It’s a tough market for buyers. Many feel they are buying at the top of the market and that makes them feel nervous.

Of course, people have been telling me it’s the top of the market for 5 years and so far that’s been a losing bet. However, we know real estate moves in cycles and at some point there will be a downturn in the market. Here are a few tips to help protect you from a downturn when it inevitably happens.

Avoid Homes Missing Important Features

Something that makes real estate challenging is comparing homes that aren’t exactly the same. Many buyers get so focused on the size of the home and $/SF they don’t remember you live in the floor plan and not the size of the home.

Yesterday I met clients at a very nice home. From a…

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The next Bulk Collection in Avery Ranch begins on February 10. Check out the postcard to see what items can be picked up.

Client Testimonial

“Kopa Real Estate did an amazing job of marketing my home in Avery Ranch. If you are thinking about buying or selling in Avery, don't spend anymore time looking--call Eric. Unlike some other realtors I've worked with in the past, they understand how to market a house. While other homes are still for sale that were put up before mine, mine sold in days with 5 offers. They know how to create demand. HIGHLY recommend Kopa Real Estate. ” - Paul

 

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I’m often asked, “Should I use a Realtor if I’m buying new construction from a builder”.  The answer is only if you want a solid home built that will great for resale value when it comes time for you to sell. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should have a Realtor help you when buying or building a new home.

Representation – The salesperson represents the builder and their interests, not yours. In most cases the builder’s salesperson does not hold a real estate license. That means they aren’t held to the same standards of treating consumers fairly you might expect. A Realtor will represent you and look out for your best interest.


You May Not Get What You Think You Are Getting – When you walk into a model home it’s easy to fall in…

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It’s only January and we are already seeing hand-wringing in our neighborhood about property taxes and the companies that will protest on your behalf. Protesting your property taxes in Williamson and Travis Counties will be even more challenging this year.

Just a reminder, if you engaged one of the tax protesting companies last year you probably signed a form giving them authorization to protest for you every year. That means if your plans are to protest on your own this year or you plan to hire a different company you will want to cancel the service with the company you previously hired. Otherwise they will protest on your behalf and you will get billed if they are successful.

Something new this year is at least one of the protesting…

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I’ve attended a couple interesting economic updates in the last few weeks and I wanted to share a few of the interesting and perhaps unexpected slides.

Can you believe the average household income for 20% of the people in our area is now almost $250,000, and that is from 2017? Many people talk about the rush of Californians to our area and how that is causing home prices to go up. This demonstrates it’s not just the number of people but also that many of those transplants have higher incomes than residents who have been living here for years.

Where we have seen this impact real estate is prices are being pushed up as our real estate is still affordable for someone earning this type of income.  In addition, more buyers are skipping the…

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Home values are tricky at this time of the year. 2020 is going to be challenging to both buyers and sellers with a low number of homes for sale and prices going up. If you are planning to buy or sell a home in particular at this time of year you deserve to have an expert Broker helping you and here’s why.

If you are selling a home, you’re at risk of pricing your home too low. Particularly if you sell your home off market. Although our market is not as seasonal as you might expect for certain floor plans that may not sell very often there may be much more demand than supply that has built up a backlog of buyers over the winter. It is important to work with a Broker that won’t just price your home based on what sold almost a year ago. You…

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As we begin 2020 we want to thank everyone for your business and your referrals in 2019. We hope 2019 was a great year for you and wish you a happy and prosperous 2020!

Be Careful Listening To Predictions And Interpreting Data

This is the time of the year when everyone wants to make predictions about the real estate market and the economy. Do you remember this time last year? Everyone was predicting the Federal Reserve would increase interest rates 3 times and a recession was almost guaranteed to happen. Both of those predictions couldn’t have been any more wrong!

We will also see more end of the year statistics and projections for next year. Inside this issue we talk about one particular company using statistics to influence your behavior. In…

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This is a great story about how being afraid of low-ball offers when selling your home winds up attracting low ball offers. The figures in this post have been changed to protect the innocent.

Whenever we talk with someone about selling their home, we go over the 3 strategies to price your home. We emphasize that it is YOUR home because we will give you professional advice, the same advice I would give a member of my family, and the final decision is up to you.

Occasionally we have a client who wants to price their home above the recommended market value. When we are in that situation, we do everything we can to get that price and the truth is sometimes the owner of the house is right and a buyer pays a higher price than expected.

What…

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Open Door is a house flipping company that buys homes at a low price and then re-sells the homes at a higher price. I think it’s great that consumers have more choices today when it comes to selling their homes.

It’s great as long as consumers are informed and not being misled about the real estate market and the true expected sales price of your home. What I’ve found when testing an offer for my own properties is the offers were very low. Because I’m working in the real estate business I know their offers are low. My fear is Open Door is preying on people who are less financially savvy and the people who can afford to lose money the least.

Because I previously requested an offer, yesterday I received this email from Open Door saying the Austin…

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Because we hold so many open houses, we see the same potential buyers over and over. They often tell me their struggles and frustrations about their home buying process.

Many of these struggles and frustrations are self-inflicted due to how they choose their Realtor. Buyers often think all Realtors are the same. As a result, when buying a home they will work with their friend (everyone has a friend in real estate) or hire an agent based on which agent gives you the largest rebate.

Especially in a low inventory real estate market like ours this is a huge mistake because you are not getting the most important things you need from a Realtor which are perspective and advice.

The average Realtor only sells about 1-2 homes per year. As a…

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