I’m back in Knoxville after attending the annual National Association of Realtors (NAR) Conference and Expo in San Diego, California.   View of the San Diego skyline from Coronado Island One of the most exciting things I saw at the conference was the official unveiling of NAR’s new consumer website, HouseLogic. HouseLogic is not a listings website like Realtor.com but rather a consumer resource which NAR intends to make the ‘go to’ site for homeowners and buyers to visit for objective and valuable advice, tips, and pretty much everything you need to know about owning and buying real estate. You can simply visit the site and search to find whatever you’re looking for; it’s laid out very well and easy to navigate. A second option is to sign up for a free account and be able to find more e... 11/18/2009

This time of year I always start to get the same question. Should I sell my house now or just wait until the spring when everyone else sells their houses? This seems like an obvious answer until you see a few key points.  1. It is too cold, no one wants to look at houses in the snow? In Knoxville, Tennessee, where I am from, we really do not get a lot of snow. As a matter of fact, we are lucky if we see any snow at all. Therefore this common hesitation doesn't apply to this area.  2. No one is looking for houses in the winter time. This is plainly not true. There may be less people looking to buy. However, the ones who are looking are more serious. There may be less property visits during the cold months but the ones who are willing to drag their realtor out in the winter must be pretty... 11/16/2009

Below is a chart prepared by the National Association of REALTORS ® comparing the new changes to the Homebuyer Tax Credit. The biggest change is that current Homeowners are now eligible if they sell their current homes and then buy AFTER the date of enactment of this extension which is November 6th, 2009. Because of widespread incidents of fraud, purchasers must now attach documentation proving they actually bought a qualifying home to qualify for the credit. Additinally the income guidelines have been increased, now a single taxpayer can qualify if they earn up to $125,000 and up to $225,000 for married taxpayers. The rationale for increasing the income limits and expanding the credit to existing homeowner is that it should encourage more higher priced home purchases. Currently the exi... 11/07/2009

This is the 15th blog in my series "Iraq-The Story Unfolds".  Wow, I didn't realize I had posted so many.  For those that are not following you can go back through my blogs and see most of the different "untold" stories that I have for my deployment to Iraq.  This is a much different side that you won't see on TV.  Anyway this post is to talk about the weather again, seems to come up in alot of posts. So I came back a little more than a month ago.  When I got here at the beginning of October the temperatures were still lingering around the 105-115 F range.  This was a little better from this summer when it ranged from 120-140 for the highs.  This was a bit of relief except the wind was coming in off of the gulf which meant the humidity was also much higher.  I will still say that I will... 11/02/2009

Devanshire Subdivision in Knoxville, Tennessee is off of Lovell Road, near Pellissippi Parkway. The subdivision is about 13 years old and is still building new houses. These are what most people would probably consider affordable. Since June 30, 2009, the average sale price is $116,083 with the average price per square foot at $91.55. The average days on market since June 30, 2006 has been 60 days. The highest priced house to sell was $133,400 and the lowest was $85,000. The sales include one foreclosure. The age of the house ranged from 13 years old to 2 years old. Conservatively speaking, the lot sizes are around 40X100, but many are larger than that. The HOA fees are around $50 per month that includes lawn service, pool access and trash pick up. Let me know if you want to see any hou... 10/23/2009

All of us have probably at one time or another watched one of those TV game shows that feature a “Lightning Round” of fast paced questions. I applied that concept to selling your Knoxville area house with a 90 second “Lightning Round” of tips to make it more appealing to potential buyers and bring a higher price. Read more great "Lighting Round" home selling tips at Knoxville, Tennesse Real Estate Blog. 10/20/2009

In 1982 Knoxville TN was home to the World's Fair.  The Sunsphere was designed and erected for the event and still stands in Knoxville TN as the unofficial city symbol.  Since the World's Fair the park grounds have undergone a series of renovations and are now home to the Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville Outdoor Symphony Amphitheater, World's Fair Fountains, Veterans Memorial, World's Fair Playground, and the Knoxville Museum of Art.    10/14/2009

