Sullivan Farms is a Subdivision located in Franklin, TN between Mack Hatcher Parkway and Lewisburg Pike South of downtown. It has various home designs and price points.
Currently there are 16 homes available for sale and 1 has sold thus far in October 2011.
The Median square foot price is $114.3 and the median home size is 2914 square feet. The one sold home was 719 Braemere Dr that sold for $322,500 to make it $111.36 per sqft.
With prices low, inventory high, mortgage rates fluttering around record lows and with great HUD and Foreclosure Offerings, now is a great time to buy and an even better time to buy your first home. So what does the average tenant need to know to get started buying that first home?
This is a basic list as people’s past experiences will also impact their situation or their understanding of the process, so we still suggest a personal consultation to have the best buying experience.
Make a Budget: While you are still renting or living at home setup your financial budget for monthly expenses and income. Get a comfortable feeling of what you think you would like to spend monthly on your housing needs. This is the first step in understanding the price point of the house you should be looking for and how much down payment money to save in anticipation of offering on a home.
Start saving for a down payment: There are many down payment assistance programs available, but by far the best plan of action is to save a down payment of at least 3.5% of the purchase price.
Contact a REALTOR: make contact with your REALTOR of choice or with The Grumbles Team to have any questions you may have answered. Remember that the listing agent represents the seller so we advise you to make initial contact with an agent that you feel comfortable working with to protect your best interests in the transaction. It is as easy as calling an agent or now most agents are acceptable with communicating on Social Media outlets like FaceBook, or even texting and emailing to establish a relationship and determine if there is good connection and an agent you choose to continue to work with for your home purchase.
Search for homes online: The majority of buyers start their look online to establish more criteria for their first home and narrow down areas within their price range. The Grumbles Team has a website that allows for two way communication of favorite homes, new home listing alerts and setting appointments for homes online.
Connect with a Mortgage Lender: The agent can always make a recommendation of lenders but finally this also needs to be a service provider that you feel comfortable working with and are confident that they have great product offerings. You can find a lender typically at your local banking institution or from friends referrals as well as from the referral of your agent. The lender will establish credit worthiness in a few ways. Asking questions about employment, social security number, and running a credit check to obtain a credit score. Then they can explain the loan products available to you and determine the loan limit available and help determine the cash that will be needed to close on a property. Thus further clarifying property price ranges for our search to meet your comfortable monthly payment.
Property Selection: Based on the lenders report we can begin to select specific homes that meet your criteria and budget. We may at this point single out certain properties that have specific loan programs for their purchase. For example HUD acquired properties currently have a $100 down payment program, so a lower cash for home purchase entry buyer may focus just on HUD properties as candidates. Other options like THDA, Tennessee Housing Development Agency offer 100% financing programs (therefore no down payment) for homes in rural defined areas. If you qualify then maybe our search needs to confined to these geographic areas. So this is obviously an important part of the process and The Grumbles Team is fortunate enough to have a member of the team with 30+ years of mortgage experience to help navigate this step.
Home Tours: Together we identify the prospective properties and The Grumbles Team will schedule the tours of all the homes matching your criteria and do the research to identify value. We are experienced in the area and can provide guidance on the market and provide web links to allow you to do further research on schools, and other issues of importance to the buyer.
Review the Offer to Purchase contract: It is recommended to review the offer forms before he emotions and time crunch of an actual offer on a home clouds the buyers ability to interpret the meaning of the terms of the offer.
Earnest Money: Each offer must be accompanied by an earnest money check to show that the parties are acting in good faith with the offer. In the case of default of the contract the Earnest Money is lost. In the case of performance of the contract then the buyers earnest money check will be applied on the day of closing towards the purchase price of the home. Typical first time home buyer earnest money is $1000 to $1500 and thus the buyer must have that amount in their checking account to submit an offer as the check will be cashed within a few days of the agreement being confirmed by all parties. If the buyer is applying for a $100 down or no money down loan program then the balance of the earnest will show as a credit to the buyer at closing.
Find your future home: This is just a small part of the REALTORS job but the one that most people think consumes REALTORS time, showing houses. The Grumbles Team utilizes our proprietary Total Market Overview, GPS, iPad with 3G, and market experience to make these home tours educational and beneficial to the client.
Offers: The agent will write up the offer and submit it to the seller or sellers agent once the terms have been determined that best fit the client. Things to consider in the offer are cash to lose needs, price, closing date, seller assistance in closing costs, inspections, financing, and much more. The Grumbles Team works closely with the lender to make sure that the offer is in the best interest for a 1st time home buyer who is typically focused on less cash to close and low monthly payments.
Negotiation: There is typically some offer – counteroffer back and forth before the final agreement is made and each time the agent must relay the information timely and concisely to the client. The Grumbles Team can reduce the headache and time of the negotiation by utilizing SignMyPad or Electronic Signatures via email to avoid scanning and faxing signatures.
