Murfreesboro Tennessee Real Estate

Allowing buyers to move in early seems like a nice gesture that maybe helps them out of a bind, but quite honestly there are too many potentially negative consequences for you to justify even considering it.  If the bad stuff happens, it could cost you a ton of time, money, and even the transaction itself.
 
Real estate deals disintegrate in the 11th hour everyday due to all sorts of factors.  If for example, the buyer’s financing falls apart the day before closing, how are you going to get the buyers out of your house?  At that point you would be required to go through the eviction process because they would now be considered tenants.  Even if you manage to get them out, what if they damage the house?  How will you make them pay for it?  Are you prepared to file a lawsuit?
 
Even if your deal stays together, you still are at risk.  If the buyer’s dog bites the paperboy while you still own the home, as the landlord you can be held financially liable for Fido’s actions.  If any issue or dispute arises in your transaction, the buyer has additional leverage in negotiations because they are in possession of the property.  If things get acrimonious, do you really want people upset with you living unsupervised in your house?
 
There is just not an upside worth the risk of allowing an early move-in.  In fact, the one good thing that could come from this decision—the closing happening as planned without incident—will almost surely happen just as readily without the early move-in.

This week on Taste of the Town Tim Dutton visits Around The Way Dog, a restaurant dedicated to creating the perfect hot dog, located on East Main Street (by the MTSU campus) in Murfreesboro TN. Tim spends some time chatting with the restaurant's owner, Dwone Hicks about some of the more interesting flavors and combinations Around The Way Dog has to offer.

Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tasteofthetown 

Transcript

TIM:  Tim Dutton here with another edition of Taste of the Town.  Today, we are at Around the Way Dog, and I’m sitting here with Dwone Hicks who is the owner and the first Heisman Trophy candidate that MTSU had.  Dwone, tell me a little bit about your restaurant, about where it’s located.

DWONE:  Well, we’re located here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on East Main Street.  We have the opportunity to have a perfect location, located right around the corner from the MTSU school.  Around the Way Dog is just a concept that we wanted to create for the students to be able to have a place that they can come, a place that they can call their own, and a place where they can make any type of hot dog that they want.

TIM:  And that’s the key here.  Anything to do with a hot dog, you guys do it.

DWONE:  Yeah.  Anything dealing with a dog, you can have whatever you want on our hot dog.  That’s the main concept.  We want you to be able to build your own dog.  Put it that way.

TIM:  I bet there’s been a lot of unique creations, haven’t there?

DWONE:  There has.  One that sounds really nasty is called the “P-doggie,” which contains a pineapple, peanut butter, cole slaw, pico de gallo, pimento cheese, and of course the hot dog.  And actually, people like it.  Once they try it, they actually enjoy it.  I’m not being one, but I’d say about 8 out of 10 people that try it actually really like it and actually come back and get it.

TIM:  Now, Dwone, have you got different meats for the dog or is it just all one hot dog meat?

DWONE:  We have hot dogs, which are 100% all beef hot dogs, which come from the Nathan’s dog.  We have Italian sausages.  We have Polish sausages.  We have bratwurst, and we have a veggie dog.  And we are thinking about expanding out even more.  Anything that’s in the dog form, I think we’re going to try to possibly get it.  I don’t know if we’re going to go towards out getting some game or you know, bison or something like that, but that could be an option in the future.

TIM:  Okay.  Tell me a little bit about what you’ve got in front of me here.

DWONE:  Okay.  Right here, we’re going to start from left to right.  These are just our sweet potato fries.  A lot of people serve sweet potato fries, but we have a little special sauce that we put on there, which is just a little bit of butter and brown sugar.  That’s my special sauce.  Just mix it up and it just gives it an extra hint of sweetness when you bite into it.

TIM:  That is good, folks.  You need to come try this.  Now, Dwone, what do we have right here?

DWONE:  This is a fair favorite, which is the funnel cakes.  I love them.  Every time I go to the fair, I have to have a funnel cake.

TIM:  Right.

DWONE:  But in a restaurant form, it’ll be kind of hard to sit back and make funnel cakes, so I think some people created funnel cake fries.  So we definitely jumped up on it, and we actually have a little powdered sugar and a little Hershey’s syrup on top of it as well.

TIM:  Now this is a different syrup than what’s on the potatoes.

DWONE:  Yes.  Caramel and just Hershey’s syrup.

TIM:  That could be a problem right there.

DWONE:  Those are good as well.

TIM:  Yeah, they are.  They’re real good.  And finally, man, what did you put here in front of us?

