Kopa Real Estate Blog

How To Make Sure Your Sale Crosses the Finish Line

If there was one simple step that could help make your home sale a seamless process, wouldn't you want to know about it?

There’s a lot that happens from the time your house goes under contract to closing day. And a few things still have to go right for the deal to go through. But here’s what a lot of sellers may not know.

There's one part of the process where some homeowners are hitting a road bump that’s causing buyers to back out these days. But don’t worry. The majority of these snags are completely avoidable, especially when you understand what’s causing them and how to be proactive.

That’s where a great agent (and a little prep) can make all the difference.

What’s Causing Some Buyers To Back Out

The latest data from Redfin says …

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How To Sell Your Home With Less Stress & For Top Dollar In 2025

Attend our FREE Home Selling Seminar or Webinar to help you get the most money and get your home sold fast.

In only 1-1.5 hours, learn inside secrets from a top Real Estate Broker specializing in selling homes in the Central Texas area. Learn how to sell your home fast, easily, and put more money in your pocket. Reserve your seat and learn:

• How long will it take to get your home sold?
• What are the current market conditions?
• What are the updates that give the biggest return on investment?
• Do you really need to make updates or can you sell as-is?

In-Person Seminar Dates:

December 10th, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Moonshine Grill in Avery Ranch

December 11th, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Cedar Park Recreation Center

Online Webinar…

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That's Not Going To Work! Episode 1: Will Buyers Trust You?

By Eric Peterson

Last month I said I would start telling stories of all the homes where people who contacted me but went in a different direction. Here’s the first story from the series “That’s NOT going to work.”

One of the reasons we have a great business is people trust us. When you’re selling your home, something I encourage you to do is think about whether or not buyers are going to trust you. 

Earlier in the year I was contacted by a couple who are the original owners of a 25-year-old home. One of the issues they have is when the home was built the builder didn’t connect the tub overflow correctly. In all the years they lived in the home they never had that fixed and don’t think buyers will care about it. 

In reality it’s probably a…

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Why Some Homes Sell Quickly & Others Don’t Sell At All

A few years ago, inventory hit a record low. Just about anything sold – and fast. But now, there are far more homes on the market. Listings are up almost 20% from this time last year. And in some areas, supply is even back to levels we last saw in 2017–2019. For sellers, that means one thing:

Your house needs to stand out and grab attention from day one.

That’s especially true when you consider why the number of homes for sale is up. Here’s how it works. Available inventory is a mix of: 

• Active Listings: homes that have been sitting on the market, but haven’t sold yet
• New Listings: homes that were just put on the market

Data from Realtor.com shows most of the inventory growth lately is actually from active listings that are staying on…

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Common Misunderstandings About Taxes Keeping People Stuck

Because we are Real Estate Brokers you probably think we try to talk people into selling their home. That isn’t true, but what I do try to do is make sure people who contact me aren’t staying where they are due to misunderstanding how financial things work. This month there were 2 misunderstandings that seemed to come up frequently so I wanted to address them with you, too. 

Misunderstanding #1 – If You Sell And Buy Another Home Your School Taxes Will Go Up

This is a comment a friend made to a post on Facebook. 

"In Texas it rarely makes sense for a long-time boomer homeowner to sell a home to attempt to downsize because the frozen school taxes keep many in their older home."

Here was my response... 

"Thanks for bringing that up. I…

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How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Austin? Real Bid Examples

How Much Does A New Roof Cost In Austin?

If you’re a homeowner in Austin or Cedar Park, one of the most common questions we hear is, “How much does a new roof cost?” The truth is, roof replacement prices can vary widely depending on the contractor, materials, and your home’s unique needs. Before selling a home, many of our clients ask about whether they should replace the roof and how much it will impact the sale. To give you an example, one of our clients recently requested bids from three different roofing companies here in Central Texas—and the estimates ranged from $16,850 to $27,482 for the exact same house.

Real Examples Of Roof Replacement Bids

Earlier in the year one of our clients replaced his roof before we listed his house. He went…

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Yes, we are still selling homes!

Whenever someone asks me “How’s the market?” or wants to talk about interest rates, my initial response is to say how many homes we have under contract at that time. 

It’s my way of saying we aren’t waiting for the market to get better and we aren’t waiting for interest rates to go down. There’s so much negativity in the real estate market from the media and other Realtors so in large part this is my response because it reminds me to stay positive. It’s much harder to be negative about the real estate market when you have 10 homes under contract. 

The flip side of this is I’m not going to give anyone advice based on being unrealistically optimistic. In Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” he wrote about the “Stockdale Paradox.” The short version is…

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Afraid Of Negotiating? Fuggetaboutit!

At the closing of their home sale a couple of weeks ago, the sellers told me 10 of their neighbors stopped by to say goodbye, and they all said they are going to sell next year. What surprised me is all the neighbors asked if the sellers had to negotiate and brought up negotiating is one of their biggest fears about selling their home. 

Many people seem to be intimidated by the idea of negotiating in general and intimidated because they believe people buying homes around here have a reputation of being shrewd negotiators.  

They aren’t. At least not for those of us who have been around the block and can anticipate typical negotiating tactics and who aren’t afraid of being direct. 

Most people think I’m from Texas or maybe California. I’m…

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6 Real Estate Lessons For My Kids

I can’t wait until my girls are old enough to buy their first home. Whether they like it or not, I’m going with them to Open Houses just so I can ask all the Realtors, “Is the price negotiable?” This will be the ultimate dad joke, and they’ll be so embarrassed. Aside from that, hopefully I can give them some good advice. Here are 6 things I would tell them when they are old enough to buy their first home. 

1. Don’t buy a new house just to get a low interest rate. 

I saw a builder advertising 1.25% interest rates. That builder has disclosed their average incentive on sales is 13.3%. What that means is people are paying $500,000 to get a $450,000 house. That’s fine if you’re going to stay in the home for 10 years but otherwise, you’re upside…

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What Will Happen If President Trump Fires The Fed Chairman?

This morning, I saw a video of a Realtor in Dallas telling people that President Trump is going to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and replace him with someone who will cut interest rates immediately. She indicated that buyers should buy before that happens and sellers should hold off on selling.

I’m not trying to get political, and nobody is a cheerleader for lower interest rates more than me. For the last 3 years, I’ve been pretty clear that I don’t know what is going to happen with rates. Over that time, a lot of people have been angry with me because I don’t give them an overly optimistic predictions.

In fact, back in January, 2024 someone came to one of my home selling seminars and told everyone to hold off on selling because rates would be…

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