How the Coldwell Banker CEO Found My Blog

We interrupt our regularly scheduled real estate blog post to bring you a very cool, and slightly bizarre, example of the power of social media.. It goes a little something like this..

Two days ago I was sitting in our monthly sales meeting, and I sent out this Tweet to Twitter:

In sales meeting - may was best month since July 2007

This tweet prompted the following exchange between me and Michael Silence, or as he's known on Twitter, @MichaelSilence:

MichaelSilence: That's great news. Are you putting up details at your blog?

suzytrotta: hmmm, I hadn't thought about it, but that's not a bad idea

MichaelSilence: Shoot me a link if you do, please

So, I did write about it that evening and I sent Michael Silence the link.

Wednesday morning, he posted about my article on his blog, No Silence Here, that he writes for KNS.

Wednesday afternoon, my managing broker forwarded me an email from our business representative at Realogy, the parent company of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC:

Everyone,

Please read the blog written for the Knoxville New Sentinel indicating how the market in going in this area. The blog was written by Susy Trotta, who is ... affiliated with Wallace & Wallace in Knoxville.

Way to go Susy!

Our business director had apparently read Michael Silence's post on my post. She was a little confused, however - I don't write this blog for KNS - although KNS blogger Michael Silence does regularly link to it and quote from it. And also, I don't know anyone who spells their name "Susy." That's just silly.

All confusion aside, it was a very nice pat on the back and I was as pleased as punch. As I was feeling all warm and fuzzy, I looked at the list of people she'd sent the original out to and realized that the "Everyone" she was addressing in this email referred to all the top brass at Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC, including Jim Gillespie, President and CEO.

Crikey!

A few minutes later, one of my owning brokers forwarded me an email he received from our CBRE, LLC Regional Direcotor:

Charlie Young [CBRE, LLC Marketing VP] forwarded to me the blog written by your own Susy Trotta. The blog was well written and as was already pointed out, she represented her company very well. Please let her know that I appreciate her for stepping out there and for doing such a good job!

Double crikey!

So basically, as the result of one Tweet, a bunch of Coldwell Banker folks all over the country, who didn't know me from Adam's house cat a few days ago, now know about me and my blog (and think it's pretty cool to boot). How sweet is that?

Now, I'm a commission only independent contractor, so none of this means much to me in terms of career advancement or actual moolah. That much is true.

But that's not the point. The point is that this time last year, as far as I was concerned, tweets and Twittering were something that birds did. I wasn't involved in any type of social media or blogging at all. If something interesting happened in sales meeting back then, I would have told my husband about it and that would have been that. This year I hear something intriguing in sales meeting, and the next thing you know, Jim Gillespie knows my name (even if he doesn't know how to spell it). See the difference between then and now? I think it's pretty huge.

And even though my brokers already knew about my blog from a few articles in the real world KNS, I don't think they understood what I was doing or the impact that blogging can have. I think they kind of get it now.

So, if anyone from Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC or its parent company, Realogy, is reading this, welcome and thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your time and kind words.

And if any of my brokers are reading this, remember that nothing tells me I'm appreciated quite like my own office on the ground floor of the West Town building :)

Blogging Their Way to a New Home

2 bloggers
+ 1 Friendship
+ 36 house showings
+ 4 Swiss Cake Rolls
__________________
Home Sweet Home

Knoxville Robbed, Size Apparently Matters

Knoxville was robbed. Well, metaphorically robbed, and by our old friend Forbes.com, no less. Remember them? The guys who used to put us on all their lists, calling us the best this and most wonderful that?

Well, Forbes has a new list and although they think that both Nashville and Memphis are among America's best cities for outdoor living, Knoxville didn't even make the cut.

The reason? Well, it's actually only because we're not one of the country's 40 largest cities, which were the only cities Forbes looked at when compiling the list. Apparently, size does matter.

So basically, East Tennessee's natural beauty, the plethora of outdoor activities available here, and the great Smoky Mountains themselves don't mean a thing because we're not "large" like Memphis or Nashville. Phooey. We may not be as big as those guys, but we're sure a lot prettier. Have you ever passed a spring in Memphis? I rest my case.

If you feel like Knoxville was robbed of its spot on this Forbes list due to city size discrimination, why not send a friendly email to the article's author, Rebecca Ruiz , and let her know? And come back here and let me know if you do. Heh.

(Really) Tiny Homes

No, seriously, they're tiny. Like 100 sq ft tiny. And sure, they're environmentally friendly, but I got so claustrophobic watching the video, I had to turn it off. Now I'm getting light headed just thinking about watching it. So go ahead, you try to watch it. I dare you.




