Habitat Hunters Real Estate

We cannot recommend Marni Kempf enough as your go-to realtor for all your real estate needs, renting or buying. She is absolutely the best we have ever had, so generous with her time and in depth with her research, so knowledgeable about the Austin area and so willing to accomodate your every need. We were new to the Austin area a year ago and we're lucky enough to engage with Marni to find a rental.

She babysat us for two weeks, accompanying us to all viewings and dedicating entire days to show us properties at the drop of a hat. A year later we were ready to buy and she accompanied us through the process again, intimately advising us every step of the way, doing thorough research on the area we were interested in and recommending third party contractors to fulfil all our needs.

We are now in our dream home for a very competitive price considering the market in Austin, and it was all thanks to Marni. We are so grateful and thankful for her and cannot recommend her enough.

Jeff was extremely involved in our home buying process and provided plenty of advice and expertise to guide us while making purchasing and design decisions. He was present at all scheduled meetings and even came to closing with us! We knew he would think of everything, which was comforting as we were first-time homebuyers. Thanks, Jeff!

Our experience with Marni amazing. We initially connected with her to find a home to rent and when we found a place we thought we might be interested in purchasing she was very attentive and resourceful to getting all the information we needed to make a decision was best for us. She is very well connected in the Austin area to make sure all the expected and unexpected situations that come up during this time are as painless as possible.

She had a great demeanor and knew how to manage all parties of the home buying experience very well. She even did more than she needed to with buying parts for our closet that really should have been done by the sellers. As new Austinites, Marni provided us a very warm welcome to our new city and we are excited to share her with our friends that are interested in moving here and we will certainly be working with her again on our next move!

We worked with Gary to find a house to rent in Austin and he deserves 10/10 stars! He was so great at communicating with us on updates during our search process and he was very patient with us as we wanted to make sure we found the perfect spot. Gary made a process that can be stressful so much easier and approachable! Habitat Hunters helped us loads as we moved to Austin from out of state and we would absolutely use this service again in the future.

Jeff is professional and helpful, always available to answer questions and very quick response to email, text and telephone calls. Overall, a good experience!

My fiance and I were under pressure to move out after our previous landlord decided to sell our place. I requested multiple listings from different sources and Gary Cross was the first to respond. He was everything we could have asked for. A guide, friendly, knowledgeable, and an excellent professional. We were able to get the place we wanted in under a week! We are extremely grateful for his service and Habitat Hunters! -Luis

Marni was fantastic. She was helpful, knowledgeable and patient with us as we searched for the perfect house. She listened to our feedback and found places that were exactly what we were looking for and coached us through the process. Cannot recommend her enough. Thank you Marni!

I worked with Gary Cross from Habitat Hunters and could not have had a better experience. Gary is extremely professional, punctual, and communicates quickly and clearly. Over the course of a couple of days, Gary set me up with an MLS search that fit my needs, and helped me land an incredible rental in East Austin. He worked tirelessly throughout the process leading up to signing our lease, and consistently checked up with us since to make sure everything was working out up to move-in. Go with Gary!

Jody did an amazing job marketing my home and we got a great price. Then she patiently helped me get my dream home in this crazy market. She is the best! No BS, just great experience and the real deal!

Ms. Lockshin did an absolutely FABULOUS job in navigating a very difficult and tricky 1031, staying available 24x7, and finding a motivated buyer who offered a great price for the property sold, as well as negotiating another advantageous great price paid for the replacement property. You can't do better than avail yourself of her organization's services.

Will Fordyce with Habitat Hunters was extremely helpful in our relocation to the Austin area. He was always prompt, easy to reach, excellent with communication and ultimately, he was there to help us find what would be a perfect fit for our family. He went above and beyond to help us when we were able to be there physically, but then also when we had to make some decisions virtually. We highly recommend Will Fordyce with Habitat Hunters. He demonstrates excellent customer service!

Frances Badgett was the absolute best realtor! She found a perfect house for us, with so much patience and hard work. She was always available and really guided us through the process, to the point that we felt like we were her only client. Her expertise, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail made us confident and worry-free that we would find something good for us. You are lucky if you have Frances in this hectic Austin market. A real pleasure to work with!

My wife and I worked with Melissa at Habitat Hunters, first to get a rental home and then to buy our first house! She was great every step of the way, walking us through the process and answering every question we had. She was responsive at all times and during the house buying process (during a global pandemic no less) she was on call and working to make sure we got our offers in on time and with the best possible information. We credit her work for getting us our dream house during the insane Austin market. You can't go wrong with Melissa and team at Habitat Hunters!

