The bubble factor

I'm often asked; "When will the Austin market bubble burst? You know like everywhere else" The answer is; "We never had a bubble, there isn't anything to burst"

Austin seemed to have learned from the rest of the country. We're sortof like the Tortoise in the age old story of the tortoise and the hare. And now after watching the rest of the market run faster then its legs could carry it, we are sitting back and enjoying our slow and steady progress.

Consequences of coming from a dead market to a stable market:
Every real estate text book tells you to offer 10 % below fair market value. Good advice. Many clients these days though are coming in from markets where you can get away with offering
15 % or even 20% below market value.

Same rules don't apply in every market.

Often buyers will make those extremely low offers and 1 of 2 things will happen;

1. The seller says no way and won't even counter. (As a realtor I hate this scenario. I beg the other realtor to convince the seller what a dumb idea this is. Please come out and play ball, don't just take your ball and go in the house.)

2. A back and forth of counter offers and in the meantime another offer comes in, the seller takes it just to get over the low low offer first buyer has made. Result: the second offer ends up getting a smokin' deal. The deal the first buyer would have liked to get.

Good news is my clients are smart! They've done their research and they've picked a good realtor who know the market. Together we determine an aggressive offer price that will help us end up at the optimal price, without alienating the seller or losing to another buyer.

Most of my blogs will be articles about Austin. So many places are talking about Austin, it often makes the top ten lists.