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Lofts on Eighth near Belmont Waverly Nashville

Lofts on Eighth!!

So, it seems lately that I’ve seen just about everything there is to see in downtown Nashville when it comes to the condo market these days and, wow, is there quite a bit to offer!! Each and every one of these developments has something different to offer, that’s for sure. As a buyer in the downtown condo market, you have to be very prepared to know what your priorities are – is it space? Location? Great finishes and appliances? Amenities? Once you figure out what your priority is, you need to stick to it…otherwise you might get a little overwhelmed and distracted with other products out there that truly might not fit your wants and needs.

After spending months myself out there seeing new products week after week, I have come to truly fall in love with a development called Lofts on Eighth. Not only do they provide a great location (8th Avenue South – near the Berry Hill area!) but they have amazing finishes and provide about 200-300 extra square feet compared to other places at the same price!

Upon first entering the units you will notice the gorgeous, modern hardwood floors throughout every unit (even in the walk-in closets!) complete with high ceilings, quality granite and modern cabinetry in both the massive kitchen and bathroom, floor-to-ceiling sliding barn doors, over sized utility rooms and high-end appliances. Unlike many places, items like high-end refrigerators and stackable washers and dryers are standard and included in the sale of these units at Lofts on Eighth! THAT is unheard of and completely boosts the units beyond their worth instantly! Oh, and I can’t overlook the exterior and not mention the amazing exterior security system complete with gates for secure parking and coded front doors and elevators too!

If these contemporary lofts sound like something you’d like…trust your gut! You will love ‘em and I’ll love showing them to you all over again! Give me a call before they’re gone!

Happy condo-hunting!!

Helpful tips on today’s real estate market

In today’s housing market, we all know how important it is to get buyers and sellers back into the game. Unfortunately, the media’s continued focus on negative real estate news is keeping many people solidly on the sidelines. But remember, these people aren’t getting the whole story. And the facts they’re missing can alter their mindsets. All we have to do is put those facts out there!

Fact #1: Some six million Americans are expected to buy a home this year. Six million people in the game make up a pretty big game. That’s a level of sales equal to the one we experienced in 1998—by all accounts, a pretty good year.

Fact #2: There is still over $23 trillion of value in u.s. housing stock. Home ownership continues to be the basis of our wealth in this country.

Fact #3: The housing market cannot help but grow. Our country’s tremendous wealth, liquidity, and entrepreneurship will continue to drive our economy. 70-100 million people will be added to our market in the next 40 years.

Fact #4: Real estate is cyclical. The biggest fear in good times is that the fair weather won’t last forever—because it doesn’t. But the reality of a cyclical real estate market also provides its brightest hope in bad times—foul weather won’t last forever either. What’s happening today is a market correction, severe in some places, but it’s not the end of the world. As shown by Fact #1, people are still buying and selling homes. The markets will stabilize.

Fact #5: 2008 is the best year to buy a home in 35 years. 1973 was the last time mortgage rates were this low in a buyer’s market. We had rates this low in 2001 and 2002, but those were strong seller’s markets with little inventory. The last two big buyer’s markets, in the early ‘80s and early ‘90s had much higher rates. Low rates and good inventory make 2008 the best year to buy in decades!

Fact #6: First-time buyers have a real advantage in today’s market. First-time buyers can buy at a reduced price without having to sell at one too. Higher limits on lower cost conforming loans also help first-time buyers purchase more home for their money. Today’s ‘starter’ homes can be pretty impressive.

Fact #7: First-time buyers lose money while they wait on the sidelines. First, renters typically pay more state and federal income taxes than homeowners with a mortgage deduction. Renters are also losing the wealth they could be accumulating as they pay down their mortgage and as their home increases in value over time (as it surely will). Lastly, renters who wait to buy will lose money if interest rates increase by the time they finally act. Higher payments from higher interest rates represent money buyers could have kept if they had bought earlier. Conversely, if they were willing to spend that amount of money earlier, they could have bought more home.

Fact #8: Homes sell when they’re priced right and show well. Buyers are looking for value in today’s market. When sellers make their home’s value obvious, they make a sale—it’s as simple as that.

Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World

I’ve been keeping up with this contest that Eric Bramlett
and Morgan Carey
over at Real Estate Webmasters started. The object of the contest was to see which real estate agent has the most savvy to stay be at the #1 position organically with Google for the search term Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World. My friend Eric Blackwell
came up with a stellar idea of bringing together some powerhouses in the Realtor/SEO world to form a team to accomplish the task. Eric has always been a White Hat kinda SEO guy and my White Hat is off to him and his team for being at #1 thus far. The contest ends May 1st and I think it’s fair to say he’s going to wrap it up. I only wish I had snuck in there to be one of the 10 member team. You snooze you lose! There’s always next time. Congrats Eric! Your are the REAL deal. And thanks to Eric Bramlett and Morgan Carey for making this contest happen. It’s important for all of us out there trying to stay up with the latest SEO techniques to learn as much as we can and were it not for you two, we would be less educated. So thank you again!

