been reading about the brutal scene this year for buyers. I have a little good news though, there is hope. After about two dozen aggressive offers since the turn of the year, I finally have a buyer client that has won an offer tonight! We got it […]
2016-2020 Market Comparison
How Does "Months Of Inventory" Work?
In my opinion, the all important metric that drives prices and market behavior more than anything else is “months of inventory.” What does that mean? Well, they say a market needs about 6 months of inventory to be at equilibrium. More than that is a buyer’s market, and less than that is a seller’s market. On […]
List Price vs Sold Price Ratios
Here are some interesting statistics brought to you by a great data crunching agent in town, Matthew Cornwall. From the way this year has started, I think we may see even more impressive numbers in 2021. Notice the end of year inventory was under 0.3 ! Folks, that’s unbelievably low! THAT’S why, so far this year, it […]
More 2021 Speculation
I’ll probably be on a blog rant for a few weeks until I can get my head around this sharp market turn. Since my last post about the craziness, I’m still losing offers to the tune of 20k+ over list price multiple times a week. I’ve started doing some polling to get a little deeper […]
The Frenzy of 2021
I find myself telling the same stories over and over, and need to just put these in a blog post. Guys, this market has been hot for awhile, but it’s just achieved bonkers status in the past week or so. We ended November at .9 months of inventory (I hear near 6 months would be […]
A Great Lender
I wanted to take a little blog space here to recommend my favorite lender. We even bought our own home with him last year. My wife and I are high volume realtors and get the chance to work with a lot of great lenders. At the time we pitted him against our other favorite lenders and he […]
Platinum Top 50 Annual Awards
Our team continuously strives for excellence, and recently, two of our agents were recognized for their hard work and achievements. We are proud to congratulate Hillary Smith and Jeremy Smith on being named Platinum Top 50 finalists this year! PT50 is the most prestigious award, recognizing residential real estate agents that have excelled in the […]
What in the world happened in 2020? And WHY?
If you’ve been watching the stats this year on our blog and Facebook page, you’ve seen some amazing numbers Austin has been putting up. Who would have thought this would have happened, when we were in full panic mode in March! If you bought your home this time last year, your home could easily be worth […]
Why Choose HomeSmith?
I know there are thousands of realtors to choose from. When my clients move to other metro areas, I’m often tasked with finding them their next realtor. Naturally, I’m looking for a realtor like myself in many ways because I believe myself to be among the best. Here’s what I’m looking for, and also why […]
The Smiths in 2020
What a year, right? A lot of us will remember 2020 as a year simply endured. I personally don’t cage well. I’m the type of who likes to get out everyday and keep moving. Still, it’s always best to look for things to be thankful for. Although it took probably 3x the amount of normal […]
Why Buy Now?
I’m always self conscious about how much I might sound like a cliche TV show realtor, prodding people to “BUY NOW!” When that is actually the appropriate advice though, I always try to make that objective. First, glance at these two infographics at the bottom for lots of aggregate data. Notice these numbers suggest that […]
A Ridiculously Buyer Favored Process
We work with a lot of people moving to Austin from other states. Although I’m by no means an expert in the contract processes elsewhere, I have had the opportunity to make some observations and say that the Texas real estate contract forms are much more in the favor of the buyer than other places. […]
