Your Knoxville Tennessee real estate information source.

HouseLogic, NAR's new, consumer facing website.

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:38:57 -0600

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 easily projects and tips customized to your area. You’re completely safe signing up with your email address; the site’s privacy statement assures that none of your contact information will ever be passed on to anyone for any reason without your express consent.

I signed up for a free account and was immediately served up some project ideas to save money on energy costs, preventative maintenance on my heating system, and an article on how to receive up to $1,500 in tax credits for replacing an existing heating and air conditioning system. Pretty good stuff and the price was definitely right, FREE.

For buyers NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun had some words about the current market. He said: “said home sales continue to be dominated by lower-priced homes. In fact, NAR data shows nearly 70% of homes sold in September were priced below $250,000.

“The housing market has become much more active at the lower end,” said Yun. “The $8,000 homebuyer tax credit has significantly helped the market and is having its intended impact of stimulating home sales, decreasing high home inventory levels, and helping to stabilize home prices.”

Sales of homes priced below $100,000 are up 22.5% from a year ago. Sales in the upper-end market are still slow, however; homes priced above $500,000 are up only 4% from last year.

Yun projects the homebuyer tax credit will help raise home sales this year by 350,000 to 400,000 among first-time homebuyers—these are buyers who couldn’t have purchased a home without the tax incentive.

“The expansion of the tax credit into 2010 will help raise existing-home sales next year by as much as 15% and increase home prices by 3 to 5%,” he said.

Increased affordability is also helping spur lower end home sales. In September, the national median existing home price was $174,900, down 8.5% from one year ago.

So do yourself a favor, pay a visit to HouseLogic and see what it has to offer you. Better yet sign up for a free account and let the site find things relevant to your needs and get a monthly newsletter (optional) filled with timely information.

Buyers and sellers are also invited to visit KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com to see all the Knoxville area homes for sale as well as find buying and selling tips, schools information, local jobs, recreational opportunities, and lots more Knoxville information.

Please feel free to comment or ask a question either here or email me

Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, ACRE, NAR Certified e-PRO Trainer
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Visit my blog: www.KnoxvilleTennesseeRealEstateBlog.com
Realty Executives Associates, Knoxville, Tennessee
See all Knoxville area Realtor listings at: www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com
(865) 693-3232, My Personal Toll Free # 1-800-662-2488 ext. 163
mailto:Jim@JimLee.com

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How to 'cheat' with Wordle (the word cloud website)

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:38:33 -0600

By now lots of us have likely heard something about www.Wordle.net, the website that lets you build a "word cloud" like the one below which is made of words used in a post. The most used words appear larger and seldom used words appear as smaller.

While that is a very cool application to add some color and visual interest to a post, there may be occasions where you want words other than the most used ones to appear larger and more prominent.

There's a very easy way to make that happen by simply 'cheating' when you paste your word cloud in to Wordle to transform it. In this example I'm deliberately only using the words "Knoxville Real Estate" and "Jim Lee, Realtor" one time to illustrate my point.

Here's the normal Wordle with all the words in this post as you see it.

Now let's suppose for whatever reason you want the keywords I mentioned above to appear more prominently in your word cloud.

Simply by adding them multiple times ( I added each one 6 times) you can dramatically alter the output of your Wordle world cloud should you have a reason to want to.

Here's the same word cloud as above with the added keywords mentioned above.

And to capture the above Wordle files I used MWSnap, a free screen capture utility that has a lot more functionality than simply using the print screen key on your keyboard and it's my favorite price, FREE!

BTW, even though MWSnap is freeware someone had to work to develop it. I made a contribution to that person from the site I downloaded it from.

Happy cheating. ;)

PS, I saved the above images as .JPG files which also gives you the option to insert (slip) your own keywords in the image description and title when you insert the file into your post.

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Comparing present homebuyer tax credit to extended version

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:50:49 -0600

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 existing tax credit was driving mostly lower end purchases.

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90 second "Lightning Round" of home selling tips

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:06:39 -0500

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.

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Knoxville, Tennessee 3rd quarter 2009 Sales Figures Are Out

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:22:50 -0500

The graph below compares this year's 3rd quarter (July, August, & September) sales figures with past years. There's no denying the volume is still sliding although it does show some signs of leveling off a bit.