Why I chose to be a Realtor

Why do I choose to do real estate?

Whether it’s work-related or personal, we all yearn for those moments in life when we realize, “Ah, ha! This is why I do what I do…” It’s one of those moments when you are so involved that you can feel it in your fingertips and in your toes, one of those moments when you just know that you’re supposed to be right there and that very moment…ever had one of those? Funny, the longer I stay in real estate, the more they seem to happen.

Sure, to the ordinary outsider, Realtors are stuffy, wear blazers and suits and simply drive people around all day looking at houses, right? Wrong. To me, this profession couldn’t get more personal, more attached and more emotional than anything I’ve ever experienced. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Get this, you meet someone who wants to take a huge step in their life and buy a home…probably even their first home and they want you to help them do it. Of all the people in the world, you have been chosen to help change someone’s life in such a big way. Then, you start spending a lot of time with them on the phone, over emails, in the car…all finding out not only what they want in a home, but why they want it in a home. All the way down to things like “This room is HUGE! We could put our six boys in here in bunk beds and the other three older kids can finally have their own rooms,” or “This house is PERFECT. I could put my shoes in this closet, have the piano in here and then even do my photo shoots in the out building in the back” to “Oh my word! I could put my three bikes here AND my kayak too! Can you believe this?”

I know it might sound strange, but sometimes us ’stuffy-blazer-wearin’-Realtors’ do get a bit attached. We are people with emotions too, you know? We sometimes find ourselves wanting a particular home for our clients more than they probably even do, getting emotionally spent over loosing a contract to someone else who came in a mere $2,000 higher and having to scoop ourselves right up off the floor where are clients are lying from the devastation as well.

I, myself, was lucky enough to have one of these moments yesterday and wanted to express my love and gratitude toward the profession. It truly brought light to the fact that I am so very thankful to be able to do this for a living day after day. I am very thankful for being able to experience so many different things around town with so many different types of people and I am more thankful that my clients can see my passion for what I do bouncing wildly in my eyes every time we meet.

Conquer all, my friends! It’s right at your fingertips!

Did someone say, “High Tea?” Dickson, TN

Less than an hour from downtown Nashville, you’ll find what you’d believe to be a sleepy little town called Dickson. It’s okay. Being from Nashville, I used to think so, too……………until I heard all the buzz.

It’s difficult to explain. It’s one of those experiences you just have to take a day and spend in downtown Dickson, Tennessee to understand all it has to offer. There are so many unique businesses, you won’t believe it. It has the most eclectic group of shops and restaurants.

Let’s start with the eateries(my personal favorite):

Miss Mable’s Tea Room is another one you won’t want to miss. “High Tea, anyone?” It’s just off main street and has scones, tea, tiny little tea sandwiches and homemade chicken salad. Oh dear! I’m getting hungry thinking about that chicken salad. On the weekends, they have a buffet. This is a family run business. Fay Davidson is the owner. Her daughter works there and Faye’s son-in-law is the chef. She must be one good mother in law. That’s all I’ve got to say!

House Blend is a coffee shop located on main street offering biscotti, bagels and more. This little coffee shop also has gifts.

Silver Spoon has great hot deli sandwiches and is divine for lunch. They have these darling boxed lunches tied with a bow. That’s cute enough, but their caramel brownies and carrot cake are so good. Well, let’s just say that if they ran out, and you saw your neighbor getting ready to take a bite of the last caramel brownie, you’d be tempted to rip that brownie right out of their hand! I’m not kidding.

Sisters is a meat and three right off of main street. How’s that for a good ‘ole southern restaurant name? Doesn’t get much better than that. I’m not sure if “Flo” works there, but there’s a good chance. If you don’t get there by noon, it ain’t happenin’.

ENOUGH OF FEEDING OUR PIE HOLES, ALREADY!!!

Let’s talk about shopping! Get a load of these precious store names:

The Spunky Monkey is a gift shop offering candles, lamps, purses, artwork and furniture. This is a great place to buy wedding gifts!

Studio 123 has contemporary art and Jewelry.

Hamilton Place is an antique mall right off of College street. It’s located right next to the Pink Hydrangea. How cute is that name?

The Pink Hydrangea offers soooo many gifts such as jewelry, handbags, a clothing line for babies and toys. They also have glassware containers and soaps for your bathroom. Have you ever heard of a small town having such fabulous shopping? I couldn’t get over it and you won’t either when you spend a day in Dickson, Tennessee!

