Clarksville Has Voted!

Once again, the Best Of Clarksville voted Keller Williams as the BEST Real Estate Agency.  Now in its 12^th year, the best of Clarksville saw the best turnout ever and raised $40,000 - $5,000 more than last year.  All proceeds from tickets and donations go to the Middle Tennessee March of Dimes.  Keller Williams has been voted the BEST Real Estate Agency for five years in a row.

Here are the rest of the companies that were winners.  Be sure to give them a try when you come to town.

MARCH OF DIMES - 2007 BEST OF CLARKSVILLE Auto Window Tint Store: Ziebart Bakery: Silkes Bank/Credit Union: Bank of America Barbecue: Golden Rule Bookstore: Hastings Bridal Shop: Brides and Tuxedo Car Audio Store: Best Buy Children's Clothing Store: Once Upon a Child Chiropractor: Dr. Allen Coffee Shop: Starbucks Computer Store: Best Buy Dance Studio: The Dance Force Day Care: The Red Barn Dental Facility: Back to Basics Drug Store: Walgreen's Electronics Store: Best Buy Engraving/Trophy Shop: It's Time Clock Shop Florist: Four Seasons German Restaurant: Silkes Gift Store: Memory Makers Hair Salon: Aqua Colour Lounge Health Club/Gym: Fuel Fitness Hobby/Craft Store: Busy Beads and More Hotel: Country Inn & Suites Ice Cream/Smoothie or Milkshake: Dairy Queen Investment/Ins.: Farm Bureau Italian Restaurant: Old Chicago Jewelry Store: McKenzie & Smiley Men's Clothing Store: Unique Men's Wear Mexican Restaurant: Don Panchos Music Store: Hastings New Restaurant: Cheeseburger Charley's Optical Store: Lenscrafters Optometrist: Dr. Radish Oriental Restaurant: Jade Dragon Pet Store: Pet Palace Place For Family Fun: Great Escape Place to Buy a Car: Jenkins & Wynne Place to Buy a Beer: Old Chicago Place to Get a Burger: Cheeseburger Charley's Place to Get a Margarita: Don Pancho's Place to Get a Pizza: Michael's Sango/Chris's Pizza Village Place to Get a Steak: O'Charley's Print/Copy Shop: FedEx Kinkos Real Estate Agency: Keller Williams Rent Car/Truck: Enterprise Restaurant: O'Charley's Restaurant Wait Staff: O'Charley's Sandwich Shop: Subway Sign Shop: Signs Now Spa/Beauty Treatment: Eden Day Spa Sporting Goods Store: Play It Again Sports Staffing Agency: Randstad Studio Photographer: Barbee's Studio Travel Agency: Clarksville Travel Veterinarian: Family Pet Hospital Wheel/Tire Shop: Wheel Shop

I'm looking to put together a list of songs about houses and homes.  Frankly, I would like to find some songs to play during sales meetings, agent open houses and such that may evoke a reaction from real estate agents.

Now these have to be songs with homes or real estate as a main theme.  

A great example would be Our House by Crosby, Stills, & Nash.  I also like This Ole House by Stewart Hamblen or Two Story House by George Jones & Tammy Wynette.

The house may or may not be in the title. Don't Let the Rain Come Down by the Serendipity Singers comes to mind with its great line:  "My roof's got a hole in it and I might drown."

While it is one of my favorite songs, House of the Rising Sun by The Animals would not qualify.  Neither would the Animal House Theme or Brick House by The Commodores.  

So help me out and tell me about your favorite "House" song.

 

Who's Selling Montgomery County and Clarksville TN Real Estate?

The pie chart explains itself.  It's Keller Williams Realty!  #1 in sales volume in the city and the county.  Keller Williams is painting the town red with its signs. 

The chart depicts the larger companies.  All others are represented by the purple at 7%. Contact me if you would like additional backup information.

 

I had previously rambled about poor pictures on home listings.  But this time, I thought that I would show everyone what I was talking about.  Click below to see some of the really bad photos that I have collected. 

