Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

Here’s an advance tip. None of the 7 reasons your Knoxville home will not sell have anything to do with mortgages, the sub-prime market, or the false real estate crunch CNN keeps insisting we’re all in. Back in the early 1980s mortgage interest rates were in the 18-20% range; buyers bought lots of house then too.

Reason number 1.  Your home is simply priced too high. After nearly 39 years in the real estate business this is the number 1 reason I see that keeps homes for selling. When you go to sell your home it is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, period, end of story. Find our what your Knoxville, Tennessee home would most likely sell for here.

Homes that are priced correctly, in tip top shape, and show to best advantage always sell.

Reason number 2.  Your home has not been updated or is in poor condition. Avocado green and Harvest gold bathroom fixtures date a house as around 30-40 years old in the Knoxville area market. You need to update or reduce the price to compensate for needed updating. Poor condition? Reduce the price or do some fix up.

This is an actual living room of a Knoxville area home for sale. Clutter, pool table in the living room, and too much ‘stuff’.

Reason number 3.  It is not being marketed effectively. Studies show that over 85% of today’s homebuyers look on the Internet to find a new home. If you’re not on the net or can’t be found online, your Knoxville home is invisible to these buyers.

A fresh, neutral paint job makes this living room appeal to all.

Reason number 4.  You’re in a poor location, i.e. near an interstate or busy road that generates excess noise and/or traffic. You can’t move the house so the only way to correct this problem is with pricing.

Reason number 5.  There is lots of competition in your price range. A new subdivision just down the road with similar homes to yours but brand new, a plant closing that has put lots of homes in your price range on the market, and other reasons can cause your home to linger on the market or not sell. A lowered price is the best antidote.

Unmade beds and general clutter create doubts in a buyer’s mind as to how well you’ve taken care of your house.

Reason number 6.  You may have a bad listing agent. Yep, they’re out there and they make the rest of us look bad. Before you sign a lengthy listing agreement ask about how you can cancel if you’re unhappy or not getting the results you want. Make sure your listing agent has the tools and skills to get your Knoxville home sold quickly and for top dollar

Even older homes can be made to appeal to most buyers with neutral decor, fresh paint, and some cleaning up.

Reason number 7.  Your home is not “staged” to show to its best advantage to potential buyers. Clutter, personal collections, too much ‘stuff’ and other factors, both in and outside a home can cause potential buyers to not see why they should buy your Knoxville area home. Look at these “before & after” photos to see what I mean.

Visit www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com for lots of tips on how to prepare your home to show to it’s best advantage. You will make more money on the sale and sell faster if your home is priced right and in showroom condition.

don’t turn back your clocks yet.

Because of a new energy saving law Congress passed in 2005 Daylight Savings Time (DST) doesn’t officially start until 2:00 AM on November the 4th of this year.

On the old DST, today would have been the day to turn back your clocks and it would have been an hour earlier in Knoxville now.

Those helpful folks at our federal government figure that if you have more daylight at the end of the day you’ll consume less energy, i.e. electricity, etc., so DST is an energy savings measure.

Part of the downside is that it also gets light later in the morning causing some Knoxville area school children to have to wait in the dark for their school busses to come exposing them to obvious dangers from traffic.

In states like Tennessee which is bisected by the Central Time zone and the Eastern one, it is doubly confusing to get in turn with the new time change for a few days.

Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states that choose not to observe DST and stay on standard time the year round.

And pity the poor people in Indiana which not only did not observe Daylight Savings Time until 2005 but had their own unique and complex time system. Not only is the state split between two time zones, but until recently, only some parts of the state observed daylight saving time while the majority did not.

Under the old system, 77 of the state’s 92 counties were in the Eastern Time Zone but did not change to daylight time in April. Instead they remained on standard time all year. That is, except for two counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., which did use daylight time.

But the counties in the northwest corner of the state (near Chicago) and the southwestern tip (near Evansville), which are in the Central Time Zone, used both standard and daylight time.

I think if I were visiting Indiana I would simply ask a native the time instead of trying to figure it out. 😉

So you just closed on your new Knoxville home and the seller gave you the keys at the closing table.

What’s the first thing you need to do with your new keys.

I recommend throwing them away and getting all the locks in your new home re-keyed by a professional locksmith.

On my website there is a section titled “Moving In” which contains a list of other Knoxville area professionals I’ve had long association with and recommend; one of them is Larry’s Lock Shop.

For less than a hundred bucks Larry’s guys will come to your house and re-key all your exterior locks and cut you new keys. I have all my exterior locks keyed alike so we only have to carry one key for our house; I find this to be very convenient.

Here’s just one of many reasons why you should rekey your locks.

You have no idea who has or has had keys to your home while and before it was on the market for sale in the Knoxville area. It is a very common practice for homeowner to give a key to:

• neighbors
• friends
• relatives
• co-workers

and goodness knows who all else. You probably don’t want people like these, honest or not, having a key to your new home.

