Selling a home in Austin
The whole strategy is one number. A listing priced correctly in its first two weeks does better than the same property marketed brilliantly and priced hopefully.
Price is thewhole strategy.Everything elseis execution.
What you get
Everything it takes to sell for more
One agent, not a team, doing all of it. You will have my number, and the person who priced your home is the person negotiating it.
- Pricing from closed sales
- A comparative market analysis built from actual closed comparables in your building or on your block, adjusted for what genuinely differs, with the sales named. Not an estimate, and not the appraisal district's number.
- A walk-through before anything
- I walk the property before it is photographed and give you the short list of repairs in order of return, and the longer list of things not to bother with.
- Photography included
- Professional photography, and video or aerial work where the property earns it, at no charge to you. Honest about the space, because the showing has to match the pictures.
- Unlock MLS and every portal
- Listed on Unlock MLS, the Austin market's own system, and syndicated from it to the portals buyers actually search, with the copy written by me rather than generated.
- Marketing to the right buyers
- Targeted campaigns aimed at the buyers searching your price band and area, and a direct note to the agents who have closed comparable properties, because they have the next buyer.
- Offers read for terms
- Every offer analyzed for what it is actually worth: the financing, the option terms, the appraisal risk, the closing date and the contingencies, not the number on the first page.
- Contract to close
- The option period, the appraisal, the title work and the buyer's lender held to the calendar, by me, until the wire clears.
The number
How the price is made
From actual closed comparable sales, adjusted for the things that genuinely differ: condition, floor and stack in a tower, lot and orientation in a house, what the property backs onto, and what is active right now, because that is your real competition. Not from an automated estimate. Those are built on public records and broad models, and in a market this granular they are frequently wrong by a margin that costs real money in either direction. Texas does not make closed prices public, so the model has never seen the sales it is pretending to know.
Two numbers sellers arrive with are not the price either. The appraisal district’s value is a tax figure, set for a mass of properties on the first of January, and it is neither a ceiling nor a floor. And the number a neighbor got is a number for a different house on a different day. In the towers, comparables have to come from the right building and ideally the right stack, because two units of identical size in the same tower can be genuinely different properties. In the neighborhoods, a block can matter more than a ZIP code.
I will also tell you when I think the number you have in mind is not achievable. That conversation is uncomfortable and it is the reason to hire someone. What you get is a range with the reasoning attached, the specific sales it rests on, an honest read on how long it should take at that price, and the short list of condition items that would actually change it. There is a longer version of this on what your home is worth, and a neighborhood where the median is especially misleading is worked through on selling a house in Tarrytown.
The process
Four steps, and none of them skipped
- 01Strategy callYour goals, your timeline, and a realistic read of what the property will do. If you are also buying, the sequencing is decided here.
- 02Pricing and prepThe market analysis, the walk-through, the repair list in order, the disclosure and the survey found, and a launch date chosen against the calendar.
- 03LaunchPhotography, Unlock MLS, syndication, and the campaign to the buyers and agents most likely to have the offer.
- 04Negotiate and closeOffers read for terms, negotiated, and then managed through the option period, appraisal and title to closing.
When to list
The calendar is part of the price
Austin’s market has the same shape every year. New listings climb through March, April and May, the buyer pool is deepest then, and it thins through late summer and again around the holidays, which is visible in every monthly report Unlock MLS publishes. That does not mean spring is always the answer. It means the season you list in changes how much competition your listing has, and the price has to be set against the competition that will actually be there, not the competition that was there in April.
The other clock is the one inside the listing. In my experience the attention a property gets in its first two weeks on the market is attention it never gets again, because every buyer who was already searching sees it at once and after that it is only seen by buyers who arrive. A price that is right on day one uses that window. A price that is “testing the market” spends it, and a reduction three weeks later is read by every buyer for exactly what it is.
At closing
What a seller pays at closing in Texas
Less than in most states, and the reasons are worth knowing before you net anything out. Texas has no transfer tax; the state constitution has prohibited one since voters approved the ban in November 2015. There is no state income tax on the gain. What is left, roughly in the order it appears on the settlement statement:
The owner’s title policy, which in Austin the seller customarily pays. It is the one cost on this list that nobody negotiates with a vendor, because the Texas Department of Insurance sets the premium: a policy of $100,000 costs $780, and each dollar above that up to a million adds 0.494 percent, so a $500,000 policy is $2,756. Who pays it is a checkbox in paragraph 6 of the contract, and it can be moved, but the custom here is the seller.
The title company’s settlement fee, customarily split, which varies enough by company that the title company’s own quote is the only honest figure. Property taxes prorated to the closing date, which in a county with this rate is a real line late in the year. Any balance on the mortgage, with the payoff ordered by the title company. And whatever you agreed to give the buyer: a repair credit, closing cost assistance, or a contribution toward the buyer’s agent, which since August 2024 is no longer published on the MLS and is simply a term of the contract, decided by you, offer by offer.
In a subdivision with an owners’ association, the resale certificate, which the law caps at $375 plus $75for an update. In a condominium there is no cap, and the association’s own schedule, with its transfer fees, is the figure. A new survey only if yours cannot be used, at $400 to $750; more on that below. And the seller’s disclosure, which costs nothing and is required by statute.
Where these figures came from: Texas Department of Insurance, Basic Premium Rates for Title Insurance (effective 1 March 2026); Texas Property Code 207.003 (2021 amendments, in force); Austin residential boundary survey pricing, standard lot (2026). A net sheet for your property, with your payoff and your closing date, is part of the valuation.
