You Will be Angry But I Have Good News 

On April 1st Williamson County Appraisal District is scheduled to mail out 2019 property tax appraisal notices.  Based on the sale prices you are not going to be happy with your home’s value going up. 

But I have good news! Most homeowners when they receive their tax value say something like “If someone would pay me that much for my house I would sell it to them.”

If that’s your reaction when you open the notice for your property chances are we can sell your home for the tax value or even more. In fact last year our average sales price was 4.1% ABOVE tax value. That comes out to an average of almost $17,000 OVER the tax value.

When you get your notice in the mail don’t be angry. Instead contact…

708 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

When selling your home one of the many aspects to consider is whether or not to utilize staging to bring in those prospective buyers. Staging has proved to draw in potential home owners, attract attention on MLS listing photos, and inspire a connection with the home so buyers feel like they could live there. Until recently the only way to stage your home was to bring in carefully coordinated furniture, accessories and hire a photographer to take photos of a beautifully staged home.

The problem with home staging is it is expensive and many Realtors and home sellers don’t have the budget to pay the rental fee. Renting staging furniture in Austin is expensive. For an average sized home it will cost over $3,000 for the first month and close to $2,500…

1447 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

If the IRS considers you a “foreign person” and you are selling real estate your sale may be subject to FIRPTA withholding.

 

 FIRPTA is short for The Foreign Investment In Real Property Tax Act of 1980. FIRPTA is a tax law that imposes income tax on foreign persons when selling real estate. Read more about FIRPTA at the IRS website. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/firpta-withholding

This sounds scary and can be confusing to both sellers and buyers. Buyers can be especially frightened by the FIRPTA process because there are forms buyers have to sign that say the buyer is responsible for paying any taxes due if they are not collected at closing.

Many real estate agents do not understand FIRPTA and they do not ask…

1533 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post