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I’m Asking For A Favor
Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is. -George Lucas This is the month of Easter and Spring Break and baby animals and diamonds! (Well, if you’re fortunate enough to have your birthday in April, like me, it’s the month of diamonds. Sorry about the rest of y’all’s luck.) This is also the month where the housing market begins to simmer. Folks have used their Spring Breaks to come to the area and find a new place to call home and, soon, the moving will commence. For our area, a lot of this transition will be with military…
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Three Great Places To Visit With Your Dog
For the outdoor enthusiast, there is no shortage of parks, recreation and nature-filled activities in the Knoxville area. If you have a canine companion, you’ll be pleased to know that there are some great places for you and your pupper to enjoy, together! First on the list is PetSafe Downtown Dog Park, right in the heart of Knoxville! Depending on the time of day you visit, you may have to scramble for parking, but this location always seems to have an opportunity to make a new furry friend! There is a separate area for larger dogs and bags are provided to clean up after your pet. (Please do!) A little…
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Number One Thing To Know When Buying
It’s the one question that everyone asks and no one can truly answer: How’s the market? The market in your neighborhood may be different than the one down the road. Townhomes may be flying off the shelves but single family homes might have high days on market. Changes in interest rate may impact one group of buyers, but not another. What a first time buyer sees as a terrible market might be perfect timing for an investor. There are just too many variables for a good/bad, black/white answer. With that said, there are still some universal truths. Purchasing real estate, for most people, is a long term investment. Just like…
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Has Anyone Reminded You…
…about the time change coming up? In winter, I plot and plan. In spring I move. -Henry Rollins The weather is still unpredictable and not exactly warm, but the promise of Spring is here! First of all, if you’re thinking about making a move, let’s chat before too much of the Spring market has passed us by. In our area, the market heats up much sooner than the temperatures, so plan ahead! If you’re planning on staying put for a bit, you’re not off the hook. Wherever you live, you’ll need to do some post-winter chores to keep your abode in good shape. As much as I preach that HGTV…
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Something Other Than Valentines
No kind action ever stops with itself. -Amelia Earhart It’s the shortest month of the year. We are that much closer to summertime. I know the easy path to take would be to focus on St. Valentine’s Day as a topic for this month’s blog post, but that’s been done. Better than some inward-focused Hallmark holiday, what if we took a moment to look around us? It just so happens that February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness day. Although it began as a late-summer event, specific to New Zealand, it has since become an international holiday, to celebrate each other and the goodness among us. Given the pervasive discontent,…
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Out With the Old
…but what will you do with the New? My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. -Steve Jobs Welcome to 2018. As we move into the unknowns before us, be it with trepidation or optimism, there is almost always a tinge of fear. The turning of the page can signify lots of things and often comes with pressure for change. Change is hard. Change brings a chorus of What-Ifs. Change can make us very uncomfortable. Maybe it’s the pressure of a New Year’s resolution, making you worry that you won’t stick to the changes and will…
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Dad Magic
The Chevelle, in its natural habitat. It’s June. This means all kinds of stuff is in store, like the last day of school, the first day of summer and, of course, Father’s Day. I got to thinking about Dad stuff the other day, as I was driving with my oldest. He said, “Hey Mom, look at that cool car!” I said, “Yep, looks like a Chevelle. That’s a nice one.” Quizzical amazement passed across his face as he asked how I knew so much about different types of cars. Apparently, my ability to identify something he hadn’t seen before makes me an expert. I told him, “I don’t know, I guess…
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How Do I Know When To Sell?
Well, when do you want to move? . Isn’t it great when someone answers your question, by asking another question? For so many real estate-related questions, there are no definite answers. We know what we want the transactional outcome to be, we know how much we’d like to net from a sale or pay for a purchase, we’ve heard that summer is the best time for real estate… but those things are negotiable or, at least, debatable. I spend quite a bit of time discussing variables with clients. Theorizing potential list dates based on historical data and ball-parking numbers right up to the last minute, just in case there is…
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Is It Time to ReEvaluate?
6 Consumer Types Who Would Benefit From Opendoor “Hi, I’m Jay. I’m with Zillow, don’t be hatin’.” This is how Jay Thompson, Social Media Manager for Zillow Group, introduced himself at a conference, recently. A laid-back, unassuming guy, Jay had worn a blue t-shirt with the company name across the back and we joked that he’d have been just as effective had he worn a shirt with an actual target. Why? Why would he need to be ready to defend himself in a group of adult, industry professionals? Why does this industry spend so much of it’s collective time lamenting over change, advances in technology and new tools? Ultimately, that’s…
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It’s Spring! Now What?
Flowers and Bunnies and Sunshine, Oh My! We’ve been waiting for this since October: It’s Spring. The weather is improving and we’re already adding eggshells and coffee grounds to our derelict compost bins, whilst planning out our organic, raised-bed, backyard kale gardens, made from reclaimed barn wood and spruced up with chalk paint that was sourced from sustainable chalk fields in well-paying, sub-industrial countries. This year, we’ll master the pepper jelly recipe that looked so simple in the magazine we thumbed through while waiting for 37 minutes for a kid with pink eye to be triaged at the urgent care. (Psht, urgent, my two-toned duck boot bottoms.) We’ll pop that…