Typically at this time of year we're started a season decline which continues into early the following year and then starts a climb back to the traditional peak summer selling season. This year the sales seems to be holdin up longer than usualy according to the graph below which compares 2009 year to date sales with previous years.

As you can see by the red line representing Knoxville sales so far in 2009, the numbers of sales seems to be holding up longer than as in past years. I believe a significant number of those sales are being driven by the $8,000 tax credit that expires at the end of November. It will be interesting to see what happens to the numbers at that time.

We’ve talked a lot about sales numbers but how are prices holding up in this depressed market? Fairly well actually. We haven’t seen any really depressed prices compared to some of the harder hit markets like south Florida, California, Michigan, and others. I believe home values have fallen some in the great Knoxville area but not dramatically.

In the Knoxville, Tennessee real estate market a typical sale is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes with a two car garage and somewhere between 1500 to 2200 square feet. Here’s how the median prices of those types of homes have fared over the past 10 years.

The median price is simply the price at which half of the homes sold are more expensive and the other half are less expensive, fewer sales of cheaper homes moves the median higher, all else being equal. Since our median price is down to $139,900 in the 3rd quarter of 2009 versus a high of $154,500 in the third quarter of 2007 that means we’re selling more less expensive houses than higher priced ones.

Those statistics are born out by the absorption rates (time to sell) of Knoxville area homes. Today there is a 42 months supply of Knoxville homes priced over one million dollars and only a 9 months supply of those homes priced between $100,000 to $150,000.

Bottom line any way you slice and dice it: Knoxville TN home sales are down compared to the booming market of just a couple of year ago and as long as mortgages continue to be difficult to obtain and unemployment continues to be in the 10% range I don’t see many reasons for our market to improve significantly.

On the brighter side there will continue to be homes bought and sold every day, just fewer of them and probably not for top prices as before.

If you have a house for sale in the Knoxville, Tennessee area right now and it’s been on the market over 30 days here’s some tips you can probably use. More useful home selling tips at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com including a free copy of my 52 page eBook titled: “450 Ways To Make Your Home Sell Faster”.

Looking to buy a house in the greater Knoxville area? www.HomeCenter.com is also a great place to see all the homes, condos, land, and lots of sale. No registration required, just plug in your search criteria and start looking. Search by Maps, addresses, and areas.

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The power of social media

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:49:47 -0500

Wow, an exciting and interesting thing just happened.

I posted on Twitter a graph I created below showing the Knoxville area home sales month to month this year.

19 minutes later my phone is ringing and the news director for WATE , one of our local TV stations is on the phone saying his boss saw it on Twitter and asking permission to use it (with suitable attribution and a quote from me regarding our market) in a news story they're doing this afternoon about our local market.

I get quite a bit of positive feedback from my Facebook and Twitter activities and that phone call was further proof positive that people take notice of what you post there.

A couple of weeks ago I was in a bakery buying a loaf of bread and the guy behind me asked if I was Jim Lee the Realtor. I replied yes and he said I read your blog all the time. You're the only one in town that publishes the actual sales figures instead of just saying the market is great and it's a good time to buy a house.

My blogging has also resulted in a couple of live interviews on local stations including one time the news team met me at a listing and photographed me showing it to some buyers and then interviewed me in the yard (beside my sign) talking about the local market.

Facebook and Twitter directly led to these interviews and recognition in addition to bringing several listings and buyers to me.

If you're reading this on Active Rain you're likely already blogging but you need to make sure you also have a presnce on Facebook and Twitter; it will lead to business.

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Google Trends Labs shows you what people search for in your area

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:23:05 -0500

Have you tried this great Google tool yet? Google Trends Labs lets you search, find, and compare keyword search terms with others to see which ones are being searched for most.

Here's an example from my area comparing: "Knoxville Real Estate", "Knoxville TN Real Estate" and "Knoxville Homes For Sale"

The blue line above represents Google searches within the US for the keywords, "Knoxville Real Estate" which form the baseline at 1.00

The red line is for "Knoxville TN Real Estate which scored 0.45 or less than half the top keywords rank.

Last is the term, "Knoxville Homes For Sale" which is the keyword set the salesman below told me was the top search term for my area and it ranked 0.39

These results are for searches done within the United States for the year 2009. You can ask Google Trends Labs for most any combination of areas and time periods. Since I believe most of my searches originate in the US that was what I was most interested in.

