Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

I get inquiries often from buyers who find the cost of buying a home to be a bit overwhelming.

But after we sit down and I lay out the benefits of actually owning a Knoxville home of your own versus continuing to rent one they almost always see the financial and other intangible benefits of buying now.

Here’s how you can do your own analysis.

Currently our average sales price in the Knoxville, Tennessee area is around $165,000 for a typical 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with a 2 car garage. A home like this would typically rent for $800-1,000 a month.

In this market I can usually negotiate seller paid closing costs into a sale so your cash to get into a new home would be $0; that’s right, you can still get $0 down mortgages at affordable rates in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Here are the numbers for a 5 year, buy vs. rent scenario.

When you combine the tax benefits of owning a home, the annual appreciation in value, plus the investment benefits, it almost always makes more sense to buy than continue to rent.

Visit www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com to find some great choices in homes to buy then let’s get started buying you a Knoxville home of your own instead of renting and helping your landlord buy the home or apartment you’re in now.

In honor of National Tourism Week many of Knoxville’s attractions offered free admission on this past Saturday, May 10th.

The majority of these attractions are free every day but some have an admission charge so it was a good day to have a family outing with little expense.

Admission free was:

• Armstrong-Lockett House: Also known as “Crescent Bend” because it sets on a bend in the Tennessee River This mansion, known as the Armstrong-Lockett House, is a magnificent home built in 1834 and positioned as a centerpiece on 600 acres of rolling Tennessee land between the river and the mountains. Painstakingly restored in 1977, the interior is authentic 18th century furniture and artwork. The silver collection dates back to 1640. The Italianate gardens are a combination of terraced levels, classic fountains, and thousands of colorful blooming plants. Closed most weekend afternoons during the spring and summer for weddings so please call ahead to confirm that it is open. Normal admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students.

• Blount Mansion: Built in 1892 by William Blount, Tennessee’s first governor. This home was also the Governor’s mansion when Knoxville was Tennessee’s capital city. Normal admission is $4.95 for adults, $2.50 for ages 6-17, and free any day for children under 6.

• James White’s Fort: Built in 1796 by James White, the Founder of Knoxville, came here in the early 1780’s from North Carolina. He had fought in the Revolutionary War and was given a land grant of 1,000 acres for his service. James White laid off part of his land in October 1791 to establish a town which would become known as Knoxville, named for Henry Knox, president Washington’s Secretary of War. Sixty-four lots were laid off in 16 blocks, each lot being one half acre in size. The cost was $8.00 per lot and a lottery drawing was held to assign the lots. Much cheaper than today’s prices. Normal admission is $4, children under 12 $2.50, and under 6 free.

• Knoxville Museum of Art: The KMA’s predecessor, the Dulin Gallery of Art, opened in 1961 in a beaux-arts mansion in West Knoxville. By the middle 1980s the Dulin had outgrown its quarters, and a major community effort raised $11 million for a new museum in downtown Knoxville at the site of the 1982 World’s Fair. The Knoxville Museum of Art opened in March 1990 in a state-of-the-art, 53,200 square-foot facility designed by renowned museum architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Normal admission is $5 with children under 17 free. The museum also is free most Thanksgiving holidays and several days around Christmas.

• Knoxville Zoo: Adults, $16.96, Seniors, $14.95, and $10.95 for children 2-12. A little pricey but it’s a great zoo with birds, mammals and reptiles of all sorts!

• Star of Knoxville Riverboat: Great boat ride along the Tennessee River. You can see parts of Knoxville from the water that you can’t see any other way. Normal rates are $14.25 for adults and $8.95 for children 4-11.

• Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame: Last but certainly not least in the land of UT Coach Pat Summitt and the 8 time national championship UT Lady Vols. Adults normally $7.95, Seniors and children 6-15 $5.95

Knoxville has lots of free stuff especially around holiday times so residents and visitors alike need to do some research and take advantage of what our fair city has to offer.

Knoxville also has lots of great homes for sale; you can research them at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com

One commonly confused area of Knoxville & Farragut home purchases is the difference between an appraiser and a home inspector.

Each one has a very important job to do in the home buying (and selling) process but those jobs are distinctive and separate.

An appraiser is sent to the property by the lender to ensure that the purchase price is realistic and not out of line with recent sale prices of comparable homes. Lenders want to reach some sort of “comfort level” that if they have to foreclose on a property they can get most, if not all of their investment back.

A home inspector is typically hired by a home buyer to ensure the integrity of the structure and the mechanical systems. A home inspector will look for things like roof leaks from the attic, check electrical panels to make sure all is well there, check HVAC systems to make sure it’s in proper working order, and a long list of other things.

So if you’re buying a Knoxville area home you’ll need the services of both an appraiser and a home inspector to make sure you’re not only getting the home at the right price but to ensure the structural integrity and all the mechanical systems are in proper working order.

