Top, No. 8: Cat Groth/Twist Tours; Nos. 9-11: Kat Teutsch for The New York Times. Above: Dan Winters for The New York Times. 41
coff ee shops and vintage stores of
North Loop. But the one that most
seized Amena’s imagination was
a 1955 home on Westmoor Street,
brick and wood that was painted
purple, green and blue, like a pre-
school. ‘‘It was a mess of a place
Listing price
$408,000Listing price
$515,000Sold
$510,000Sold
$650,000Offer
$460,000Offer
$600,000Matt Holm, who describes himself as Austin’s ‘‘Tesla realtor.’’
(^10) Haney Drive, Windsor Park (^11) West Crestland Drive, Highland
— we would have to do everything
over — but it was huge and beautiful in
terms of its potential,’’ Amena told me.
It was listed at $375,000, and she bid
$400,000, needing to reserve cash for
renovations. In her love letter to the
seller, she wrote, ‘‘You will probably
be off ered all cash by someone, but
please don’t take it.’’ Amena and Drew
couldn’t bail on Austin. Drew had
signed a contract, and they’d rented
out their New York apartment.
‘‘More bad news, my friends,’’
Gilchrist texted. ‘‘We got passed over
for Duval and Westmoor. Westmoor
acknowledged how brutal the market
is with an apology, and Duval said
they got 28 off ers.’’ Westmoor got 27.
‘‘This is market is no fun,’’ the West-
moor listing agent told me. ‘‘People
think that realtors are making money
hand over fi st, but that means 26 real-
tors didn’t get to feed their families.
‘‘My client had a big heart and
was sentimentally attached, but the
less risky bids for her were cash and
no contingencies,’’ the listing agent
continued. ‘‘This was her nest egg.’’
She chose an all-cash bid from a
buyer planning to tear down her
house and rebuild.
At this point Amena and Drew
were on their 10th failed bid. ‘‘It’s like
a danceathon,’’ Drew told me. ‘‘Last
person standing wins.’’
Often, the person still standing was
that most hated fi gure in the Austin
real-estate market, the California
investor. The winning bidder for
Ephraim Road, for example, was
Michael Galli, a Silicon Valley real
estate agent. ‘‘Here’s the interesting
truth,’’ he told me. ‘‘I’ve never been
to Austin.’’ He toured the Ephraim
Road house on FaceTime.
In 2019, Galli decided he want-
ed to diversify, so he spent eight
months studying cities online and
kept coming back to Austin. It had
high-income job growth and an
infl ux of venture capital, the very
things that had made Bay Area real
estate so lucrative. Galli bought a
large map of Austin and mounted it
on the wall, studying it in the eve-
nings with a glass of red wine in
hand. He stuck Post-its onto points
of interest: Apple, Samsung, Tesla,
new transit lines. He believed he
understood what tech workers
wanted: spacious feng shui- and
Vastu-compliant homes, with a bed-
room on the fi rst fl oor to accommo-
date foreign parents on long visits.
And most important, good school
districts. He resolved to acquire 10
homes within a 12-minute drive of
Apple. For $1 million down, he’d
38
bids