Donna Harris, REALTOR® & ASP - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes

Today is Blog Action Day. This is the day every blogger across the world is supposed to write on the same topic. This year's topic is Climate Control.

How is the climate effecting us or me personally? This was the hottest summer ever recorded in Austin TX's history. Including the overnight hours, where it's supposed to be cooler weather, our temperatures averaged over 89 degrees.

We had 68 days over 100 degrees and most of those were at 106 and 107 degrees. We were 1 day short of the record for 69 days over 100 degrees that was set way back in 1925.

I would take my daughter to the park at 8:30 in the morning to "beat the heat", yet it would be 95 degrees by 9am. How much fun is that? Heat just makes you feel lethagic and icky.

We had practically no rain over the summer and sit in a 24 month drought. But what's in store for us this Winter and Spring? An El Nino!! For the past month, we've gotten a lot of rain. It's not helping to fill Lake Travis yet because there isn't much run-off when the ground really needs it, but this back and forth of drastic weather needs to stop.

Just two days ago, the high temperature was barely 60 degrees and yesterday it was 90 and today is supposed to get to 92, but then tomorrow it's supposed to be 70.

I'm not sure how to stop these peaks and valleys and get the basic four seasons back, but Texas has always been a state of two seasons, hot and cold. We never get a real Fall or real Spring. We get uncomfortably hot and insanely cold.

I'm sure others blogging for Blog Action Day '09 will come up with some terrific ways to move forward.

Makes me want to live in a climate controlled bubble sometimes...

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Blog Action Day - Climate Control - Makes me Wanna Live in a Bubble * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Last week, I wrote about a seller not allowing us an appointment to view her Austin TX Home.  Here's an update...

We looked at another house on that street, and as I drove past this house, I pointed it out to the buyers to show them which one we weren't "allowed" to view.  Then is dawned on me; there were no work trucks parked outside.

Didn't the seller tell me that we couldn't view the home because she was having work done on the stairwell?? 

I asked my buyers if they wanted to view the home since we were there and that I could call for an appointment, so I did.  I got Mr. Seller this time.  I introduced myself and explained the conversation I had with his wife.  He said she would kill him if he let me in the house.  I explained again that this was their only chance to view the home.

He said to come on in.  Upon entry, he says, "My wife hasn't 'cleaned' today which is why she didn't want you here."  I looked past him and said the house looked clean, plus I called on Thursday which would have given two days to clean.  He further explained that his wife doesn't allow people in unless she's completely vacuumed, mopped, and "cleaned" before the showing.

Long story short, this is the case of a Seller completely hindering the sale of their own house.  The house was clean, yet it wasn't clean enough for them, in which case, they weren't allowing people in to look.  The only "mess" was the very tiddy spot upstairs where there was a small drop cloth for the retexturing of the wall, but it was not a mess, nor a big deal.

As a seller, with your house on the market, you MUST let people into your home!  This house was actually the #1 house for the rest of the day... until they found a brand new home that they just had to have.  However, can you imagine that if the house was our #1 house for that long, after seeing 13 houses, they had to have missed out on some buyers potentially putting an offer on the house in their 190+ days on the market...

So sad, so sad... I'm thinking about calling the listing agent to let him know what happen.

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

All my blog posts were first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Austin TX Homes - Sellers Hindering Their Own Sale *

Round Rock - Cedar Park - Austin TX Homes for Sale tend to sell fairly quickly when they're priced well as this is a hot area to buy in.  It has great schools, it's convenient to all kinds of shopping, and you can buy more home for your money than in many other areas.

This weekend, I am showing houses to some relocation buyers.  They've lived here about 3 weeks now, and have been driving the areas around Round Rock and Cedar Park and narrowing down the list of houses I've sent them.  The list has been narrowed down to 14 Favorites and 7 Possibilities with a couple of new homes thrown in there too.

I was calling yesterday to schedule some appointments, and this one seller in particular really got to me, which is another reason why Austin needs a showing service in place so I don't have to be confrontational with home owners.

Me: Hi, this is Donna Harris with RE/MAX, how are you today?
Seller: Great, thank you.
Me: I'm calling about your house listed at 123 Main St. and would like to show it Saturday from 10-11am, would that be ok?
Seller: No.

Silence as I thought she was going to continue with her excuse.

Me: Umm, can I ask why?
Seller: I have people coming over.
Me: That would be fine. We're just wanting to see the floorplan and condition. We could look beyond any mess if that's what you're worried about.
Seller: No, I rather you not.
Me: So, you've been on the market for 189 days, my buyers have one weekend to look at houses, yours fits what they're looking for, and you want to potentially miss out on them submitting an offer on your home?
Seller: Can you come on Sunday?
Me: No, we're looking in another part of town on Sunday.  Thank you anyway.

