Star Ranch in Hutto Texas

Fellow Realtors and Homeowners,

I have a home listed in Star Ranch. Part of Star Ranch is in Hutto and the other part is in Pflugerville. The cost of these homes are 220k+. Star Ranch is a new community and still selling new homes. The builders in the community are Perry and Wilshire Homes. The listing that I have is at 537 Wiltshire.

My listings usually sell in less than 60 days. I take high quality photos, build custom websites, do weekly open houses, list the home on thousands of websites, and even put the home on the local Realtor tour.

The Builders are selling their new inventory for 220k and up. They have sold 11 new home sites in the first 6 months of 2010. While only one resale home was able to sell and it was a short sale.

The home has been on the market for six months at 199k. This is 30k less than the new homes. The home is spotless and was only lived in for six months. They were transferred back east unexpectedly. They installed 2in blinds, and put in a sprinkler system and the carpet and paint shows like a new home. The builder does not installed blinds or sprinkler system so this is an upgrade. The home is on a premium lot, and has the same upgrades than the new homes are selling for, and is all side side brick.

My clients recently got an 45k appraisal hike from Williamson County. I went to a tax hearing on behalf of my client and the ONLY sales comp in the past six months was RESALE short sale. The comparable sale was less than a block away but falls into Travis County. Williamson County would not use the comp because it was not in the same county. There are NO other resale comps in the sub so Will Co uses the NEW home sales.

My listing is in the city of Hutto and in Will Co, but homes across the street are in Pflugerville and in Travis Co. The Builders advertises their new home inventory in the MLS as Pflugerville and Travis County. This attracts buyers. The unknowing buyer then wants to see the other available home sites in the subdivision and the builder sells them Hutto homes at the same price as the Pflugerville Homes.

I was able to get the tax office to reduce the tax assessment to the original purchase price of the home. Again, the home was sold less than a year ago and has been vacant for the past six months.

The Star Ranch builders also advertise that a HEB grocery store and other shops are scheduled to move into the community. Perry Homes this past weekend had a grand opening for their new Model Home so I went to the grand opening and handed out fliers to my listing and held my listing open. Nobody came to the open house, and I read something about two months ago that said the HEB idea is off the table, but they are still advertising it. This is a big deal becuase the only other grocery store is four or five miles away.

When people are looking for homes around Round Rock and Pflugerville they limit their search to Round Rock and Pflugerville, they don't look in Hutto. This totally excludes my listing from coming up. I called ABOR and asked them if I can list the home in Hutto and Pflugerville being homes on the same street are in Pflugerville. They said no. I am not going to do it without their permission because it is an ethics violation. I have gone to the Williamson County Property tour, and the Pflugerville Property tours and handed out fliers about the listing. I have went to Hutto and talked to all the agents in Hutto about the listing. I went to all the new home sites who are low on inventory in Pflugerville such as Avalon on Kelly Lane and handed them flyers and let them know it is like-new and vacant and available.

At the current list price the home is 30k under the new homes which are selling like crazy. The home shows better than the new homes, we are offering a 4% commission to the buyer agent, and priced under the sellers breakeven.

Suggestions?