This is part of an intended seven-part series to teach you how to purchase a home in the Austin area. Here are the first two parts, if you are interested in starting at the beginning:
Buying a Home in Austin, Texas - Step One: Get Pre-Approved for Mortgage Financing
Buying a Home in Austin, Texas - Step Two: Selecting an Area of Town
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Now that you have determined how much you can afford and are comfortable spending on a home, and you have narrowed it down to the areas that are most desirable for you, it's time to find the right place!
Here are a few characteristics to consider:
Other rooms that you want/need: Do you want a gameroom? Media room? Formal dining? Make sure to let us know!
Type of neighborhood - Do you prefer a master-planned community with schools that are walking distance from your home? Maybe a rural setting with few restrictions would be more to your liking.
We will help you develop a list of homes that can generally be seen during one or two outings. Sometimes, after the first day, you will have honed in on a specific neighborhood or 2-3 homes that you would like to see again before writing an offer.
In the interest of making productive use of your time (and mine), I always tell my clients that if we pull up to a house and they don't like it, we don't have to see it. The same goes while we are looking inside. If there is something objectionable that would prevent you from buying any of the homes, just let me know and we'll move on. I didn't build them, and I don't own them, so I promise I won't be offended. You can cover a lot more ground by using this technique.
The average homebuyer that I work with probably looks at 7-10 homes in person before making a decision. Of course, one reason for this is our ability to narrow it down by listening carefully to your needs and using our time on the phone and via email to trim down the myriad of options on the market at any given time. If we didn't do this homework beforehand, it would take a lot longer, and it would probably end up causing more confusion than good.
Once you have found the perfect home (or as close as we can get), we will work on putting together the offer paperwork, which will comprise the next post in this series!
I will provide the link to Part Four as soon as it has been written!
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 (cell) or email me at jason@austintexashomes.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon! You can also visit our primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.
This is the second part of a 7-part series dedicated to teaching you about the Austin homebuying process. I will link to each part once the series is complete. Here is part one for your reference: Buying a Home in Austin, Texas - Step One: Get Pre-Approved for Mortgage Financing.
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One of the decisions regarding your Austin, Texas home purchase is determining what part of Austin (or the surrounding areas) will work best for your needs. This decision is usually driven by a number of factors, including:
Price Range - Obviously, certain areas of Austin and the surrounding area are more or less expensive than others, so part of your decision may hinge on the price point for your purchase. In part one (link above), I described the process of determining how much you 
can afford. If you already know this, it makes things much quicker.
Commute Time - If you will be dealing with a commute in Austin, it may be important to find something with a reasonable travel time to the office. Since Austin has experienced a lot of growth over the past 10-15 years, the roads and traffic have also grown. Thankfully, in late 2006, a network of toll roads was opened, which has made commuting substantially easier from certain areas.
Convenience to Amenities - Some of our clients prefer to be very close to shopping, restaurants, and other amenities within the community. If this is important to you, let us know your priorities and we will find you a place that is in reasonable proximity to your needs/wants.
Convenience to Specific People - You may be moving to Austin to be closer to a relative or a close friend. In this case, the location of your home may be somewhat driven by the location of these people.
My team is familiar with all areas of Austin, so we are able to suggest which areas will be most suitable for you using your specific criteria.
Once you have narrowed it down with regard to the area, we will focus on finding the perfect home. This is the fun part, and it's the focus of my next post:
Buying a Home in Austin, Texas - Step Three: Finding the Home Itself
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 (cell) or email jason@austintexashomes.com. You can also visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.
Thanks for reading!
Ever since we started the Social Media Show on BlogTalkRadio back in late November of 2008, we have had some amazing guests. 
This next week, on August 18th, we are VERY happy to welcome Tara Hunt, author of "The Whuffie Factor".
If you don't already know what "whuffie" is, consider this next show of ours to be a learning experience. Suffice it to say that whuffie is what makes it possible for social media to exist and thrive as a business tool. Tara should have a terrific perspective to share for our audience about how to be successful in this arena. I am in the middle of reading her book and it is simply awesome.
As always, you can access the show at http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc - be sure you join us in our very active chat room, where the magic happens. ;) Our show airs at the same time and place every week (Tuesdays at noon Eastern, 11am Central, 9am Pacific). We will have a giveaway again this week - come win a shirt, hat, or another special prize thanks to our gift sponsor, Clint Miller of Real Estate Client Referrals.
