There are all kinds of things sellers do in an attempt to lure buyers to their homes, including, offering home warranties, buyers’ agent bonuses, free home inspections, etc. But quite honestly the two most important factors in your control are price and condition. In this buyers market, your house is in a price war and a beauty contest.
If a potential purchaser looks at your home – or sees your listing and chooses not to look at the house in person – and decides to buy something else, that buyer is telling you that he has found more value elsewhere in the market.
If enough buyers pass your house by, that’s the market telling you that your home does not offer enough value for the money compared to the competition. And normally the only ways to legitimately improve the value offered by your house are to upgrade the condition and/or reduce the price.
This week Tim visits Newk's Express Cafe located in The Avenue in Murfreesboro to try their California Style Pizza, Black and Bleu Salad and desserts.
This week's Taste of the Town special? Free dessert at Newk's just for mentioning Taste of the Town at checkout. We hope you enjoy this edition of Taste of the Town.
TIM: Tim Dutton here with another edition of Taste of the Town. Today, we’re at Newk’s Express Café, and I’m sitting here with Philip O’Reilly, the owner. Hi, Philip.
PHILIP: How are you?
TIM: Good, good. First of all, I appreciate you having us. And what I want you to do is kind of tell the folks a little bit about what you guys do here at Newk’s.
PHILIP: Well, I can tell them where we’re located. We’re out at The Avenue beside Kirkland’s, behind Jarod Jewelers. Big red patio covering, so you can’t miss us. We do sandwiches, oven-roasted sandwiches, fresh salads, California-style pizzas, homemade desserts, hot soups. We do have beer and wine if you’re so interested, but everything’s made fresh to order. Nothing’s pre-made. When you get here, you place your order, and we make it just like you want it.
TIM: Now, Philip, also you guys do a wine and beer tasting. Is that on a monthly basis?
PHILIP: The wine tastings are about once a month. Of course, during the winter we don’t do them. We try to have them out on the patio with the nice weather.
TIM: Right.
PHILIP: Beer tastings we do about once a quarter, so about every three to four months. And you can find out more about that through our e-newsletter that we have. When you come in, drop a business card or you can just fill out the information on the pieces of paper we have provided, and we’ll send you an update about once a week, every 10 days or so with upcoming events, specials, soup schedules, just whatever we’ve got kind of going on in the restaurant.
TIM: Folks, you don’t want to miss the scheduled beer and wine tasting, so come in and drop your cards off. Now Philip, we decided to have a pizza and a salad and a piece of your homemade cake. Let’s start with the salad. Tell me a little bit about what’s there.
PHILIP: This is our black and bleu salad. It’s a fresh grilled steak and we toss it in with gorgonzola cheese, which is kind of like a blue cheese; pecans; tomatoes; red onion; and then of course, tossed in a bleu cheese dressing. And it’s one of my favorites and a lot of people really enjoy it, so I hope you do as well.
TIM: Man, that is a great mixture of tastes. That is.
PHILIP: It’s one of our more popular salads. It’s a good one; we enjoy it.
TIM: Now what about the pizza?
PHILIP: This is our spicy shrimp pizza. Just a little bit different take on some of the other pizzas. All our pizzas are California-style, which is a thin crust, all fresh ingredients. This is fresh cooked shrimp, a little red and yellow bell pepper, some mozzarella cheese, chili oil, and it’s got fresh red chilies on it as well. So it has a little bit of a bite to it. And we can change that a little bit if someone doesn’t want it a little spicy or maybe not as spicy. We can work around that.
TIM: Philip, that’s good. And you’re right. It does have a little bite to it, but it’s a very good thing. Now you guys have other pizzas also.
PHILIP: Yes, we’ve got probably 15 or 18 different types of pizzas from barbecue to spicy to pesto, which is kind of a garlicky/basil really strong flavor. We use anything from grilled chicken, pepperoni, sausage to our deluxe, which is a little bit of everything.
TIM: Whatever you want is what it boils down to.
PHILIP: Right, right.
TIM: The final thing that we’ve got here is the cake, and Philip, tell me a little bit about it.
PHILIP: Well, our cakes are made fresh for Newk’s Express Café by some ladies in Mississippi. They make them fresh for all of the restaurants. They then freeze them, of course, to get them to us. And then they ship them out to us and then we thaw them out, get them ready, and then go from there. You can come in and get them by the slice. We have about five different flavors.
We have three that are every day, and then we have the other ones that we do rotate on a daily basis. So strawberry, caramel, and chocolate are on the menu every day of the week, and then we have the other ones that we rotate in.
TIM: Man, that’s good also. It is. Now Philip, do you guys have a special for the people that came in and say they saw your restaurant on Taste of the Town?
