Who else wants their Knoxville or Farragut Tennessee home sold fast?

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 3:21 pm, June 26th, 2008

If your Knoxville or Farragut Tennessee home is on the market for sale and not selling here’s some things you can do to change that and help it to sell quickly.

  • dress your knoxville home for success with great curb appealCheck your home’s curb appeal. Go out your front door, walk across the street, and take a hard look at the view potential buyers see when they drive by. Are your lawn and shrubs neatly trimmed? A touch of seasonal flowers visible? Garage doors down and all bikes, big wheels, and toys put away? The first thing buyers have to do to buy your house is be attracted to it. Good curb appeal sets the stage for a positive visit. You might also check any online photos, especially the first one people see.
  • Check your price. What have similar homes to yours sold for in the past few months? What price range are pending sales of homes similar to yours in? Hows your market absorption rate right now? This is a very strange market we’re in all across the country and you need to know what the situation is locally; in your town, in your area, in your neighborhood. Make sure your house is priced competitively.
  • Have your home professionally “staged” inside. Staging is part art form, part science. Successful staging is much more than interior decorating; it’s literally setting a stage to make your home look like a model home. Declutter and put away personal “stuff” that detract buyers from looking at the actual house. Refresh tired and outdated paint colors. ‘Lean out’ over crowded rooms and consider renting a storage locker to store excess furniture and large possessions that take up floor space.
  • Instead of dropping the price, consider offering some incentives for potential buyers. Paying some or all of their closing costs is a tried and true inducement. Try and think of some unusual incentives such as paying their moving expenses. What buyer wouldn’t be attracted to the notion of not having to lift a finger on moving in day but rather directing free movers where to locate their heavy furniture.
  • Offer an incentive to local Realtors. Money works well. ;-) . Adding 1% to the fee a buyer’s agent can earn is a small portion of your sales price but it can attract more agents to push your house to their buyers. Let’s face it, money is a powerful motivator.

None, or even all, of these things are guaranteed to make your house sell but I think most would agree that the more you tilt the odds in your favor the better your chances of a sale become.

Visit Knoxville Home Center for 40 free tips to make your home sell faster and for more money. You can also request a free copy of my 52 page eBook titled “450 Ideas To Help Your Home Sell FASTER!”. Just click the “Free Stuff” link for this and more selling ideas.

Who is buying Knoxville & Farragut homes in 2008?

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 10:02 am, February 29th, 2008

Not surprisingly it’s the same people that were buying them last year; there’s just not as many this year.

Married couples still make up the overwhelming majority of the Knoxville area buying market and that group is trending toward younger, first time buyers.

No surprise there either. With interest rates so attractive right now many buyers are discovering they can buy a home and end up with a payment several hundred dollars less than they’re currently paying in rent.

Now is a great time to buy a Knoxville or Farragut Tennessee home

Coming in second in buyers that buy are single women; a trend that has remained constant for the past several years. Single women buy about 20% of Knoxville’s homes.

Single guys aren’t doing that well; only 9% of the buyer group are the guys. One has to wonder if they’re spending their money on the single women. ;-)

Minorities are buying Knoxville area homes as well.

African-Americans make up 7 percent of the home-buying populace; Hispanics and Latinos are 6 percent, and Asians and Pacific Islanders are 5 percent.

With the recent chaos and resulting clampdowns in mortgage guidelines, investors are not in the market now in such large numbers as before. Also, low down payment loans and jumbo loans are getting tougher to qualify for.

If you’re a Knoxville couple, single, minority, or a combination, and you are looking for a new home, KnoxvilleMLS.com is a great place to begin your search.

I also have a free “Homebuyer’s Toolkit” published by the Real Estate Buyers Agents Council (REBAC) that I would be glad to give you. It’s packed full of valuable information for homebuyers such as:

 

  • Deciding to Buy a Home 

  • Locating and Buying a Home

  • Making the Best Deal

  • Moving In 

  • Home Buyer’s Glossary of Terms

  • What a Real Estate Buyer’s Representative is… and Why You Should Use One

  • Finding a Neighborhood for You

  • Making An Offer  

  • Tax Tips for Buyers

  • How to Start Packing Prior to your Move

  • Resources 

Please call or email me with any real estate questions and to view any homes of interest.

As an “Accredited Buyer Representative” (ABR), I’m well qualified to represent you in your new home purchase and ensure you get the best house for your money.

knoxville tennessee homes for sale. farragut, maryville, lenoir city, oak ridge, real estate

“Rock harvesting” moves closer to the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area.

