Use Realty Executives Associates exclusive 10K marketing program. One of the innovative and exclusive benefits to marketing your Knoxville area home with me and Realty Executives Associates is our exclusive 10K program. It works like this: Each listing that is designated as a 10K home offers the selling agent for that home a 1 in 45 chance to win a $10,000 cash prize. That incentive gets Realtors from not only Realty Executives but others companies as well, excited about showing and selling your home. This beautiful home in Farragut, Tennessee is a Realty Executives Associates 10K listing and a "Featured Home" on www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com As part of my fee I include the $250.00 10K entry fee for your home. Once 45 10K designated homes have been sold, Realty Executives hosts a luncheon... 03/20/2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama on February 17, 2009 has revised the Energy Efficient tax credit in some positive ways.  These new additions/changes have created an amazing Win, Win, and Win again situation for homeowners to reap great tax benefits by upgrading to energy efficient windows AND cut down on energy costs at the same time. However, before you go out and purchase the first Energy Star efficient windows that you come across make sure they qualify for the energy efficient tax credit as the standard have increased significantly. Below is a break down of the new Energy Efficient Tax Credit: Energy Efficient tax credit has been extended to include both 2009 and 2010. The maximum tax credit is 30% of costs, not to exceed $1500. Windows ... 03/13/2009

Tomorrow is my youngest daughter's, Hannah's 5th Birthday.  When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she responded with 2 requests: 1. A package of pink Peep Marshmallow Bunny Rabbits. 2. For Mommy to stay off the phone all day.   This made me stop in my tracks and think about how often they do see me on the phone.  As a single Mom, keeping a consistent income in real estate is not always the easiest thing to do.  Work schedules are often irregular and important calls do sometimes come at inopportune times.  However, tomorrow, March 12th from 3:30--> I will have my cell phone away as I devote my full attention to my two most important clients :) I am proud of my daughter and thank her for reminding me that sometimes the most important things in life are things that you can not ... 03/11/2009

  As one of only 5 Eco-Brokers in Knoxville, TN I am a big supporter of Green Living and being environmentally conscious.  I am also a Daisy Girl Scout Troop Leader for my two Daughter's Troop.  This past Monday our Troop was earning their Orange Daisy Pedal (the Daisy equivalent for a badge) based on the theme "be responsible for what I say and do".  To get this point across we talked about caring for our environment and completed a service unit project at Blue Grass Elementary where we did a campus clean-up.    Prior to starting the school clean up I questioned the girls (ranging from 5-7 years old) about why we need to help conserve the Earth and these were some of the answers/statements I got: "The Polar Bears are in a war and they are losing because people are not keeping things c... 03/11/2009

East, TN is well known for it's beautiful scenery and rolling hills.  There is no better way to explore the beauty of the Knoxville, TN area then on a bike.  As spring rolled in the area cyclist have rolled out and are out in force.  As a road and mountain biker myself the spring season has been highly anticipated- however, I have found that the spring has also brought in an increase business and real estate activity leaving me little time to devote to one of my favorite past times. For those of you that are interested in doing some great bike rides in the Knoxville, TN area I highly suggest purchasing the book: "Knoxville, TN Mini Adventure Series, Bicycling Routes" by Elle Colquitt and Jon Livengood that can be found in local books shops such as the Mast General Store or on-line at ht... 03/10/2009

Credit Suisse is "a world-leading financial services company, advising clients in all aspects of finance, around the world, around the clock." They also have been conducting their own monthly surveys of real estate agents in the US because they believe that "agents will provide an accurate assessment of housing market trandes in both the new and existing home markets." Each month I get a survey asking 5 main questions which they then compile the answers with others all over the US and calculate an index for the answers. 50 is their median with numbers above 50 being a positive or improving trend and below being negative. The questions are: Are traffic levels in line with, above, or below your expectations for this time of year? Have prices remained the same, increased, or decresed over ... 03/05/2009

Having a baby these days is expansive and so is providing clothes and 'baby stuff'. My youngest daughter Amanda, who lives in Memphis is a single mom with a 2 year old. Amanda has always been pretty thrifty but now that she has Cooper in her life, she's elevated 'thrifty' to an art form. Using websites like BabyCheapskate.com and FreePeats.org she keeps Cooper outfitted in great style with prices ranging from 50% off to outright free. For some reason ActiveRain is not cooperating with my attempts to embed a video so here's a link to my outside blog with 'the rest of the story'.   02/27/2009

