Liz Reyna
Downtown Austin Luxury High-Rise Specialist
@properties Lone Star, Christie's International Real Estate
512.431.8283
Every agent who writes on this question answers it with their own name. That is not useful to you. What is useful is a set of tests you can apply to anyone, including me, before you sign a representation agreement on a seven figure high-rise purchase or sale.
By Liz Reyna, Downtown Austin Luxury High-Rise Specialist. Published September 2026.
A house transaction is mostly about the house. A downtown condo transaction is about the building first and the residence second. The lender underwrites the building. The HOA's reserve balance decides whether you get a special assessment in year two. The declaration decides whether you can lease it. The floor plan two floors down decides what yours is worth at resale.
Most Austin agents sell single family homes and handle a condo occasionally. That is not a criticism, it is a different specialty, and the difference shows up in the documents. The nine tests below are how to tell whether the person across the table works this market or visits it.
From a condo seller
While other sellers were struggling or pulling their listings, I had multiple interested buyers thanks to Liz's strategic approach and deep understanding of condo sales.
A.S., condo seller. Full review below.
| Test | What to ask | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Condo financing | What happens if the building loses warrantable status while I am under contract? | A clear account of what the lender will do and how to protect the contract, from having handled it. |
| 2. HOA documents | Walk me through how you read a reserve study and a budget before I make an offer. | Reserve balance versus reserve study recommendation, assessment history, insurance trend, litigation. |
| 3. Floor plans | In my target tower, which lines would you steer me away from, and why? | Named lines from memory, in conversation, with a reason tied to exposure, noise, resale or layout. |
| 4. New development | What is in the downtown pipeline and how do I get in before public release? | Named projects, delivery windows, and a route to the sales team. |
| 5. Private market | How do you find inventory that is not on MLS? | Owner relationships and building networks, described concretely. |
| 6. Skin in the game | Have you owned condos as a principal, and do you now? | Yes, with what they learned from the HOA side of the table. |
| 7. Downtown life | Do you live downtown? Which building, how do you like it, and what is the community actually like? | A resident's answer, and one that can walk you casually through each section of downtown without notes. |
| 8. Condo share | What percentage of your closed transactions are condominiums? | A number. Most Austin agents are under a quarter. A specialist is well over half. |
| 9. Reviews | Which of your reviews come from condo clients, and what do they say about the building side of the deal? | Named clients, condo transactions, and comments about the HOA, the lender or the building rather than only about friendliness. |
Any agent can answer one or two of these well. The specialists answer all nine without reaching.
Downtown Austin's luxury high-rise market is a small set of towers, and a specialist knows them as individual buildings with individual quirks rather than as a category. At minimum that means The Independent, The Austonian, Seaholm Residences, Fifth & West, Four Seasons Residences, W Austin Residences, 70 Rainey, 44 East, The Shore and Milago, plus the new development pipeline: Vesper, Viceroy Residences Austin, The Code and UMusic Hotel & Private Residences among them.
Knowing them cold means knowing which towers have had financing status changes, which have rental restrictions, where the reserve funding is strong, which lines face the highway, and roughly what the top of each building holds. More on that last point in what makes a penthouse a penthouse.
The easiest test to run is a conversation. Ask an agent to talk you through downtown section by section and listen for whether it comes out flat and specific or general and rehearsed. A specialist should be able to do this over coffee, without notes, and it should sound roughly like this.
The Independent, Seaholm Residences, Fifth & West and the power plant redevelopment. Trail and lake access, Trader Joe's, quieter at night than anything east of Lamar. The cluster where most of my own days happen.
W Austin Residences, the Austonian a few blocks up, City Hall, the restaurant row along Second. Walkable to almost everything, which is also its noise profile.
70 Rainey, 44 East, The Shore, Milago, with more towers delivering. Lake and trail at the door, a bar district at the other door. Which side of the building you face matters more here than anywhere downtown.
Four Seasons Residences, Northshore, the lakefront strip along Cesar Chavez. The views everyone pictures when they say downtown, priced accordingly.
Whole Foods, the West Sixth bars, Nokonah and the older boutique buildings toward Judges Hill. Lower rise, more residential in feel, less high-rise inventory.
Sixth Street east of Congress, Waller Creek, Vesper, Viceroy and the projects still in sales. Where the next five years of downtown inventory is coming from, and where the tour-first buyers end up.
Floor plans work the same way. In any of these buildings I can tell you which lines face what, which stack over the loading dock, which have the usable terraces and which trade at a discount to the rest of the tower, and I can do it in conversation because I track the buildings every week. Ask for it.