Tennessee's a Desirable Place to Live! A recently released Harris Interactive poll asked Americans where they would choose to live if they did not live in the state where they are now. 2,498 U.S. adults were surveyed online between August 10 and 18, 2009, and Tennessee made the top 10! 1. California 2. Florida 3. Hawaii 4. Texas 5. Colorado 6. Arizona 7. North Carolina 8. Washington state 9. TENNESSEE 10. Oregon Of course, we already knew that it's great to be in Tennessee! If your looking to move to East Tennessee, you can visit my website or contact me at Blake@BlakeRickels.com f 10/12/2009

It’s been listed for 90 days now and not even one showing. What’s the problem? The number 1 reason I see for homes not selling is most often the price (this could also be reasons 2,3,4 and 5). It’s a tough new market out there folks; mortgages are tough to get these days, buyers are taking MUCH longer to make decisions about which house to even make an offer on, and the economy is in a shambles with high unemployment. Even if the recent comparable sales and price points in your area and neighborhood support your asking price your house could still be overpriced relative to the market right now because that’s the market buyers are buying in. Just because you refinanced last year or even 6 months ago, and got an appraisal equal to or higher than your current asking price, the market right... 10/07/2009

Please help us understand how this product below could be marketed to Realtors nationwide. Any suggestions would be helpful. If you have always wanted to declare the virtues of your business to the masses, but couldn't afford the thousands and thousands of dollars of traditional (old school) advertising costs, your wait is over!What is "VK in HD"?"VK in HD", is a high-quality, online, high definition (HD) video profile of your business, that gets your message out to potential customers 24/7. Our professional production team will write, shoot, and edit the perfect HD video tour showcasing your business' unique personality. "VK in HD" will help you connect with potential customers in a way that is impossible using outdated text, print, and online banner ads. "VK in HD" currently offers tw... 09/29/2009

Founded in 1786, Knoxville, Tennessee is a city rich in history and colorful citizens that contributed much to Knoxville the the surrounding areas. Many of Knoxville’s early citizens were buried in Old Gray Cemetery after their passing. In what has became an annual even, the Lantern and Carriage Tour at Old Gray Cemetery offers fascinating vignettes into Knoxville’s past as reenactors portray famous and/or interesting Knoxvillians buried in Old Gray. Old Gray Cemetery was dedicated in 1852 with the first burial on July 14, 1851. Old Gray is located about 12 blocks north of downtown Knoxville and is intended to be used as a park in addition to being a burial place. My lovely wife Charlotte and I visited Old Gray yesterday for the 9th annual Lantern & Carriage Tour. This terrific bugler b... 09/28/2009

Started in 1992 by local physician Dr. Charlie Barnett, Flu Shot Saturday has become an annual tradition in the Knoxville area for thousands of local residents to get a free flu shot. Below is the line outside Farragut High School this morning as hundreds lined up for their annual flu shot. While the shots are technically ‘free’, donations to the Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Empty Stocking Fund which provides food and Christmas toys to thousands of Knoxville families who might otherwise have an unhappy holiday are encouraged and most flu shot recipients drop a generous donation into the box. BlueCross BlueShield insurance of Tennessee partially funds the event along with the Knoxville News Sentinel. Local Rotary clubs also help support the event with traffic direction, getting paperwork fi... 09/26/2009

Knoxville area homebuyers and sellers both have one thing in common. They all want to make either the house they’re selling or the one they’re buying look as great as possible for as little money as possible. email me for a free, 10% off coupon to any Lower's warehouse store. Good for 10% off any purchases up to $10,000! Knoxville sellers want to ’spiff’ up their house to appeal to buyers so it will sell faster and for more money. Knoxville buyers want to upgrade and personalize their new home so they can enjoy living there more. Here’s 5 tips for both sides: Buy locally. In most cases you will save money by buying things in the greater Knoxville area instead of having them shipped from another location. For big ticket items the savings could amount to several hundred dollars. Use coupo... 09/23/2009