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 3:27 pm, January 17th, 2008

The first question you may ask youself is just what the heck is “rock harvesting” anyway?

Rock harvesting is the practice of removing native stone, in this instance Tennessee mountain stone, to feed the ever growing demand for the attractive stone’s use in buildings, walls, walkways, and landscaping.

No problem so far……but, the issue begins when rock harvesters began harvesting stone from public lands like the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park which is located about 50 miles north of Knoxville and along the Cumberland Trail itself.

The Cumberland Trail is the centerpiece of a state linear park with the 300 mile long Trail running from Signal Mountain near Chattanooga north to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Cumberland Gap was the first gateway to the western lands during Indian and pioneer days.

cumberland trail from Chattanooga, through Knoxville, to Cumberland Gap Kentucky

Imagine hiking through this pristine wilderness and rounding a bend to come across the photo below! In some instances the rock harvesters are working above the trail and huge boulders and debris falls downhill across the trail.

cumberland trail rock harvesting

Rock harvesting with heavy equipment along the enviromentally sensitive Cumberland Trail. 

Not surprisingly rock harvesting, like strip mining, is not enviromentally friendly since the rocks are mostly below ground level. Heavy equipment is used to dig them up and remove them leaving huge scars on the landscape.

To further exacerbate this pillaging of the land it seems the State of Tennessee neglected to buy the mineral rights when it acquired a lot state park lands and some of the lands along the long planned Cumberland Trail. Tennessee is in litigation to determine if mountain is actually a mineral and covered under the state’s mineral rights laws.

Whatever the outcome this practice is bringing horrible results to formerly pristine mountain lands, state parks, and the Cumberland Trail.

devil's racetrack north of Knoxville tn

The Devil’s Racetrack natural stone formation. This is visible from Interstate 75 north of Caryville, Tennessee and a part of the Cumberland Trail system.

watch for falling rocks along the cumberlant trail

If this is as big a concern to you as it is to me I urge you to join with us to put a stop to this practive before scenic beauty like the natural stone formations above are destroyed forever and lost to future generations.

Tax relief for troubled Knoxville, Tennessee homeowners

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 4:26 pm, January 12th, 2008

If you have a home in the greater Knoxville or Farragut Tennessee area and you’re struggling with your mortgage the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched a special section on their website to help with how foreclosures could affect your tax status.

In some circumstances you could still have very serious tax consequences even if you’ve gone through a mortgage ‘workout’ or a foreclosure.

Known by some wags as the “kick em while they’re down” law, the IRS has penalized some taxpayers in the past by declaring the amount of any forgiven mortgage loans as ‘income’ and charging the hapless taxpayers income taxes in money they’re never actually received.

I’m proud to say the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) is in full support of pending legislation to do away with this grossly unfair portion of IRS code.

H.R. 1876: Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act of 2007 would eliminate this unfair practice along with its companion Senate bill 1394, both of which have been introduced into Congress. “Introduced” is the first step in having a bill become the law of the land.

Visit my Knoxville area real estate website for buying and selling tips and guidance.

Knoxville greetings from sunny Destin, Florida

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 4:55 pm, September 21st, 2007

This week (Sept. 16-23) I’m down in Destin, Florida attending the annual Tennessee Association of Realtor’s convention.

The host hotel is the Sandestin Hilton located in the beautiful Sandestin complex.

It’s sort of off season in Destin now but the weather is still very warm as is the beautiful, emerald green & blue Gulf of Mexico.

tar convention gulf of mexico

I made this photo Monday; the location is up by the jetty at the East Pass.

I love coming to Destin, it’s sort of like a homecoming. You see I was stationed here in the mid 60s when I was a member of the US Air Force. BIG changes in the area since then; lots of new condos, houses, restaurants, shopping, etc., but one thing that hasn’t changed is the beautiful beaches and lovely Gulf of Mexico waters.

Instead of staying at the convention hotel we rented a beautiful beach house and invited a friend of ours to come along. My wife and our friend entertain themselves at the beach and shopping while I’m at the convention. We also have a secluded private pool out back when they’re too tired to stroll down to the beach.

charlotte & denise

My lovely bride Charlotte is on the right with our friend from Nashville, Denise. They’re heading for another tough day at the beach. ;-)

Great convention so far. We have had beautiful weather but there are reports of a tropical depression coming in this Saturday so we’ll probably spend that day packing and doing some last minute shopping.

tar convention

The convention committee did a superb job decorating; this is the entrance to one of the many classes offered. This one is by a long time real estate trainer named Howard Brinton.

tar convention

We also found time to do some business. This is from the TAR Board of Directors meeting Thursday. The nice lady at the podium is our outgoing President, Jewell McKinney who will  be replaced Friday night by Mike Gaughan.