PHILIP: Yeah. If they come in and tell us at the counter that the saw it on Taste of the Town, and we’ll give them a free dessert so they can try a slice of our homemade cake. We’ve also got fresh brownies, big crispies, and then peanut butter crispies. So come in and let us know, and we’ll let you try one of our sweets.
TIM: Guys, I guarantee you it will be worth the trip. Well, that’s about it for this edition of Taste of the Town. And remember, if you’re thinking real estate, think Tim Dutton.
This week John interviews Coach Micheal Burt as they explore what "world class" looks like and what makes someone "great".
Transcript
JOHN: Hey, John Jones here with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee. Today, I’ve got a great treat for you. I’ve got Coach Micheal Burt. A lot of you know Coach was very successful here in Rutherford County as a state championship basketball coach, and he has gone into other avenues in his life of helping people like myself and small businesses reach that same type of success. He’s a motivational speaker, life coach, a success coach.
But really what I guess his niche is or seems to be is working with small businesses, getting in there and trying to help them with their culture and allow them to achieve all their potential. And so Coach has been working with us and it’s been an amazing time because we’ve learned so much about ourselves and we talk a lot about different things. And the one thing that we’ve kind of been on lately is: What does world class look like? And in our case: What does a world-class Realtor look like? And put that vision in your head.
I think all of us would say we want to be world class in whatever we do, but a lot of us don’t seem to ever achieve it. And I guess, Coach, speaking to our viewers out there, what’s the one or two biggest reasons people don’t achieve greatest? Because I think everybody inherently probably wants to be great or better than what they are.
COACH: Right, right.
JOHN: But what keeps us from doing it?
COACH: Well, I think the biggest thing that keeps us from doing it is our own perspective, our own tiny imagination. That’s why Wayne Dyer said that our greatest gift is the gift of imagination. Everything that we manifest physically first begins in the mind, and if you have a very limited perspective, you have very limited output. Okay?
JOHN: Right.
COACH: And The Richest Man in Babylon, the second paragraph of that book says, “Every action that we take is driven by our thoughts, and our thoughts are driven by our understandings, and they’re no wiser than our understandings.”
JOHN: Right.
COACH: So in essence, to grow your understanding, your thoughts, which will eventually lead to action, you have to have more education or more experiences. And so you have to see a bigger picture and believe that you can do it. So if you ask me the two things that keep us from doing it, one is our own tiny perspective and two, we don’t believe that we can manifest. We think success is out there, but it’s only for certain people.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: It’s only for the lucky and the strong, and they have some special skills set that we really don’t have, and nothing really could be further from the truth.
JOHN: It reminds me of a buddy of mine in Champaign, Illinois, and I think what we become later in life is based a lot of it on experiences we had from our parents, from people that we were around, how we grew up, how it was scripted for us. And we don’t have the luxury of picking who are parents are—good or bad.
COACH: Right.
JOHN: And I was talking to a buddy in Champaign, Illinois. He’s a very successful Realtor. And his dad had worked for a company in a factory for years, a good company, and he had instilled in his son to get on with that company, work 30 or 40 years, and you’ll have a good retirement and you’ll have medical expenses and those kinds of things. Of course, we’re seeing in America now that’s not so much true anymore.
COACH: Right.
JOHN: Those companies will downsize you in a heartbeat. Something interesting happened to him. He got hurt and he could not work that job anymore. And that’s why he thought about real estate because his body couldn’t take that kind of work. But he said he had so much fear because he had been told that’s a scary type of deal to own your own business and go out on your own. And so he had to overcome that fear. Now he was able to get into some Dale Carnegie courses and things like that and that’s what he you know…
COACH: Yeah.
JOHN: If that person’s sitting out there and they have a little bit of a yearning to do something else, but they’re still trapped in the fears because all they’ve ever known was this or this, whether it’s to be a great Christian or be a great parent, whatever, how do we help them get out of that box that they’re in?
COACH: Well, that’s why Dr. Charles Stanley said, “We always reap what we sow, more than we sowed it, for longer than it was sown.”
JOHN: Right.
COACH: In essence, what’s he’s saying is your thought processes were scripted many, many years ago by your upbringing, your parents, your genetics, physiological, psychological factors that were fed into your life to the point that you believe them.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: And you’ve got a mental map about who you are.
JOHN: Our belief system.
COACH: Your belief system has been scripted.
JOHN: Yeah.
