I dropped into Addison’s bookshop in Knoxville to see if anyone had bought Principles of Real Estate and Murder. I’d had a few folks buy it from the “Local Authors” shelf when ANOTHER but dropped in! Audri from Wisconsin randomly brought my book to the counter! It was fun to have an impromptu signing! I ❤️ Knoxville!
Frank Merchant is not me. He’s a lot better than me in some ways. I’m probably better than him in others. That’s how crafting humanity from imagination goes. There are similarities, but I think that could be said for any of us who operate within the society of mankind. Especially in Knoxville.
In this blog I intend to explore the world of Frank Merchant’s Knoxville and share my own as well.
If you ever consider making Knoxville your own, my team of veteran agents at Hutch and Howard at Keller Williams would love to help you make our Knoxville yours! Find your next home here!
Imagine the first moment that you get over that hurdle – I’m going to buy a house!
Closing Time at Hutch & Howard!
It’s a mixture of excitement and terror. The biggest purchase you’re likely to make for a while. Short of having a child or starting a new full-time business there’s hardly anything in this life that changes your perspective on EVERYTHING than changing where you call home. Your home is your identity – it reflects and affects what you do in your personal time, how you see yourself. It determines who your neighbors are… or whether you’ll ever see anyone when you get home.
The first day that I meet up with new buyers there are always a TON of questions – just like a journalist I ask the basic questions Who (is making the decisions about the purchase), What (type of home are you looking for), When (do you need to be there – are you ready to go NOW? Also, how available are you to go look at homes) Where (do you want to have your new home – what type of location), Why (what’s changing in your life to motivate the big move), and finally How (the biggest question of all!)
Most of these are easy questions – for example: “I am getting married, we want OUR house, we’re thinking we’ll want to grow our family and have a baby in the next few years and we need a home office so at least 3 bedrooms, we’d rather have a house than a condo, our leases are up in a couple months and we’d love to have a week to move so closing right before the lease is up would be ideal, we both grew up in Halls and would like to be somewhere between Powell and Corryton – I work downtown so, hopefully no more than 15 minutes from there.” That is where the easy questions give way to the BIG question – HOW.
If you’ve been saving up over the years and if you have the funds ready to buy with cash it’s another very easy question. If not, the question of HOW takes an interesting turn. Looking at coming up with the funds to buy the house you want involves talking about how much house you want to buy. Getting pre-qualified by a great (ideally local) lender is one of first steps with his. It tells you how much you CAN spend – how much they’ll be willing to lend you based on your credit history, your employment status and other information. After you’ve gotten this information you have to determine what you WANT to spend. Usually the banks will lend about 1/3 of your annual income toward buying a home – financed and forecast over 30 years.
We will have conversations about this. Our goal is that your new home will be a blessing, not over-bought or needing more maintenance than you want to take on.
Below is an amortization table that will help with knowing what your loan will look like, it shows the principle and interest costs per $1,000 borrowed, once you find out about the interest rate for your loan.
As a first time novelist, I’ve learned how easy it can be to make your character hyper-realized versions of people you really know. In one case I even used the guy’s real name.
Adam Gratz has been a friend of mine since he had a stint in the real estate game several years ago. While the character in the book bears some similarities to the real man – Adam is an internationally recognized moonshine distiller, he is widely traveled from youth including a trip to China representing a national champion high school wrestling team to points throughout America for competitions with his distilled creations – Adam is a colorful character in his own right.
I’ve enjoyed his and his wife Amanda’s company in any number of fun situations from late night poker games and tailgating before watching our beloved University of Tennessee Vols to watching him demonstrate his stock in trade, actually helping pour fermented mash into a still that he once kept in a beautiful outdoor kitchen near his home.
There are many elements of the Adam Gratz character in Principles of Real Estate and Murder that aren’t real. He isn’t a Knoxville restaurant/bar mogul … yet. I don’t think he even has designs on doing that. He certainly isn’t tangled up with the mob and Amanda doesn’t have a food-truck park – though I’m certain she would make an excellent one if she wanted to do so!
In my book “Principles of Real Estate and Murder” the main character (told in first person) wanders a lot of places that I’ve wandered at various times. After I sent the book to print I learned a few things weren’t the same in “Frank’s Knoxville” and the real world.
I dropped by Chivo Taqeria in Downtown Knoxville with a copy of the paperback for the manager a couple weeks ago. I think there’s a good chance the diners would hear the report from the gunshots echoing down the downtown canyon that is Gay St. I hadn’t thought about it being winter. The other three seasons there would likely be someone seated at the smattering of tables on their sidewalk patio section. When I was there – Frank might have died for lack of people walking in the area.
