The real estate transactions recorded at the Knox County Registrar of Deeds office were published 2 days ago. Not surprisingly the holidays dampened real estate activity somewhat but there were 120 transactions recorded for the week.
That means quite a few people in the greater Knoxville area got a great Christmas present in the form of a new home.
Here's just a few of the great buys new Knoxville area homeowners got recently.
This beautiful new construction home in Hardin Valley closed for $468,300.
Their slogan says "Halls has it!" and this beautiful Halls 2 story that sold for $180,000 recently is ample proof of that slogan.
Most of you probably don't know but I had a very strong background in the food industry before becoming a Realtor.
I have owned restaurants, been a chef, food & beverage manager, general manager, dishwasher, busboy, and most every other restaurant position there is. In fact my very first real job at age 16 was dishwasher, I believe at the princely sum of 50 cents an hour plus a meal.
Today I'm the designated chef for dinner. I'm gonna try out a great sounding new receipe I found on www.AllRecipes.com which is a great resouce for ideas.
Tonight's menu will include:
Orange-Pecan Pork Roast
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Spinach
and the traditional New Year's Black Eyed Peas.
Maybe a nice bottle of Pinot Gris or a Merlot
For the pork roast recipe you need:
1 three pound of so, boneless pork loin (I substituted pork tenderloin instead)
1/2 Cup finely chopped onion
1 clove of minced garlic
2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
1/2 Cup of Orange Marmalade
1/4 Cup of Chopped Pecans
1/3th teaspoon ground cinnamon.
To start:
Place roast on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. In a skillet saute oinion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the marmalade, pecans, and cinnamon; cook and stir until marmalade is melted. Spoon over the roast in the pan.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 1 3/4th hour or until mean thermometer reads 160 degrees (I most always use a therometer for large cuts of meat). Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
I'll post a follow up later to let you know how it came out but it sounds quick, pretty easy, and not much clean up; three of my main criterias for cooking anything.
UPDATE:
It was DELICIOUS!
Orange Marlalede gave it a little citrusy zing and pecan added some crunch. I skipped the baked sweet potatoes and just had the black eyed peas and creamed spinach.
Pinot Gris goes well with blackeyed peas if you're even looking for a complimentary wine.
If you haven't been doing this during the year you can still probably get it done in at most, a couple of hours.
Get a copy of the HUD 1 (closing statement) from each and every closing you had in 2008.
Send each buyer and seller a copy of their closing statement in an evelope with the following letter:
"Dear Client,
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2009.
It will soon be tax time so I thought you might could use an extra copy of your closing statements from the real estate transation we had together in 2008.
You'll need to check with your tax preparer but several items involved in buying or selling a house are typically tax deductible and might save you some money or help you get a refund.
Please call or email if you have any real estate questions.
Best regards,
Jim Lee, Your REALTOR®"
In 2009 if you start saving a copy of your closing statements, go ahead and write a similar letter dated January 2, 2010, stuff it in an envelope. When January of 2010 rolls around you'll be all set to just put on postage and drop them in the mail.
I send them to both buyers and sellers, I guarantee you there's almost a 100% chance the other agent will not be doing this.
In the current market you need every advantage you can bring to bear to get your home sold for a good price; you need to create some "WOWS! from buyers.
If you have old and outdated bathrooms and kitchen you're staring off the sale process with 1 or more strikes against you.
We sold our personal home in 2007. It was about 35 years old and each of our 3 bathrooms had different colored tile and fixtures from that era. One bath was avocado green, one harvest gold, and the third was a funky brown & gold color which I hope they have now passed a law against.
Being a real estate professional I knew the bathrooms had to be addressed before buyers saw them. I did not want to invest thousands of dollars to remodel and update the bathrooms so I started looking around for an alternative.
I found it in a company called Miracle Method of Knoxville. These guys actually refinish bathroom fixtures and tile walls in place with very high qualify coatings that they guarantee for a minimum of 5 years.
