California Residents Sell Homes at Tidy Profit to Upgrade in San Antonio

Californians keep San Antonio real estate agents busy
Californians keep San Antonio real estate agents busy

RISMEDIA, December 15, 2006?(MCT)?Billboards pitch new homes in San Antonio “starting (in) the low $100s.” Alice Martinez has seen similar signs in Southern California.

“There, they say ‘starting in the low $1 millions,’” the Century 21 Smith & Associates real estate agent said.

Martinez, who is from San Antonio but spent most of her adult life in California, sold her 575-square-foot condo in Carlsbad for $186,000 four years ago, moved back to her hometown and got a Texas real estate license.

Now she caters to California residents who invest in the San Antonio market or are relocating here. That market niche keeps her busy.

Although there aren’t statistics to show how much property Californians buy here, anecdotal evidence indicates the number is overwhelming, said Jim Gaines, a research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University in College Station.

When Gaines gives seminars to real estate professionals, about half of the audience members raise their hands when asked if they’ve dealt with California buyers, he said.

“We’ve heard the stories that they’ve had a big influx of particularly investors, but also people relocating to Texas,” Gaines said.

Real estate prices increased rapidly in California and a lot of people made big profits. But many investors fear the coastal markets are unstable and could crash just as quickly as they appreciated, Gaines said.

So they’re turning to real estate markets in the middle states, which some consider more stable.

“The main advantage is that San Antonio has always had a very stable market and not the roller coaster ride that they see on the coasts,” said Jim Williams, a real estate agent with Realty Executives in San Antonio.

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M gets several calls a week from Californians looking for information on Texas real estate, and out West, seminars on Texas real estate are abundant, Gaines said.

Diane Motz, a real estate agent with the Phyllis Browning Co. in San Antonio, flies to Los Angeles occasionally for a radio show on real estate investing.

The long-distance investors typically want residential condominiums, townhomes and four-plexes, she said.

“Four-plexes is the No. 1 thing they’re looking for,” she said.

Motz estimates that 75% of her business comes from California.

Both Motz and Martinez delved into property management once their out-of-state clientele started growing.

Martinez’s real-estate agent husband, Brad Wofford, manages property for her clients and others at Century 21 Smith & Associates.

Motz and her husband, Russell, already owned and managed rental property in San Antonio, so taking on property for their clients was no problem.

“It’s kind of a turnkey program where I offer them everything they need,” Motz said.

Many of her clients buy property sight unseen, and the low price of San Antonio real estate, compared to other markets, makes her clients easy to please.

“It’s easy to deal with these California investors because they’re over the phone and they’re looking for someone experienced to help them with marketing and anything else they need,” she said. “They’re easy transactions and most of them become long-term clients.” Craige and Julie Bennett sold their 27-year-old fixer-upper in Temecula, Calif., this summer for $950,000 — a two-year profit of about $190,000. Craige Bennett travels a lot for his job as an executive with Northern California-based Chalk Hill Winery, and had flexibility to relocate. They researched Austin real estate, but settled on San Antonio because “it’s more family-oriented,” Julie Bennett said.

They moved into a brand-new $700,000 home near U.S. 281 and Summerglen Way.

“There isn’t anything about my house I don’t love,” Julie Bennett said.

The California house had about 3,500 square feet, but it required a lot of maintenance.

The San Antonio house has almost 6,000 square feet and everything is sparkling-new.

It features a zero-entry swimming pool and an open foyer with a 10-foot chandelier. But the Bennetts are most impressed with the feature that is reserved for millionaires in California?a home theater.

“That’s something you’d only see in a $3 million house or up,” she said. “My kids love it.” Gene Adamson, who is from San Antonio but has lived in California for seven years, made $150,000 when he sold a house in Los Angeles in 2002. More recently, he and his wife, Nancy Handel, made $199,000 on the sale of their three-bedroom townhouse about a half-mile from the beach in San Diego.

“We’re cashing out of California,” said Adamson, a 51-year-old retail construction director for Charlotte Russe.

The couple will move with their dog, Rufus, into a $389,000 house in the Timberwood Park subdivision between U.S. 281 and Blanco Road next weekend.

“San Antonio’s got a small-town atmosphere but it’s still a big city. And housing is still relatively affordable compared to where we’ve been living,” he said. “It’s very expensive to live in San Diego.” Adamson expects a less-stressful lifestyle in San Antonio, where the cost of living is lower and traffic snarls are less common than in California, the nation’s most populated state.

California has a state income tax but low property taxes, so Texas real estate agents must be careful to explain that homeowners could be paying thousands a year in property taxes, Williams said.

“People see our prices and get really excited, but they don’t realize the taxes are so high,” he said. “Our property taxes are among the highest in the country.” The lack of a state income tax worked to the Bennetts’ favor, even with higher property taxes. And they put their two children, who had attended private schools in California, in the Northeast Independent School District.

Craige Bennett no longer has to make the 21/2-hour commutes to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, which gives him more time with his family.

“We haven’t been homesick at all,” Julie Bennett said. “Aside from the mountains, there’s nothing I miss. We’re very happy here.”

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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