Car Show to Help “Christmas for the Children”

Real estate agents in the Smyrna office of Bob Parks Realty are hosting a “Cruise In” on Saturday, July 24th from 3:00 - 8:00 p.m. The car show is being held to raise money for the annual “Christmas for the Children” program where hundreds of needy kids are given a toy and new clothes during the holidays.

In the six years I’ve participated as a real estate agent, I’d estimate that about 500 children have benefited from this wonderful program. Christmas for the Children started years ago when Mr. Parks asked agents to donate a gift to a child in need during the holidays rather than buying him a gift. Events are now held year-round to raise money for the cause, including horse shows, golf tournaments, and now the Cruise-In.

The car show will feature antique cars, awesome new cars, funny cars, and just plain pretty cars! A live band featuring one of our own agents will be performing! In addition, our amazing concession stand will be available to quench your thirst or to chow down on a hot dog, sloppy joe, or chips.

Admission is free, so stop by and say hello! We hope to see you there!

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

Grills all across the country will be fired up this weekend cooking everything from burgers and ribs to corn on the cob and baked potatoes. Swimming pools will be overflowing with splashes and screams. And the corn hole bean bags will be flying.

What in the world is corn hole? It’s a Tennessee tradition - good for tailgating and barbecues! Rather than digging a hole in the ground and playing “washers” or planting a horse shoe stake and tossing the equine’s version of platform shoes, you use a big wood box to play cornhole.

The platform box has a hole in it and if the cornhole bag lands on the platform, you get one point. If it goes IN, there’s three points. The first player to reach 21 points wins! It’s good, clean fun for the entire family!

If cornhole isn’t exactly your style, though, you can head to Smyrna’s Independence Day celebration at Lee Victory Recreation Park. From 5:00 - 9:00 p.m., there will be games and live music. Right before the fireworks show begins, a Blackhawk helicopter will fly over honoring the National Guardsmen and other members of the military who live and work in the area. Remember, part of Sam Ridley Parkway will be closed during the actual fireworks show, so plan ahead!

Enjoy the holiday weekend and Happy Birthday, USA!

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

Sing along with The Flaming Lips performing Dark Side of the Moon. Laugh with Parks and Recreation’s Aziz Ansari, Conan O’Brien, or Tenacious D as each are sure to perhaps poke at - but definitely tickle - Tennessee. Or tap your feet to Steve Martin as he picks his famous banjo. These entertainers join probably more than 100 others for a weekend of music, food, and fun on a 700-acre farm in Manchester for the preeminent concert of the summer.

Along with the music, people can enjoy a wide variety of activities like the 35-foot tropical water slide Splash-A-Roo! You can get your hair cut and styled at the Bonnaroo Salon hosted by Garnier Fructis. Or take a yoga class. If exercise isn’t your thing you can go to The Crunch Den hosted by Wheat Thins and eat eat eat. Food will be plentiful with vendors spread throughout the concert facility. And when you think of a three-day music festival you might also wonder about showers. Yes, they’ll be there as well.

It’s not too late to get to Bonnaroo. The event is held Thursday, June 11th (sorry you missed that day) through Sunday, June 14th. To get more information, visit www.bonnaroo.com.

Come on down and enjoy some Tennessee hospitality, listen to some great music, and have a weekend of laughs!

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

The city of La Vergne has agreed to co-sponsor a free concert designed to raise money directly for residents of LaVergne affected by the flooding earlier this month. Where FEMA has been able to help many home-owners, some have been left out because their damage hasn’t been extensive enough to merit government aid. However, help is also needed for these families as well and they - along with others being served by FEMA - will benefit from the concert.

Called “LaVergne’s Party in the Park,” the concert is scheduled May 29th from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park off of Murfreesboro Road and Floyd Mayfield Drive. The day of helping will feature performances by musicians and bands from the area, local vendors will have the opportunity to set up information tables about their businesses, and other activities are planned including a dunking booth for the mayor and other dignitaries, face painting, and more.

The concert is also sponsored by The Tanning Boutique, a new local business that was started in part because of the community helping owner Stephanie Tellez. As she and her family were preparing to open, many friends and neighbors came to help paint and decorate so she could open the doors on time.

Donations may be made to “LaVergne Party in the Park Flood Relief Fund” at Regions Bank in La Vergne. The money will later be given directly to the LaVergne victims to help with their recovery efforts.

