Real Estate in the LaVergne Area of Middle Tennessee

You’ll love this custom-built spanish Hacienda. The single story ranch style home has been recently renovated including new carpet and fresh paint. It is over 2,000 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. The eat-in kitchen has a country feel with an island cooktop and extra storage. The master suite has a large walk-in closet and jacuzzi tub. With 1.4 acres, you’ll enjoy mature trees, an oversized garage, two-car carport, storage building with a second floor hideaway, and plenty of aggregate patio and driveway. There’s lots of possibilities here. The seller may pay closing costs. To see the Grand Photo Tour, visit www.175MasonCircle.com.

If you’d like to talk further about how you can put my Nashville-Middle Tennessee Real Estate Services to work for you, visit www.FivePointsProperties.com. To search the MLS listings for Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate, click on the large map on the home page.

Real Estate Home Buyers - Should you buy now or wait?

There are lots of buyers “sitting on the fence” observing the craziness that seems to have taken over the real estate market. For the last several years, the market has been heavily favoring sellers. With any state of imbalance, there always comes a period of adjustment…the pendulum swings a bit too far in the opposite direction. Consequently, the current market is heavily favoring buyers.

What do you suspect that means in the long-run? You probably guessed that the pendulum will have to swing back in the other direction eventually. Professionals (and most homeowners for that matter) prefer a stable market where there are a reasonable number of homes (inventory) on the market for the number of active buyers.

The question on the minds of many potential buyers is “Should I buy now or wait for prices to fall?”

There’s no easy answer to that question and while I’m going to share a few thoughts with you, I encourage you to send me an e-mail or call to discuss the Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate market and the services I provide. So, here goes!

If you’re a buyer, you need to think like a seller. Sellers who are not seriously motivated to sell will make minor price adjustments and eventually take the home off the market to wait out the storm. Motivated sellers will adjust the price more dramatically until they can’t go any further without it becoming a financial hardship.

With many homes mortgaged for close to their full value over the last few years, sellers have less room for price negotiation unless they’re willing to come up with $20,000 or more…most likely not going to happen. When sellers finally come to this conclusion, they take the home off the market and continue to live there or rent it out.

Nice homes in nice neighborhoods rent for close to what your mortgage payment would be AND you don’t get the tax benefits. If you rent a home that isn’t something you’d choose for the long-term, you also get to face moving at least twice. Remember, moving wasn’t fun the first time! So, renting is not necessarily a wise strategy.

Properties in desirable areas still get snapped up quickly. I was on the phone with a buyer today. He found a home he liked (after an extensive search) but thought that there was no rush to make an offer on it. The home sold before he made his offer and he’s really kicking himself. When you need something unique and you’re fortunate enough to find it, don’t delay!

The bottom line…most sellers are only willing to reduce the price so far before they go to “Plan B”. Everyone knows that markets go through cycles and “this too shall pass”. So, if you’re looking for something special and are fortunate enough to find it, there’s no reason to wait. Sellers are pretty realistic at this point and, if they’re motivated, have priced their homes to sell. If they’re not motivated, they won’t lower the price much anyway so waiting won’t make much of a difference in what you ultimately pay.

If you’d like to talk further about how you can put my Nashville-Middle Tennessee Real Estate Services to work for you, visit www.FivePointsProperties.com. To search the MLS listings for Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate, click on the large map on the home page.

Real Estate in Areas Around Nashville-Middle Tennessee

I am often asked if I work in a certain area around Nashville. That’s actually a really good question and deserves a straightforward answer. Actually, I work in a 30 mile radius of Nashville. Most of my clients have purchased homes in counties other than where I live or have my office.

I have a bit of a different philosophy than most people in this business. I believe that my clients are perfectly capable of evaluating a neighborhood just by spending a bit of time driving around. If they’re using my web site, they have the general mapped location and property addresses available to them and can do their detective work at their convenience. And…technically, I’m not supposed to evaluate a neighborhood for them. That could be viewed as discrimination…what criteria do you normally use to make judgment calls like those?

Price and location will get you 80 to 90% there. The extra 10 to 20% really comes down to how a client feels…whether they make an emotional connection with the types of homes in the area they’re considering.

So, my clients get my professional experience and expertise (which includes a background in financial services focused on real estate consulting and development) applied to the evaluation of specific properties they’re considering. Once we find a property that they want to purchase, I structure and negotiate the contract. I also handle the financing for most of my clients. The contract should be written to incorporate the specific financing considerations unique to the individual and situation. Everything comes together with much less stress if there is one central contact point…that’s usually me.