DWONE:  Getting to some of the dogs, right here is the dog that I created.  I like breakfast.  That’s my favorite meal of the day.  So for my dog I want egg.  I want bacon, mushroom, and cheese.  And that’s called the Hicksey, which stems from my last name.  A lot of the trainers used to call me Hicksey all the time instead of just Hicks.  “Hicksey, come here!”  So there we go.  We’ve got a Hicksey dog.

And also we have a buffalo dog, which is rolled in our onion ring batter.  It’s deep fried.  Then we roll it in buffalo sauce.  Then we put a little ranch dressing on top of it just to give it a little hint of goodness.  And that’s our buffalo dog, and that’s also another big seller here at Around the Way.

TIM:  And that sounds good.  Now, Dwone, y’all also do catering, right?

DWONE:  Correct.  Yeah, that’s something that a lot of people don’t know is that we do catering.  We’re trying to build our resume as far as catering.

TIM:  Right.

DWONE:  We’ve done some things for MTSU.  We’ve done some things for the BRAA over there.  We’ve done some stuff a few other places, but that’s one thing that we’re trying to pick up on is being able to let people enjoy their evening and let us come in and do the cooking for them.

TIM:  And take care of everything.

DWONE:  Right.

TIM:  Now, you guys also specialize in birthday parties for the kids.

DWONE:  Right.  Yeah.  We want this place to be a place for the family, a place for the students, just a place for everyone to come.  So anything anybody wants an event or something going on, we can definitely clear out some space for you and allow you to come out, have fun.  It’s a fun atmosphere.

TIM:  Absolutely.

DWONE:  And that’s what we want.  And I think it would be very kid-friendly, and we’ll actually have some stuff for the kids if they come in for a party.

TIM:  And the kids would love the hot dogs.

DWONE:  They love hot dogs.

TIM:  Now, Dwone, do you have a special for anybody that comes in and says, “Hey, man, we saw you on Taste of the Town?”

DWONE:  Well, for the Taste of the Town customers, of course we had to come up with something special.  And that would be 15% off.  Come in the door, and all you have to do is say, “Hey, I saw you on Taste of the Town” and we’ll say, “Hey, you have a 15% discount.”

TIM:  Got that, folks?  Fifteen percent off just coming in and seeing Dwone.  Well, it’s time for me to enjoy this food.  And remember, if you’re thinking real estate, think Tim Dutton.

In this Episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee Murfreesboro real estate agent John Jones presents the year-to-date numbers for the Rutherford County real estate market as of March 2010 and compares those statistics to the same months data from last year.

Transcript

JOHN:  Hey, John Jones here with another great edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee.  Today, we’re going to be talking about the market, what’s happening.  We’re going to be looking at the first two months of this year, end of February numbers compared to end of February numbers last year.  Some pretty cool stuff that I think makes us feel a little bit better about real estate in Rutherford County.  Our active listings inventory, key component to this whole deal, are down 5% from last year; 2,230 single-family homes on the market last year; 2,106 as we speak at the end of February.

Pending listings are up about 7%, 33 units over last year.  What I think the key thing is is closed sales, and we are 51 units up, which is an aggregate 15% up over last year, which is a good thing.  Our average sales price last year was 166.  Our average sales price is slightly down from that at 158, so about an $8,000 difference, which is about 5% lower.  But that’s a smaller decline than we’ve had in the past.  And that just represents that to sell in this market, we have to keep moving those prices down a little bit to get people buying these homes.

Rates are still very low, 5% or better.  The tax credit is going to be interesting to see.  I don’t think they’re going to extend them.  That’s just my opinion.  I don’t really have much to go on there other than just a gut feel.  They’re running out the end of April, so we’re going to see what that does to us.  Unemployment is still around 10.  That’s a little bit concerning.  It got down in the nines before Christmas, and now it’s a little bit higher this past month.  But that’s the key indicator, guys.  If you want to know when real estate is coming back, jobs are the key.

So anyway, if there’s anything we can do to help you, call us.  Also, if you have any questions or any topics or anything you’d like to see on Tuesday Morning Coffee for us to discuss, please e-mail us at our website, JohnCJones.com.  You can always go to TuesdayMorningCoffee.com and pull up any of the archived videos we have out there.  We’ve got a lot of great topics over the years: staging, pricing, saturation, absorption.  About anything you can talk about in real estate, we’ve talked about it, and probably we’ll talk about it again.  So anyway, thanks a lot.  Thanks for viewing, and we’ll see you next week.

This is a very difficult market – for people trying to sell their homes!  In reality, this is one of the best markets ever for buyers.  There are many more homes for sale than there are people to make offers on them, interest rates continue to hover near record lows, and many buyers qualify for government tax credits of up to $8,000 when they purchase a home.
 