COACH: So the only way to rewire that scripting is what I talk about in my book The Anatomy of Winning.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: You know, how do you rewire people to win. And it’s in essence deprogram old habits through education or experiences and reprogram this concept that you can manifest that.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: Now there’s two thought processes. There’s scarcity-minded people, usually bred into them or fed into their life from an early age, and there’s abundant-minded people. And you see the really successful people, the ultra-successful people have a mindset that they can manifest anything that they want.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: They can wake up and create any amount of success or wealth or whatever they want. And because of that, they normally do.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: They work backward from that picture in their head because their belief system is that they can do it. People that are not successful wake up and find all the reasons why they can’t do it.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment.
JOHN: A lot of fear.
COACH: A lot of fear. My friends will make fun of me. And when I first started writing books, all my friends made fun of me. I was a basketball coach, and I started to speak around the country, and they still made fun of me. And I really had to make believers out of those people for them to say, “You know what? That’s his unique ability. That’s his talent. He’s coaching people.”
JOHN: Right.
COACH: But I had to overcome a lot of inertia and a lot of gravitational pulls around me that really tried to pull me back into not doing what I do today.
JOHN: Obviously, you had a lot of inner drive, but Coach, who would you say has probably been one of your biggest mentors in your life? Who was someone—because I believe mentors are very important. I believe you have to look at other people for inspiration.
COACH: Right.
JOHN: Who were some people, or one or two or whatever, maybe just one, who you said, “Hey, I see a difference in that guy, and I want to figure out how he’s doing it.” You got curious about it. Who would that be?
COACH: Well, I think from a leadership perspective, the best thing that ever happened to my career was in 1994, Don Meyer, who was coaching at David Lipscomb, said, “If you don’t read another book this year, read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.” I became immersed with studying Covey and his whole person theory. And I emotionally identified with him. I didn’t know him personally—
JOHN: Right.
COACH: —but I felt like I knew him personally because his material resonated the most with me. I began a 10-year study of his work that really deeply scripted my leadership thought process today, and I got a chance to meet him in Boston, Massachusetts, at some point. But he’s been my greatest leadership mentor, and that speaks to the power of what you feed into your life.
JOHN: Yeah.
COACH: I didn’t know him.
JOHN: Right.
COACH: But he impacted me in a way that completely changed my thought processes.
JOHN: So let’s simplify. You went to a coaching clinic.
COACH: Mm-hm.
JOHN: You heard from a great coach who you respected, who won a lot of ball games, and he turned you on to a book.
COACH: That’s right.
JOHN: And you took the action.
COACH: That’s right.
JOHN: You read the book.
COACH: Yes.
JOHN: And it changed the course of your life is that fair to say?
COACH: That’s exactly right.
JOHN: Charlie “Tremendous” Jones always said, “The difference between us today and a year from now are the people we meet and the books we read.”
COACH: Yep.
JOHN: So if I can encourage you guys out there. Coach, thank you so much.
COACH: Thank you.
JOHN: If I can encourage you out there. If you’re in a rut or anything in your life—spiritual, relationships, whatever, business, find somebody that’s doing it that you respect and get curious and get involved with them and figure out how they’re doing it. And I promise it will have a huge impact on your life. Just like Coach has huge impacts on people’s lives every day. We appreciate you. We’ll see you next week. Coach, how can they find you on the Internet?
On the surface, it might seem a little crazy for a bank to release a lien on a property for less than the total amount owed. However, when you look at the whole picture, a short sale really makes a lot of sense for the lender as well as for the borrower.
When a house is worth less than what is owed and the homeowner can no longer afford his payments, the bank only has a few options. Here are the most common: work out some sort of modification on the loan (lower the interest rate, waive late fees, add back payments to the end of the loan, etc.) that brings the borrower current and makes his payment affordable; foreclose on the home; or work out a short sale.
Because the lack of income that originally got the homeowner into trouble, modifications are a realistic option for relatively few borrowers. Foreclosure is an incredibly expensive process for the bank. And when the foreclosure is over, the house is usually worth less money than it was before the foreclosure process began. By working a short sale, the bank is able to avoid the expense of a foreclosure, eliminate carrying costs that come with owning the home, and sell the home for more money than it is likely to bring after the foreclosure.
The bottom line is that short sales cost the bank less in time, money, and resources. And banks are all about the bottom line. If you would like to learn more about short sales, check out our website at HomeSaverGuys.com.
This week Tim takes Taste of the Town to La Siesta for some of Murfreesboro's best Mexican cuisine. There was quite a bit of food put in front of us this week and we hope you enjoy this edition of Taste of the Town as much as we did while filming.
This week's Taste of the Town deal is 10% of your bill at La Siesta on corner of Northfield and Broad Street just for mentioning Taste of the Town!
