Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

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.

So you’ve just bought a new Knoxville, Tennessee home, closed on the transaction and moved in; now you come face to face with something new in your life, your home mortgage.

Some simple tricks and a little self discipline can help you pay your mortgage off many years early and save thousands of dollars in interest charges. 

Below is an amortization schedule for a typical $200,000, fixed rate, 6%, 30 year mortgage.

The monthly principal and interest payment is $1,199.10

Here’s a good website to calculate your own amortization schedule; there are lots of them free all over the Internet. 

If you keep this mortage for the whole 30 years you will end up repaying $431,676 with interest charges. Of course you’ll likely pay it off and move; most Americans do every 7 years on average.

However it’s also very simple to save thousands of dollars in interest charges by simple pre-paying a little each month or a larger lump sum payment quarterly or years like if you get a large tax refund.

In the above schedule you’ll notice the principal amount gets just a little larger each month while the interest portion become a bit smaller. The reason is that your monthly payment is calculated each month on the remaining principal balance of your mortgage.

If you can discipline yourself to prepay a modest amount each month you will be surprised how much and how easily you can save.

If you just prepay $100 extra dollars towards the principal each month you will knock 5 years or 60 payments off your note; a savings of $71,946.00 in interest charges!

Another easy way to cut your mortgage term in half is to simply get an amortization schedule and prepay the next months principal payment each time you make your regular monthly payment.

In the example above the first and each succeeding month’s payment is $1,199.10. You’ll also notice the second month’s principal payment is $200.10.

If you afford an extra 200 bucks that will accelerate your mortgage by reducing the principal balance your loan is calcuated on and you’ll pay it off in roughly half the 30 years.

Here’s why prepaying works.

Whenever you pay anything towards the principal the interest paid each month goes down because each month’s principal & interest payments are calculated on the unpaid principal balance. Paying off the principal faster shortens the term of your loan and gets your mortgage paid faster.

Your payment will always be the same but you will make far less of them if you prepay any amounts towards your principal loan balance.

If you would like to learn the many ways to pay your mortgage note off much faster and save months of payments and thousands in interest you could probably do other things with, just give me a call and we can calculate a custom schedule just for you.

BEWARE of any mortgage repayment scheme that require you paying an upfront fee or even refinancing with an adjustable rate loan and interest bearing checking account you deposit your paycheck into.

If you’re not absolutely sure about how any of these scheme work or what you’re getting into please call and ask before you cost yourself money!

Just in case you have’t found a Knoxville or Farragut area home to start making payments on…..;) www.KnoxvilleMLS.com is a good beginning to see all Knoxville’s great homes and condos for sale.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And it looks pretty good compared to lots of other parts of the country.

Total units sold in August 2007 were 1,670 with an average market time of 91 days.

Comparing the same time periods for the past 5 years it appears that Knoxville is still humming along with pretty good sales results.

 

Days on market  Total homes Sold

2003       54              1,194

2004       84              1,444

2005       79              1,808

2006       77              1,733

2007       91              1,670

If you’re thinking of buying a home in Knoxville now is a great time. There is a good selection of homes in Knoxville & Farragut on the market now and interest rates remain low.

Check www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to start your search.

Next month we’ll get the third quarter results to compare to the past 3rd quarters.

Stay tuned.

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 [email protected] 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.

One of the “quality of Life” factors that make living in an area more pleasant is the availability and ease of access to parks and recreation.

Knoxville has an ever growing system of paved greenways leading to those facilities and others such as restaurants, gardens, and other desirable destinations.

Currently there are a little over 40 miles of paved greenways in the Knoxville/Knox County area.

One of my favorites is the Third Creek Greenway which has just been extended and now begins near Papermill Road in Bearden and runs east along Kingston Pike, through Tyson Park, the UT ag campus, along Neyland drive, and ends up at Calhoun’s Restaurant below the Gay Street Bridge.

The whole thing is about 5 miles long and a great bike ride through some beautiful areas included the heavily wooded section above Sequoyah Hills.

The ultimate goal is to have a countywide greenway system to make it possible to bike or walk from most anyplace in Knox County without having to use a car or public transportation.

One huge section now underway will connect the Third Creek Greenway to the Maryville Greenway in Blount County.

It will run from the UT ag campus and the Alcoa Highway Bridge, along UT property, behind the Navy/Marine Corp training facility, another section of UT agricultural property, and on into Bount County ultimately connecting it to the already complete Maryville Greenway.

I can’t wait until this monster section is complete. Imagine riding a bike all the way from downtown Knoxville and along the Tennessee River past the Knoxville Airport, and deep into Blount County through Maryville & Alcoa.

If you would like to look for a new home along Knoxville’s ever growing greenway system visit KnoxvilleMLS.com to see all the current homes and condos for sale.