Focus on the Current Real Estate Market… Not the Previous One.

Professionally photographed picture of staged living room for our home which we listed on the market May 2025.

When we relocated to Austin from Idaho in 2017, the housing market in Austin was hot! I made a list of homes to tour, sent the list to my real estate agent at the time (Linda Miller now with Christie’s Brokerage), boarded a plane, and checked in to my hotel. By the time I woke up the next morning, most of the homes were already under contract. My list of 6 homes dwindled down to two. The home we ended up purchasing hadn’t even gone on the market but was listed as “coming soon”. Zero pictures on the MLS or on Zillow.

When I toured the home, the sellers were still packing up and preparing to have it listed. I took photos of the house to be able to compare it to the other home I was touring that day but they were not Instagram worthy! Besides the packing aesthetic currently displayed in the home, the floor plan and bedroom to bathroom ratio was exactly what we were looking for at the time so we put in an offer.

Fast forward to 2025 when we were selling that home to move to one that better fit our growing family’s needs. I worked with Lisa Roberts now with the Bramlett Partners brokerage and we spent a full week preparing to list our home. We touched up the paint on our baseboards, filled every nail hole, and only kept basic furniture in the home for staging. The rules of the real estate game had changed!

Similarly, this year the most busy time of home buying and selling has been different from previous hot market periods. In the current Austin real estate market, buyers can by choosy-they do not have to grab a house before it is officially listed on the MLS. Which means sellers have a lot more work up front to do in order to attract buyers. Having lived (and bought and sold houses) through both eras, I can identify with the pain that current home sellers have in preparing a home to sell. But embracing the current housing market and playing by its’ rules will be a lot less frustrating than trying to apply the rules of a housing market of the past. 

Cell phone photo of living room we toured in 2017 before the home was officially listed on the market. The home owners were in the process of packing up the house in preparation to list but were gracious enough to let us tour before it was “show ready”.

Sweet Luxury

For the last five years I have operated a decorated cookie business on my own. And you might ask yourself, what do decorated cookies and real estate have in common!?

I was able to learn leaps and bounds about running a business and marketing a luxury business over the last five years. How do you convince someone to purchase your custom cookies rather than going to a big box store and buying them from a bakery? Besides providing a quality product, providing quality customer service was crucial. I was sure to have systems in place that were easy for clients to use. Finally, I communicated clearly from the initial inquiry, through the design process, and all the way to delivering the final product. Are those qualities you would like to have in a real estate agent?

I have lived in Austin since 2017 and I am excited to share about the city from a local's point of view. Just as there are different cookie flavors and designs to match various client’s perspectives and needs, there are different homes which match home owner’s perspectives and needs. Some homeowners love acreage and space. Some homeowners do not want a large yard to mow. Some homeowners want space to grow in their house while others are looking to downsize. Some homeowners do not actually want to own a home but would love a lease option. Navigating each individual desire within neighborhoods that are familiar to me is a service I look forward to showcasing with each interaction.