TIM: Tim Dutton here with another edition of Taste of the Town. Today, I’ve gone south of the border and we’re sitting at La Siesta, which is on the corner of Northfield and Broad Street. And I’m sitting with my main hombre, Jorge. Jorge, thank you for having us today.
JORGE: Thank you to you too.
TIM: Now, Jorge, tell me a little bit about what makes you guys different from other Mexican restaurants in town.
JORGE: Well, a good reason to serve people here I think is to get good quality food, good service, and good atmosphere. I think that’s the three reasons to success in a business in restaurants.
TIM: I know that every time I’ve been here the service has been outstanding, the food is great. As a matter of fact, this was the first place that Mary Claire, my daughter ever came to a public restaurant. How long have you guys been in business?
JORGE: Well, we opened in June 1992 and we are serving the people almost 18 years. We want more years, I think.
TIM: So there’s what? Three generations?
JORGE: We are serving three generations like when I started as a waiter, I became assistant manager. I’m the manager now. I remember serving parents with their kids.
TIM: Right.
JORGE: And now their kids have grown up and they have children. So it means three generations now.
TIM: Well, man you guys haven’t been here 18 years for no reason.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: Hey, tell me a little bit about what we’re looking at as far as the food, the specialties that we have here. Like this, man, this looks terrific.
JORGE: These are some of the plates that people like. For example, this is a Vegetable Jalisco that comes with chicken, beef, or shrimp. It comes with cheesy rice and vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, and baby carrots.
TIM: And it’s called what?
JORGE: Vegetables Jalisco.
TIM: I’ll leave that with you. Okay, tell me about this one, Jorge.
JORGE: This is the Plato la Siesta that comes with everything. This is a taco, enchilada, burrito, chalupa, chile relleno, and taquito.
TIM: Man, you know something? We get in such a habit, because I’ve been coming here for a long time, and I’ve never tried this stuff.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: I’ve always come in and gotten what I usually get. But man, this stuff looks outstanding. And here we’ve got what?
JORGE: The fajitas texanas that comes with shrimp, chicken, beef and onions, tomatoes, and peppers. It comes with salad and tortillas.
TIM: And then over here with the shrimp.
JORGE: I think it’s the most popular plate. It’s camarones, that we cook camarones with some spices. It comes with rice and beans and salad, toss salad that you have a choice of dressing. I love that plate sincerely.
TIM: Jorge, my selections are going to change the next time I come for sure.
JORGE: Yeah, because we have a lot of people that come in and they like the same plate because they don’t want to try another different.
TIM: Right.
JORGE: But we have a lot of plates that you can try. For example, to start from number 1 to number 40.
TIM: And folks, it’s worth giving a try. Now, Jorge, something that a lot of folks don’t think about when they think Mexican is desserts.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: Now what’s this right here that I’m sitting in front of?
JORGE: This is Mexican flan.
TIM: Mexican…?
JORGE: Mexican flan. We cook it here, so this is our recipe. And we take a little bit longer to cook it and serve it.
TIM: Folks, that is good. Real good. It is. The last thing I want to talk about, which I know a little bit about myself as you know, are the margaritas.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: Man, y’all’s margaritas are great. I mean, I enjoy them every—not every time but every time I have the opportunity to come in and enjoy them. What do you guys do that’s different with your margaritas?
JORGE: Well, for the margaritas, we keep the same recipes since we opened, the formula, and we always serve the same. For example, with the food, we keep the same quality food, the same recipe. We cook every day. Everything is fresh.
TIM: Well, I’m going to tell you they’re top notch. They really are. And this is my favorite: on the rocks with extra salt around the rim.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: Hold on just a minute. I just need to make sure that the quality hasn’t deteriorated since we’ve been here.
JORGE: Go ahead. Take your time.
TIM: Ahh. It hasn’t. Now Jorge, we have a special holiday coming up that you guys celebrate.
JORGE: Right.
TIM: Tell me a little bit about that.
JORGE: Well, you know Cinco de Mayo is coming and I would like for everybody to come and celebrate our fiesta at La Siesta on Cinco de Mayo. We’re going to have a special, some margaritas, sangrias, and some appetizers like guacamole and cheese dip.
TIM: Tell me about the name La Siesta. What does that mean?
JORGE: La Siesta means taking a nap after eating and get full at La Siesta.
TIM: And I’m going to subscribe to that here in just a little bit. Now Jorge, do you have a special for the people who come in and say they saw your restaurant on Taste of the Town?
JORGE: Yes, I would like to invite everybody to in come here and get a 10% discount for all the people that mention Taste of the Town.
TIM: Ten percent, folks. And that’s in addition to this top-quality food. Well, guys, that’s about it for this edition of Taste of the Town. And remember, if you’re thinking real estate, think Tim Dutton.
