I just returned from my trip to Tennessee

[46Barb]

Mi shots, have you checked to see if the hospitals in Birmingham, Alabama accept your insurance? There are very good hospitals in Birmingham and would be an easy drive south on I-65.

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by Mi shots

Pam, when I said she wasted our time, she didn't follow my instructions. I did not ask to see houses $100,00o above my budget. And I am in a position to make a bid on a house without selling my home first.

I wasn't mean or rude to her at all (so not my style). She was very nice but I would have appreciated her showing me homes in my price range. She had a list of 43 homes and I gave her specific instructions as to what I wanted and needed for my family. NONE and I mean none of the homes she showed us met our criteria or within our price range.
And yes, you are right, it was not good for either of us. We had to drive 7 hours ( 3.5 each way in one day) to look in knoxville. I wanted to get an idea of neighborhoods and subdivisions for comparison. We didn't drive to Tennessee. We took flights which is a little pricey. Now I will have to go there again. I wanted to be able to eliminate one area.

Your philosophy in not unique to Tennessee. We too as New Yorkers feel much the same. But with that being said, time is valuable. I know I will make more trips down but I did hope to get a better feel of the neighborhoods in Knoxville and honestly, I don't feel I know anything about the neighborhoods I was interested in. I don't think this is being rude or pushy. I'm being honest.

Now being completely honest, had she shown me at least a few of the houses I asked to see, I would have gone back to her for more showings but since she didn't listen to our needs upon first meeting/impressions, and the key word here is "OUR needs". we would have continued to work with her. Now I will look for another agent who will be more interested in satisfying our needs.

Buying a home is a big investment and a real estate agent should work for your benefit . I think we can all agree on that.

No offense meant here

I TOTALLY understand!!!!! When we came here to look I'd done MONTHS of research. We were not looking to buy, but wanted to see what was available in person for the price we were looking at in relation to the areas we were looking for work. I didn't see that as wasting her time. We were up front that we wanted to move in the next six months but didn't plan on buying that day.

I had an entire binder with info on CD.com - each town that I found homes I liked in I"d print their pages and highlight the important parts to me. I then took each house and each town and assigned a point scale for the things we wanted, the issues that were important to us in a community, etc. By the time I arrived I had every single house listed in order with it's associated city info page in order of how high it scored.

Yep, I'm a nerd.

But when we got here I sat down with the realtor and gave her a VERY detailed list - minimum bedrooms, bathrooms, acreage, maximum price, etc. She said she had the perfect house for us and off we went on a one hour drive. Away from the town we planned to work in.

We got to a great home. VERY old log home that had additions put in place. It fell short of the minimum four bedrooms we wanted with only three bedrooms, but there was a loft so I over looked it. It sat on 20 acres and was fenced and cross fenced and had a huge barn, so it more than met our land requirements. There was an incredible family room that was the original cabin. They'd gutted everything of the original and turned it into a massive family room with a sunken stone 'pit' with a fireplace. I could TOTALLY see us there, even with the loss of a formal bedroom and the hour drive.

We went outside and were actually ready to hand her a check and sign a contract. Then she handed us the flier for the property. The asking price was DOUBLE what we told her our absolute top end max price was. I reminded her this was way out of our price range and she assured me she could get us financing with no problem.

I don't WANT financing for that much! What I want is what I am comfortable spending, not what YOU think I can handle. I know my finances much better than someone I've spoken to for 30 minutes. I was absolutely livid.

I took her back to our car and pulled out my binder and went over everything in there. It took a good 15 minutes to go over it. I think she understood at that point that I was dead set on a house that met OUR criteria, not hers. She got on the phone with her office and a few minutes later we were back on the road, headed back to the area we wanted to be in. We looked at about half a dozen houses that day and a few more the next day. We wound up seeing one house three times while we were here. It was the house that met our criteria that I'd place as #1 in the book. Even though we hadn't planned on buying a house, we did wind up giving her a check and signing a contract and moved three weeks later. The house, land and the price were all too perfect to walk away from and we even got about 10% knocked off the asking price and had the owner pay for a new septic system. Awesome deal. But we had to have a serious conversation with the realtor to make that happen.