It’s been a great year in real estate for TAR. I’m on our Government Affairs Committee and we’ve been busy this year keeping track of over 200 pieces of legislation affecting real estate.

Some of the legislation we’ve tackled this year includes:

Real estate transfer taxes. Some helpful legislators in the Tennessee House Local Government Subcommittee helped defeat a local option transfer tax in Sevier County.

Adequate Facilities Tax on new construction homes. TAR opposes this narrowly applied tax in favor of more broad based taxes which are shared by all instead of only burdening new constuction home. Both TAR and the Homebuilders Association of Tennessee opposed an increase in Rutherford County which was defeated.

One other bill I’m delighted to say we were opposed to and was defeated, would have made Tennessee Realtors responsible for determining immigration status for everyone we sold or rented a house to.

Tonight is the convention finale. If you’re a Tennessee Realtor and have never been to a state convention you truly don’t know what you’ve been missing.

Next year we’re holding the convention in Chattanooga so make plans to attend.

9 great reasons to buy a Knoxville, Tennessee home

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 9:45 am, August 27th, 2007

Across the country the media continues their “doom & gloom” mantra for home sales; “Record foreclosures”, “Bankrupt Lenders”, “Thousands of layoffs in mortgage industry”.

However the major flaw in those stories is that they all reference the so called “national real estate market”.

In fact, there is no “national real estate market” but rather hundreds of local markets, each with their own set of local influences.

In our local market which comprises the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area including the contiguous counties, sales are humming along rather nicely. The chart below compares the latest data, the 2nd quarter home sales report for the past 9 years.

knoxville tn real estate

A glance at the chart below shows an increase for each of those 9 years for a median priced, 3 bedroom Knoxville area home.

knoxville tennessee 2nd qtr sales

Here’s another year by year breakdown of our median price for a 3 bedroom home:

2nd Qtr 1999   $100,000

2nd Qtr 2000   $105,000

2nd Qtr 2001   $109,900

2nd Qtr 2002   $112,900

2nd Qtr 2003   $119,900

2nd Qtr 2004   $124,900

2nd Qtr 2005   $139,900

2nd Qtr 2006   $149,900

2nd Qtr 2007   $159,000

As you can see the greater Knoxville area market has been increasing slowly but steadily over the past 9 year according to the latest available data.

Knoxville has a very diverse economy which, combined with our mild climate, strategic location, and several other factors make it a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family.

That and today’s interest rates in the mid to low 6% range along with great selection of new and resale homes, make Knoxville, Tennessee a great place to buy a home.

Visit my website, www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to find a nice home for you and your family then call me to help you buy it.

5 ways to help your Knoxville area home sell.

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 9:29 am, August 23rd, 2007

Doom and gloom news abounds in today’s real estate market.

  • “Foreclosures: No relief in sight”
  • “Mortgage Bankers Association index falls 5.5 percent on lower demand for home-purchase and refinancing loans.”
  • “Prices drop for 4th straight quarter”

After hearing and reading news like that day after day for months now, lots of people are reaching the conclusion that the real estate market is down the proverbial tubes. 

Actually the real estate market (which is actually comprised of hundreds of local markets as opposed to one giant superstore) is alive and well in most areas.

Sure, some people that took out mortgages they were barely qualified for to start with are struggling and lots of them will unfortunately end up losing their homes. Several areas of the country where rampant speculation artifically ran up prices are seeing the downside of that speculation as their prices drop back to earth; but overall, homes are still selling, mortgage rates are still very attractive, and buyers are out there buying.

So if you have a house to sell today here’s 5 things you can do to help your house sell faster and for the best possible price.

Number 1. Fix it up and get it ready to sell. I don’t mean just dust and pick up the magazines laying around the couch. I mean get objective and look at your house as a buyer would. Do the walls need painting a neutral color? Paint them. Paint is about the cheapest fix up thing you can do, and offers the best bang for your buck.