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

It is with a heavy heart that I think about the devastation Nashville and surrounding communities are now experiencing thanks to an irate Mother Nature. We had a major storm system that started on Friday night and didn’t stop until late morning Sunday. With about 15 inches of rainfall over the weekend, Nashville is drowning. If you’re from Middle Tennessee, I don’t need to tell you anything. If, however, you’re from outside of this area please know that your thoughts, prayers, and donations to the Red Cross are very much appreciated at this time. To donate, you can text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Famous places flooded at this time include (but certainly not limited to):

• Opryland Hotel
• Opry Mills
• Grand Ol’ Opry
• LP Field where the Titans Play
• Schermerhorn Symphony Center
• Bridgestone Arena where the Predators Play
• Riverfront Park
• 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, Broadway
• Country Music Hall of Fame

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

In a community where some yards are only big enough to plant a few begonias and pansies - perhaps even a sunflower or two - the idea of planting a big vegetable garden may feel like something of the past that your Grandmother and Grandfather did. However, in an effort to help build a strong community of fellowship and to just be plain neighborly, the city of LaVergne’s Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring a community garden.

The site selected is next to the town’s senior citizen center at 337 Stones River Road. The first work day was held on April 17th where volunteers planted vegetables like cabbage, beans, and more. Future workdays are anticipated throughout the summer for weeding, watering, and more.

As the garden becomes successful, residents are hopeful that other gardens will be planted throughout the town. For more information, contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 793-3224.

Posted by:  Kathy Tyson

There may be plenty of houses in the middle Tennessee real estate market and not as many buyers as we’d like to see, but the homes that are priced right and also clean and well maintained are quite popular these days. So popular in fact, that multiple offers are coming in!

I had an older home listed last month that had lots of personality. The hardwood floors had a darker wood design built in and the backyard was a haven for bird lovers. The sellers fortunately negotiated and had a smooth closing with one of the two potential buyers. And today, I’m in another multiple offer situation. I’m meeting with a buyer about a condo he hopes to own, but this time he’s the one competing with another buyer.

Many buyers get alarmed when they hear they are in a multiple offer situation. Often they just want to throw in the flag to avoid a “bidding war.” Other times buyers are suspicious because they think agents are trying to maximize their own commission by getting the buyer to pay more. By law, we are required to put our clients’ interests above our own and we must deal with all parties honestly and in good faith. I take the mandates seriously because I don’t want to lose my ability to earn a living, and I believe other agents do the same.

Therefore if you’re told there are multiple offers, believe it. You have several choices you can then make. You can stand firm on your current price - there’s nothing wrong with that because it MIGHT already be the highest offer. You can change your offer (higher or lower). Stay away from the eBay mentality to “outbid” someone else - figure out in advance the highest amount you’d pay and do not go above it. If you don’t get the house, there will be others. Finally, your last choice and the worst thing to do is walk away. If it’s not meant to be, it never will be if you don’t at least make an effort.

There is one other choice you can make. It’s daring, but could be your key to winning the bid. You can change your offer to read, “Will pay $1,000 more than highest offer, not to exceed XX amount.” Of course, you would also ask for evidence that the other offer was a certain amount - and the listing agent can provide this with written permission from the seller, as long as the other buyer hasn’t specifically prohibited their bid from being shared.

Good luck buyers! If you’d like more information about real estate in Nashville, Smyrna, LaVergne, Murfreesboro, or other areas of Middle Tennessee, I welcome your call!

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

An agent in my office recently updated her Facebook status and said,

“The first 3 hours of an Amber Alert are the most critical. You can go to www.wirelessamberalerts.org and sign up for free text messaging. This is even for people that don’t have text plans. IT COULD SAVE A CHILD’S LIFE.”

Thanks to being a Mom of two daughters, I often worry about their safety, along with the safety of their friends, the girls in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop, and my nieces and nephews. Given the success of finding Elizabeth Smart after she was missing for a year and that Jayce Duggard finally returned to her family, we must have hope that other missing children can still come home.

I went to the link and followed the simple instructions. After putting in my mobile phone number, I clicked that I agreed to the terms of use, then proceeded to the zip code section. Here you pick cities from which Amber alerts are issued and I picked Nashville, LaVergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, and Clarksville. If you don’t know the zip codes, you can run a quick search on tennessee zip codes and links will be readily available.

Signing up for text message notifications was simple. I’m hoping that I won’t get many Amber Alerts, but if I do - and since I’m a Realtor and often out and about - I’ll be on the lookout.

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

My baby girl is sick right now. Baby may not be the most accurate way to describe her since she’s in college, but she’ll always be my baby girl. I’ve been on the phone with her each day to see if she’s running a fever, able to sleep, if she has plenty of cough drops and tissues, and to figure out if it’s time to go pick her up and take her to the doctor. So far, she’s okay.