Recently, we engaged the services of Cathy Browne, PR specialist extraordinaire, to be in charge of booking guests for our production. The 
upcoming weeks should be terrific, with Tara, Shel Israel, and Sarah Evans all slated to join us soon.
If you haven't listened lately, we have had some terrific episodes. In fact, our last show was one of the best ever, in my humble opinion: http://budurl.com/h7wl.
Our regular crew continues to grow. Along with me and Ken Cook, we always have great tech segments with Mike Mueller and Jeremy Blanton, and we now have added T.S. Elliott, who brings a bubbly enthusiasm and a much needed dose of femininity to the program.
You can check out our Facebook page and become a fan here: http://facebook.com/socialmediaedge.
Our show archives are at http://budurl.com/bestofjckc.
Thanks for listening - we remain one of the top shows in the Social Networking category on BTR!
This is the first post in a series designed to get you prepared for what to expect when you are considering buying a home in the Austin area. I intend to link to the other parts as soon as they have been written.
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When you are ready to begin shopping for a home to buy, it is best to start by determining how much you can afford, so that you don't waste time with properties that are out of your price range. I realize that this is not the glamorous or exciting part to buying a home in Austin, but it is a necessity and not as painful as you may think.
Our team works with a trusted network of mortgage professionals who can assist you in getting pre-approved for a loan so that you can comfortably begin looking at homes with the assurance that you can obtain the proper financing. Give us a call anytime and we can provide some names to get you started.
Generally, our mortgage contacts can help you with a pre-qualification by getting some basic information (address, social security numbers, etc.) over the phone or internet. This only takes a few minutes, including pulling your credit report.
In order to get fully pre-approved, you will be required to provide all of the normal documentation required, which would include:
In Austin, most lenders will require you to pay for your credit report and property appraisal upfront. This would run $400 or thereabouts. The appraisal is a third-party assessment of the value of the home you choose.
If you choose to purchase a new home, many builders have mortgage companies that will offer large incentives to use them. Sometimes, the offer is too good to pass up. We can help you to compare "apples to apples" by looking at the estimates provided by lenders that you speak with. A GFE (good faith estimate) is the only way to easily compare quotes. Sometimes, you might get a lower interest rate from one place, but they charge exorbitant fees. We can help you to avoid potential pitfalls.
I always require that my clients begin the loan process before we begin looking actively at homes together, in order to best spend my time and yours. Believe me, it is much more productive this way. As I have said many times to potential buyers, you would hate to find "the perfect home", only to later realize that you won't be able to get a mortgage for it.
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 (cell) or email jason@austintexashomes.com.
Next step - Buying a Home in Austin, Texas - Step Two: Selecting an Area of Town
Photo above courtesy of Rev Dan Catt via Flickr.com.
Last year, we were having a garage sale, and one of the potential buyers asked me if our neighbors had a lawn guy, since their yard was (frankly) not looking that great, because there are absentee tenants. I told
him the situation, then asked if he was in the business himself, because I was looking for someone to help with some basic landscaping stuff at my house.
I am thankful that I asked, and I made a new friend in the process.
Darrell Williams is our yard care specialist, and I would highly recommend calling him if you live in the Pflugerville / Round Rock / Hutto area. He works doing landscaping for the school district during the day, and he provides very reasonable lawn mowing (and edging, trimming, etc.) on the side.
When we originally met, Darrell helped me a great deal by trimming all of our trees and bushes, along with mulching five different flowerbeds, all for around $200! This price even included the materials! He now handles our weekly mowing.
The very first time he was working here at our house, I was surprised to return home and see that he cleaned up some of the neighbor's yard along the sidewalk. "I didn't think you would want to see that every day", he said plainly. He was right!
Darrell is a man of his word. He has never missed an appointment with us yet. If he says he will show up to handle something, he will be there. He's a very hard worker, and I have seen him work until it was almost dark (which happens around 9pm these days). His slogan is appropriate, "Leave the sweating to ME, save your time and energy!"
I've never had to pay him upfront for his work, and he will allow me to pay once a month if needed, or I can pay as we go. He accepts cash and checks. Darrell services Travis, Williamson, and Bell counties.
Darrell can be reached via cell at 512-773-8686. Call him today - you'll be glad you did!
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I have been working as a full-time Austin area Realtor since January 1997. My years of experience serve me well as the broker and co-owner of Austin Texas Homes, LLC, which began operations in 2004.
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