Kopa Real Estate Blog - austin realtor

When Will The Market Be Good Again?

After 497 people told me they were going to wait to move until the market is good again, I realized I wasn’t doing a good job. 

You see, I am a “Professional Mind Maker Upper” and people count on me to consult with them so they can make the best decisions for their lives and their families. There’s a saying “Garbage in and garbage out” meaning if you don’t use accurate information, you won’t make good decisions. I was letting people use bad information without taking the time to ask more questions and explain some of the data that’s available about the real estate market. 

I have to give myself a little grace here because I haven’t gotten much sleep lately and I’ve changed a lot of diapers over the last few months so it’s possible I simply…

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4 Mistakes Home Buyers Are Making

I'm primarily a listing agent so I'm seeing buyers every weekend at our open houses. I'm also talking to agents and I'm seeing the offers that they put in every day. These are the four mistakes that I'm seeing buyers make in March of 2023.

Making Bad Offers

The first mistake I'm seeing is putting in “bad offers”. What I mean by that is a lot of buyers are out there and they're thinking they're going to make low offers. And you know what? A lot of sellers are actually negotiable right now.

Sellers are willing to come down on their price if they see that it's a good deal and you're a solid buyer. However, I've noticed that many buyers are submitting offers at a low price with unfavorable terms that are unrealistic to both myself as a listing…

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65 Offers for 1 Home | Austin February 2022 Market Update

65 offers for 1 home! In this Austin housing market update we’re going to talk about how to get 65 offers on your home, the most recent real estate statistics for Austin, Texas, rising interest rates and what all this means for you as a buyer or seller of real estate in the Austin area.

First, let’s review the statistics for the January, 2022 Austin real estate housing market.

The number of homes sold in January, 2022 was 2,116 which was down 11.83% from 2,400 sales in January, 2021.

The average sold price in January, 2022 was $578,554 which was up 25.84% from $459,760 in January, 2021.

The average sold price per square foot in January, 2022 for Austin was $292.83 which was up 26.3% from $231.72 in January, 2021.

The median sold…

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Buying or Selling a Home? Here’s what NOT to say on Facebook

People today use Facebook to share all of life's little ups and downs with friends, often forgetting that good friends are not the only ones who might be looking at their Facebook page. When you’re buying or selling a home that could be dangerous.

If your home is for sale, you want the world to know, so do post good photos. Do tell your friends how to reach your agent to make an appointment for a tour. You can even state the list price.

After that, you can talk about your favorite features in the home – how the sun comes in the kitchen window in the morning, or how you enjoy your outdoor kitchen.

If you’re buying, you can tell your friends that you’re looking for a home in a specific neighborhood and even describe the perfect home.

What…

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June 2021 Market Report In The Greater Austin Area

Let’s get into it and talk about the most recent sales statistics for the Austin real estate housing market. In May there were 4,033 sales which is up 40.5% from last year. This is a misleading statistic. Of course, we know last year many sellers held off putting their homes on the market and so the number of sales from last year was artificially low. If you look at the last two years the sales in May were essentially flat from May, 2019.

The pending number of sales was down 33.8% from 4,370 in 2020 to only 2,895 homes under contract in May, 2021. That will probably mean when we get the final statistics for June sales those numbers will be well below last year and many of the headlines will talk about how the sales market is dropping,…

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How To NOT Buy A Home In Austin

If you talk with anyone who has been trying to buy a home you will hear stories saying it’s almost impossible. It is hard, but most buyers are making the process much harder on themselves by taking an approach that has very little chance to succeed.

I only take on a very small number of buyer clients, but I talk with dozens of buyers ever weekend at our open houses. Between talking with all those buyers and seeing the offers we receive on our listings here are some of the big mistakes that will prevent you from ever buying a home in the Austin area. I feel bad for those buyers and so I thought I would talk about a few things I see buyers doing and explain why they are causing you not to be able to buy a home.

Focus On The Small Things

…

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Would You Like To Sell Your Home For $900,000 or $990,000 or more?

That seems like a silly question to ask but every day home sellers decide to sell for less.

In April I was having lunch with a friend at The League in Avery Ranch. My friend said the real estate market must be hot because his neighbor didn’t even need to list his home and they sold it off market for $900,000. He was surprised when I said his neighbor could have sold it for at least $200,000 more if they put it on the market.

You can’t blame most home sellers for not keeping up with real estate prices. In many cases homes are selling for significantly over recent comps that sold only a month before. We are in an area where the demand is higher than the supply and it can be unpredictable how much someone may pay for your home.

That’s why…

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Success Story – 15804 Dink Pearson Ln

If you listen to the media or friends your impression of the real estate market is that every home will sell no matter what you do. You’d also think your home will sell for the same price regardless of the condition, marketing or Broker you hire. These are some of the biggest lies in real estate today. Sometimes I think people believe the government is putting a limit on their home and you’re only allowed to sell it for $600,000 regardless of what they do.

I sold the home next to 15804 Dink Pearson last year. The owners of that home had hired another agent to sell their home but it didn’t sell. After…

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Austin Real Estate Housing Market Update May 2021

People often ask me what I would do in their situation. We just bought a home 3 weeks ago. My wife found out a Realtor was selling his own home off market. It turns out it is the exact home we had been looking for. I’m a very analytical person, probably like many of you watching this video. Analytical people have a tendency to be indecisive. Because I recognize I can be too analytical I force myself to be more decisive. We had already decided this was the type of home we wanted to buy. Before this home became available, I had thought about what I hoped to buy a home for and the maximum I would pay. That allowed us to decide quickly to make an offer and get it accepted before it hit the market.

One of the challenges many buyers have,…

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How An Ice Cream Sundae Explains The Austin Real Estate Market

Austin Real Estate Housing Market Update March 2021

When people ask me if they should sell their home I say “Only if you want to sell it for more than it’s worth.”

The best way I have found to describe what’s happening in the Austin real estate market is to compare the value of your home to an ice cream sundae. Think about your home’s value being 3 scoops of ice cream. That’s what it should be worth.

However, because we are seeing the number of active listings being down 78% from a year ago buyers are more and more desperate. We are seeing buyers lose out on 6,7,10 homes and getting to a point of desperation they throw a ton of extra money at the next offer. This desperation is like the whipped cream and cherry on top of the ice cream…

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