Inspection: The buyer has the option to have the home inspected either by themselves or via a licensed TN home inspector. The cost is due from the buyer at the time the service is performed. The cost is determined by the type and size of the property. A typical 1st time buyer property would be around $350. Another negotiation may occur to clarify the items that need to be repaired before the buyer will proceed with the purchase. The Grumbles Team has experience with a lot of different cases and understands timing is crucial in this process.
Title and Escrow: There needs to be a title insurance policy in place and it needs to protect bothe the new owner and the mortgage company. It is negotiable as to who pays for the Title Insurance. Title policies run about $4 to $5 per thousand of purchase price. If the buyer is paying for it and the seller is offering closing cost assistance it can be used for this. The title company will also escrow (hold money on behalf of others) and they make all the disbursements of funds. There is a charge for that service and to prepare all of the closing documents. Home Owners Insurance needs to be setup and the Title company advised of the agent/company.
Closing: Schedule your closing date and make all arrangements to move into your new home and set up utility services.
Follow-up and Testimonial: After the sale, the buyer may still have questions so ask your agent if you have further questions. The Grumbles Team will follow-up and we also request a video testimonial of the buying experience and for a Zillow online review to be completed.
Should you be renting in and around Franklin area now, please review this list above and contact The Grumbles Team to have a no cost consultation of making home ownership a reality for you.
You can reach us with any of the social media links below or by dialing 615-587-5843.
As proud parents of a sixth grader at BGA and involved members of the community in Franklin, TN The Grumbles Team at EXIT Realty of the South is committing to donate $200 from every real estate transaction that involves a BGA parent, or is a referral from a BGA parent faculty or staff to the One School. One Vision campaign to elevate the education at BGA.
BGA, Battle Ground Academy, has been dedicated to Character. Scholarship. Excellence. since it’s establishment in Franklin, TN in 1889. To continue to offer the best, funding is needed and the largest capital project is the One School. One Vision. campaign so we are glad to assist friends and families and faculty of BGA with their real estate needs and to help the school to ensure it’s future prosperity.
This past weekend was Fall Break for BGA (Battle Ground Academy), so our family planned a trip back to my college campus to introduce our daughter to the college atmosphere and to take a guided tour of Clemson University. Our daughter is only in the sixth grade in Franklin, TN so we are getting a bit of a jump on college campus visits as most of the 150+ visitors were Juniors or seniors in high school. But it was a great time to relive some of our memories as I graduated in 1993 from Clemson with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and my wife Graduated with her Masters in Elementary Education in 1992. The campus was busy when we arrived on Friday morning, but quickly thinned out in the afternoon as Monday and Tuesday were designated Fall Break for students. Many students were heading home, but others were road-tripping to Maryland to watch the Clemson Tigers take on Maryland to continue our fight in an undefeated season.
The entire trip and 2 hour guided walking tour got me thinking back to community and to being part of something bigger. The tour guide talked about Clemson University not as a place or an institution but as a group, or an organization of people with similar beliefs and goals in mind. So upon my return I wanted to connect with my fellow alumni from Clemson University that are now relocated in the Nashville area. I do stay connected with many of my fellow alumni on Facebook and in person with those living nearby, but I want to provide my services to Clemson Alumni and offer up a pledge to donate $100 to Clemson from every real estate transaction I conduct in the next year, that it is either a referral from an alum or a client that is an alum.
As an educated Tiger, I promise to represent my Alumni clients with the utmost in care and respect and to always remember to wear orange when meeting them for consultations. And I know that they will understand it when I balance our meeting schedule around Clemson Football and Basketball games. So if you are a young Clemson Alum just settling down in the Nashville area or are an established Alum in the Nashville area, I look forward to meeting you and one day helping you with your real estate needs.
And finally, GO TIGERS! We are clawing our way toward an undefeated season.
This month we are bringing you the total market overview for Westhaven via video. click below to watch video or you can continue to read on and you the detailed statistics below.
The average sold home price in Westhaven over the past six months $525,000 that compares to only $397,000 in the Franklin area. Over the past six months Westhaven is averaging and about 10 homes sold per month with the average home selling about hundred and 34 days. In the rest of Franklin homes are selling on average about 90 days but there average price point price again is much lower. Let’s look at actives, the active number of properties for sale in Westhaven is 82 units as of the day of this report with an average price of $563,000. the October 2011 total market overview report indicates that homeowners are not negotiating drastically under sales prices during the listing. The only reducing about 1% and then another one and a half percent during the negotiation. Those numbers are much better than the average for all of Williamson County, which is negotiating down there list price about 6.2% and then another 4.2% during offer negotiations
Click on any of the charts below to explore the data further.
