I Give You a Day in January

Some January days are just overrated.  I came on in to the office today although school is out so I could concentrate on writing my blog posts for Banks.com and Shak & Jill without listening to my adorable kids screaming laughter.  Here they are:

From Shak & Jill,

I called Mom this morning who sounded close to tears since power was out in a 100-mile radius and their generator was almost out of gas.  She told me about all the trees that were down and said this has been the worst storm she and Dad have ever lived through since they married 50 years ago.

Go see the post!  There are snow and ice pictures!  And from Banks.com I wrote about taxes,

Today I’m writing it for Realtors with the disclaimer that I am NOT a tax attorney, a tax expert, or an accountant.  What I do have gripped in my hands is a sheet of paper that a fellow agent handed me earlier today from a tax company that lists “Realtor Deductions”.

After writing, I went to the kitchen to snag a chocolate donut and was met with this.

More after the jump…

Repost from TiLaV: Housing Numbers 2008

Here we go.  I’ve gone a year back to see what the numbers looked like then:

Homes Sold 2006: 1,005
Homes Sold 2007:  714
Homes Sold 2008: 541

We had about a 24% drop in the number of home sales in LaVergne from 2007 to 2008.  Adding the drop from 2006 to 2007, in all sales have fallen by 46.2% over a two-year period… the heyday to the recession.

2006 Prices
Lowest: $29,000
Highest: $470,000

2007 Prices
Lowest: $22,000
Highest: $469,900

2008 Prices
Lowest: $43,500
Highest: $538,875

This year, let’s do a price breakdown:

Homes sold for under $100,000:  60
Homes sold  between $100,000 and $125,000:  189
Homes sold between $125,001 and $150,000:  152
Homes sold between $150,001 and $200,000:  74
Homes sold between $200,001 and $300,000:  45
Homes sold over $300,001:  21

Clearly the moderately priced homes are the biggest sellers.  If you’re considering selling in this market, I found this video that is dead-on what you need to do.  Okay, I can’t embed (yet again), so here’s a link. Okay, I’ve embedded it on the VodPod in the right hand column. Over there ===>

Because my intent for This is LaVergne is to provide a community service for residents – an information forum and place for readers to comment and ask questions – I try not to push too much that I’m a Realtor.  However, everyone knows that real estate has been under a lot of stress these past two years.  What I’m asking is that if you know anyone moving, please remember me to them.  I don’t mind competing for the job as their Realtor with other skilled agents (and I don’t always get the listing or the buyer), but when a buyer or seller and I decide to work together, they should expect and do receive professional service throughout their real estate transaction.  Please… just remember me – give them my name, phone number, email.  Or ask if I can contact them and with their permission I will.

My contact info is in the right hand column!

Kathy Tyson
Toll Free:  (877) 892-0507
Office:  (615) 459-4040
Cell:  (615) 491-2161
kathy@bobparks.com

Referrals do not have to be just local.  If you know someone from another state moving to another city (all outside of Tennessee or Nashville), we do have a relocation office that can help.  Thank you for any referrals you can send my way.

Heads Up to Blog Readers & Social Mediaphiles

I believe we’re about to see a huge surge in the number of Realtors who go online to participate in and be a part of the Internet’s networking phenomenon.  I’ve watched Active Rain grow and grow to the point where there are now 127,791 members (as of 9:22 p.m. Thursday, January 8, 2009).  Many of these members are agents, but you’ll also find mortgage experts, inspectors, appraisers, and others associated with the real estate industry.

My own little space on Active Rain can be found here.

The company I work for – Bob Parks Realty, LLC – is getting ready to launch a company blog site.  In addition, they’ve jumped all over Facebook ever since a handful of PTBs (powers that be) have seen the light that I’ve been trying to beam toward them for the last few years.  I’ve had an online presence for many years because I believe it when I read that 85 percent of buyers find their homes online these days rather than going to newspapers or magazines.

Overall I’m quite excited to see the company enter the ring.  I believe if they consistently provide good information, our reputation as a solid amazing company will grow.  But there’s a small part of me that’s screaming, “Oh no! My online real estate presence is going to shrink because I’ll be surrounded by the big boys now.” But hopefully I’ve already gotten to know my online friends well enough so that I will always have their hearts and affection.

And referrals.

How was that for a nudge nudge wink wink?

But I’m telling you…  the Realtors are coming.

What Does “Postlets” Do?

I always upload my listings to postlets.com because it will feed them to several real estate web sites on the www.  It gave me this code, so I’m experimenting here to see what the code does.  Bear with me…

Let’s cross our fingers and hit publish! It was really really cool in “preview” but it disappears when I go to update or publish. Hmmmm…. I suppose I’ll have to experiment more.

UPDATE: Okay, upon further research I found that you can not embed codes on WordPress.com, however it may be possible on WordPress.org. I’m on the dotcom side, so I won’t be able to upload the code here. Durn it.