Austin Luxury Group

The New Texas Land Rush

garyd — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:30:24 +0000

The New Texas Land Rush

The boom in hydraulic fracturing brings a wave of oil barons buying luxury homes; demands include elevators, built-in grills and plenty of display space for trophy animals.

The shale-oil boom in the Lone Star State has created a different kind of gusher: oil executives flush with cash looking to buy luxury real estate.

Slick Digs

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Jennifer Whitney for The Wall Street JournalHouse Hunt: Oil executive Rick Pfeiffer looks at a home on Ivy Lane in San Antonio that is listed for $1.03 million

"We can list a house and in two hours have an offer," says Beth Ferester, a real-estate agent in Houston. Some high-end homes in the city have sold for as much as 10% over the asking price, says Lisa Kornhauser, a local agent with John Daugherty Realtors.

Modern-day moguls aren't always looking for glitzy homes that boast their wealth, real-estate agents say. Instead, location and the home's layout are important, along with sleek, understated design and ample outdoor entertainment space. Mark Molthan, a builder in Dallas, says many energy executives like subterranean garages that can hold a dozen cars, elevators and cisterns to ensure they always have water to be able to irrigate their yards. He recently finished a home for an oil executive that included a 1,000-square-foot trophy room for the exotic animals he'd shot in Africa. "It was like walking into a museum," Mr. Molthan says. Many oil executives are looking for a spread where they can entertain. Popular amenities include large media rooms, wine cellars and trophy rooms for the avid outdoorsman. Barry Williams, an interior designer in Dallas, completed a $6 million home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood for an oil executive several years ago that included a media room featuring 20 of the owner's collection of stuffed game animals. Bob Simpson, founder of XTO Energy, which Exxon Mobil XOM +1.57% took over in 2010, recently added about 5,000 square feet onto his nearly 14,000-square-foot Fort Worth home, adding an indoor pool and a sports court. In Houston, where the median sale price is $172,000, sales of homes for $1 million or more jumped 24% last year compared with 2011, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. In San Antonio, where the median sale price is $156,900, sales of homes priced at $500,000 or more jumped 12% from 2011 to 2012, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors. In Dallas, sales of homes in the $1 million-and-above range increased 10% in March, year over year. Rick Pfeiffer, a 58-year-old CEO of an oil-field equipment-services company, has lived in Mumbai, Singapore and Darien, Conn. But these days, he's house hunting in San Antonio, the biggest city near the booming Eagle Ford Shale formation, a prime location for hydraulic fracturing. The drilling technique, which uses sand, water and chemicals under high pressure to extract oil and natural gas from rock formations, has helped Eagle Ford oil production grow by 184% last year compared with 2011, according to the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state's oil and gas exploration and production. Mr. Pfeiffer is currently renting a condo in the Alamo Heights neighborhood, a high-end area located 5 miles from downtown. Agent Ellen McDonough is helping him and his wife look for a home in the $750,000-to-$1.5 million range with a swimming pool. The Pfeiffers are also looking in Olmos Park, Monte Vista and Terrell Hills, where Craig Rosenstein, president of Lewis Energy Group, recently listed his home for $1.92 million. Prices in those neighborhoods range anywhere from $217,500 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home under 2,000 square feet to $6.95 million for a 14,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom estate. Like Mr. Pfeiffer, many people connected to the shale and natural-gas industry are relocating to major cities in Texas. Exxon Mobil, for example, is building a new campus in Houston for employees, including hundreds who are relocating from its Virginia and Ohio offices, and Devon Energy DVN +2.67% has opened an office in Abilene, Texas, to be closer to the nearby Cline Shale formation. Others are moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the Barnett Shale formation, which produces in 24 counties, accounted for 31% of well-gas production in Texas last year, according to the railroad commission. Marcus Rowland, who recently retired as CEO of a drilling outfit, for example, relocated from Oklahoma and in 2011 bought a more than 8,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bathroom Mediterranean spread, complete with an entertainment room and a pool, in Fort Worth's gated community of Montserrat. The neighborhood has 220 homes that range from $1 million to $10 million. "So many companies have moved their headquarters here or increased their presence," says John Zimmerman, a local agent near Fort Worth who has worked with oil executives. Robbie Briggs, owner of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty in Dallas, estimates that 50% of his firm's buyers are connected to the shale boom. They include oil executives, attorneys, technology consultants, midstream-company managers and accountants. Oil man Trevor Rees-Jones, who netted billions drilling in the Barnett Shale, has been buying up several properties in the University Park neighborhood of Dallas, according to public records. In the summer of 2011, he purchased two vacant half-acre lots with large oak trees that overlook the Dallas Country Club golf course. Then, in late 2012, he bought a third property nearby—a 1.47-acre lot—and tore down an existing 8,343-square-foot, four-bedroom, six-bathroom, two-half-bath home. According to appraisal reports, the total market value of Mr. Rees-Jones's vacant lots is more than $3 million; he bought the property with the existing home for $8 million. Mr. Rees-Jones declined to comment; local real-estate agents say he plans to build on one of the lots and to hold the two lots near the golf course as investments. In Houston, Jeffrey Sheets, Alan Hirshberg and Don Wallette, all senior executives atConocoPhillips, COP +1.57% have purchased new homes over the past two years. Mr. Hirshberg bought a home in the tony area of Piney Point Village for $3.68 million in June 2011, according to public records. In May 2012, Mr. Wallette purchased a home in Hunters Creek Village for $1.25 million, and two months later, Mr. Sheets, the company's chief financial officer, bought a 7,177-square-foot home with a list price of $3.2 million from a former Houston Astros executive. Through a spokesman, all three executives declined to comment. According to public records, Mr. Hirshberg's 11,374-square-foot home has two elevators and a pool, and Mr. Wallette's Spanish-style home, which was built in 2009, has marble countertops and an outdoor kitchen and bar. Mr. Sheets's home includes a game room, a pool and hot tub, and a patio with a built-in grill. New construction has also benefited from the boom. From February 2012 to February 2013, single-family building permits rose nearly 30% in Houston, 18% in Dallas and 2% in San Antonio, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Sharon Ballas, an agent in Houston, says many spec homes are selling "at the Sheetrock stage" that buyers then customize to their tastes. David Nichols, a real-estate agent in Dallas, says many residents tear down older homes in choice locations because finding a vacant lot in upscale neighborhoods can be difficult. Indeed, on a recent morning in Highland Park, the drone of construction trucks and workers could be heard along the streets lined with Tudor and French-style mansions. Many trucks made it difficult for Mr. Nichols to see past them as he inched his green Mercedes out into traffic. Shale barons aren't just looking at residential real estate. Many of them also are buying land. Energy Transfer Partners ETP +0.48% CEO Kelcy Warren kicked off a ranch-buying spree when he bought the Boot Jack Ranch in southwest Colorado for $46.5 million in 2010, says Eric O'Keefe, editor of the Land Report, a quarterly magazine about landowners and their properties. Originally listed at $88 million, the 3,151-acre property included a 13,825-square-foot main residence, four guest log cabins and ample water rights. Mr. Warren declined to comment. In the past two years, Cisco, Texas-based brothers Farris and Dan Wilks have been buying up almost 200,000 acres in ranchland. The Wilks brothers founded Frac Tech, a company that performs services to increase oil-well productivity, and sold it for $3.5 billion to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in 2011. Their most notable ranch buy was Montana's 62,000-acre N Bar Ranch, listed for $45 million, which they bought from software entrepreneur Tom Siebel in January 2011. Tim Murphy, a broker at Hall and Hall whose firm has worked with the Wilks brothers, says they continue to look for more ranchland, not just for future land assets but for recreational purposes, too. "They like to hunt," he says, "and really are enamored by the thousands of elk, antelope and deer." http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323809304578431181840127820-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html

Bloomberg Names Austin as America’s Top Boomtown

garyd — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:23:15 +0000

Fastest Growing Metropolitan Areas

Immigration, despite the tortured national debate emanating from Washington, has always been about people seeking better opportunities. Within U.S. borders, Americans are also in search of a better life, one they may find across state lines. Bloomberg Rankings sorted through U.S. Census data for metropolitan areas to rank those with the greatest population growth, then scored areas on growth in gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation. Combine the two scores and winnow the list to regions with more than 1 million residents, and you have American’s fastest-growing cities.