But even in a Buyer’s Market, the best deals get snapped up quickly.  With many of the government incentives focused on first-time homebuyers, that segment of the market has been experiencing a lot of activity.  Sellers of what are traditionally considered starter homes have the opportunity to sell their house in weeks or even days if they get it in great shape and set a competitive price. 
 
There is a pool of buyers motivated to find a house quickly.  The two main driving forces behind this is that the tax credits are set to expire for those who don’t get a house under contract by the end of April and the recent news that Rural Development (one of the few sources of zero-down loans left in the marketplace) is expected to run out of loan funds by the end of March.  These buyers closely watch everything that comes on the market and immediately make an offer if they like the house.  This is why we’re seeing an unexpectedly high number of multiple offers.

This week Tim Dutton takes Taste of the Town to Cool Beans, an Italian restaurant located beside Goin' Postal and opposite Ashley Furniture, HH Gregg and Bed Bath and Beyond on Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro. Tim sits down with Nicholas Naioti, the Manager of Cool Beans, and tastes some of their signature dishes. This week's freebie? Cool Beans' amazing white chocolate bread pudding, just for mentioning Taste of the Town. Enjoy!

In this edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee Murfreesboro TN  Realtor John Jones interviews fellow Star Power STAR Tom Cain of Cain and Company Real Estate in Champaign, IL. Topics include how the industry has changed and investing in rental property. We hope you enjoy this episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee.

Transcript

JOHN:  All right.  Hey, John Jones here with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee.  A real treat today.  I’ve got a great friend of mine, Tom Cain from Champaign, Illinois.  For any of you who don’t know where Champaign is, it’s where the University of Illinois is located.  And Tom came down—about how far was the drive?

TOM:  About six hours.

JOHN:  Six hours.  Tom and I go back to 2005.  That’s when we met each other at a Howard Brinton Star Power event, kind of a mastermind group.  And we hit it off day one.  He’s got just an unbelievable personality and just a really great guy and does a lot of real estate and has for a long time.  And so today, since I have Tom here and we’ve been sharing, I wanted to share him with you.  And I guess, Tom, the first question I will ask you because how long have you been in real estate?

TOM:  Well, I’ve been in it since 1989 is when I got in.

JOHN:  In ’89.  And what are the biggest changes?  What would you say is the one biggest change from ’89 to 2010 in our industry?  What would be that one biggest change that we’ve had?

TOM:  I’ll tell you, the biggest change I’ve seen is the Internet.  I think about it now and we’re probably up to close to 95% of all buyers start there.  They know the marketplace better than we know it before they ever contact us.  But now, we have a lead-generation machine that brings in about 400 leads to me and my team a month.  It’s funny because as soon as that lead comes in off the Internet, John, it’s on our phone.

JOHN:  Yeah.

TOM:  I’m calling that lead and here’s what I hear sometimes: “Who is this?”  I said, “This is Tom Cain with Cain & Company.”  “I’m still on your website.”  They’re still on my website.  And let me tell you, when you get to the person first, you’re probably going to be their realtor for the sale.  And that’s what we’re trying to do is bond right away with people.

I mean, what I tell many people who are coming off of the Internet outside of real estate, I want you to know that I have a network of people and services.  So if you need your car worked on, you need a dentist, you need a plumber—I’ve got them for you.  These are people I trust and that I’ve used for 20 years.

JOHN:  Well, when you think about the old days with the MLS books—

TOM:  Yep.

JOHN:  —and the two or three-week lag time before people would even start getting showings because the books weren’t out yet—

TOM:  Yeah.

JOHN:  —and we guarded those dadgum books with our life.  It’s kind of mindboggling when you think about how we thought back then, and today, literally, somebody can be looking at a home online and within minutes we know they’re looking and we’re talking to them.  When a new listing comes out, within minutes, they know about it.

TOM:  Yes.  The systems are there.

JOHN:  It’s just like a totally different industry.  And we were all scared.  I don’t know if you remember.

TOM:  Right.  Yes.

JOHN:  When the Internet came out, I remember we were all so scared.

TOM:  Are they going to need us?

JOHN:  Are they going to need us?  We’re giving them all the information.  We used to have this foreign language called MLS.  And to me, it’s been the opposite.  It’s been a blessing.

TOM:  Yeah.  It has been.  Because you know what?  The truth of it is you can look all you want.  You’ve got to have the expertise.  I’ve lived in my market my whole life, and I’m sure you have too.  So when things happen, you know, there’s things they don’t know about they need to know about.

JOHN:  Right.

TOM:  You can’t get it from the Internet.  You’ve got to have an expert, and I think that’s where we show up and really work.

JOHN:  How is your market in Champaign?  Because Champaign is a unique town with a university and all, but it’s American, you know?  It’s Midwest.  It’s more mainstream than California and Florida and all this stuff we hear about in the news.  What’s going on in Champaign as far as the market?

