As in life, there are things that we want in our next house and things that we need. The ‘need’ makes life more comfortable in the present. The ‘want’ is a goal we would like to acheive someday. Needs and wants change as our lifestyles and conditions change. They are two separate things and are two separate lists when looking for a house. On the need list I expect to see things like the number of bedrooms, baths, location and garage space. The items on the need and want lists are interchangeable. You can add any item on either list because the need is a “must-have” and a want is a “nice-to-have” – it’s the goal.
The challenge for buyers is to look at the two lists separately and not together. When we have too many wants on the needs list, we start creating a dream house. Every needs list has a dream house. A dream house is a house that is universally appealing to many needs lists, but is also touches on 2 or more items that are on the wants list. Examples of a dream house may include a 3-car garage on a golf course, a lake front home with nice outdoor kitchen and boat dock or a 5 bedroom house with horses allowed.
What all of these dream houses have in common is that they are scarce. My challenge is often that buyers don’t always believe they are looking at a dream house. I never know when the ideal house is going to come up for someone. Buyers and houses enter and exit the market constantly. When a house is only 7 days old on the market and it’s a dream house, buyers often think they can wait.
Remember a dream house is always going to show up in someone elses dream, so there is no telling when the next buyers are going to see it. When buyers lose a dream house it can become very discouraging, but often need to go through the experience. The next time my buyer won’t wait for another buyer to purchase their house. All houses sell in their own given time. It could be day 7 or day 150. If a buyer sees their dream house on day 150 – it’s new to them!
I often find it a helpful exercise to show buyers the difference in inventory between their wants list versus their needs list. A buyer may easily start with 35 homes that meet their needs criteria, but when I add a golf course view – we wind up with 5.
Remember our goals change in the future as life has a habit of changing. Buying a new home is a dream in itself. Sticking to the present and what you need now will help keep that dream a reality.
On September 1st changes were made to the proof of residency requirements for homeowners applying for property tax homestead exemption. Under the new law all applicants must show a copy of their Texas Driver’s license or state ID card and vehicle registration receipt. All of the documents must show the same address as the property they are seeking exemption for. 
Home owners associations are common in neighborhoods in and around Austin. Some are voluntary like in 
I have selected subdivisions in the greater Austin area and listed their current real estate market data. My selection is based on the communities I have visited over the last 3 weeks. This also happens to be my 100th blog post!
The Austin City Limits Music festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in Zilker Park. Roughly 75,000 people were in attendance on each day of the 3-day festival setting a record. The Austin City Limits Music Festival draws visitors and musicians to Austin from all over the world. This year the ACL music festival not only benefited the local economy, but also through donations made for wildfire relief efforts as well.
Someone asked me last week if selling her house next year would mean selling higher than this year. I responded by telling her if I could predict the future like that – I’d be a very rich lady. When I list a house and even when I represent a buyer I look at trends in the market. Market tends vary about every 3 months based on how inventory is moving, what houses have sold for and what houses entering the market are being listed for. Housing prices are a reflection of both national and global economic factors that affect interest rates, the stock market, the bond market and employment rates to name a few. The volatility of market conditions makes it impossible to predict what your house will sell for a year from now. Sometimes I do go back a year, but it’s not to price a house – it’s just to tell a story.