Our local real estate market has flipped from a sellers market to a buyers market for the first time in over 10 years.   With longer days on the market, greater inventory, and fewer buyers do to money being more difficult to get,  it is important for your home to stand out in the crowd to be seen by the qualified buyers.  Although nothing beats pricing your home correctly and keeping it in optimum condition, here are a few ideas to make yours STAND OUT and GET NOTICED!

• Down-payment help: As home prices hold steady and credit tightens, more buyers are hard-pressed to put money down on a home. A little help with the down payment can help them deal with this issue.
• Mortgage buy-down: Are your buyers nervous about their prospective monthly house payments or the interest rate on their loan? You can lower both by buying down their mortgage; each point you pay equals 1 percent of the loan amount. First-time buyers or young families can often use the help to free up cash to furnish their new home
• Homeowner/condo association dues: Welcome your buyers to the neighborhood by springing for their first year of association dues.
• Maintenance fees: If the buyers will be contracting for lawn maintenance anyway, or if they will be required to do so in your community, paying a year of their maintenance fees is money in the bank for them. The same applies to a year of pool service.
• Home warranty: As the cost of service calls increases, a year of home warranty coverage is becoming a commonplace incentive to attract buyers. Typical policies cover service to the home’s interior plumbing, HVAC, appliances and fixtures such as lights and fans. Typically excluded are pools, hot tubs, sprinkler systems and attic fans. Their only expense: a per-call fee, usually around $60.
• Closing costs: What buyer wouldn’t welcome some help with those teeth-gritting closing costs (legal, title, filing fees, etc.) that, according to a Freddy Mac estimate, typically run between 2 percent to 7 percent of the loan amount?
• Landscaping: Springing for a few shrubs, new turf or other landscaping features can help a buyer feel right at home.

Ok, all of these things are wonderful, but make sure that your home is priced right, or all these other incentives go right out the window!

Want to know what your home is really worth?  CLICK HERE to receive a FREE CMA!

Members of the Williamson County Association of Realtors say they hope to develop a positive role in efforts to develop more-affordable homes in Williamson County.

In January, Kathie Moore, president of the association, took the first step by creating a housing committee to study the current issues in housing here.

Moore said median home prices in Williamson County rose 43.4 percent from 2004 to 2007 and condo prices went up by 30 percent between 2005 and 2007. The median price is the point in which half of the homes are priced below it and half are above it.

Most recently, January’s median home price rose to $395,000; the average price is $451,792.

At those price points, “a vital segment of the work force has been effectively priced out of the local housing market,” Moore said.

She said the median income in Williamson County “hovers around $80,000.”

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency has determined that a home is affordable if the price lies between 2.5 to three times a family’s household annual income.

And yet a search of active listings on a day in January showed that of the 2,397 homes on the market that day, only 214 were less than $200,000.

“It is beneficial that certain professionals live in the communities they serve,” Moore said, mentioning teachers and police officers as examples.

The 2007-08 salary schedule for Williamson County schools lists a starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree at $32,900 per year. The highest pay grade for an experienced teacher with a doctorate and more than 20 years of experience is $65,415.

According to the city’s Web site, Franklin has an opening for a police officer with the starting salary of $16.20 per hour, which, based on 40 hours a week, would be $33,696 annually.

Those salaries do not easily translate into an ability to buy a home here.

“These professionals will likely be forced to look at surrounding areas for housing” outside Williamson County, unless housing opportunities change, Moore said. “This emerging problem must be addressed soon or it may be too late to reverse the trend.”

Two association members serve on a task force in Franklin that’s devoted to the issue.

“We don’t want to just focus on Franklin, but also in other communities in the county,” she said. “We want to see what we can do with all of the groups working on this issue.

“Our best role might be in education, in finding out what other communities have done that have had this problem,” she said. “We can learn from them.”

David Pair, who works on government issues for the association, said that ultimately, the problem here may call for a strategic plan that requires a certain amount of houses be built within specified price ranges.

Housing prices here affect not only workforce professionals who find it difficult to live in the communities they serve, but they may also hurt family ties when grown children discover that they cannot return to their home towns because there isn’t any housing there they can afford.

It happens not just in Brentwood, but in Franklin, too, Pair said.

For young Williamson County natives who are just starting their careers, “there’s not a lot of options,” he noted.

“This isn’t about creating government housing, but that’s what some people think you are talking about when you talk about affordable housing,” he said. “There is a need for some education.

“These are people who are vital to the community: teachers, firefighters, police officers. They are first responders, and it is beneficial on several levels to have them living where they work.”