I found this tool by accident while looking for most used keywords for real estate in my area. I had one of "those salesmen" call me several times trying to sell the proverbial "latest and greatest" keyword oriented website. Looks like Googles results above doesn't support his story.

Here's what Google says about their new tool:

"1. How does Google Trends work? Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.

We then show you a graph with the results – our Search Volume Index graph. Located beneath the Search Volume Index graph is our News reference volume graph. This graph shows you the number of times your topic appeared in Google News stories.

When Google Trends detects a spike in the volume of news stories for a particular search term, it labels the graph and displays the headline of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike.

Currently, only English-language headlines are displayed, but we hope to support non-English headlines in the future. Below the search and news volume graphs, Trends displays the top regions, cities, and languages in which people searched for the first search term you entered."

Pretty cool stuff from our friends at Google.

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5 reasons your Knoxville, TN home is not selling.

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:57:13 -0500

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 now may be lower than those figures.

Generally the higher up you go on asking price the longer the time on the market becomes. Because of the credit crunch especially on jumbo or non conforming loans (in the Knoxville area that would be a loan over $417,000), large mortgages are even tougher to get than say an FHA loan on a median priced 3 bedroom house in the Knoxville area.

Below is a chart showing the absorption rates (months to sell) for price points in the Knoxville, Tennessee market.

The above graph shows that if your home is listed for sale for over 1 million dollars there is currently a 42 month supply of those homes at the current sales rates. Listed between $100,000 to $150,000 there is a 9 month supply of homes in that price point.

So what’s the answer? Have your agent update your market analysis. Take a look at homes that have sold in your neighborhood, your zip code, and similar homes in other parts of town. What is their list price to sale price ratio? Did those sellers make any concessions to the buyer, i.e. pay some of their closing costs, install new carpet, and any other inducements to get them to buy that house.

If they did maybe that’s something you should consider to get yours sold too but most often it’s the price.

Reason number 2: CONDITION Does your home show like a model home? Has it been “staged” to show in the best possible light to new buyers? Decluttered with overstuffed closets leaned out, excess ’stuff’ packed up and out of the way? CLEAN, with everything including windows, front door, kitchen and bathrooms squeaky clean? Visit my website, www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com and click the “Selling” link to get my 40 Free or inexpensive tips can make your home show better, sell faster, and put more money in your pocket at closing.

The better your house shows the more buyers are willing to pay and the quicker it usually sells.

Reason number 3: LOCATION Ok, if this is your problem immediately call Acme House Movers and………of course I’m just joking here but one of the cold hard facts of life are that some locations are more desirable than others and others are less desirable.

If you’re in a location buyers seem to perceive as less desirable for whatever reason the only cure for that condition is to reduce your asking price.

You may enjoy living next to the railroad tracks and look forward to that 100 car coal train that comes by at 3:00 AM every morning but trust me, the average buyer won’t share your passion for railroading that up close and personal.

Reason number 4: ACCESSIBILITY You can’t sell it if buyers can see it. Showings are often requested on short, or sometimes no notice. As a serious seller you need to make your best effort to keep your home in showable condition at all times. I’m continually amazed as I search through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) looking for homes for my buyer clients and find agent notes like: “24 hour notice to show, no exceptions”, “no lockbox, listing agent must be present for all showings” (so what if the listing agent is not available?, and this favorite, “DO NOT GO IN YARD, dogs will bite”

So if I have a buyer that wants to see your house in 2 hours you want them to wait until tomorrow, hope your agent can let us in, and run the risk of being attacked by your darling pit bulls? Guess what, that’s not happening, there are hundreds of other houses for sale that we can see on our schedule and buy today. Which of those options would be best for you Mr. Seller?

Reason number 5: YOUR AGENT Yep, this could be one of your problems.

Even though all Knoxville area Realtors pay the same amount of dues some of them are frankly just better at marketing homes than others. So the first thing you should do is review your agent’s written marketing plan of what they’re going to do to get your house sold. Oh, you asked for their written marketing plan and got that ‘deer in the headlights’ look. Ooops, that could be a problem.

National Association of Realtors statistics show that over 85% of current homebuyers started their home search on the Internet so how is your homes Internet marketing presence? Does it have a virtual tour? Is your home displayed on multiple websites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, GoogleBase, BirdView, Vast, Homes.com, YouTube (yep, videos), and other websites including your agent’s personal website? If not that could be a problem.

