While reading a reading a recent issue of Greg Swann's BloodHound Blog I noticed an article about custom yard sign, each designed especially for a specific property. For want of a better name I call them single property yard signs. Sounded like a pretty cool idea to me so I started doing some research as to how I could create my own. Greg is somewhat of a perfectionist along with being an innovator. After reading the process Greg goes through to turn out one sign I decided to look for a qucker and easier way. Fortunately in Knoxville we have a great printing company called Print Edge who can print basically anything on most anything. I did a sample of what I thought I wanted in Microsoft Publisher, printed several versions out on 8 1/2 X 11 paper, saved a high resolution version on a th... 01/12/2009

The real estate transactions recorded at the Knox County Registrar of Deeds office were published 2 days ago. Not surprisingly the holidays dampened real estate activity somewhat but there were 120 transactions recorded for the week. That means quite a few people in the greater Knoxville area got a great Christmas present in the form of a new home. Here's just a few of the great buys new Knoxville area homeowners got recently.   This beautiful new construction home in Hardin Valley closed for $468,300. Their slogan says "Halls has it!" and this beautiful Halls 2 story that sold for $180,000 recently is ample proof of that slogan. See more recent sales and search for one of your own at www.KnoxvilleRealtyBlog.com 01/06/2009

Ah windows, a homes connection to the outside world.  The joys that they bring homeowners as they allow for sun to shine through, brightening up the interior of our homes, allowing us to enjoy the wonders of the outdoors while sitting in the comfortable climate-controlled interiors of our homes. However, if you are not careful in both your choice and maintanece of your home's windows they could be creating a gateway to not only the outside world, but your wallet!  Windows while highly desirable by homeowners can cause major heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.  In the U.S., the energy required to offset these temperature losses and gains in homes and buildings accounts for about 1/4 of all heating/cooling energy costs. So what does this mean for you as a current or poten... 01/05/2009

2009- The Season to Sell- Let Me Tell You Why! Hooray, a new year is here, a year filled with tons of great opportunities for those ready to take control of the unique possibilities out there for Knoxville Tennesseans.  Your neighbors, your friends, the media, may have told you that now is not the time to Sell, and that unless you absolutely have to move you should wait.  However, in reality now is the perfect time to TRADE UP!  Perhaps your expanding family has made your current home a little bit too cramped and you are in need of more room.  Maybe with the kids gone, your home is too big and you are looking to downsize.  Maybe, your old home is too far from work and schools and you have found yourself wasting way too much time in commuting.  Whatever your situation may be, it may be t... 01/04/2009

2008 was quite a year for knoxtours.net.  Our virtual tour sales went down a bit.  I'm sure the credit crunch, the plunge of the Stock Market, and the collapse in housing values all contributed, but there's also the Knoxville real estate market where virtual home tours isn't yet the widely chosen choice for property marketing.  I've been able to expand my photography to bring in a few extra dollars. I've taken on antique portrait photography; I'm gone most weekends, and who I'm photographing isn't always the most cooperative.  Ever tried photographing small children?  It's a discipline where I'm forced to be creative.  When I shoot, each time its got to be different.  I have a routine when I go in to shoot a property; A certain way to ensure I don't miss anything!  I make sure that the ... 01/01/2009

Most of you probably don't know but I had a very strong background in the food industry before becoming a Realtor.  I have owned restaurants, been a chef, food & beverage manager, general manager, dishwasher, busboy, and most every other restaurant position there is. In fact my very first real job at age 16 was dishwasher, I believe at the princely sum of 50 cents an hour plus a meal. Today I'm the designated chef for dinner. I'm gonna try out a great sounding new receipe I found on www.AllRecipes.com which is a great resouce for ideas. Tonight's menu will include: Orange-Pecan Pork Roast Baked Sweet Potatoes Creamed Spinach and the traditional New Year's Black Eyed Peas. Maybe a nice bottle of Pinot Gris or a Merlot For the pork roast recipe you need: 1 three pound of so, boneless pork... 01/01/2009