In just three days our green, gold, and brown bathrooms were transformed into gleaming white jewels. I then replaced the vanities, commodes, and installed new mirrors, lights, commodes, and gave them all a fresh coat of paint. HUGE DIFFERENCE! Our old, dated bathrooms were now fresh and gleaming to rival new construction homes and we were about 100K cheaper with a big, established yard.Our total costs for each bathroom was less than $2,000.
Our house sold for full price within a week.
Here are some examples of the Miracle Method guy's work from their website. They have a showroom in Knoxville up on Middlebrook Pike near Wright's Cafeteria so you can go visit and see example of their work.
Professional, cost effective, and reasonable; I recommend them highly based on my past experience.
BTW, my wife said to be sure and emphasize that the following pictures are NOT from our house. ;-)
No words need to point out the huge and obvious difference..
The Miracle Method folks also do kitchen and bathroom counter tops. In the photo left below, the surrounding walls, lights, and cabinets are taped and covering prior to applying the Miracle Method finish. On the right
Miracle Miracle; huge "WOW!" factor, low cost.
Best wishes to everyone for a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Thank you for a great 2008.
Weight loss is a common goal.This goal often goes hand in hand with "exercise more".
More business and more money is another.
One of the best ways I've found to achieve desirable goals is to make them as specific and definite as possible.
For example, instead of saying, "I would like to lose some weight and exercise more in 2009." say, "By June 30th of 2009 I will have lost 15 pounds by making heathier eating choices, exercising portion control, and committed myself to 30 minutes a day of an exercise program consisting of strength training, flexability, and aerobic activities."
Notice the difference is how definite the "By June 30th I will....." instead of "I want to lose weight." which sounds pretty vague.
Making a goal specific, quantifiable, and measurable gives you hard targets to aim at instead of vague wishes.
So for 2009:
Set your goals, for example weight loss.
Make them very specific and measurable, i.e. "I will lose 15 pounds by June 30th, 2009..."
Do them without fail and without excuses. Schedule the time for your mealing planning and exercise and stick to it. For example, every day at 6:00 am and without fail I will complete my 30 minute exercise routine.
This past week the Knoxville County Registrar of Deeds reported 139 closed real estate transactions.
Like most previous weeks most of the action was in the $50,000 to $150,000 prices ranges with closed transactions dropping off dramatically as the scale moved towards the higher prices.
There were 4 closed transactions over $1,000,000 and 2 in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range.
The average sales price in Knoxville for November 2008 was $85,900 for a 2 bedroom, $155,800 for a typical 3 bedroom home and $244,500 for 4 bedrooms and more.
This west Knoxville home closed at $160,000, 94.17% of the $169,900 list price.
There are still lots of great buys available and with interest rates moving into the mid 4% range, financing is looking pretty great as well.
Southeast Mortgage company in my office is still quoting 4.5% for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage.
Is that the bottom? Who knows, but I do know that a 4.5% interest rate translates into an extremely attractive monthly payment.
A $100,000 mortgage at 4.5% would have a monthly principal and interest payment of $506.69!
The monthly payment on $200,000 would be $1013.37.
Now that Christmas is past it will soon be time to take down the tree and decorations.
If you're one of the estimated 31.3 million US households that bought a real Christmas tree you may be wondering what to do with it.
Most cities and municipalities have some sort of recycling program for Christmas trees that have done their duty.
In the greater Knoxville area there are several options to not only recycle your used Christmas tree but get the ground up mulch back to put in your planting beds.
The best deal is to take it to Ijams Park in South Knoxville to be recycled into mulch which is used to maintain the trails we all enjoy. They accept used trees from now through January 31st.
Both the City of Knoxville and Knox County both have recycling faciitlies; read more here.
I'm lookin for link love, that special, magical kind of love that makes Google love you. Google will start loving you more when more inbound links to your blog or website start appearing.
Google likes inbound links best because it says to Google that others like you so that makes Google want to like you too.
Second best is a reciprocal link where someone links to you and then you link back to them. Not a bad thing but Google is often suspicious that this might not be an armlengths deal and you're trying to put one over on ol Google.
