State of the Market
Since we’ve taken a short blog sabbatical, the entire real estate world has changed. Although the evening news will sometimes say trite things like “Finally an opportunity for homebuyers…” everyone trying to buy knows the truth. Buyers have all lost 20-30% of their purchasing power from interest ra
UpNest Top Agent
We’re excited to share that our agent, Jeremy Smith, has earned UpNest’s Top Winning Agent Badge! This recognition further displays an agent’s credibility and expertise working with home sellers and buyers.
What a Year, and What’s to Come – December Newsletter
Samsung To Build $17 Billion Chip Plant in Taylor This investment is going to give the northeast side of the metro a real boost… Read More Rising Prices Driving Some Families Away From Austin As housing costs in Austin rise, some residents may be looking to leave Austin…
The Smiths in 2021
Although we’re in covid round two year, we’ve still found lots of ways to make the most of it. We’ve been able to make our yearly trips to Enchanted Rock as well as other novelties like Natural Bridge Caverns, Dinosaur Park, Austin’s Revel, the Texas Capital, Washington DC and more. I know not
June Newsletter
Although Austin is FINALLY beginning to show some signs of cooling, this doesn’t mean that Austin won’t continue to lead the pack nationally for quite some time, nor does it even mean that sales prices will slow down yet. Sold prices are lagging indicators that only tell us about what happened
MLS Coverage
I want to highlight yet another reason to work with HomeSmith. Sure, you can use Zillow and Realtor.com for some things, but to do in-depth comp analysis, have access to private agent notes about a property, or get attached documents like disclosures, surveys, etc., you need an agent with MLS a
April Newsletter: Austin Leads the Nation??
I was telling everyone in January to stay tuned: “Although no one has the data yet in order to write credible articles, once these homes start closing you’re going to see Austin all over the national news.” Boy was that true. We’ve been the hottest market in the nation for the past few months.
A Ridiculously Buyer Favored Process (Part 2)
I’ve said this many times, but I want to expand on this idea a little more… Even though this is an EXTREME seller’s market, and the seller gets to have most of what they want, still, it’s the buyers who have the upper hand as far as the contract process goes. The seller has practically no way t
Appraisal Waiving
One major part of the process these days is what we call “waiving appraisals.” When we say that, what we mean is actually waiving the right to drop out if the home doesn’t fully appraise up to the contract value. Backing up a bit, this is how the process works. Once under contract you
What’s Happening?
When January 1st came, it was like someone flipped a switch. Californians, among others, began moving here in droves and/or bringing their investment funds, if nothing else. Now, in many areas of town, homes are going for 10-30% over list price almost completely across the board, without except
School Ratings in the Austin Area
The video above provides a map visual and description of the Austin area and the school locations. (note: this video is best viewed on a cell phone and displayed vertically) This post was originally published in May 2020. However, with the number of people moving here, we wanted to move this p
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
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 bein
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 inward, th
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
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 at 45k ov
2016-2020 Market Comparison
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 into the data
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 at equilibrium), but I
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 won on be
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