All Good Things Must Come to an End

My 20-year old cat suffered a massive seizure and died this morning. We’ve been expecting this for 17 years since she was diagnosed with feline leukemia as a kitten and we were told she wouldn’t live past 2 or 3 years old.  The vet was very gentle and kind, so she was in no pain at the end.

I’ll be spending much of the day figuring out how to calm the kids when they flip out this afternoon after I tell them.  Especially the 12-year old.  Wish me luck.

Goodbye, Pootster.

Whale Done 2008

I had written last week that I received our office’s “Whale Done” Award and was up for the company-wide award.  The Bob Parks Celebration banquet was today and … guess what?  I WON!Bob Parks did the presentation and when he started talked about how the person who won is a “mentor” to other agents, she’s served on Agent Council, is very active in the community I was thinking “check, check, check.”  Then he said how the winner has been active in fundraisers for the medical needs of a young boy (check) and has helped countless agents set up their personal blogs (check), I felt pretty sure it was me.  It was.

It is the most incredible feeling to hear an audience burst into applause for you and woot and holler etc.  ::BLUSHING!::  I got a standing ovation.  So here are my pictures after the awards.

That’s me doing my best bulldog impression.

And here’s the more sane version of me holding my award – a $500 travel voucher to anywhere.  Hey Dad… you still want to go to Hawaii?  Hee hee!  I’m smiling with my mouth closed because I still have a piece of pepper between my teeth that I haven’t managed to dig out yet.  No toothpicks in office.  Ahhh… the life of a glamour doll!

Music City Bloggers has Another New Editor

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to take the position of Real Estate and Neighborhood Editor at Music City Bloggers.  Today was my first day to post there.   It’s interesting how quickly a place becomes home.

… when we moved here I was incredibly disappointed in the agent we had chosen to guide us through our real estate transaction.  Always the pretentious one, I thought I could do a better job than she did and enrolled in the required classes to get my license.  In all honesty, my first year was very difficult because in real estate, it’s all about who you know in order to gain referrals.  This new transplant didn’t know anyone… the nicest person I sort of knew was my daughter’s bus driver because he always smiled and waved at me in the morning. 

Bookmark Music City Bloggers, put them in your Feed Reader, or click on their link over in the right hand “friend” column so you can keep up with what’s going on.  If you like This is LaVergne, you’ll like the Music City blog!

Whale Done

Today was awards day in our office.  It’s been a challenging year in real estate for many people and although Middle Tennessee had its fourth best year EVER, my own business was down by about 20% as was the business of other highly successful agents.  So when I walked into our  meeting this morning, I knew I wasn’t getting my plaque for production like I have the last two years.  I was just sitting back to enjoy the show!

Imagine my surprise when my broker John Mayfield called my name for the “Whale Done” Award!  It’s given by vote from other agents to someone from the office who is always willing to lend a hand, help another person, and maintain a positive attitude.  What an honor it is to be recognized by my colleagues!  I won the same award two years ago, so now I have two whales.  I told my broker he could hold on to the second copy of the book WHALE DONE by Ken Blanchard.  Here’s what I got!

The only bad part is now I’ll be nervous for our company celebration coming up on Monday. My name will be thrown in the hat with agents from our other offices to see who’s named the company-wide winner.  Gulp.

Oh Wow. Nice Place You Have Here!

I went on agent caravan today and was absolutely charmed by two homes we toured.  The first one was at Asheford Crossing in Antioch off Mt. View Road.  The 1500 square foot house was immaculate!  I don’t know what I liked better, the location, gorgeous floors, sunroom, or price ($151,500)!  Here are a couple of photos:

The next one is a McMansion on the outskirts of Smyrna.  Priced at $375,000, the huge home has a lot of amazing detail.  First a photo of the front:

It makes me want to dance when I see how pretty it is!  But then you go inside and see some amazing upgrades:

Check it out!  It’s a real ceiling FAN!  The blades inside the two fans actually whir around while the entire unit also rotates.  The listing agent said the homeowner found the fan on eBay.

Okay, I’m really not as backward as this is going to sound. I’ve admired these sinks for a long time, but until today, I’d never washed my hands in one.  I just had to commemorate the occasion!

I’m sorry this photo isn’t clear, but hey – at least it’s not an “official” listing picture. I just wanted to capture the mood here.  This is the secret tunnel that connects the kid’s room with his playroom.  Or if you have TWO kids, they’d be connected.  How awesome is that?