Austin-Round Rock, Texas

2007 Population: 1,598,161 2011 Population: 1,783,519 Percent Change: 11.60 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 3.26% Austinites proudly wear T-shirts that say “Keep Austin Weird” -- something of a challenge as the city and surrounding areas grow in leaps and bounds. The Austin area, home of the South by Southwest festival and Dell Inc., has an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, compared with 7.8 percent for the nation. Its population continued to rise in 2012, to 1.8 million, and the area is supposed to generate about 25,000 new jobs in 2013, according to Austin-based Angelou Economics. A high-tech job boost will come from Apple Inc., which is expanding its Austin campus with a new, 1 million-square-foot operations center that will be second in size only to its Cupertino (California) headquarters.

New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, Louisiana

2007 Population: 1,030,363 2011 Population: 1,191,089 Percent Change: 15.60 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 2% Reporter Geraldo Rivera sparked controversy recently by referring to everything outside New Orleans’s French Quarter as a “vast urban wasteland.” The area is growing as it rebuilds from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Tourism is booming, and the New Orleans area gained more residents than any other in the U.S. from 2007 to 2011. The population rose to 1.2 million in 2012, and there’s plenty of job growth in heavy construction and even the television and motion picture industry, according to New Orleans demographer Allison Plyer. The unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent, is below the national average. One worry: Governor Bobby Jindal’s tax plan could change the state’s motion picture investor tax credit, reducing a key incentive to film in Louisiana.

Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina

2007 Population: 1,047,629 2011 Population: 1,163,515 Percent Change: 11.06 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.49% Southern accents are disappearing fast in the Raleigh-Cary metro area, says Robin Dodsworth, a linguistics professor at North Carolina State University. The culprit: the famous Research Triangle Park, which attracts techies -- some 40,000 of them now -- from all over the world. While many locals lament the demise of the Southern drawl, the economy here is growing, though unemployment stands at 7.5 percent. The population reached about 1.2 million in 2012, as big companies such as International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Cisco Systems Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp. employed not just locals but also transplants from around the globe.

San Antonio, Texas

2007 Population: 1,990,675 2011 Population: 2,194,927 Percent Change: 10.26 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.47% Think of San Antonio, and images of Spanish missions, the River Walk and the Alamo come to mind. Here, as in most of Texas, the key driver of growth is oil and gas drilling, particularly from the Eagle Ford Shale formation. A strong military presence, which includes Randolph Air Force Base, also supports the economy. As of March, about 2.2 million people were living in the area, and unemployment was 6.1 percent. “This is not a little city anymore,” says Steve Murdock, a professor of sociology at Rice University. “San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the U.S.”

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas

2007 Population: 5,628,101 2011 Population: 6,086,538 Percent Change: 8.15 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.55% Like San Antonio, Houston has benefited from the oil and gas boom. Mining companies such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and El Paso Mine Machinery Corp. are big employers. So is NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Alec Friedhoff, a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution, says that while the recession here wasn’t as severe as in other parts of the nation, the economy is bouncing back just as strongly as some of the worst-hit areas. More than 6.1 million people live here, and unemployment stands at 6.3 percent.

Washington, D.C. Metro Area

2007 Population: 5,306,565 2011 Population: 5,703,948 Percent Change: 7.49 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.46% People in the Washington area, which includes neighboring towns in Virginia and Maryland, were buffered from the recession partly because of the federal government, which employs more than 140,000 people. Another draw to the region: the defense and civilian contracting sectors with big employers such as Raytheon Co., General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. For younger job seekers, the tech industry, which is growing faster here than in any other metropolitan area, is a big lure, according to Praxis Strategy Group. All this is leading to steady growth. In 2012 the population was 5.8 million. At 5.5 percent, unemployment is below the national average.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

2007 Population: 1,192,989 2011 Population: 1,278,053 Percent Change: 7.13 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.44% Oklahoma shielded itself from the recession with its own stimulus package, says Cynthia Reid of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. It put more than $1 billion to work funding its own infrastructure projects over a five-year period. That included renovating every school, improving sidewalks and trails and building a new convention center and expo center. Such improvements have attracted more people to the city, which in 2012 had a population of 1.3 million and an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. There are plenty of jobs available from natural gas companies such as Devon Energy Corp., Continental Resources Inc. and Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee

2007 Population: 1,521,437 2011 Population: 1,617,142 Percent Change: 6.29 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 1.37% Nashvillians are thrilled about the billboards across the country that scream out, “Nashville.” It doesn’t matter that the billboards are ads for the ABC television show, says Mary Beth Ikard of the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization. The publicity will do the area good. Nashville is known for its music industry -- country, pop, gospel and rock -- which has pumped billions of dollars into the local economy. Nissan Motor Co.’s headquarters are here. The health-care industry is also a big employer, as are publishers including Thomas Nelson Inc., a major Bible printer. Unemployment is relatively low at 6.4 percent. In 2012 the population was 1.7 million people.

Portland-Beaverton Oregon, Vancouver Washington

2007 Population: 2,175,113 2011 Population: 2,262,605 Percent Change: 4.02 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 5.23% Portland, known as the “City of Roses” for its many rose gardens, has had the fastest economic growth in the country. It is, however, dealing with a few thorns. The city has invested $1 billion in its transit service to accommodate its growth, with a new “light rail” train service to better connect neighborhoods. Census data, though, show that only a little more than 1 in 10 new workers used the transit system during the past decade. Meanwhile, traffic congestion has increased more than four times the national average. The population is rising -- there were 2.3 million people in 2012 -- yet unemployment is 8.3 percent. The television show “Portlandia” dubbed the city “the place where young people go to retire.” A study by Portland State University noted that many college-educated students are drawn by the low cost of living, which allows them to bypass jobs at big companies such as Intel Corp. and Nike Inc. Instead, they try to start their own companies and make a little money through part-time work. Brookings Institution’s Friedhoff says another reason for the unemployment rate is that in the thick of the recession, many people moved to Portland for its lower cost of living. As companies cut hiring, people weren't able to find jobs.

Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, North Carolina

2007 Population: 1,651,568 2011 Population: 1,795,472 Percent Change: 8.71 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 0.14% The big draw to Charlotte has long been the banking industry, which explains the steady rise in the region’s population (2.3 million in 2012). The influx of people has led the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the largest hub to US Airways, to become the sixth-busiest airport in the nation, according to Bob Morgan, president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. Friedhoff says the financial crisis and layoffs in the banking center explain another trend -- high unemployment. Morgan says things could be improving, however, because the area is getting a boost from international companies increasingly doing business here. Among them is German company Siemens AG, which is building turbines in the area.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

2007 Population: 6,145,037 2011 Population: 6,526,548 Percent Change: 6.21 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 0.84% The oil and gas industry employs people in the Dallas area, though not to the extent as in cities like Houston, says Friedhoff. The result is an area that’s diverse in employment opportunities, from finance to technology companies. The unemployment rate, at 6.3 percent, is less than the national average. The relatively low cost of living in Dallas, combined with the economic opportunities, has been a draw for many people, according to Lloyd Potter, the state's demographer. In 2012 the area had a population of 6.7 million.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California

2007 Population: 1,803,643 2011 Population: 1,865,450 Percent Change: 3.43 GDP Compound Annual Growth: 4.37% Here in “tech land” the population continues to rise, hitting 1.9 million in 2012. Unemployment, at 7.6 percent, is close to the national average. During the housing crisis the entire state was hit hard, as home prices fell 34 percent. During the recovery, the San Jose/Sunnyvale area has come back strong. The key to its progress, says Friedhoff, is that unlike in other areas, Silicon Valley’s success does not rely on consumer-driven growth locally. Instead, the tech products made in Silicon Valley find markets all around the world.

