Chattanooga Real Estate

These days, buying a home in Chattanooga is about more than finding the right square footage, number of bedrooms, and price range. While these factors almost always make up the primary concerns for any home buyer in TN, the truth is that there is so much more to a home than the numbers and figures you see on an advertisement. In fact, Chattanooga and Hixson are part of a growing trend of buying homes that are not only an investment in your future, but an investment in the future of the planet, as well.

What is an Eco-Friendly Home?

An eco-friendly home is any house that strives to reduce energy usage either during the building process or for average, everyday use. Green Home Building Standards have been established by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), which strives to ensure that ecologically sound building practices meet structurally sound ones no matter where you live.

Some of the components of a “green” home include:

• Energy-efficient features, including appliances and windows with the Energy Star rating. This can also be accomplished by doing simple things like using more efficient lighting fixtures and light bulbs.

• Water-efficient features, including Energy Star ratings on toilets, showers, faucets, dishwashers, and washing machines. At a more advanced level, this can include water recirculation systems and on-site wastewater treatment systems.

• Resource-efficient features, which generally come from structural changes that have to do with house size and layout, window placement, heat conservation efforts, and even using fast-renewing resources (like bamboo) for the floor or other building materials.

• Quality air features, which provide good ventilation without introducing toxins into the air either inside or outside the home.

• Outdoor features, including landscaping that contributes to the local vegetation, and the use of permeable materials for driveways and walkway. Water waste should also be reduced wherever possible.

Purchasing a Green Home

One of the greatest things about eco-friendly homes in the Chattanooga region is that most of the costs are figured in during the building process. This means that if you’re in the market to purchase a green home, you will only have to help maintain the work that’s already been done. While this can increase the initial price tag of your new TN home, chances are that it will save you large amounts of money as the years progress.

In an age where it’s becoming increasingly more important to give back to the environment, more and more homeowners in the Chattanooga area are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. It doesn’t matter whether you purchase a new home in Ooltewah or an older building with recent renovations in Hixson, Barry Evans can help you find a way to combine your love of the environment with the home of your dreams.

This week there was a terrific article that made it onto the news wires across the country and will be of great interest to most anyone shopping for a home.  Whether you are interested in buying real estate in Ooltewah, East Brainerd, East Ridge or Hixson, TN…it doesn’t matter.  Most home shoppers have heard that short sales are one way to possibly buy property below market or “get a deal.”  The problem is of course how long it can take to find out if your offer to the bank will be accepted or not.  This 50 to 100 plus day wait can be disheartening and frustrating.  Often buyers end up moving on to something else.  That is why Paul Owers of the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel’s article makes for good reading as the rules may be changed soon to force banks to make decisions on short sales much sooner.  You can read Paul’s article below:   New rules designed to speed up short sales Financially stressed homeowners left hanging while their banks consider whether to approve the short sales of their properties may benefit from new federal guidelines that give lenders a 10-day limit in which to respond to purchase offers.

The rules from the U.S. Treasury, which also allow financial incentives for both sellers and lenders, could figure prominently in Central Florida’s housing market, where about one in every five existing-home purchases involves a short sale.

Gary Balanoff, a real-estate agent with Re/Max Select in Oviedo, tells his clients to expect at least a 60-day wait when they try to buy or sell a home via a short sale. And as Treasury’s expedited short-sale process emerges between now and April, he said, he’s not going to tell his clients any differently.

“It’s a very, very tough process to get some degree of standards,” Balanoff said of short sales. “I think this will help - it will put more pressure to comply and get quicker results. … Three or four months of waiting for an answer is not doing anyone any good - even lenders.”

The effect of the new rules will likely be somewhat limited because only banks that owe the federal government TARP bailout funds must comply. And according to Balanoff, even when certain banks do push for faster short sales, there is so little consistency among mortgage negotiators that he doesn’t expect the new deadline measures to be applied or enforced evenly.

In a short sale, the homeowner sells the property for less than what is owed on the mortgage, and the lender forgives the difference. Many of the single-family mortgage holders in Central Florida are “under water,” meaning they owe more than their homes are currently worth.

According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, 20 percent of its members’ existing-home sales in December were short sales. Another 43 percent were bank-owned properties, and the remaining 37 percent were “normal” resales.

While short sales are considered an ideal solution for banks and for “under water” homeowners on the verge of foreclosure, the deals often drag on as lenders take weeks or months to decide what to do. Frustrated buyers sometimes walk away during the delays. In some cases, lenders insist that the borrowers share in the financial loss, which holds up the transactions even longer. As a result, homes stay on the market, prolonging the housing downturn.

The Treasury rules, in addition to imposing a 10-day deadline for bank decisions, call for sellers to receive $1,500 moving allowances - and for the sellers to not have to repay any of the debt.

