Tesla's Largest Plant Coming To Austin

No matter what you think of Elon Musk or his famous brand, Tesla, a decision this past month on selecting Austin for the site of Tesla’s biggest production plant is a win for all Austinites, especially in these pandemic times. Tesla’s new plant is slated to bring on 5,000 new employees in the Austin area who will specialize in assembling two models for Tesla: its new pickup truck slated to be introduced next year, and a Tesla SUV that is already in production. Tesla plans to pay an average salary of $47,147, with entry-level positions starting at $35,000.

Incentive to Come to Austin

Musk was looking for a centralized location in the country for his new plant, and while other locations like Tulsa, Oklahoma, put up a good fight, the city of Austin won out due to its overall incentive package.

Tesla will build on a 2,100-acre site in Travis County near Austin and will receive more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district over the next decade. Work on the plant, which will be over 4 million square feet, is already underway, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.

Where Will Tesla Locate?

Tesla is building the factory on a plot of land east of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, next to about two miles of Texas’ Colorado river. The land is largely unused right now, although a sand and gravel mining company does operate in the center of the development.

Future site of Tesla plant in Southeast Austin

The Irony

While we are happy to have this economic boost come to Austin, the irony of Tesla choosing ATX as its largest location is that currently, Tesla isn’t allowed to legally sell its vehicles in Texas. Why? Because Texas state law requires that cars can only be sold through franchised dealers, not company stores like Tesla. We will see if that law flexes over time, but for now, Texans will only be allowed to make Teslas, not buy them!

More Efficient, Easier on the Environment

While many Tesla executives were pushing for Austin as the next choice, the ultimate reason Tesla chose Austin was to cut down on its delivery timeline to customers in the Northeast. East Coast customers will no longer have to wait for a car to be transported from Tesla’s Fremont factory in Northern California, and the company will save on fuel and transport costs as well.

What do you think about Tesla coming to Austin? Let us know in the comments below!

City of Austin June Housing Report

Many have wondered in these crazy CO-VID times how their industry is going to fare. Well, I’m happy to report that the Austin housing market is still alive and well, even during a global pandemic. The Austin Board of Realtors just released their monthly report, and the results are good. We see that the median sales price is up 3% in June while the average days on the market is down by 6. This means that it is still a seller’s market in Austin, Texas. If you have a property you would like to put on the market, believe it or not, now is still a good time!

Check out these other ABOR statistics below:

Interested in seeing what your home could be worth? Contact me below for your complimentary home evaluation!

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality--the future of Real Estate

Photo Credit: Hackernoon

The future of buying and selling homes will be greatly impacted in the next 5 years by the ever increasing availability of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies in the real estate industry. But what is the difference between VR and AR, and how will each of them have an impact on the real estate industry in the years to come?

Virtual Reality immerses the user in a virtual world, one in which they were not already present in before. Instead of having to visit each property in person, a buyer will be able to put on a Virtual Reality Headset and immerse themselves in a three-dimensional tour of a property or properties. A more low-tech precursor to VR headsets is the 360 degree-tour, which is already available on many real estate platforms.

The advantages to Virtual Reality are several:

1. 24/7 Access: Properties remain “open,” so the client can tour properties according to his/her schedule.

2. A Time Saver-VR saves both clients and realtors time, helping to narrow the field of properties a client is serious about and needs to actually go visit in person.

3. Global Access-Clients purchasing homes in another city or country will have access to VR to “look” through properties themselves, versus having to buy sight unseen or require extensive travel.

4. Money Saver-As the expression goes, time is money. The time saved with VR will automatically save both the client and the realtor money. In addition, clients can save on expensive staging costs and any expenses they would incur to be out of the home for open houses, etc.

5. Emotional Connection & a Sense of Ownership-Having a space readily available to a client to access at any time helps the client build an emotional connection to the home as they begin to envision their life in that space.

In contrast to Virtual Reality, which is 100% “virtual,” Augmented Reality combines the virtual and physical worlds, overlaying virtual objects in a real world environment. Augmented reality offers a way for clients who can still get to a property in person to build a deeper impression of the property. Augmented reality allows clients to use picture overlays that appear on top of the physical space that a client is standing in.