My Realtor was Katherine Lucress Debski and I cannot recommend her highly enough. Katherine is the epitome of a professional, knowledgeable, customer oriented, champion for her client, than any Realtor I have ever had the pleasure with whom to conduct business. I was interested in purchasing an investment property in Williamson County. I set my parameters and "lucked-out" in getting a call from Katherine on an inquiry I made on Zillow.

She patiently showed me a variety of properties in Hutto, then Taylor and finally in Jarrell. When I decided on a property in Jarrell, she went through all the steps leading up to an offer and negotiated with the Seller's agent to get me a good deal. Okay, I know, that's what a good Real Estate Agents are supposed to do. What makes Katherine exceptional is all the time she spent with me during the closing process.

She demonstrated such a high degree of customer service and caring and totally represented me with the utmost professionalism. This was not a particularly expense property and I know Katherine was not earning a huge commission, but she was always my champion, always returned phone calls, patiently explored options, clearly explained what was happening and valiantly tried to work with the Title Company.

I unfortunately worked with Zillow Closing Services (see my review about Zillow). To say this was one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had with a Title Co. is an understatement. Katherine made at least 40 phone calls (never returned) and sent dozens of emails (never answered) and finally had to deal with the Lender and the Seller's Agent directly (who were also frustrated with Zillow Closing Services) to get any information I required from the Title Company.

What patience! I was so frustrated I was almost willing to sacrifice the downpayment on the house because of the Title Company's incompetence. If it hadn't been for Katherine, I would have done so. Katherine was there for me through the entire process and if I ever decide to buy or sell another property, it will be Katherine and Habitat Hunters I turn to.

If I could rate her 10-stars, I would! Thank you to Habitat Hunters and Katherine Lucress Debski for making this happen. It's easy to see why Habitat Hunters was voted "Best Realtor, Best Apartment Locator" by Austin Chronicle readers. Obviously having an Agent like Katherine makes that possible

My agent was Bryan Ritter. He did an exceptional job in helping me find a house to lease. He especially helped when there were issues with a house that I might not recognize but as a realtor he did. He also promptly answered any questions I had. He was also very helpful especially since it was during the stay-at-home order.

JODY LOCKSHIN was wonderful. She found homes that fitted exactly what we wanted in a future home. She was quick to communicate and shows that she values her clients.

I worked with Pete Philips, he was the best realtor ever! We knew exactly what we wanted, the issue was finding it. Pete went all over with us, and he never complained. We were able to find our perfect home! He even checked in afterwards to see how the move in went. I would highly recommend this company and Pete.

Jody was professional and energetic and made our house hunting adventure fun and exciting. I really appreciated how prompt she was in returning texts and phone calls. Thank you : I am looking forward to having you over to our brand new house.we are loving it!

Will Fordyce was great to work with. He communicated with me every step (regardless of what time it was) of the way and worked around my schedule. He even chauffeured me to the homes we went to view. Being chauffeured is the stuff of legend that I hear from my parents and grandparents, but that I've never experienced in the past 14 years I've dealt with real estate agents.

He was professional without being stuffy. As soon as I had decided on a property, he set up the introduction between the property manager and myself so that communication could happen without a third party. Would highly recommend.

Great combo team. Jody showed me some properties and Jeff took care of me once a property was selected. Both answered all my questions promptly (and there were many as a first time home buyer). They were also available at off hours. which was key for my schedule. Kind, knowledgeable, and experienced. I don't know why they say buying a house is stressful. I've played hands of poker more stressful than this whole process. Good realtors help I'm sure!;)

Jody is hard working, diligent, knowledgeable, experienced, responsive, and most importantly, will not give up until you find the home of your dreams. We had to place multiple offers before we finally found our home. Jody patiently showed us tons of homes, would drop everything to show us a newly listed home with short notice, and fiercely negotiated for us, saving us thousands of dollars in a very competitive market. I highly recommend Jody and her team for your real estate needs.

Habitat Hunters is the best place to start if you need to find a place to live in ATX! I thought I had already looked at every property in Austin that sort of met my needs. Late in my search I happened to meet Jeff, who asked me to give Habitat Hunters a chance to see if they could find something better. And sure enough they did. Jeff found an undiscovered gem by going the extra mile and calling the property that I had already passed by because it wasn't obvious that it met all of my specs. It is perfect and I love my new place.thanks Habitat Hunters!