Since then we've started looking at maybe selling our house here and I've interviewed many realtors and been exasperated with all but two so far. I want someone that's going to work for that money. I expect the listing to have more than three photos and more than just a fill in the blanks listing on RDC. And sadly, I've found few realtors in this area that actually do a thorough job putting up listings. To this point, we've decided to wait it out. Maybe things will get better and a good hard working realtor will move to our area. If not I'll just do a flat rate fee with a realtor and send him the photos and bio to put up.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed your visit. The Nashville area is nice. We wound up two hours southeast of there but I worked in Nashville for four years. I found a lot of great people there that are from other areas of the country. The people around where I live are wonderful and we do fit in well, but it's because we work at it. As others have said, you've got to learn to slow down and do things their way. Sadly, somethings they do their way are completely not acceptable to me so it's caused some strife. But I guess that's how it probably is in most places.

[hiknapster]

Well, based on your criteria, I only found a couple of homes in Knoxville and you didn't care for them. As I said, I don't know anything about the Nashville area. I have since looked up Gallatin. It's probably a great little area but it is much smaller than Knoxville, and with a high school that isn't anywhere near the rankings of the best in Nashville or Knoxville. I don't think that was a big deal to you, anyway. It's about 30 minutes or more to Nashville. Not that there is anything wrong with that, either. But in fairness to the Knoxville Realtor, she wasn't able to meet your criteria based on the current market.

[mrs1885]

I did find when looking up here, don't rely too heavily on the Great Schools listings you find on line. My kid's high school here gets a 5 of ten stars if you look at testing scores. But if you look at the ranking that the parents have given it, it scores an 8 and I wouldn't EVER have wanted my kids to attend any other school, anywhere. It may be small and not have a lot of extra classes, but when it comes to the staff there is no comparison I"ve found anywhere. The teachers here volunteer their time after school to tudor kids for free. THey will take them home after since there's no after school bus if the parents can't get them. It's a VERY tiny community with kids from three counties just to make up one school and the admin there realizes those kids are the future of our area. It shows in every single way.

[hiknapster]

Well, that's all warm and fuzzy but being well-prepared for college is the bottom line. If the kid flunks out, that ride home from school isn't going to mean all that much. How many students take APs and pass? US News and World Report didn't get any figures from Van Buren and that isn't usually a good sign. Schools where the students did well make sure those stats are available.

[Mi shots]

Originally Posted by 46Barb

Love the backyard; beautiful home. Hope you find the home of your dreams here in TN. If you moved to the Gallatin area, I'd love to take some yoga lessons from you.

That would be my pleasure. And maybe I can fancy you with some MishogaWear too



I just want to add that schools aren't really that important to me unless for consideration of resale value. I have one that will be entering his third year of college and one who might continue onto his masters degree there or maybe try to join the Police Department there.

I want to go look in Knoxville again but I would want Farragut and comparing the Nashville areas I like (hendersonville, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Lebanon, and Gallatin) it seems like I will get a lot more for the $$$ in Nashville.
But I'll still look in Knoxville.

My home is 3 months away from being placed on the market and my fear is it will sell fast, so I really need to prepare. So nervous but soooooooooooo excited to what the next phase of life will bring fro my family.

BTW, sorry if I make a lot of typos and grammar mistakes. Probably makes me look like a dope but my high IQ is in my creative expression and artistry.

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Well, that's all warm and fuzzy but being well-prepared for college is the bottom line. If the kid flunks out, that ride home from school isn't going to mean all that much. How many students take APs and pass? US News and World Report didn't get any figures from Van Buren and that isn't usually a good sign. Schools where the students did well make sure those stats are available.

Don't know the numbers but my kids have had no problems. And with teachers that volunteer to make sure kids are passing, I"m not sure why you're so against this school system? As with most school systems, the parents at home have a LOT to do with HOW a child performs as well. You won't get that kind of info from the tests. Many that fail have parents at home that just don't care. It doesn't matter how amazing the school system is, if the parents don't push their kids to excel and the kids aren't interested, you can't do a thing about it.