Austin Real Estate, Kyle Real Estate Celeste Messer

I have an investment home in Plum Creek and I received a call from my tenant recently letting me know that they were moving. They were well over their one year term and were on a month by month basis so it was no surprise though I have to admit my immediate thought was "Crap", not very professional I agree and I of course didn't share this with my tenant but I didn't like the thought of having to find a new tenant during the holiday season, getting the house ready etc.

Now I love Plum Creek with it's nostalgic charm and family oriented activities. And last nights Halloween Trick'r Treating made me realize once again what a nice community it is to raise kids. It was a warm Halloween night so the kids didn't have to be bundled up. It was so cute to see all of the little kids coming up to the door in their princess, dinosaurs and monster outfits. Looking out I could see the parents standing protectively at the sidewalks as their little ones rang the door bell. I looked down the street and saw so many of the homes decorated for Halloween and actually sighed. Next to Christmas, Halloween is one of my favorite times in the neighborhood as the streets are filled with families as the go from one house to the next just like I did when I was a kid. No the houses in Plum Creek aren't huge but the longer I'm here (and admittedly the older I get,) I am finding that I am getting a bit more attached to this charming neighborhood.

So anyway to the point of this blog. I pulled the active homes for Lease in Plum Creek to see what 'competition' I had out there. Here's what I found.

CURRENT HOMES FOR LEASE IN PLUM CREEK IN KYLE TEXAS

My next step was to look at recently leased homes in Plum Creek so I pulled those that leased in September and October to see what was happening.

RECENTLY LEASED HOMES IN PLUM CREEK KYLE TEXAS

I was actually surprised to see that one home about the same square footage as the one I am leasing went for $1450 just this month. I personally think that is too high and it was on the market over two months but they did find a tenant. The home I'll be leasing is approximately 1900 sq ft so I decided to keep it at its' current lease of $1200 a month.

With the permission of my current tenant I went ahead and put the sign in front of the home with a "Coming Soon" on it as I didn't want to list it officially as it is a few weeks away from being available. I was actually surprised by the number of callers I got in the first week. Again I haven't advertised it, it is not in the MLS, I didn't do a blog on it or put it on my website and its on a rather quiet corner, yet I received at least 8 calls on it. In any case looks like I may have a tenant on this one but if any of you are thinking for renting or buying a home in Plum Creek, give us a call 512-449-6070 or email us at info@adkor.net. Plum Creek is a great place to call home and we'd love to help you out!

And just in case you're interested. Here are some handy links to help you out.

Click here for all of the Homes for Lease in Plum Creek.

Click here for all of the Homes for Lease in Kyle Texas.

Click here for Homes for Sale in Kyle Texas by Subdivision.

Click here for all of the Homes for Sale in Plum Creek.

Click here for all of the Homes for Sale in Kyle Texas.

Check out our website www.soldbyceleste.com and you can see homes for lease or sale throughout the Austin and surrounding areas, broken down by neighborhood and price range. These listings are updated daily. If the neighborhood you are interested in isn't there, call us and we'll add it for you. Click here if you are interested in seeing Homes for Sale in Austin by subdivisions by price range.

Hey if we give all of this information to people we don't know...just imagine how we help our clients! Call us and find out why here are Adkor we truly are A Different Kind Of Realty.

I noticed recently that it was a lot easier to show homes lately...why you ask? Because there are so many vacant homes in the three major counties I serve, Travis, Hays and Williamson Counties.

People have moved because of transfers or unfortunately foreclosure situations and when a home is vacant I don't need to make appointments. I can just take my clients straight away. Now from a market perspective I don't like to see it but I have to admit it does make showing homes a lot easier.

When you see a vacant home you usually can translate that into a more motivated seller. The seller is now likely making two mortgage payments or in the case of a pre-foreclosure or foreclosure the bank may be willing to accept a lower offer.

On one such showing day I found over half of my planned showings were VACANT! That is huge! So I pulled data to see how many homes were vacant in the areas I serve and found that when I take out new construction (because obviously they are vacant) Austin had almost a 40% Vacancy rate for all of the homes currently for sale. I wanted to see how that compared to the other cities I serve. The chart to the right shows what I discovered.

