Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

The 1st quarter sales report for home sales in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area are out.

As the national media continues with its doom & gloom message for the mythical “national real estate market”, the facts are different and present a more balanced picture.

There is no national real estate market but rather a lot of smaller markets driven by their own economic forces in addition to outside factors.

The greater Knoxville area is one of the positive pictures in the country along with a high percentage of other cities and areas.

“Days on market” (DOM) or simply how long it takes to sell a house is a good indicator of market demand. Knoxville’s dom for the 1st quarter of 2005 was 94 days, it dropped to 88 days in Q1 2006, back up to 93 days for Q1 2007, and 103 days in the 1st quarter of 2008 for a net gain of just 9 days in the past 4 years.

Median sales prices is also an indicator. Here’s the Knoxville picture since 2005

1st quarter 2005, 3 bedroom home  $131,000

1st quarter 2006, 3 bedroom home  $135,100

1st quarter 2007, 3 bedroom home  $145,500

1st quarter 2008, 3 bedroom home  $144,000

So even though it dropped $1,100 from 07 to 2008, there was still a 9% net gain from 2005 to the same time period in 2008.

Home sales figures is a subject near and dear to the National Association of Realtors; here’s some of their take on the current market: “Roughly half of metropolitan areas continued to show rising home prices in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the latest quarterly survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

In the fourth quarter, 73 out of 150 metropolitan statistical areas show increases in median existing single-family home prices from a year earlier, including 11 areas with double-digit annual gains and another 12 metros showing increases of 6 percent or more; 77 had price declines including 16 with double-digit drops.”

The bottom line of all this number crunch is that now is still a great time to be buying a house in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area, mortgage rates are still in the 5% range, and there is a great selection of homes for sale.

Visit www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com to pick out a few and give me a call or email to go visit them.

In fact Knoxville’s still fairly new, red light cameras are still causing so much controversy one frustrated motorist took a hunting rifle to one that had just photgraphed him and fired three shots into it.

His claim of self defense (he claimed the camera shot first) probably won’t hold much water in a Knoxville court; he is charged with reckless endangerment and felony vandalism.

Meanwhile, just down the road in Chattanooga, 176 lucky drivers are getting their red light camera fines refunded because one irate and apparently very observant, victim………er, wrongdoer, discovered the yellow light cycle was not timed correctly causing the caution light to only stay yellow 3 seconds instead of the 3.9 seconds mandated by safety standards.

Chattanooga’s city traffic engineer claims it was an “accidental mixup” related to turn arrow timing.

If any of these stories are true it might cause you to wonder how “accidentally’ that mixup really was.

Hmmmm, first time I have a few spare minutes I’m going to take my stop watch out and investigate a couple of traffic lights near my west Knoxville neighborhood and see if any “accidents” have befallen those yellow lights.

You hear a lot these days about setting goals and how powerful they are.

Being an old goal setter myself I can attest to the truth and accuracy of that statement. Setting goals can be critical in helping you achieve any and all of your dreams including buying that first home.

Here are 5 tips that will put you into that Knoxville or Farragut area home of your dreams:

1. You must write your homeownership goals down and be very specific. For instance, don’t just say I want to own a home someday; you must say, ” I will own and live in a 1600 square foot home with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a two car garage located in Farragut, Tennessee.” Writing it down and making it specific is the most important step in goal setting.
2. Your goal must be measurable. For instance if you need to save some money for a down payment or closing costs; set smaller, time goals along the way when you will have specific amounts of money set aside for your new home.
3. Your goals must be believable to you. For most of us it is reasonable to believe that you can own a home in the Knoxville, Tennessee area like the one described. It is probably not reasonable for most of us to expect to own a 40,000 square foot luxury beachfront mansion in the Caribbean.
4. It must be something rewarding to you that you have clear reasons to want. For example, I want a new home for the security it affords me and my family, to have a yard to work in, and/or to stop the continuous rent increases.
5. You must set a time limit to achieve your goal. This is one of most powerful parts of goal setting. If you write down; “By July 15th, 2009, I will be living in a 2,000 square foot, all brick home with at least a 1/2 acre yard”, your subconscious mind will help speed you toward that goal and keep you on course for it.

Once you set your goal of homeownership and write that goal down with a time limit to achieve it, you’ll be amazed at how easy it seemed when you’re celebrating owning your new home.

