Sales Report Beginning 02/01/2007, Ending 02/28/2007 Single-Family Unit Sales - Residential Other Statistics BedroomsPrice Class2 orLess34 orMoreCondoSoldResidentialActiveCondoActive$0 - $19,9990500261$20,000 - $29,9997910490$30,000 - $39,99912930920$40,000 - $49,9991410001653$50,000 - $59,9991325012251$60,000 - $69,99915202226818$70,000 - $79,99918312222723$80,000 - $89,99914282530431$90,000 - $99,9998321528744$100,000 - $119,9992059121947480$120,000 - $139,9991072101668898$140,000 - $159,9993741416613134$160,000 - $179,9995651611665118$180,000 - $199,9993371211595120$200,000 - $249,99956434121076236$250,000 - $299,999334343921117$300,000 - $399,9990334551033175$400,000 - $499,9993814250162$500,000 or Over0626181445Totals15362122811190231306Average Price(in Thousands $)99.6162.1307.016... 03/21/2007

That's a pretty good tongue twister if you try to say it real fast 3 times. ;-)Pat Kitano of the "Transparent Real Estate" blog recently blogged about another blogger who is not in the real estate business but just recently sold his house and bought another.Barry Ritholtz, who writes a financial research market letter, give some sage advice and observations on do and don'ts to Realtors during a real estate transaction. Since this advice is coming from one of our customers we would do well to read and heed Mr. Righoltz's words. "We sold our house last year -- priced it reasonably, and at our first open house (Thanksgiving weekend!), got a reasonable bid. We ended up selling the house to that couple." "In the process, we dealt with a lot of different agents on our buy and the sell. Some w... 03/17/2007

Most of you know Fred Thompson as a actor who currently plays New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on the television series "Law and Order". But besides being an accomplished actor (The Hunt For Red October, Thunderheart, Line of Fire & several others) former US Senator Fred Thompson is also an attorney, former shoe salesman, truck driver, and factory worker.Senator Thompson attended Memphis State University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and political science. He went on to receive a law degree from Vanderbilt University. Two years later, Thompson was named an Assistant United States Attorney and later served as Minority Counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee.The Senator distinguished himself  from the beginning of his campaign in 1994 when he said: "To g... 03/15/2007

I'm over in Nashville, Tennessee for a couple of days attending our yearly Tennessee Association of REALTORS Spring Conference. Today I sat in on a talk by super savvy Colorado attorney/Realtor Oliver Franscona who talked about "Misrepresentation, Fraud, and Disclosure" Oliver is co-author of a great book titled The Digital Paper Trail in Real Estate Transactions, a super book full of great advice and a CD with useful contract clauses and phrases to keep you out of trouble. I have a copy and recommend it highly. Oliver talked for a couple of hours about the differences between misrepresentation and outright fraud. Basically misrepresentation is just what it say, making a mistake and giving someone incorrect information that may or may not cause them financial harm. Fraud is knowing some... 03/12/2007

Setting in our garage is a pair of Toyota Prius (Prii), the ultra hybrid car that produces about 60% less emissions that a similar mid-sized 'regular' sedan. Mine is the Silver Pine Mica color pictured; my wife's is black. These 'way cool' cars are not only green, they're great to drive as well. The interiors are surprisingly roomy and will accomodate 4 adults in comfort. I was both amazed and gratified when 2 of my clients in 2006 each bought a Prius as a direct result of riding in mine during their house hunts. A Prius has both an electric and a gas engine; a computer switches them back and forth depending on your current driving requirements. Typically if you're accelerating or going uphill the gas engine is running; if you're on level ground, cruising, or going downhill the electric... 03/10/2007

If you live near the equator, which most of us do not, your days and night are about the same length each; roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. For those of us that live in other latitudes our days and nights become shorter and longer as the seasons change. The closer you live to the North or South poles the more daylight you have in the summer (and the less you have in the winter) Daylight Savings Time is a simple concept that simply adjusts the way we keep our time. By moving the clocks ahead one hour in the springtime we automatically create more hours of light in the evenings when most people can utilize it most effectively, i.e. to show more houses. ;-) DST has other benefits as well. Because more of us are outside enjoying our extended daylight hours we tend to u... 03/09/2007

Today was graduation day........I graduated with the class of Thursday-Friday, March 2-3 staging school. My diploma says I'm now qualified to "consult real estate clients and make recommendations in preparing the property for sale."Great class taught by master stager Jackie Riggins, a former trainer for the First Lady of staging, Barb Schwarz.The best and most fun part of the class was an actual, hands on staging of a real home that's currently on the market in our area. Here are the before and after pictures of the 2 rooms my group did; we had the living room and the dining room.The living room had too many pieces and too much personal stuff on the bookcases flanking the fireplace.On the right is after we move lamps and two end tables out and depersonalized the shelving. It really open... 03/02/2007

