Hot Real Estate Listings

My house was "flipped" when I bought it. It rocked...the house was all fixed up and I didn't have to do the work. AND I got a great price. Now I can focus on the fun stuff around the house. Yeah, flippers suck.

Flippers or real estate investors....

1) buy properties from willing sellers,

2) improve property that is often blighted,

3) sell to willing buyers,

4) and **may** make a profit in the process.

Yeah, those guys suck!

I love this column. I look forward to it every week. My heart flutters everytime it pops up in my reader. It sparks such emotion and debate. My fingers are weakening just as a write this sentence thinking about it. Don't ever take it away.

I want to give a plug here for my favorite central austin realtor - George McGee at Austin Silent Market:

http://austinsilentmarket.com/

512.477.3046

gmcgee(@)austinsilentmarket.com

I don't advocate using a buyer's broker as a general matter (you should be able to get 2-3% off the price by going directly to the seller's broker), but George knows central Austin (and Clarksville in particular) and was able to show me some cool houses not in the MLS when I was looking for a house. He is not at all sprawly and very weirdy.

Your realtor sucks.

No, you can't get a good idea of central housing from a realtor and the MLS. Even the realtors that specialize central are still more sprawly and less weirdy than the demographic here; and the AVERAGE Austin realtor wouldn't understand the difference between Clarksville and Round Rock.

I'll admit I had a lot to drink when I posted that, and that most of my 'hate' is aimed at market realities, not shilli nor the 'ist, and that I understand that this site is in no way a reasonable avenue to find a home--

So if we agree... why does this column exist? "giving people an idea about what is going on in the residential real estate market" can be done by MLS and a decent realtor. I am 100% free speech, and (now that I'm sober) I don't want to be some jerk who rails against a guy who's just trying to do his job, paid or un-- but, please, may I simply ask-- why? Especially if you yourself can admit that austinist provides no information relevant to home buyers... then maybe you shouldn't publish these listings, especially if there's something more interesting that you're not publishing. More so if the Statesman can do a much better job in a Sunday supplement, bless their hearts.

If it's a really slow news day, sure, please edify us with slapdash particulars about a home most of can't afford... yet still in a buyer's context. Whatever. But if you have any fire left in your heart, please, please give us something better.

PS- that was really cool, the way the author told the reader what the 'demographic' is.

This listing is cool. It gives people a good idea of what the average Austin resident is paying to live in or near the city center. $300K for a 1500 sq. ft. (needs to be remodeled) isn't all that bad really. Anyone with an average professional to semi-professional job can afford these homes.

I like this column so much because Shilli writes great real estate copy and, for being such a benign feature, it really pisses people off. Yes!

I'd like to see someone flip that $1.25M house.

How much more can a 100+ year old house go for?!

I like this column because i ride my bike past these places and wonder what those suckers are paying to live there.

I'd be surprised if flippers are checking out a column that profiles 3-4 interesting listings per week (by all means not all of them flip-worthy) to find their "investment properties". They're scrounging the MLS just like other buyers.

By and large, I'm pretty sure this column is for people like me, "I dream...", and others who aren't on the market for a house, but think it's terrifically fun to look at Austin real estate. It gives a very general idea of what the market is up to in certain sections of town, plus it's a blast to check out the $million+ homes.

I do agree, though, that flippers are evil. No argument there.

I really think the anger that this column seems to inspire is misplaced. What makes you think that young buyers scan the MLS every day, but real estate investors find their listings by looking at this site? I think that your impression of our demographic (and real estate investors) is completely backwards.

Anyone seriously looking to buy a house (for themselves or otherwise) should be scanning the MLS every day and should jump on good deals as soon as they can. This column is about giving people an idea about what is going on in the residential real estate market and what alternatives are out there instead of David Weekly sprawl houses. Reading this column is not a reasonable way to find a house to buy, and I don't think anyone is using it for that purpose (half the listings I have shown are still available).

I hate flippers. They suck.

...which is why i fucking HATE this stupid-fuck, evil, damaging column.

Young buyers at a reasonable income level (those who constitute and maintain our vibrant culture, or at least I like to think so) already scan MLS daily or even hourly for new listings. They're already looking, and at more appropriate and informative inter-sites. Putting interesting listings on an ista-site only publicizes a house to non-buyers, ie investors, ie assholes that can use cash to scoop a home away from residential buyers, and then 'flip' that house, selling it for more than their total investment. Yeah, it's legal. But it sucks for everybody but the investor. Most especially the good kids that lost a good house, or the east side family that now has to live next door to yuppie pricks because 'normal' people can't afford the new price, or the normal people that have to pay a $1750 mortgage for a 1000 sqft house becasue flipping has f-ing f-ed that small house property market.

There was this house over in West Austin that sold recently. It was about 6500 square feet and had 1 bedroom. I dont know why but I really wanted it. I had dreams about it. Maybe I would win the lottery. Maybe I would open my monopoly set and find real money and not little yellow bills. Maybe it would turn out I was king the of Prussia and everyone in my family has just failed to mention it previously. But alas. It sold. And now I am sad.

There was this house over in West Austin that sold recently. It was about 6500 square feet and had 1 bedroom. I dont know why but I really wanted it. I had dreams about it. Maybe I would win the lottery. Maybe I would open my monopoly set and find real money and not little yellow bills. Maybe it would turn out I was king the of Prussia and everyone in my family has just failed to mention it previously. But alas after sitting on the market for months and month, taunting me, it sold. And now I am sad.

Take the interim purpose, extend it to its logical result, and you will arrive at the ultimate purpose.

Do you say you "really, really" don't get it because you are concerned that if you simply said that you don't get it, people would think that you really got it?

The purpose of this column is to bait a smart and clever person into regularly questioning the column's relevance.

The purpose of this column is not to show people two or more attractive, available homes on the Austin market.

I really, really don't get the ultimate purpose of this column.