Methodology

Bloomberg Rankings analyzed population and real (inflation-adjusted) data on gross domestic product for 360 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). MSAs were ranked on the increase in population and real GDP compound annual growth rate and given a point score from 1 to 100. The two ranks were added together and divided by 720, the highest possible total, to create the final score. The list was then winnowed to areas with at least 1 million residents as of 2011 that showed an increase in both population and real GDP from 2007 to 2011. Census population estimates for the ranking are as of July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2011. Data Sources: U.S. Census and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. By Bloomberg Rankings and Nikhil Hutheesing - Apr 24, 2013 9:48 AM CT

Who is buying Second Homes in Austin?

garyd — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:59:48 +0000

There are a lot of people moving to Austin, Texas these days. Among them is a segment that has been growing substantially is the second and third home markets. Who is buying second homes in Austin? People from the North East who plan to retire in Texas because of our temperate climate and they want to start acclimating and enjoying the area now (the second home eventually becoming their primary residence), Hollywood celebrities and film producers buy here (Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Natalie Portman, Drew Barrymore & Robert Rodriguez just to name a few), because its is such an eclectic and laid back scene (some call it "The South Coast", others say Austin's terrain and climate fells like some of the prettiest places in California, sands the Pacific Ocean), Wall street heavy hitters & Hedge Fund owners, Professional Athletes, Recording Artists, and now that Austin has the newest Formula 1 race track in the world (called Circuit Of The Americas) we have drivers and team owners purchasing here (Schumacher just purchased a ranch here among others). Some are buying here to avoid state taxes (Prop 30 has been great for our business) and protect their wealth while enjoying the seemingly affordable real estate prices for luxury homes here when compared to places like California, Florida and New York. I think also has to do with the fact that on any given evening you have 80 plus venues simultaneously showcasing great live music, we have multiple outdoor festivals throughout the year for art enthusiasts to music lovers with popular music festivals like ACL Fest, film and high tech festivals like SXSW, food and wine festivals you name it we got it and probably have the limited edition tee-shirt from the inaugural event. We are a very outdoorsy, animal friendly and a very healthy, young and educated city, we have multiple marathons and triathlons throughout the year, hike & bike trails, hundreds of parks, multiple lakes and we are very green with it comes to the environment. Austin was recently described by one of my California clients, who is relocating his high tech business and at least 100 employees here as "Silicon Vally in the 80's before they screwed it up". To sum it up I guess its the cool kids with plenty of disposable income that are finding their way Austin, Texas and then end up buying homes here...They don't want to go home, they want Austin to be home! Call Us when your ready to make your move to Austin! Gary Dolch mobile - 512-656-5627

Austin area housing market continues to sizzle

garyd — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:39:21 +0000

Austin area housing market continues to sizzle

Sales up 37 percent in October, biggest year-over-year jump in 3 years

Central Texas’ housing market posted another strong month in October, with home sales soaring 37 percent — the highest year-over-year percentage gain in three years, according to the Austin Board of Realtors in November.

Our region’s job and population growth, low interest rates on mortgage loans and rising rents continue to propel housing demand, even as the supply of homes on the market continues to shrink.We are seeing multiple offers on our listings, even in the multimillion dollar price range.

The Austin Board of Realtors reported Tuesday that 1,960 homes were sold in October compared with 1,427 in October 2011. It was the biggest year-over-year percentage increase since November 2009, when sales spiked 58 percent compared with November 2008.

The median home price also was up, rising to $199,320 — 5 percent higher than in October 2011.“The last time our market saw increases of this size was in 2009, just prior to the expiration of federal homebuyer tax credits, To see these results now without those types of external factors stimulating the market is very encouraging.

Across the country, sales of existing homes increased in October 2012, even with some regional impact from Superstorm Sandy, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. U.S. home prices also continued to rise due to lower levels of inventory.

The continued improvement in the local Austin housing market suggests that consumers are feeling more confident in the economy.

The Austin area has been added jobs at a very strong pace this year, in addition, historically low interest rates and an uptick in prices are likely triggering buyers who were waiting for a sure sign of a housing market recovery.

The Austin metro area had job growth at a 3.5 percent annual rate in October, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, the fourth consecutive month of expansion at 3 percent or greater. The market had a 3.4-month supply of homes for sale in October, the lowest inventory figure seen in the Austin area in the past decade and our rental market is up over 97% occupancy.

Active listings were down 20 percent from October 2011, while pending sales were up 19 percent, pointing to another month of healthy sales for November. Homes spent an average of 68 days on the market, 15 fewer than a year ago October.The market is really moving, Michelle and I sold five listings over the past couple of weeks alone.

With nearly 4,000 fewer homes for sale than there were two years ago, Sellers should jump in and get it on the market immediately, to take advantage of the lack of competition and high sales volume this time of year. Don’t wait until there are thousands of additional homes to compete against.

The Short Story is, if you have been waiting to sell your home the time is here, and if you have been thinking of buying you had better hurry or face higher prices across the board by this time next year.

It's a great time to be in the real estate business in Austin, Texas! We love what we do...Call us if you are interested in buying or selling in the next 6 months for valuable advice based on your situation. www.AustinLuxuryGroup.com

Looming tax hikes Jan 1, 2013 sparks renewed interest in 1031 exchanges

garyd — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:03:07 +0000

Given the uncertainties flowing from the elections and a lame-duck Congress getting set to play chicken with the "fiscal cliff," it is no surprise that a growing numbers of real estate investors are taking a new look at Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges to defer capital gain taxes by reinvestment into qualified investment properties

I recently spoke with the owner of a major title company here in Austin and he told me that they have seen a significant increase in interest in exchanges recently -- 30 to 40 percent higher volume year over year, he told me. Part of the reason, he said, is rising real estate investor concerns about much higher tax bills ahead, with Obama remaining in the White House.

"We've seen a tremendous spike in 1031 transactions (in light of) election year uncertainty over the future of capital gains taxes. The political brinksmanship in Washington over extending or ending Bush-era tax cuts has left investors in the funk. ..."

What sort of brinksmanship and at what cost? Well, start with the fact that after Dec. 31, if the lame-duck Congress does not act with uncharacteristic bipartisanship and speed, capital gains taxes will jump to 20 percent on Jan. 1, up from the current 15 percent. The highest marginal tax rate for ordinary income will also increase, from the current 35 percent to 39.6 percent.

Then there's the 3.8 percent Obamacare surtax on investment income scheduled to kick in for high earners ($200,000 adjusted gross income for single filers, $250,000 for married joint filers) on Jan. 1. Since many real estate investors and a sizable number of homeowners fall into this income category, a lot of people will be looking at capital gains taxes of 23.8 percent next year -- a 58.6 percent jump over what they're paying today.

For residential and commercial real estate investors,I spoke with an attorney friend specializing in personal financial services and tax consulting with national accounting firm Ernst and Young, Section 1031 now "is worth doing the calculation: Do I rush to sell property in the closing days of 2012 and pay a 15 percent capital gains rate or do I begin planning to defer taxes with a 1031 exchange in 2013, assuming the worst?"

Section 1031 has been part of the federal tax code for decades. It allows the seller of an investment or business property to postpone recognition of gain provided the seller acquires another, "like-kind" property within the timing requirements spelled out in the law.

By eliminating capital gains taxes from the transaction proceeds, property sellers increase their purchasing power. With the money that would otherwise have gone to the IRS, they have more to reinvest in a bigger, perhaps higher-income-earning replacement property.

Consider this hypothetical case example prepared by First American Exchange Co., a subsidiary of First American Title Insurance Co.: Say you purchased a rental property for $100,000 many years ago, which now has a mortgage balance of $50,000. You've made no capital improvements to the property in the meantime, but have taken $50,000 in depreciation deductions.

Now you want to sell the building for $200,000. If you simply sell it and choose to pay capital gains at current rates, you'd owe $12,500 in depreciation recapture (which is taxed at 25 percent), $15,000 in capital gains taxes (at 15 percent), plus whatever tax your state levies on capital gains. For the purposes of this example, the latter rate is 5 percent ($5,000), but it can go much higher in states such as California. So simply selling conventionally under today's tax rates, you'd owe $32,500. After paying off the mortgage balance, you'd have net proceeds of $117,500 to invest somewhere.

If you instead structured the transaction as a tax-deferred 1031 exchange, you'd pay zero in federal or state taxes, and have $150,000 in cash available to acquire a bigger and better new income property, whether another residential building, commercial or retail real estate -- the potential range of choices is vast under the law.