I Have a Dream

My favorite part of the “I Have a Dream” speech made by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is,

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

When Dr. King made that speech on August 28, 1963, I had just turned 3-years old.  I didn’t know discrimination, suffering, inequality, or that there were children my own age whose burden as they grew up wasn’t to be just whether Mom and Dad could afford an ice cream cone for their children, but whether they’d be allowed to buy one.

Years later, I lived in Jacksonville, Arkansas and attended high school just 25 minutes up the road from the infamous Central High School in Little Rock. It was there that the National Guard were stationed to see that the African-American students could attend school without being mobbed.  Just 12 years later at my high school, the biggest news was that we had female police officers in the bathrooms to see that no one was inside smoking (or worse!).  That I was spit upon when I walked down a certain hallway was a nuisance; I tried to avoid that hallway.  But as an adult I finally understand how close I was to history.  I carried my books down corridors where scores of black students had been scorned in that racially charged area of Arkansas. The spit wasn’t directed at me.  It was directed at the suffering that history had given their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents.

 I can’t change what happened to them, or to what happened to me in Arkansas.  What I can do is to make an informed effort to always treat people fairly, to judge people based on the content of their character.   I am required to do this by law, but I know I’d still treat my clients and customers with respect and dignity even if the law was absent.

If you’ve ever wondered about what “Code of Ethics” a REALTOR(tm) follows, learn more here.  For more details, go to this link and check out Article 10.  It’s my pledge – and the pledge of all REALTORs.

American Lifestyle Magazine

My colleague Butch Roth and I have partnered together to bring our clients a new magazine called American Lifestyle.  It’s a very nice product that features a travel section, city profiles, home decor, international places of interest, and much more.  The magazine also provides a recipe card each month featuring some delish-dish (actually two cards – one for you, one for a friend).  We’ve both received a lot of calls about the Chicken Valenciano, so as a service to you because I’m so awesome*, here’s the recipe!

Chicken Valenciano

Ingredients
For the Salsa

• 3 navel or Valencia oranges, peeled and segmented
• 1/2 red onion, minced and soaked in 1 cup water, then drained
• 2 scallions, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced

For the chicken

• 6 boneless chicken breasts, lightly pounded, or 6 (7-ouncee) airline chicken breasts**
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cracked pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 12 small red potatoes

 Cooking Intructions

1. Make the salsa: In a medium-size bowl, toss together the orange segments, onion, scallion, cilantro, oil, and garlic. Aloow to marinate for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
2. Make the chicken: Preheat the oven to 400 (degrees) fahrenheit
3. Brush the chicken breasts with 2 tablespoons of the oil and season with salt, pepper, and cumin.  Place the batches in a large, heavy ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
4. Cook until well-browned on both sides.  Place in the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes for boneless breasts, about 20 minutes for airline breasts**.  Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside, keeping warm.
5. Place the red potatoes and the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in the same skillet, and roast in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden and tender.
6. Slice the boneless chicken breasts and arrange on a serving platter, family style; serve the airline chicken breasts on individual serving plates. Either way, top with the salsa, and garnish with roasted red potatoes.

Special note:  An airline breast is a boneless chicken breast with the first wing bone attached.

*Modesty is one of my best qualities.  Ha.
** I am not a cook so have no earthly idea what an airline chicken breast is.  Hooray! They wrote a special note just for me!

Neighborhood Housing Numbers 2007, for LaVergne

After the side-by-side of housing numbers for LaVergne from 2006 and 2007, I decided to scroll through individual neighborhoods to see how they fared.  A couple of disclaimers first. 

1. I’ve provided AVERAGE days on the market.  These numbers include only the days the home was on the market from the actual sale listing period.  In other words, a home may have been listed, expired, relisted, expired, listed, withdrawn, etc.  So the  TOTAL days on the market may not be completely accurate.  
2. I may have missed your neighborhood.  If so, just comment and I’ll go back in and add it.  
3. This is in no way a scientific study – just a quick review using the Realtor-MLS.  I may have typos here so if something seems off, please comment and I’ll fix with a notation that it’s been updated or I’ll comment that I rechecked and the numbers are accurate.
4. *In cases of only a few homes sold in a neighborhood, one incredibly low price or one incredibly high price could distort the numbers for the whole neighborhood, however the same research was used for all areas so you get what you see. 
5. I have not included condominium homes in this overview.  These are single-family homes.
6. Google map links are to general location only… I do not have specific boundaries of neighborhoods.