In the current market you need every advantage you can bring to bear to get your home sold for a good price; you need to create some "WOWS! from buyers. If you have old and outdated bathrooms and kitchen you're staring off the sale process with 1 or more strikes against you. We sold our personal home in 2007. It was about 35 years old and each of our 3 bathrooms had different colored tile and fixtures from that era. One bath was avocado green, one harvest gold, and the third was a funky brown & gold color which I hope they have now passed a law against. Being a real estate professional I knew the bathrooms had to be addressed before buyers saw them. I did not want to invest thousands of dollars to remodel and update the bathrooms so I started looking around for an alternative. I found i... 12/31/2008

for the week of December28th This past week the Knoxville County Registrar of Deeds reported 139 closed real estate transactions. Like most previous weeks most of the action was in the $50,000 to $150,000 prices ranges with closed transactions dropping off dramatically as the scale moved towards the higher prices. There were 4 closed transactions over $1,000,000 and 2 in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range. The average sales price in Knoxville for November 2008 was $85,900 for a 2 bedroom, $155,800 for a typical 3 bedroom home and $244,500 for 4 bedrooms and more. This west Knoxville home closed at $160,000, 94.17% of the $169,900 list price. There are still lots of great buys available and with interest rates moving into the mid 4% range, financing is looking pretty great as well. Southea... 12/28/2008

Now that Christmas is past it will soon be time to take down the tree and decorations. If you're one of the estimated 31.3 million US households that bought a real Christmas tree you may be wondering what to do with it. Most cities and municipalities have some sort of recycling program for Christmas trees that have done their duty. In the greater Knoxville area there are several options to not only recycle your used Christmas tree but get the ground up mulch back to put in your planting beds. The best deal is to take it to Ijams Park in South Knoxville to be recycled into mulch which is used to maintain the trails we all enjoy. They accept used trees from now through January 31st. Both the City of Knoxville and Knox County both have recycling faciitlies; read more here.       Image by w... 12/27/2008

2009 Housing Market Prediction SuccessfulHomeSales.net According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville home prices fell a mere .5% (one half percent) in October compared to 10.4% across the country. The article said it was a slight improvement over September. I wrote about the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, third quarter. My numbers showed that there are some "hot" selling houses in Oak Ridge. There was another good article about home sales in the Sentinel today. It explains the poor numbers for the whole housing market in 2008. It may not be a big surprise that the housing market was worse in 2008 than we knew and, in some cases, the worse in 18 years. What this means for you if you are selling right now is that if the house prices are going down, which for the most part they are, in order... 12/24/2008

One of the most amazing Christmas light shows you've ever seen is playing nightly at Shadrack Water Sports & RV just off Watt Road in West Knoxville. Over 250,000 colors lights dance to music starting with a peppy song titled "Christmas With A Capital "C" by Go Fish to the more traditional "Silent Night" by Mannheim Steamroller Great Christmas entertainment for the whole family. The Christmas light show is open 6-10 p.m. weekdays, 6-11 p.m. weekends past New Year’s. Admission is $10,00 per carload during the week and $12.00 on weekends. They said over 2,000 cars have toured the grounds and watched the light show since it opened in mid November. Fun for all the some of the proceeds go to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. See the rest of the show at my flagship blog. See all of Knoxville'... 12/20/2008

They're here........fixed mortgage interest rates below 5%! If you're in the market for a new house or condo NOW would be a great time to get in the market and buy one. Here's why that's such a big deal. In November the average sale price of a 3 bedroom home in Knoxville was $155,600. This beautiful 2 story home is located in north Knoxville and priced at only $154,900. The data relating to real estate for sale on this Web Site comes from the IDX Program of the Knoxville Area Association of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. All homes subject to prior sale. At a 6% interest rate and an FHA loan with the minimum 3% down you would be financing $150,900 which would make your monthly principal and interest payment $904.72. Yesterday in my office our mortgage affiliate was quoting a 4.5% 30... 12/19/2008

Rich has been a wonderful person to come to know.  I have only recently made his acquaintance; sometime this spring here on Active Rain.  http://activerain.com/blogs/richd   I feel as if I already know Rich well as a result of his sensitive and caring blogs.  He has offered me support in a variety of ways and has been a loyal follower on my blog.  I think tht one think that drew me to Rich was his deep caring for animals of all sorts and his posts on rescue groups in the area.  He is an extremely knowledgeable professional and I am proud to have him as one of my associates.  Just recently Rich has earned my eternal gratitude and loyalty when he rescued a little Poodle that needed desperately to get to a new home -- FAST!!!  http://activerain.com/blogsview/836018/Delivered-To-Safety Nige... 12/15/2008