Does your MLS and advertising descriptions paint a pleasing visual picture in a buyer’s mind or does it just say something like: “3 BR, 2 BA, darling, hurry, won’t last long”? Have you ever seen your homes MLS listing? If not that could be a problem.

Does your listing have a minimum of 20, well made and current photos of your house including the interior. Amazingly there are still photos in the Knoxville MLS of homes for sale with snow on the ground. When was our last snow? Buyers like to see lots of photos and if you don’t have them…….that could be a problem.

So here’ s the 5 reasons roundup:

Revisit your list price objectively and look at the most recent sales. If it’s not selling then adjust your price.
Go outside and walk through your house pretending you’re a buyer. Do you like what you see? Showroom condition is key.
Have a talk with your self about your homes location.
Make sure potential buyers can get in to see your home and feel safe and welcome while they’re there.
And finally, call your agent up and invite them over for a visit and review of what’s been done to market your house and what will be done in the future.

Visit KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com for lots of great selling tips, no charge, no obligation.

Please feel free to call, comment, or email any questions.

Read more: http://knoxvilletennesseerealestateblog.com/#ixzz0U0MKg6PG
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

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Create some cool images of your blog posts with "Wordle"

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:32:53 -0500

"Wordle" is another of those way cool and free tools you can use to create a "word cloud" from text or a RSS website, i.e. your blog.

Once you submit your text or URL to Wordle, it then turns it into a world cloud with the most used words larger like a tag cloud.Wordle just does it cooler and you can randomize your Wordle clouds into different layours and colors.

Here are some example of the same things several different ways from the Active Rain homepage:

Creat some cool word clouds to enhance your blog postings.

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Knoxville history comes alive in Old Gray Cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:27:55 -0500

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 below played "Taps" every 30 minutes or so.

Colonel David Chapman portrayed below, was heavily involved for the State of Tennessee in acquiring land that would later become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Listen to the horses hooves 'clip clop' on the pavement as one of the carriages goes by with a load of visitors.

If you have an interest in what Knoxville was like many years ago, a visit to the annual Old Gray Cemetery Lantern & Carriage Tour is like turning a page back in time to revisit living history.

See lots more photos and stories here

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It's "Free Flu Shot Saturday" in Knoxville, Tennessee today

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:28:55 -0500

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 filled out, and other tasks

Doctor Barnett and his group enlist the help of fellow Knoxville medical professionals to actually administer the vaccine at 5 Knoxville area high schools. This morning Charlotte and I were in line around 9:20 AM on a rainy Saturday morning along with hundreds of others at Farragut High School for a flu shot.

The guy with his arm raised between the two ladies turned out to be my flu shot guy. He was gentle but he forgot to give me my sucker.

Read more about Knoxville, Tennessee and the annual "Free Flu Shot Saturday" at Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

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Swindler uses my office to cheat my business associates

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:36:46 -0500

AR can be the new "America's Most Wanted" and get this guy caught before he rips off any more people.

Via Mike Frazier, Dyersburg Tn Real Estate (Carousel Realty of Dyer County):

Jim Frazier dba Advertising Associates came to my office over a year ago offering to give me new presentation folders on which he solds ads.

What he did was use one of my offices to call businesses (some of them I recommended) and ask for a time to come by and discuss an advertising campaign.

He would then meet with the business person and make the pitch for a nice ad on Mike Frazier and Carousel Realty's presentation folders. He said the ad is only $300(upfront) to cover the cost of printing,etc.

By my count he talked 15 business people into this scheme. He told them the ads would come out in 6 weeks and now it has been over 9 months or so.

He also claims to be very conservative and supportive of the tea party movement.

Please remember this name and the scheme he uses to make his living.

The local police are trying to locate him right now!

If people will just Google him I am sure this post will be very visible for some time to come. Blogging just might catch this guy! Maybe include his name in your comments:)

Mike Frazier and his team can be reached at 731-285-2277. They are both listing agents and buyer's agents. We cover not only Dyersburg but surroundings towns of Newbern, Halls, Ripley, Tiptonville, Ridgely and Friendship(all in northwest Tennessee).

For unsurpassed customer service (second to none) contact Mike and his team today!

