Nashville Flooding: What do we do now?

After seeing historic flooding in Nashville TN, Franklin TN, and our surrounding communities, many will need a helping hand; especially if reports are true that it may get worse before it gets better.

Whether you are concerned for yourself and your family, or for your neighbors - please see the guide from the American Red Cross “Repairing Your Flooded Home.”
1) Take Care of Yourself First
2) Give Your Home First Aid
3) Get Organized
4) Dry Out Your Home
5) Restore Your Utilities
6) Clean Up
7) Check on Financial Assistance, etc

If you are looking to get involved for those around you – and we appreciate it so much – Hands on Nashville is thinking the same thing (please feel free to add updates below as more opportunities arise around the region): (HT @GiveEmKel) OR DONATE.

For firsthand accounts, check into this grouped photo blog @Flickr.

Thank you again to @nashvillest and everyone who contributed to #othersituation2010, #flood2010, #splashville, #Nashvenice, #nashlantis

((what is working with Kevin like?))

Kindest regards,

Kevin Pellatiro
(615)714-7918
kpellatiro@realtracs.com

Hoping to help you take advantage of the market – when you are ready.
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Keller Williams Realty
Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.
9175 Carothers Pky Suite 110
Franklin, TN 37067
Office: (615) 778-1818

More than schools or curriculum - Teachers Matter

From your list of wonderful influences in your earliest classrooms, to mine (Mrs. Bloom in Homeroom, Mr. Martin and Mr. Foggianno in Math, Miss Jones in American History, Tim Paggard with English Lit) the obvious takeaway is that we need more of these influencers in our schools today. The next step might be the question that Amanda Ripley asks for the Atlantic magazine in their latest issue: What Makes a Great Teacher?

“One outfit in America has been systematically pursuing this mystery for more than a decade—tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and analyzing why some teachers can move those kids three grade levels ahead in one year and others can’t. That organization, interestingly, is not a school district.”

Data has a way of being objective, or at least has the potential to be used that way. In a city that needs all the help it can get with it's Metro Schools, can Nashville make the change by taking a cue from the nation’s deepest well of analytics for educators?

“First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them: “They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’ When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing.

Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls.”

Kevin Pellatiro
Hoping to help you take advantage of the market – when you are ready.
(615)714-7918 kpellatiro@realtracs.com http://signswemustobserve.blogspot.com/

Nashville: 2,700 NEW Jobs Created?

Nashville may see 2,700 new jobs and see Market Center Management Company update one of our most visible downtown intersections - at Commerce and Broadway - with the Nashville Medical Trade Center. There are still two huge contingencies 1) pre-lease the space and 2) Metro Council approving $585 million Downtown Convention Center project… but Nashville and the Ryman Auditorium are ready for the new neighbors – and like anyone right now; we want the influx of new jobs.

Rendings of the exterior of the proposed Nashville Medical Trade Center. Market Center Management Company announced today the location for its $250 million Nashville Medical Trade Center project: the site of the current Nashville Convention Center at 601 Commerce Street in downtown Nashville. The medical center will feature permanent manufacturer showrooms, temporary exhibition space, and conference facilities within a 2 million square foot complex. (Courtesy Market Center Management Company)

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Kevin Pellatiro
Hoping to help you take advantage of the market – when you are ready.
(615) 714-7918 kpellatiro@realtracs.com

…and why don't agents like to get calls from buyers directly? Can a low offer be considered 'offensive'?

1) Guy is a home buyer from Sacramento who asks “I have a problem and I admit it... I call agents directly and why don't agents like to get call from buyers directly?”

THIS IS A GOOD THING. You should feel comfortable to call on any home you choose, whenever you choose - with or without an agent representing you. If you know your agent is responsive, informative, and helps you value properties for your specific needs – by all means, let us call too. I have agents tell me unpublished information on nearly every listing I call on. Still, if you want to know more… call and ask. My homeowners would love to know that you are interested, and would love the chance for me to tell you more about the home they are trying to sell. And if you are looking for an agent, tell them. If you are not, tell them that too :-)

2) Christelle in San Diego, California asked about closing costs for REO and Foreclosed properties. If the home is already at a price that is getting multiple offers, should I ask for closing costs?

If you are making an offer on a bank owned property that is going to have a bunch of people bidding on it – you might want to make yourself seem like the *easiest person in the world* to deal with. For instance:
‘Sale of Home Contingency’ to a bank might sound just like ‘your in-laws are coming to stay with you for the weekend.’
‘Closing costs,’ especially over a certain amount, might sound just like ‘you best friends annoying husband is ALSO joining you gals for drinks after work.’
‘Cash’ or a well written offer that involves a loan, might sounds like those magical words (at least to those of us addicted to the game, grin) ‘go play golf.’

Now we are having a little fun with this, but you really want to have a strategy when formulating your offer. The details can help you, or unknowingly hurt you. Just be sure to ask a lot of questions about how each detail works to your advantage – or against you. Just this month my clients in north Nashville were told about how much easier their offer was to accept; this wasn’t due to more money, it was less than anticipated actually, but it was us being more intentional with our details than the next guy. Give yourself the best chance that you can.

