"How do I know if I've found the right home?"

I firmly believe there is a 6th sense, a gut instinct, which guides you in your decision making when buying a home. In order to know if a particular home/property is “the one”, consider this system:

1. Have KNOWLEDGE
2. Create your TEAM & PLAN
3. Finally, the key ingredient, INSTINCTS/GUT FEELING, naturally arrives.

Knowledge: Knowing the market means understanding how the entire market in your area is doing statistically, plus knowing specific data about the neighborhood you’re making an offer in.

Team: Put together your team of advisors for this purchase/investment (Realtor and Lender). Feel comfortable with the people you’re working with, remove anxiety about who you’re teaming up with and make good choices from the start. You’re the CEO of this process, money questions should be delegated to the lender and sales options should come from your Realtor.

Plan: Between your Realtor and Lender you can create a timeline outlining how each step of the buying process will go. You’re in charge of how long the meetings take with your Realtor/Lender at the beginning and how long you look for your house. Once you find a home you want, your Team will assist in guiding you through the process. A timeline helps planning and outlining costs along the way, thus reduces surprises.

Meeting with Your Realtor

The key numbers to review in your market are active listings, average/median sales price, and average time on the market. To analyze this data, it is best to compare the current data to the figures from previous years. You should then review this data comparison with a referred Realtor.

In addition to statistics, talk about your goals and ideal scenario with your Realtor. I recommend Buyers create a list of their 5 non-negotiable points (i.e. price, size, location) for their home PLUS 5 other secondary wishes (i.e. pool, size of yard, type of kitchen) for their purchase. When you have found a home you like, your Realtor will research further information to share with you. This additional research will cover sales/activity of similar properties (area, size, condition) which are currently under contract and sold.

Meeting with Your Mortgage Lender

A second meeting takes place with a Mortgage Lender. I don’t find online quotes helpful or very accurate. It’s best to meet with a Lender face-to-face. By sitting down and going through the current state of lending, you will have better a grasp on the numbers associated with your purchase. A good referred Lender will know when to lock an interest rate and know how to negotiate costs for you.

You should walk out of a lender meeting with one or a number of “Good Faith Statements”. These “Good Faith Statements” outline the loans you discussed, with specific numbers pertaining to your costs in buying a piece of real property (monthly payment, closing costs, and down payment). This, additionally, allows you to get more focused on what you can specifically feel comfortable with buying, and remove the concerns about the cost of a particular house you like.

I recommend having two individuals on your team, one working on the loan and the working as your Realtor.

Finding the House of Your Dreams

After having meetings with your Realtor and Lender, your Realtor can then print out a list of properties based on your wish list (the 5 to 10 goals PLUS the exact pricing as a result of your Lender meeting). Take the criteria and go see properties. Simply driving around a number of totally different neighborhoods can be a huge help. You will NOT like driving down some streets, while other areas you will find more exciting. What do you think of the neighborhoods? Keep in mind you can change paint colors, flooring, landscaping. You can’t change your neighbors.

On another day, you and your Realtor can focus on opening up a number of homes to see the inside. Try to go on this tour Monday through Friday from 10am to 4pm, so you can visit a high number of homes without traffic on the roads and have the owners away from the property so you can discuss what you like/dislike on the spot. Get to know the price per foot of the homes you tour, don’t just look at the price as a whole.

Assuming your goals are realistic with the market you’re looking in, you will recognize the perfect house for you right when you step inside it! You will envision furniture you want to buy to furnish the house. You will visualize doing your hobbies at this potential property, as if they are going on at the very time your touring the home.

A key sign you should make an offer on a property is if you cannot stop thinking about a home after a night’s sleep. This is the INSTINCTUAL part of decision making. This is the part you can easily create if you follow the right steps as outlined by your Realtor and Lender. This makes a stressful move, which carries responsibility and costs money, a bit more enjoyable.

Keep in mind nothing is perfect. That is why I stress the list of 5 non-negotiable and 5 “dreams” associated with the home purchase. I will later cover on this site how the inspection process works which is a key step after securing a contract with the Owner/Seller.

Property Tax Bills

As a property owner, there are 3 valuations to keep up with throughout the year; Tax Valuations/Property Tax, Market Valuations (if you sold/listed the property) and Appraised Value (refinancing). I'll focus today's entry on Property Tax Bills.

Everyone should be getting the 2007 valuations on their property, established by their county, which arrive about this time of year. These are due no later than January 31, 2008. You either pay monthly with your home payment OR pay the entire bill around December/January.