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Thinking of Buying a Home in Knoxville? Check out Knoxville's Best Kept Secret- Holston Hills / Chilhowee Area

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:46:33 -0500

I agree; Holston Hills and Chilhowee Hills are 2 often overlooked, great communities in east Knoxville,

Via Christine McInerney & Jennifer Halinkowski, Green, EcoBroker, e-Pro (Keller Williams Realty):

Conveniently located just minutes from Downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, lies a quaint and often overlooked subarea known as the Holston Hills / Chilhowee area.

The Holston Hills / Chilhowee Hills area can be easily accessed from Interstate I-40 from the Ashville Highway exit and runs alongside the beautiful Holston River. Many of these homes boast beautiful historic architecture, mature landscaping, large lots, and pristine views.

View Larger Map

Nestled in Holston Hills and running along side the scenic Holston River lays the Holston Hills Country Club which consistently ranks as one of the top 3 golf courses in the state by Golf Digest.

The Holston Hills County Club is home to an 18 hole, Donald Ross designed course and measures 7082 yards and plays to a par 72 with a slope rating of 129. The property course stretches over 150 acres of old farm land and offers great scenery but little visual golfing distractions. The County Club also features a PGA staffed pro-shop, putting range, short play area, Olympic sized pool, and several tennis courts (8 outdoor courts, 4 lighted Rubico courts, and 2 hard courts).

The Holston Hills area is perhaps Knoxville's best kept secret and is ideal for those in search of beautiful historic quality built architecture, estate like lots, city convenience with a countryside-estate feel. However, buyers better hurry as prices are currently at an all time low which creates the perfect opportunity for the sophisticated and price conscious buyer.

Pack your bags and bring your boats and golf clubs as there is no other place in Knoxville where it is possible to purchase beautiful homes, located on or near the water, that are in such close proximity a top notch County Club at these almost ridiculously low prices.

However, you better hurry as new developments are currently underway alongside the Holston River which will surely drive prices up in the Holston Hills / Chilhowee Hills area.

Click Here To view all homes for sale in the Holston Hills / Chilhowee Hills subarea.

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Christine McInerney and Jennifer Halinkowski - Knoxville TN Real Estate - Keller Williams Realty Knoxville Copyright © 2009

Instantly search for all Homes For Sale in Knoxville , Farragut, Powell TN, Alcoa TN, Lenoir City, Maryville, Oak Ridge, Corryton, Louisville, Blaine, Seymour, Strawberry Plains

Please visit us at www.HomesForSaleKnoxville.com and www.KnoxvilleReal-Estate for additional information about the Knoxville TN area, Knoxville Relocation, and Selling and Buying Knoxville Real Estate.

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5 money saving tips for Knoxville, Tennessee area homeowners (works in other areas too) ;)

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:13:38 -0500

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 coupons! Knox County School coupons, coupons from places like the Half Off Depot, newspapers, and lots of other sources. I recently bought a Pawley’s Island hammock for way less than half price and I’ve enjoyed it way more than the actual cost. Here’s a great money saving tip for you. I can send you a coupon for Lower’s that is good for 10% off any purchase or purchases up to $10,000! That means you have a potential $1,000 dollar savings; especially great if you’re buying a big ticket item like appliances, a new kitchen, or lawnmower. No cost or obligation, just ask me for one.
Shop around Knoxville and compare prices. Often you can find the same thing or a comparable item for much less if you visit a few different stores. Also lots of stores like Lowe’s, Best Buy, and other aggressive retailers will match sales or prices you find at other stores just to get your business. Don’t be afraid to ask.
Auctions are a great way to find deals and save money. Don’t want to log into eBay every 2 hours to check your bid? Just sign up for automated notifications on your cell phone and that will keep you updated if someone has outbid you or if you won your item. Auctions are fun too.
Credit card rewards. A great but often overlooked source of great items. So far I’ve used a credit card rewards program to get 2 new digital cameras, a Flip video camera, some Bose headphones, and a couple of other things just for using that credit card. I also recommend you pay off balances each month so as not in accrue interest charges.

So there you go, 5 ways to get some great deal for your new Knoxville area home or the one you’re selling.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com also has lots of great FREE STUFF to help with your buying or selling, pay me a visit there soon and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

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Love it or hate it; Tennesseans are using the first time buyer $8,000 tax credit

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:27:55 -0500

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 whether the credit will be extended past the existing deadline and it's still anyone's guess what will happen. My personal belief is that the fed is going to let it expire and see what happens.

