Moreland Properties- Celebrating 40 Years of Serving Austin

When Emily Moreland opened the doors of her independent real estate company in 1986, Austin was a different city, quieter, smaller, and just beginning to feel the tremors of a complicated real estate market. She had no franchise behind her, no national brand to lean on. What she had was a base of real estate experience, the will to go out on her own, and the prospects of a growing city.

Forty years later, Moreland Properties stands as one of West Austin's most enduring independent brokerages, with offices in Tarrytown, Lake Travis, and downtown Austin, with a growing presence stretching into Dripping Springs and the broader Hill Country. It is, in every sense, a West Austin story, one built on loyalty, grit, and a deep love for central Texas.

Moreland's original plan after college was quite different. Initially working as a teacher, she pursued real estate after her husband, Bill, suggested it as the couple began considering real estate investments. She remembers thinking, “Well, that’s crazy, I’m a school teacher”.

Opening her mind to possibilities, she chose to follow the suggestion and begin working at JB Goodwin, which had a great training program. She followed this experience with Coldwell Banker in Houston to grow her industry knowledge.

When the couple moved to Austin in 1985, they decided together that it was time for Emily to start her own company. The following year brought a blow that would have stopped most people cold. Bill Moreland died suddenly of a heart attack at 47.

This life-changing moment could easily have derailed plans for the newly launched venture. At the time, their older son had just married, and two of their children were at Westlake High School.

“You never know what prepares you for certain things like this in life, but you take it. If you don't, you become a martyr. And that's not what I wanted to be at all.”

Emily attributes the Westlake community's support during this difficult time as the defining factor in her ability to continue with her business plans.

“We were in the best place possible for that sort of grief to come on…it gave me the permission to keep going and try to expand what I had just started,” she shared.

Those early years required resourcefulness. The market downturn brought a wave of foreclosed properties, and Emily took listings from lending institutions, using those harder transactions to establish her firm's reputation for straight dealing. When the recovery came in the late eighties and nineties, Moreland Properties was well-positioned to grow with it.

"Several more wonderful people joined me as agents," she says, "and then it was about that time that I decided to go ahead and open the office out at Lake Travis. I always loved that community — we came up there with our boat, when we lived in Houston." That Lake Travis expansion proved a defining move, deepening the firm's footprint across West Austin.

Today, the firm also maintains a boutique downtown presence inside the Austonian building on Congress Avenue and is actively expanding into the Dripping Springs corridor, where Emily's daughter, Jan Moreland, is carving out a specialty market.

"The Dripping Springs market is amazing," Emily says. "Beautiful subdivisions, some with more affordable homes, and then some with lovely five to ten acres per house — it just looks like heaven."

The Eric Moreland Group (EMgroup), operating under the Moreland umbrella, was founded by Emily’s son, Eric, in 2003. EMgroup functions as a private advisory for Austin’s most exceptional properties. Working with her children has been a joyful part of Moreland’s experience. She smiles when she shares,” It's worked out beautifully.” M

Emily has weathered every cycle the Austin market has thrown at her: the savings-and-loan collapse, sky-high interest rates, the COVID-era buying frenzy, and today's rate-constrained pause.

Her advice for new agents. "You need to know what's going on in your area, about the schools, about parking, about businesses, health care, all of that plays into where somebody wants to buy a house," she says. And it has to be about service first: "It has to be more about your feeling of the service you're giving rather than your commission.”

Beyond her work life, Emily loves the arts. “If I could come back in my next life, I’d like to be a prima ballerina,” she shared. She believes that a city’s art community benefits economic development and has served on the Board of Directors of the Long Center and Ballet Austin. It is not unusual for her to sit in on rehearsals at Ballet Austin and enjoy the athleticism of the ballerinas and the choreography of Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin’s artistic director for the past 25 years.

Moreland has been a philanthropist not only to the art community. She served on the Board of the Red Cross and supports Foundation Housing and Breakthrough, among other non-profits in the city. “There are so many beautiful charities to help out and be a part of here in Austin. It is just easier than a great big city. And you make your good friends within those….that’s very rewarding”.

In recent times, Emily has pulled back from day-to-day operations and plans to retire to the beloved Moreland Ranch, where she has a small cattle herd, some horses, and a house large enough for the entire family. One can almost picture her, relaxing for a change, with a smile on her face, reminiscing about her legacy. One of twists and turns, loss and reinvention, and the building of a legacy that speaks to human perseverance, giving back, and, first and foremost, family.

MORELAND PROPERTIES AT A GLANCE