JOHN: Hey, guys. John Jones here today with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee. Today, we’re going to talk about the importance of thank you notes. It’s something that I’ve really gotten a big kick out of over the years, but also, really getting back to the basics on some things. And I don’t think there’s anything that I like receiving more than a nice thank you note from someone—handwritten thank you note, I might add. And so we’ve been trying to do a better job of it here at John Jones Real Estate.
One thing that I like to do is start the day off with about three or four thank you notes to show my gratitude for something. It gets me a feeling of gratitude. It gets the day started off in a positive way. I want to talk about a few things as far as the dos and don’ts of thank you notes. You definitely want to send a thank you note out as quickly as possible. If it takes you much longer than a week, you might not want to do it. But I would say a week is kind of the time frame there.
Also, notes do not have to be on any type of real formal stationery. The only ones that probably require that are maybe like wedding gifts or something of that nature. Also, always reference the specific act of kindness or whatever you are thankful for in the note. For instance, thank you for the red sweater; thank you for coming by the house the other day and bringing me this or that. Always reference that. Try to use the word “you” as much as possible and try to eliminate the word “I” and “we” as much as possible.
Also, notes definitely need to be sent out for wedding gifts, sympathy letters, and flowers. Anybody that has a party for you, a hostess of a party in your honor, a definite. Being entertained by your boss, a definite. Gifts that are received by mail, definite. You do not have to send one out if you opened the gift in front of them, but I usually try to get my children to do so anyway. Gifts of congratulations. Somebody sends you a really nice note or a gift of congratulations, that should in turn require a thank you note for the act.
Definitely, you do not have to send thank you notes after just being a guest at a dinner party. When a friend has helped you out with a special favor such as babysitting, a meal, or running errands for you when you were incapable, doesn’t have to happen but is probably still not a bad idea. To the sales representative who has entertained you as a part of their business, you don’t have to send a thank you note. But I always say if someone has done something nice and you truly have genuine gratitude for it, you can send out a thank you note.
I think it’s one of the best things that we can do that we’ve gotten away from. And I’m not talking about e-mail. I’m talking about spending the time and writing out a thank you note. Also, I did say informal stationery is okay, but I do think you’ve got to be smart about that. Don’t write it on a piece of notebook paper. A couple of types I use, this is more of my for personal-type thank you notes. This is one that I use with our logo for business-type thank you notes.
This is one I received today from a company where I’m helping them with a couple of things. They sent me this. Something like that. Real quick, real simple. So many people are intimidated about writing thank you notes because they don’t think they sound right; they have to be perfect. Therefore, they procrastinate and it doesn’t end up being accomplished. Just sit down and write a thank you note and tell that person what you’re thankful for. Always a good reminder to put a P.S. A P.S. is a nice thing to maybe hit a more personal thing. Awesome to hear about Johnny’s first homerun, whatever. Something to have a little bit more impact is always a good idea.
But anyway, thank you. I hope this helped. Please let us know if we can help you in any way. JohnCJones.com is our website; 867-3020 is our phone number. Hope you guys have a great day.
In this edition of Tim Dutton's Taste of the Town, Tim visits Tag'z 5 Star Meats and spends some time talking with Tagz owner Mike Taglio to find out what sets the local, family owned and operated butcher shop apart from the butchers found in Murfreesboro's grocery stores. Stop in to Tag'z and grab a sandwich, get your organic meat and locally made milk, and a dose of good old fashioned customer service.
TIM: Tim Dutton here with another edition of Taste of the Town. Today, I’m with Mike Taglio with Tag’z 5 Star Meats. Mike, thank you for having us today.
MIKE: Well, thanks for having me.
TIM: Folks, we’re doing things a little bit different today. Mike is an old-fashioned butcher shop. Tell me a little bit about your business, Mike.
MIKE: Well, it was a dream for about 20 years to do this. I worked in the corporate for about 20 some odd years, and always in the back of my mind, I wanted to do this for myself. And finally, I got the opportunity when I got downsized. And so my wife that night she said to me—almost like Rocky’s wife said to him—she said, “Let’s do it.” I said, “Okay, put the blinders on and don’t let anybody tell us we can’t do it.” And here we are 10 years later and we’re going strong.
TIM: And you guys focus on, of course, meats to take home and stuff.
MIKE: Mm-hm.
TIM: Tell me, Mike, what makes it different here from your typical grocery store butcher shop.
MIKE: Well, that’s a good point. What we try to focus on other than having the best customer service around—you shop with us two times and we’re going to know your name, your kids’ names, we’re going to know your favorite meats, and we’re going to be able to make suggestions to you. But I think our real niche is we buy from family organizations, not big corporations.