Buyers can now actually claim next year's tax credit this year by filing an amended tax return (most any CPA will do one for about a hundred bucks) on your 2008 return via a special option the IRS has created.

"Qualifying taxpayers who buy a home this year before Dec. 1 can get up to $8,000, or $4,000 for married filing separately.

“For first-time homebuyers this year, this special feature can put money in their pockets right now rather than waiting another year to claim the tax credit," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “This important change gives qualifying homebuyers cash they do not have to pay back.”

If you're thinking of buying there's still time to get in under the wire but I advise you to call me as soon as possible and let's get started finding you a new home.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is a great place to start.

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Spring Hill Real Estate Sales Report for August

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:41:58 -0500

Spring Hill, Tennessee is a pleasant Middle Tennessee town south of Nashville.

Via Larry Brewer Nashville real estate (Keller Williams - Franklin tn):

Spring Hil Tn Real Estate sales for the month of August continues to improve.. With Spring Hill schools being some of the best in middle Tennessee, families move here to improve the education of their children. Now that school is in session, some are leaving the schools in Davisdon county and moving to Williamson county for the schools system. Great real estate deals are still available in Spring Hill.

To search for Spring Hill real estate, click on the search button.

This posting and the contents written here are the intellectual property and opinions of Larry Brewer of Keller Williams Realty. Providing real estate services to clients in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Spring Hill, Green Hills, Murfreesboro, and the middle Tennessee area

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Knoxville Tennessee sales report for the week of September 6th

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:45:13 -0500

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 to lower price points dominate the volume of sales with the hot ticket for the year remaining the $100,000 to $150,000 range.

The clock is running down fast on the $8,000 federal tax credit that lots of new homebuyers have been taking advantage of. It expires November 3oth, 2009 and that’s for a closed transaction, not just being in the process. With lenders taking from 30 to 45 days to process a loan these days you need to plan on having your target house under contract not later than October 15th to ensure you don’t come up short of time.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is the place to begin your home search. As a 30 year veteran of the Knoxville area real estate market I will be glad to answer any questions you may have about the tax credit, the market in your neighborhood, or any other real estate related question.

Jim Lee, 865-693-3232 or email me; Jim@JimLee.com

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Promoting your Knoxville, Tennessee listings with Visual Tour.com

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:57:11 -0500

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 large graphic with the large house photo and clicking "Next". The next choice is: "How would you like your tour branded?" Which means how much of your contact info do you want on the virtual tour itself. Some MLS's are sticky about contact info appearing on a virtual tour.

I'm selecting the first option, "Full branding" because I like me best. ;) click "Next"

"Would you like the link to open in a new window?"

Yep, I do want a new window, and click "Next"

And this is what the finished product will look like. You can easily paste this code into your blog, website, or most anywhere else you want

And the copied code creates the finished link below. Clicking it will open up the virtual tour for that property.

Total time to create one of these custom links, about 1 minute. Cost of unlimited Visual Tour virtual tours, $29.95 per month for UNLIMITED tours.WOW factor for you; PRICELESS!

I use mine for lots of other things like emailing photos to out of town customers, clients, their spouses, etc., which they can then email on to their friends with my smiling face alongside their house. Also neighborhoods, points of interest in your town, you name it. Create all the virtual tours you want to only $29.95 a month.

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Knoxville, Tennessee real estate sales; are they finally going up?

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:46:50 -0500

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 past 4 years, there were up almost every month following the previous month up unti about April-May and then they started dropping again.

The very simple reason behind this phenomena besides real estate sales being very localized, is that sales are also very seasonal as well in additional to being tied to the health of local economies. Look at the historical data in the graph above.

Typically sales are lowest in December, January, and February. Then they begin rising in March building up to a peak in most places by mid summer and then they start dropping off again until the reach the mid winter low points.

So why do more people buy and sell houses in the spring and summer than in the fall and winter? There are lots of reasons but some of the more common are these:

Parents like to buy and/or sell in the spring/summer timeframe because the kids are typically out of school and don’t have to be moved from one school district to another in mid-term.
Lots of homebuyers prefer shopping for a home in the warmer months because there is usually a larger selection of houses to choose from, the weather is more pleasant to get out and look, and since the days are also longer, there is more time to look around both after work during the week and on weekends.
Companies that transfer employees also try to do more of their job shifting in the summer months for the same reasons. Bottom line; sales are up compared to previous months in 2009 but still way down compared to the same months in previous years.

