Kathleen Townsley joined Smart Source Realty in 2006, and has been the top producer for the past ten years. As a former trial lawyer, Kathleen has excellent negotiating and problem-solving skills. She represents buyers and sellers in Cedar Park, Leander, Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, and the greater Austin area, including Hutto, Taylor, Cibolo, Kempner, Manor, Burnet, and beyond.
For buyers, Kathleen likes to start with a lender’s pre-approval. If clients have not been pre-approved for a loan, Kathleen will make lender recommendations. Once the price range has been established, the home search can begin!
Kathleen loves the buying process. She helps her buyers reach a decision based on a combination of important factors, such as price, neighborhood, schools, amenities, walkability, communities, and commutes. She’s happy to show buyers homes all around the greater Austin area, helping them narrow their search until they find the home that best fits their needs.
Once buyers find a property, Kathleen guides her clients through negotiations, which include price and many other terms. Once the home is under contract, she helps her clients meet deadlines for paying the earnest money and option fee. She also helps schedule an inspection and then does a walkthrough with the inspector. Once the inspection is completed, she helps her clients determine if they will ask for repairs or ask for an allowance to help them pay for repairs. Once the repairs are negotiated, Kathleen will work with the lender to help move the buyers toward closing.
After closing, many new homeowners want to add their personal touches. Growing up, Kathleen watched her mother and brother transform distressed properties into stunning homes. Drawing from that experience, Kathleen helps her buyers take a home with good bones and rehab it to their specific tastes. To help her buyers create their dream home, Kathleen has a vast list of designers and trades to make their visions into reality.
For sellers, Kathleen has teamed with her brother Billy to offer clients a listing strategy, which includes recommendations for updates and repairs. The sellers review the recommendations and develop a plan that best fits their budget and lifestyle. If clients wish to make cosmetic updates, she and Billy help them make selections, including paint colors, backsplashes, counters, light fixtures, flooring, door hardware, plumbing fixtures, and landscaping, and then help them find the trades to do the work. Kathleen’s goal is for her clients to spend the least amount of money to get the highest sales price possible. Kathleen doesn’t charge extra for helping her clients get their homes ready for the market.
When Kathleen listed a vacant home for sale in 2010, she called home stagers to get pricing, but most of them charged sellers $3,000 per month, an expense that is cost prohibitive to most sellers. So Kathleen decided to stage her clients’ homes at no extra charge. She teams with Billy to give a staging plan to clients, who then decide how little or how much they want their homes staged. If the clients still reside in the home, Kathleen and Billy modify their staging plan per the clients’ wishes, and usually stage with a combination of the sellers’ furniture and their own. When a home is vacant, they stage with their own furniture to enhance the home’s appearance.
Kathleen also helps real estate investors find rental properties, then helps them through the rental process.