Say you were able to obtain mortgage financing of 75 percent on the replacement property -- you could use your $150,000 cash in hand to make the down payment on a $600,000 building. Had you gone the conventional tax route, your $117,500 in proceeds would have limited you to acquiring real estate worth just $470,000.

Now fill in next year's potential rates: 20 percent capital gains, 3.8 percent health care surtax. The costs of a standard sale go up dramatically, and the cash you have to acquire bigger and better real estate declines dramatically.

Sure there are a few downsides to 1031 -- it is, after all, a deferral of taxation not a forgiveness, and at some point down the line you or your estate will probably have to reckon with the IRS and pay taxes at rates that are currently unknowable. Similarly, when you do a 1031 exchange, you move your tax basis to the replacement property and that cuts your depreciation deductions.

But bottom line, many real estate investors are beginning to do the calculation, and are finding that 1031 is looking better and better.

Who’s Who of Luxury Real Estate in Austin, Texas

garyd — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:50:23 +0000

About LuxuryRealEstate.com:

LuxuryRealEstate.com, a Webby Award Honoree, has been voted ‘Best of the Web’ by Forbes magazine multiple times, praised by the International Herald Tribune, Town & Country, the Wall Street Journal and has been ranked ‘Best Website’ by consumers according to surveys by the Luxury Institute. Since its debut in 1995, LuxuryRealEstate.com has remained the #1 portal for luxury properties on the internet, consistently driving more traffic to member websites and generating more qualified inquiries than any other website. LuxuryRealEstate.com has several times more $1,000,000+ content of any near-peer.

Known in the industry for the last quarter-century as the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network, a global collection of the finest luxury real estate brokers in the world, this group of more than 70,000 professionals in more than 85 countries collectively sells in excess of $190 billion of real estate annually, with an average sale price of $2,450,000. Members sell homes for record prices and handle transactions of incredible complexity and magnitude with complete discretion. Every member is carefully selected by Chairman/Publisher John Brian Losh, one of REALTOR Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate and broker of fine properties and estates through his Seattle-based brokerage firm, Ewing & Clark, Inc. For more information, please visit www.LuxuryRealEstate.com.

CLICK BELOW TO SEARCH LUXURY REAL ESTATE GLOBALLY

Austin Takes no.8 on the ‘Best Cities’ List

garyd — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:13:16 +0000

Austin has earned a spot on Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s “America’s 50 Best Cities” list, ranking high at No. 8.

The ranking evaluated 100 of the country’s largest cities, looking factors including the number of restaurants, libraries, museums, sports teams and park acreage, as well as educational facilities, economic factors, crime and air quality.

BusinessWeek notes University of Texas’ football team, Round Rock-based Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), South By Southwest and the Austin City Limits music festival among highlights.

Other Texas cities to make the list include Houston, No. 22; San Antonio, No. 30; and Dallas, No. 41.

San Francisco took the No. 1 spot on the list.

Rank: 8 Population: 797,215

The capital of the Lone Star state, Austin is our largest city without a major professional sports team, but don’t feel sorry—its main college attraction, the UT-Longhorns football team, can draw more than 100,000 spectators to games. With computer company Dell (DELL) located just north of town, Austin has become a major destination for top tech talent, as well. It hosts the annual tech and music festival South by Southwest, which added a Startup Village for investing and schmoozing last year. There’s also the annual outdoor Austin City Limits music festival, which lures acts from around the globe each fall. Bars: 212 Restaurants: 2,135 Museums: 25 Libraries: 35 Pro sports teams: 0 Park acres per 1,000 residents: 37 Colleges: 9 Percent with graduate degree: 11 Median household income: $65,886 Percent unemployed: 6.3

Austin Real Estate Market is Rocking

garyd — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:02:37 +0000

Austin-area Home Sales Volume Increases again, August Median Price Hits

Ten-Year High

Austin Board of REALTORS® Releases August 2012 Real Estate Statistics

AUSTIN, Texas – September 20, 2012 – According to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) report released today by the Austin Board of REALTORS®, the volume of home sales and the price of Austin-area homes is continuing to rise, making August the 15th straight month of sales volume increases and seventh month of median price increases in the Austin area. According to the report, 2,397 single-family homes were sold in the Austin area in August 2012, which is 21 percent more than August 2011. During the same time period, the median price for Austin-area homes was $212,000, a six percent increase from the same month in 2011. Leonard Guerrero, Chairman of the Austin Board of REALTORS®, explained, “Strong demand for homes continued in August while the inventory of available homes continued to shrink. That contributed to the increase in price. In fact, this was the highest median price we’ve seen in the month of August in the last decade in Austin.” In August 2012, the market featured 4.0 months of inventory, which is 1.7 months less than August 2011. In addition, the market featured 15 percent more new listings, 17 percent fewer active listings and 23 percent more pending sales compared to the prior year. On average, homes spent 61 days on the market, a decrease of 18 days from one year prior.

August 2012 Statistics

2,397 – Single-family homes sold, 21 percent more than August 2011.

$212,000 – Median price for single-family homes, six percent more than August 2011.

61 – Average number of days that single-family homes spent on the market, 18 days less than August 2011.

2,740 – New single-family home listings on the market, 15 percent more than August 2011.

7,262 – Active single-family home listings on the market, 17 percent less than August 2011.

2,207 – Pending sales for single-family homes, 23 percent more than August 2011.

4.0 – Months of inventory* of single-family homes, 1.7 months less than August 2011.

$663,700,536 – Total dollar volume of single-family properties sold, 30 percent more than August 2011.

The following sections describe trends in other sectors of the Austin real estate market.

Townhouses & Condominiums

The volume of townhouses and condominiums (condos) purchased in the Austin area in August 2012 was 264, which is 18 percent more than August 2011. In the same time period, the median price for condos was $173,250 or seven percent more than the same month of the prior year. When compared to August 2011, these properties spent 39 percent less time on the market, or an average of 64 days.

Leasing

In August 2012, a total of 1,924 properties were leased in Austin, which is two percent less than August 2011. The median price for Austin-area leases was $1,350, or four percent higher than the same month of the prior year. The Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR) is a non-profit, voluntary organization representing nearly 9,000 licensed REALTORS® in Central Texas. As the primary source for accurate and comprehensive property listing information for REALTORS® in greater Austin, ABoR works to advance the REALTOR® mission and protect homeowner rights. For more information, please contact the ABoR Marketing Department at marketing@abor.com or 512-454-7636. Visit AustinHomeSearch.com, a public resource on Austin real estate, for the latest news on the local housing market. TAMU Real Estate Center Sales Statistics

Sotheby’s International Operates In 45 Countries

garyd — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:40:12 +0000

Sotheby’s International Operates In 45 Countries

With eyes on the country’s wealthy homebuyers, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC, a unit of Realogy Corp., plans to enter China’s luxury property market by the first half of next year, targeting first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Already affiliated with 45 countries and regions, including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, Sotheby’s International, like many other realty companies, is eager yet cautious to add China to their portfolio. Earlier this year, Christie’s International established a real estate franchise in Hong Kong, its first in Asia. With China now ranking third behind the U.S. and Japan in terms of the number of millionaire households — a figure that climbed 31% to 1.11 million in 2010 — making moves into the country is perhaps not a surprising step for Sotheby’s to take. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, high-end properties priced at or around a whopping 40,000 yuan (US$6,285) per square meter account for approximately seven percent of China’s overall residential market. As Savills Plc. recently noted, a small but significant one percent of Beijing’s residential market consists of property going for a jaw-dropping 64,000 yuan ($10,059) per square meter. Though Sotheby’s and other international realtors see opportunity in China’s luxury real estate market, Sotheby’s International Realty CEO Michael Good was quick to say this week that his company intends to proceed cautiously. As Good told Bloomberg in Shanghai this week:

We’ve had a lot of global growth, but we’ve been very careful with China, because China is such an important emerging economy….We think it’s very, very important to be measured in our approach and make sure that we better understand the real estate players and the nature of the business in this country.