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Knoxville, TN July real estate sales

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:13:28 -0500

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 sales for the first half of 2009 are still down around 50%.

It’s still hard to draw any meaningful conclusions about a trend of any sort from the figures because historically, real estate sales have a very strong seasonal factor with the peak sales months being June, July, and August and the lower sales months being the winter months.

When the August sales figures come out next month I’ll do a comparison of the three peak months to previous years.

The big question on most people’s minds are “when is the market going to turn around and/or pick up again?” Best guess is probably not this year or maybe even 2010 but very likely in 2011 barring unforeseen circumstances.

For sellers my advice remains the same: Competitive pricing, put your house in the best possible condition, consider some buyer concessions such as paying closing costs, temporary rate buydowns, and be prepared to negotiate.

For buyers it’s a great market for you. Lowest interest I can ever remember, huge supply of homes on the market, and for those that have not owned a home in the past 3 years, up to an $8,000 tax credit from the government to help you even further in buying. However that tax credit runs out at the end of November which means you need to have a house under contract by at least the middle of October to make sure you get it.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is a great place for both buyers and sellers to looks at homes for sale. Sellers can see what your competition looks like and buyers can search for their new home here.

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Biking the Cade Cove loop road in the Great Smoky Mountains

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:12:33 -0500

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 ago. We had a very simple ceremony back in the woods beside Elijah Oliver's cabin one frosty February morning. In attendance were our minister, one witness, and about 20 deer who dropped by to see what was going on.

A lot of the original buildings have been preserved by the national park service to illustrate how life was back in those days. One of the very enjoyable things you can do in the Cove is to ride your bike around the 11 mile loop road that circles this scenic valley.

This past Saturday I took my bike up to the Cove and set off about 8:00 am to ride the loop. I got a bit later start than usual and there were lots of other bikers either on the road already or getting ready to go. There are also usually quite a few walkers and some runners as well; no exception today.

It's a great ride with several pretty good pulls up hills that get your heart pumping. Since it's getting pretty close to fall I saw several bears up in Oak trees stuffing themselves with Acorns in preparation for going into hibernation soon.

This looked to be a pretty young bear. He was busy stuffing food into his mouth and oblivious to everyone below his tree watching and taking pictures.

The Cove also abounds with lots of deer and it's not unusual to see as many as 100 or more during your tour.

This little spike buck just looked like he stopped and posed for my camera. Wildlife in Cades Cove are very used to visitors and it's usually easy to get some terrific photos of bear, deer, wild turkey, and other wildlife.

One cautionary note; these are wild animals and there are no bars between you and them like in the zoo. This is also their home; you are the visitor so please respect them, don't try to get too close, and above all else DO NOT try to feed them or touch them. It is against the law and the park rangers will cite you or arrest you on the spot if they see you. It also does harm to the animals by teaching them to go to humans for food instead of finding it on their own as nature intended.

Here's another shot of some Cades Cove deer having breakfast. This photo is from a previous visit.

If you're visiting, the Cades Store has a bike rental for you. $4.00 an hour for coaster bikes and $6.00 for geared models. I highly recommend the geared models for an extra two bucks unless your name is Lance Armstrong.

Riding the loop road takes anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on your fitness level and how much sightseeing you do along the way. I recommend taking your time and enjoying all the Cove has to offer.

If your time is short there are also two roads, Hyatt and Sparks Lanes, you can cut through the middle of the Cove and finish much quicker.

From early May until late September the Cove loop road is closed to vehicles on Wednesday and Saturdays until 10:00 am. I strongly suggest planning your ride during these times especially on Wednesdays if you can arrange your schedule.

Cades Cove is a very, very popular destination and the loop road is typically clogged with vehicles especially during the summer and a bear sighting brings all traffic to a halt.

We usually try to hit the road on Wednesdays just at first light. That's the time the most animals are out feeding and the crowds are almost nonexistent then.

Enjoy your ride, take along plenty of water, stop and enjoy the views often; I guarantee it's a ride you will remember for years to come.

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Floor plans for your listings

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:02:51 -0500

I have long thought that providing floor plans for your listings was a good idea but only two things kept me from it.

1. I can't draw worth a darn, and

2. It was expensive to have someone else draw them for me.

First I tried drawing my own with a ruler, compass, pencil, and several erasers. Never did get the professional look I was after. Then I bought a program to draw them for me. Never could make it draw a straight line either.