I buy all my pork from a family in Columbus, Indiana; I buy all my chicken from a Springer Mountain family in Georgia; and I try to get all my beef from Greeley, Colorado, a family out there. And it seems when a customer has their name on it they’re a little more responsible and I just do better buying from families.
TIM: Right, right. Now you also have meats that are organically grown? Is that right?
MIKE: Not everybody wants organic, but for those that do, we have organic chicken. We have some organic beef and some organic pork. We have organic cheese. We have a milk company here in the area that does organic milk. And we will try to get anything that anybody wants. Yeah.
TIM: And also, I noticed that you guys have brought in Hatcher’s organic milk.
MIKE: Oh, that’s a top-notch milk. I drank organic milk for years, and several of my customers were purchasing it at the farmer’s market. And so I said, “Well, let them come over.” And I got a sample of it, and boy, it’s the best I’ve ever had.
TIM: It is good. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve got out here on the tray, Mike.
MIKE: Well, we just put a small variety back there. This is our little niche thing. It’s called a “Terminate T-bone.” It’s about two inches thick. It’s about two pounds of meat. And to some it would be maybe too expensive or too big, but those out there in today’s times are looking for a deal. It’s probably one of the best buys in the case because you’re getting the New York strip steak for half the price; you’re getting the filet mignon for half the price; and it’s the best deal.
It’s a two-person steak. It’s the best deal. We’ve got organic grain fed and we also have USDA choice grain-fed beef. We have fresh seafood brought in every day and we do all kinds of things like homemade crab cakes that several people have told us coming back from a week in Florida that ours were tops.
TIM: It is good. Now you guys also have your own marinades and sauces. This one here happens to be Hell’s Kitchen Habanero Hot Sauce.
MIKE: I’m a condiment freak. When I and my youngest daughter, Sarah, set up the table, it takes us a half hour to get started because we’ve got to have all our little stuff there. So we have a condiment for every item in the store, including a lot of different things. We have olives stuffed with blue cheese. We’ve got stuffed jalapeno peppers. We’ve got beets and squash and a lot of unique things. A lot of them are old country recipes of bread and butter pickles, green tomato pickles, homemade Virginia apple butter, just a lot of stuff.
TIM: Something that most people don’t know that you guys do or that they may not know is that they can come in here, get them a pint of milk, and you can fix them a sandwich cutting their meat the way that they want it. Is that right?
MIKE: Oh, yeah. We use Boar’s Head meat exclusively, which I feel is top of the line. And I have this terrible disease where I can’t make a small sandwich. So you might want to show them that sandwich there. That’s a sandwich. Yeah.
TIM: Now, this sandwich here features the Boar’s Head Black Forest Ham, right?
MIKE: Mm-hm. And we’ve got it on sale this week.
TIM: And you’ve got it on sale. And how much is it a pound?
MIKE: It’s regular $8.99 but we have it on $6.99. And my wife, she’s the deli manager and my better half, and she takes care of that and she runs a lot of specials each week. And we’ve also just recently set up a Facebook and a website, and it will be listing all the features that we’re going to run each week. And also, at this particular time, if you would go on the Facebook or the website, there’s a coupon on there for your next visit. You can get a 10% discount on everything in the store.
TIM: You hear that, folks? Ten percent if you go on the website and print the coupon. I want you to look at the thickness of this sandwich right here. And I’m fixin’ to take a bite. It’s going to be a while until I get back with you. Mike, that is one mean sandwich, man.
MIKE: I like to eat.
TIM: Hey, tell folks where you’re located.
MIKE: Well, if you’re familiar with Murfreesboro and you know where Memorial Blvd. is, if you can find Reeves-Sain Drugstore, right across the street is a Regents Bank and we’re right in there. Or if you go to the corner of Northfield and Memorial, there’s a Taco Bell on the corner. Follow it up towards the ____ [06:07].
Right after the Taco Bell, there’s a McDonalds. After McDonalds, there’s a Pizza Hut. Then there’s an open field with three flag poles. That’s were Middle Tennessee Christian School is. You turn like you’re going into the school. Instead of bearing right to the school, turn left. And we’re in a 10-unit strip mall right in there.
TIM: Well, folks, if you’re thinking about grilling or wanting a sandwich, you need to think Tag’z. And if you’re thinking real estate, think Tim Dutton.
In this edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee John Jones presents the current real estate market data as of April 2010 and compares it to the year-to-date and March statistics from 2009.
Don't forget the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit and Extension end April 30, 2010. If you intend to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit or the $6500 tax credit for existing homeowners you'll need to have your new home under contract before the end of this month.