Each morning I receive a daily group text message from an agent/coach in Michigan, who gives messages on a wide range of subjects from discipline, tips on marketing, mindset and more. When I stop to read them they always hit me in different ways. Sometimes I’m wearing my “Administrator” hat, others I’m waiting for a client to show a house or about to walk into a Listing appointment – at that time my “Realtor hat” is on. After more than 20 years of selling homes in Knoxville and East Tennessee – I become more and more aware of all the different “hats” we wear. Often – if I see a lot of things that might be challenges for a potential buyer during a showing I’ll tell them I’m taking my realtor hat off and putting on the “amateur home inspector” hat – pointing out why this might be the maintenance-free home they think they’re seeing.
A big attraction of real estate to new and potential agents is “freedom” – yes, you set your own hours, but those hours aren’t always the ones you’d think. I remember my first few transactions were all done after hours. I sat in a UT apartment on Sutherland Ave. at 1 a.m. with my friend Mariusz as we went through every aspect of the deal – discussing pros and cons of buying a “pig in a poke” that the HUD foreclosure he’d chosen to offer on represented. I had to reiterate “Nobody knows – but from all I can see it’s a good deal!” The relationship that we forged in that late-night conversation eventually resulted in the purchase and sale of several more homes over the years ranging from less than $50,000 to more than $400,000. The hours you put in always pay off – not always in commission income, but in expertise – which is much more valuable than the effort you put in to gain them.
What does that freedom cost? Jeff Glover – the Michigan agent – rightly said that in the beginning Freedom is expensive. If you want to exceed what you’d make at that 9-5 job, you’ll probably have to CHOOSE to invest 60 -80 hours per week in THE BEGINNING.
What you don’t know is: 1) what is going to work? 2) what should I focus on? 3) who is a real buyer/seller and who is using me for information and will never sign a contact? 4) who is going to help me get where I want to be? These and myriad other questions are either swirling in your brain or you don’t even know to ask them yet. The great thing is that it’s a people business and people will help you know the questions to ask and where to find the answers!
My first year – aside from a couple of family transactions – all the people who ended up as clients were people who already knew and trusted me. They were friends from college who saw that I was working hard in my job, was talking about it (a little of the successes and more of what I’d discovered that might benefit them). This is still true – my Sphere of Influence – people who know me – still make up more than 80% of my client base. Figuring out that my Sphere was larger than I first thought and giving myself permission to talk with them about real estate were the giant leap from 60+ hours of work to real Freedom in my work, growing my database and enjoying financial as well as more personal time freedom. “Being out amongst ‘em” is the secret to that real freedom.
I always had call-resistance, always had fears of coming off Salesy to people I knew or met, but was finally empowered one night at a bar in Market Square where I’d chatted with a random fellow about the band that was about to play and the ins and outs of downtown Knoxville. When I innocently mentioned that I had just left from showing houses the whole conversation turned, the random guy peppered me with questions, talking about the house where he rented and how he’d like to be a landlord someday. Instantly, I wasn’t afraid to talk about real estate, realized that I’d put in enough time to know that I could confidently answer the basic questions and felt released from a lot of self-doubt. Of course, it comes back – even now -when I talk to someone who is interested in an aspect outside of my comfort zone. Some things that they taught in my first real estate classes (after the “Pass The Test” classes at real estate school) once I joined Keller Williams (we’re offering full scholarships to real estate school – call with questions 865-385-9070) answered all of my early questions – I wish I’d started with them, since my first company was wonderful, but it was small and didn’t have any set-up for training other than being self-taught.
Basically – being a real estate agent is metaphorically like being a student athlete – you have to learn, you have to practice and you have to perform consistently to keep up your scholarship. That scholarship is a wonderful reward though! Being able to switch hats from student to professor to salesman to therapist – depending on who you’re talking with – that sums up the job.
Not too long ago I had the opportunity to sit down with one of my favorite Knoxville podcasters – literally and figuratively Jody Collins of Feral Giant towers over the competition. Standing at 6’7″ smart, funny and infectiously engaging, Jody has recorded hundreds of hours with a wide range of Knoxville people from all walks of life, highlighting great stories of KnoxLife as well as the experiences of those who have wandered to and from Knoxville. The “fish out of water” stories that have sometimes become a theme in his interviews – Knoxville people out in the world at large and in every situation from creating topiaries in London to mission trips to Brazil.
I have joined him a few times talking about general life in Knoxville on the Ramblin’ Man podcast, and more recently on a show that Jody has hosted for Visit Knoxville called Why Knox? There we discussed loving Knoxville and talked a bit more about my 17 years as a Knoxville Realtor and how Hutch & Howard works.
As an “on the ground” REALTOR (one who actually works with real estate clients in an age of people who purport to be your agent while having a crew of 20+ agents covering all aspects of the agency with the “lead agent” just serving as a figurehead) for the past 17 years, I have learned some of the patterns of realty.