Ford Motor Company has a director of it, NAR has hired one, Comcast and Knology both use it to get better. In fact, Frank the Comcast guy helped me get my cable and cable internet bill lowered 40 bucks a month; I like Frank; I even like Comcast better now. ;-) So what the heck is "Social Media"? Wikepedia says it is: "umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words" Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Magnolia, Digg, and literally hundreds of others websites use and promote it but exactly what the heck is it? Here's a little YouTube video that has one of the best explainations of social media I've seen. These very creative folk s get credit for this marvelous, easy to understand video.      02/23/2009

* UPDATE * 02/25/2009: I just came from the closing of a lease purchase I put some buyers in last June. Their house in Florida remains for sale but they got a couple of raises and were able to qualify for a new loan here. I have another scheduled to close this April; I'll follow up here with that sale too. This is what a lease purchase is all about; putting buyers in a house now they will buy a few months or year down the road.   If you have a listing or own a house you can't sell right away, a lease purchase is another option to consider. I personally have done several lease purchases over the past few years both with my listings and with investment properties I've owned. I currently have two lease purchases going on; one is set to close next Wednesday, my sale and my listing; and the ... 02/21/2009

The just ended week of February 15th saw a return to triple digits for Knoxville and Knox County, Tennessee real estate transfers. The Register of Deeds office recorded 138 transfers during that week. Here's a breakdown by price ranges.   All the Knoxville area Realtors I’ve been talking with during this past week are saying their showing activity is up and lots of traffic coming through Sunday open houses and phones ringing in their offices. I was at a closing for a sale last Thursday on a home built by Saddlebrook Homes and the site agent said they had 8 more closings by the end of February. Here’s what you can buy in Knoxville today in the various price ranges. In the Northshore Drive/Choto area this lakefront beauty can be yours for $2,300,000 or so.     Read more of the latest real... 02/17/2009

Congress has just passed, as part of their gigantic economic ’stimulus’  package, a tax credit of up to $8,000 for persons buying a home between January 1st of 2009 and December first of the same year. A few changes from the $7,500 credit created last July. Here’s the new deal: 1. Maximum credit amount is increased to $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price; whichever is less. 2. This is a cool part. Homebuyers who don’t intend to buy a home until the end of 2009 can legally alter their withholding to save up money for a downpayment. But if they don’t buy they have to repay the tax underwithheld 3. An eligible property is any single family residence; including condos, co-ops, or townhouses that will be used as your principal residence. Investment or second home properties do not qualify. 4.... 02/15/2009

Knox County has several great parks but my new favorite which I visited for the first time today is the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge in east Knox County along the French Broad River. Located just about 15 minutes from downtown Knoxville, this 360 acres of unspoiled landscapes is a great respite from the regular world. In addition to the six miles or so of great hiking trails and about two miles of paved road that's closed to traffic; there are 4 miles of river frontage along the French Broad River. Lots of Canoests and kayakers put in here at the boat launch ramp and go downriver to Knoxville about 19 miles by water. The French Broad and Holston Rivers meet in east Knox County to form the Tennessee River which flows through downtown Knoxville. The nice wide trails are cut through the f... 02/08/2009

I think graphs and charts are great to explain and demonstrate things in a colorful, easy to understand fashion. One way I use graphs in my business is to show my sellers how I track their home's online activity and keep a running total of how many people have viewed it. Visual Tour.com offers a great graph with page views of each virtual tour. The Visual Tour folks give you several options to automatically syndiate your listings. KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is my personal website and each of my listings is a "Featured Home" there. kaarmls.com is my Association public idx website. Realtor.com is NAR's official website FrontDoor.com is HGTV's online real estate site "Other" can include: Google Base, Homes.com, The Real Estate Book, Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow.com, HomeSeekers.com, Trulia, Home... 02/07/2009

We want to be the first to WELCOME you to Knoxville! My team is the “The Knoxville Area Relocation Experts”. We have helped hundreds of families with their move to the Knoxville area. Put our “Knoxville Knowledge” to work for YOU! Search over 15,000 Knoxville area Realtor listings at: www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com eMail Jim for more information and a complimentary relocation package. We’ll be there for you from start to finish including: Mortgage Assistance, Click “Mortgage Info” at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com eMail updates of Knoxville area homes for sale Area Orientation Tours Buyer Representation Skilled Contract Negotiations Closing Procedures Advice Utility Transfer Help Rental Assistance if Needed True “One Stop” Home Shopping Call of e mail Jim for a COMPLIMENTARY package of Knoxv... 02/07/2009

