Austin Apartment Market

What to do at renewal time?

Green Light Locating — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:44:03 +0000

Is your apartment or condo lease up for renewal? Unsure whether to stay or go?

For all of our clients, we encourage them to call us when renewal time comes around. We’ll gladly help you assess the deal you’re being offered (by the landlord), and help you renegotiate your lease if you’d like to stay. The market might have changed, and you need to know if you’re still getting the best deal. We’ll give you the language & the phrasing you need to counter or justify your renewal, free of charge as always.

You might think it’s counter intuitive for us not to pluck you from your current place & lease you elsewhere, just thank us in terms of referral business. We’ll always be there to answer your questions about your lease, and we’ll be there to help your friends too. We even send you a $50 Visa for the referral!

There are times when it’s financially prudent to stay put, and there are times when it’s a beneficial to move. The market changes, and it’s really changed recently!

What should you do? CALL US! 512.358.4111

Austin Apartment & Housing Market Overview

Green Light Locating — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:16:36 +0000

Is your lease coming up for renewal?

You’re in luck! There hasn’t been a rental market like this since the early part of 2000, and that’s longer than most can remember. Apartments and houses, anything for rent, is cheaper than it has been in a long time! The only certainty seems to be that nobody is immune from the market’s ”resetting”.

I’ve heard numerous agents say, “it’s a new market”. The prices are down, the specials are tremendous, and the property might even be brand new.

Why, you ask? Clearly, Austin is impacted by the national economic slowdown, but we’re both insulated and behind the curve, and we’re called “the first city to recover”! Our falling rental market is explained with the economic models of supply and demand. Supply has seen a run-up with new properties all over town, with the 78701 zip code seeing the biggest increase. Any time we have an abundance of properties coming to market, it takes a bit to absorb. Add to that the national slowdown, and you have a stagnating effect. Demand has been affected by a national slowdown. Locally, our impact has been felt through a range of industries, from the car dealerships and the computer processor chip manufacturers like AMD, all the way down their supply chains. They aren’t bringing people in from out of state at the pace they were in the past, and Austin’s growth has ratcheted down from a geiser to a common water feature.

When will it correct? September is commonly a slower month for Austin’s real estate rental market. School is in session, and all of the students have settled in for the semester. Labor day follows, and nobody is thinking about moving, yet. Typically, the first 2-3 weeks in September are great times for vacations for agents. This year, you could take off September and October and not have missed much. November has given us some hope, with ringing phones and leads from out-of-town relocation, but we’re not out of the woods yet.

The great deals for the prospective tenant will be good for the next 6 months, minimum, and the agents should see a vibrant early spring. For agents, Austin apartments & houses should be on track again by mid-to-late spring, and see a return to normalcy by May, as far as volume of buissiness. The high apartment prices of 2007 and 2008 won’t return for at least a year or two.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

Too good to be true?

Green Light Locating — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:27:15 +0000

We regularly encourage our clients to send us anything they find on their own, through Craigslist & other online resources, so that we can foster the the search. A search will frequently evolve from a general request to something specific, and the nuances cannot always be gleaned through Q & A. We will ask a lot of questions, but experience has shown that there will be something else that catches your eye that didn’t come up in discovery.

We decode what they send, providing insight to the area or address, when omitted or obscure, and educate our clients.

Occasionally, we’re sent listings that are out & out scams. The most frequent one is for the downtown highrise, for some really, really low price (1/2 of what they should be), low or no deposit, all utilities paid, etc. The address might be a little off, the photos are borrowed from somewhere else, but the general description gives you the idea that you can lease this condo for a song. It sounds too good to be true, because it is.

Two common versions of the scam are:

A)Identity theft
-To state that, because they only want to show the unit qualified tenants, an appointment will be set once you’ve applied & passed screening. They get your name, your social, your DOB, your license #, all things that you normally provide through the application process, but they’re using it for dubious purposes. You will never get an appointment to see the unit, after screening, because there is no unit, not at that address/for that price/featuring what the ad purported.

B)A rouse to get you to send your money for the deposit, first month’s rent, and you’ll get keys/access/paperwork. This one is more painful up front, because you’re thinking that you have something secured, and that your search is over. Not only are you out money, you’ve lost other opportunities to lease actual property, and you’re less trusting of the world. It’s sad, but there are people who make their living by preying on the unknowing.

Who do you trust? Your Realtor will be able to spot these scams from the very beginning as just that, a scam. Price/Location/Photos, none of it will line up for a seasoned Realtor, and you’ll be spared a painful lesson.

Greenlight wants you to get the best deal, always.