Clean! Not just run the vacuum and swish out the bathtubs. I mean consider hiring a professional cleaning crew to come in and clean all the windows, scrub out the bathrooms and the kitchen, clean along where the walls meet the ceilings, and clean places you don’t normally touch.

knoxville tn homes for sale

Carpet worn and threadbare? Replace it. Carpet allowances generally say to a buyer; “I’m just going to let you walk on our worn out carpeting instead of replacing it.” Lots of times you can get 90 day or long, same as cash financing from carpet stores and pay for this upgrade out of your closing proceeds. Be sure to choose a neutral color and use the same color throughout.

Fix up, clean up are the best things you can do to make sure your house sells quickly for top dollar. Visit my website for a list of 40 free or almost free things you can do to make your home more appealing to potential buyers.

Number 2. Price it below the market value. I know I just said the housing market is still pretty good but there are also tons of homes on the market right now and the more ways you can make yours outstanding to a potential buyer the better your odds of selling at a good price. Maybe not the absolute best possible price but you will sell and get a good price.

Number 3. Offer some incentives to your buyers. Lots of buyers are well qualified these days but are cash poor. Offer to pay 3% of so of your asking price towards their closing costs. This alone will make your house stand above the crowd especially if you also do numbers 1. & 2. above.

Number 4. Offer some incentives to Realtors as well as buyers. A 1/2% higher commission offered to a buyer’s agent could encourage them to push your house over others to their buyers. Or throw in a $1,000 cash bonus to anyone bringing you an acceptable offer by a certain deadline, say 30 days or less.

Number 5. Throw in some attention getting, non-traditional incentives. For just a few hundred bucks you could offer a buyer a years worth of maid service or lawn care. Things like that appeal most to the person that actually does that work. For the same few hundred bucks you could offer a Caribbean vacation. Lots of buyers would think about a nice break after house hunting and going through the buying process.

Here’s what some truly “motivated” sellers and builders of new homes are doing.

  • “in Medford, Ore., Diane Adams, a real-estate agent, is offering to pay four months of mortgage payments on the $975,000 house she and her home-builder husband constructed on 20 acres near Crater Lake.”
  • In Richmond, Va., Orleans Homebuilders Inc. is offering “Sizzling Summer Sale Savings” that include as much as $100,000 off the cost of upgrades ranging from granite countertops to a conservatory”
  • “Among other things, they are offering buyers cash discounts of as much as 20%, throwing in a pool and agreeing to finish basements, garages and other spaces at a cost of several thousand dollars.”

Bottom line; there are still lots of buyers out there looking to buy but there are also lots of homes for sale. The more things and ways you can make yours stand above the crowd, the better chances of selling quickly for the best possible price.

If you would like some professional advice I would be glad to stop by at your convenience, walk through your house with you, and suggest what you should do to help it sell faster for more money.

I’m also an accredited staging professional so I can give you some staging tips as well.

As always, no cost, no obligation, all I ask is if you should choose a Realtor to professionally market your home you consider me.

Good luck and happy selling.

East Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 8:13 am, August 16th, 2007

Knoxville, Tennessee is headquarters for Tennessee’s Second Congressional District whose seat is currently held by John J. Duncan Jr..

congressman john j duncan

Congressman Duncan

Congressman Duncan enjoys a reputation among his fellow Congressmen as one of the most frugal which puts him high on my list of most admired Congressmen.

He sends out a periodic newsletter to his constituents with news of what’s happening in Washington. Here’s the highlights from his most recent.

Feelings against the recent, failed immigration bill Congress tried to pass were running over 50 to 1 against it according to Congressman Duncan.

The Congressman advocates more domestic oil production as a counter to high oil prices from OPEC nations.

In an interesting tidbit he says Frontiersman Davy Crockett was also a Tennessee Congressman back in his days and usually voted against almost all government spending bills. He once challenged other Congressmen to pay for a bill he was opposed to out of their own pockets. Congressman Crockett supposedly said in a famous speech: “One of the easiest things in the world to do is to spend other people’s money. And it is always much more popular to say yes than to say no. That is why the federal government is in such a big hole today.”

Obviously Davy Crockett was a forward thinker and clearly ahead of his time. ;-)

Congressman Crockett served the US Congress and the State of Tennessee as their representative from 1828 until 1834 when he was defeated and made that now famous journey to Texas and the Alamo.

Congressman Duncan has been following Davy Crockett’s fine example and getting reelected since 1988. I hope he runs again so I can vote for him again.

Knoxville’s 10 highest priced homes *

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 9:44 am, August 14th, 2007

*As of August 14th, 2007; all homes subject to prior sale. 