Transcript
JOHN: Hey, guys. John Jones, Tuesday Morning Coffee, coming at you today with the new numbers for March of this year and also the first quarter. Good news for the real estate market in Rutherford County. Today, we learned that March sales were up 18% over March of ’09, which is a nice jump for the quarter. They’re up still like 12.5% over the first quarter of last year, which is positive positive.
Closed sales price—first time I can remember this happening in a while—for the month of March was up 6,000. The average closed sale price was up $6,000 over this time last year. It’s the first time I can remember seeing it going upward. For the year, the average closed price is down $2,000 from $162,000 last year to $160,000 this year. But the month total was up, and that is a neat thing. I haven’t seen that in a while.
Inventory right now, our listings on the market are down 5% over this time last year. Currently, we have about a 9-1/2-month supply of homes if you take all the homes in Rutherford County. I’m still seeing in the higher price ranges, 300 and above, it’s a little bit tougher, obviously. The lower price ranges seem to be moving and making up most of our sales right now. I feel like foreclosures and short sales are making up 20 to 25% of the sales that are moving through this market and maybe even a little higher than that actually.
But they account for quite a bit of the inventory going through. There are some spectacular buys on the market right now. The biggest statistic, the biggest jump we’ve had was pendings for the month of March were up 25% over this time last year, which makes me feel like we’re going to have a pretty April in closed sales. If we can do anything for you, please call us or e-mail us or come see us on our website at JohnCJones.com. Thank you so much. We’ll see you next week.
This week Tim Dutton takes Taste of the Town to Gyro Tabouli on Old Fort Parkway in Murfreesboro. Tim interviews the owner, Ashraf Mikhail, and samples some of the Mediterranean and Greek flavors this up and coming 'Boro eatery has to offer.
This weeks Taste of the Town deal? 10% off and a free daily special just for mentioning Taste of the Town.
TIM: Tim Dutton here with another edition of Taste of the Town. Today, we are at Gyros Tabouli. Ash, did I say that right?
ASH: Yes, sir. Almost. Yeah. Very close.
TIM: Where they focus on Mediterranean food. I’m sitting here with Ash Mikhail, and Ash, tell me a little bit about your restaurant and what you do here.
ASH: Yeah. We serve special Greek food and we have some Mediterranean food. Our best plate will be the gyro plate. It will be beef and lamb. Mix it together with Greek spice and serve it a bed of hummus. Hummus is a good appetizer. It’s a good Mediterranean appetizer from chick peas and tahini sauce and lemon juice, olive oil. It has a lot of good stuff.
TIM: Now what are we setting in front of here, Ash?
ASH: That one is gyro with hummus underneath the gyro meat. This is hummus, we do fresh made hummus every day. We make it from scratch and we do it with our spices. It’s good, Tim? The best hummus in the town?
TIM: It is.
ASH: Yes, sir.
TIM: Actually, it’s very good. Now what is the hummus? What is in this?
ASH: It’s chick peas or garbanzo beans. We soak it and blend it and we put with the tahini sauce. We put olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic. And we put black pepper and salt and we mix it. Great with the gyro or with the chicken.
TIM: And your bread. Tell me a little bit about the bread.
ASH: Pita bread is the original Greek bread, special made for Greek food.
TIM: Mm-hm. I’m going to take a taste of it.
ASH: We have a company does that for us and ship it especially for us.
TIM: That’s good. Now what do we have here?
ASH: Salad. We have two kinds of salad. We have Tabouli salad and we have the Greek salad. Tabouli salad is mainly parsley, onion, garlic, tomato, dry wheat, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, salt, and special Greek spices
TIM: Folks, I’m going to tell you something. If you come here, you’re not going to be in Murfreesboro anymore. You’re going to be somewhere in Greece.
ASH: All right.
TIM: This is some very good food.
ASH: Thank you.
TIM: Ash, tell folks where you’re located. If they wanted to come in and see you, where are you located?
ASH: We’re located 2706 Old Fort Parkway, Suite B. We are across from Auto Zone. We are next plaza to Sam’s Club, and we just started business almost a year ago. We love Murfreesboro. We love our customers here. We do the best service for them.
TIM: And folks, just come out Franklin Road and they’re going to be on your right, right beside Auto Zone. Now Ash, do you have a special for the people that come in and say they saw you guys on Taste of the Town?
ASH: Yes, of course, we will do that. What we will do is 10% off and we’ll give them free items. If they saw this, we welcome them, we give them some free dessert, or a free appetizer, and let them taste our special. Every day, my chefs, they do a special food, special for the day. Lentil soup. He does good Lentil soup. He also does a special on the grill. So upon your request, he’ll let you try some food. Every time you visit us, you’ll be happy and full.