Our over all stats show that the Austin Metro market has a shrinking supply of inventory of listings, while average & median prices are rising around $10,000 (http://www.nativeaustinrealestate.com). When the market pricing shows an increase, typically the taxing authority will have an increase as well. However, you always want to double check prices for similar property in a similar area unless your sure of acceptable valuations by county.

If you have a trusted Realtor, ask them for a little information (called a CMA, Comparable Market Analysis for similar size/similar location sales). Because our market is moving upward in pricing, you can bet the taxing authority will push to the max increase of 10% from last year. They can't go over that value of a 10% increase on homesteads, so be sure to double check that number first.

If you want to protest the valuation, there are forms included in your tax bill, and their is a set timeline to send in a protest. You can also hire a company to fight them for you. This can really be worth it, especially for investments and commercial property which do not have the 10% yearly cap.

Tax Protests have two steps; informal & formal. Your best bet for the reduction in property tax costs can come from the informal meeting. If they offer a reduction at the informal hearing, but not as much as you like, consider taking what you can get in that informal hearing. The formal hearing is less leaniant in ANY reductions. Put on your best behavior during these meetings, especially the informal, many property owners enter these meetings ''fired up'', and that won't always be a good start. These guys at the taxing authority have a job to do, and it gets tough this time of year.

For the meetings, have a list of comparable properties selling in the last 12 months supporting your valuation (your trusted Realtor is a great source). Additionally, have pictures developed to share visuals for the repairs or reasons the property would not ''be sold'' for the County Valuation (old roof, cracks in the slab, wood rot, bad paint job, invoices from repairman which were not funded yet).

My last opinion for the informal/formal hearings is to review the tax records of the people in your area to check on their valuations - again using the same size home and same area. Texas and Florida are two states that do not have State Income Tax. However, Texas and Florida do have high property taxes.

It can be painful, no doubt. Just keep in mind that Austin gets high marks for all the parks and outdoor amenities and these are paid for with some property tax dollars. If property taxes really have you down, make it a point of getting to know some parks/trails and go use what you're paying for. Austin does have some fantastic parks and trails!

As a first entry, I think it's important to start with a great foundation, so let's focus on the foundations of a home, specifically, slab foundations. I am a realtor, not a contractor and not a repairman to any degree, nor a structural engineer. I have however repaired my own foundation, and in doing so, learned quite a bit in the process. Because of my work as a realtor, I have seen many forms of foundation repair.

Assuming you see signs of foundation movement which are more extreme than normal:

1. Hire a good plumber to perform a pressure test on your plumbing for any leaks inside the foundation
2. If the work above shows a leak in your plumbing, have a plumber do further work to locate the exact area of the leak, via a camera which could record the hole for future viewing if necessary for other steps (if a leak is detected, shut off your water to the property).
3. Hire a good structural engineer to review the movements of the property and then outline the required steps in leveling the foundation. Make sure your Engineer will revisit the property and sign off if the exact work is done.
4. Hire a good foundation company to bid on the work your structural engineer outlined. Add to their project the need to dig a hole towards the leak in the plumbing line (their cost to dig is cheaper than a plumbers cost).
5. Get the work started, the holes dug, the one hole dug to the plumbing leak
6. Have the plumber visit the site where the hole is dug to repair the broken plumbing line
   Don't take the cheap way out for the method of foundation repair. Choose the steel reinforced concrete pier, from bedrock to the slab.
7. Have your structural engineer revisit the property and sign off on the whole project.

Home owners often make the mistake of going FIRST to the foundation company, because they do not charge for quotes or time. This makes sense because no money is spent; however, you are not sure of the outcome. Foundation companies offer a lifetime warranty on their work, but their warranty does not cover any issues associated FROM their work.

I began with a focus on the plumbing lines for a reason. Any water issue must be cleared up first prior to stabilizing the foundation. This would include rain water and water resulting from sprinkler systems and general run off from locations up stream. I also see partial foundation work where only one side of a slab foundation was repaired instead of. the whole slab.

If you want a good referral for any of the above steps or just want more information, please contact me. I'll be more than happy to help.

Welcome!

I intend for this information to be useful for those interested in residential property in the Austin, Texas area with the goals of buying, selling and holding (repairs, tax protests, market statistics, etc.).

It is often stated that the emotions of a home transaction and the physical act of moving combine to create one of the most stressful events in a person's life. In addition, the money associated with real estate transactions can represent the largest transaction in a persons' life. I hope my entries better inform you and those that you refer.

Additionally, I will showcase real estate from time to time to make the search for your perfect home easier.