As you can imagine, AR technology has many beneficial uses for the real estate market:

1. Complete Unfinished Spaces: AR applications will allow builders and architects to show clients who are standing in a space under construction visuals of what the finished exterior and interior will look like.

2. Instant Staging- Customers standing in a house trying to imagine what their furniture will look like in it will not only be able to use applications to “furnish” the house, but will get to choose finishes and styles as well.

3. Learn About Properties for Sale- As a client is walking down the street, AR will allow them to point their phone at a house for sale and get all the relevant property information on the device’s live camera feed.

4. Revolutionize Renovations- Clients walking through a home with a contractor will be able to overlay blueprints of floor and design plans over the physical space they are in.

5. Nail Down Property Lines-AR technology will allow a client walking the property lines of a house for sale to see exactly where the boundary lines fall for a property.

6. Envision in 3D- As you can see from both VR and AR, the future of real estate is in 3D visualization. 2D flat paper visualization will be a thing of the past. With virtual and augmented reality, clients viewing plans and blueprints can walk around and inspect a property from every angle.

A Goldman Sachs report predicts that the virtual reality and augmented reality market in real estate could top $2.6 billion by 2025. As these virtual and augmented reality technologies continue to be refined and tested, we will start to see them make their way into the real estate market and become an integral part of the buying & selling process.

What do you think of virtual or augmented reality? Would you feel comfortable purchasing a home you had only taken a virtual tour of? Will the technology be able to be developed at a price that all families can eventually afford a virtual reality headset? What do you think is the future of this technology in the real estate market? Let me know in the comments below!

And, in the meantime, to look at some houses the old-fashioned 2D way, click on the button below!

Austin Named in the Top Five Healthiest Cities of 2020

The results are in and Austin, we should be proud. We have stayed fit and healthy even in the midst of a global pandemic. According to the 2020 Wellness Index by MindBody, Austin was just named the fifth healthiest city in America, right behind Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, & Denver. In fact, here is the list of the top 10 healthiest cities.

1. Miami, FL

2. Atlanta, GA

3. San Francisco, CA

4. Denver, CO

5. Austin, TX

6. Seattle, WA

7. Washington D.C.

8. Tampa, FL

9. Minneapolis, MN

10. Raleigh, NC

To assign these rankings, Mindbody looked at residents' overall health, behaviors, attitudes towards wellness, and the success of local wellness businesses like gyms and spas. Mindbody surveyed over 20,000 adults about their fitness and wellness in the 50 most populous US cities and analyzed health data and other data from sources including the US Census and business listing services.

According to the report, Austin residents earned their #5 spot because they work out regularly, get seven to eight hours of sleep each night, and more than half say they drink six to eight glasses of water daily. Austin also spends more of its time cultivating intellectual wellness than the average American city, with 57% of residents reporting they "regularly engage in creative and mentally stimulating activities," according to the report.

Virtual Reality is Not the Same as 360-Degree 2D Images

Let’s review the differences between a 360-degree 2D image versus virtual reality. A 360-degree video is a compilation of 2D images connected. A buyer consumes the 2D images that are put in front of them; they cannot take part in what is happening because they are limited to the photos provided. The buyers experience is always the same, as you can’t change the photo sequence, move to a different perspective (other than what is provided), or get a 3D spatial feel of the room.

Virtual Reality is an interactive experience. Buyers can walk around, explore the space and even change the space. Does your project have different finishes? The VR technology allows buyers to switch in and out finishes so they can see the difference.

In VR, buyers are also not limited to a predefined sequence as they can access every aspect and area of the property. A buyer’s decision to interact with a certain area will change their experience. Every buyer is unique; so, during the VR walk through, buyers can focus on what is important to them (i.e. spend more time in the kitchen, master bathroom, or admiring the views from the bedroom). And this is what makes VR technology so engaging and attractive to a buyer.

http://www.360homephoto.com/ Example of a 360 Degree 2D image Home Tour

Virtual Reality tour—envision the project before it is even completed