Here’s what happened in 2007, by neighborhood:

Akin Heights
Homes Sold:  2
Lowest Sales Price:  $123,000
Highest Sales Price:  $123,000
Average Sales Price:  $123,000
Average Square Feet:  1,646
Days on Market:  44

Akins Ridge
Homes Sold:  3
Lowest Sales Price:  $120,000
Highest Sales Price: $127,500
Average Sales Price: $124,500
Average Square Feet:  1,135
Days on Market:  52

Arbor Heights
Homes Sold: 9
Lowest Sales Price: $147,900
Highest Sales Price: $183,500
Average Sales Price: $168,988
Average Square Feet: 1,828
Days on Market: 146

Ben Franklin
Homes Sold:  4
Lowest Sales Price:  $118,000
Highest Sales Price:  $121,200
Average Sales Price:  $121,025
Average Square Feet:  1,284
Days on Market:  37

Brookside
Homes Sold:  23
Lowest Sales Price:  $131,000
Highest Sales Price:  $138,990
Average Sales Price:  $135,314
Average Square Feet:  2,264
Days on Market:  64

Cedar Grove
Homes Sold:  40
Lowest Sales Price:  $114,700
Highest Sales Price:  $206,228
Average Sales Price:  $173,455
Average Square Feet:  1,813
Days on Market:  57

Cedar Lake
Homes Sold:  21
Lowest Sales Price:  $97,500
Highest Sales Price:  $136,400
Average Sales Price:  $115,644
Average Square Feet:  1,238
Days on Market:  61

Center Hill
Homes Sold:  6
Lowest Sales Price:  $114,900
Highest Sales Price:  $123,900
Average Sales Price:  $119,750
Average Square Feet:  1,259
Days on Market:  33

Chaney Woods
Lowest Sales Price: $143,700
Highest Sales Price: $179,000
Average Sales Price: $155,187
Average Square Feet: 1,693
Days on Market: 83

*Deer Park
Homes Sold:  3
Lowest Sales Price:  $85,000
Highest Sales Price:  $125,000
Average Sales Price:  $109,966
Average Square Feet:  2,075
Days on Market:  58

Dove Creek
Homes Sold:  3 
Lowest Sales Price:  $88,000
Highest Sales Price:  $95,000
Average Sales Price:  $92,633
Average Square Feet:  1,012
Days on Market:  68

Eastwood
Homes Sold:  5
Lowest Sales Price:  $103,500
Highest Sales Price:  $118,900
Average Sales Price:  $112,987
Average Square Feet:  1,543
Days on Market:   46

Farmingdale
Homes Sold:  15
Lowest Sales Price:  $81,700
Highest Sales Price:  $119,000
Average Sales Price:  $106,253
Average Square Feet:  1,213
Days on Market:  29

Fergus Woods
Homes Sold:  3
Lowest Sales Price:  $83,500
Highest Sales Price:  $132,900
Average Sales Price:  $116,133
Average Square Feet:  1,276
Days on Market:  44

Greenwood
Homes Sold:  7
Lowest Sales Price:  $78,300
Highest Sales Price:  $119,000
Average Sales Price:  $108,314
Average Square Feet:  1,110
Days on Market:  52

Hailey Hills
Homes Sold: 12
Lowest Sales Price: $124,500
Highest Sales Price: $166,900
Average Sales Price: $142,237
Average Square Feet: 1,572
Days on the Market: 65

Hampton Roads
Homes Sold:  3
Lowest Sales Price:  $252,000
Highest Sales Price:  $423,017
Average Sales Price:  $358,339
Average Square Feet:  3,084
Days on Market:  45

Heritage Valley
Homes Sold:  29
Lowest Sales Price:  $87,900
Highest Sales Price:  $165,000
Average Sales Price:  $121,227
Average Square Feet:  1,356
Days on Market:  60

Ivy Pointe
Homes Sold:  2
Lowest Sales Price:  $210,000
Highest Sales Price:  $256,500
Average Sales Price:  $233,250
Average Square Feet:  2,476
Days on Market:  65

Jefferson Place
Homes Sold:  3
Lowest Sales Price:  $117,500
Highest Sales Price:  $119,250
Average Sales Price:  $118,250
Average Square Feet:  1,199
Days on Market:  40

Jones Mill
Homes Sold:  2
Lowest Sales Price:  $123,500
Highest Sales Price:  $135,000
Average Sales Price:  $129,250
Average Square Feet:  1,206
Days on Market:  51

Lake Forest
Homes Sold:  262
Lowest Sales Price:  $91,500
Highest Sales Price:  $222,965
Average Sales Price:  $138,849
Average Square Feet:  1,519
Days on Market:  89