Such discretion is particularly important from a brand-building perspective, since Sotheby’s and Christie’s — in their auction businesses — have thus far been restricted in the kinds of business they are able to conduct in mainland China. The overall China real estate market is also coming under stricter control by Beijing, which has spent the last two years cracking down on “speculative capital” and have introduced a property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing, higher down-payment requirements and home purchasing limits in top-tier cities. Sotheby’s CEO Good, for his part, expects his company’s China moves to potentially hearten not only Chinese, but international buyers as well to invest in luxury properties in top-tier China. As Good put it, he hopes the expected 2013 expansion “will allow Sotheby’s International Realty to tap its network of some of the world’s richest property buyers to invest in China, while connecting the country’s surging riches with the world’s luxury real estate assets.” Moreover, building a real estate relationship with China may just be the key to opening more doors to Sotheby’s other services.

Texas Home Building Recovery Has Begun

garyd — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:15:34 +0000

Texas Home Building Recovery Has Begun

YES!!! Texas has done it again leading the way to economic gains...housing will no doubt continue to grow as we are seeing many new projects taking off and developers are calling looking for land. This is going to be good for Austin and all of central Texas.

The economy runs in cycles. It expands, and it contracts, and then it begins a new phase of expansion. In typical recessions, new housing construction is one of the early signs of economic recovery.

This recession has lingered. The recovery has been slow, with limited job creation. The lack of single-family home construction is the key reason. Typically, housing leads the economy out of a recession. Low interest rates spark resurgence in home sales and new home construction. New construction jobs create spendable income and a foundation for sustained economic recovery. As you can see from this chart, new single-family building permits fell from a seasonally adjusted annual peak of 1.8 million to a recent annual rate of 475,000 and have not recovered from that historic trough.

This is why the economic recovery hasn’t rebounded faster. The construction jobs that go along with home building haven’t yet materialized.

However, that is changing in Texas. The number of new one-unit housing permits for the first four months of 2012 is up 17.9 percent from the same time in 2011. There is good news for the rest of the country as well. Permits across the United States in the first four months of 2012 were up 18.7 percent compared with a year earlier. Let’s look at how home permit volume is increasing among various Texas cities. Home building has turned the corner. The recovery will be gradual. But in Texas and other states that are producing jobs, new homes will be built. Employment in the construction industry will expand to meet the new production. The multiplier effect for new jobs in construction is powerful. This appears to be the beginning of the next stage of economic recovery in Texas and the nation.

CMA for Austin Homes

garyd — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:05:19 +0000

How to run a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) for homes in Austin

The comparative market analysis, or CMA, is an essential instrument in a broker's toolbox. Whether you are working with sellers to list a property, or helping a buyer make an offer on a property, knowing how to create an effective CMA is paramount. I had the pleasure of being schooled by one of the most ferociously awesome principal brokers of all time. New brokers in her office were not allowed to go willy-nilly about town. No way! First, we were required to take her classes on contracts, land use, clauses and CMAs. And they weren't the kind of classes that we "experienced" brokers use to pad our education hours (you know exactly what I mean). Contracts were read aloud, line by line, and dissected. Maybe we weren't lawyers, but we would know precisely what our contracts asserted and inferred. We would not hesitate when we wrote up that first earnest money agreement (although I did sweat profusely). The CMA class, however, will remain my favorite. Everyone thinks they know (instinctively?) how to construct a comparative market analysis. It's so easy, right? Common sense. I rarely see principal brokers these days caring one wit how their agents complete this "menial" task. But it's SO important! It is the foundation of our listing prices and sales presentations! And, if done right, it is a work of art. So, here is an annotated five-point guide to a worthy CMA. 1. The most important rule and most often violated when pricing Austin homes for sale: For-sale properties should never, ever, ever be used in a CMA for pricing a new listing. We keep running into agents who try and use a combination or some form of averaging of sold and unsold properties. Agents should use only like properties that have CLOSED in the past 90 days or less. Don't use word-of-mouth FSBOs or rumored builder-direct sales numbers, but only like properties that have SOLD, CLOSED and been RECORDED. Period. 2. A CMA should not be a lasso of the entire city of Austin, or what ever town or province you live in. It should specifically center around your subject property, much like a target: neighborhood, area, section. Start as close to your key property as possible, aiming to complete the CMA with homes sold in the smallest area practicable to achieve a good sample. If the home is so unique that it does not have comparable neighbors, establish a list of the property's distinct characteristics (selling points) and use that as your "neighborhood." At Austin Luxury Group, we specialize in unique homes and properties so we are often challenged by having no other comps or sales data to use in determining value. This is where real market experience and knowledge comes into play. We use land value, cost to build (COB) and cost of other improvements (COI) as well as factors such as sewer systems, water, live water, roads etc to formulate a valuation that "makes sense" and then calculate demand. 3. Be an ageist! If your target property is an all-original 1950 Tarrytown ranch-style home surrounded by new construction, HELLO! You can't use all those new homes as side-by-side comparisons. These are not your comps and shouldnt be used in your calculation in pricing an Austin home. 4. Use your BRAIN. A comparative market analysis should not simply be an automated computer program provided by your local MLS. Instead, an artful CMA is a download of your personal real estate brain. When you look at your compiled list of comparatives, you should know these houses, having at least (AT THE VERY LEAST) done drive-bys, if not actually toured them when they were for sale or on a property tour. 5. Once your satisfied with your CMA and confident that your numbers are accurate its time to show them to the client and explain what your CMA means. In our business you sometimes have to sell your client before you can sell their property. Sellers are notorious for acting like "Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde" meaning when it comes to their property its worth ALL THE MONEY and not willing to see their property through their super "critical eye" that they most certainly will employ when looking at properties to purchase. This we have realized is human nature for a vast majority of people. The solution we have found is simply pointing out this tendency out to clients respectfully upfront so that they realize when they start doing it, usually they will catch it and laugh with us with this starts happening. 6. Lastly, if your clients still have trouble with the number that you've proposed (whether it be for a listing or an offer), put them in the car. Nothing beats the personal experience of walking them through comparable properties (the COMPETITION). To us this process is the MOST CRITICAL because pricing a home incorrectly or being pressured by the client to price way above the market is a foolish operation that will cost you money, time and most of all reputation. Wouldn't you rather get the house priced right from the get-go, actually sell it and have everyone happy? And praising you for your genius-ness? ALL sellers think their home is worth more, or at least act like they do so as not to "leave any money on the table" so they push listing agents for a higher valuation. At the end of the day your clients will respect you more if you have good information, back it up with experience and stand your ground. They are hiring an agent to tell them what to do and run the show, if that's not something you're capable of as an Austin agent you should seriously consider referring you clients to an experienced listing agent and focus on the buyers side until you have the confidence and experience to handle the challenges and massive financial responsibility of being a good listing agent. Start every transaction the right way: with a solid CMA that not only proves your value as an agent but is brag-worthy. The Austin Luxury Group is experienced in listing properties in Austin and central Texas they can be reached at 512-656-5627 or at www.AustinLuxuryGroup.com

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Selling Your Home – 6 Keys To Success

garyd — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:03:04 +0000

Selling your home in today's Market

According to the National Association of Realtors®, more than 4.25 million homes sold in 2011. That’s a lot of real estate and such numbers raise the question: How are sellers doing it? Because individual homes are unique, there isn’t one single strategy that works equally well for every property. The real trick is understanding that today’s marketplace is cash driven, quick and highly competitive. "Owners who understand their local markets and work with a knowledgeable agent like Gary and Michelle Dolch are those most likely to succeed". Explains Carey B, who hired Gary & Michelle in 2010 to sell his Lake Austin Home. In March roughly one-third of all sales were cash, meaning a large number of buyers are not dependent on lender financing, the sale of their existing home or a settlement that might be 45 to 60 days in the future. Instead, they can act quickly and in many cases seek properties which can be bought today and occupied tomorrow. To ready a home for sale in today’s marketplace, Gary Dolch says owners should consider six basic keys to selling success.