Wrap up your visit to Dickson by picking up some fertilizer at The Plant Ranch and call it a day!

Ambrose Lofts – Downtown Nashville in Historic Printer’s Alley

Are you looking for downtown Nashville condo living but don’t think you could ever afford it? Guess what–it’s your lucky day! Nashville has multiple downtown loft and condo developments with units that are specifically priced under $150k! To take it one step further, your annual income as a single person cannot exceed $34,500! Sound too good to be true? I think not…

After viewing one of the lofts at Ambrose Lofts of Nashville yesterday afternoon myself, I can now fully appreciate having these available to young professionals whom might not be able to afford most of the downtown Nashville condo’s starting at whopping $250,000. However, this premier condo development in particular has a total of 21 units that range in size starting at 450 square feet up to over 1,350 square feet and are priced starting at $139,000 and going on up to $349,000.

Even more exciting, the Ambrose Lofts building is located in Nashville’s Historic Printer’s Alley! The building was originally constructed in 1905 and has recently gone under major construction to renew the building to give it its current ‘face lift.’ With exposed brick walls and ceiling beams, bamboo hardwood flooring, stainless steel appliances and ultra-modern European cabinetry, these lofts really do stand out and are well worth the investment!!

As always, if you want more information on these units or would like to check one out in person yourself, give us a shout at 615-349-1060. We’ll be glad to help you in the right direction to get you into your brand new (and affordable) downtown loft!

With the Nashville market slow, how do you get your home to sell… not so slowly?

Even when the market slows, the two biggest factors are still playing a role in the outcome of your home: price and condition of your home!

First, you may want to consider lowering the price of your home. This truly makes your home much more desirable than any other home out there with the same criteria.

Second, if option number is not an option, go through the house and see if there are any cosmetic defects that you might have missed that need to be repaired. The buyer certainly needs to be nothing but ‘wowed’ when they walk in the door. Sure, any house can be clean from top to bottom, but are there any small things that will stand out to your buyers as a needed repair? If so, take care of them before you list your home for sale and if it’s already listed, stop reading this and take care of them now.

Third, make sure you list your home with the right agent. Choosing the right Realtor is like going to court with an amazing lawyer – you know you have a better chance of winning! For the same price, agents can give many, many varieties of service. Make sure you choose one that is experienced, available on your schedule, is organized and truly wants nothing more than to help you, their client. Hmmm…sounds like me! Give me a call if you want the best service in Nashville!

Finally, if all else fails and you have the option to do so, pull your home from the market and wait for the market to improve. Sometimes having it off the market for a while can give a fresh perspective when it comes back on.

I hope some or all of this helps!! Good luck and happy selling!!

Why I moved to Tennessee

I am a transplant from Orange County, California. My husband and I and our 2 daughters moved the Nashville area about 3 years ago. I sometimes wonder what I am doing here in the Smokey Mountain state, then do something crazy like vacation in Florida and it all comes back to me. Florida weather is great and the scenery is unparalleled but immediately I doubted my travel plans when I got off the plane – I was met by nothing short of an irate gaggle of “snow birds” from Jersey. Wow, those women can push and shove! Getting my bags was downright terrifying. The traffic to the beach was slow moving and the sign language used in Florida is not, I repeat not taught in school. Actually the vacation was great , the company was good and we all had a really nice time. As I sat and waited for my plane home several very nice strangers started to chat with me. All had the familiar drawl of the native Tennessean. It truly was music to my ears. The flight was pleasant and as I deplaned it hit me…there was no commuter stress and I felt like I was in a scene from “Love Actually”, all that I saw were cool people greeting the ones they loved. The ultimate icing on the cake was an amazingly talented gentlemen sitting on a small stage playing Jimmy Buffett, he was serenading us at baggage claim! It was just him, an acoustic guitar and a small amp – the best live show I’d seen in quite awhile. That uncomplicated moment renewed in full surround sound why I up and moved to the beautiful state of Tennessee.