If you haven’t hired a Knoxville area Realtor to represent you in your new home purchase please consider this my application for the job.

In addition to 30 years of successful experience helping hundreds of families buy new Knoxville homes ,I have earned the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) designation to represent those buyers more effectively.

You can hear recorded testimonials from former clients on my website, KnoxvilleMLS.com and search all of the Knoxville area’s Realtor listings.

The long awaited 2007 sales figures are now online for the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area.

Compiled by the Knoxville Area Association of REALTORS®, these figures present the 2007 sales activity.

It seems the greater Knoxville area continues to escape most of the real estate malaise affecting several parts of the United States. Knoxville’s sales volume posted a modest 10.8% decline, dropping from 17,401 homes sold in 2006 to ‘only’ 15,508 sold in 2007.

The Knoxville area average sales price did increase again from $166,100 in 2006 for a 3 bedroom Knoxville area home to $173,700 in 2007, a 4.4% rise.

Days on market DOM (time to sell) rose slightly from 83 days in 2006 to 92 days in 2007. However the DOM was 84 back in days in 2004 so I don’t see the 9 day increase as statistically significant.
Visit my Knoxville real estate website to find a new home for your and your family in 2008. From cottages to castles, Knoxville, Tennessee continues to be a great place to live, work, play, and buy or sell real estate.

Cute Cape Cod home in Knoxville, Tennessee

Beautiful home located in Farragut, Tennessee, a prominent Knoxville suburb.

The greater Knoxville area has been blessed with many areas of scenic beauty and recreational activity.

One of the area’s most popular attractions are the 7 major lakes; all less than a 30 minute drive from downtown Knoxville.

Picture perfect spot for relaxing

The seven major lakes surrounding the great Knoxville area are:

• Fort Loudon, the closest to Knoxville; it’s part of the Tennessee River which begins about 2 miles east of downtown.
• Tellico Lake to the south; it merges with Fort Loudon Lake at the Fort Loudon Dam.
• Watts Bar Lake which begins below Ft. Loudon Dam.
• Melton Hill Lake just north in both Anderson and Knox Counties.
• Norris Lake to the north also.
• Cherokee Lake to the east
• And last but not least, Douglas Lake, also east of Knoxville & Knox County.

This ring of lakes offer the widest range of water sports for every taste from fishing, skiiing, swimming, rowing, tubing, sailing, and most any other aquatic activity.

Of course waterfront housing is in high demand and the greater Knoxville area has all types and price ranges from the multi-million dollar luxury homes to the more modestly priced weekend getaways.

Visit KnoxvilleMLS.com and pick one out for yourself.

One final note of caution. The water levels of all our lakes is controlled by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Water levels are historically lowered in all lakes in the winter to make room in the lakes for spring rains.

The result is that some of the more shallow lakes lose a majority of their water and what is a beautiful cove in June becomes an ugly mud flat in January.

An experienced Knoxville Realtor can guide you in that area and help you ensure your lake property has year round water.

This floating dock will be high and dry until spring in this Knoxville area lake. The dry weather combined with TVA’s water drawdown has left this lake level very low at present.

Of historic significance in the Knoxville area is the 13 acre, Old Gray Cemetery located just north of the downtown area.

Founded in 1850, Old Gray Cemetery is named in honor of Thomas Gray (1716-1771), an English poet and author of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.

This beautiful Sunday afternoon Old Gray holds it “annual Lantern and Carriage Tour” marked by local actors portraying folks of note who are buried here and telling stories of their life and death.

This pistol packing lady is portraying Evelyn Hazen, a Knoxville socialite who scandalized the country in the 1930s by successfully suing her longtime fiance and lover for breach of promise and seduction……..and winning a judgement for $80,000 which was an impressive sum in that depression era. She died in 1987 and is buried in Old Gray.

This gentleman portrays the engineer of one of the trains involved in the great New Market, Tennessee train wreck in 1904 that is believed to have killed up to 113 people; one of the great disasters of that era. Reportedly people up to 15 miles away heard the two locomotives collide head on at a combined speed of over 110 miles per hour. Ironically both engineers were Knoxville residents and lived only a block apart in the now historic 4th & Gill neighborhood.

A trio of musicians entertained the crowd waiting for a ride through the cemetary on horse drawn carriages. The stringed instrument the lady is playing is called a hammer dulcimer.

“Rocky” and “Eleanor” pull a carraige load of visitors on a delightful Fall afternoon in Old Gray Cemetary while the guide on the right points out graves of interest.

This almost life-sized sculpture of a Confederate soldier marks the graves of two Confederate veterans, William Asbury Horne (1845-1891), an assistant quartermaster with the 42nd Georgia Infantry, and John Fletcher Horne (1843-1906), who was a sergeant with the Kansas Bottom Tennessee Artillery. The Horne boys specified in their wills that the statue be erected with it’s back forever turned to the North in continued defiance and disdain for the Union side. Apparently the Horne boys knew how to hold a grudge.