Six Keys to Success

1) Curb appeal counts. Most home buyers want homes which look great from the outside. It’s not just a question of curb appeal — it’s about perception. If a home looks good from the street it probably means the property is ready for a new occupant without a lot of cost or hassle. Buyers tend to pass on a home that doesn’t appeal to them from the street–not even bothering to look inside. "We can show you how to generate the most curb appeal with the least cost", says Michelle 2) A clutter-free home. With the new emphasis on cash sales and speed owners must show homes which are free and clear of clutter. A clutter-free home will make interior spaces look larger and eliminates the need to get rid of stuff when you are in the throes of moving. It makes sense to donate or reduce clutter before a home is placed on the market — not only as a sales tactic but also as a practical step toward relocation. 3) Working condition. Having your home’s systems in good mechanical condition is an advantage in today’s market. Most distressed homes can’t compete when it comes to such basics as working heating, plumbing and air-conditioning. Properties that can readily pass a professional home inspection are often easier to finance, and are generally more appealing to buyers who don’t want to face the unknown costs and delays sometimes associated with major renovations. Gary and Michelle often recommend a pre-inspection to their clients prior to listing it on the MLS. This give Buyers an instant snap-shot of the condition of the home and defuses any concerns of the unknown while giving their clients a proactive repair check list that can be added to the report as items are repaired/replaced. "This tactic can really give Buyers peace of mind about your property and the impression you have taken the initiative to offer a well cared for home instead a transfer of problems", Gary explains 4) List and negotiate properly. According to Gary & Michelle “a seasoned REALTOR® can show owners how best to market a particular home according to such factors as location, price, condition and financing. Owners want to work with us because our experience brings value and confidence to a transaction, factors that are enormously important in a changing marketplace.” 5) Seek prequalified buyers. While many sales may be for cash, the majority still require financing. It would be frustrating to enter into a sales contract with a potential buyer who ultimately cannot obtain financing to purchase your home — meaning you have lost time — and potentially money — and then you have to start over. When a home is shown by appointment, the buyer should have a pre-qualification letter available prior to a showing and certainly before an offer is made. "For most of our multimillion dollar listings, we require a letter of financial introduction from their banker before we will let a buyer into see the listing", explains Michelle. "We often find that Buyers are more than happy to provide this information when properly requested, and as for those few buyers who throw a fit when asked to prove their financial ability, well they typically are not qualified and just wanted to go see some amazing homes". "Our job is to protect the interests of our clients and it's definitely in our Sellers interest not to have just anyone through their home without proper vetting", Gary adds Such letters from lenders are not binding but at least show that the purchaser sat down with a loan officer and has some realistic sense of what he or she can reasonably afford. "While the market around the country is just showing signs of recovery the market in Austin and Central Texas is thriving and values are moving higher in most areas. Our inventory levels are below the 4 month absorption rate which indicates a "sellers market" and our rent/lease inventory has stayed tight and well above 95% which will continue to drive home prices up for quite some time". "We are blessed to be in Austin, Texas for so many reasons, its no wonder that the rest of the country is trying to move here"

Austin No. 5 strongest economy

garyd — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:28:09 +0000

Study: Austin No. 5 strongest economy

While this weeks job report did not show a significant increase to the workforce and raised unemployment, a positive news release about Austin's economy was a welcome off-set. Most areas in Austin are showing a 'seller's market' and Austin Texas listing agents are reporting multiple offer situations. Below is an article in the Austin Business Journal ranking the Austin economy as the 5th strongest in the nation. This is great news for all of us!

We are happy to report that The Austin Luxury Group has experienced a record breaking May and we owe it all to our loyal customers and some great new friends in the Round Top, Buda and Lampasas areas. Thank you for helping us to remain successful in the Austin market and please remember that we are here to help you in any way we can. http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2012/05/31/study-austin-no-5-strongest-economy.html?s=print

Austin has the fifth-strongest economy in the United States, according to a study released Thursday. Palm City, Fla.-based Policom Corp. annually analyzes local and state economies.

The study considers 23 different economic factors over a 20-year period to determine the rankings. It used data from 1991 to 2010 for the current study. “The top-rated areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period of time,” said William H. Fruth, president of Policom. “The rankings do not reflect the latest ‘hotspot’ or boom town, but the areas which have the best economic foundation.”

The 10 strongest metropolitan areas are ranked below:

1. Washington, D.C. 2. Des Moines, Iowa 3. Seattle 4. Nashville 5. Austin 6. Salt Lake City 7. Madison, Wis. 8. Kansas City 9. Sioux Falls, S.D. 10. San Antonio

It’s now a seller’s market in Central Texas

garyd — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:55:54 +0000

It's now a seller's market in Central Texas

It's Time to make a move if you're looking to buy a home in Austin Texas. "We are seeing the market shift right before our eyes," said Gary Dolch top agent in Austin, Texas with Sotheby's International Realty. 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 Austin 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." Jake Black, a real estate agent 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, "People are buying fast, and we're seeing multiple offers." A Steiner Ranch house priced at $515,000 sold in four days, before 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. "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. April's overall housing numbers "suggest the recovery in Austin's housing market continues to gain steam, said D'Ann Petersen, a business economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas who tracks the local housing market. "Both existing home sales and pending home sales were up strongly compared to a year earlier, suggesting strong demand," Petersen said. "Declining inventories also reflect the pickup in housing demand and should lead to price gains in areas with the tightest supply." Austin's economy is outperforming the statewide average, with Texas being one of the best-performing states nationwide in job growth. The Austin area can expect it to be a seller's market for the next few years. He thinks prices won't shoot up dramatically, but rather will "more or less" track inflation, rising in the 3 to 5 percent range. "As more potential sellers see how the market is heating up, "more are going to decide to start listing their homes, and that will alleviate some of the built-up pressure we're seeing right now." By Shonda Novak and Lori Hawkins AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Forbes ranks Austin No. 1 best big city for jobs

garyd — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:36:30 +0000

Forbes has ranked the Austin metropolitan statistical area No. 1 on its list of the best big cities for jobs.

Employment grew 2.2 percent year-over-year as Austin retained the top spot from last year’s list. When looking at all-sized cities, Forbes ranks the Austin area No. 5 overall. Forbes based its rankings on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from November 2000 to January 2012, including factors such as recent growth trends, mid-term growth, long-term growth and the region’s momentum. Austin “has logged strong growth in manufacturing, technology-related employment and business services,” Forbes wrote. Other Texas cities ranked highly, as well. Houston took the second spot on the list, rising from the No. 3 spot last year. The Fort Worth metropolitan area ranked No. 4 on the big cities list, up from No. 15 last year, and the Dallas metropolitan division ranked No. 6 on the big cities list — jumping from No. 39 last year. For more info from Forbes click here

Top 10 SEO Tips for Real Estate sites and beyond

garyd — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:37:43 +0000

1.Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to.

Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.

2.Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.

3.Research your keyword phrases extensively.

The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.

4.Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research.

Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.

5.Program your site to be "crawler-friendly."

The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)

6.Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible.

Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.

7.Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see."

This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.

8.Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag.

Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.

9.Make sure your site is "link-worthy."

Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.

10.Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings.

If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. By Jill Whalen Jill Whalen is a recognized industry expert in search engine optimization. Here are her Top Ten Tips for improved search engine ranking.

Using Single-Family REITS to fund REO Rentals

garyd — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:33:39 +0000

The current foreclosure crisis calls for a new funding vehicle to finance the transition of real estate owned (REO) properties into the rental market. The Federal Reserve, in its recent letter to Congress, identified the need for Congress to adopt policies for overcoming obstacles inhibiting the conversion of REO properties to rentals. The Fed writes:

Reducing some of the barriers to converting foreclosed properties to rental units will help redeploy the existing stock of houses in a more efficient way. Such conversions might also increase lenders’ eventual recoveries on foreclosed and surrendered properties.

In case you are interested in the size of the market, the Fed quantifies the potential opportunity:

While the total stock of REO properties is difficult to measure precisely, perhaps one-fourth of the two million vacant homes for sale in the second quarter of 2011 were REO properties. The combination of weak demand and elevated supply has put substantial downward pressure on house prices, and the continued flow of new REO properties — perhaps as high as one million properties per year in 2012 and 2013 — will continue to weigh on house prices for some time. To the extent that REO holders discount properties in order to sell them quickly, the near-term pressure on home prices might be even greater.

