Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

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.

• Check 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 Refresh tired and outdated paint colors.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.

I know foreclosure is an unpleasant topic but since Tennessee is number 11 nationwide in numbers of foreclosures, it certainly seems like a subject that merits some discussion.

If anyone is behind on their mortgage payments or have maybe received a foreclosure notice, you still have some legal options to solve, prolong, or even fix your financial difficulties.

Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Restructure your loan. With this option you try to negotiate with your lender to come up with a payment plan to get you caught up and possibly add any late fees and charges to your current loan to soften that burden for now.
2. Reinstatement. This is simply catching up all your late payments plus associated fees and charges. Since most people facing foreclosure in the first place are having financial problems this is not an option for most.
3. Refinance your existing loan. If you have a large amount of equity in your home it might be worthwhile to talk with your lender about refinancing your existing loan to get you caught up and hopefully make your payment a bit more bearable.
4. Sell your home. If your home is in salable condition, maybe selling now to avoid foreclosure and moving to something a bit more affordable until things get better could be a consideration.
5. Do a short sale. In a short sale your lender agrees to take less than the principal amount of your mortgage if you sell your house. Not surprisingly most lenders are not too excited about this option but since it costs them so much to foreclosure and they usually sell the homes at a loss, a sort sale would be something to run by them.
6. Give them the deed in lieu of foreclosure. This is actually a “friendly foreclosure” if there is such a thing. You simply sign the house over to the lender and give them the keys. The effect on your credit is the same a a bankruptcy but it could save you from bankruptcy which should always be the final option.
7. Bankruptcy. This is the most extreme solution and should only be undertaken with good legal guidance and under dire circumstances. This will not stop a foreclosure but merely slow it down for a few months. Trying to negotiate a short sale would be a better option than both this and giving a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

If you’re A Knoxville, Farragut, or Knox County resident and are having any difficulties making your mortgage payments or have maybe even received a notice of foreclosure I would be happy to sit down with you and go over all your options. No cost, no obligation.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

Hard to believe it’s already the first week of May; this year is passing by very quickly.

The Knoxville area weather has been a little quirky the past few weeks like the Spring weather tends to do around here. We had a late cold snap about 4 weeks ago that damaged a lot of blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees including our famous Knoxville Dogwoods.

The annual Dogwood Arts Festival was great again this year. It’s billed as one of the largest civic celebrations in North America and commerates the blooming of the Dogwood Flowers along with local art.

My wife Charlotte and I moved into our new home a few weeks ago. We now live in the West Hills neighborhood on the west side of Knoxville near the West Town Mall. It’s a great house, all brick, 3 bedroom, 2 baths, side entry garage, big, level yard, and a world class covered back porch we’re considering screening in.

We bought this one without selling our former home with the help of a bridge loan. We’re paying interest only on the bridge loan until I can get the former house refurbished and ready to sell.

It’s almost ready. We remodeled the kitchen last year with new cabinets, quartz countertops, new lighting, and a hardwood floor. Just finished having inside repainted, new carpet throughout, new lighting all over, and new vinyl in the bathrooms along with new fixtures.

Before putting it on the market I’m going to have a pre-inspection by a home inspector and correct any issues he may discover, get an appraisal to ensure aggressive pricing, provide a home warranty, and a higher than average commission to buyer’s agents; in short all the things I advise my seller clients to do.

My goal is to have it on the market by mid-May and it’s looking good so far.

UPDATE: our former home sold for full price, second day on the market to the first person that looked at it.

Proof positive you need to follow your Realtor’s sound advice when selling.

If you’re looking for a new home in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area including Farragut, Maryville, Oak Ridge, or Loudon County you can view all the Realtor listings on my website at www.KnoxvilleMLS.com

Please call with any real estate questions or to get a complimentary package of Knoxville information for newcomers.

My personal Toll Free number is 1-800-662-2488, extension 163 or you can use the nifty “Click Here” feature on the top left of my website, it calls any number you designate and my cell phone at the same time.

If buying a new home is on your list of new years resolutions here’s some tips to consider.

Step 1: and before doing anything else: Call me and let’s sit down in my office and talk. Before going to look at any house, before we write any offers, and before you do anything.

Buying a new home is a very serious financial decision that you’re going to have to live with for several years to come.

 You need to have all the facts in front of you and understand the process before taking the second step.

Step 2: Make sure your credit is in good shape and your finances are in order.

Nothing will spoil your day faster than spending days and even weeks looking for a new home only to find out you can’t buy it because of some ding or problem with your credit that could prevent you from qualifying for a mortgage loan.

A phone call or e mail to Debbie Nieto at CTX Mortgage can ensure you don’t have that problem. (865) 693-6200 or email: Debbie.Nieto@Ctxmort.com

Step 3: Now comes the fun stuff, we get to go out and look at some great houses for you to consider.

We’ll look at all the usual sources for a new home. Most Realtors only search the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for current, active listings.

We’ll go several steps beyond to ensure you’re exposed to as many sources of homes for sale as possible. We’ll check out:

• For Sale By Owners (FSBOs)
• Foreclosures and Preforeclosures
• Pending listings to see if perhaps a sale for a great house might be in jeopardy making that home available
• Upcoming listings from my Realtor contacts that are not actively for sale yet
• Expired listings that have been for sale but expired from the MLS unsold. These sellers often still want to sell.
• And any other avenues that offer great Knoxville area homes for sale that might meet your needs.

Next we’ll talk about making an offer, negotiation, due dilligence, and the closing process.

Lately is seems the news has been full of ‘doom & gloom’ stories about the bursting housing bubble and how real estate prices have fallen; dramatically in some areas.

