Austin TX Real Estate Blog

Austin Real Estate News, Market Reports, Tips, Advice and War Stories. Provider: The Crossland Team at Keller Williams Realty Feed Type: Informational [report]

Most recent items from this feed:

The Difference Between a Functionary Agent and a Fiduciary Realtor
Every now and then I wander into some online Realtor Forums to share and trade ideas, see how markets are doing in other places, and see if I can answer questions or learn something new. The most disturbing thing I come across regularly is the misguided mindset of so many ...

Mortgage Rates Plunge Below 5% - But Does it Help Investors?
From my Daily Realtor news feed: Mortgage rates declined Tuesday after the Federal Reserve said it would spend $600 billion to support the mortgage securities market. Rates fell to 4 7/8 percent, a 1 1/8 percentage point decline. David Beadle, president of BestInfo, said it was the sharpest one-day decline since 1988. "I ...

Using Twitter as a Focusing and Productivity Tool
I wrote recently about Social Media tools and whether they can aid and assist Realtors in selling homes and acquiring leads. I am skeptical of whether these tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, provide a sufficient return relative to the time invested in using them. Well, I had enough feedback and ...

Austin Rental Market Update - Oct 2008
At my monthly Property Manager's luncheon yesterday in Austin, the general consensus among the 30+ property managers in attendence was that the leasing market has taken a nose dive since September. The number of renter calls has really slowed down. One manager remarked "I keep calling my own phone to make ...

Austin Real Estate Market Update - Oct 2008 Sales
The number of residential single family home sales in Austin took a 28% dip for Oct 2008 compared to a year ago. The number of "Not Solds" (expired or withdrawn) took a big jump also, to 59% of all listings that departed the Austin MLS in October. These are grim ...

Redfin Abandoning Failed Model and Moving Toward Traditional Services
The discount Broker Redfin, which I follow with interest even though it doesn't serve Austin, looks like it's making yet another move toward traditional real estate services. Rather than facilitating the wholesale disintermediation of the traditional Realtor, Redfin instead continues to adopt more and more of the traditional Realtor approach ...

Social Media and the Real Estate Business
I was surpised this morning to see "Steve and Linda Crossland" featured as "Blogging Agents" on the Business front page of today's Austin American Statesman. I'll be calling Sylvia "Linda" for the next few days, until she has enough of it and threatens me with disaffection. We were not contacted ...