Don’t get me wrong…I definitely help people narrow down their choices when it comes to searching for a home. I will say that I think clients are better at determining what they want to look at than I am. Most clients have used my web site to look at properties that are available for months before they’re actually ready to move forward.

When a client is really serious…it’s time to buy, I’ll run a comprehensive search based on the criteria they give me. Of course, there is a bit of professional expertise applied in this process. I know HOW to search using advanced features that many professionals don’t even know how to employ. I often have clients tell me that my search produced properties they hadn’t seen on the web site yet…they were there, they just didn’t know how to adjust the criteria to bring them up.

My search might produce 100 homes that meet the general criteria. I put these properties on a map so there is some perspective about location. Using the list which includes property detail and the map I provide, clients narrow it down from there…typically to less than 10 properties we’ll make appointments to see. We can look at that many homes in 3 to 4 hours depending on how spread out they are. That’s about all you can give fair consideration to in one day any way.

So, that’s where we start. Sometimes, we get lucky and find the right thing the first time out. If not, at least I get a lot more information about what a client is really looking for. And, the client is much more realistic about their choices. There is no perfect home that solves every item on their wish list. It’s an education process for everyone. If I try to tell them what I think they want/need, they’ll think they’re missing something…that I just didn’t want to show them a certain property for some secret reason that only an insider would know.

Clients appreciate my candor, honesty, and patience while they go through their “process”. I don’t try to sell them anything. The property sells itself (or not). I am a licensed CPA. While I no longer practice accounting, I was trained to render unbiased opinions. Some habits die hard, especially when you don’t really want to kill them.

If you’d like to talk further about how you can put my Nashville-Middle Tennessee Real Estate Services to work for you, visit www.FivePointsProperties.com. To search the MLS listings for Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate, click on the large map on the home page.

Selling Your Home - To Paint or Not to Paint

When I talk to a seller about preparing their home to put it on the market, I suggest that resources be used wisely and only on things that will help the home sell quickly. A client asked me recently whether they should paint their kitchen.

I thought I’d share my response because most sellers could benefit from the advice.

If you paint the kitchen, should you paint the great room and/or the dining room? I do think it would be preferable to have more neutral colors BUT it might not be what ultimately brings the buyer.

A professional stager would definitely tell us to paint the kitchen. If it is something that you've been thinking about doing anyway, then I know it certainly wouldn't hurt your position.

Let me share an example...

I bought a home a couple of years ago. The seller's agent had recommended that they have the house painted. Apparently, they paid a professional over $3,000 to paint the interior of the home. It was a drab gray and they used flat paint. To further complicate things, they left no touch up paint so even if I thought I could live with the color it was impossible to touch up to my satisfaction. So...I ended up painting it again. The agent came by to drop something off and realized I had re-painted. She said "What a waste!"

So, my opinion on paint is that it's only paint and is fairly easily changed. If it isn't a really crazy unappealing paint scheme, I don't recommend you change it. The buyer will most likely want to make it their own anyway. If there is dated wallpaper, it's a different story. People know they can easily paint in a weekend. Removing wallpaper is a big job and if you don't do it right you could damage the walls and really end up with a mess on your hands.

With homes staying on the market longer, it doesn’t hurt to do some things that you would otherwise do if you were planning to keep the home long-term as long as those things would appeal to the masses. Your home needs to attract the attention of virtually every buyer since buyers are a scarce commodity right now.

If you’d like to talk further about how you can put my Nashville-Middle Tennessee Real Estate Services to work for you, visit www.FivePointsProperties.com. To search the MLS listings for Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate, click on the large map on the home page.

Mt. Juliet home Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate MLS

This home has been lovingly maintained. It is over 2,500 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths. The 4th bedroom is currently used as a bonus room…so it’s up to you. The eat-in kitchen opens to a lovely sun room and deck. The yard is fenced and private with mature trees. The master suite is upstairs and is large enough for all your furniture. You’ll love all the extra storage under the stair and adjacent to the bonus room. In fact, there’s lots to love in this home.

If you’d like more information about this home, take the Grand Photo Tour by Clicking Here. To learn more about how you can put my Nashville-Middle Tennessee Real Estate Services to work for you, visit www.FivePointsProperties.com. To search the MLS listings for Nashville-Middle Tennessee real estate, click on the large map on the home page.