Central East Austin Real Estate - Mueller and More

Austin loan officer John Schutze shares his weekend mortgage rate update:

“Mortgage rates relaxed this week, down about .375% from the previous week.

• The prices of energy and commodities have been rising
• Job losses are still mounting nationally
• Businesses are reducing capital expenditures

Market reaction to the Fed’s press release has been muted.

The FOMC’s next scheduled meeting is August 11-12, 2009.”

John connects home buyers with loans at  Bank of America and writes a blog about Austin mortgages. Garreth Wilcock is a Keller Williams Realtor® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.

It’s true that the location of your home in Austin has a huge bearing on it’s desirability. An important part of marketing your home is putting the right information where people are looking, and the Austin Multiple Listing System has just been upgraded to get more info in front of buyers.

If you’re fishing, you can have the tastiest bait in the world, but if your hook is in the wrong part of the water, none of the fish are going to find it. It’s the same with marketing your home for sale. You have to put it in the right place, in front of the right buyers.

Every year, the National Association of REALTORS publishes a survey on home buying trends. In it, they chart such things as where people start looking for homes, and also where buyers find the homes they end up buying. Taking this into account when marketing a home for sale can make a big difference.

Where Do Buyers Find Their Homes? Well the top three sources in 2008 were Real Estate Agents, the Internet, and Signs, making up 81%. Since this is a national statistic, and Austin has a younger and generally more technically adept population, you might expect that this number may be higher here.

What Are Buyers Looking For? The chart below shows that photos are the most important thing to buyers searching on the internet for homes. The quality of the photos you use to market a home has a huge impact on how many people come out to take a look at it. That’s why I use a professional photographer when marketing homes.

What’s changed in Austin that home sellers should know about? The Austin MLS has recently been upgraded to increas the maximum number of photos allowed per listing.

While large numbers of photos were previously the domain of virtual tours only, now you can add up to 25 images for each property for sale in the MLS.

How many Realtors Are Taking Advantage of the new capabilities? Some, but not all. Here’s a chart I pulled last week from the MLS for all the single family homes in Austin. The previous maximum number of photos was 12.

The last home I marketed in the UT area had 23 images in the MLS which puts it in the top 3% of Austin listings!

In summary, a third of home buyers find the actual home they buy on a web site, photos are the most important thing on a home website, and the Austin MLS now allows up to 25 photos to let buyers see what your home has to offer. To most effectively market your home, I recommend using a professional photographer to take 25 or more photos.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor who provides data-backed marketing advice for Austin home sellers. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.

Austin has many iconic businesses, and Amy’s Ice Creams on Guadalupe is one of them. I’m glad to say that I am presenting a unique home on West 35th Street - just a few blocks walk away from there.

207 W35th Street, Austin, TX 78705

• 3 Beds, 2 Baths
• 2100 sqft on 2 stories
• Austin ISD
• MLS# 8193159
• $539,000
• Virtual Tour

The craftsmenship is evident in this UT area home remodeled by the owner in 2008. The kitchen has some magnificent cherry and maple cabinets to compliment the new bamboo floors and stainless appliances.

It’s the master suite that will get you though. The upper story of the home has been fashioned into a retreat. The closet is large, light, and thoughtfully designed. There’s a dressing area, sitting area and the custom cabinetry has built in felt-lined jewelry drawers. If that wasn’t enough, the closet even has a balcony.

See more information on this home which has just hit the market at my MLS site.

Come check it out at the open house: Sunday June 21st 2p-5p!

Have lunch at Zen, stop at Amy’s Ice Cream, and then say hello at the open house.

This home is in of the most walkable neighborhoods in Austin - scoring a whopping 86 out of 100.

With a large front porch and a hot tub in the covered patio, you can certainly unwind after a day downtown in this elegant home.

• Search for homes in 78705
• Get an Austin Housing Market snapshot

For more information on this home or any other home in Austin, please contact Garreth Wilcock : 512 694 8873

Austin loan officer John Schutze shares his weekend mortgage rate update:

“Mortgage rates finally leveled off….for now!

30 year fixed rates reached their peak at 5.5% late Wed but improved to 5.375% Thursday and Friday.

Of course, there are many factors that caused rates to rise but one factor is simply related to supply and demand. The huge amount of refinance loans that closed over the last few months are now hitting Wall Street as lenders now have to sell those loans to investors as mortgage bonds.

However there aren’t necessarily more investors looking to purchase the extra supply of mortgage bonds. Therefore lenders must raise the rate of return on the mortgage bonds to entice investors to purchase them. This in turn means higher rates to the consumer.  ”

John lends money at Bank of America and writes a blog about Austin mortgages.Garreth Wilcock is a Keller Williams Realtor® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.

The Energy Audit Ordnance is now in effect in Austin, meaning that the vast majority of Austin resale homes require a licensed energy auditor to check a home’s efficiency when it is sold. What are the results so far, and how is the process working?

The Statesman has an article reviewing the statistics from the first 310 home audits. There are no real surprises in the findings - Austin homes have leaky ducts.

The average duct air loss was 22% in the sample, which sounds pretty awful. It is - air loss wastes energy used to run air conditioners and costs money. It also means the commissioning of new power plants.

The mandatory energy audits are raising awareness of the leakyness of our older homes, but are people addressing the leaks?

Are Austin homesellers addressing energy inefficiencies as part of the negotiations?

It’s too early to say how buyers are reacting to the audits, and whether they are asking for repairs or allowances. There’s an argument that says if a home is too far from the norm (allbeit a very leaky duct norm) then a buyer may ask for certain fixes or compensation.

