Tips For Choosing The Right Place To Retire

Thinking of retiring but can't decide between city living and a small town, between warm desert sunshine and sunsets over the ocean or between a mountain cabin and a contemporary condo? USNews.com has a wonderful article with 5 tips to help you choose your retirement location wisely. Factors to take into consideration are: cost of living, the local economy, proximity to home, amenities and weather. Read more...

Be sure to visit www.FindYourSpot.com. Here you answer a short survey and receive approximately 20 locations in the U.S. that match your criteria. It's fun and you'll learn about places you probably don't even know exist. Have fun.

If you are thinking of retiring, you might want to know the current market value of your home. I offer a FREE service to receive a current market valuation by email. It's quick and easy.

Tags: retirement locations, tips to retirement, knox county market value

Make Sure The Price Is Right When Selling Your Home

Any Realtor will tell you there are 3 factors that effect a successful home sale...price, condition and location. And price is the most important. If not priced correctly the condition and location don't matter.

As a Realtor, I talk with people about price, condition and locaiton constantly, but often it is good to have this reinforced by a third party. BankRate.com has a great article on pricing your home to sell.

"Setting the correct asking price is the most important step in the process of selling your home," says William F. Supple Jr., author of "How to Sell Your Own Home" and publisher of "Picket Fences," a monthly magazine for homeowners." Read more.

Visit my website to learn the current market value of your Knox county home.

Tags: bankrate.com, picket fencesprice your home to sell, sammiller.com, knox county market values

Identity Theft

Identity theft is a serious crime impacting more than 10 million victims each year. Often, consumers first learn they are identity theft victims when they are in the process of buying or renting a home and ruining thier dream of homeownership. The National Association of Realtors is working with the Federal Trade Commission to educate comsumers to minimize the risk of identity theft. This new initiative, Deter-Detect-Defend is focused on empowering consumers to protect themselves against identity and to minimize its impact.

Together, the NAR and FTC hope to educate consumers to take the necessary steps to deter, detect and defend against identity theft and make it more difficult for identity thieves to steal a consumer’s personal information. This will help consumers better protect their credit, and increase the likelihood of realizing their home ownership dreams.

Deter Identity Theft
Consumers can deter identity thieves by safeguarding their personal information.

Detect Identity Theft
Consumers can detect suspicious activity by routinely monitoring their financial accounts and billing statements. Many consumers learn that their identity has been stolen after the damage has been done. The faster consumers detect the theft, the more they can limit the damage.

Defend Against Identity Theft
Consumers should defend against identity theft as soon as they suspect a problem. It’s important to act quickly to minimize the damage.

Tags: identity theft, national association of realtors, federal trade commission, deter-detect-defend

Six Factors Effecting Your Sale

Six Factors That Effect The Sale
Of Your HOME...And Who Controls Them

Controlled by Seller

1. Product
If the property shows poorly, or has major defects which cannot be or are not corrected, a sale may not take place until the defects are corrected or until the price is adjusted to compensate for them.

2. Price
If the product has not sold after a reasonable length of time but other similar properties have sold, then a price reduction may be in order. If this is true and the price is not reduced, the price may delay or prevent the sale. The appraisal will be based on the most recent sales in the area and the property must appraise no lower than the sales price.

Controlled by The Market*

3. Financing
If the financing costs too much, or if the Seller requires a higher down payment than most people buying in that area are paying, then the financing may delay or prevent the sale.

4. Timing
The timing is the condition of the real estate market at the time of the sale. It may be a Seller’s market or a Buyer’s market. Neither the seller nor the real estate agent can change the condition of the market at the time the property is for sale. It must be accepted for what it is.

5. Competition
Every Buyer makes decisions about which home to buy and how much it is worth by other choices available at the time of purchase. The supply of other homes the Buyer will compare with your home is constantly changing from week to week and month to month. The current competition always affects the Buyer’s opinion of your home and what they will think it is worth. So the question is, what will be the Buyer’s other choices at the time they are shown your property?

Controlled by Realtor

6. Marketing

My marketing is unique. However, even the very best marketing has its limitations because promotion cannot overcome any of the first five factors if they are out of balance and are not corrected.

*Neither the Seller nor the Realtor creates or controls the market. All the Seller and the Realtor can do is work with the information available from the market and place the home in a favorable position in regards to the other homes on the market.

The market changes continuously so communication of the market changes from the Realtor to Seller is vital. So, in addition to the best Marketing, I will supply you with a constant flow of information which will help you determine if:


The PRODUCT is right…….the PRICE is right…...the FINANCING is right ….
And what the TIMING and COMPETITIONS are.

Thinking of selling your Knox county home? Contact me to put my marketing experience to work for you? And visit my website to get the current market value of your home.

Tags: selling a home in Knox county, knox county home sale, knox county market value

Mortgage Rates Drop

Freddie Mac Reports Drop In Interest Rates

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealed interest rates on 30 year fixed-rate mortgages to be 6.44 percent, down from last week's average of 6.48 percent. This is the lowest rates have been since the beginning of April 2006.

"Mortgage rates continued to drift lower this week in large part because of the cooling in the housing market and in consumer confidence, thus giving financial markets reason to believe that economic growth will moderate and inflation will remain in check," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

If you want more information on how the lower rates effect your home buying power, contact me or visit my website. Here you can view all Knox County real estate listings, get the current market value of you home, free reports and more.

Tags: freddie mac mortgage market survey, interest rates drop, mortgage rates drop, knox county real estate, knox county real estate listings, knox county market values