Before listing
Three documents and a short list of repairs
The seller’s disclosure first. Texas Property Code 5.008 requires a written notice of the property’s condition on the state’s form, delivered before the contract is signed, and the exemptions are narrow: new construction, an estate, a foreclosure, a transfer in a divorce. Even an exempt seller must still disclose known defects. It is filled in honestly and completely, because a buyer who finds something the notice did not mention is a buyer with a claim, and because a full disclosure shortens the option period’s argument before it starts.
The survey second. If you have the survey from when you bought, and nothing on the lot has changed, you sign a T-47 affidavit saying so and the buyer uses your survey. That is a survey nobody pays for. If you cannot find it, or a fence, a pool or an addition has moved since, a new one is ordered, and the contract decides who pays. Look for it before we list, not after we are under contract.
The repairs third, and fewer of them than you expect. In most Austin homes a small number of specific items return more than a broad refresh: the things an inspector will write up in the first hour, and the things a buyer sees from the curb. I walk the property before it is photographed and give you that list in order, with what each one buys. Photography that is honest about the space follows, because a buyer who arrives to find the rooms smaller than the pictures is a buyer who has already started negotiating.
Selling a condominium
Order the certificate the day you decide
In a house the option period is for the inspector. In a condominium it is for the resale certificate, and the association has ten days from a written request to produce it. A seller who waits for a contract to ask has handed the buyer a reason to wait too. Request it the day you decide to list, read it yourself, and have it ready with the budget, the minutes and the rules the moment a buyer asks. Buyers who can read the certificate early make faster decisions, and faster decisions are cleaner ones.
Pricing in a tower is by floor and stack, not by square foot, and the competition is the other units in the building, not the ZIP. What the building has deferred, and whether an assessment is being discussed, is priced in whether the listing mentions it or not, so it is better said by you. The downtown page sets out what a buyer here reads, which is what you should read first.
An investment property
The tenant, the clock, and the two-of-five rule
If you are selling something you have been renting, the tenancy, the lease term and the condition after tenancy all affect both the price and the pool of buyers. A unit with a lease running through next summer sells to an investor at an investor’s price; the same unit vacant and repainted sells to anyone. Which of those you want is a decision to make before the listing, not after the first offer.
If a 1031 exchange is in play, the rules are strict and the clock starts at closing: forty-five days to identify the replacement property in writing, a hundred and eighty to close on it, and neither is extended for a weekend or a holiday. The exchange has to be set up with a qualified intermediary before you close, because proceeds that touch your account end it. And if the property was your home for two of the last five years, the federal exclusion on the gain, a quarter of a million for one owner and half a million for a couple filing jointly, may apply. Both are questions for your CPA, and both are questions to ask before the listing date is chosen, because the date can change the answer.
Straight talk
What I will not do to win the listing
I will not take a listing at a price I do not believe in to win the appointment and then ask for reductions later. That approach is common, it burns the first two weeks of attention the listing will ever get, and it usually ends below where an honest price would have landed. If another agent gives you a higher number than I do, ask them for the closed sales it rests on. If they have them, hire them.
I will not hand you to an assistant after the signature, and I will not tell you a showing went well when it did not. Most of my business arrives by referral, which only works if the people I have worked with would say the same.
Representation
What you sign, and what it costs you
A listing agreement, in writing, stating what I do, for how long, and what my compensation is. The fee is negotiated between us and is not set by anyone else. The term is negotiated too; if you want it short at first, ask for it short.
Since the seventeenth of August 2024 a seller no longer publishes an offer of compensation to the buyer’s agent on the MLS. Whether you contribute anything toward the buyer’s side is now a term of each offer, decided by you when the offer is in front of you, with my advice on what it buys in that negotiation. Some buyers will ask for it and some will not, and the answer can be different for each. Nothing about that is decided when you list, and nothing about it is automatic.
Asked often
Questions sellers actually ask
How do you decide what my home is worth?
From closed comparable sales in your building or on your block, adjusted for condition, floor and stack, lot and orientation, and what is currently active against you. Texas does not publish closed prices, so an online estimate is a model that has never seen the sales that matter. I walk you through them directly.
What does it cost to sell with you?
A fee negotiated between us in writing before anything is listed, plus the closing costs above, of which the largest is usually the owner's title policy at the state-set rate. Photography and marketing are included in the fee. There is nothing hidden and nothing added at closing that was not on the net sheet.
How long will it take?
It depends on the price more than on anything else, which is the point of this page. A property priced on its comparables in a normal season should be under contract within a few weeks and closed a month after that. A property priced above them will take as long as it takes to be reduced to them, and then a little longer.
Should I fix things before listing?
Some of them. The items an inspector will write up in the first hour, and the ones a buyer sees from the curb, return more than they cost. A broad renovation almost never does. I give you the list in order after the walk-through, with what each item buys.
Do I need to stage it?
Usually not fully. Clearing, cleaning and a few pieces in the right rooms do most of what staging does. In a vacant tower unit or a large empty house, partial staging of the main rooms photographs materially better and is worth its cost. Whole-house staging rarely is.
What happens if the appraisal comes in low?
The buyer's lender lends on the appraised value, so someone closes the gap: the buyer brings cash, the price is renegotiated, or the buyer terminates if their contract lets them. Which of those happens is decided by how the offer was written, which is why offers are read for their appraisal terms before they are accepted, not after.
I need to sell to buy. Which comes first?
Usually the sale, in this market, unless you can carry both. The sequencing is decided on the strategy call, and it changes the contract you write on the purchase. The buying side of that conversation is on buying.
Do I have to pay the buyer's agent?
No. Since August 2024 it is not published on the MLS and it is not automatic. Whether you contribute anything toward the buyer's side is a term of each offer, decided by you when the offer is in front of you, with my advice on what it buys in that negotiation.
Start with the number
A valuation takes a day or two, comes with the sales it rests on and a net sheet, and carries no obligation and no follow-up sequence to unsubscribe from.