A lot of these are portable, so they'll build them and send them out to your little corner of the woods. Just don't invite me over, k? K.

Color Me Impressed

Nashville now has its very own line of Sherwin Williams paint colors. From The Tennessean:

Sherwin-Williams, which brought us the historic colors of Charleston with the Carolina Low Country Collection, has developed a Nashville palette, and some of the colors are inspired by the city's favorite foods and attractions.

The interior and exterior of The Parthenon inspired three colors: a burnt-red Freize, a reddish-orange Evening Temple and a gorgeous blue known as Coffered Ceiling. Cathedral Masonry, a soft dusty gold, pays homage to the bricks of the Cathedral of the Incarnation on West End Avenue. And Woof brown was conceived over café-au-lait at the Hillsboro Village coffeehouse Fido.

Other Nashville inspired colors include Flapjacks (after the Pancake Pantry) and Vandy (gold, of course). Street names and parts of town also got their own colors.

So, other than Big Orange, what colors would you recommend for a possible Knoxville line?

And what colors would Cumberland Ave, Broadway, Chapman Highway or Kingston Pike be? How about Island Home, Sequoyah Hills, Holston Hills or all of Farragut?

Let your imagination run wild in the comments, people.

Looking a Gift House in the Mouth

Sometimes getting something for "free" doesn't mean it won't cost you anything. Remember Oprah's car giveaway fiasco? Apparently HGTV's Dream Home giveaway has a few pitfalls as well. According to the Chicago Tribune:

The winners of the annual "HGTV Dream Home" giveaway loved the house but plan to sell it. Each year, the cable network builds a glorious getaway home and furnishes it to the hilt, and then gives it away in a random drawing from among hundreds of thousands of entries. Almost every year, the winner has said: "Gee, it's great, but I can't afford it," and puts it on the market.

This year is no different, according to Florida media reports, which say that the Iowa couple who won the $2.2 million, three-story beach house in the Florida Keys will be putting it up for sale because the prize also comes with a $700,000 bill from the IRS, plus $20,000 in annual property taxes.

Oops, ouch, & yikes. There really is no free lunch, is there?

Straight from the Cashville

Josh Flory over at Property Scope noted an article from The Tennessean about the Nashville housing market in his daily briefing today. The article says that although Nashville home sales are down, purchase prices are up:

Despite the rising inventory and falling sales, the median price of a single-family home increased 3 percent to $178,388, the fourth time in the last six months that the average home price has risen. The median price of a condo also climbed 5 percent to $160,573.

I'll be interested in to see what the Knoxville Home Sale Report numbers for March say when they come out next week.

Riskiest Real Estate Markets

Here's one Forbes list I'm glad Knoxille didn't make it onto: America's 10 Riskiest Real Estate Markets. The 10 unfortunate winners are:



1. Detroit, MI
2. Orlando, FL
3. Cleveland, OH
4. St. Louis, MO
5. Miami, FL
6. Las Vegas, NV
7. Sacramento, CA
8. Denver, CO
9. Tampa, FL
10. Phoenix, AZ

How risky are these markets? This quote from Forbes.com says it all:

There's roulette and there's skydiving. Then there's investing in Detroit and Cleveland real estate.

Ouch.

Repeat after me: there's no place like Knoxville!

Winona Ryder Caused the U.S. Housing Crisis

I'm a little upset. I just found out that my generation is responsible for more than the gratuitous wearing of flannel, the death of Kurt Cobain, the rise of Courtney Love, Winona Ryder in general, and the tech boom and subsequent crash. According to Generation X Finance, Gen X'ers may also have caused the current mortgage & housing crisis. How, you ask?

1. We were too darn optimistic.

Generation X Finance:

If we look at the position of Generation X in the economy, a noticeable trendemerges. The majority of those in this generation that attended collegegraduated in the mid- to late-90s. What was the economy doing then? We wereinthe midst rapid technology growth, and the sky was the limit. The economy wason fire, high-paying jobs were almost being handed out upon graduation, and lifecouldn’t have been better for this generation....
..But without being able to experience or understand the effect of inflation rates in the double-digits and what a bear market feels like, this generation had unbridledoptimism as they set out on their own.

Unbridled optimism? Really? Didn't this guy see Reality Bites?

2. We were childless, overeducated, and rolling in the dough.

Gen X Finance:

Without a family or children to support, the booming economy presented opportunities that most young adults could only dream of. Unlike their boomer parents who typically worked blue-collar jobs and didn’t venture far from their roots, many Gen Xers saw an opportunity to take dream jobs almost anywhere in the country.

