All Forum Posts by: Mike B.

Hello,

I'm a first-time landlord, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. 

There is a big difference between newer southern cities and the older coastal areas like San Fransico. For example, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are all large sprawling metro areas that continue to expand into vast areas of underdeveloped Texas land. This has helped to keep housing affordable for the people willing to drive. In my humble opinion, Austin is a bit of an exception just because traffic is so awful. Every major highway is either suffering from gridlock or is a tolled road. Those toll roads really act just like a mountain or river, dividing the city and limiting transit. Middle-class people are really going to adjust their behavior due to those tolls. Because of this, Austin has artificially created a denser population than the other big cities in Texas.  

I expect businesses will eventually start migrating more of their offices into the suburbs, and that will offer more jobs and balance the city's ever-increasing housing prices. Once there are more and more jobs in these suburbs, the people will follow. I think it's smart to look 20 years into the future and think about what the city will look like. As the metro area is expected to grow by close to 2 million people, those far-flung outer cities will become new suburbs offering affordable living.

I happen to live on Hwy 183 in Leander. The housing out here is still somewhat affordable, and with the toll road set to expand, I imagine this area will attract a lot more buyers looking for affordable housing. There is also Buda, Kyle, Hutto, etc... 

Just a quick note - I live minutes from the last stop on the Austin Metro Rail and minutes from Hwy 183. It's a 1-hour commute to downtown Austin. My neighbor has goats in his backyard. So there is still lots of land around Austin for new housing. 

 

Even before I decided to become a first-time landlord, I avoided Zillow because the amount of false information there was just too high. I suppose they are so big they can't be avoided though. 

I'm thinking of posting on Zillow, Realtor.com, and Apartments.com. 

We are putting our house up for rent. When I created my first rental listing on Zillow everything seemed fine and then it just deactivated and went off-market. I have no idea why. I've opened a ticket with Zillow, but their platform seems to be just very buggy.