Finally I stumbled across a firm called Diakrit; here's some information about them: "Founded in 2001, Diakrit has grown from a purely IT company into one of Northern Europe’s leaders of visualizations and 3D modeling.

In July 2008, Diakrit AB merged with Matrix AB, triggering enormous growth. Today, Diakrit boasts over 110 employees throughout Scandinavia, the United States, China and Thailand, and provides its services in visualization and 3D modeling to more than 1300 clients in the real estate and retail sectors worldwide, with more clients signing up daily.

With its experienced architects and a deep understanding of the global markets, Diakrit offers solutions to real estate agents, brokers, and international franchises, as well as real estate portals, facility management companies, and developers."

Wow, I had no idea they were such a big deal international firm.

But they did what I wanted, that is, produced a nice, clean looking floor plan for my resale listings at a very reasonable price. Starting at only $19.95 they can provide both 2D and 3D floor plans with a "floorplanner" option that lets your customer place and move furniture in the plan.

To get started all you have to do is draw a crude sketch (and that perfectly describes my drawings), fax or email it to them, and they produce a nifty looking, professionally drawn floor plan of your listing and post it on their website for you to download.

Here's how my first effort turned out.

Diakrit took this:

and turned it into this:

In less then 48 hours and for around 25 bucks.

I'm sold; all of my future listings are getting floor plans to go with their virtual tours and MLS photos.

Even if buyers don't appreciate it just think what an awesome listing tool it could be. "Why yes Mr. & Mrs. Seller, if you list your home with me you not only get everything every other Realtor in town does you also get a custom yard sign, virtual tour, enhanced presence on Realtor.com and many other real estate websites, and a professionally drawn floor plan of your home for buyers to see."

Here's the 9709 Panama Drive virtual tour complete with floor plans.

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Where do your buyers come from?

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:36:49 -0500

Have you ever wondered where out of town buyers come from?

Sure, you know where the ones you talk to come from but what about the ones you don't talk to (or help buy a home)? Do you think it would be useful to know?

NAR's Research Department has a free study avaialable that can help.

Here's a couple of ways you can use it to attract more buyers.

1. Advertise in those areas and contact people moving to your area before they even get there. I was pretty amazed to find the most people moving into my area were people from the contiguous counties. 817 families from Blount County which is south of Knoxville, moved into Knox County in just 1 year. Anderson County to the north had a total of 634 families moving to Knox County.First among states with buyers moving to my area were (not surprisingly) Florida, California, and Georgia. Broward County, Florida lost 81 households to Knox County the year this study was done, Hillsborough County sent 74 households to the Knoxville area.

Here's a graph that shows where new Knox County residents come from.

2. Contact Realtors in the areas where a lot of people moving to your area come from and ask for their referrals. I'm betting this is something not very many other Realtors are doing.

Best of all this study is absolutely free to NAR members. Just go to www.Realtor.org, log in, click the "research" tab, then the "right tools, right now" link and a wealth of information and tools will be displayed to you. A lot of them are free or only a nominal fee.

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90 seconds of home selling advice from a Knoxville Realtor

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:53:54 -0500

I was recently interviewed for a real estate website and asked to give some home selling advice in 90 seconds of less.

So for the really, really busy homeowner that’s thinking of selling or in the process of selling now, here are some things to consider that will help, including a piece of advice at the end you’ve probably never heard before.

You can find lots more home selling tips at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com and get a free copy of my eBook “450 ideas to help your home sell faster!” by simply sending an email to: 450Ways@JimLee.com

No charge, no obligation, and you don’t get put on any mailing lists. I’ll only contact you if ask me to.

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Easy method to upload video to most anywhere.

Jim Lee, Knoxville Tennessee Realtor® (Realty Executives Associates) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:35:28 -0500

My favorite virtual tour provider, VisualTour.com has a new feature that lets you create a YouTube video from your virtual tour and then uploads it to YouTube.

While I was putting some extra photos on a listing today I had a thought. I wondered if it would be possible to download the Visual Tour video from YourTube as an MPEG file and then upload that same file to Realtor.com and put a video on your listing along with the virtual tour and still photos.

I'm happy to report it worked like the proverbial charm and now my Realtor.com listings can be enhanced with video in addition to the other enhancements you can provide for your listings.

Here's the end result.

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