You can see the numbers across the various cities are not that far off from each other. I decided to take it to the next step and look at it from a county perspective focusing on the big three: Hays County, Travis County and Williamson County. No surprise that Travis is leading the pack with vacancies in the mid 30s.

I'll be watching these numbers closely as it tells us a lot about what's going on in the market.

As mentioned before vacancies usually translate to more motivated seller. For example if I have a buyer looking at two homes for sale, one which has been vacant a while and the other still has the owner living in it, my client and I will likely make the assumption that the seller of the vacant home is more motivated. That seller is probably paying two mortgagees, two sets of insurance and taxes, having to worry about lawn care and utilities and weather...bottom line their asking price may be softening. So we may go after that home, hoping to get a better deal.

The second aspect of vacancies is the unfortunate issue of foreclosures and pre foreclosures. We're seeing many of the 'California' investors of a few years ago starting to 'walk away' from their investments as they find their cash flow isn't as it once was. Two of my last three sales in which I represented the buyers, the sellers were 'California' investors. One was going into foreclosure, the other one just wanted out. (I use the word 'California' in quotes as many if not most of the investors were from California but I'm referring to the surge a few years ago of out of town investors.)

If a buyer is willing to be a bit more flexible and patient, as short sales and foreclosures can take longer than a 'normal' sale, they can often move into their home with some built in equity. I'll be writing a bit more on this process later.

Bottom line the vacancy rates are showing there definitely are some softer prices out there. Call us at Adkor Realty ...512-449-6070 or visit our website at www.SoldbyCeleste.com and we can help you take advantage of some of them!

I noticed recently that it was a lot easier to show homes lately..why you ask? Because there are so many vacant homes.

People have moved because of transfers or unfortunately foreclosure situations and I don't need to make appointments, I can just take my clients straight away. Now a vacant home typically translates into a more motivated seller because the seller is now likely making two mortgage payments or in the case of a pre-foreclosure or foreclosure the bank may be willing to accept a lower offer.

On one such showing day I found over half of my planned showings were VACANT! That is huge! So I pulled data to see how many homes were vacant in the areas I serve and found that when I take out new construction (because obviously they are vacant) Kyle had almost a 40% Vacancy rate for all of the homes currently for sale. Buda was closer to a 30% rate. So I wanted to see how that compared to the other cities I serve. The chart to the right shows what I discovered.

You can see the numbers are not that far off from each other. I decided to take it to the next step and look at it from a county perspective focusing on the big three: Hays County, Travis County and Williamson County. Travis is leading the pack with vacancies in the mid 30s.

I'll be watching these numbers closely as it tells us a lot about what's going on in the market. As mentioned before if I have a buyer looking at two homes for sale, one which has been vacant a while and the other still having the owner living in it, my client and I will likely make the assumption that the seller of the vacant home is more motivated. They are probably paying two mortgagees, two sets of insurance and taxes, having to worry about lawn care and utilities and weather...bottom line their asking price may be softening.

The second aspect of vacancies is the unfortunate issue of foreclosures and pre foreclosures. We're seeing many of the 'California' investors of a few years ago starting to 'walk away' from their investments as they find their cash flow isn't as it once was. Two of my last three sales in which I represented the buyers, the sellers were 'California' investors. One was going into foreclosure, the other one just wanted out. (I use the word 'California' in quotes as many if not most of the investors were from California but I'm referring to the surge a few years ago of out of town investors.)

If a buyer is willing to be patient, as short sales and foreclosures can take longer than a 'normal' sale, they can walk away with some built in equity. I'll be writing a bit more on this process later.

Bottom line the vacancy rates are showing there definitely are some softer prices out there. Call us at Adkor Realty ...512-449-6070 or visit our website at www.SoldbyCeleste.com and we can help you take advantage of some of them!

Reference: Click here for a current listing of all of the homes for sale in Kyle and Buda texas by subdivison.

I was working with a client recently looking at homes largely in the Kyle and Buda Texas areas and I noticed that many of the homes we were looking at had lowered their prices and were vacant. I wondered how much of this was perhaps the seasonal slowing down of the market that we start seeing as we approach the holidays, versus a reaction to the current economic news.

