Chattanooga Real Estate Blog

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The following is an excerpt from a post today by Doug Quance in Atlanta at Brokers First Realty about his experience with an over priced listing. 

It’s the list price, Mr. Seller. The market rejects your price.

No matter how much marketing he does, this home will not bring his asking price. He could buy advertising on billboards around town… it will not matter.

It won’t matter which agent or firm he selects… it won’t matter how much staging he does… it won’t matter if he gives away a trip to Disneyland or plasma TV’s in every room.

Taking the couple of minutes it would take to read the entire post could well save most sellers quite a bit of money.

No other comments from me.  He says it all.

• 01-26 Chattanooga Theatre Centre: "The Graduate" (Mainstage)
• 01-26 "Live at the Firehouse" - acoustic show at Dalton Little Theatre
• 01-27 Chattanooga Symphony & Opera presents Verdi’s opera "Rigoletto" at Tivoli  
• 01-25 -01-28 Heath Hyche at Comedy Catch -
• 01-25 -01-28 Chattanooga Boat and RV Super Sale - at Chattanooga Convention Center
• 01-21 -02-25 Marion County HS spring training program - for players in grades 1-12, directed by MCHS coach Steve Roberts in conjunction with Midwest Baseball Academy; advanced hitting & pitching, $98 for the 6 weeks. See http://www.baseballacademy.net or call (866) MBA-HITS.
• 01-15 -02-08 Beginner/competitive stroke swim lessons - McCallie School; noon-5 p.m. Monday & Wednesday, 1-7:15 p.m. Tuesday & Thursday, group & private lessons; ages 2-up; $65 for 8 half-hour lessons, $10 for 15-minute private lesson, $35 yearly registration fee; testing days Jan. 10, Feb. 7 & March 7, 5-5:30 p.m. for placement. Call Stan Corcoran at 493-5536 or see swimscac.com.
• 01-10 -02-28 Lacrosse referee training - Begins Jan. 10, Wednesdays in January & February, 6 p.m., McCallie School’s Sports & Activity Center’s hospitality room. Call David Dickert at 892-1030.

Whether you’re moving across country or across town, the whole process can go smoothly or border on a major life crisis. All the aspects of uprooting , reorganizing and adjusting to new surroundings can make for significant stress.

We’ve been a big part of family relocations for some time, and we’ve accumulated a little list of tricks we’d like to pass along to help smooth your next move:

1. When your home is up for sale, combine the chore of clearing out clutter (for showing) with sorting and packing. First, get rid of the things you’ll sell, give away, throw out. Then get a head start on packing by boxing off-season clothes, unneeded books, etc.
2. Keep a personal moving book (3-ring binder plus pocket dividers) for keeping track of what’s where – receipts, mover information, running daily notations, checklists, etc.
3. Expect a certain amount of stress and be as patient as you can be – with yourself and everyone else. Listen carefully.
4. Involve the whole family (down to the smallest member) in the move from start to finish. Get everybody making lists, planning, timing, packing, working as a team.
5. Make moving as much of an adventure as possible. Find out all you can about your new surroundings – what’s useful (shopping, transportation, etc.) and what’s fun (swimming, theater-going, etc.). Get pictures, maps and guidebooks of the new town to help plan future explorations. Visit the new place, if it’s not too far away. Plan parties at both ends of your move.
6. As soon as your home is sold, start rerouting subscriptions, handing out notices for cancellation dates for deliveries and utilities, transferring bank accounts, school and medical records, and notifying friends.
7. If possible, renovate any floors and walls that need it in your new home before you move in. This will save your having to move things around after you’re settled.
8. Pack slowly and carefully, time permitting. Doing a little at a time staves off exhaustion. Making lists of the contents of every numbered carton saves hunting through several boxes for one needed item. To save space (and money), pack lightweight things in bureau drawers and other empty containers.
9. Pack a care package to take care of all those small family needs at the new home on the first day: light bulbs, a bar of soap, tissues, children’s toys, sauce pans, canned food, powdered drinks, radio, etc. Mark the box "UNPACK FIRST" and put it on the van last so it can be the first off upon arrival.
10. Give yourself plenty of time to recover, unpack and settle in. Unpack the kitchen first and sit down for refreshment. Go out for dinner, you deserve it! Remember a home isn’t built in a day.

