Discount realtor

In most case, when selling your home you will want the job done efficiently, with the least amount of hassle and to get the most profit possible out of your sale.

If you are in this position for the first time, consider these points as to why you should you use a realtor.

Agent commission VS the sale of the home

At first a realtor’s commission payment may seem like a chunk of change coming out of your sale profit.   This is true as an isolated statement, and potentially you could save a few thousand dollars by making the sale alone.

The problem is getting to the sale on your own.

Not only will potential buyers be more wary of buying from and working with a homeowner rather than a qualified, certified agent, if your house is priced incorrectly it could cost you a lot more than a commission price.

Imagine the agony of having your house sit stale on the market for 6 to 8 months or longer while you continue to maintain the property and pay Insurance, HOA fees and taxes on a vacant home. In this case, home sellers are usually forced to lower their sale price over and over again until the sale can be completed.

Or, on the other hand, having incorrect information on the current market value of your home you sell your house for an under market price and realize after the fact that you could have easily sold for a few thousand or tens of thousands more. It hurts just to write that.

Your realtor should be well versed in marketing your home, then negotiating and closing the sale of your home for you. They will be able to quote you the correct market value that your home is in, making the sale happen in the shortest amount of time possible.

In this way they have earned their commission back and potentially given you more profit than you would have had in trying to sell your home yourself.

Here at Austin Discount Real Estate we not only do all of the above, but we also offer to take a lower commission to make the deal a little sweeter, so you as the home buyer have nothing to lose.

Your time, your money, your problem

We have already discussed the potential money loss of trying to sell your home yourself and now we will look at the other most valuable resource at stake. Time.

We know time is money and we can save you a lot of both.

The thought of showing your house and getting the word out there that your house is even on the market may sound easy, but it can become a full time job in itself.

The real estate agent can add your listing to the MLS system, putting it on the radar for thousands of other agents with ready and willing qualified buyers waiting to purchase houses like the one you are selling.

Agents also have other tools and resources at their disposal to present and market your house in its most desirable light.

For example, here at Austin Discount Real Estate we offer professional video clips of your home as well as well as pictures, staging recommendations, and an email blast to our already huge and well established client base of buyers and investors to get your home sold as fast as possible.

The other most common downfall for individuals selling their own homes is the stress and legalities involved. Real estate borders a very fine line between sales and law and as a result there are a massive amount of rules and regulations to abide by in such transactions. Getting caught up in a lawsuit while trying to sell your home could cost you more money and distress than you bargained for.

This is a large part of why real estate agents have to be licensed, to know these rules and give you piece of mind while connecting you with a buyer and saving you time, stress and money.

If you are putting your house on the market or already have and are trying to sell on your own, consider sitting down with us here at Austin Discount Real Estate for a free consultation today.

The Central Texas housing market has turned in sellers’ favor, with homes going to the swift, multiple offers making a comeback and prices creeping higher, local real estate agents and housing experts say.

Activity continued on an upward trend in April, with home sales increasing for the 11th straight month, the Board of Realtors said Monday.

Sales in the five-county region jumped 16 percent compared with April 2011, with 1,949 homes sold, the board said. And the median sale price saw another “considerable increase,” rising about 9 percent to $212,000, said Leonard Guerrero, chairman of the board.

Meanwhile, the supply of homes for prospective buyers continued to shrink, with 24 percent fewer homes on the market in April compared with April 2011, the board said.

The dwindling inventory is coming at a time of rising demand, making for the tightest supply that housing expert Mark Sprague said he has seen in more than 30 years tracking the region’s market.

“The market has definitely turned the corner,” Sprague said at a recent housing market forecast event in Austin. “The house or apartment you look at today won’t be there tomorrow.”

Tim Ellis, the real estate analyst for Redfin, a national real estate brokerage based in Seattle that recently opened a local office and tracks housing data in several Central Texas counties, said that “it’s no longer a buyer’s market” in Austin.

“There’s a really tight supply of housing for the demand there is,” Ellis said.

The low inventory — the board said Austin had about a 4.4-month supply last month, 2.3 months less than last April — is at the root of the region’s “bidding war epidemic,” said Rachel Musiker, a spokeswoman for Redfin.

Experts consider a 6 1/2-month supply a balanced market, and prices typically rise when the supply of houses falls below six months.

The region’s job and population growth, along with low unemployment — the jobless rate fell to 5.5 percent in April, the lowest since late 2008 — are helping fuel demand for housing, along with historically low mortgage interest rates, experts say.

“It’s nuts out there,” said Cyndy Stewart, the lead agent for Redfin in Austin. Of the 25 or so offers she has written in the past six weeks, almost all have been multiple offer situations, Stewart said.

“There are typically three to four offers” ahead of us,” Stewart said. “We’re literally waiting our turn in line. And now we’re seeing prices creep up. We’re having to compete above list price, and sometimes we’re not winning those deals.”

Robin Curle, a real estate agent with JB Goodwin in Austin, said the market is being driven by people upgrading to more expensive homes and by newcomers moving to town for work.

“Properties that have been sitting are now selling, and the ones that are newly on the market are selling sometimes in days,” Curle said. “People are buying fast, and we’re seeing multiple offers.”

A Steiner Ranch house priced at $515,000 sold in four days, before Curle even listed it in the Central Texas database of homes for sale.

“Prices have corrected and have been flat, and now they’re starting to increase,” Curle said. “Buyers feel like they better act now while they can get prices at the bottom of the market.”

Claire and Dave Seeger’s home-selling experience this month is a sign of the changing market.

The real estate agent for the couple, who will be moving to Houston for Dave Seeger’s new job, posted the online listing for their five-bedroom home in Northwest Austin at 2:30 a.m. on a recent weekday. That same day, there were 11 showings, with the first offer received just after 2 p.m., said Claire Seeger, who works for a local software firm.

“Then we got a second offer that day, and a third offer the next day, and people continued to look at it,” she said. Two other people wanted to make offers, but Claire Seeger said their agent told them it probably wasn’t worth their time.

The Seegers countered the original offer. The buyers agreed to pay higher than the $279,000 asking price for the 3,062-square-foot home, which has a pool, remodeled kitchen and bathrooms and sits on a three-quarter-acre lot amid 30 oak and pecan trees.

Claire Seeger said she “absolutely” was surprised with the response.

“We love our house, and I guess a lot of other people love or like it too, given the interest in it,” she said.

Of the major markets Redfin surveys, Austin recently tied with Washington for the area with the largest percentage of homes selling in three days or fewer — about 1 in 4 — among homes sold from January through mid-April.

Courtesy of: The Austin American Statesman

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