TOM:  Well, two things I’ve got to tell you.  Number one, I’ve never locked my door in my life.

JOHN:  Wow.

TOM:  That’s the kind of town we live in.  Secondly, I’ve got to tell you, when people come from all over the place, they say, “Now, to get here to work, how long is it?”  I’m telling you, 15 minutes is the longest commute you’re going to have in our area compared to these poor people in Chicago.  But in the market in our area, it changed when all this hit us.  If you bought a house in 2005 until today, you have no appreciation.  But it hasn’t really so much gone down.

JOHN:  No.

TOM:  If you bought in 2004, you’re making money.

JOHN:  You’re in a great market.

TOM:  We’re in a great market.  We’re still in a great market, but I’ll tell you what we’re watching and we’re helping people invest their money now into foreclosure homes that we know are going to do well on the rental side and we have a rental company.  So we’re certain now to take people’s poor 401Ks that died.  We’re going to rejuvenate them now.

JOHN:  Have you done some purchases with people using their 401K or SEP money?

TOM:  Absolutely.

JOHN:  Who’s the company that helps you with that?  Is it Entrust or…?

TOM:  Entrust is one we use out of Chicago, and I’ll tell you the other piece of the pie is a lot of people have a lot of equity sitting in their house.

JOHN:  Right.

TOM:  So all we’re doing is a line of credit with them.  I’m going to give you a small example.  At the sheriff’s sale the other day, one sold for $29,000 and needed $10,000 worth of work.  And it will sell at 70.  You know, if you can make 20 or 30 grand—

JOHN:  And when he says sheriff’s sale, what that means is their foreclosure laws are different in Murfreesboro or Tennessee, he means buying one at the courthouse buying foreclosures.

TOM:  Yep.

JOHN:  Yeah, we helped a lot of investors in the last year with flip properties, with some good rental properties because I think people are tired of looking at their 401K.  Even though real estate’s been up a little bit, it didn’t get cut in half in 10 years like your 401K did.

TOM:  No, and I’ll tell you I own 20 rental properties, me and my wife, and last year, as the market died and your interest rate on your savings account is next to nothing, my rents rent up.

JOHN:  Yeah.

TOM:  My rents went up because if people can’t buy right now, guess what they’ve got to do.  They’ve got to rent.

JOHN:  It’s a good hedge against…

TOM:  Everybody should own at least one or two.  Everybody.  Because that’s where the money 10, 15 years from now when that thing’s paid off, oh my gosh.

JOHN:  We will close on this.  To me, especially with people with kids and they’re thinking about college education and all that.  To me, I think when they’re little, when the kids are little, buy one or two properties for each kid you have.

TOM:  Yes.

JOHN:  And that will be that college education in 15 years because it will be paid off and you’ll have something either you can sell and pay for their education or a monthly income coming in where you can pay for their education.  Or take out a line of credit against the home to pay for the education.

TOM:  My first $80,000 house, I put 10% down.  That’s 8 grand.  I’m close to having it paid off.  That thing’s going to be worth almost 120.

JOHN:  How long ago was that?

TOM:  That was 13 years ago.

JOHN:  Thirteen years ago, you paid 80 grand.

TOM:  Yep.

JOHN:  And your initial investment was $8,000.

TOM:  Yes.

JOHN:  And today, it’s worth….?

TOM:  A hundred and 20.

JOHN:  A hundred and 20.  And how much do you think you’ve thrown into it over the years?

TOM:  You know I had to redo probably about 10 grand maybe.

JOHN:  So you got an $18,000 investment.

TOM:  Yes.

JOHN:  And something in 13 years is worth 120.  Guys, I don’t know.  The ROI on that is out the roof.

TOM:  Yep.

JOHN:  Think about it.  Rental property.  It’s awesome.  We love you, Tom.

TOM:  All right, baby.  Thanks for having me.

JOHN:  All right, buddy.  See y’all next week.

How much below the asking price you paid for a house is a very poor barometer of whether or not you actually got a bargain price.  In our market right now, there are properties that have been sitting stagnant on the market for many months that are so significantly overpriced that even if you offered $30,000 below asking price, you would still be paying more than market value for the house.  On the other hand, there are homes that come on the market every week that are fantastic deals even if you were to pay full price for them.  Not surprisingly, these houses sell quickly for close to full price.
 
The question to ask is, “How many other homes on the market offer me a better value for my money than this house at this price?”  If the answer is, “Very few,” or “None,” then that price would likely be a good deal – even if you have to offer full-price to get it!  If you’re going to be a bargain shopper, just know that when you come across a house that offers more value for the money than any other listing on the market, if you don’t act quickly to put that home under contract, you can be sure that some other savvy buyer will.