One of the obstacles is the lack of large scale, professionally managed, well-financed organizations in the single-family rental space. The business has traditionally been run by small-scale, local investors. These current operators lack the resources to absorb the large number of REO properties entering the market. If financial institutions are forced to sell into a market of this structure, it will significantly increase the losses they are likely to incur.

That is why a new vehicle like a single-family real estate investment trust (SF-REIT) should be considered. REITs, with their access to public capital and highly skilled talent, represent a possible solution for the current crisis. A REIT entity tailored to the unique characteristics of single-family rentals could provide:

ability to raise debt and equity financing in public markets to support higher bid prices for REO properties,
professional management to implement the technology required to manage geographically disbursed and physically heterogeneous properties,
ability to rapidly absorb large portfolios of REOs out of financial institutions in exchange for cash and REIT units and
enable widespread public participation in this expanding industry while giving investors liquidity for their investment

SF-REITs will face much different operating needs than multifamily REITs. Therefore it will be necessary to tailor new legislation to accommodate these needs. But the benefits are clear and opportunities large.

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Time To Talk Dirt

garyd — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:23:01 +0000

A few days ago, a presentation was made at the national convention of the Realtors Land Institute in Denver. Land brokers from all over America attended, and I had a great opportunity to get a sense of the current trends in the land market. In my mind, the land market has three subgroups: agricultural land, recreational property and transitional land. Agricultural land includes cropland and pasture for cattle. Ag land produces income to the owner; it can be categorized as an investment. Recreational land describes properties purchased, not for income, but purely for enjoyment. A small acreage in the woods of Minnesota, or a lakefront property in New York or an arid place to hunt birds are examples. These properties are toys. You buy a toy just because you can. You buy a toy just because you want to. You buy a toy so you can have a good story to tell. Transitional land is purchased for its development potential. This is typically land on the suburban fringe that is likely to become the next housing subdivision or the next industrial park. Therefore, when someone asks, “How is the land market these days?” you have to recognize that each of these three categories is behaving very differently. Farmland is on fire. Since Federal Reserve monetary policy has just destroyed any opportunity for savers, investors are searching for other “alternative investments.” In my mind, cropland is a viable alternative to owning gold. If the United States ever collapses into hyperinflation, food will retain its intrinsic value similar to gold. Cropland has been increasing dramatically in value for the past three years. The neighboring farmer is often the buyer at these higher prices. Many sales are for cash. No leverage here. Quality cropland can still be purchased with an expected return of 4 to 6 percent. Pastureland has also increased in value but not at the same pace as cropland. Recreational land is still languishing from the aftermath of the Great Recession and the periodic collapses that occur in the stock market. People buy toys when they feel confident that they have enough savings to support their business and their retirement plans. The Fed zero-interest policy is hurting this market. With heavy stock market losses in recent years and bonds earning virtually nothing, people anticipating retirement are ramping up savings significantly. The expected returns on retirement portfolios have dropped dramatically in just the past three years. Retirees are hit even harder. Interest income on their portfolios has been crushed. Many retirees are re-evaluating how they spend their income because the government has stripped their assets of earning power. It’s difficult to make any generalizations about price trends in this land sector. Some prices are reported to be down 40 percent from peak levels, but other properties haven’t seen that decline. However, transaction volume is way off. When properties aren’t selling, it’s hard to ascertain price trends. I don’t expect recreational transaction volume to pick up until the United States is clearly experiencing a sustainable economic recovery and interest rates return to “normal” levels. According to Ben Bernanke, this might not happen for “an extended period of time.” Transitional land is starting to awaken from a long and deep slumber. If you haven’t noticed, homebuilding has been almost nonexistent for the past three years. Who wants to own land for the next subdivision when you can’t predict when anybody would want the lots that you create? The banking system has flushed many broken subdivisions back into the market after foreclosure. Banks don’t want to “extend and pretend” with these alligators, which voraciously eat cash every day. Some of these subdivisions have been sold to investors for “zero” value for the lots to investors who realize they will have to add huge capital improvements to complete the subdivision and don’t know how long they will have to hold the lots before they can be sold. This is not true for all transitional land. In some areas of the country, jobs are being created and local economies are improving. Housing demand is gently increasing in these cities, and there is talk of “lot shortages” for desirable locations. Industrial demand is picking up some energy too. Housing developers and industrial developers sometimes compete for transitional land. Don’t get me wrong, we are just in the very earliest stages of recovery in transitional land. In other parts of the country, land that was purchased by a developer has been foreclosed and sold at a huge loss to a farmer to put it back into crop production. In Austin: In Austin, Texas new home construction is finally picking up some steam. As Realtors we keep our eyes on the local market trends and we are projecting that in the very near future Austin will begin to start talking about the lack of new inventory. The demand here has been robust since Q4 2011 and the absorption has reduced inventory levels from a buyers market (over 6 months of inventory) to neutral or in my opinion a Sellers market (less than 4 months inventory). If this trend continues, which we expect it will headed into our "selling season", the media will start reporting this supply and demand reversal very soon causing a big of a frenzy for quality property in central Austin. It's time to make your move before the market moves up and inventory levels get stretched even more. Gary Dolch

Excellence vs. Perfection

garyd — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:20:30 +0000

Famous football coach Bill Walsh was known for demanding perfection from his players during practices, even though he knew they would never attain it. His philosophy was if you don't strive for perfection, you don't have a chance to achieve it. As professional Realtors, we follow the same philosophy; plan for perfection to attain excellence. Like Coach Walsh, we don't stand a chance of delivering an excellent new home that satisfies a client's wants and needs if we don't set and expect the highest standards possible. In the pursuit of excellence, we coach our homebuyers about the buying process so that their expectations are high but realistic. We want our homebuyers to push and challenge us to always do better, but it is also our job to define excellence ... and point out the difference between it and perfection. Our best and most effective method for doing that is listening. Really listening. Not just to find out which home style a client prefers, but why and how it will satisfy their lifestyle needs. Not just about which community they want to live in, but also their concerns and questions about the quality of nearby schools, proximity to shopping and public services, and commute routes to work. In this discovery phase, we craft a strategy for a new home that truly addresses and justifies our client's reasons for making such a significant investment and sets us on course to deliver it according to those expectations. It is also critical to maintain a regular and open line of communication during the search process. As during the planning stage, our first job is to listen to and then educate and inform our buyers about the subtleties of the areas in the Austin market that are specific to their concerns. Responding to a buyer's question with "that's just the way it is" or "it's complicated" is unacceptable. Instead, we strive to deliver details, demonstrate our methods, and ensure that questions are answered to a buyer's satisfaction. That approach and level of respect for our buyers helps build a better understanding of our process all the way through the close of escrow. Finally, a key component of delivering excellence comes after the sale, once a buyer becomes a homeowner. We make sure to communicate and offer client services after the sale -- once again demonstrating the difference between perfection and excellence. Ideally, we've done an excellent job of finding their new home to the point where we want our clients to call on us for help and we work to be responsive and responsible to address them in a timely fashion. As a homebuyer and owner, it's okay to want the "perfect" home. The best we can do, however, is to strive for perfection and achieve excellence that satisfies the lifestyle needs of our clients and protects their investment now and well into the future. Warm Regards, Gary and Michelle Dolch

Global Domination Strategy for Austin Luxury Group

garyd — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:20:26 +0000

Global Domination Strategy for Austin Luxury Group

Marketing Strategy Video

Marketing Strategy for Austin Luxury Group from Gary Dolch

Top 10 Award from Austin Business Journal for The Dolch Team

garyd — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:34:38 +0000

Top 10 Award from Austin Business Journal for The Dolch Team

The Austin Business Journal awarded the 2012 Top 50 Residential Real Estate Agents, Custom, Production & Green Home Builders and Master-Planned Communities. The Dolch Team was awarded The Top 10 Team in Austin for 2012 for residential property sales. This is an honor Michelle and I are very proud of and plan to duplicate in 2013! A big THANK YOU to all of our friends, family and clients who made this accomplishment possible.