Also, lenders will get $1,000 to cover administrative and processing costs, while investors owning the mortgages will receive a maximum $1,000 for allowing as much as $3,000 of a short sale’s proceeds to be distributed to less senior lenders.

The 83 loan servicers participating in the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable loan-modification program, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, are required to follow the guidelines for all borrowers who have requested short sales or who did not complete loan modifications.

The rules do not specifically apply to loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which constitute about half of all U.S. mortgage debt. The two government-run mortgage companies are working on their own guidelines.

The Treasury plan, which must be implemented by lenders no later than April, is meant to help sellers like Dawn Sclafani, who has been waiting since October for her lender to approve a short sale offer on her South Florida home. A buyer has offered $155,000, and she owes $233,000.

Sclafani, a 50-year-old psychologist who lives in Margate, said she is eager for her bank to approve the deal so she can put the experience behind her. “I want to move on … but I can’t until somebody gives me permission to,” she said. “I’ve heard that this is a horrendous process. The banks are just not very cooperative. I do believe these new rules will help.”

U.S. Rep Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the guidelines are meant to make short sales “a more usable tool.” Klein notes that the rules provide standardized paperwork for all short sales, and give buyers and sellers a more reasonable time frame for finding out whether or not the sales will happen.

But Klein and others say the government may have to increase the financial incentives. The $3,000 cap on short-sale proceeds to less-senior lenders is not sitting well with second-lien holders, who have been demanding more money from sellers, the first lenders and real-estate agents in exchange for releasing their claims and allowing the short sales to proceed.

“This is a great program if all these mortgages had only one lien holder,” said Travis Hamel Olsen, chief operating officer for Loan Resolution Corp., an Arizona company that helps lenders complete short sales. “But many of these properties have two liens.”

Some Florida real-estate agents remain skeptical of the guidelines. Broward County agent Ron Rosen, who urged Klein last summer to push for new regulations, said he thinks “the banks will still play their little games with people and make life difficult for everyone.”

A spokeswoman for the Treasury says it will hand down “substantial” penalties to lenders that don’t comply. The agency said it can fine lenders, withhold or reduce incentive payments, or require improperly rejected loans to be modified.

Lenders have blamed short-sale delays on the complicated nature of the transactions, sheer numbers of deals and on borrowers who don’t submit proper paperwork in a timely manner.

Because short sales involve so many moving parts, lenders will be hard-pressed to meet the 10-day deadline, said Anthony DiMarco, executive vice president of government affairs for the Florida Bankers Association.

“That will be a challenge,” he said.

In many cases, the banks are not to blame for the delays, said Ward Kellogg, chief executive of Boca Raton-based Paradise Bank. But he thinks the guidelines are necessary to help clear the market of so many distressed properties.

“I think the pressure on [the banks] is a good thing,” Kellogg said.

Mary Shanklin of the Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report. Paul Owers can be reached at powers@Sunsentinel.com or 561-243-6529. textSize()

Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 Hamilton County, within Chattanooga city limits has a curbside service, and they switched from weekly to monthly.   Outside city limits has none, until now.

Two enterprising young adults, Greg and Wendy Lawson planned for two years to offer recycling as simple as possible to the residents to all areas of Hamilton County, outside Chattanooga city limits. Their company is called GreenWorks.

They will offer a weekly service for glass, cell phones, computer and batteries. They also will accept aluminum cans, paper products, broken down cardboard, plastics #1 and #2,

Customers will simply take their recyclables, separate them into cans, paper, plastic and glass and put into grocery plastic bags, take them to the curb and leave them for pick up.   Service is now available in Soddy Daisy on Tuesdays and on Signal Mountain on Thursdays.  Later they will provide service to Harrison, Ooltewah, Collegedale and Lookout Mountain. Hixson areas are under discussion.

This Spring, they will offer call-in curbside service for larger items such as dishwashers, tires, lawnmowers and couches.  Their concern for environmental hazards such as landfill leakage into water sources is what motivates them, and they hope it will motivate others as well.   

If you are interested in convenience and helping the environment, please contact them at 598-1008 or atyourservice@greenworksofchattanooga.com. Company website is greenworksofchattanooga.com.

Recycling as easy as this is something all of us should consider because it makes real estate more attractive, while doing ourselves good by aiming for greener and healthier areas. 

Marketing a Chattanooga home to make it attractive to buyers isn’t just about staging the house or putting a For Sale sign up in the yard. In today’s real estate market, it’s important to reach out to a larger audience through various types of media. After all, buying and selling a home in the Hixson region means tapping into everything that people use on a daily basis: computers, newspapers, magazines, and more traditional real estate routes.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

The majority of home buyers in the TN region begin their search online. The Internet is becoming an increasingly viable way to present homes from both an interior and an exterior vantage point. Although Barry Evans will help you to understand the best angles for presenting a photographic display of your house, you can help by pointing out what it is you love best about the home. A great backyard garden, a cozy front porch swing, a spacious kitchen, the tile on your bathroom floor – no matter what it is, use it as a way to entice buyers into contacting your agent for more information.

