Chris Bee Realtor

Chris has been extremely helpful and patient. After I had exhausted public listings with no success– He helped me find an awesome place for me and my dog in a great neighborhood! Thanks Chris! :)

The reviews don’t lie! Chris Bee is quite the personality. But even more important than his quirky Austin character is his ability to find you a home you’re absolutely in love with. He knows Austin in and out, and is the most patient realtor I’ve ever used or heard of.
Chris truly listens to your needs, takes his time with you, and if you’re as picky about your living situation as I am then this is the guy for you. Sure, he may come off a bit odd at first, but this is Austin — get used to it!

After unsuccessfully searching for a place on my own, my partner and I reached out to Chris who was a godsend. Within one day he was able to locate several housing options and was very knowledgable about both the properties and the surrounding areas. We were very impressed with his approach, as he never failed to be direct and realistic with us. Many realtors will try to find what’s best for their commission and not what is the optimal fit for you. I can’t recommend him enough to anyone who is looking for a new living situation in any part of the city. Extremely funny gentleman as well. He had us cracking up with a few of his jokes while we’re commuting from place to place.

DEEP BREATH: When someone recommends something or someone to you, it very rarely starts off with «This dude made me very uncomfortable.» I was not looking forward to calling Chris after my friend told me her experience, I hate talking on the phone, and human interactions in general make me anxious. The first time we used Chris was three years ago, he was not our first realtor; we had the joy of working with a young, hip guy from urban squared. He did not listen to us.
We gave up on him and I sucked it up and called Chris, he is an older gentleman who LOVES CATS, like really loves them and kind of smells like a cat lover… He then showed us this AMAZING apartment off Enfield, under our budget and twice the size of the other apartments we had been shown. We moved in.
This time around my husband and I decided to look at as many options as possible, with the sky rocketing rent in Austin we wanted to be sure we got the most bang for our buck, so we made an appointment with Chris and another realtor.
The other guy we saw was AWESOME and showed us some really great places, but we decided to still see Chris since I took a day off work to look at apartments. After a very mumbling phone call with Chris my husband and I went to the location.
An older apartment building in Hyde Park, convinced we had already found our apartment and was just doing our due diligence I was NOT looking forward to this encounter. Chris told us to just go ahead and enter the apartment and he would be there shortly. We opened the door, and it was ours. It was about 120sq ft larger than any other properties we looked, all hard floors which is a big plus for us because my husband is asthmatic and allergic to our two cats that I forced him to get by bombarding him with cute pictures and crying when I drag him to the animal shelter. Judge me if you want, I needed those cats and now he wouldn’t have it any other way.
We waited about 15 minutes for Chris to show up, inside the apartment we knew we were going to take, the other apartments Chris was going to show us were far up north and we really weren’t interested in the north. Chris finally arrived and I really don’t know how to say this politely or nicely so please just don’t assume I am the biggest jerk in the world. He did not have a very pleasant aroma; it was a bit distracting which is a shame since he really is a very kind man who genuinely wants to help his clients. That being said, he gets pretty upset if you mention seeing another realtor.
In the end we got the apartment, Chris is sort of like a smelly unicorn apartment finder. My advice: call Chris, hope he didn’t eat anything that upset his stomach before your visit, tell him exactly what you want and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
This review was difficult for me to write, I tend to have comedic approach to life and writing, in fact this isn’t the first review I wrote for our experience, but my normal rambling banter and poking fun at myself and the world around me came out incredibly mean spirited.
So tldr;
Chris is great at what he does, he will listen to you and show you unlisted properties, he has a lot of connections but at some point he will probably make you wish you hadn’t made that call but in the end you will be happy with the outcome. One day of running around with this eccentric fellow will lead to a year or so of living in a place you love for a price you can swallow.

Chris has helped me twice so far. He is an extremely hard-​working person, and he is super funny. He’ll crack jokes the whole time, which eases the stress of apartment hunting. He knows the places that aren’t listed on Craigslist. I would recommend him to anyone for a house or apartment.

Others reviewers sum it up– Chris Bee is kinda weird and kinda scatterbrained. That said, he’s clearly a sweet, old school Austin guy who actually cares about finding people a new home, and he has access to listings not posted on Craigslist. After gathering my info, he showed us a great house that was exactly the size, price and location we were after– didn’t try to upsell a pricier place, didn’t try to push us into a make-​it-​work situation– just asked what we wanted and delivered. He connected us with the property managers and followed up multiple times over the next 3 days, when we signed a lease.
After dealing with some other realtors in town, it felt good knowing my $ went towards the commission of a nice guy.

Chris Bee is a wonderful person and real estate agent. He is honest, funny, and just a very nice agent to work with. He cares for you as a person and not just another client. He puts you and your needs at the utmost importance, he tries his best to stay within your budget and find what you are looking for. And to add, he definitely has a soft spot for animals as he’s talked about his pets. He definitely helped me on my search for a new place and he is willing to go the extra mile to help you with what you are looking for. :) I definitely recommend him as an agent!