Anyone thinking of buying a home now or in the future might benefit from a free copy of my “Homebuyer’s Toolkit, Ten Steps to Choosing and Purchasing a Home.”

email your postal mailing address to Jim@JimLee.com and I’ll drop your free copy in the mail.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is also a great place to start your dream and find a home to fit into your goal. and of course I would be honored to help you with your new goal of home ownership like I’ve helped hundreds of others just like you.

Are you searching for a new home or condo in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee or Farragut, Tennessee area?

Are you spending hours searching through Knoxville & Farragut real estate websites looking for that dream home?

There must be a better way to find a new home.

There is and it’s KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com

KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com will provide you with daily (or whatever frequency you select) emails of Knoxville and Farragut area MLS listings that meet only the criteria you select, automatically with no further effort on your part.

Just visit KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com, click the “Describe Your Dream Home” link on the front page and in less than 24 hours you will have your first email full of great new Knoxville area homes that meet your, and only your, new home criteria.

“to: MLS@JimLee.com
date: 5 Mar 2008 06:02:57 -0500
subject: MLS Listing Report for John & Mary Smith

As of Mar 3 2008 11:56AM, this report shows 23 listing(s) available”

The quick and easy way to find your Knoxville or Farragut area dream home.

If you’re looking to rent a home in the Knoxville or Farragut areas there are some great rentals available, but there is also a fairly new scam being operated to relieve you of your money without putting you in a house.

I communicate daily with lots of Realtors all over the country via several social networking sites and email. One of my Realtor pals from Louisiana told me today that someone had commandeered one of her listings for sale and was advertising it for rent on Craig’s List.

The person advertising this bogus rental claimed to be the wife of an oil company executive that was suddenly transferred to Lagos, Nigeria.

Hmmmm, Nigeria, that should be waving some big red flags. I used to get email all the time from people claiming to be in Nigeria that needed to send their fortune out of the country and wanted to give me a 20-40% cut if they could just stick it in my bank account for a few weeks until they could escape and get over here.

This supposed ‘wife’ had an application for potential renters to fill out and she would then overnight the keys to them so they could go inspect their potential new home.

Of course the ‘application’ wanted some bank references as “proof of your financial capability” including account numbers.

And while you were busy watching for FedEx guy to show up with your keys the scammers were busy emptying your bank accounts.

Yeah, it’s that easy if someone get hold of your bank account numbers.

Here’s what Craig’s List recommends if you’re in the market for a rental home or apartment.

• “DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON. Follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of Internet scams.
• NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service - anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
• FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.”

It appears Craig’s List is being used for other types of real estate fraud as well. This is about how crooks forge names onto deeds and then “sell” your house to unsuspecting purchasers or refinance it and pocket the loan proceeds leaving you with a new mortgage to deal with.

If you need to find a Knoxville or Farragut house or condo to buy, KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is a great place to start your search.

And if you need to rent I can recommend some good, LOCAL, rental agencies that will put you in a house without emptying your bank account.

If you’ve bought a new home in the Knoxville, Oak Ridge, or Farragut Tennessee area recently you’ve learned about the various kinds of insurance you were required to buy.

The most common is homeowner’s insurance which protects the physical building and protects you from potential liability.

If you borrowed more than 80% of the purchase price for your new Knoxville home, your lender probably required you to buy private mortgage insurance to protect them in case you default.

And a third kind of insurance was lender’s title insurance to protect the lender in case of a title defect of some sort.

In Tennessee you were also likely offered the option to purchase an owner’s title insurance policy for yourself. Most buyers don’t realize that a lender’s title policy only covers the lender for the face amount of your mortgage; as your mortgage is paid down the coverage decreases as well.

An owner’s title policy protects your interest or equity in the property up to the amount of the purchase price.

When I’m representing you as the buyer of a new home in the greater Knoxville area I explain the benefits to you in buying this owner’s title policy.

Since it is co-issued with the lender’s policy you get the benefit of ‘piggy backing’ onto the lender’s policy and are typically able to buy this protection for only a few hundred dollars.

Here are some of the risks new homeowners could face that an owner’s title insurance policy will protect you against.

• Forgery and impersonation;
• Lack of competency, capacity or legal authority of a party;
• Deed not joined in by a necessary party (co-owner, heir, spouse, corporate officer, or business partner);
• Undisclosed (but recorded) prior mortgage or lien;
• Undisclosed (but recorded) easement or use restriction;
• Erroneous or inadequate legal descriptions;
• Lack of a right of access; and
• Deed not properly recorded.

If you still have questions about how you can best protect your new Knoxville, Oak Ridge, or Farragut home purchase please give me a call or email.

If you need to find a house I highly recommend a visit to www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to find the home of your dreams.