I am looking for some honest, straight-up, not sugar-coated opinions on Austin-area school districts. Namely, I have a prospective buyer moving to the area and she is considering and assessing Dripping Springs, Georgetown, Lake Travis and Leander ISD's.
I know the websites with rating & TAKS comparisons and so does she. What we are looking for are your opinions and honest take on things like environment, school board, leadership, headed in the right direction or otherwise, sports vs. arts etc ... the stuff that is not in the ratings.
So, your opinion?
A friend of mine works with the courts in victim services and asked me if there is a way a person can keep their information confidential if they buy a house, so people can't easily research them? Sounds like a very good question coming from someone in victim services.
A buyer may have some serious legal or familial issues that makes this critical to their well-being or safety.
I did a little research and, yes you can. I found this on the Travis County tax appraisal web site:
http://www.traviscad.org/FAQ.pdf
HOW DO I REQUEST CONFIDENTIALITY UNDER SECTION 25.025, TAX CODE?
You may download the "Request for Confidentiality" from our forms page. Send your completed
form to: Travis Central Appraisal District, Records Management Officer, Post Office Box 149012,
Austin, TX 78714-9012 If you own more than one property, please provide each property address
to ensure confidentiality. TCAD records will be promptly updated to reflect confidentiality.
However, it may take 2-3 weeks before the website reflects the confidentiality.
Also, when a seller puts a house on the market, the seller's name does not have to be listed in the MLS in Austin. The MLS listing can say "on file." This requires a little paperwork with the seller documenting the request, but it can be done.
What's up with vacant and then there's obviously someone living in the house?
Or kind of living in the house. We've all seen it, right? The listing says vacant / go and we go, probably even still ring the doorbell, and you open the front door and right away you think "this does not look super vacant." You cautiously round the corner and you see a flat screen tv, a mattress on the floor and a pizza box laying around. That is not super vacant.
At that point you get nervous that perhaps you have walked in on someone, you get the heebee-geebies and scoot out of there quickly.
Let's say the house is pending, listed as vacant, and you are looking at a few properties in the neighborhood to compare to a house you're about to list. We do this all the time, right?
So listing agents, if the house is vacant, let's have it be super vacant.
If a relative or doing-a-friend-a-favor friend is sleeping on a spare mattress for a couple weeks, let's change that listing from vacant to NOT-SO-VACANT, call for appt etc.
Just this week, a house was pending, I am doing my homework for a seller in the neighborhood, doing a quick view of all the vacant homes in the neighborhood (and a couple occupied) and sure enough ... flat screen tv, 2 nice guitars on stands, mattress on the floor, a suitcase. I got 5' into the house and got out of there quickly. What if that guitar-playing, temporarily-living-out-of-suitcase OCCUPANT / friend / family member had been napping or in the shower? Maybe they have a baseball bat? Maybe they have a mean dog?
Agents, if the occupancy / vacancy status changes on a listing please, do us all a favor (including the temporary occupant), and change the status in the MLS.
Fast Austin Facts:
Per capita income: $36,328
Gross metropolitan product: $71.18 Billion
Private-sector jobs as of mid-2008: 618,200
Unemployment rate as of mid-2008: 4.2%
Private-sector trend since mid-2007: Added 11,600 jobs
One-year growth rate: 1.9%
5-year Growth Rates:
Population: up 17.92%
Private-sector trend since mid-2003: added 109,700 jobs
Private sector employment: up 17.02%
Five-year growth rate: 21.6%
Per capita income: up 13.31%
Gross Metropolitan product: up 33.05%
Source: BizJournals.com
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