While it may be a bit too early to see how people are reacting I pulled the current listings in Kyle and Buda and checked to see how many had lowered their prices in the past several days. Of the 326 active listings in Kyle and Buda, 60 lowered their prices during the last 14 days. That's a rate of 18.4%. I wondered how this compared to what was happening a couple of months ago.

So I went back to August 2008 time frame to see what the real estate activity numbers looked like for Kyle and Buda. If you looked at the numbers without considering the time of year, you may come to a conclusion there is an impact. But when I look at the numbers and see that we are almost into November I am thinking 'seasonal trend'.

The "Real Estate Hotsheet" below shows what was happening back in August. I found that of the 358 active listings at that time 56 lowered their price during a similar 2 week period for a rate 15.6%. So our current 18.4% is roughly 2.8% points higher.

If you look at the new listings for Kyle and Buda coming on we see that in August, there were 89 new listings added to the MLS, while now in October only 52 were added. The actual selling activity has begun to slow down as only 22 went pending during this time frame almost half of the number that went pending in the two week August window (42). However in each of these cases I think the numbers are still reflecting the "time of year real estate market trend" rather than a direct reaction to the economy. That is to say that sellers traditionally start thinking of taking houses off the market as we approach November and December as buyers seem to shift their focus to the holidays.

So during this time of year we see that the sellers and buyers still out there are usually fewer in number, but typically more motivated, as they typically HAVE to be buying or selling during this window.

So if you're in the market to buy or sell a home so far the Austin Real Estate market is fairing better than most. There are some deals out there for those of you looking for a deal. But for those of you wanting to sell, it is still possible to sell your home at a fair price as well. More than ever you need a good Realtor to help you price and stage your home so it shines above the rest. Call us at 512-449-6070 with any questions. We'd love to be your Realtor of choice.

Here are a few important links you may find useful as you consider your decision. These are links where you can see the real estate prices in Kyle, Buda as well as other Austin area communities. Follow any of the links below and of course call us at 512-449-6070 with any questions:

Kyle Tx real estate: or Kyle Tx Homes for Sale by Subdivision

Buda Tx real estate: or Buda Tx Homes for Sale by Subdivision

Austin Tx real estate: Austin Tx homes for Sale By Subdivision

Steiner Ranch is almost twenty years old! It's hard to believe that this beautiful community can be "that old". But as I drove around Steiner Ranch this week with a client I honestly can say that, like fine wine and some women (cough, cough), Steiner Ranch has only improved with age.

The first homes completed in Steiner Ranch were completed in 1989. Very few could envision back then how this community would develop. In those early years I've been told that there were still cattle guards on Quinlan Parkway, but it didn't help that Steiner Ranch was not convenient to stores and many buyers felt it was just too remote. I learned from a woman who had considered building a home in Steiner in 1989, that she decided against it as she had been told that there were plans to make Quinlan Parkway a highway with a bridge crossing over the Lake at what is now the deadend of Quinlan Parkway. (This obviously didn't happen as Quinlan still dead ends at Lake Austin at "Lake Austin Spa".)

Now that was back in 1988. Fast forward to the Steiner Ranch of today and you see how the community has built out. Now there are three schools, the UT Golf Course, shops and restaurants, fitness center, day care center, pools and parks, all within the confines of Steiner Ranch itself. There is also a great full service grocery store less than 2 minutes from the Steiner Ranch entrance and two malls are about twenty minutes away.

The client I was with this week really liked the topagraphy, the rolling hills, that make Steiner Ranch both interesting and pretty. While I showed him several communities around his 'target area', I knew after our phone conversation that it was likely that Steiner Ranch might just best fit the bill...and it did. He and his wife had two young kids and they loved the idea that there were schools just minutes from the house. The fact that all three of the schools were a part of the Leander ISD and rated "Exemplary" this past year, was just icing on the cake.

For anyone who doesn't know about Steiner Ranch, it's a popular family oriented community in Northwest Austin, just south of the Highway 620/2222 intersection call us and we can show you around

Click here if you would like to check out a list of the homes for sale in Steiner Ranch by price range. Or you can click here if you would like to check out homes for sale in Austin area in general. We would love to be your Austin Realtor so give us a call at 512-449-6070 or email us at Info@adkor.net...let us show you why we are truly A Different Kind Of Realty.