Conflict over the letters MLS amongst Realtors and NAR

Recently a new rule has been established within the National Association of Realtors Standard of Practice regarding advertising and representation to the public when it comes to domain names used. It states:

# Standard of Practice 12-10

REALTORS®’ obligation to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public includes the URLs and domain names they use, and prohibits REALTORS® from:

1. engaging in deceptive or unauthorized framing of real estate brokerage websites;

2. manipulating (e.g., presenting content developed by others) listing content in any way that produces a deceptive or misleading result; or

3. deceptively using metatags, keywords or other devices/methods to direct, drive, or divert Internet traffic, or to otherwise mislead consumers. (Adopted 1/07)

In most recent events there have been some ethics complaints filed with local Associations of Realtors across the country on Realtors who have websites that contain the letters MLS in the URL; for example, www.citynameMLS.com. A friend, colleague and competitor of mine has been the target of one of these complaints and I’m interested to hear both Realtors thoughts and consumers thoughts on this. As a Realtor who supports fair trade, I personally disagree with the notion of taking down a site merely because it contained the letters MLS in the URL. There are Realtors out there including myself who have invested not only years worth of time building and promoting our sites, but thousands of dollars as well so that the public could have a choice. I feel that these ethics complaints only hurt Realtors in general as this could push to the forefront those sites that are not Realtor owned which contain the letters MLS in their URL or who advertise the MLS and are able to get around the ruling by NAR since they do not belong to the National Association of Realtors. I became a “Realtor” as opposed to just being a real estate agent because I feel strongly about ethics. It would be an injustice to consumers to take sites down merely because they have the letters MLS in their site especially if the website clearly contained all of the disclaimers that it needs to; ie., displaying the brokerage name and contact information, the Realtors name, license number and contact information, and that the site was not an official site of the MLS but merely a site that uses the data from the MLS which each participating brokerage has agreed to to get listings out to world. This is called broker reciprocity by way of IDX (Internet Data Exchange) and only the listings from brokers who have agreed to participate are displayed. According to the Middle Tennessee Regional MLS 99.5% of all MLS listings are included in the IDX listings. That’s nearly every MLS listing available which means that most brokers WANT their listings on as many sites as they can get them on because this only helps in advertising for their clients, the sellers. If you were/are a Seller, wouldn’t you want your home listed everywhere it could be to gain maximum exposure?

I have found that the majority of consumers looking for real estate realize that most websites are operated by Realtors and quite frankly they find it refreshing to be able to obtain the information they are looking for because our sites are so user friendly and information rich not only to the degree of listings but also about the communities we serve. The official MLS site does serve the consumer well when it comes to displaying listings, but try to find a tip about a great restaurant to go to or learn about events going on in the area, there are none. What if you are unsure about what a particular city or suburb has to offer? You can’t find that on the MLS site either. You would have to leave that site and go to a site such as ours. So why not just get everything you need from one site?

This isn’t about consumer complaints because to my knowledge there are none. In my humble opinion, I believe this is about other Realtors out there trying to take unfair advantage of a ruling to better serve their own personal interests. Would I like to see my site at the number one position for all relevant search terms about Nashville real estate and become the greatest real estate agent in the world? Absolutely… but not by doing it unfairly. If you are good at what you do and your website is relevant, you won’t have to use deceptive tactics to gain a better position. May the best sites win, whatever they’re called.

Margot Cafe and Bar a required stop in Nashville

You know you’ve had an excellent meal when the dessert menu looks soooo enticing but you can’t manage to make room for anything. Well, at least I thought so…..

Some friends and clients of mine were visiting from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. One of their “required” stops on each visit is Margot Cafe’ and Bar. We were lucky enough to be seated on the porch. It’s an outdoor area when it’s warm but they had the area covered and supplied with heaters. It was quite cozy. Did I mention charming?

The evening started out with a very personable server, Emily. She had the entire porch area so she could focus only on those dining out there. She also was able to place our orders without leaving this area so she was very attentive. This young lady was precious and very knowledgeable about Margot’s menu. I enjoyed a first course of market lettuces with apples, walnuts, gorgonzola and cider vinaigrette. The first courses are just the right size and ohh so tasty!

NEXT! My second course was the Grilled Painted Hills Ribeye with Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans and Mushroom Demi. Cooked to a perfect medium rare. Emeril would give this second course a BIG FAT “BAM!”

Okay, I was bragging about our server, Emily. That is until she had the nerve to return and persuade us in trying not one, but TWO desserts. It’s always the skinny ones that twist our arms to feed our faces, right?

Hmmmmmmmmmm. Which one was better? The Meyer Lemon Pound Cake w/homemade icing or the Chocolate Fudge Cake? I’d normally say the Chocolate Fudge Cake but it had been so long since I’d had my Grandma’s homemade Lemon Pound Cake that it took #1! My 96 year old grandmother recently moved to an assisted living facility and she doesn’t have a stove in her apartment. I ordered her a piece of Margot’s Lemon Pound Cake to go. Needless to say, this made her year!

Emily redeemed herself until she returned and asked if we’d like an after dinner drink. I think the looks on our chubby stuffed little faces inspired Emily to quickly bring the check. Well worth every dime. I clearly see why Margot is one of Nashville’s favorites!

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