Since I am asking you to apply the tests, here is my own record against them, scoped to what I can defend.
I have sold in a non-warrantable building and closed a sale through a change in a building's financing status mid-transaction. I work with condo board members on lending rule changes. The rules are laid out in Austin condo mortgage rules.
Reading a budget and a reserve study is the finance part of this job. I spent my prior career in institutional finance as a Director of Client Services, formerly Series 7 and 63 licensed. I read the documents before you write the offer, not after.
I track downtown MLS activity weekly at the building and line level. That is where the floor plan judgments come from.
My brokerage, @properties Lone Star, Christie's International Real Estate, is sales broker for Vesper, Viceroy Residences Austin, The Code and UMusic Hotel & Private Residences. Pipeline access is direct.
A meaningful share of downtown luxury trades never reach MLS. How that market works is in off-market downtown Austin condos.
I have been a condominium investor as a principal for more than 20 years, beginning in Chicago's River North, and I own a condo investment property in South Texas today. I have sat on the owner side of HOA decisions, which changes how you read them.
I live at The Independent. Ask me about the building, the neighbors, the walk to Seaholm and the lake, what downtown sounds like at 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and what I would change. You should get a resident's answer from anyone selling you downtown, and one who can talk through every section of it, and the floor plans inside the buildings, without reaching for a brochure.
Over eighty percent of my closed transactions are condominiums. That is the market I chose, not the one I fell into.
Two of the reviews below are condo sellers who closed in a market where other listings were being pulled. The third is a Westlake buyer, included for what it says about off-market sourcing. More are being added as they come in.
We couldn't have asked for a better agent than Liz. She knows the local market and how to compete with brand-new condos from staging to smart upgrades. Even in a challenging market, she navigated every step with confidence and professionalism, ultimately delivering results. She knows exactly how to connect with buyers.
I can't recommend Liz Reyna highly enough. Selling my condo in a tough market felt daunting, but Liz's expertise, attention to detail, and dedication made all the difference. From the start, she provided invaluable guidance on how to prepare my home for the market, giving me detailed advice on remodeling choices and even helping me select the perfect flooring. Liz didn't just stop at recommendations; she personally coordinated staging and went the extra mile by replacing some staging items with her own to ensure my condo looked absolutely perfect. While other sellers were struggling or pulling their listings, I had multiple interested buyers thanks to Liz's strategic approach and deep understanding of condo sales. Her market knowledge, eye for design, and commitment to her clients are truly unmatched.
We searched for months in both Westlake and Tarrytown, trying to find the right home in a competitive market. Being close to top-rated schools was our top priority, and we needed a realtor who truly understood each neighborhood. Liz knew the area inside and out and quickly helped us focus on the best spots feeding into Eanes ISD. She brought us exclusive off-market opportunities and guided us with professionalism and care. When we found the house, Liz made sure we secured it, handling every detail with urgency. Now we can walk our kids to school, and we genuinely believe we wouldn't be in our forever home without her.
Liz's take
Best is a word. A record in specific buildings is a fact. Ask for the second one.
No ranking body decides this, so the useful answer is a test rather than a name. Apply the nine above to anyone you are considering. I am one agent who meets them, and I would rather you verify that than take my word for it.
Usually. Condo transactions turn on the building: HOA finances, assessments, rental caps, lender warrantability and how the tower's plans compare. An agent who mainly sells houses rarely works with those documents, and mistakes on them are expensive and slow to surface.
Buyer representation is negotiated and set out in a written agreement before touring, as Texas requires. In many transactions the seller offers compensation that covers some or all of it. The agreement should state the fee plainly and say what happens if the seller offers less.
The sales team represents the developer. You can still buy through them, but bringing your own representation costs you nothing in most projects and gives you someone reading the purchase contract, the declaration and the reservation terms for you rather than for the seller.
Liz Reyna
Downtown Austin Luxury High-Rise Specialist
@properties Lone Star, Christie's International Real Estate
512.431.8283
Call or text 512.431.8283, or email lizr@christiesrealestatels.com, and ask me any of the nine. More on downtown Austin luxury high-rises, or start with the buyer's guide. Buying for UT weekends? Start here. Choosing a tower? Which building is right for you. Selling? Selling in a slow market.
The Downtown Edit
Building by building sales, what changed in the towers, what is coming to market and what is trading privately. Written by Liz from the weekly data pull. No listing blasts, and your address is never shared.
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