Madison Square
Homes Sold:  20
Lowest Sales Price:  $128,000
Highest Sales Price:  $177,000
Average Sales Price:  $149,148
Average Square Feet:  1,623
Days on Market:  64

McFarlin Pointe
Homes Sold:  30
Lowest Sales Price:  $174,000
Highest Sales Price:  $499,000
Average Sales Price:  $329,193
Average Square Feet:  2,828
Days on Market:  66

Morgans Retreat
Homes Sold:  5
Lowest Sales Price:  $120,000
Highest Sales Price:  $157,600
Average Sales Price:  $137,720
Average Square Feet:  1,349
Days on Market:  121

Park Villa
Homes Sold:  2
Lowest Sales Price:  $99,000
Highest Sales Price:  $115,000
Average Sales Price:  $107,000
Average Square Feet:  1,251
Days on Market:  52

Pinnacle Point
Map unavailable: I24E exit Waldron Road and go left at the light (at top of ramp). Follow down to Pinnacle Point subdivision on right hand side, just before Rock Springs Rd.
Homes Sold:  11
Lowest Sales Price:  $198,000
Highest Sales Price:  $310,000
Average Sales Price:  $241,298
Average Square Feet:  2,152
Days on Market:  92

Poplar Creek
Homes Sold:  2
Lowest Sales Price:  $115,000
Highest Sales Price:  $141,000
Average Sales Price:  $128,000
Average Square Feet:  1,316
Days on Market:  60

Ridgemont
Homes Sold:  7
Lowest Sales Price:  $89,725
Highest Sales Price:  $129,900
Average Sales Price:  $112,432
Average Square Feet:  1,156
Days on Market:  56

Stonehenge
Homes Sold:  14
Lowest Sales Price:  $102,000
Highest Sales Price:  $148,500
Average Sales Price:  $122,534
Average Square Feet:  1,284
Days on Market:  41

Stonemark
Homes Sold:  4
Lowest Sales Price:  $118,750
Highest Sales Price:  $121,000
Average Sales Price:  $119,687
Average Square Feet:  1,294
Days on Market:  54

Sunrise
Homes Sold:  5
Lowest Sales Price:  $131,000
Highest Sales Price:  $138,990
Average Sales Price:  $135,314
Average Square Feet:  1,383
Days on Market:  72

Summit View
Homes Sold:  8
Lowest Sales Price:  $113,000
Highest Sales Price:  $164,900
Average Sales Price:  $137,650
Average Square Feet:  1,477
Days on Market:  49

Watersedge
Homes Sold:  17
Lowest Sales Price:  $103,900
Highest Sales Price:  $191,250
Average Sales Price:  $142,997
Average Square Feet:  1,569
Days on Market:  50

Woodland Hills
Homes Sold:  14
Lowest Sales Price:  $153,900
Highest Sales Price:  $250,000
Average Sales Price:  $177,742
Average Square Feet:  1,970
Days on Market:  90

Woodsong
Map unavailable: I24E Take I-24 to Exit 66A, Sam Ridley Parkway. Make a right at the stopsign onto Blair Road. Travel 0.8 miles and turn into Woodsong Entrance. Fox Ridge Homes Model Home on Vineyard Lane on the Right.
Homes Sold:  16
Lowest Sales Price:  $267,000
Highest Sales Price:  $364,400
Average Sales Price:  $306,031
Average Square Feet:  2,899
Days on Market:  90

Real(i)ty Television

The monthly REALTOR magazine was in my mailbox when I went back to the office today after spending time off with my kids.  And let me just say it was a bitterly cold day at the bus stop for their first day back in school – a brutal 13 degrees.  Well, for Tennessee it’s brutal.

In the magazine, however, an article caught my eye called “Does Realty TV Help or Hurt Your Business?”  Several agents wrote their opinions about home show like “Flip This House” and “Designed to Sell” and the thoughts were pretty interesting.  One person did a property flip and said it validated him as a real estate expert with his clients.  Another said the designers in the decorating shows would frame a rug with dog urine if the pattern looked unique.  I think that’s just disgusting, but when you have a designer who glues straw to someone’s wall and calls it home fashion, well… who am I to argue with the dog comment?

Kat from Just Another Pretty Farce is fed up with reality realty shows so is changing channels.  On the other hand, Dr. Housing Bubble goes into some details about flipping a home in Culver City, California.  Me, I’m going to just sit back and watch How Clean is Your House because where I am untalented as a handy(wo)man, I can clean.  And it makes me feel great that even when my house is at its dirtiest, it’s immaculate compared to some of the homes on that show!