I work with a lot of buyers who aren't from Austin. California, New York, Colorado, Florida, Chicago — and increasingly, international buyers drawn by Austin's combination of economic growth and quality of life. And I'll be honest with them: buying luxury real estate in a city you don't live in yet is genuinely hard to do well.
Not because Austin is particularly complicated — it's actually buyer-friendly in many ways. But because the decisions that matter most in luxury real estate (which block in Tarrytown, which streets in Westlake are in Eanes ISD, which new construction neighborhoods are actually finishing on time) require local knowledge that is very hard to develop from 2,000 miles away.
Here's the process I walk my out-of-state buyers through:
Step 1: Strategy before search.
Before we ever look at a single listing, I want to understand your life: where you're working from, whether you have children and their ages, how often you'll be in Austin versus traveling, and what your ideal Saturday morning looks like. These aren't trivial questions — they point you directly toward the right neighborhood, and the wrong neighborhood in a $3M purchase is a very expensive mistake.
Step 2: The off-market conversation.
In the $2M+ segment in Central Austin, a meaningful percentage of the best properties are sold before they ever reach public listing platforms. If you're only searching Zillow, you're working with incomplete information. My network of agent relationships, developer contacts, and long-time seller relationships gives buyers early access to properties that others simply don't know about.
Step 3: The Austin visit — done right.
If you can get to Austin for 2–3 days, we can accomplish a tremendous amount. I'll put together a curated itinerary: neighborhood orientation in the morning (walk the streets, see the lifestyle), targeted showings in the afternoon (only properties that match your brief), and market debrief in the evening so you can process what you've seen. If you've only got one day, we make it count.
Step 4: Buying remotely, if necessary.
If your timeline doesn't allow for an in-person visit before a decision needs to be made, I'm comfortable serving as your eyes and ears. That means detailed video walkthroughs, honest assessments of neighborhood context (not just the property), and enough information for you to make a confident decision from wherever you are.
Step 5: Closing and what comes after.
Texas closes through title companies (not attorneys), which is straightforward for most buyers. What many out-of-state buyers don't have is a local network for everything that comes after closing — the contractors, the designers, the service providers that make a new home functional. That network is something I've spent 15 years building, and I make it available to every client, particularly those who are new to Austin.
If you're thinking about a move to Austin, the smartest thing you can do is start the conversation early — before you're under deadline pressure, before you've fallen in love with a neighborhood based on a single visit, and before the right property sells without you knowing it existed.
Reach out whenever you're ready. I'm happy to have an honest, no-pressure conversation about whether and how Austin makes sense for your situation.