3) Jeremy asks “Can a low offer be considered 'offensive'?
This almost entirely based on the absorption rate (whether anybody involved knows it or not). Good market or bad, we all want to know if the house is going to sell. As home buyers, we want to know what we can reasonably offer and still get a deal; protect our investment. As home sellers, we want the most money that anyone would pay; getting the best return on our investment. How can we predict that though? Well, we can take an educated guess based on the number of home available divided by the number of homes selling each month (general area, surrounding community, specific trends for your home). It’s basically your gut feel - something to turn up to HIGH when home shopping or home selling – but with very real data.

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Hoping to help you take advantage of the market – when you are ready.

Kevin Pellatiro
(615)714-7918 kpellatiro@realtracs.com http://signswemustobserve.blogspot.com/

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((These are the top three questions this week as asked by real people from all over the country involved in the housing market and posting over at Trulia.com: http://www.truliablog.com/2008/04/28/trulia-voices-top-10-questions-of-the-week-8/))

New in West Meade?

Built in 2007 but barely lived in – this open, roomy layout with vaulted ceilings and a private, treed backyard offers exactly what we love about a West Meade setting… BUT NEW! Its mostly main level living with both the master and the bonus room downstairs, large kitchen open to the great room, and your own office away from it all. Did I mention we have to sell?

:: Coming Soon :: Please feel free to have your agent call or e-mail me directly at…

kevin pellatiro (615)714-7918 kpellatiro@realtracs.com http://signswemustobserve.blogspot.com/

Some recent fun in the last few weeks…

Nashville :: home sold on the first day. Crazy. Well prepared and beautiful landscaping to compliment stunning 60’ maybe 70’ foot trees in the backyard. Did we give it away? Not a chance - received the second highest price in the neighborhood, outperforming half a dozen comparable homes this year; plus the several still available (we were second only to a recently renovated version of our home).

Nashville :: we paid 20% less than the average home price (27% below the median). Compared to a neighborhood home that closed within three weeks of our purchase – that meant 1,000 square feet… for FREE (about 2.5 two car garages worth of house). Pretty good first time purchase, especially with $8,000 still to come in the mail.

Williamson County :: THE house (the one we all wanted to hang out at as kids - pool, spa, game room, amazing private setting - even a community lake, the whole nine) was just purchased for $45,000 less than anything else in the neighborhood. Love it.

Thompson Station :: home sells in 30 days thanks to homeowner’s light décor, hard work (with three kiddos no less! Wow) and intense commitment to the showing process. Getting price? About $7,000 more than identical floor plan on the same street (that recently sold).

Murfreesboro :: Short sale purchase is the lowest ‘purchase price’ and ‘price per square foot’ in this highly desirable ‘Boro neighborhood… lowest of all *16 transactions* in 2009! Top ten signs you got great deal – 16 other people paid more :-) Another pretty good first time purchase, with $8,000 in the mail.

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Are you or someone you know looking to protect yourself in the sale of your home? How about ensuring that you buy your next home right?

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Are you ready to take advantage of the market?

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Nashville: Most affordable and stable market in the country?

From Thomas Wood, business writer at Nashville Post: Among large metro areas, Nashville has one of the most stable housing markets in the country. That’s the word from PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., which has just put out its latest quarterly Economic and Real Estate Trends Report.

The report goes on to explain national woes "Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona continue to have the highest risk scores - 36 of the most risky MSAs are located in these four states - but an increased risk of lower future prices is now spreading across all regions of the nation, due to the significant increases in unemployment and foreclosure rates."

Report available here.

Another affordable neighborhood selling well?

'Move up buyers' is a term that real estate markets treasure. One first time homebuyer’s purchase domino’s all the way up to the sale of that 'house on the hill.' In the case of our national real estate market, this endangered species is feared to be dead or dieing due to all of the foreclosure, short-sale and REO sales. Essentially, after the bank sells you a home, they are not going out and buying another - so the ‘circle of life’ housing market stalls. perhaps cancelling what would have been five to six more home sales. Stifling demand, crushing values.

Enter our earlier post about the Blackman area of Murfreesboro (thirty minutes southeast of Nashville, Tennessee). Under five months of inventory. Stabilizing. Selling.

Anomaly? Nope.

Hendersonville’s own Walton Ferry Elementary is showing more than just ‘signs of life’ - its selling too. Pretty well in fact. About 35 houses are available in this lake community near Sander's Ferry, but 31 have already sold in 2009, with eight more under contract or pending sale. Again, we see a desirable community performing well in the midst of a tough market.
Dozens of families were able to move up to the houses they wanted, and many were able to do so quickly in this north of Nashville gem.

Will the results of this activity find its way into the rest of the market? What does it look like for all of Nashville?

Cribs, Music City style (April 2009)

As Thomas Wood points out for the CityPaper, two of Nashville’s NFL families made our list in April. But don’t just sit on the sidelines, take a look at these Nashville Cribs.

Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood on of the best in the country?

Men’s Journal gave the Gulch honorable mention on their Best Neighborhoods story…

Nashville, TN
For a century the Gulch was just a barren railroad corridor, then redevelopment brought it back from the dead. It also created the first LEED Neighborhood Development certification in the South — all while preserving some history. Don’t miss the Station Inn, the mother church of bluegrass, now flanked by new condos and sushi bars.

The ‘can’t miss’ to add: Tomato Basil Bisque from Urban Flats.