Bad Real Estate Photo Tour

A hot button for me is not immediately putting pictures on the listing.  I checked my MLS and 12.4% of the listings had NO picture.  Buyers who were emailed these listings more than likely passed them up.

Another one of my hot buttons are real estate agents that show only one picture when they have ten available to them in our MLS.  Then we have agents like the one below that found a way to fill them.  I found it interesting also that the agent took the picture on one of the two days that it snowed this winter.

Randy Worcester
Clarksville, Tennessee
Home of Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne
Clarksville TN Real Estate
http://ClarksvilleHomePros.com

 

 

With a high level of anticipation, my sons place a stack of gifts at my feet.  Oh what could they have thought of to give the man who already has what he wants: a wonderful wife and loving sons. 

The first present was a wide angle lens for my camera.  This will allow me to take better pictures of homes.  They know that I am really picky about the pictures on a listing since so many buyers look at the internet first.

Next I was given a copy of The PMZ Way: Strategies of Highly Successful Real Estate Agents by Michael P. Zagaris.  Hmmmmm.  Looks interesting. Although I will not give up my copy of The Milliionaire Real Estate Agent until my body is cold.  

Lastly, my wife bought out the NAR REALTOR store.  Loads of stuff in brilliant blue including a coffee travel mug.

So my conclusion is that my wife and sons want me to sell alot more homes in 2007. 

And what did you get for Christmas?

Maybe I'm dedicated.  Maybe I'm hungry.  Maybe I'm stupid. 

On Saturday the 23rd, I worked all day.  I was showing new construction with a flashlight after dark.  On Sunday, the 24th, my wife and I negotiated a counteroffer.  On Christmas Day, I worked on my goals and income spreadsheet for the new year.  On Tuesday the 26th, I worked a full day and met with customers, etc.

I had a phone call on Tuesday.  The lady was in Georgia and looking for an agent in a more rural part of Tennessee.  I explained that I was 5 hours from that area.  She said that she could not find and agent there ands really wanted to talk to someone today.  So I went to the ePRO and CRS directories and they did not have and agent in the area.  So i went into supersearch mode on the internet.  After viewing some generic websites that told nothing about hte agents qualifications, I found an office which looked promising.  The office had an answering machine.  They were closed. 

After more searching, I found another office.  Here was the conversation.

Good morning, XXX realty.  (Aha!  Jackpot....a person answered even though she sounded like she might have sold land to the cavemen.)

Good morning, This is Randy with Keller Willimas in Clarksville, TN.  To whom am I speaking?

This is the Secretary.

Great!  Can I speak to an agent?

Well.....  They might be in this afternoon.  

Oh?  I've got a potential customer.  Can we get ahold of someone?

I'm just the Secretary.  They might be in this afternoon.

I'm sorry.  I'll just have to call another agency.

Okay. 

Thank you.  Good bye.  (Arghhhh!)

So I searched some more.  The next call was answered by someone that obviously was a morning person. She was working that day and was excited about a potential new customer.  She was delightful to talk to.  If she is not a success, then I'm sure that she soon will be.  Thank you to Sonya DeForge with Riverside Realty in Tennessee for answering the phone.

Randy Worcester
Keller Williams
http://fortcampbellhomepros.com/
http://clarksvillehomepros.com/

 

There is a company that has been approaching agents in the South about becoming mortgage brokers in addition to being a real estate agent.  Yesterday, our agent leadership council (ALC) voted that this will not be allowed at our offices.  Kudos!

This may sound atttractive to a marginal agent looking for an additional source of income.  But I simply see it as a lawsuit waiting to happen. 

But maybe that is not the case.  Recently, I asked why we don't recruit from XYZ realty.  I was told that many of the agents there were also mortgage brokers so that they could be covered by health insurance. 

While I could use some good health insurance, my goal is to become the best real estate agent that I can be.  Becoming a Mortgage Broker would simply get in the way of that. 

Frankly, I am surprised that in this highly regulated industry that the State allows an agent to serve these two roles. 

Okay.......I admit that I am excited.  My bride of 25 years and I will be attending the Keller Williams Family Reunion in Las Vegas in February. AND we were able to get reservations in the main hotel!

