Bruce Lynn

We can automatically send you listings of land if you'll send me your email address. You probably won't have to request a zoning change if you are in the county. Either way it shouldn't take a lot of work to get a zoning change like that if you are in the city. Mortages are more difficult to get on land than on a single family house. Be prepared to put down 50%. We can direct you to land lenders where you can get prequalified and see what type of interest rates and down payments you will need. Prices will be all over the map in Parker county depending on where you buy. I'd guess for a lot anywhere from about $10,000 to $100,000. The upper end lots will be in communities with streets, utils, etc already in place. - Yesterday, 20:49

Ben, This can be so important now I'd advise speaking to a board certified real estate attorney about it. If you are working with a realtor, most of the larger offices have mineral rights reservation forms prepared by their attorneys as part of their contract packages. You might be able to ask a title company for a clause as well, but they may be hesitant to give out, but doesn't hurt to ask. They may do it to get the deal. If you really value the mineral rights, don't resort to Office Max forms. They may work, but you might pay for it later if they don't. Angelia's answer is a good start, but to me this is nothing you want to fool around with. - Yesterday, 20:42

If you have cash, probably the best thing to do is buy for cash and take home equity loan out. This is one of the ways to effectively get 100% financing on the right buys. Typically you can only pull out 80%, but if you buy right you can pull out all you put into it or more, then have your cash back for the next deal. - Yesterday, 20:37

Property taxes are higher than in CA. It varies by city, school district, county, and perhaps some other taxing jurisdictions. The rate is typically 2.5-3% of the value of the property as determined by the appraisal district. So your numbers sound about right. Some info is found at:
http://www.escapesomewhere.com/realestate_austin_tax_rates.html - Fri Jul 4 2008, 19:43

Yes, it seems wrong to me too, but it does work. I suggested 4% to a friend of mine today. He has a home in a community that is about two years old. No resales have happened and several have tried and delisted after a year. He's in a strange neighborhood and I think he'll need to do something to make his home stand out. He needs to price agressively and offer the bonus in my opinion. In my market if you offer less than 3% I think you could have a problem. If you do it, I'd ask the agent how they will promote it other than just adding it to the MLS. I don't think that's enough. By the way some of the builders around this area offer up to 10%. If you're competing against new construction the bonus may also help, although I'd think it would be tough on most sellers to offer more than about 4%. - Fri Jul 4 2008, 19:39

I like Jim's answer. I typically think like you. When acting as a buyer's agent I show the homes that meet my client's needs. You would think all realtors would do this. However that is just not the case. There are some who are hungry (and not in a good way.) They sniff out these bonuses like a bloodhound. Builders in my parts consistently offer bonuses....There are some currently offering as much as a 10% buyers agent commission..... You may not want to compete or even be able to compete against that, but you might want your house to stick out to agents more so than others on your block or neighborhood. Instead of 3.5 though, you might consider CASH.....$1000 cash bonus....$5000 cash bonus...etc. Amount might come out the same, but might motivate more. - Fri Nov 30 2007, 19:16

One problem you have with the answers is "What would I do" . Here you probably have the more savy and honest agents who are working. The problem is you have 100s if not 1000s of agents in your market place who don't always follow the rules and aren't always 100% honest. You can always be the bigger person or set the example, but what most people want to do is get the house sold. You definately need to offer a competitive commission. If the stand is X, don't try to beat the system. I think it is very difficult to offer less than X and get the buyer to make up the difference to their agent who has signed a buyer's rep with them. You see our buyer's rep state the compensation. If the seller is offering less than X we can still show the house and negotiate the transaction, but the buyer would need to pay the difference in compensation. That's pretty tough to get them to do. I'd think you would not want to put the buyers in a tough situation like that. Now if you offer X+ or X.5, you may not get the agents here to increase your traffic, but you will get some agent to show the home who might not have shown it otherwise. Maybe not a bad thing in this market. The real trick is how do you market and make know the difference in compensation to the agents who are motivated by the difference. Believe me there are agents who are motivated by the difference. - Sun Sep 9 2007, 23:31