No one can doubt that Austin, Texas is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. There are nearly 2 million people residing in this capitol of the Lone Star State, making it one of the best American cities. However, people sometimes buy land here and never get around to developing it. Owning a vacant lot or piece of land in Austin can get expensive. Have you seen the property taxes in Austin, TX?
Quickly Sell Vacant Lots and Land in Austin, TX
While there are a number of concerns facing people who own empty plots of land in Austin, frivolous lawsuits have to be the most worrying. There are people who will seek to injure themselves on your property just so they can file a lawsuit.
Of course, someone could also accidentally injure his or herself by accident by walking through the area. This is especially true if the lot isn’t well kept, because high grass and tree roots pose a litany of threats to pedestrians.
Someone walking through your lot could simply trip over unseen debris and suffer a serious injury. Taking precautions such as fencing off the area and keeping the grass manicured will cost you money. Are you planning on using the land this year? It may be best to liquidate rather than expend your resources trying to make it safe.
Loiterers and Dumpers
Any vacant piece of land will become a haven for people looking to get rid of trash and garbage. This is especially true if you rarely visit the land, even if it is fenced off. Legal dump sites charge a fee to use their land, and your lot could provide a free alternative for someone looking to save a few bucks.
Once someone realizes that the land isn’t being used, he or she may decide to make it into a makeshift landfill. This leads to code violations that you’ll be responsible for and the city of Austin has the right to force the sale of the property if you don’t comply. Depending on how long the dumping took place, the price of the clean up can far outweigh the value of the land.
Property Taxes in Austin
Austin has one of the highest median property tax rates in the country. The average land owner here spends more than 3% of his or her annual income on property taxes. While Austin doesn’t have the highest property tax rate in Texas, land owners are expected to pay an average of 1.3% of the land’s overall value to the local government every year. This number is calculated based upon the property’s fair market value from the Austin County property tax assessor. This individual may deem the property to be worth far more than the owner is able to get for it on the open market.
What Are My Options?
Anyone who purchased land during the down point of the real estate market has probably seen a dramatic increase in value. However, keeping the property maintained is slowly absorbing this value. Property taxes also factor into this number, which is represented as lost profit. The sooner the land is sold, the less the owner has to spend to keep it maintained.
However, not keeping the property maintained can be even more expensive. The real estate climate in Austin must also be taken into consideration, because the value of land here may be at a high point. From 2000 to 20006 the city of Austin was the fastest growing major city according to the US Census Bureau. During this time, demand for land was substantially higher than it is now.
Growth has slowed and so has the demand for people seeking to buy land without structures built on it.
1. Sell the vacant lot or piece of land for cash
2. Partner with me and let’s expand the value of property. Win/Win solution.
Nobody can predict exactly how the real estate market will preform in the immediate future, but the listing price of real estate in Austin has decreased about 10% since it hit a 2014 peak in May. The price of maintenance may be higher than the slow increase in value. If this happens, the vacant lot will literally lose money until it’s sold but the liabilities will remain.
So what’s the next step? Call me today and we can talk about the right way to sell vacant lots and land in Austin.
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