Currently for sale via the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (KAARMLS) IDX program are 10 Knoxville area (including 3 out of the area) homes ranging in price from $3,500,000 to number 1 with an asking price tag of $6,000,000!

10. $3,500,000, (click for more photos) located in Brentwood Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Two houses and 13+ acres.

nashville homes for sale

Brokered by Hammontree real estate 865-573-0145 

     9. $3,800,000, (click for more photos) 20 acre lakefront estate located in Loudon County. 1300 foot airstrip, pastures, and 2 docks with boat lifts.

loudon county tn lakefront estate

Brokered by Re/Max Preferred Properties 865-694-8100

8. $3,800,000, (click for more photos) 250 acres with two stocked lakes. Located in east Knox County, development or private estate.

knox county land

Brokered by Summit Real Estate 865-453-9983

7. $3,900,000, (click for more photos) 100 + acre horse farm with 30 stall barn. Styled after Louisiana plantation manor.

100 acre loudon county tn estate

Brokered by Realty Executives Associates 865-693-3232

6. $3,900,000, (click for more photos) breathtaking 12,500 square feet Norris Lake estate. 7 bedrooms, 7 baths, and much, much more!

luxury Norris lakefront estate

Brokered by Southland GMAC Real Estate 865-693-6961

5. $4,390,000, (click for more photos) Fort Loudon lakefront estate with 3 acres, pool, waterfall, boathouse and all the goodies!

knoxville lakefront estate

Brokered by Realty Executives Associates 865-588-3232

4. $4,495,000, (click for more photos) 5 acre compound with guest house, pool, pond, 7 fireplaces, and recently renovated. Convenient to Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Airport, and University of Tennessee.

luxurious knoxville lakefront estate

Brokered by Realty Executives Associates 865-531-2020

3. $4,800,000, (click for more photos) located in Costa Rica! compound with guest house, barn, offices, orchard, and 14 acres.

costa rican villa

Brokered by Re/Max Preferred Properties 865-694-8100

2. $5,250,000, (click for more photos) Redwater River Ranch in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, 765 acres more or less. Additional living quarters, stable, working gravel pit, orchard, 4 large dams for irrigation. Get along little doggie!

South Dakota ranch

Brokered by Hammontree real estate 865-573-9145

1. $6,000,000, (click for more photos) Oak Ridge, Melton Hill Lake estate. Steeped in history, this 27 bedroom, 12,000 square foot mansion has hosted US Presidents and many others. 7.5 acres, handy to Oak Ridge, Clinton, and Knoxville.

oak ridge melton hill lake estate

Brokered by Weichart Realtors, Dean-Kilby 865-539-6010

For more information about any of these fine properties or other homes, condos, land, and investment properties in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area please visit my website: www.KnoxvilleMLS.com

Copyright © 2007 by Jim Lee, all rights reserved.

NOTE: “The data relating to real estate for sale on this Web Site comes from the IDX Program of the Knoxville Area Association of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. © Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. This information is being provided for the consumers’ personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties the consumers may be interested in purchasing. This information is updated weekly, however, some of these properties may subsequently have sold and may no longer be available. The Real Estate Broker providing this data believes it to be correct, but advises interested parties to confirm the data before relying on it in a purchase decision.”

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Pending Home Sales Index shows improvement

Posted by Jim Lee, REALTOR® @ 1:31 pm, August 3rd, 2007

The National Association of Realtors has just released their Pending Home Sales Index for the month of June and it shows a marked improvement over the previous month of May.

knoxville tn homes for sale

June’s numbers of pending (sold, but not yet closed) home sales rose 5% over May’s which is regarded as a positive signal for residential sales.

“Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, said it is encouraging that the increase occurred in all four major regions. “However, it is too early to say if home sales have already passed bottom,” he said.  “Still, major declines in home sales are likely to have occurred already and further declines, if any, are likely to be modest given the accumulating pent-up demand.””

Annual figures are more closely related to market performance than month to month numbers but as the year rolls on the month to month figures take on more meaning and become more valuable as an indicator.

Good news for both buyers and sellers.

Good for buyers because there is a large selection of homes for sale in my area of Knoxville, Tennessee in most all price ranges AND interest rates remain at historic lows.

Good news for sellers because buyers are re-entering the market where they have been very absent in some areas of the country.

If you’re a buyer or seller in the greater Knoxville area you can see all Knoxville’s Realtors listings for sale and get some good buying and selling tips on my website: KnoxvilleMLS.com

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