No matter which side of the arguement you come down on; the facts are that lots of Tennessee home buyers are using the $8,000 tax credit to buy a new home with. A recent release by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) showed that Tennessee was 13th in the nation in buyers that have already claimed or filed for the 8K credit. That program ends on November 30th of 2009 and I'm very curious to see what effect it will have on our market. Buyers I've worked with and had contact with this year seem to be much more deliberate and willing to let the price come to them than ever before. I suppose that is a byproduct of the current recession we're in. I wonder what this graph will look like in December & January after the tax credit goes away? There's lots of talk in the real estate community about... 09/22/2009

It’s Labor Day weekend in Knoxville. The University of Tennessee won it’s home football season opener yesterday, today is Boomsday, the huge street fair/party climaxed by a spectacular fireworks display, and we have some real estate news for the 1st week in September. The Knoxville County Register of Deeds reports 156 closed real estate transactions in today’s Knoxville News-Sentinel. That number has been about the average for most every week to date for 2009. We keep hearing talk about “Pending sales up”, “real estate activity increasing”, and so forth but it doesn’t seem to be translating into closed transactions and those are the only ones that really count. Here’s Knox County’s numbers for last week; total closed transactions from the Register of Deed’s office: 156 As usual the mid... 09/06/2009

Every since it was called PhotoShare many years ago, I've been a huge fan of www.VisualTour and their virtual tour products. Now they've made a good thing even better by adding a new "Link Builder" feature that let's you create big variety of custom links AND as a bonus, very impressive ads specifically designed for CraigsList. Here's how it works. Step 1 of course it to log into your Visual Tour account and select a listing you want a tour for. After that it's pretty much all downhill as you follow the easy steps. First, choose what type of link you want. I chose "This tour" for a specified tour only. Next choose "Where would you like to place this link? I'm choosing "My website" and clicking "Next". Your next choice is "How would you like the link to appear?"     I'm selecting the lar... 09/03/2009

The National Association of Realtors says: “For the first time in five years, existing-home sales have increased for four months in a row.” Wow, that's sounds pretty exciting after month after month of: "worst market in 30 years", "record foreclosures", "mortgage crisis worsens", and lots of other dismal headlines. So is the good news really good news or maybe just a seasonal 'bump' that happens around this time every year and will soon revert back to business as usual (relatively speaking)? Here's a graph comparing Knoxville, Tennessee area sales through July of 2009 to previous years So yeah, Knoxville, Tennessee area sales have increased every month so far this year. HOWEVER (and it seems there is usually a "however"), if you compare sales this year to historical sales data for the p... 08/24/2009

                                                       Located just north of Knoxville in Halls is a unique residential development. The perfect "green development" as Cobia Partners recycled a defunct quarry into an emerald jewel. Minutes from Knoxville or Interstate 75 and Norris Lake this is a perfect community to raise a family. For more info visit http://www.hgre.net 08/21/2009

The July sales figures are out from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors so let’s see how the Knoxville area real estate market did last month. I see a total of 1,044 sales reported in all price ranges, days on market (time to sell) 118 days, the median price of a 3 bedroom home holding pretty steady at $137,300, 4 bedrooms $267,000, and $144,500 for condos. Knoxville, Tennessee July real estate sales in all price ranges Even though July sales in 2005 were a bit higher than 2006, 2006 was really the BIG year in Knoxville area sales so comparing apples to apples, this July’s sales are down 40% over that year. Here’s what the first half of this year looks like compared to previous years. Knoxville area first half sales compared to other years Compared to our peak year, 2006, total s... 08/19/2009

One of the many great things about living in the Knoxville, Tennessee area is it's close proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are many very scenic and beautiful sections of the park but one of my special favorites is Cades Cove. Going from Knoxville through Maryville and Townsend to the Cove is about a 40 mile drive but because of the narrow, windy roads in the park allow about an hour for the drive one way. "The Cove" as it's known to local folks was originally a pioneer settlement first homesteaded by John and Luraney Oliver around 1818. The Olivers and their descendants lived in the Cove until the Park was established in 1934. Cades Cove is a very special place to me for a personal reason as well. My lovely wife Charlotte and I were married here almost 20 years... 08/17/2009