Former National Football League player Danny Amendola’s agents first tried a pocket listing of of his Austin home, before turning to the Multiple Listing Service.
Compass agents Lander Peerman and Katelyn Peterson represented the Super Bowl-winning wide receiver when he sold his West Lake Hills home for $3.6 million last month in a public, and publicized, purchase. The exposure was strategic, but only after the agents had exhausted the off-market process. The fact that it sold publicly demonstrates the sluggishness of Austin’s luxury market compared to hotter years, namely 2021 and 2022.
The house on Redbud Trail was listed for $5 million when it sold on Jan. 12, Redfin shows.
In a better market, the home never would have made headlines, Peerman said — and she’s optimistic that pocket listings will come back in force this year.
“We were listed off-market. Of course, that’s always the route that most luxury realtors take in Austin. And, unfortunately, the market has not been in our favor the last two, two and a half, three years,” Peerman said.
Luxury sellers tend to prefer pocket listings in Austin due to the area’s high property taxes and Texas’ non-disclosure laws. Alongside Compass’ proprietary Private Exclusive listing feature, networks like Clubhouse and the Austin Luxury Network operate as private listing services, where connected agents can browse selected properties.
After a “painful” market correction, though, Austin’s mansions are slinking into the spotlight.
“Covid really screwed up everything. It inflated prices in Austin even more than Dallas and Houston. And then ’23 and ’24 and ’25 came, and it was like this painful three-year period where everything had to correct,” Peerman said.
But winter is traditionally a slow season for home sales, and agents are optimistic about this spring and summer.
“I do believe this year is more of a transition year, and we might be getting back to a regular kind of market,” Peerman said.
The buyer of Amendola’s home is the mysterious JNO 2024 Irrevocable Trust, organized by an anonymous local, according to Peerman. The trust’s mailing address, a wealth management firm in Ohio, isn’t associated with any other parcel in Texas, based on 2024 data provided by the state. A similarly named entity registered to local entrepreneurs Abe and Jennifer Oeltjen, JNO Properties LLC, owns other properties in the area.
Amendola retired from the NFL in 2022 after stints at the New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans.
He bought the 4,800-square-foot home on a 1.1-acre lot for about $2 million in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amendola extensively remodeled the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house himself.
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