Moving to Austin: Housing Guide

We naturally meet lots of people moving to Austin who are at different stages in their decision making process. Very often, we hear questions like "Where are the best neighborhoods?" or "Where are the best schools?" The answer is "Austin has a lot of great options!" but it really depends on where you decide to live. Here's a handy guide to help you approach your housing search.

Step 1

Do you plan to buy, rent a house, or rent an apartment?

  • Buy

    If you plan to buy your new home, you’ll want to work with a real estate agent who specializes in purchases. You can search through many different databases on your own, but it’s best to have a great agent set up searches for you after you’ve talked with them about location, budget, home size, schools, and any other needs.

  • Rent a House

    Houses are generally owned by private individuals (as opposed to apartments owned by corporations) and you can access these options on sites like Zillow, or the Austin Board of REALTORs search portal. A real estate agent who specializes in leases is a great resource for you and can save you a lot of time. (We don't provide leasing services but we can send you great referrals!)

  • Rent an Apartment

    If you plan to rent an apartment, you’ll want to work with an awesome apartment locator. There aren’t any great, publicly accessible databases for you to search (which is very frustrating!) To make things more complicated, apartment pricing changes all the time and the same floorplan in the same complex can have different prices. A locator can help you navigate this and will usually have an internal database of options they can send you. (We don't provid apartment locating services, but we can send you a great referral!)

Step 2

What's your budget?

You’ll usually start with a budget range in mind and you’ll look at your options within that range. Rental properties (apartments or houses, duplexes, etc) will generally want you to make 3-3.5X the rental amount to qualify. If you plan to purchase, then you’ll want to convert different purchase prices into down payments and monthly payments. A great mortgage broker can help you here.

Step 3

Where do you want to live?

Most of the time, you’ll want to be within a certain distance of work, a certain school (or schools), or some other point of interest (maybe you’re super into hiking, kayaking, or something else interesting.) You can usually convert your ideal commute (No more than XX minutes!) into a distance.

Step 4

What do you need in a home?

You’ll want to establish how large of a home you’ll need (square footage, bedrooms, and bathrooms) as well as the year built you’d like. Special needs like 1 vs 2-story, 2 vs 3-car garage, etc are important to establish. If you’d like any special amenities (like a neighborhood pool) it’s great to note that. If you have school age children (or plan to) then the quality of schools will likely narrow down your search.

Step 5

Set up your searches!

If you’re already working with an agent or a locator, just relay this information and they’ll get everything set up for you. If you aren’t yet working with someone, this is a great point in the process to engage with an agent who specializes in purchasing, rentals, or apartments.

Step 6

Get some feedback!

After you’ve seen your search results, you’ll want to get feedback from friends, family, and this community on each area where you have options!

Step 7

Get out and find your new home!

Now that you’ve established your searches, your options, and you have feedback, it’s time to confidently buy or sign a lease. Let’s hit (or keep hitting) the ground running!

Are you considering buying or selling in the Austin area? We'd love to help!

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Buyer Resources
First Time Home Buyers CLICK HERE
Relocating To Austin? CLICK HERE

2300+ Client reviews!

Elizabeth Michael was awesome to work with! As a first time home buyer, she was able to explain the process clearly and professionally, from our first meeting, all the way through closing.

She was very communicative and we never felt we were left in the dark. She fought for us when we needed her to fight for us, and her advice was invaluable. She absolutely excels at navigating the Austin real estate market.

She was also able to recommend a great lender, insurance agent, etc., which made it feel like we had a whole team working for us. I’d recommend working with Elizabeth to everyone I know.

We worked with Julie Stoakley to purchase a home since moving back from Florida. We were impressed with her knowledge of the incentives and mortgage strategies. We never felt lost in communication on where we stood in the buying process. We purchased a home with an incentive and with her knowledge we were able to obtain clarity and an understanding for it. She also helped us in negotiating repairs from the inspection process and were able to get a brand new roof! I would definitely recommend Julie to my friends and family!

Crystal Hirst understands market conditions and how to position. She does her research well and helped us price our house to “SELL”. Indeed it sold much faster than our expectation, while multiple other units in the area, and in fact on the “same street”, still remain unsold. Ultimately Crystal brought us multiple interested buyers and we achieved higher than asking because of this multi-party interest that Crystal generated. We enjoyed our experience, her professionalism and excellent communication. We highly recommend Chrystal Hirst as your realtor.

Crystal Hirst understands market conditions and how to position. She does her research well and helped us price our house to “SELL”. Indeed it sold much faster than our expectation, while multiple other units in the area, and in fact on the “same street”, still remain unsold. Ultimately Crystal brought us multiple interested buyers and we achieved higher than asking because of this multi-party interest that Crystal generated. We enjoyed our experience, her professionalism and excellent communication. We highly recommend Chrystal Hirst as your realtor.

I have been thoroughly pleased with my experience with Bramlett Residential and my realtor Tyson Hombroek. Tyson provided outstanding service in helping me with the sale of my house. He is very professional and on top of the market. We stayed in constant communication and he was helpful in answering all my questions I had. This was a great experience. I highly recommend them.

Kasey Gilliam was very professional and communicated through the whole home buying and searching process. highly recommend working with her. She has great expertise in Austin and lead very helpful with all of our home buying questions and concerns!

Vicki Duran from Bramlett was extremally informative and made the whole sales process effortless. I used her to not only purchase my home 4 years ago but also for the sale of the same home. Communication is key for me and Vicki was available at any time to answer questions and to keep us looped in during negotiations and or pending offers. Her attention to detail really stans out and had her clients best interest in mind at all time.

I highly recommend Vicki to anyone looking to purchase a home or sell their home, having used her for both I know you will be glad you did.

Elizabeth is AMAZING!!! She went above and beyond to secure me an absolutely beautiful home. HIGHLY recommended.

Elizabeth is amazing at her job. She found my roommates and me a great house and made the whole process very easy 10/10

Elizabeth was great and easy to work with and helped me a find a tenant quickly. She was prompt in communication and I would highly recommend her to everyone finding a new tenant

Elizabeth has helped me find a home not once, but twice! She’s incredibly responsive and communicative- Both times I’ve worked with her, she has prioritized what I’m looking for, been super realistic and honest, and is always my advocate. I’m so grateful for her hard work!

Elizabeth was extremely helpful in our process of buying our first home. She was extremely responsive, friendly and made the home buying process extremely simple and easy. Thanks again Elizabeth you’re the best!

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