Staging is catching on in the real estate marketing world as a viable concept to get your house sold faster and for more money; two subjects near & dear to most seller's hearts and wallets. Here's a link to a recent blog I wrote about how to stage your house so it rises above the competition, appeals to more buyers, and most importantly, makes them want to buy it for more money in a shorter time frame.This is an example of a fairly inexpensive kitchen remodel I was involved in. Notice in the "before" photo how cluttered the countertops are with 'stuff' people use everyday.Here's the same kitchen after a makeover; notice the huge difference and how much appealing a simple thing like decluttering the counterops make. This can be done with a modest budget and will typically bring back that... 02/22/2007

After running AP and other wire service stories for months now trumpeting gloom and doom for real estate nationwide, our local newspaper, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, finally got the LOCAL real estate news and forecast right.This article, "What Housing Bubble?" took up 1/2 of the front page and was sprinkled with pithy gems like this one: "......real estate is an intensely local business......."  and "Although home prices in the Knoxville region have grown much slower than the national appreciation rate during the heart of the just-ended housing boom, the local housing market has avoided the pitfalls of a housing bubble."A quick look at our local sales statistics for the past 20 years would have supplied more than enough facts to debunk the Knoxville bubble myth. Our area has long been ... 02/18/2007

Sales Report Beginning 01/01/2007, Ending 01/31/2007 Single-Family Unit Sales - Residential   Other Statistics   Bedrooms   Price Class 2 orLess 3 4 orMore   CondoSold ResidentialActive CondoActive $0 - $19,999 6 3 0   0 21 1 $20,000 - $29,999 4 3 0   0 67 0 $30,000 - $39,999 6 8 1   0 96 0 $40,000 - $49,999 16 6 1   0 166 3 $50,000 - $59,999 8 14 1   0 223 3 $60,000 - $69,999 8 11 2   1 276 20 $70,000 - $79,999 16 20 6   4 237 19 $80,000 - $89,999 17 23 4   5 284 28 $90,000 - $99,999 8 29 3   16 276 38 $100,000 - $119,999 10 60 5   16 481 81 $120,000 - $139,999 11 80 7   14 690 90 $140,000 - $159,999 4 72 10   20 651 148 $160,000 - $179,999 3 53 12   8 696 110 $180,000 - $199,999 0 43 16   6 591 99 $200,000 - $249,999 1 63 18   15 1045 183 $250,000 - $299,999 4 36 17   6 888 116 $300,... 02/15/2007

I've been involved in real estate investing for fun and profit over the past few years. One thing I've learned to be very true is that you make your profit when you buy a piece of property; you collect when you sell it.I think, like real estate sales, a lot of people, Realtors included, watch too many late night TV shows and believe too much of what they read and see about buying homes with nothing down, no credit, no cash, and making a fortune literally overnight. Might work but kind of like the Easter Bunny, I've never seen it happen in person. On the other hand if you do your homework, have some time and patience to search for and negotiate the right buy you can make some pretty good money buying and selling houses.Here's real world example of a deal I was involved in last year with ... 02/14/2007

Apparently our recent blogging about referral fees and relocation companies have sparked some interest in the press; Inman News is doing a 3 part feature titled "Inside look at change in relocation industry", Unfortunately it's tucked away behind the members only screen so I believe you have to be a subscriber to read it.Since I wrote and was interviewed for this part I feel fairly secure in quoting myself from the article. ;-)"After-the-fact feesRising relocation fees are not the only concern to real estate agents and brokers -- there is also an ongoing problem with so-called "after-the-fact" requests for relocation-related fees."One of my huge gripes, (shared by) lots of my fellow Realtors as well, is a relocation company that sort of 'parachutes' into a transaction after you already ... 02/08/2007

...............and in January I believe it will equal a lot more sales.Since the first of this year I've been noticing a pretty big change in the days my website, KnoxvilleMLS.com gets most of its traffic.In 2006 the bulk of my visitors were coming during the week with my most heavily trafficked days being midweek mostly between the hours of 11 AM until about 3 PM or so. This year Friday is the busiest day followed by Sunday and Monday. Wednesdays are the least visited day.2:00 PM until about 4:00 are the peak times which has changed but there still that little spike from about 9:00 until 10:00. I belive the 9 to 10 spike is folks on the west coast getting home and surfing for a house.I'm also seeing about a 25% increase in unique visitors which has happily translated into a very busy J... 01/29/2007