Called Chris up. All I could hear through his deep subdued muffled voice, and the telephone static (turns out he was eating while on his headset) was the address of the apartment we were to meet at, and that we’d meet in 5 minutes. See you there I said.
After finishing up riding with a realtor with a personality unappealing to my palette, Chris was a breath of fresh air. Well maybe not fresh air. His car was scattered with envelopes and papers, and he had a worn traffic cone in his backseat. When I got in the car he almost put his elbow in his half eaten ZEN stir fry resting on the armrest. He seemed unaware. That’s why I liked him. He was at ease in himself.
At the same time, Chris was very aware of the changes and apartments in Austin. I would list a place I saw on Craigslist and he would tell me about the real estate agency and aspects of the apartment. All the while, he gave random facts about Austin. He told me about the shooting in 1966 from the University Tower, and how the two police who took down the gunmen argued over who pulled the trigger first. He’s been at this 15 years. Chris breathes this city.
He showed me several off the path gems in my price range. He also really saved me from a challenging situation. The apt I signed with 4 months ago told me my apt wasn’t ready 2 days prior to my move in (this Friday). So I chose the 3^rd place Chris showed me, and emailed the realtor before writing this.
In conclusion, I’d like to say Chris is authentic Austin. He could easily costar in Slackers 2. I’ll always remember the solar powered flower rocking shades, bobbing up and down on his dashboard forever and ever. Amen.

Yes Chris Bee is an unusual guy, and yes his car is a bit messy with papers and files. However, I had a great experience with Chris Bee because:
1) He shows you the properties you want to see! I have dealt with agents in the past that only showed properties that gave them high commission. In Austin, this meant those very large housing communities, which I really don’t like. Chris will show you properties of all kinds in all neighborhoods if that’s what you’re looking for. He doesn’t just try to steer you to a property that’ll pay him an extra large commission.
2) He also works on weekends. This is extremely convenient for people that work during the week (me and most people).
3) He was respectful and professional. He spent many hours showing me apartments. I ended up getting lucky and finding a below market rate sublease from a guy off craigslist. When I told Chris I found something elsewhere, he was understanding.

Chris Bee is an excellent agent for the following reasons:
–he takes calls on weekends and will show you apartments at a moment’s notice
–he knows about older properties other realtors don’t show
–he’s been around a long time and knows the city very well
–he knows Hyde Park, Manor Rd., Burnet Rd., West Campus, North Loop, and North Campus properties very well
–he’s good at finding properties in a lower price range.
That said, he’s eccentric, he’s weird, and he’s better at showing properties «off the beaten path» than the newer complexes. I’ve gone to see properties with him several times, and he’s not drunk, but he does mumble. If you’re looking for something upscale or in north or south Austin, you might be better off with another realtor.

There are other reviews for Chris Bee under Avignon Realty… I wish I had googled him after our first call, where he sounded disorganized and I thought, perhaps intoxicated. He couldn’t get my name straight and asked the same questions more than once. He said he would email me a list of properties and we could go look at the ones that fit my criteria and budget. Two days later, I had to text him to remind him to send the list so I could look at it in advance of our appointment.
The list included many areas of town, like West Campus and Riverside, that I said I DIDN’T want to live in, as well as the property I currently reside, haha. In any case, I found 7 that looked promising and emailed him the names and locator numbers, asking that he call ahead to see if they had something in the next 30 days or we’d just skip it. Well, 11am rolls around, no sign of Chris. I called him 15 mins later, and it sounded like my call woke him up. He was disoriented and it seemed he thought this was our first convo, asking my price range and where I currently lived. Once he realized who I was, he told me he hadn’t even checked his email (!) and proceeded to look it up while we were on the phone, mumbling something about personal stuff going on… Not good. I had to resend him the email and tell him which account it was going to, and then he said he’d call the properties for availability and get back to me.
Close to noon he called back and said he could come pick me up. I was on the phone when he called 2x a row, and he left a rambling message accusing me of getting his list just so I can «undercut» him out of a commission, and he was going to get out of the business soon because of people like me. WOW! I called him back, and he didn’t even apologize for his rude message. I then googled him, seeing the other bad reviews, I just didn’t think I wanted to waste my time with this weird situation any further.
Uh, NO, I am not trying to rip you off, I am sitting here an hour past our appointment time waiting for you to get *your* act together, dude! My time is valuable and he disrespected it, and whatever personal issues this man has are obviously bleeding over into his ability to do his job properly. I feel bad that he has problems, but it’s not on me to deal with it, and my experience reflects that of most of the other reviews, rather than the stellar one posted before me by someone who perhaps got Mr Bee on a rare good and lucid day. However, since the vast majority of his good reviews under Avignon seem to be written by sockpuppet accounts with next to no other reviews except to give Chris 5 stars (most of which have been filtered by Unilocal), all I can say to that is: seems legit.

Chris is a really nice guy and a very thorough agent. I met him while shopping for an apartment rental. Chris really took the time to understand my needs and then beat the streets to find me something. He knew many apartment managers by name and seemed to have a very comprehensive knowledge of Central Austin.
I recommend him highly for any needs you might have.