First off, Happy New Years! Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to a terrific new year. If you've seen my posts here before you know I'm looking to move to Austin within a few months. Originally I was looking for a nice house as close to downtown as possible. My girlfriend has vetoed me and wants to live in a condo now since we're still just 21 and may have a younger feel as well as be closer to downtown. I was hoping someone here may provide some leads on any places ($150-$300K). Preferably 1500 sq. ft. and larger, nice places. Thank you again for all your time, I'll be in Austin late January or early February for my first visit. Last thing, how come it costs twice as much to fly into Austin compared to San Antonio, seems like a rip, $320/person to Austin from Phoenix. Thanks again!
best thing is to come to town and spend time getting to know Austin and the various areas, traffic is a HUGE pita here....
I have a condo down near mopac and lake austin blvd. I am open for renting it out to you or selling it. I just had a tenant move out last month. So I am flexible. Email me and I'll give you more details. email to mcolton @ msn.com
Oh man. You're going to move to downtown Austin with your girlfriend? That's like bringing sand to the beach. Good luck!
I lived in condo in downtown Austin for three years, from 1998-2001. I'm not sure if things have changed much, but I would not live downtown again. Traffic sucked. Parking was a total PITA (anytime I had guests come visit). Crime was a real problem. Riff raff/homeless/panhandlers were a constant nuisance. The walking access to 6th Street and the Warehouse district was charming for the first few months but was quickly overcome by the issues I mention above.
Thanks for more info. I am probably looking to be about 10-15 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes at the max. Looks like round rock is too far, maybe lakeway or lake travis area is better after talking with a mutual friend who lives there. I will be there the 14th-20th for my first visit to look at possible negihborhoods, etc. I will be coming back in late February or March to get more in depth assuming I like it this time. Anyone have any hotel recommendations? I want to avoid the traffic as much as possible for this time, but still have access to downtown if needed within 15 minutes. Close to resedential so I'm ont driving all over Texas. I'm flying into San Antonio and driving over. I'll send out some PMs and emails soon. Any other recommendations before I come visit in 1.5 weeks? Thanks.
Can't help you with the housing, but eat at Jaimes for the best Mexican ever (it's off of 6th street) or Chuy's or Papasitos...
uh.......no offense, but no friggin' way. MUCH better mez in town at other places: La Reyna, Los Comales, El Michoacano, Casa Garcias, Dario's, Polvo's, Maria's..... Course, these are east and south Austin. I NEVER get up north, too much like Dallas anymore.
I did the Marriott at the Capital, on West 11th, ice machine stays cold and it has a spa beside the indoor/outdoor pool... It's right by Jaime's Mexican Village......Stubb's New Place is there close, also......
Brandon, if you dont have a pressing need for the 1500 sq. feet (children, dogs, in-home office), consider going smaller and picking up a condo that is downtown. Austin is a nice walking city and having that at your doorstep is something Id choose over having a lot of condo space a short drive away (if you have no particular need for the footage). I recently purchased a condo loft downtown at Brazos Lofts. I closed on the property and am pretty much just looking for an interior decorator to oversee renovating the place before I move in. http://www.seeaustinhomes.com/360tours/Dave%20Van%20Heuven/201_East_5th_Street_208/agentstart.asp?fid=3437&pid=39&image=1 . Going by my sale and the sale of another unit a couple months earlier, the units there are going for about $260/sq foot or 17% over tax appraisal values. This is an interesting link to find tax appraisal values and misc. property info. http://www.traviscad.org/travissearch.php?mode=situs&kind=real In my situation, type 201 for the street number and 5 for Street Name. It would probably help you a lot to go through an MLS listing directory in addition to doing some Google searches like Austin Condominium, Austin Realtor. Once you find the address or name of a particular condo, do a search on that and see if you can come up with other advertising realtors who may be representing additional properties. FWIW, when I was searching, I got the feeling that quite a few new moderately priced condos would be coming up in a 1-2 year timeframe that were relatively close to downtown. In general, when you find a property for sale, the primary listing broker is working on a 6% commission of the sale price. If you find a property you like and go directly to the listing broker, its not uncommon to be able to work that fee down to 3% in addition to negotiating down the price of the condo itself. If you are using the services of a broker to help you find a place, and you are interested in a place that is not the listing of that broker, that 6% usually gets split between the 2 brokers. What I am trying to say is, if you know what you are buying and know what the price should be, it wouldnt hurt to find the primary listing broker on the property and try to negotiate directly. However, trying to save a couple percent may not be a great move if you are unsure and could use the services of a knowledgable and reputable broker. If you are interested in downtown / close to downtown, these 2 realtors may be useful http://www.downtownaustinliving.com/listing_frames.html http://www.austinurbanspace.com/listings/properties/ For some MLS help, try this. http://www.aveone.com/frameset_mls.htm On the left side, try clicking areas 3, 4 and 5 (for close to downtown) or whatever locale you might be interested and precede. Be aware that areas that are a short drive in off hours can be dramatically different during rush hour. So you need to consider that when looking further away. Also, you might find some use from this: http://forums.austin.craigslist.org/?forumID=6&all=N --- John