When they first are thinking of selling, friends/clients ask when to put their house on the market. I always tell them Valentine’s Day – that is the ceremonial first day of real estate Mad Season in Knoxville and East Tennessee. The reasons are simple – the first sunny day after Valentine’s Day has always been the time when people figuratively come out of the woodwork looking for a new home, looking to sell and move up (or down) and the sales inventory is always historically low.
This has been a tactical advantage for the people I have helped with listing their homes during this time, since this is also a time when the biggest annual moves in pricing have happened, when homes have appraised for higher and people are able to get the more for their property through cash offers and highly motivated buyers coming in for career moves and other corporate-sponsored relocations where companies help their new management and executives come to Knoxville or sell their homes as they move to another city for advancement.
Our small 5 person team each knows about our transactions and we discuss what’s going on in our weekly meetings and throughout the week – Carrie Mays is our Director of Everything – she’s the broker who knows what’s really going on with each transaction. We call this Mad Season because often my real estate team is working like mad – especially after coming out of comparatively near-hibernation during the preceding holiday season.
It’s not unusual to have 35 or more homes going under contract per month between mid-February and mid-May, when traditionally most sellers catch on that it’s a seller’s market and begin to flood the area with FSBO signs that eventually become our listings after a couple weeks of seeing what we do.
This year in the middle of Mad Season, the Chinese government “released the Kraken” in the form of the evil COVID-19 super virus, that has become the bane of American existence as well as a mass-murderer across the world. While this has had devastating effects on the global economy, has temporarily quashed international (and much of domestic) travel, Mad Season has struggled on. In the past few weeks we have listed and sold 34 homes, several buyers have been moving from areas that are ravaged by the virus, others are part of the movement that was described above – moving for jobs, retiring from high-tax states to the mountains and more tax-friendly climes of East Tennessee.
Here with all the flowering trees blooming and people jogging with their dogs around our gently rolling neighborhoods – “sheltering in place” isn’t nearly as foreboding as in a speedier culture where life only revolves around large cultural gatherings with strangers. We still have LOTS of events and usually mingle with crowds – it just still feels like a “bigger city problem” for many of us.
While pollen and yellow-jackets are still the most obvious perils – there is plenty of fear – social distancing and Zoom meetings are just as much a part of Knoxville life as anywhere else, though today’s Second Bell on-line music festival promises to be fun. It’s still a pale and sickly cousin to the fun of wandering around Suttree’s Landing with friends (and friendly strangers) sampling food truck fare and sampling the wares of one of the 100s of new micro-breweries that continued to pop up in the exploding economy of the past few years.
I can only imagine this is how those in the Roaring 20s of last century felt when the market crash of 1929 happened – leading to the Depression of the 1930s. God forbid that history repeats itself. We can only hope that (albeit slow in the beginning) sharp and decisive actions of the government will keep everything afloat while this all passes. That the strength of the American economy will be enough to carry us through what is proving to be “interesting times.”
The virus has had me in a quandary – they say the time to buy is when there is a panic like this one – there are still buyers wanting to see homes. There is still business there waiting to happen. I know with the relief package comes stimulus and I’m not afraid to don some gloves and a mask along with my glasses and go look at some houses! This season is a little less mad, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to put in a 16 hour day. I just have a pact with my wife that the clothes go in the laundry, everything is swabbed down with disinfectant and I catch a long hot shower before going in for a welcome home hug and kiss.
Hutch & Howard is part of Keller Williams – Farragut / Hardin Valley. Each Keller Williams office independently owned and operations. The main office phone number is 865-966-5005. You can reach Rob Howard at 865-385-9070 or Brandon Hutchison at 865-216-2009.
It’s an old and popular adage – I know it’s applied in a lot of places – but nowhere is it likely to be truer than in East Tennessee… “If you don’t like the weather – wait a few minutes!” Indeed today in Knoxville is the mightiest example of it – our blazingly beautiful autumn colors of the Maples, Elms, Poplars and other native trees are all arrayed in the richest Reds, Yellows, Oranges and all shades in between – contrasted with the deep rich greens of the Pines and Cedars – while today they have a bonus crystalline white frosting of snow!
Nothing says “Novembruary” like East Tennessee Autumn peak leaf-peeping season set off in a carpet of a few inches of the amazing, temporary white stuff. This is even more striking when ya think about the last 24 hours. Last night when I went to sleep the temperature was a wonderfully comfortable 62 degrees with a morning drop of exactly 30!
Our mornings lately have certainly had the crisp chill of the seasons turning, just enough to give me second thoughts about taking the dog for his early morning wander throughout our neighborhood. Time change, when we “Fall Back” would normally make the 5:30 trip into a nearly crazy 4:30 event – somehow my body also went into hibernation mode with 6:30 feeling like the natural time to awaken.