TIM: And you will want to come back. Well, folks, it’s time for me to enjoy this good food. And remember, if you’re thinking real estate, think Tim Dutton.
In this edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee John Jones interviews Murfreesboro real estate Attorney Adam Dodd. Ever wonder why you need Title Insurance? Find out in this Tuesday Morning Coffee.
Transcript
JOHN: Hey, John Jones here with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee. Today, guys, I’ve got a great man with me here today, Adam Dodd, who’s an attorney here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. And I’ve gotten to know Adam over the years because he does a lot of real estate law along with a lot of other things. He also owns a great title company that we use quite a bit called Advance Title. And if you want a good title company, it’s one of the best. And it’s also co-owned by two attorneys, which always comes in handy if you ever have any issues.
But today, I was just going to ask Adam a couple of questions to help you guys out there in the public. The first question I have, Adam, is: What do you see from an attorney’s standpoint is one of the biggest problems or issues that people have to call you over as far as in regard to real estate law or things like that? What can you tell our public to be on guard for, something that’s prevalent that you see day to day in the business.
ADAM: Okay. Hey, John. Thanks for having me. I appreciate that.
JOHN: You’re welcome.
ADAM: Hey, the problem that I see is people will call me just before they’re about ready to close and they’ve come upon some issue that either they didn’t anticipate or that they thought had been settled in their contract and come to find out there’s some ambiguity in the contract. So the biggest thing that I would say is for your buying and/or selling, figure out the things that are important to you. Things that are important to you might not be important to me and vice versa.
So if there’s an issue about the property that you feel strongly about, that you can’t live without or can’t do without, don’t just assume that the boiler plate language takes care of it. Don’t just assume that the other person is going to agree with you and do what you want them to do. Make sure that those important things are written in that contract. And if it’s a complicated matter like acreage or other things like that, you might want to consult an attorney or your agent can step you through that and get that language in there and protect whichever side you’re on. But make sure that contract is clear about what’s going to happen if there’s a disagreement.
JOHN: It always goes back to the contract because I’ve called you on things before and said, “Adam, what do you think about this situation?” And the first thing Adam usually says is, “What does it say in the contract, John?” It always goes back to the contract. One question I have that was probably one of the most confusing things to me as a new agent and probably one of the most confusing things to the public is title insurance.
ADAM: Right.
JOHN: Now we know that most banks make you have it if you get a loan, and they at least want it on the amount that’s being mortgaged.
ADAM: Right.
JOHN: But what is title insurance and what does it do?
ADAM: Well, the first thing I would say about title insurance is you need to understand there’s two types. There’s owner’s policies and lender’s policies. Like you said, most banks when you get a loan to purchase or refinance the home, they’re going to require you to have that title insurance. So if that tells you anything about banks and they usually take care of themselves.
JOHN: They’re usually covering their butt.
ADAM: Right. So they always get it. So if you buy the lender’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re covered as an owner. So if you want to have the same protection that the bank has, then you need to purchase an owner’s policy. It’s a little bit more expensive, but on the whole in proportion to the cost of the lender’s, which you’ll have to pay anyway, it’s usually not that much more. So depending on your situation, you might consider purchasing the owner’s on top of the lender’s if the bank requires.
What it does basically is whoever the insured is, whether it’s a bank or an owner or both, if some time later after you purchase the property or close or refinance there’s some defect in the title, some easement that runs through the property and makes it unusable, some prior owner, some claim from an estate, something that affects the title to the property or becomes a lien on the property, the insurance will provide you coverage for any loss and they also will provide you coverage for defending any claim brought by somebody that has some claim to the property.
JOHN: So if I’m an owner and I pay cash for a property and then 10 years later there’s a long-lost cousin of somebody who owned this property at one time comes back and says, “Hey, I didn’t get my fair share” and there’s a lawsuit and all of a sudden I’m involved in a lawsuit even though I had nothing to do with it, the insurance would cover my cost of defense.
ADAM: Right.
JOHN: And if she won the lawsuit—
ADAM: Any loss.
JOHN: Any loss that I would have incurred.
ADAM: Right, right.
JOHN: That’s awesome. Good deal. Adam, thanks for being on with us today.
ADAM: You bet. Thanks for having me.
JOHN: I appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen out there, if you ever have any reason to use a really good title company or need a good attorney, Advance Title is the title company. Adam Dodd, attorney at law, sharp as a tack, went to Harvard. Did you go to Harvard or Yale Law School?
ADAM: I went to both.
JOHN: There you go.
ADAM: I just went to both just to get them out of the way.
JOHN: The guy’s awesome, man. He is great. And I appreciate you being on today.