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Apple’s proposed expansion into Austin making progress

garyd — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:50:15 +0000

Apple Inc. still could receive up to 80 percent in property tax rebates—estimated at around $7 million—from Travis County for agreeing to hire 3,600 people and building a 1 million-square-foot facility near Parmer Lane at Delcour Drive in Northwest Austin. Apple Campus in Austin Apple Inc.'s proposed new campus would be located on 38.81 acres of vacant land the company owns on West Parmer Lane and Delcour Drive. Related Austin City Council approves $8.6M Apple incentive agreement Council members discuss one of 'deals of the decade' with Apple Apple to create 3,600 new jobs in Austin County commissioners voted 4-0 on March 27 to direct staff to construct a draft agreement outlining provisions that Apple would have to agree on before the Cupertino, Calif.–based received the rebates. Travis County Judge Samuel Biscoe said staff would likely use the City of Austin's agreement, which City Council approved March 22, as a starting point for the county's agreement. He said provisions may include the amount of jobs Apple must add with requirements about what percentage of new employees must be residents of Travis County and the amount of money the company would have to invest in real property. “We keep hearing we don't have to do anything,” Biscoe said. “[County staff] have been making commitments since February.” Biscoe said county staff has been discussing an incentive of 80 percent in tax rebates for the first 10 years for any improvements, such as building a new facility, that Apple would make on the 38 acres the company owns near its existing campus at 12545 Riata Vista Circle. The commissioners are also considering a point system to determine the amount of tax rebates to give Apple. Biscoe said that under this system, Apple would receive a certain number of points for each provision the company meets, such as hiring 3,600 new employees or hiring a percentage of those employees from Travis County. “If they don't comply, they could lose part or all of their rebates,” Biscoe said. If both the city and county approve financial incentives, Apple is eligible to receive $21 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which is designed to attract businesses to the state. The commissioners plan to discuss the draft agreement at their April 3 meeting. by Amy Denney March 28, 2012

It’s a great time to build a home in Austin Texas

garyd — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:39:24 +0000

Austin has been nationally recognized as one of the best places to live, invest, work & retire:

Sound Investment: Austin is the 2nd best investment market in the country according to Realtor.com.
Job Growth: Austin ranked No. 1 among the nation's 50 largest metro areas in job growth over the past eight years.
Low Stress: Austin ranks low on list of the "Most Stressful" U.S. cities.
Innovative Spirit: Austin is No. 2 U.S. city, behind San Francisco, for tech startups.
Retirement Mecca: Austin has been named a great place to retire by CBS Moneywatch.
Escalating Income: Texas ranks No. 3 for income growth according to new data new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Career Happiness: Texas named 3rd 'best state to make a living' in MoneyRates.com study.

In addition to these accolades, a Yahoo! finance report recently reported that it's a great time to build a home due to "record levels of affordability, thanks to a combination of low rates and a steep decline in prices."

Austin Texas gets Formula 1 track

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:27:56 +0000

Real Estate agents you better choose, entrepreneur or proprietor?

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:24:42 +0000

I came to a huge realization over New Year’s about business. Large or small – simple or complex. It really doesn’t matter. There are three kinds: Proprietors, entrepreneurs and large corporations. Most of you – and most every business owner may unintentionally be a mere proprietor. You’re taking oxygen out of the air; your diverting capital out of the economy — but you’re NOT really adding a lot (if any) true contribution/benefit — beyond the commodity value of whatever goods or service you sell. Peter Drucker – the mammoth business genius said it better than I ever could – the husband and wife who open a delicatessen or Mexican restaurant are surely taking a risk. But are they entrepreneurs? No! All they do is what has been done many times before them. They gamble on the increasing popularity of eating out in an area – but they create NEITHER a new satisfaction, nor a new consumer demand. The true entrepreneur has to have special characteristics over and above being new and small. In fact, Drucker believed that true entrepreneurs are a minority among most small businesses. I agree! True entrepreneurs are a rare and elite breed. They create something new, something different. They change, innovate or transmute values. In short, real entrepreneurs don’t need to be small or large. It’s more about your focus and purpose, AND COMMITMENT to transforming the industry/business model, value proposition, buying experience and overall benefit delivered to the consumer. People who need certainty are NOT likely to be or become true entrepreneurs. They are destined to be mere proprietors. Where’s the big difference? Drucker says it’s more about your business concept and theory…than current ability. The big key (he says), that differentiates the wheat from the chaff – the entrepreneurs from the proprietors is their commitment (or lack thereof) to purposeful innovation. The true entrepreneur is willing, eager to perceive change as a huge opportunity, rather than a threat or deterrent. He/she must have built-in commitment, to constantly improve their performance – on many different “fronts.” While proprietors cower from change, fears change, grovels and steeps themselves deep in the status quo… the true entrepreneur is ALWAYS excited, committed, continuously searching for new innovation. He/she wants innovation, they’re receptive to things that challenge their current beliefs, business structure or business model. Real entrepreneurs REACH for innovation. They work hard to discover, uncover, define, refine and initiate innovation. Mere proprietors try to hold on (desperately) to the past and what already exists. True entrepreneurs know that change and innovative thinking is the perpetual path to decisive advantage and profitable, sustainable growth. They find innovation an attractive concept to invest in, educate themselves on…and master. True entrepreneurs start their enterprises recognizing the constant need for innovation and factor into that need — the critical time frames required to stimulate the never-ending changes that propel their continued, purposeful existence. They’ve got continuous innovation plans laid out along with specific objectives/purposes for doing them. Now, to make this concept MORE complicated. Because, the direction of innovation your entrepreneurial business takes MUST focus where the business can make the maximum contribution to the market. How does someone realizes themself to be a mere proprietor “transform” into a true entrepreneur? You need a systematic commitment to abandon whatever in your business is outworn, obsolete, no longer productive as well as mistakes, failures, underperforming or misdirected efforts, actions or opportunities. Innovating requires a major effort that (frankly) most people reading this WON’T be willing to make. You have to be able to free your mind — to see your challenges as “benefits,” plus devote the financial resources and time/effort to make meaningful innovation occur. Do you know, for example, how desirable (or irrelevant) your value proposition, business approaches, marketing message, purchasing experience really is to the marketplace? Do you know how appealing (or unappealing) your current products/services are? Do you understand the changing attitudes, beliefs, behavior and buying dynamic of your market? Do you have a clue what additional/alternative channels and avenues of approach are available and how to best access/exploit them? Do you sense how much larger your business niche, product category will continue to grow or even remain relevant? Do you understand what product/service alternative might take their place and why and how – and when? Do you have a plan for compensating or exploiting this outcome? Do you know IF or where/when your current business and its marketing/selling/product/value proposition will become obsolete? And if you answer “yes” to any/every question, do you have a proactive/entrepreneurial strategy in place — to address these issues? Again, change is certain. Businesses grow or die. But growth connotes much more than merely multiplying current revenue and even profits. Do you understand that “opportunity” means constant innovation, not just finding more sources of current buyers? If opportunities to innovate die from neglect, your business can die along with them. If you are a true entrepreneur, you understand the need to stay deeply focused on both the problems, and on the emerging opportunities. Finally, true entrepreneurs recognize that innovations almost always start out small. But if nourished and respected – should end up producing BIG payoffs I’ve decided to organize a monthly gathering of TRUE entrepreneurs in my industry, real estate, to engineer innovation breakthroughs in marketing, strategy, technology, management. We’ll focus on the nine drivers of exponential business growth: Marketing, Strategy, Capital, Business Model, Relationships, Distribution Channels, Products/Services, Processes/Procedures/Systems, and Ideology My intention is to make significant changes in our industry in order to offer the Austin, Texas real estate market a more meaningful and satisfying experience, creating multiple revenue streams while substantially increasing our market share. We just returned from a family ski trip in Vail, Colorado. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Lion’s Head. The level of service and quality of our experience made me realize that the very survival of the real estate industry must take on the precision and efficiency of a highly committed customer service enigma. A new set of rules that are not only innovative but responsible and meaningful to our customers. The Paradigm shift will be sharing all of these new ideas and rules with our very competition, not to allow money to be the driving force for what we do, but instead cooperating with other agents because we accept the responsibility of our industry’s commitment to superior performance, market knowledge and over-all customer service. Cheers to a new era in real estate. To participate / contribute please contact me @ garydolch@gmail.com or at my office at 512-328-0058 x 284.