It’s hard to be sick when you’re away from the comforts of home, so what can we tell our kids to do in order to stay healthy? Really they should be doing the same things as they do at home: wash your hands frequently, get plenty of rest, take a vitamin each day, and drink a lot of water.

In addition to these standard precautions, students may also want to avoid crowded areas if they know there’s a virus or wide-spread case of the eppizooties going around campus. Carry anti-bacterial or disinfecting wipes (or hand sanitizer and tissues) in the back-pack and wipe down keyboards in public computer areas. If you can, open a door using your elbow or shoulder rather than your hand on the door knob. When you leave a restroom, use a paper towel to open the door rather than your bare hands.

Living in a dorm can be particularly challenging since students often use the same showers and sinks, but if they follow the same basic healthy habits they may escape getting a bad case of the cruds. The luckiest students are those whose parents buy them small houses or condos to keep during their college years. This can be an affordable option for some families, especially when they find a place big enough to have roommates which help defray expenses. If this is an option for you and your student, I’d be happy to help you find a place!

Meanwhile keep washing your hands, sneeze in your elbow, and try to eat more greens and less pizza!

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

That $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit may be mighty tempting for property newbies. Who seriously wouldn’t want some “free” money to decorate that new home, buy a side-by-side stainless steel refrigerator, or build a privacy fence in the back yard for your dog Barkley?

To qualify for the tax credit, though, you still have to qualify as a buyer. The FHA has announced new rules expected to be in place by summer that will make it more challenging to borrow on a federally guaranteed loan when purchasing a home. For example, new borrowers will need a minimum credit score of 580 to qualify for the 3.5 percent down payment program. New borrowers with less than a 580 FICO score will be required to put down at least 10 percent. Also, sellers will only be able to pay up to 3 percent in closing costs on behalf of the buyer rather than the previous 6 percent.

In addition to these expenses, a real estate buyer may also need to come up with funds for an appraisal, a home inspection, and – first and foremost – the earnest money. Why do you need to pay earnest money? How much money should you put down? What happens to your check when you’ve written it?

Why?

Earnest money shows a seller you are serious about buying the house. A typical offer will contain contingencies to purchase: the inspection contingency, the financial contingency, and appraisal contingency. If any of these contingencies are not satisfactorily met (if you can’t get a home loan, how can you buy?), you may walk away from the purchase and have your earnest money returned. If all of these contingencies are met and a buyer gets cold feet, the earnest money warms them right back up by holding their feet to the fire on the purchase. The earnest money shows that the buyer truly desires to buy the home.

How Much?

How much earnest money you put down is up to the buyer and the seller. The more down, the more serious the offer. I would recommend a buyer offer at least $500, but if it’s a very expensive home you’ll need more. The rule of thumb is “just enough to make it painful for the buyer to walk away.”

Where Does the Earnest Money Go?

The agent does not just “hold” the earnest money check. It is deposited in a broker account- called an escrow account- separated from operating funds. (So make sure when you write a check, you have the funds to cover it!). When you close, the money is applied to either the purchase price of the home, your closing costs, or sometimes buyers are refunded the amount.

As you consider taking advantage of the $8000 tax credit, remember… it will take some money in advance to make the home purchase. Save your money, make sure you’re qualified with a lender, and talk to your favorite middle Tennessee real estate agent to find out what to do next!

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

In the words of Steven Wright, “Why do you park in a driveway, but drive on a parkway?”

Sometimes we do a lot of parking on the parkway, too. But not just us… it’s everywhere! The worst traffic in the nation can be found along a stretch of asphalt in Los Angeles called the Hollywood Freeway, according to The Daily Beast.

Nashville made the list too. Our blacktop system was in the Top 50 as I-65 right in the downtown Nashville area (exit 210 at 4th Avenue) came in at #44. I thought that if Nashville was listed at all, it might have been rush hour on I-24 from Harding Place to Waldron Road because that stretch does tend to get congested.

To the credit of our state department of transportation, however, it’s a great comfort knowing that the highway incident response team is very quick to aid motorists when problems do occur. According to the state’s web site, the HELP trucks are there in case of wrecks, debris in the road, or disabled cars or trucks. They work with emergency personnel to make sure all drivers remain safe in case of incident. If you’re on one of the three major interstates that intersect in Nashville (I-40, I-24, and I-65), it’s great to know the little green men are there.

My advice? If you drive in Nashville, try to avoid rush hour traffic. And remember… the traffic isn’t so bad in the surrounding communities. As a result, if you’re thinking about moving to middle Tennessee, remember small towns also have smaller traffic problems.