And lose them one or two years later in the tech crash, causing them to go home and cry to their mamas. I know - it happened to me.

3. We were overly mobile and buying more house than we could afford.

Gen X Finance:

Since people were not often bound to their hometown by a spouse or young child, this allowednew graduates to pick up and move to the hottest areas in the country. Of course, with the salaries being offered and few financial obligations, this meant many could buy the house of their dreams at a very young age.

Ok, maybe I just didn't have the right friends. I had lots of friends that moved to New York, Chicago and San Francisco during this time and none of them bought homes. They either a) couldn't afford to, b) didn't have the credit to, or c) were scared to, knowing their new "dream jobs" could go up in smoke at any minute.

The people I knew who stayed in Knoxville and bought homes, bought small homes that actually had lower mortgage payments than they were paying in rent.

4. We lost our shirts in the tech crash because we didn't see it coming.

Gen X Finance:

Suddenly, those living the high-life are faced with increased expenses and potential income loss. This is a bad situation to be in if you were dedicating 30-50% of your income to housing. Now, the generation that has experienced nothing but good times is completely lost.

I worked for a software company/internet start-up from 1998 to 2001. Trust me, the only people who didn't see the writing on the wall were the 40 and 50 something CEOS with dollar signs in their eyes. The rest of us rode it out, hoping for a decent severance package.

In summary, the Gen X Finance article states:

When you combine a generation of people who were possibly biting off more than they could chew and leaving themselves unable to cope with economic changes, you find the effect on housing, real estate, and credit to be very significant across the board.

Whatever. Maybe I'm prejudiced, but my experience with my generation has been that we are extremely resillient. I would be interested to know how many of the "4 million foreclosures" that McCain talked about today belong to Gen X'ers. And while I'm sure some of us played a part in what is playing out in the US economy right now, I seriously doubt if we, as a generation, caused it. This situation comes down to a lot of bad personal decisions by many different individuals, all of whom didn't want to admit to themselves that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

But you can still totally blame Winona Ryder if you want to.

Knoxville 7th Best Place to Buy Foreclosures

Forbes.com just named Knoxville the 7th best place in America to buy a forclosed home, and no, that doesn't mean our housing market is tanking. It's actually a good thing.

Forbes is saying that Knoxville, and the other 9 cities on their list are places worth investing in not only because their real estate markets are not totally tanked, but also because they're actually showing signs of growth.

According to the article:

"Only today's bravest buyers would consider homes in cities like Las Vegas and Tampa, where rampant foreclosures are sinking already weak real estate markets.

But in markets in other cities, where there are hints of stabilization, foreclosed properties might be a good investment. "

Hey, I'll take a hint of stabilization over signs of certain demise any day.

To come up with the list, Forbes looked at median home price, spread between median prices and foreclosure prices (foreclosure savings), annual foreclosure rate, and median home price change from 2006 to 2007. Here are the stats for Knoxville:

Median home price: $125,150
Foreclosure savings: $30,696
Foreclosure rate: 0.6%
Price change 2006-2007: 3.43%

And yes, that 3.43% price change is a good thing.

I've listed all 10 cities on the list below.

1. Charlotte, N.C.

2. Raleigh, N.C.

3. Nashville, Tenn.

4. Oklahoma City, Okla.
5. San Antonio, Texas

6. Albuquerque, N.M.

7. Knoxville, Tenn.

8. Seattle, Wash.

9. Indianapolis, Ind.

10. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria

Williamson County Makes Forbes List

Here's some good news to start off your work week.

Williamson County, Tennessee, home to Franklin and Brenwood, has just been named on Forbes' new list of "Best Places to Get Ahead" - places where income growth and job growth are highest.

"There are very few economies that have grown as much from manufacturing as those in Tennessee, due, in part, to its more hospitable business environment and less entrenched unions. Williamson County, outside of Nashville, has a median income of $81,449, up almost 18% from 2000. Jobs have jumped 5.5% per year over that time."

Other places that made the list include Stafford County, outside of Washington D.C.; Forsyth County, GA, outside of Atlanta; and Delaware County outside of Columbus, OH.

Best places to get ahead - Forbes.com

Home Shows, Magazines Adapt to New Market

Looks like homeowners and Realtors aren't the only folks having to do things differently since the market started self-correcting. Networks like Knoxville-based DIY and home magazines like Better Homes & Gardens are changing their content to better fit the times:

"Fix-and-flip shows have given way to programs that focus on living more with less, and home magazines increasingly spotlight segments for budget-minded consumers.