What can a smart seller do to get more money for their Austin home?

There are a few ways of getting top dollar for your home and using the energy audit to your advantage. The first is to treat it like an inspection. Homes that are preinspected and have had the major inspection findings address will net more money. There are a few reasons why - one is that the seller can choose who does the work if they aren’t under contract with a buyer. They can even do the work themselves.

In my opinion, the same applies to the energy audit. If you do an audit in advance of listing and address the findings, your buyer will know that they are buying a premium home.

Another way of netting more from your home sale is to make it exempt from the audit, and show that it is already a cut above the rest. That could be by doing some energy efficiency upgrades e.g.:

• Three energy efficient upgrades in the last ten years
• Receive over $500 in Austin Energy rebates

What buyer wouldn’t want to buy a home that was quantifiably more energy efficient than all the other homes for sale and save on their energy bills?

Who is paying for the energy audits in Austin?

Like all things in real estate, it’s negotiable. What I’m seeing so far, and the advice that I’m getting from the Austin Board of Realtors is that it’s a seller expense. It can be included on the sellers’ disclosure as part of the additional licensed inspection section. If the results are good, this can be a positive marketing piece.

Despite the uproar about the mandatory energy audits, the results may be worth the expense. If this means that home buyers can figure out how to save a significant portion of their utility bill wastage by using rebate programs from Austin Energy, then perhaps we’ll see some results in the next few years.

Garreth Wilcock is an Austin Realtor® and EcoBroker® who helps buyers find homes in Austin, and helps sellers get top dollar for their homes.

Austin loan officer John Schutze runs us through his weekly mortgage rate round up.

“Mortgage rates keep inching higher as we end the week!

• Rising oil prices and gas prices
• Optimistic predictions about the end of the recession
• Concerns over the U.S. total debt load
• Fears of inflation

Given the factors above, investors desire a higher rate of return on their investment which is driving rates higher.

The Fed has spent around $600 billion of the 1.2 trillion allocated to purchase mortgages. They bought $25 billion last week but it wasn’t enough to push 30 year rates back below 5.0%. So the trend remains higher for now…”

John works at Bank of America and writes a blog about Austin mortgages.Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.

The Parade of Homes is on its last week at Mueller Austin, and the Home Builders Association of Austin has thrown out a discount to those nearest to the event. On Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June, Mueller residents get in for $10 rather than the usual $15.

It’s a thoughtful gesture to the 400 families that have moved in so far - giving a discount to see the homes we’ve watched go up on Camacho Street for the last seven months.

It’s not quite as good as the discount given to 8000 Austin real estate agents on Monday. A quiet invitation was sent saying that entry was free if you drop off a business card.

The Parade ends this weekend and is well worth a look if you want to see some innovative design. I volunteered over at one of the homes on several days and met all manner of people - people interested in interior design, people wanting to build their own homes, and people who just wanted to ride the elevator.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® specializing in homes at Mueller where he lives. Get in touch to find out more about moving to the Mueller Development in Austin  - 512 694 8873.

Here’s Austin loan officer John Schutze with his weekly update on the ups and downs of the mortgage market.

“Mortgage rates leaped higher this week!

• Rising oil prices and gas prices
• Optimistic predictions about the end of the recession
• Concerns over the U.S. total debt load
• Fears of inflation

In addition, momentum trading played a role.

As markets worsened, selling begat more selling, amplifying Wall Street’s total losses.  As mortgage bond prices fell, mortgage rates went up.  By a lot.

Rates generally take a breather after a big movement like this week. So far that’s been the case as we end the week. The damage is done. It’s probably a good time for those “fence sitters” to get up and make a move!  “

John works at Bank of America and writes an Austin mortgage blog.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.

The Austin Parade of Homes is set this year in Mueller - the walkable urban village at the site of the old airport. Here’s how to get there without upsetting the residents.

I’m not suggesting that Mueller residents aren’t understandably proud of our neighborhood. I’m excited for people to see the homes and the parks. Heck, after Memorial Day, the pool at Ella Wooten will be open to the public, so check out the parade homes, and then take a swim.

It would be nice to minimize vehicular traffic on the residential streets in my opinion. The streets have been designed to minimize cut-through traffic so that we have pedestrian and bike friendly residential streets.

So the plan for the Parade is to park and ride (or walk or cycle!). Or even park ride and swim!

The Parade starts on Saturday, and I look forward to seeing you out there!

In the coming week I’ll put more information about each of the Parade homes. I’m going to be helping guests at the Streetman Home 4217 Camacho during the following dates / times, so come and say “Hi!” if you’re visiting:

• Sunday 5/23 10a-3p
• Tuesday 5/26 10a-3p
• Friday 5/29 3p-8p
• Sunday 5/31 10a-3p
• Monday 6/1 3p-8p

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor living and working in Mueller. He helps sell homes for people moving to Mueller and buyers find homes at Mueller. Call 512 694 8873 for a tour of the available homes and the neighborhood.

Home loans in Austin Texas: here’s local lender John Schutze with his weekly update:

“Mortgage rates edged slightly higher this week.

In other news, the Fed has purchased a total of $482 billion in mortgages out of the 1.25 Trillion they have allocated to spend this year. So they have $700 billion remaining to spend throughout the rest of the year. This should keep rates near current levels for the remainder of 2009! “

John is a loan officer with Bank of America and has an Austin mortgage blog which has plenty of interesting articles on factors impacting lending rates.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.