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

This is painful to admit - and perhaps a little bit shocking - but I’m not the best cook in the world. As I’ve worked hard to balance my household budget these last few months, I’ve tackled some cooking projects I never dreamed of doing. Earlier this year I made shish-kabobs on the grill. They weren’t horrible. Then a friend of mine from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan taught me to make a traditional northern dish called pasties (pronounced Pass-tees). It’s like a meat pie that also includes potatoes, onions, and carrots.

I hope to keep learning new dishes through 2010 to help keep our household expenses down. There seems to be a surge in cupcake stores all over the country and part of me loves them but another part says, “Don’t even think about them much less GO there, girl!” But why buy cupcakes, sheet cakes, or layered cakes when I can make them myself? I’m going to try to bake my own low-carb cakes and then see if I can make them pretty. I have some cake decorating equipment at home and am thinking about taking a formal decorating class with one of my daughters this spring to learn how to use the fancy tips.

The Tennessee Technology Center in Murfreesboro offers a class in cake decorating. You can learn more about it by calling (615) 898-8010. In addition, Michael’s located at The Avenue offers a four-course class that teaches everything from flowers and borders to using fondant. I can get 50 percent off if I take the classes offered in February. What about you? Anyone want to take cake decorating with me?

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

The difference in the number of homes that sold from 2006 to 2008 in Smyrna, Tennessee was stone cold sobering … a drop of a little more than 60 percent in residential sales (the statistics do not include condos, land, commercial or farms). The stunning free fall seems to have leveled off in 2009, however, and hopefully it is a strong sign of economic recovery. In 2009, the number of homes sold only dropped about 6 percent - a drop much more palatable than 60 percent.

The good news for Smyrna is that the value of the homes being purchased has remained fairly strong. Where neighboring LaVergne had 327 homes that sold for under $125,000, Smyrna’s number was 161 under $125,000. In addition, the total number of homes that sold in Smyrna this past year was 560 while LaVergne had but 511. A full analysis of what you got for your money in Smyrna is featured here at the local web site, This is Smyrna.

What does this mean for the neighboring communities? Affordable homes are available in both LaVergne and Smyrna, but Smyrna’s hold is more firm on houses in the prices ranging above $125,000. However, both communities are wonderfully close to the greater Nashville metropolitan area and all its entertainment, shopping, and sports events. This makes settling in either town just a hop, skip and jump away from the easy access to fun, work, and play, so if you’re considering a move to the area your choices for where to live are wide open.

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

I don’t know about you, but I was one happy camper when it was time to say good-bye to 2009. Yes, there were many wonderful moments, but overall I was just ready to look deep into the eyes of last year and say, “Pppbbbbtttt!” Wonder why? I wrote a housing market update for my own hometown of LaVergne.

It had some good news (the market really does seem to have hit bottom so now we can begin climbing up again), but some of it wasn’t so great:

Yes, I’m ready for a new year and I wish you and yours a very pleasant, prosperous 2010!!

Posted by:Kathy Tyson

When people get to a certain age and if they become unable to care for themselves, sometimes it’s necessary to find a nursing facility to ensure they are comfortable, eat regularly, and receive proper medical care. Nursing homes are notoriously expensive, but Medicaid is there to help pay when a patient is unable to do this.

Problems arise, however, when a patient does have assets that can be used for their own care. An attorney spoke at our office today about how people often come to her asking for help in hiding their assets so the nursing home doesn’t get them. The question that must be asked is, “If you’re not going to pay for the care, who will?” It’s the taxpayers who pay - you, me, our children.

Debtors usually have a one-year limit to seek repayment from an estate for expenses, but the Tennessee Courts have ruled that Tenn Care is not limited by this law. Tenn Care is mandated by the federal government to collect money to offset the costs of Medicaid if assets are available. As a result, attorneys are now sifting through legal documents to see if a homeowner has signed over their home or other real estate to someone else using a quit claim deed.

The key is whether the quit claim deed is at least five years old. If it is less than five years old, the deed may be considered as a way to hide assets. If a deed was signed over three months before a patient was admitted to a nursing home, then there is a strong suspicion of fraud, but if it’s been four years and three months, then the concern lessens.

If you’re thinking about trying to save your home from being sold to pay nursing home expenses, think again. The best thing you can do is to contact an attorney who has experience with elderly care, estate planning, and real estate. I would recommend Imogene Bolin, attorney at law, as a good source for more information. She can be reached at (615) 459-6189.

Have a very Merry Christmas, a safe holiday season, and a prosperous 2010!

Posted by:Kathy Tyson