Virtual tours are becoming a very popular way to showcase your home online, as well. Allowing viewers to “walk through” your home gives them a stronger connection to it.

Signs and Advertisements

The more traditional Tennessee home selling options include putting up a sign or placing an ad in the newspaper, in your local real estate magazine, or even on direct mailing advertisements. These steps have long been a part of the buying and selling market, regardless of where you live.

The truth of the matter is, there’s a reason these actions are relied upon so heavily: no one will know you’re selling your Chattanooga home unless you post it somewhere! While decisions related to where you place the signs and advertisements will most likely be made with the assistance of Barry Evans, you can help by finding additional ways to spread the word of your sale. Online home selling postings for Ooltewah or Hixson are fairly common, and oftentimes, simply letting your friends and family know that your Chattanooga home is on the market can go a long way in spreading the word.

Rely on Barry Evans

 Of course, the most important home marketing step you can take is trusting Barry Evans to work hard to sell your home as quickly and efficiently as possible. Like any real business partnership, selling a Tennessee home is all about finding someone you can trust and working together to get the best possible results.

The following is the 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers from the National Association of Realtors.  It is a compilation of the results of 9,138 surveys of buyers and sellers who sold or purchased a home between July 2008 and June 2009.  I will be more interested in seeing the July 2009 and forward to better reflect our current Chattanooga market.           

47% of buyers were first time buyers.        

The median age of all buyers was 39.        

83% of all first time buyers are under the age 44.         

62% of all buyers are under age 44.         

63% of all buyers had no children under the age of 18 residing at home.        

90% of all buyers used the internet to search.        

 84% of buyers reported the photos to be the most useful information.        

The number one action taken after viewing a home online was to drive by or visit the home.        

77% of buyers purchased their home with an agent.        

85% of sellers sold their home with an agent.        

87% of buyers view real estate as a good investment.

These, of course, are national statistics.  Chattanooga real estate will always vary.  We have seen mostly first time home buyers this year at the closing table.  Next year should draw a lot more variety of age groups with the additional new stimulus for home sellers who have been in their home for at least 5 years.  We should also start to see some benefit from Volkswagen.  Best wishes for all of us in 2010. 

Barry Evans 

Keller Williams Realty

664-1700 Main office 826-4987 e-fax

barry@chattanoogahomes.com 

To  realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask  someone
Who doesn’t have one.To realize
The value of ten  years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.  To realize
The value of four  years:
Ask a graduate.

Although new tax breaks and great housing prices in Chattanooga, Hixson and Ooltewah make buying a home easier and more cost-effective than ever before, it can still be a daunting task to undertake the path to home ownership. In addition to the stress of moving, you’re probably worrying about things like loan processing fees, down payments, mortgage options, and closing costs. Even with a financial advisor and a realtor at your side, these can add up to quite a bit of hard work!

However, almost every homeowner will tell you that these costs are definitely worth buying a TN house. Not only are you purchasing a place to call home, but you’re making a financial investment with potentially huge returns. That’s why you should always consider a home inspection before signing on that dotted line, even if the added expense isn’t one you’re looking forward to.

What is a Home Inspection?

Many people equate a home inspection with a home appraisal, and with good reason. At their core, the two processes are very similar: in both, a trained professional goes through the home and inspects it with the intent of informing all parties involved on making the smartest buying and selling decisions.

However, the similarities stop there. Home appraisals are done to give buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and financers a better idea of what the home is worth (based on “surface” things like square footage, number of rooms, and amenities like a fireplace or granite countertops). A home inspection, on the other hand, is all about informing buyers about the potential problems that lie underneath the surface.

For example, a home inspector will be able to answer the following questions:

• What is the condition of the plumbing and/or electrical system, and how easy is it to access in the event of a problem?

• What will be the realistic costs and challenges of heating or cooling the house?

• What is the state of the foundation, the roof, and other structural components?

• How many years of use will you be able to get out of the electrical/plumbing/heating systems?

• What are the potential safety hazards of the house (lead paint, radon, termites, asbestos, mold, etc.)?

What a Home Inspection Does for You

Although most home inspections cost the potential homebuyer hundreds of dollars up front, they typically end up saving homebuyers thousands of dollars in the end. When you get a home inspection, you can not only step away from a purchase that might not be right for you, but you can also require sellers to either “fix” the problems before you buy the home, or adjust the price in order to allow you to make the repairs.