New home construction continues at a brisk pace in the Westhaven subdivision. Just take a drive on the eastern side of the subdivision to see many new streets and homes being built. Whether you’re looking to buy in Westhaven where you have on the cell in Westhaven now’s the time to contact The Grumbles Team at 615–587–5843, were the only ones bringing you the real estate statistics to make the most out of your real estate investment.
The Grumbles Team routinely provides our clients, customers and future clients with an update on the real estate market in Williamson County. We provide our proprietary reports posting the average sales price, the average original list price, the average percentage properties have been reduced , how much the average negotiated discount was at the time of a presented offer, and more. Plus all of this data is presented by city or by zip code. We have always presented this data to our clients personally. Our future clients and customers have been able to follow our blog to receive the data, but starting this month we will begin to introduce these results to our via a video blog, so it can be found on our YouTube Channel and in our blog.
The chart above shows that Nolensville & Spring Hill are leading the way with low months of inventory. There’s 1988 active homes for sale the date of the report in all of Williamson County, with the bulk of those homes being for sale in Franklin at an average list price of $664,000 home prices in Franklin, appear to be falling as homesellers reduced their price almost a full 10% and are still active on the market. This is probably due in part to the large difference between the average sale price over the last six months in Franklin at $402,000 compared to the average list price in Franklin at $664,000. These homes may not be overpriced just priced outside of the typical buyer’s market.
With the recent news of General Motors reopening the automotive factory and Spring Hill will want to keep an eye on the spring Hill activity the Spring Hill market currently has hundred and 95 homes listed for sale at an average price of $254,000, while the average sale price of the last six months is $227,000 the Grumbles Team will keep an eye on this area to see if the news of these jobs being created wills help to stabilize that market.
Nolensville is a standout. When looking at the pending ratio thing is almost 20% of the homes on the market currently pending a negotiated contract the average list price of those homes with pending contracts and Nolensville is $333,000 and they were on on average only on the market for under a month.
Our proprietary total market overview also includes several graphs that will show you below. If you click on any one of these graphs it looks fancy can see the details of that data.
Contact The Grumbles Team today at 6155875843 to disscuss any of these reports and follow our blog to get them updated each month. Want an analysis of your home specifically click below.
Have you ever wanted to own a piece of history? Now is your chance to own it without doing all the restoration work yourself. The home at 9710 Concord Road was recently reduced to $849,000.
The current owner has taken loving care to restore the 1800’s Greek Revival Farmhouse. The high ceilings, livability and light are some of the features that make this restored home a delight. The balcony features a study/library sitting area with over 100 ca 1860 spindles and overlooks the living room. The living room is adorned with a ca 1830 mantle over the original fireplace and ca 1830 arched doors.
A gourmet dream kitchen features top end appliances. Hand hewn exposed beams with high ceilings only add to the charm of this wonderful kitchen with triple copper sink and copper pot filler and faucet. The keeping room at the end the kitchen has ca 1830 fireplace. Period reproduction furniture style cabinetry is custom made with 50% ca 1830 Tulip Poplar, tung oil finish and antique bin pulls.
Picture yourself relaxing and enjoying the fireplace with your guests in this beautiful dining room with large windows. Accents include ca 1800’s mantle and period specific tiles.
As if this wasn’t enough, the property also includes the restored Sanders Log Cabin nestled in the back of the property. This would make a perfect escape for an artist to enter a creative place whether writing music, authoring novels or painting.
This is a must see property to really appreciate all that it has to offer. To learn more about Mulberry Hill – The Ellis House, visit the website or virtual tour at www.EllisHouse.info or contact Mike Grumbles 615.587.5843 to schedule your private showing.
Buyers and Sellers need to read this blog post if they are considering to be involved in a real estate transaction in Williamson County, TN or the cities of Franklin, Brentwood, & Spring Hill. The market in Williamson county is somehow protected as if in a bubble of some sort, so do not compare FOX national news headlines to this real estate market. Take a look at the table below.
What I want to point out in the table above is for a few things , some specific to Sellers and some to Buyers.
For Sellers:
In Franklin $650,334 is the average home list price, THe average home price of sold homes is $399,738. The Median active price in Franklin is around $420,000. So that means that there are a few very priced Franklin Homes creating a drastic difference from the median to the average price in Franklin. But also shows that BUYERS are wanting to buy below the average home price in Franklin, typically meaning a smaller house or one where the price is lower. So if you are a SELLER and you have a high-end home to sell, your pool of buyers right now is reduced.
In Franklin on average over the past 6 months, sellers that got their homes sold were less aggressive with pricing discounts than Nolensville. They reduced their prices by just over 2% and were still willing to negotiate at the time of offer on average another 4.5%. Nolensville sellers dropped their prices 7% to get offers and then only 1.2% at the negotiation table. Nolensville is a smaller market but because of this aggressive price strategy they have a market with less inventory based on absorption rates (months of inventory).