Please contact me for a FREE LIST of AFFORDABLE, BEST BUY HOMES in Williamson County!

With the current real estate market concerns nationwide, many are afraid to buy, fearing decreasing values. Here in Middle Tennessee, especially Brentwood, the market is stable Home values are steady and prices are increasing. Why? Middle TN is rich with businesses and the economy is good. Many large corporations have relocated in TN and many more are slotted to in the coming months and years, bringing fresh infusions of income and buyers. Brentwood TN has the largest per capita income in TN and is located in Williamson County which was recently named in the Top 20 Richest Counties in the America! (more on this below).

Brentwood TN is known for its large lots and upscale family friendly neighborhoods. Brentwood also boasts some of the finest schools in TN! Centrally located, Brentwood is just minutes from Downtown Nashville, Green Hills, Franklin and The Cool Springs Galleria, one of middle TN’s premier malls.

In an article written by Matt Wooley for Forbes.com, Williamson County TN was named in the top 20 Richest Counties in America. With a median income of $81,449 , Williamson County rocked in at #16.

Click this link to see the complete article: http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/counties-rich-income-forbeslife-cx_mw_0122realestate_slide_17.html

The Nashville metro’s two largest counties are Williamson and Davidson, which have very different demographics. Davidson is more densely populated, and thus its median income is lower than that of Williamson, which is home to more affluent suburbs. This is great news for Williamson County as well as the Real Estate Market in Brentwood TN, one of the main areas for luxury homes in Williamson County TN. 

Check out the Featured Home Communities in Brentwood!

If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in Brentwood, please contact me for a FREE LIST of the top BEST BUYS in Brentwood or a FREE CMA to help you determine your HOMES VALUE in Brentwood!

Since the beginning of this year (08′), I continually get asked… “Brian, are things really that bad in the Nashville TN real estate market right now?” 

In a time when news, information, and “disinformation” is so readily available, it can be difficult to discern what the actual truth is with regards to the local Nashville TN Real Estate Market. 

Thousands of blogs, newsletters, e-zines, email blasts, websites, with information on every topic imaginable (and many you’d think would be unimaginable), it is often hard to know what to think.

Before I go any farther, this is not a simple question, and a very fair question to ask, however, I believe that almost everyone who asks already believes things are terrible!  Why, you ask? 

If you read or see almost ANY national news media, you hear just how awful the state of real estate is, how foreclosures are way up, how adjustable mortgage rates are going up, how people are struggling, and how important it is for the “government” to step up and SAVE us from the terrible mortgage companies.   YIKES!  If you believe all that you hear, FEAR becomes the norm and to consider buying or selling a home… are you kidding???  (by the way, bad news is what sells newspapers and gets people to watch the “news”).

Ok, obviously I have more to say on the topic than just a little rant : )

Where do you live?  It matters!  If you live in Middle TN, things are entirely different than if you live in CA, NV or FL.   Lets just face it, those areas experienced appreciation rates that we’ve NEVER seen here, and now they are feeling an adjustment that is badly needed.   

If you live in Brentwood, TN… BE HAPPY!  If you compare January of 07 to January of 08, you discover that although there is a slight decline in the number of closings, the average sale price of a home is actually up 100k… 100,000 big ones… does this sound like a huge declining market?  Compare this to CA where there are areas where people are experiencing a 100-200k loss in appreciation within the last year…

We’re not too bad off here.  Yes, days on the market are up, builders who overbuilt  and are stuck with too much inventory are discounting big time, appreciation is much slower, motivated sellers are discounting but…

GOOD NEWS!  Interest rates are still very low, yes, it is a buyers market and there are many homes to chose from, and money is slowly getting easier to borrow.  Yes things aren’t what they were in 2005-2006, but thats ok!  Real estate, like the environment, and almost everything else, has always been cyclical!  We just seem to have short memories, and this kind of talk doesn’t sell newspapers or scare you into watching the news : )

Franklin TN’s average sale price is up 35k when comparing January 07 to January 08.  Not huge… but the price is up!  Lots of inventory, slower sales, and more days on the market… yes, but all is not lost people!  Rejoice! 

OK, if you’re thinking about buying or selling and you’d like specific information on a particular area of Middle TN such as Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill or Thompsons Station, Nolensville, Nashville, Cane Ridge, Hendersonville, etc., please give me a call and I’ll give you the numbers so you can make an informed decision…

Blessings and in my humble opinion… things ARE NOT THAT BAD and the market just needs to cycle back around to where things totally rock!  www.HomesThatRock.com