Knoxville Association of REALTORS®                                    609 Weisgarber Road                                                           Knoxville, TN 37919                                                           PH# 865-584-8647                                                                                                                                                           ***  S A L E S     R E P O R T  ***                                                                                                               BEGINNING DATE  1Jan99                  ENDING DATE 31Dec99         ==============================================================================  SINGLE-FAMILY UNIT SALES -- RESIDENTIAL =          OTHER STATISTICS                                       ... 01/27/2007

Knoxville Association of REALTORS®                                       609 Weisgarber Road                                                           Knoxville, TN 37919                                                           PH# 865-584-8647                                                                                                                                                           ***  S A L E S     R E P O R T  ***                                                                                                               BEGINNING DATE  1Jan00                  ENDING DATE 31Dec00         ==============================================================================  SINGLE-FAMILY UNIT SALES -- RESIDENTIAL =          OTHER STATISTICS                                    ... 01/27/2007

Knoxville Association of REALTORS®                                                                                                                                                                                               ***  S A L E S     R E P O R T  ***                                                                                                               BEGINNING DATE  1Jan01                  ENDING DATE 31Dec01         ==============================================================================  SINGLE-FAMILY UNIT SALES -- RESIDENTIAL =          OTHER STATISTICS                                                   =                                             ====================            =           ==============                           -------BEDROOMS------    =   ... 01/27/2007

Sales Report Beginning 01/01/2002, Ending 12/31/2002 Single-Family Unit Sales - Residential Other Statistics BedroomsPrice Class2 orLess34 orMoreCondoSoldResidentialActiveCondoActive$0 - $19,999662760380$20,000 - $29,99910054114601$30,000 - $39,999981091421381$40,000 - $49,999126106112720213$50,000 - $59,999156176242822116$60,000 - $69,9991492963311931657$70,000 - $79,9991183984513830555$80,000 - $89,999775256313234165$90,000 - $99,999395577816429855$100,000 - $119,9994992417718750872$120,000 - $139,9994381329516457684$140,000 - $159,999285122357640450$160,000 - $179,999183262204636133$180,000 - $199,99952372142928321$200,000 - $249,999152383875043027$250,000 - $299,99971512842033215$300,000 - $399,9997743081832416$400,000 - $499,99932010221257$500,000 or Over11111232417Totals1105555426... 01/27/2007

Sales Report Beginning 01/01/2003, Ending 12/31/2003 Single-Family Unit Sales - Residential Other Statistics BedroomsPrice Class2 orLess34 orMoreCondoSoldResidentialActiveCondoActive$0 - $19,9991044720600$20,000 - $29,99911992142912$30,000 - $39,9991151223051695$40,000 - $49,999170174181823820$50,000 - $59,999175232313326831$60,000 - $69,9992083513912533864$70,000 - $79,9991774885720237845$80,000 - $89,9991066378013640048$90,000 - $99,999666409615533961$100,000 - $119,99977116419122955980$120,000 - $139,999601120311201635125$140,000 - $159,9993877928411046492$160,000 - $179,999265282457135968$180,000 - $199,999293662293734829$200,000 - $249,999414384654950239$250,000 - $299,999122353501942812$300,000 - $399,999111193773337322$400,000 - $499,999134160101816$500,000 or Over12615522776Tota... 01/27/2007

Sales Report Beginning 01/01/2004, Ending 12/31/2004 Single-Family Unit Sales - Residential Other Statistics BedroomsPrice Class2 orLess34 orMoreCondoSoldResidentialActiveCondoActive$0 - $19,999792870420$20,000 - $29,99912292184791$30,000 - $39,9991521371751343$40,000 - $49,999145175191719510$50,000 - $59,999187219194721414$60,000 - $69,999203310428827324$70,000 - $79,9991884084914131040$80,000 - $89,9991405896917530048$90,000 - $99,999886188411525031$100,000 - $119,999100113417826442843$120,000 - $139,99969131328027460299$140,000 - $159,9994887329017149272$160,000 - $179,9994462725111944956$180,000 - $199,999204812365936147$200,000 - $249,999355954488157172$250,000 - $299,999213204203245629$300,000 - $399,999241884192546223$400,000 - $499,99983622691914$500,000 or Over55522823157Totals... 01/27/2007

So for the past few months my wife and I have been looking for a new home for ourselves.We feel like it's time to make the move to one level living and stop lugging groceries, laundry, and ourselves from downstairs to upstairs each time we come into our garage. OK, no big deal, I think, I'm a trained professional with years of experience finding hundreds of great homes for other buyers. How much trouble could it be to find one for my little bride and I. Well after finding two "perfect homes" and being unable to buy either of them, I'm thinking this may be a little bit harder than I thought. First we find this great home in the north part of town, a little bit further north than we really wanted to be but I was willing to go a few extra miles to work so I start doing some research prior ... 01/27/2007