Should You Buy Or Sell In Today's Market?

 
Should you buy or sell a home in today's market? Realtors sometimes have a bad habit of always saying it's a great time to buy or sell. The truth is it depends on your particular situation, the house you are buying or selling, the sub-market of the house and the buyer profile for the house.

As always if you have a question call/text Eric at 512-791-7473  or email eric@koparealestate.com.

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What To Do If You Can’t Make Your Mortgage Payment Due To Coronavirus

 
Many homeowners will be facing a financial burden due to Coronavirus and if it is affecting your ability to pay your mortgage you may have more options than you think. As of the writing of this message there has not been any uniform relief among all lenders. There are several proposals but none have been agreed to. Information is coming out quickly and things are changing every day. 

#1 Things You Should Do

The most important thing you should do is not bury your head in the sand, don’t run and hide and don’t ignore calls and letters from your mortgage company.

Do You Need To Be Behind On Payments?

Even if you haven’t missed a mortgage payment yet the best thing you can do is pick up the phone or go online to your mortgage…

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Covid-19/Coronavirus Real Estate Market Update

Everyone is asking me “How’s the real estate market?” Here’s what we are seeing.

Transactions are still happening. As of today, March 30th, in the Austin MLS on average over 100 homes are going under contract every day. Things are slowing down but people are still selling and people are still buying.

Here's what we are seeing with our business. Some of our sellers and buyers are telling me they are going to hold off for now and I’m supporting them in that decision while I continue to keep them aware of what’s happening.

Some of our clients need to sell now and some need to buy now, and we’re doing that with all the appropriate precautions.

All of this is day by day and in some cases hour by hour. Things may be different by the…

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Should I Use A Realtor If I'm Buying New Construction?

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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Economic Update Information I Enjoyed

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 The Beginning Of The Year

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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Why Is Open Door Is Misleading You About The Real Estate Market And Your Home’s Value?

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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How To Sell Your Home With A Solar System In The Austin Area

Are you planning to sell a home with a solar system in the Austin area? Follow these tips to maximize the sales price for your home.

1. Put Together A Package Of Information About Your Solar System

Think back to when you purchased your solar system. What information was important to you? Chances are the buyer of your home will want to know the same things.

When we are selling a home with a solar system we will put together a package of information including…

• Original cost of the system
• Age of the system
• KW size and number of panels
• Warranty
• Current utility bills compared to before solar system
• Is the system owned or leased

It is important to have this information in the document section of the MLS as…

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The Hidden Killer Of Home Value

In our neighborhood everybody talks about the ways in which home values are affected in the community. Maybe it is new apartments being built, sometimes it’s cars parked on the street, many people are concerned about cars being broken into, for others the hot button is landscaping and how the community is maintained.

When I talk to our neighbors the conversation often turns to some of these issues and how they are affecting our property value negatively. They talk about all the visible things that may potentially affect home value in a neighborhood.

In reality there is a hidden killer of home values that very few people know about. The hidden killer is the average agent that listed your neighbor’s house.

Let me tell you why.

Because when…

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Cancel At Any Time

If you are like me whenever you are buying a product or service you want to know what guarantees you will receive and how you can cancel the agreement. For some reason when people are selling their home they don’t think about getting a guarantee. Perhaps it is because some people think the real estate market is so good that every home will sell quickly.

In reality, about once a week we receive a call from a person trying to sell their home. Their agent isn’t performing and the seller isn’t happy. Their home isn’t selling and it seems like promises were made by their agent and not kept.

The seller wants to hire us to sell their home but unfortunately in most cases the seller has signed an agreement with the agent that doesn’t allow for the…

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