The major flaws in so called “Housing Bubble” stories is that

1. There is no such thing as a “national housing market”; all real estate sales are local and dependent to a great deal on local conditions.
2. Generally two conditions are necessary in an area for prices to soften or decline; 1. an oversupply of homes for sale, and 2. weak local economic conditions sometimes against an overall economic weakness, recession or high interest rates.

Here’s the third quarter sales statistics for the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area for the past 3 years.
 

3rd quarter average sale prices for 3 bedrooms homes

• 2004  $145,000……….Average days on market…..80
• 2005  $157,400……….Average days on market…..65 
• 2006  $169,300……….Average days on market…..78 

Steadily increasing prices and no significant increase in days on market (time to sell).

 Historically Tennessee has average 3-5% housing appreciation for as long as I can remember.

Latest unemployment figures for the area are 4.4% unemployed; not too shabby.

And, according to Southeast Home Mortgage, our in-house mortgage bankers firm’s manager Zan Wyatt, interest rates remain very attractive too.

Zan says their 30 year, fixed rate product has a current 6% interest rate, FHA 30 year fixed is 6.125 and the product she recommended if you’re not going to be in the house too long is their 5 year fixed, interest only mortgage with a current 5.875 rate.

If you’re going to be in the house long term obviously the 30 year fixed is the way to go.

But if you’re going to be transferred or moving in the next 5 years or less, then the 5.875 percent, fixed for 5 years, interest only mortgage would be worth letting Zan crunch some numbers for you.

Moving to the great Knoxville, Tennessee area or already live here and thinking of buying a new home?

If so now is a great time; no housing bubbles, burst or otherwise and very, very attractive interest rates to keep your monthly payments affordable.

Call or e mail Zan or me today and let’s talk about what we can do for you.

Jim Lee, Knoxville REALTOR®

Toll free: 1-800-662-2488, extension 163

PS & BTW, there are a few areas that, unfortunately have a genuine bursting real estate bubble, California and South Floirda are two prime examples.

That used to be one of my mother’s favorite phrases when I was a a kid growing up in nearby Chattanooga.

One of the things she always stressed to me was the importance of having good manners (and using them).

That was brought home recently by a story in our Knoxville newspaper titled “No thanks to ‘thank you’?” and about the lack of simple gratitiude and manners in our everyday lives.

The writer opined that the upcoming holiday season would be a good time to remind everyone to mind their manners.

“With Thanksgiving a mere five days away, some etiquette experts say the holiday for giving thanks - albeit in most cases to the Creator - is a good reminder for everyone to mind their manners every day.

“In a fast-paced society, we do tend to lose the little things,” said Mindy Coulter, chapter director of Knoxville’s National League of Junior Cotillions.”

The League’s mission statement: “To act and learn to treat others with honor, dignity and respect for better relationships with family, friends and associates and to learn and practice ballroom dance.”

Personally as a teenaged boy I could have skipped the ballroom dancing part  but all their other programs for youngsters are great.

If you’re unsure or feel you need a refresher course Knoxville has the Flora Mainord School of Etiquette for all ages and all social situations and the Knoxville Chapter of the National League of Junior Cotillions has great programs for young people

This holiday season is a great time to renew your efforts to be more grateful and to remember to be more civil to your fellow man.

A few more “please” and “thank yous” would also go a long way.

Some of the lessons learned in manners and how to properly interact with others go far beyond just “please” and “thank you”; teaching children to care about people and appreciate their gifts could also amount to huge lessons in life.

Here are some great tips for raising polite children.

• Be a great role model for your children.
• Point out the nice things they do.
• Don’t make fun of others in front of your children (or any other time)

We all have a lot to be grateful and thankful for; I’m going to make a special effort to say “please” and “thank you” more, not only for the holidays but for the upcoming years.

Thank you for reading this; please pass it on to others, especially those with children.  

I moderate an Internet real estate forum called “Ask An Expert”. This is a compilation of some of the most interesting questions.

Have a real estate or Knoxville area question you need answered?? If I don’t know the answer there’s a very good chance I know someone who does and can get the information for you. Just e mail me

QUESTION:  Made a huge mistake and bought a house with an ex-boyfriend who left me with a huge house payment, insurance, taxes, upkeep, etc. He has agreed to sign a quit claims deed. My question is, do I need a realtor or a lawyer present when he signs the paper work, does a notary work? Where is the best place to get the paper work and is there any other advice you can give…

ANSWER:  Is your ex-boyfriend also on the loan with you?? If he is, then simply signing a quit claim deed will not remove him from the mortgage obligation although it will remove his ownership rights to the house.The best person to do this for you would be an attorney.The second best (and probably more economical) would be a title or escrow company depending on what state your’re in.

QUESTION:  I bought a house in Tennessee recently and all the information provided (ie, MLS listing and home inspection) stated that the house was on public sewer. Subsequently, a flooded leach field revealed that the house was on septic. I have spent over $7,200 in out-of-pocket expenses to correct the problem. I am suing the realtor and seller, the latter is non-responsive. My lawyer has just advised me that the realtor has made an offer of settlement for $4,000, and states that we should take it and avoid court fees. ANSWER: The only truly reliable way to determine whether or not a house is physically connected to a sanitary sewer system is for the utility company to flush a colored dye down the commode and watch for it to appear at the closest sewer manhole.

Have a real estate question?? Send me an e mail and I’ll give you an answer. I do not give legal or tax advice; you should seek a qualified professional for that information.

email me @ Jim Lee or call 865-539-3163. If I’m not in just leave your question on my voice mail and I’ll get your answer as soon as possible.

Buying or selling a home in Knoxville, Tennessee?? Visit my website, KnoxvilleMLS.com for lots of buying & selling tips, search all Knoxville area Realtor listings, and much more.

Jim Lee, Knoxville REALTOR®