One last tip. PLEASE don’t hide a key anywhere outside your house, i.e. under a rock, doormat, or other such popular hiding places.

Home burglars know all about “snail-hide-a-key, fake rocks, and other ‘cute’ outdoor key hiders; it’s their job to know.

Please call me or visit www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to find my list of Knoxville home service professionals to make your new Knoxville Tennessee home safer and more enjoyable for you and your family.

Please call or email me with any real estate questions about our marvelous greater Knoxville, Tennessee area and homes for sale. 

 

The Knoxville Area Association of Realtors recently released their 3rd quarter 2007 Knoxville area home sales data.

and the data is not bad at all, especially comparing the greater Knoxville area to many other parts of the United States.

Our average sales price for a typical 3 bedroom home jumped from $169,300 in quarter 3 2006 to $177,200 in this third quarter; a 4.6% increase which is fairly typical in the Knoxville area real estate market.

 View all Knoxville homes sales data back to 1999.

Source: Knoxville Area Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service statistics

Total homes and condos sold during the previous quarter were 4,463 and we dropped a bit from the 4,645 Knoxville area homes sold during the same period in 2006.

The third quarter median sales for a Knoxville 3 bedroom home rose from $149,900 in 2007 to $157,900 in 2007 which is a 5.3% increase.

Visit KnoxvilleMLS.com to see current Knoxville area homes for sale including condos and land.

Reading my morning newspaper this morning and I was very surprised to see a photo of fellow Realtor Deborah Black trying to rescue one of her horses which wandered off and fell into a partially filled swimming pool near her Fountain City home.

Deborah is the one in the red T shirt shivering in the pool.

Personally I’ve never tried to coax a 1200 pound horse out of a swimming pool but I’m sure it took some imagination and some effort.

The Knoxville Fire Department, animal control workers, and some veterinarians from the University of Tennessee finally managed to lift the animal from the pool with the aid of a wrecker and a special rescue harness.

Deborah is a very accomplished horsewoman and riding instructor. She and her swimming horse “Look to the Mountain” have won tons of trophies over the years not only in the Knoxville area but all over the east coast.

Mountain is now retired from horse shows but apparently he’s thinking of starting a new career as a swimmer. 😉

Read the soggy horse story here.

Find yourself a new, Knoxville area home, with or without a swimming pool, here, “BYOH” (Bring Your Own Horse)

Those of us fortunate to live in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee have a unique opportunity to enjoy camping and hiking in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There are over 800 miles of great hiking trails in the back country of the Smokies and many, many beautiful spots to enjoy.

But, there is also danger.

Hikers and visitors often become lost and every now and then, a death results.

While planning an upcoming trip to Spence Field, a very popular trail shelter and scenic camping area along the Appalachian Trail, I was reminded of one of the mysterious disappearance back in 1969 of a young boy named Dennis Martin.

Dennis Martin, circa 1969

On Father’s Day, 1969 Dennis, aged 6, his older brother, his father, grandfather, and two cousins were on their annual camping outing at the Spence Field trail shelter.

While playing nearby the boys decided to circle around behind the trail shelter and jump out to scare the adults; Dennis went around one way and the other three boys went in the opposite direction.

Spence Field Trail Shelter where Dennis disappeared.

The three boys circled the shelter, jumped out and scared the adults. They all had a big laugh about it.

Then someone asked: “where’s Dennis?”. Dennis never showed up from his side of the shelter.

Immediately the adults began searching and calling for young Dennis; no answer, no Dennis. One of the adults went for help.

Early the next day there were over 150 park rangers and volunteers searching all around Spence Field, a large, grassy area.

No Dennis, no trace, no signs, no footprints, nothing.

The search continued and grew. By the eighth day helicopters were ferrying in searchers.

The Army sent teams of Green Berets, there were local tracking dogs, and at the height of the search, nearly 2,000 volunteers beating every inch of the brush for miles in all directions.

Still no Dennis.

Dennis Martin remains missing to this day. No trace of him was ever found in spite of the massive search efforts by experienced park rangers, Army personnel, dogs, and hundreds of volunteers.

I often wonder what happened to Dennis on that day so long ago; I often wonder if we will ever get an answer.

Within walking distance to the new shopping areas around the Callahan Road/Clinton Highway intersection is a great, new condo development called “Cherrybrook”.

Two basic models to choose from; a 1198 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, unit with a 1 car garage and a 1398 sf, 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a 2 car garage. All electric for economy and comfort and over 60 retail shops (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, Home Depot, Ruby Tuesday, and many others) are less than 1/2 a mile away.

Anyone concerned about all the ‘doom & gloom’ national real estate news should take a drive through Cherrybrook and see all the SOLD signs for yourself; no real estate recession going on here or in the rest of the greater Knoxville area either.

Extra photos, floor plans, and a location map here.

Excellent quality and finish work throughout. Don’t miss seeing these great units; more being added daily.

Visit KnoxvilleMLS.com to see these and many more exciting new Knoxville homes & condos.