Yep, that's right sports fans. Last night (Thursday, Feb. 5th) Tennessee (UT) women's basketball Pat Summitt's Lady Vols beat Georgia 73-43 and gave Coach Summitt her 1,000th career win. Coach Summitt being showered by her team after win number 1,000 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Coach Summett has coached the Lady Vols in 1,187 games to date. Won 1,000 and lost 187; that's an impressive won-lost percentage. But even more impressive is the fact that 100% of her players that have played out their eligibility at UT have graduated and received a degree! That's right, a 100% graduation rate. As if being the only coach, male or female, to ever win 1,000 games AND and have all her student athletes graduate she's racked up a few more awards and accolades during her 35 year long career: 14-time SEC C... 02/06/2009

January 2009 is now officially over. By about mid February we should have the sales figures for January. The reason for the delay is to allow everyone to get their closings turned in and closed out in our MLS. But for now the Knox County Registrar of Deeds publishes a list of real estate transfers each week in the local newspaper; a very popular feature with most of my fellow Realtors. Here's the past weeks figures in graph form. Conspicuously absent during this past week were any recorded transfers over $500,000. I suppose this is a further testamonial to the softness that has hit our market as well as many others all over the country. However if you're in the market for a new home or moving to the greater Knoxville area it's a great time to buy. I've been fortunate enough to represent... 02/01/2009

The 2008 sales figures are out from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors. What kind of year was 2008 for us? Here are the figures. About a 31.3% drop in units sold from 2007 versus 2008. Still 11,850 is a bunch of homes. How about median sales prices for 3 bedroom homes? Looks like we're trending towards selling lower priced homes by about 9.5% or close to 2006 levels. Average days on the market is up about 10 days; no big change there. In fact it seems to have been pretty consistent for the past few years. Here are the total numbers of listings taken by year. I'm not sure what caused that big dip in 2002, maybe some of us took an extended vacation that year. ;-) Knox County residential bulding permits Big hit here; about a 45% drop from 2007 to 2008. Most builders are stuggling r... 01/18/2009

When choosing your next place to call home, most people will narrow down their search by the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and size of home.  Once they start to look more they often become fixated on features like new countertops, updated light fixtures, and type of flooring.  Don't get me wrong all these things are great, but perhaps you should think outside the box. Most interior features such as countertop substrate, flooring, paint color, lighting fixtures, can be changed and in many cases quite easily and for moderate amounts of money.  However, what is not easily changed or added is outdoor living space. Take for example a home with a gorgeous wrap around covered porch.  While this porch offers great outdoor living space it can not be included in the home's advertised s... 01/17/2009

This past Thursday evening was the second annual "Bloggers Night" at the Knoxville, Tennessee Symphony Orchestra (KSO). The Symphony invited up to 50 area bloggers and a companion to attend a free Symphony concert and attend a reception afterward. As a bonus the KSO performs most of their concerts in the restored and refurbished Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. PLUS there's free parking for theatre goers just a block away at the State St. garage! Sounded like an offer too good to pass up so I went. The nights fare was Mozart & Mendelssohn with a little Bach thrown in for good measure. There was a pre-concert chat before the performance with Maestro Lucas Richman who conducts the Orchestra and he was joined by featured pianist Navah Perlman. Maestro Richman was pretty funny when ... 01/17/2009

After about a year of searching, I finally found my camera and I love it!  I have been searching for what felt like forever for a compact camera with a built in wide angle lens that was reasonably priced. I had heard many people speak fondly of the Kodak with wide angle, but when I researched it further I found it had a plastic lens and that Kodak had an overall reputation of having lot of issues.  In fact, many of the local stores avoided or stopped selling Kodak all together because of too many customer complaints and returns.  This, despite recomendation, left me too timid about making an on-line purchase. The camera I purchased is the Panasonic Lumix wide angle camera (has a glass lens).  I purchased it for $199 at Circuit City - click here for more info http://www2.panasonic.com/co... 01/15/2009