This past week had a total of 137 property transfers in all prices ranges from over one million dollars to some under $50,000 There's a great selection of homes for sale in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area and terrific mortgage rates in the 5% range are available too. This stately 2 story home is listed for $299,000 Brokered by ERA, Top Producers, 691-5348 Visit my real estate blog to see more Knoxville, Knox County, and Farragut homes for sale. www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com has all Knoxville area Realtor listings currently for sale; no registration required. 12/14/2008

That is actually how long that it takes for everything to change. This post is more of a rant that a post. Hopefully, though, the message will stand loud and clear. Tonight woke me up to that very fact. Rich's mom, Carolyn owns a business here in Knoxville, Tennessee. She does like the rest of us and gets out daily to bust her behind to make a living. With the economy being the way that it is, business has been tough for her this year. Actually, it has been tough on everyone. Carolyn is a gamer and gets out and fights for her piece of the American pie daily. With that said, her store was rob at gun point tonight. This is not the first time that this person has hit the area that her store is in. Thankfully Carolyn was not in the store when it happened, but there was an employee in the st... 12/09/2008

"Going green" is not only very fashionable these days; it's also a great way to save money and impact our environment less. Here's 10 things we've done that most anyone else can do one or more of. Added extra insulation overhead to R-38. This nifty calculator from Oak Ridge National Laboratories can calculate how much insulation you could benefit from. Installed new thermopane windows; the west facing ones have low e glass. Low e glass  which keeps heat in during the winter and out during the summer. Have a heat pump for heating and cooling efficiency and economy.  Purchase units of green power from our local utility. Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) only charges an extra $4.00 per block of green power and 5 blocks are the equivilant of planting 2.5 acres of trees or not driving a car fo... 12/09/2008

Last night (Friday, Dec. 5) was Knoxville' annual Christmas Parade. Even though it was around 30 degrees the Saturday news said they estimated the crowds at 35,000.  I think that was a great turnout for such a cold night but.....Santa Claus was there and it is Christmas. There were lots of kids of all ages. We got there about 45 minutes early and were able to get a good spot right on the curb. That turned out to be a good move because by the time the parade started people were lined up 5 to 6 deep all along Gay Street. Knoxville city and Knox County motorcycle officers are set to lead the parade. See the rest of the photos and several videos I made with my new FLIP video camera here See lots of Knoxville, Tennessee homes & condos for sale at KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com   12/06/2008

If you still have Thanksgiving turkey left over here's a few quick and easy recipes to deliciously get rid of it. One of my favorites I fixed last night. Grilled Turkey Rubens, serves 2 4 slices rye bread 1/2 cup sauerkraut 2 slices of Swiss cheese 1,000 island dressing turkey Butter or apply spread to outside of rye bread, place one slice butter side down in skillet. layer on some turkey, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and thousand island dressing. Butter other side of bread and place on top with butter side facing up. Grilled until toasted on one side, turn over and toast other side. Enjoy, grilled turkey Reubens are delicious especially with a crisp pickle and some chips.   Crunchy Turkey Salad, serves 2 coarsely chop cooked turkey, from 1/2 cup to 1 cup Mix in a coarsely chopped tart app... 11/30/2008

In addition to the University of Tennessee, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville is home to several animal rescue organizations. In this post, I want to highlight the good work that the volunteers do at the Wolf Creek Weimaraner Rescue, Inc. This organization is a 501(c)(3) so all donations, which are the majority of the groups operating budget, are tax deductible. This dynamic organization found it roots in the heart of two people who were dedicated to rescuing dogs. In the eight years since its inception, the Wolf Creek Weimaraner Rescue, Inc. has grown to a dedicated group of 45 volunteers. During that time this organization has saved an estimated 250 animals from abuse and possible destruction. This organization and its volunteers and foster f... 11/24/2008

If you are you’re in good company. Currently the Knoxville Area Association of Realtor’s Multiple Listing System (MLS) has 11,576 active residential listings and 1,743 condos which have all been for sale an average time of 108 days. That’s a very clear sign to me that we’re in a strong buyer’s market. In the month of October there were 874 closed sales but there were also 2,106 new residential listings plus another 228 condos. I’m not going to do the math but it’s pretty plain that only about 1 out of every 15 listings sold in October. As a seller you’re goal is to be that 1 out of 15 that got an invitation to the closing table. Because I’m in the Knoxville area real estate market on a daily basis I see lots of sellers with houses that are grossly overpriced for various reasons. Reasons... 11/18/2008