We love our new home! Thank you Jody and Habitat Hunters for everything. We had particular specifications and were limited to one zip code! Jody us house after house that met and exceeded our expectations! She took us out to see homes at our connivence, she pointed out the obvious that we had over looked as we were struck, in a few cases, with those stars in our eyes you only hear about in the movies! Jody knew not just the specs of the houses, the neighborhoods, the long term market trends for the area, she knew about the schools, local development trends, community growth and how our zip code of choice fit into the big picture of the greater Austin area and Central Texas in general. Jody is accessible by as many was as there are to communicate. Jody laughed at my husband's Jokes!

It was when I discovered that we have an old friend in common, that I learned that Jody loved working with us too! Jody is personable, precessional and she doesn't quit! We made four offers, where three had failed their inspections miserably, before we landed the perfect house, with a blue ribbon inspection report and with sellers who were responsive to Jody's excellent all business commitment to us, her clients. We are thrilled with the results we got from working with Jody!

Habitat Hunters really came through for us. My family of four needed to move out of our East Austin house for a year-ish while we are doing an extensive remodel, and we needed a rental near our house and our kids' school. We were working on our own for a while trying to find a place, and had little luck navigating the current rental market. A few realtors we met along the way offered to help us out but didn't really seem to get our needs.

Then I happened upon a property leased by Habitat Hunters and was hooked up with Melissa Wile, who showed it to me and also took me over to another place she thought was fairly similar in the same area. Melissa was great. A super professional, easy going, and best of all a great listener who got our needs immediately. She was pretty honest about the ups and downs of the two places we were currently looking at, neither of which was really ideal, and after listening carefully to our needs she went back to her office and within 30 minutes had come up with a list of another seven or so places to show us the following day that had slipped our radar but fit our bill.

She met me the next morning, and from that set we narrowed it down to two places that would work for us. She rushed to help us get the lease applications in, even working some on the weekend, and in the end we got a great place to stay that's in a perfect location for us and fits all the other criteria we had. She stayed with us through the process of getting the lease signed, and was super on the ball about making sure we were all situated in the end. I recommend Melissa highly! She really knows how to take care of people.

Spamming spammers. I never gave them permission to email be about their products and services. Wonder who all they share their email lists with.

I have to agree with some other low-star reviewers regarding Jody doing some questionable business practices, making her company, and even the represented property owners, look bad to the wider Austin community. Here are four main cases in point: 1. Jody stated to my realtor, before we submitted our application with the corresponding fee payments, that one application would be handled a time. However, she turned down my application after showing a property to another prospective tenant even while my application was still undergoing review, and before formally rejecting my application.

And this is related because she would not negotiate lease terms after this occurred, and instead stated she would reconsider our application after waiting for the same prospective tenants to submit their applications. 2. Before denying my application, Jody gave her terms to sign the lease, and I agreed to the terms completely, and stating so by email. Afterwards, she unilaterally changed the terms, making it more cost-prohibitive, by adding an extra $3,200 upfront to the lease terms.

And I tentatively asked if she would be willing to push back the move-in date, so that I would save $800 in payment in my effort to budget for this increase, considering she was now asking for $8,000 in a two month period under her new terms. Instead of negotiating and or even stating that there were no other options, she rejected my application flatly.

And yes, this is still on the same night she decided to suspend my application to review other potential applicants. 3. Adding to the unreasonable actions, she had previously asked and insisted that we present proof of 30-days notice of moving out of the current apartment. After providing this to her, it should have been obvious that I was serious about the move.

This creates undue hardship by putting myself in an awkward position of having to find a new place to live quickly after rejecting my application. She should have never required this at this point of time. 4. Trying to understand this, I figured I would try to budget myself to agree to her "final" terms (quoted because they seem to keep changing); and wanting the property so much, I relayed to her that if the costly final terms she presented were the only option, I would adhere to them.

Her response, as stated earlier, was that she would reconsider after dealing with other applicants. And then later said that I had been rejected, and without providing specific explanation (which I had requested) on how I could improve the application or make it at least palatable to her and/or the landlord. Overall, this woman is not one to negotiate with, and definitely not a mediator, considering that she does not appear to understand the hardship or stress that she places on other people seeking properties which she represents.

People like me have spent a lot of time working and trying to find a property that is likable and I am always willing to come up with workable solutions to exhaustion. Unfortunately, because of her unprofessional renegading tactics that she pulled, despite myself being a patient individual, I am going to have to file a report to the Texas Real Estate Commission.

If I were you, I'd avoid this person and her company at all costs. It was a waste of my application fees to deal with her, and something I wish would be refundable, considering her treatment.

It was absolutely a phenomenal experience working with Habitat Hunters to buy our home in Austin. This isn't my first time buying a property however this was the first time that I felt that the realtors were both helpful and earned their commission.