I've been to plenty of conventions in Las Vegas over the years in my previous life (what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), but this will the be the first in real estate and the first with my wife. I'm looking forward to the education, sharing of ideas, and meeting about 12,000 of my fellow KW associates.

Plus since the day that we were married and went to Disney World for our honeymoon, I've enjoyed showing my better half (Peggy) what the rest of the world is like. Now I get to show her Las Vegas.  Whoopee. 

 

http://ClarksvilleHomePros.com

http://FortCampbellHomePros.com

 

I'm lucky enough to be involved in listing a home that was built in 1824.  Now this may not seem old to people on the east coast, but 1824 is only 4 years after the first steamboats arrived in here in Clarksville, TN.

I feel that it is my sacred duty to find a buyer for this home that will feel an emotional connection to it and appreciate its history. 

A historic home is not perfect.  This one has over a hundred and fifty years of families that have walked its halls, played in its yards, and slept in its bedrooms.  The Civil War echos from its walls.  The trees on the property are amongst the oldest and largest in the county. I hope that I can do justice to this special home by finding a buyer that will continue to care for it in a way that will allow future generations to enjoy its uniqueness.

Imagine the glory, grace, and elegance of the “Old South”.  This was a period when life was simpler; fortunes were made from the land, and spectacular plantation homes were filled with the finest furnishings.  Southern Pines echoes the feeling of this “Gone With The Wind” era. 

The home is built in the Federal style and boasts a two-tiered portico.  Notable features of this Southern mansion include the three story curving grand pegged walnut staircase, thick brick walls, exterior chimneys, 8 original (one is currently hidden) fireplaces including several of the original mantels, original wide hand-planed oak floors, and massive double-doors separating the living and dining rooms.  Legend is that a crack in the brick was caused by a cannonball. In later years, as the home faced a different kind of war, a fallout shelter was added to the grounds.

A successful Clarksville merchant, Hugh McClure, made his fortune and began to accumulate land about six miles out of town on the Kentucky Road; accessible from Clarksville only by taking the ferry across the Red River.  Construction of the home began only 28 years after Tennessee achieved statehood and only 4 years after the first steamboats navigated the Cumberland River to Clarksville. 

The land on which the home stands was part of 640 acres of land owned by Wright Bonds. Hugh McClure and James Elder, Clarksville’s first Mayor, purchased 380 acres from him in 1805.

Hugh McClure was an Irish immigrant who arrived in Clarksville in 1797 and became a wealthy merchant, land speculator, and influential citizen.  He built the first brick storehouse in Clarksville at the foot of Main Street near the Cumberland River.

McClure built this home on the property circa 1825 although it is possible that it was actually much earlier.  It was then known as Fairfield Farms.  McClure added 413 adjoining acres to grow his ‘farm” to 793 acres.

The property passed to the McClure’s daughter, Elizabeth McClure Drane, wife of Dr. Walter Harding Drane in 1828.  Dr. Drane was another influential citizen who came to Clarksville from Kentucky in 1825.  He was a big supporter of the Clarksville Male Academy (now Austin Peay State University). Dr. Drane was especially instrumental in the building of turnpikes, bridges, and railroads. In 1843, he gave up his medical practice and moved to his farm on Hopkinsville Road permanently where he became a tobacco tycoon.  Late in 1861, he served as a volunteer surgeon with the 14^th Tennessee Infantry in Virginia.  Dr. Drane died on his farm in 1865.

Three of his sons built mansions on the Hopkinsville Road including the Minglewood Plantation that has also survived to this day.

At one time, a spring near the home flowed for several hundred yards before disappearing into a cave on the property.

For a short time, beginning in 1996, the property was a bed-n-breakfast known as Southern Pines.

http://clarksvillehomepros.com/

http://FortCampbellHomePros.com

I am planning on teaching a digital photography class for real estate agents in my office.  I am a big believer that good photographs can help sell a house.

So I looked through the MLS for examples of pictures that could be improved upon.

 I just had to share this one.  While the home lacks in curb appeal, it apparently has a contract on it.

It appears to me that the agent may have taken the picture from their car.  I admit that once I saw the beast, I would have done the same.