Pending Ratio indicates where the market should be headed in the next 30 days. Nolensville for example has a lot of properties PENDING and thsus their inventory should be dropping rapidly. That will reduce a buyers choice (supply) and thus a prioce reduction is not in order at this time (if priced correclty to begin with).
The Grumbles Team utilizes this proprietary table to relay to our sellers how to properly price a home and also how to respond to an offer when that time arrives.
For Buyers:
Looking for a market that is stable, then choose markets above that have less months of inventory as they will likely begin to stabilize the price. Simple SUPPLY v DEMAND logic.
In Williamson County there are no markets where the buyer can come in ans (on average) swoop up properties at $0.50 on the $1.00. The above table includes all Single Family Residential home sales and that includes Foreclosures and Short sales and yet the average negotiation discount is less than 5%. So, sure you can make a real low ball offer, but don’t expect to always get that based on nationwide news networks.
The Grumbles Team has prepared these proprietary reports and will share this data with our buyers so that their dream home doesn’t escape them, and they understand the rationale behind a sellers counteroffer.
To have access monthly to this Total Market Overview for your area, please contact the Grumbles Team or follow our blog. We post this data monthly for Williamson County but can provide your county data by city and zip code directly to your email inbox. Study the table above and whether you are selling, thinking of moving, or looking to buy in Williamson County or surrounding areas, contact the Grumbles Team with questions on the data. We can be reached at 615-587-5843.
I want to dispel a few myths about HUD properties. Lets begin with the definition of a HUD property. It is simply a property where the original mortgagee had a loan that was insured by the federal government that later the mortgage was in default on through foreclosure was reclaimed. HUD is a branch of the federal government, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD is not in the business of real estate so it is there goal to find suitable new owners to these properties.
Myth: That HUD-acquired homes are in poor repair or bad areas. That is a myth, because the definition above of a HUD home said nothing about the location or the condition of the home, only the backing of the mortgage. How does this help you as a buyer? You can become the new owner with as little as $100 down payment. HUD has a promotion where they will allow you to offer less than list price, ask for closing costs to be paid on your behalf (up to 3%) and still only put down $100 towards the down payment. Combine that with interest rates below 4% and it is a crazy time not to buy a home. Myth #2: HUD properties are in bad repair. THis is not always the case, many times these homes are move-in ready and when not, there are escrow funds available to cover some costs of repairs to be made after closing. That means that included in the purchase price are funds to cover required repairs.
So what is the process for buying a HUD home? First a Real Estate Agent is required for you to access a HUD property. Do not visit these homes on your own even though they are vacant. It is trespassing unless you are visiting with a licensed agent that is registered with HUD. The Grumbles Team is registered with HUD. If you have another agent ask them if they have a NAID number. If they do not know what that is then they likely do not have one and cannot assist you in buying a HUD home. Second, before you find a HUD home that interests you, you need to talk to a lender. I recommend Keri Como with F&M Mortgage. You simply must know what you can qualify for and have a pre approval letter before making any offers on HUD homes. Next is to find the home that fits your needs that is a HUD home. That is where we help. The Grumbles Team stays on top of the areas HUD inventory daily. Once a property is identified we will help you assess the best bid price. The HUD homes are sold by bidding online and we have experience in winning these bids for our clients. With a winning bid, then we proceed to inspection, appraisal, and finally to the closing table.
Contact a member of The Grumbles Team today at 615-587-5843 if you are thinking of renting and would rather pay your own mortgage than that of the landlord. TO rent requires a deposit and that deposit is likely higher than the down payment in a HUD home.
The water in Franklin, TN has had a bit of an odor to it, dipped below state regulations, and it going to get more expensive. While none of these are positive, there is good news in the report that the Franklin water supply has faced these issues , notified the public if any issues and that the issues are all behind us now except for the price hike. In past dry summers such as this one there were water restrictions to avoid a shortage. This year there were no shortages, and the water despite the smell was deemed safe to drink. The shortage issues was resolved by repairing a leak in the reservoir and they utilized a $4 Million+ federal stimulus money to help with this repair.
The aldermen of Franklin voted 6-0 to raise water and waste-water rates in coming years. These increases are going to allow the city to continue to make Franklin, TN a great place to live. Thanks to The Tennessean for bringing us the full story on this subject.
Many homes are setup with filtration of their tap water either whole house, filters at the tap and refrigerators with filters for their in-door water dispensers. I would like to hear how you filter water at your home or if you drink bottled water or straight from the tap.
college atmosphere and to take a guided tour of Clemson University. Our daughter is only in the sixth grade in 
