R-E Agents Nashville Market Conditions (Franklin, Troy: real estate market, condos, buying a home)

[tr0y]

Hi All -

I am new here but am considering a move to the Nashville area, I was wondering if any of the RE agents on this board would give me some actual local views on the market there. I can read stats all day long and not get a feel for what really the market looks like in the trenches.

We are in the title & Escrow business and are considering heading south to live in a nice place, ride our horses and make a living.

What do you folks think about the current state of title companies and closings in your area ?

Thanks so much

Regards,

Troy

[tr0y]

Come on folks whats up ?


t

[toristamps]

Hi,

Here's my take on it - keep in mind I'm in Williamson County/Franklin area. The market, while slower than it used to be, isn't horrific. It's now more of a normal market (gasp, we're having to wait 60-90 days to sell a house IF it's priced right). Things ARE selling IF the owner is being reasonable and isn't greedy - and they're willing to do a little work to get it show ready. We were spoiled over the last few years - we could not do anything, ask any price and some silly person would say "what a deal, I'll take it." Coming from CA originally, I understand why - when in CA you're paying $400,000 for a 1 bedroom condo, and here you get a 3500 sf house on 5 acres - it seems like a deal. At that time, there wasn't a huge amount on the market, and more buyers were in the pool. So...there's your supply and demand (fewer houses + more buyers = higher prices). Now, there's a lot more on the market and the economy is down, so buyers are holding off to see what happens (odd, since the interest rates are low). Again - supply up, demand down = lower prices.

One thing I've tried to tell my sellers is, if they've been in their house a few years, they'll make a pretty good profit. Try not to be greedy. YES, 2 years ago you could have sold it for an additional $50,000 but that was then - that $50K is not real money until you put it in the bank (unless you borrowed on it, THEN it's real money that you now owe). Price your home well (if you can price it 5-10% lower than everyone else is asking it WILL sell quickly) - then go make even more profit on your next house. There are LOTS of houses that have been on the market a long time and have dropped the prices much more than 5-10% - pick up one of those homes and when the market turns around, you have instant equity. Ta Da...it's not brain surgery, you just have to think ahead of the curve. The thing is, there's still a lot of sellers out there who have their house on the market to "see what they can get." There's also a lot of realtors out there who are taking over-priced listings (case in point, I just sold a 3BR condo in a certain subdivision for $169,000 - yet, the other condos with the same floor plan, are priced all the way up to $209,000 - and, no, they aren't different in any way (no huge upgrades, etc.). Here in Leipers Fork, it's not uncommon to see a house priced $100,000 - $200,000 more than what it should be (normally listed by the same agent). Gee, wonder why it hasn't sold in the past year?

I have a small website that (when I was putting a lot of money into it) was getting about 750-1000 unique hits a day. That's just for little ole me. If there's that many people coming to my website - HOW MANY people are looking to move to TN? This website we're on now is a great example that there are quite a few.

One of the biggest problems is the media. As we all know, real estate is a local market. I can't tell you how many doom & gloom articles I've seen in our local TN paper about the real estate market - citing NATIONAL data (with one small sentence showing our data isn't like that). I've also seen them take positive statements from a Realtor and write the article as a negative article. Our market didn't start declining until after the media kept bombarding us with the "woe is me" articles. EVERY client I have has mentioned the media as a reason for their concern about the market - until I start showing them data, comps, etc. from OUR market.

Is now the time to sell if you're trying to get the most for your home? No. BUT, if you're planning on buying a HOME that you're going to stay in for a few years, it's a GREAT time to buy?

Here's my disclaimer - this is only MY opinion based on MY experience in the real estate industry in MY part of town - your town and area may be different. See a Realtor in your area for the best up to date info there.