Of course, there’s also the benefit of knowing that the home for sale in Chattanooga that you purchased is safe and comfortable. It can be difficult to know just what a house has in store for you until you’ve lived in it for a few months. A home inspection is the best way to take the house for a “test drive” before you make the investment. And with so many choices currently on the Tennessee real estate market, you’re in a perfect position to make a smart, financially-sound choice for your entire family.

Thanksgiving found my husband and me looking for an alternative dinner venue. We decided to visit the Delta Queen, Chattanooga’s latest and most unique floating hotel.
The buffet dinner was outstanding, wait staff most attentive, and live music a delight.
How dreary the weather had become, in direct contrast to how warm and inviting the boat was. We arrived a little early for our seating, affording us time to explore the beautiful accommodations and speak with the guests who were staying overnight.The Legendary Delta Queen, the last fully operational, overnight passenger steamboat in the country, is the newest landmark Chattanooga hotel. This grand lady had logged over two million miles, carried over half a million passengers and is the only boat to be inducted into the National Marine Hall of Fame while still in service. She has entertained Presidents, foreign dignitaries and a multitude of celebrities.

The new Chattanooga accommodations are right in the middle of the vibrant North Shore scene at Coolidge Park Landing. A quick water taxi ride to the Southside and an ideal base of operations for your exploration of Chattanooga attractions.

In addition to being one of the most unique Chattanooga hotels, the Delta Queen features live music, theatrical performances and romantic dining and drinks overlooking the Tennessee River. Group tours will be available, allowing visitors to learn first-hand about steam technology and the colorful history of a legendary paddleboat.

So, if you’re looking for something extraordinary among the offerings of Chattanooga hotels, right in the middle of the action, choose the Delta Queen for an unforgettable stay in the Scenic City.

I would encourage those of you who visit our city or live here and want a pleasant experience, to get down to the Delta Queen. You’ll be glad you did.

For many people living in or moving to TN, the best real estate purchase is one that combines the comfort of home with a piece of history. Buying a historic home in Chattanooga, Hixson or Ooltewah is fairly common in today’s market, thanks to an incredible real estate climate and one of the most dynamic historic districts in the state.

However, if you’re simply looking at the intricate architecture and are thinking how great it would be to own a piece of the city’s history, you might want to take a step back and consider all the work involved in becoming a historic home owner.

Home Quality

The most important consideration for purchasing a historic home in Chattanooga is the quality of the house. Whether you’re looking at a bungalow or a mansion, you have to remember that time is rarely kind to real estate.

In addition to outdated materials (like plaster instead of drywall or lead pipes) and difficult-to-work-with architectural styles, you have to consider the costs of restoring the house with authenticity in mind. Many materials are no longer available or can be costly if you want to maintain the historic integrity of your home. The same is true of the availability and cost of craftsman qualified to work with your particular home.

Tennessee Housing Regulations

Many historic homes are overseen by governing bodies that regulate what you can and can’t do to your own home. If you’re in the market to purchase a historic home, make sure you know who you will have to go through to get the right permits for renovation, or if you’ll need to register and pay a fee to get your home listed as an authentic historic site. You might also want to note what kind of tourist interest you will get from having a historically-listed site.

Financial Investments

Fortunately, not everything about owning a Chattanooga historic home is hard work! Historic homes, when restored with authenticity, safety, and modern comfort in mind, are an incredible financial investment. Many people are willing to pay top dollar for homes that are in perfect shape or that have a keen attention to detail.

Many local governments also offer tax credits and tax freezes for those who maintain a certain level of quality in their registered historic homes. This means that a historic home can be a great investment, as well as a beautiful piece of architecture.

Finding and Buying Your Historic Home

When refurbished to contain all the modern amenities today’s families need and enjoy, a historic home can become a showpiece – both for your own visitors as well as those interested in the history of Chattanooga, Ooltewah and Hixson. As with all real estate purchases, however, this one should be made after much consideration and under the guidance of your trusted agent.

It’s that time of year.  Getting down to the wire on choosing gifts for family and friends. With these tight economic times, who would have thought that Fluffy would be included?

Well, the caring people at thirteen of our local animal clinics have done just that.  They have entered into a friendly competition to see which clinic can raise the most “wish list” items which will be donated to our two animal shelters. This is a community-wide donation drive for the Humane Educational Society and McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center.

The South-Eastern Association of Veterinary Assistants and Technicians, a local Chattanooga area and North Georgia group of licensed veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants are sponsoring this drive through November 30^th.

So stop in, review the list and take a goodie or two over for man’s best friends (cats, too) and bring some joy to these beautiful creatures as they await their forever homes.

Participating clinics are:  Ashland Terrace Animal Hospital, Middle Valley Animal Hospital, Red Bank Animal Hospital, Riverview Animal Hospital and Sequoyah Animal Hospital.

For more information, please email SEAVAT directly at seavat@mail.org