In October 2019 Mark had a big month. He not only moved to Austin for a new job, but he also bought his first home! He found his East Side 3 bed 2 bath home after seeing only 5 homes, and closed in a little under 2 weeks.

We asked Mark to tell us a little bit about what brought him to Austin, his home buying experience, and how Open House Austin helped him along the way. He showed how achievable buying in Austin is - even with low inventory and it being a sellers market.

Interested in learning more about buying your own house in Austin? We’d love to see you at one of our workshops or let’s set up a call!

How long have you lived in Austin? I have been in Austin since the end of October 2019!

When did you buy your home and how old were you? I bought my home in Austin on Oct 31, 2019. I was 29 years old.

Was this your first home purchase? This was my first home purchase.

What industry do you work in? I work in IT as a Cloud Systems Engineer.

What do you love about living in Austin? Tacos, the weather, and the music. Austin has the perfect mix of city bustle and country calm.

What part of town did you buy your home in and why? My home is located in East Austin. One of the biggest factors in my search was to be as close to work in Downtown as possible.

What type of property did you buy? I bought a single family home.

What was the cost of your home? I paid $356,000 for the house with $5,000 seller contribution to closing costs.

How many bed/baths & sqft? The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. It is 1,156 sq ft.

What year was it built? The house was built in 2002.

Tell us a little bit about your home buying journey. Why did you decided to buy, a bit about your process, how many homes did you see before finding the one? I have always known that I would eventually move to Texas. Before moving to Austin, I wasn’t sure whether home ownership was for me. I had moved around a lot after graduating college and hadn’t fully settled. When the opportunity to move to Austin arose, I took a look at the market and realized that if I had any intention of staying in Austin long term, I should purchase a home. 

While it would have been great to find a perfect house on the first go, I knew that the likelihood of getting everything I wanted within location, budget, and features would be very low. After sitting down with my realtor, Kristina, we identified a few houses that fit within the scope of my search. I looked at five houses before deciding to make an offer on one.

I think five houses turned out to be perfect for me because it gave me an idea of what was possible, while making it easy to decide on one. The reason for looking at five was a combination of the time I had to search, the parameters we searched on, and my general belief that I could make the house I ultimately ended up purchasing my own.

Who did you talk to before buying a house? What research did you do? What did you find was the most important factor that helped you most prepare for the home buying process? Home ownership has always been something I considered and stayed educated on. I knew a little bit about the process as I had cosigned a loan with my older brother a few years ago as well as various finance blogs and subreddits. I knew what the process looked like broadly, but knew that different markets could have subtle differences.

I think that I came into my first home buying experience with a lot of base knowledge. I knew what inspections, earnest money, escrow, etc were coming into it. What I didn’t have was a knowledge of the area and legal processes as it related to home buying in Austin, TX.

What advice do you have for people like yourself who are about to start the home buying process for the first time? Unless you’ve recently won the lottery, it’s unlikely that a house is going to strike every single item on your list. Before looking at houses with your realtor, consider actually writing down a list of nice to haves vs deal-breakers. For me, I had a lot of things that I strongly preferred. 3 bed/2 bath, a garage, Fiber internet, etc. Things that you may have thought were deal-breakers may turn out not to be. I ended up without a garage and even though Fiber is available, I actually don’t use it.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with choice. Austin has a pretty tight housing market. Along with market conditions, you probably won’t find two identical or even near identical houses (unless they’re new builds). Maybe it’s the hours (days? weeks?) of watching home renovation TV shows, but you don’t need the perfect move in ready house. You need something you can grow into! It’s a first house, after all.

What has been the most rewarding part about being a homeowner? Is there anything you dislike? There is this feeling of comfort and accomplishment as I walk up to my house everyday. I get a sense of stability that I’ve never felt with renting.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a dislike, but you definitely add “chores” to your to-do list with home ownership. Yard-work, replacing maintenance items, etc. You have to add a little bit more to your plate.

What have been the main differences you've felt going from a renter to owning a home? I think the biggest difference is accountability. If you don’t take care of it, no one will. Your home will become one of the largest assets you will hold and it’s 100% your responsibility to keep it in good condition.

Also, one of the things I’ve always noticed is that as a short term renter, I had very little incentive to really want the yard to be amazing. Lawn care is a chore and nobody likes doing it. However, I’ve oddly become more invested in keeping my lawn looking nice.

Any long term goals for the home? You’re going to have to ask me this again in five years. One of the things I love about my house is that it has everything I need. There are obviously things that I want to do. However, I’m going to give myself some time to really settle in before making any large decisions. Could it be solar? A bathroom renovation? An ADU? A garage? I don’t know!

Is there anything else you'd like to share about your experience? Any insight? Advice? Anything you want to share that we have not discussed? My home buying process was very fast. The total time between when I first contacted Kristina to closing was less than two weeks. Adding to the mix was that I was in the middle of a new job transition to a new state. That wouldn’t have been possible without Kristina being on the ball with the seller and with Melanie Hadley at Cornerstone Home Lending being diligent on securing financing. 

It’s hard to know everything about home buying and housing markets. I had done my due diligence and research on the overall process. However, Kristina and team filled in the missing pieces that I didn’t have and really smoothed the process out.