'We put much more emphasis now on projects for a mix of budgets,'says Gayle Butler, editor in chief of Better Homes and Gardens magazine."

But that doesn't mean that business is bad. Knoxville-based HGTV's senior VP of content and development says that his network is doing just fine despite the upheavel in various local real estate markets:

"'Does it mean people stop getting married, having children or getting job transfers across the country? No," he says. "We offer property shows that help people, so our ratings have never been stronger.'"

DIY TV, magazines adjust to changing housing market - chicagotribune.com

Friday Link Round-Up

TVA hits us one more time - Tennessean

Which we apparently can't afford anyway - RealEstateJournal

Need to cheer yourself up now?

Go take a spin on Knox County's very first roundabout! - KNS

Trading Places

Why buy or sell your home when you can swap it?

How Knoxville Ranks in Housing Affordability

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index's 4th Quarter report is out . The index ranks housing affordability by percentage of homes in a metro area that are affordable for a median income family in that area. Knoxville ranked 63rd nationally, with 68.4% of homes being affordable for median income families. Regionally, Knoxville ranked 16th, coming in just behind Chattanooga in 8th place, and Memphis in the 11th spot.

What Will $1,000,000 Get You in KTown?

Well, it depends on where you are, accorinding to Forbes.com. In Dallas or Houston, you'll get a nice 5,000 sq ft home with 5 or 6 bedrooms. If you're buying in Manhattan, you'll have to downsize a little, as your 7 figures will only get you a 600 sq ft, one bedroom apartment. Ouch.

So what will $1,000,000 get you Knoxille?

In the MLS today, there are 74 Knox County Properties with a list price of $999,000+. Here's a sampling of homes listed right around the $1,000,000 mark:

• A 98 year-old 5570 sq ft completely renovated historic home on 5+ acres in Fountain City


• A 6400 sq ft estate home with 4 BR, 3 1/2 BA on 2+ acres in Halls


• A secluded 3400 sq ft compound on 17 acres in South Doyle


• A 5 BR, 4 1/2, 5500 sq ft custom home in Westmoreland Heights


• A 7,000 sq ft lakefront home in River Club


• A 7,300 sq ft, 5 BR, 4 1/2 BA estate home in Fox Den -- minus the chandelier over the breakfast table, which does not convey (hey if you can afford 1,000,000 big ones, you can afford your own breakfast table chandelier, am I right?)
  

Knoxville Condo Prices Strong

Knoxville has always had a great condo market, thanks to an abundance of empty nesters, relocating retirees, and UT students. Now, the latest quarterly survey by the National Association of Realtors (R) shows that our condo market is still going strong:

"The strongest condo price increases were in Bismarck, N.D., where the fourth quarter price of $125,000 rose 20.8 percent from a year earlier,followed by the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner area of Louisiana, at $173,300,up 17.8 percent, and Knoxville, Tenn., where the median condo price of$160,800 rose 10.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006. "

Chalk that up on the "What bubble?" side of the real estate market debate.

Type rest of the post here

Knoxville Foreclosures

Interesting article today on knoxnews.com about Knoxville foreclosures as compared to the rest of the state and country. There's good news and bad news. The bad news is:

• There were 2,770 foreclosure filings in Knoxville in 2007, which is a 47% raise from '06 filings.


• 6 out of every 1000 Knoxville area households entered some stage of foreclosure in '07

Before you head for the hills, here's the good news:

• Out of 100 major metro areas, Knoxville ranks 72 in foreclosures. Compare that with Nashville at 59 and poor Memphis at 13!


• Although delinquincy rates on subprime mortgages in Tennessee as a whole are 3-4% higher than in the rest of the country, delinquincy rates in Knoxville were only 9.9% at the end of '06 as compared to the country's average of 18%.

It goes on to say that there is no glut of foreclosed properties in the Knoxville market, as anyone perusing http://www.firstpreston.com/ can tell you. Again, take a look at the Memphis foreclosures for a comparison. It's night and day.

And although regular home sales were down 10% in Knoxville in '07, we know from KAAR sales data that homes are still appreciating in Knoxville, always a good sign.

So what does this all mean? It means what a lot of people have been saying all along -- Knoxville is a great market. Very few markets in the country will not be affected in some way by what's happened in the mortgage industry, but, relatively speaking, Knoxville is doing pretty durn good. I just don't think the mortgage crisis can keep Knoxville down.

Forgoing Foreclosure - knoxnews.com