Old Gray Cemetary is filled with hundreds of stories like these and is a fascinating place to spend an afternoon or a whole day wandering and learning the Knoxville area’s history.

Visit www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to find a new, Knoxville home for you & your family.

Selling a house in today’s “doom & gloom” real estate climate is a little tougher than normal but it’s still possible to get your house sold quickly and for a great price.

Here are 5 things you must do in order to “Dress your house for success”. 

1. Step out of your homeowner shoes and put on a buyers. Start by walking across the street and looking back objectively at your house. Does it have that magic factor “curb appeal”. That just means it looks appealing to passers by. Shrubs neatly trimmed, lawn freshly mowed, garage doors down, no toys, bicycles, old cars, boats, and other clutter in view from the street?
2. Next walk up to your front door as a buyer would do and take a critical look around. Is your front door freshly painted and appealing with new doorknobs, kickplates, and hardware? No cobwebs up in the corners of the porch or doorframe? When you open the door does it open easily with no creaking hinges?
3. When a buyer steps inside is he greeted with pleasant (or no) aromas? Get a friend or neighbor to give your house the “sniff” test. Often when you live in a house you get used to odors others would find objectionable.
4. When your buyers starts looking around inside does he find new or clean switch plates on all your light switches? Buy new one or you can even remove the old ones and soak them in a warm pan of soapy water or run them through the dishwasher to get them clean. (WARNING: make sure they and your hands are completely dry before putting them back or you get a shock).
5. Make sure all your drapes, blinds, shades, and window coverings are pulled back or open to let in the light. Nothing turns more buyers off quicker than dark rooms. Also, make sure the windows are washed inside and out to enhance your house’s bright appeal. Get them professionally done if need be but get them done.

 Visit my Knoxville website to get a list of “40 Free or inexpensive tips can make your home show better, sell faster, and put more money in your pocket at closing.”

I also have a great, new e-book titled: “450 Ideas To Help Your Home Sell FASTER!”

I’ll be happy to email you a free copy to help you make your house sell faster for more money, just send me an email to ideas@JimLee.com to get your copy today.

Please call for a complimentary market preparation and staging consultation.

Knoxville homes are selling but they need to be put in tip top condition first and properly priced; I’m an expert at both.

This past August 7, 2007 was an largely uneventful day but it was also a special day.

16 years ago this past August 7th in 1991 Doctor Tim Berners-Lee sent the first message via the world wide web (www).

Doctor Tim Berners-Lee, father of the www

Doctor Lee is acknowledged as the father of the world wide web. For his accomplishment he was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire making him “Sir Tim Berners-Lee”.

Here’s a portion of the very first message sent across the www.

“The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to  make an easy but powerful global information system.

The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should  
be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within  
internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by  
support groups.”

Apparently smart runs in Doctor Lee’s family, both his mother and father were mathematicians and worked on the team that built one of the world’s first computers.

While working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Doctor Lee saw an opportunity to marry the then cumbersome Internet to TCP and DNS ideas and in his words: “ta-da! - the World Wide Web.”

© Copyright 2007, Jim Lee, All rights reserved

As if losing your house to foreclosure is not bad enough, you could end up liable for IRS taxes on the amount of debt your lender might ’forgive’ during a “short sale” (where the lender lets you sell for less than you owe) or other workout arrangement.

Known by some wags as the IRS “kick em while they’re down” law, it works like this:

Let’s say you own a house with a $200,000 mortgage and can sell it for only $180,000. In a typical ’short sale’ the lender would agree to accept your $180,000 offer and write off the difference of $20,000 between what you owe and what you get.

A lender would do something like this not because they’re nice guys but because it costs them upwards of $50,000 in legal fees and other losses to foreclose on a property so if they can walk away with “only” a $20,000 loss it’s a not too bad deal for them.

Unfortunately, under the current tax code the IRS considers any forgiveness of mortage debt as somehow ‘income’ to you and fully taxable at your regular rates. Talk about adding insult (along with a potentially huge tax bill) to injury!

In some extreme examples, homeowners can spend months negotiating with creditors and just when they think they can see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel the IRS has hit them with a tax bill that in some cases exceeds their annual income.

One of the things I’m very proud to say the National Association of Realtors is working to change is that portion of our tax code.

 25,000+ Realtors were in Washington D.C. this past April for our annual mid-year meetings. We all met with our local representatives and some other federal departments and urged them to consider repealing this law.

We are in full support of The Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 1876) which is now in the House Ways & Means Committee.

We could use your help in getting this important legislation passed. If you’re willing here’s a link to your Congressional Representative where you can drop them a note telling them you support the passage of The Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 1876)