With that, she went on to tell me why I couldn't show the house. She was having her stairwell re-textured and painted because it had some imperfections and she wanted to correct it.  Why would she wait 189 days to decide to have work done to improve the house instead of doing it 190 days ago before the "for sale" sign appeared in her front yard?

So, now she's trying to make sure her home shows better to help ensure a sale, yet she's not allowing people into her home who really want to see it.  I think that house will continue to be on the market day 190, 220, and possibly even 250+ days!

Sellers, it is part of your responsibility to help us sell your homes.  We can't sell them if you don't allow people into them.  And why schedule painters for Saturday when you know many Realtors show on those days.  I don't typically show on the weekends as I like to show during the week while home owners are at work, but a good portion is on the weekends, so maintenance should be done during the week days.

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

All my blog posts were first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Round Rock - Cedar Park - Austin TX Homes for Sale - Allow the Buyers to View your Homes! *

The Austin TX Insects are getting worse and worse... Look what we found on the side of our house yesterday!!

This picture was taken from about 8 feet away because my husband reminded me that Tarantulas can jump up to 10 feet, so I wasn't comfortable getting any closer. My neighbors even came out to see what the commotion was as they're from Wisconsin and had never seen on before. Granted, I've lived in Texas over 25 years and I've never seen one in person before!!

It was more disturbing when it jumped off and started walking in the grass. We were all mesmerized by it for quite a while.

According to some websites, Tarantulas don't usually come out during the day unless it's mating season and then it's only the male scoping out for a mate. Makes me feel better knowing that my daughter and I walk barefoot in the grass when it's dark and there could be creep-crawlies around.

The websites also said that Tarantulas found around houses aren't necessarily dangerous and wouldn't carry any venom. Excuse me, but how does the Tarantula know if their home is going to stay "nature" or become a housing community? When they see houses start to be built, they think, "Oh, people are going to move in so let me get rid of all my venom..."

Anyway, to put the size into perspective, it's about 1/3 the size of a regular house brick as you can see below.

Any way you look at it, it's still VERY gross!

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

All my blog posts were first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Austin TX Homes for Sale are Selling Strong *

Lakeway TX Homes for Sale are telling an interesting story in our current Austin Texas market.  I pulled up sales history for the past 37 days, that's September 1st through today.  I wanted to make sure I captured any sales data from closings that were held over from August into the first week of September.

Currently, there are 178 houses for sale in Lakeway TX.  This does not include condos, only houses.

The houses range from a 1232 sqft 3 bedroom home listed at $164,900 to a 6964 sqft 5 bedroom home listed at $3,495,000.  There are many price ranges in between, but they average $563,038 for a 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 3112 sqft home built in 1994 with an average days on market (DOM) of 179 days.

18 of the currently active properties are over $1 Million.  That's a very small percentage, 10%, but helps put the average into perspective.

In the past month, there are currently 19 properties that are Contract Pending.  Only one of those is over $1M, which is 5%.  The average pending property is a smaller, older home, built in 1991 with 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and 2549 sqft.  The average asking price of these pending properties is $379,778, and I'll be watching for their sold prices.

The SOLDS is what is most important... there have been 16 sales in the past month which is a very small percentage of what is currently active on the market.  Not much of a dent in the inventory.  What's interesting to note is that the sold properties have higher prices than the currently pending properties. You don't see that very often.

However, the Sold properties took an average of 205 days to sell whereas the pendings took 151 days.  Could the 2 months time motivate home owners that much to lower their prices to not sit on the market any longer?

For further perspective, the Sold properties averaged a 2718 sqft, 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home built in 1994. And even with being on the market for 205 days, the average asking price to sales price was a high 96%!!  Sellers are definitely waiting for their prices!

More things to note:  Under the pendings, properties went under contract at 14 days, 18 days, 6 days, and 4 days.  Under the Solds, properties went under contract at 31 days, 19 days, 12 days, 10 days, and 8 days.  Even though the averages were significantly higher, properties priced well that showed well are still selling rather quickly!!

If you live in Lakeway TX and need a professional to show you how to price well in addition to staging well, contact me today!  If you're a buyer looking for Lakeway TX Homes for Sale to move into the area, let me put my market knowledge to work for you.

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the
surrounding
areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

All my blog posts were first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Lakeway TX Homes for Sale - Austin Texas - Market Activity *