🤠🏡 Selling Austin #25

Hi everyone, happy Friday!

I can’t believe we are already on Selling Austin #25! Thank you for being a part of this, I’m happy you’re here.

Pay special attention to hackers scamming $446 million+ from real estate transactions 💰️ and a random Austin suburb with 50% growth 🤔 

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WHAT'S INSIDE

• 🔢 THE DATA

• 🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING IN TOWN

• ⁉️ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

• 🤤 HOUSE WORTH DROOLING OVER

🔢 THE DATA

With the Crowdstrike outage fresh in our memories, it is important to discuss a huge uptick in real estate cyber hacking.

Imagine you’re about to close on your dream home and get an email to wire your downpayment. You send the money and think you’re all set but the title company says they’ve never received it…

The most popular schemes involve sending fraudulent emails with wire information that look like they’re from brokers, attorneys, or title companies.

If you think this only happens to people who are not tech-savvy, you’re wrong!

A 25-year Silicon Valley tech employee was conned out of $400,000 with one email. In this case - the fraudulent email came inside of a chain of 20 emails and was indistinguishable from the rest.

How big of a problem is this really?

The real estate market is targeted so frequently that the FBI issued a report on the uptick of fraud. The losses have been staggering, rising from less than $9 million in 2015 to more than $446 million in 2022.

Is there an uno reverse for this?

Nope. Banks note that wire transfers are largely irreversible.

How can I avoid this?

Call and verify with the title company that the wire request is authentic. Do not accept wire updates if the Title company calls you - call them back at the publicly listed number and confirm. Stay safe 💰️ 

🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING IN TOWN

There’s an investment ethos called “retail follows rooftops.” It means - where there are homes, there will be retail/commercial growth.

Austin-based American Ventures has decided Elgin is the next suburb on the list.

Why Elgin and where the heck is it?

Elgin is 25 miles east of Austin.

Eligin’s population grew by 50% between 2010 and 2023 (up to 12,500!) and another 50% is anticipated by the end of 2025.

There are nearly 3,500 homes currently in development.

Wow. What’s up next?

350,000+ sqft of retail + a hotel. This 60 acre tract is situated next to Ascension Seton Elgin Medical Center. They will begin development by the end of the year.

🔎 Psst: Looking for investment properties? Get in early and capitalize. When projects complete, values will skyrocket 🚀

⁉️ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

If you’re a buyer/seller/investor/renter or just interested in real estate - this weekly newsletter will help guide your decision making and help you better understand the market.

🤤 HOUSE WORTH DROOLING OVER

I am a sucker for Rollingwood. If you’re not familiar - let me introduce you to one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Austin.

Here, the median sales price is $2.8M. But that calculation is brought down by empty lots for sale. There is currently a .3 acre lot listed for $1.6M. Yes, just the lot.

Lots aside - you can’t miss this $6,520,000 stunner.

Thank you for being here! Reply to this email if you have any questions or just to say hello! 👋

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