And the saga continues at Crown Point Estates in Hixson.  According to this News Channel 9 video, when the developer, David Sanders, was unable to get an approval on the sewer system he planned to install that meant he couldn’t build on that address until it was approved.  Well, he just changed the address to show a Big Ridge Rd address.  The property does have frontage on Big Ridge Road but….

Will Chattanooga finally get that elusive automobile manufacturer?  Toyota has it narrowed down to two cities now, Chattanooga and Marion Ark. 

We have had several manufacturers consider Chattanooga but we have always come up short.  Toyota may be it.

• 01-20 WDEF Education Expo - at Chattanooga Convention Center
• 01-20 Bridal Showcase - at Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center
• 01-19 -01-22 Grant Turner aka Ricky Mokel at Comedy Catch 
• 01-19 Chattanooga Theatre Centre: "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" -
• 01-19 -01-21 O’Reilly World of Wheels - at Chattanooga Convention Center
• 01-19 -01-21 Sesame Street Live presents "Elmo’s Coloring Book" - at Memorial Auditorium
• 01-15 -01-19 Missoula Children’s Theater presents "The Little Mermaid" - at Athens Area Council for the Arts
• 01-15 -02-08 Beginner/competitive stroke swim lessons - McCallie School; noon-5 p.m. Monday & Wednesday, 1-7:15 p.m. Tuesday & Thursday, group & private lessons; ages 2-up; $65 for 8 half-hour lessons, $10 for 15-minute private lesson, $35 yearly registration fee; testing days Jan. 10, Feb. 7 & March 7, 5-5:30 p.m. for placement. Call Stan Corcoran at 493-5536 or see www.swimscac.com.
• 01-10 -02-28 Lacrosse referee training - Begins Jan. 10, Wednesdays in January & February, 6 p.m., McCallie School’s Sports & Activity Center’s hospitality room. Call David Dickert at 892-1030.

The premise:

Taken from the website:

Headlines show that the real estate market has hit its peak and it’s only a matter of time before the bubble bursts. The market seems to be saturated with wannabe real estate tycoons.

Let’s hope they have room for two more: Richie Tatum and David Kimball. They are way too late in the game and lacking any formal education, but that’s not stopping them from jumping in head-first.

This unique online show follows their attempts to overcome not only the challenges of the real estate industry, but also each other, facing adversity at every turn with one goal in sight:
To get filthy flippin’ rich, one flip at a time.

The realtity:

What a hoot!!  Three episodes have been posted so far and they are a mess.  They have surrounded themselves with self important, incompetent, unethical people and they can’t do anything right.  They have bought and flipped one house at a loss and are now looking for the second.  But they have had a falling out with their real estate agent who is the most incompetent and unethical member of their "team".

Watch them in order to follow their journey.  But remember, it’s satire. 

Episode 1:  The First Flip

Episode 2:  The Blame Game

Episode 3:  The Flippin’ Fight

I was surfing looking for info on foreclosure rates when I ran across a blog by a Casey Serin.  A man who went into the house flipping business and is now in over his head and looking at multiple foreclosures.  After I started reading some of his posts I realized I had read his story in USA Today a few months ago and had intended to post on it then and forgot about it. 

If you are thinking of flipping houses it’s a good read.  This is his post from September 5th explaining how he got into the mess he is in then you can go forward from there. 

Foreclosure, mortgage fraud, stress.  It’s like a soap opera but, people, listen to me, this is real.  House flipping is not the easy money hand over fist career that  it is made to look like by the people who want to sell you books and tapes on it.  If it was they would be doing it instead of hawking the books, tapes and seminars.  Think about it. 

It’s that time again.  RealtyTrac has released it’s market report on December foreclosures.  The report shows 109,652 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during the month, a decrease of nearly 9 percent from the previous month but an increase of 35 percent from December 2005.

Colorado has reclaimed it’s position as the state with the highest rate of foreclosure with 1 in every 376 households entering some stage of foreclosure.  Not a top spot to strive for.
Nevada is second with 1 in 392
Georgia is third with 1 in 480
Mass, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersy round out the ten states reporting the highest rates in December.

Tennessee did show improvement from November with a 20.65% drop to 1 in 860 homes entering foreclosure.  Only 10 states worse than us:(  It’s still an increase of 43.82% over December 2005.