Like the weather – it seems only the hardiest, most motivated buyers and sellers are raising their hands to buy and sell their homes this time of year. With the uncertainty of what the economy is likely to do in the next year or so, our business is marked by folks who are coming to or leaving town for more marked reasons than other times of the year – job relocations, retiring from high-tax to low-tax states and coming to be near family are the main reasons people are giving these days for their moves.
In the past few weeks I have helped friends find an agent wherever they are moving (whether outside the state or in areas that Hutch & Howard aren’t members of the MLS, and helped several others who have sent their friends to me for help in their relocation from elsewhere to the Knoxville area. I love these types of referrals because I know I’m sending my friends to highly qualified agents wherever they’re going. I also feel a special need to treat the folks they have entrusted to me as I expect them to treat my folks. If you’re thinking of moving to or from Knoxville we’d love to help – if you’re leaving town let us help you find an agent in your new town!
Earlier today I was looking at my calendar and planning things to do for the next month and in tiny muted letters – as the calendar always marks “holidays” the words Patriot Day seemed to whisper a memory.
I was fairly freshly out of UT and still working in Marketing for the food service company there. I’d began a new job traveling from West Virginia to North Georgia working at other small colleges and helping them with their marketing.
On that day I was in my home basement office – typing up purchase orders for some new signage when my boss Fred called and in a hardly decipherable Cajun English garble he mumbled something about planes exploding in New York and that I should turn on the TV.
Like the rest of America and the free world I sat and stared – gobsmacked – while they replayed the plane hitting. Then ANOTHER plane hit it live!
I was sick, I prayed, I fretted and mentally traveled there trying to catch my breath in all the dust that enveloped everything in the images I was seeing on the screen.
I called everyone and told them, I tried to think about what friends might be in NYC or Washington or Shanksville, PA. I had friends who had family in the Twin Towers – I’d be surprised if anyone in America was more than a couple degrees of separation from someone in the wide and varied population that died that day – but I lost nobody that I knew directly.
In this – the season of Patriot Day – 18 years removed – it’s amazing how much the terrorists have taken from us. How much fear has grown and metastasized through the culture. How many of their own families and interests have been obliterated in both retaliation, escalation and hatred. And how America has gotten more like them – hate and love have always been a large part of our culture and that of the terrorist perpetrators of that day.
I remember the blossoming of Americana in the ensuing days, the sad memorials, the striking stories and quirky incidents. The awe inspiring Freedom tower that rose from the ashes and the moment of panic that rose in my stomach a few weeks ago when I was waiting in the mile-long TSA line when I noticed my (ever-present) pocket knife was in my stuff as I was getting ready to board a plane.
Life has changed. People are more polarized, untrusting and patriotic for what they believe is right. But worst of all the freedom that we all enjoyed has given way to an insular protectionism that values safety over liberty and often those who wish it was like before (like me) are becoming relics.
I am heartened working with my young cousin, my intern, in her second year of college. She who was 3 years old when the planes took down the towers. She grew up in this world and is flourishing. She and other young people in my family are not like my generation – they have hope and irresistible optimism. That hope and love of God and each other is all we’ve got to build upon.
This weekend I was showing a condo that looked out on the Tennessee River – it was a great place, looking out over weekenders in their pontoons, paddleboards, these crazy water-bicycles that looked like they might be harder to operate than the person who rented them might’ve expected. The condo was lovely in it’s own right without such a spectacular view of the new Suttree Landing Park. There were things that I would personally change and my client asked what I’d suggest – all my suggestions, I realized later, would have made the 1990s vintage place look and feel more like the 1890s homes in the Old North Knoxville and Fourth & Gill areas that I personally love so much. He liked many of the ideas, but we both realized at the same time that the suggestions would be tough to pull off in a “newer” place. At the end we agreed that putting in hardwood floors would be an age-appropriate improvement over some of the other ideas.
In a fit of self-awareness I realized that he wasn’t asking for my ideas on how I’d make it my own favorite spot in Knoxville, but how to make it perfect for him. In that moment I started asking better questions and tailoring answers and ideas – even suggesting other locations that might make his home happen more easily. We may end up circling back the “million dollar view” that would be nearly impossible to find elsewhere, and in the price range. If we do that he’ll have seen a few more places that might help him craft that place into HIS place.
Earlier in the day I’d done a final walk-through inspection of a home in Oakwood-Lincoln Park neighborhood before a closing scheduled for this week. My suggestions would have made the condo (priced well over $300,000) more closely resemble the beautiful old house a couple miles away that was about ⅓ the price. The next time someone asks what I’d do to a place, I think I’ll dig a little deeper in my experience than the last home I saw that I loved.
Whether it’s a riverfront condo, a charming bungalow or the suburban family home that you’re looking for we’d love to help with the search and help you sell your current place to someone who’ll love it like we do!
Knoxville! Rob Howard’s blog 