You can check out your current state of link love and get an indication about whether Google:
Loves you
Likes you
Wonders who are you
Never heard of you
by typing "link:your URL", i.e. Link:http://ActiveRain.com. Google will show you how many inbound links you currently have.
The benefit to you by having lots of inbound links is that Google will like/love you better and give you a higher ranking in the search engines when someone is looking for a subject relevant to your website or blog, i.e. REAL ESTATE.
OK, so now we understand that link love is good, where can we get some?
Here's 9 ways and places to get some link love in 2009
Write a blog article that causes people to link to it. Lists of stuff are usually popular. On Delicious.com now the most propular articles are "100 most popular........", "10 ways to improve........." and other lists.
Create a resource list for a popular topic, for example: "Foreclosures 101" "10 ways to stop your foreclosure" and other timely topics.
Use pay per click to draw more traffic to your website/blog. More traffic equals more opportunity for someone to link back to you.
Syndicate an article at someplace like ezinearticles.com or iSnare.com These sites rank highly in search engines and an article here with a link back to you will take advantage of that and boost you too.
DIGG it. Posting an article here will get attention and possible links back to you.
Trackbacks and blog commenting. Become a commenter on popular blogs and links from there will flow back to you and increase your link popularity.
Syndicate your listings. This not only exposes your listings to more potential buyers but the inbound link back to you serves to increase your popularity.
Concentrate on sites and blogs relevant to yours, want more real estate links, cultivate inbound links from real estate sites and blogs.
Ask. Yeah, just find a relevant site and ask for a link. The worst that can happen is that you'll be turned down and the best is that you get a link. Typically the link granter will ask for a reciprocal link, that one hand washes the other thingie.
Resolve now to find more love in 2009; it could lead to a much happier and more profitable year for you.
From Knoxville, Tennessee; Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!
FHA loans have been the main source of financing in the last 6 months. What I hate hearing is that they have taken the spot of the subprime loans. This is not true by any part of the imagination. This statement is from those that are inexperienced in both the mortgage and the real estate industries. The realization has been that 30% of the subprime mortgages in the last 5 years previous to the last 2 years should have been FHA mortgages, not subprime. And that is a hard core fact.
The subprime loan for many years could go down to a 500 credit score, depending on your equity position. But your rate was usually higher. If your score was higher, the less you needed to put down, the lower your rate. Sounds good, right? Wrong, because the subprime rate was usually higher than the FHA rates.
To compound this, so many said just because you had a conventional loan, you had the better loan. This was not always true when putting 3 percent down. In most cases, you were told this, because that particular lender was not FHA approved. Now? Even with 10% down and credit scores less than 680, FHA loans in many cases, will be the best mortgage for you.
So you could argue the fact that this is just my opinion, that FHA mortgages in many cases would be better for you. True, even though I have over 16 years of experience as a loan officer in the mortgage industry. But numbers don't lie. Let me show you.....
The example below is based on a $300,000 purchase price with 5% down. One reason why conventional rates are a little higher in this scenario as in FHA rates is because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have added penalties per se. If you are putting down less than 30% and your credit score is less than 720, certain fee penalties would apply to you, which would increase your rate. The FICO (credit score) that I am going to use is 710 and I will still show in this example that FHA loans are cheaper, even with 5% down. This was a request from Laurie in Portland, Oregon. I wrote a blog about comparisons, but using a credit score of 659. A FHA loan vs Conventional loan comparison with a credit score of 659
***And keep in mind, some lenders have penalties on FHA mortgages with credit scores under 620. And many lenders can't do FHA loans under 580. I can still do credit scores down to 500 with a manual underwrite.***
Type of Mortgage
Conventional Loans
FHA Loans
Purchase Price
$300,000
$300,000
Mortgage amount w/5% down
$285,000
$289,987 w/MIP
Interest Rate with zero points
6.25%
5.625%
Principal & Interest Payment
$1,754.79
$1,670.24
Mortgage Insurance payment
$185.25
$118.75
Total mortgage payment w/P&I and mortgage insurance
$1,940.04
$1,788.99
Monthly Savings
$151.05 per month
Disclaimer : These rates are examples, but the spread shown in the example is real. To compare this scenario apples to apples, the fees are the same and with zero points. In this scenario, there are no lender fees or points. The conventional rate also includes the penalty for the 720 credit score, which is only a 1/4 pt., not a 1/4 percent.
Some of you might be saying that you will be adding $4,897.00 onto your principal balance if you did the FHA mortgage because of the FHA one-time mortgage insurance premium. This is correct and I don't want to confuse you with more numbers and charts. But here is a quick breakdown. If you kept your house for 5 years, which most people sell in a 6 year period, you would have saved $9,063 in payments in 5 years. This is a difference of $4,166 that you have saved!!! And one other thing that is very small, but still makes a difference. You will be subtracting a few more dollars per month from your principal because your interest rate is lower, which would offset the interest that you would write off on the 6.25% rate. Just something else to remember, but consult your tax consultant or CPA.
A Chart for the Money Geeks
Type of Mortgage
Conventional Loans
FHA Loans
Purchase Price
$300,000
$300,000
Mortgage amount w/5% down
$285,000
$289,987 w/MIP
Interest Rate with 1 point
5.00%
5.00%
Principal & Interest Payment
$1,529.94
$1,556.77
Mortgage Insurance Payment
$185.25
$118.75
Total mortgage payment w/P&I and mortgage insurance
$1,715.19
$1,675.52
Monthly Savings
$39.67 per month
Disclaimer : These rates are examples, but the spread shown in the example is real. To compare this scenario apples to apples, the fees are the same and with 1 point. In this scenario, there are no lender fees. The conventional rate also includes the penalty for the 710 credit score, which is only a 1/4 pt., not a 1/4 percent.
One of the first questions that a loan officer should ask you is what type of payment that you are comfortable with. That question should shortly then be followed with this... "how much cash do you have to work with or want to work with." The reason being, as you can see in the example above, I was able to buy the rate down with just 1 pt. And this happens on and off during the course of the year, but some of the spreads between the rates aren't as far apart than you would think. It use to be a rule of thumb that 3/8 of a point more would drop your rate 1/8 of a percent. A few months ago, in some cases, it was a half of a point to buy the rate down an 1/8 of a percent. As you can see, the apread is nothing at all, especially on the conventional side of things.
A very good loan officer will look at the different spreads. And if they do their job correctly, they could advise you to pay a little more or try to get a gift to buy the rate down. In this example, it would cost you an additional $2,850 at closing. Another great aspect of FHA loans is that you can get a 100% gift from a family member. In regards to conventional loans, you have to have 5% of your own money into the transaction. And you don't have to prove gifts if you put 20% or more down.
In regards to the scenario above, as you can see, you are only saving $39.67 per month. Sure, you break down the numbers with a fine tooth comb, when talking about interest deductions, MIP write-offs, etc, etc. But the reality of it all is that the average consumer needs the actual cash savings now, not later. So in this scenario, sometimes a few dollars a month now, is better than the fact that you have to add onto your loan amount the FHA MIP monies. In this scenario, it would then take you about 10 years to recoup the Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium. But again, not a huge savings, but depending on how you view this, even with a 710 credit and 5% down, your initial payment on a conventional mortgage is going to be more than a FHA loan.
One of the most amazing Christmas light shows you've ever seen is playing nightly at Shadrack Water Sports & RV just off Watt Road in West Knoxville.
Over 250,000 colors lights dance to music starting with a peppy song titled "Christmas With A Capital "C" by Go Fish to the more traditional "Silent Night" by Mannheim Steamroller
Great Christmas entertainment for the whole family. The Christmas light show is open 6-10 p.m. weekdays, 6-11 p.m. weekends past New Year’s. Admission is $10,00 per carload during the week and $12.00 on weekends. They said over 2,000 cars have toured the grounds and watched the light show since it opened in mid November.
Fun for all the some of the proceeds go to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank.
Office Phone:
(865) 693-3232
Cell Phone:
(865) 539-3163
Email Me
Have a question about Knoxville, TN real estate or homes for sale??
Please feel free to ask a question about any aspect of real estate or a real estate transaction.
Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates)
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