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Real Estate Woes and An ALMOST Good Idea

We have a property that has been on the market for nearly six months now. It is sitting empty because we would really rather sell it than rent it. But we don’t want to give it away either, and in this tough market that puts us in a little bit of a rough spot. We’re not the only ones in this situation, and there are numbers to back this up.

Our contract with our realtor expires in a couple of weeks, and we’ve been discussing what to do next–rent the property until the market improves, drop the price, wait it out, try another realtor, try to sell it ourselves, etc.  We know the market is tough right now, so I think we are being pretty realistic about our options.  We’re also lucky that we have options–we don’t have to give it away.  We received a piece of mail Friday that may have helped us in this decision.

The company we have the property listed with is running a sale October 10-19. Their plan is to draw attention to the great buys available in the market with a national campaign. Sounds like a great and innovative idea! In order to participate, they’re asking homeowners to drop their price by at least 5%. And for the duration of the sale they are reducing their commission percentage by…

Zero.

I realize this is a tough market for agents as well, but this company missed a great opportunity to show their clients that “we’re all in this together”. Yeah, I know their commission would also be reduced by the same 5%, but on a $200k listing they are asking the owners to give up $10k while they are only giving up $600. Why not give up a full percentage point, you know, just to show you are REALLY serious about moving these properties? Why not show you also have a stake in making deals happen?  Why not use this as an opportunity to build relationships and a reputation with clients that will pay off for years to come?

Why not view this as an investment in your business?

In this case, they may have been better off doing nothing.  Someone at the top of this company should check out Seth Godin some time.  This really puts the agents in a bad spot as well, since they have not control over the situation.

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It’s Halftime. Can Fulmer be Fired Midgame?

I’m admittedly only halfway watching the Tennessee/Florida game, but what I’ve seen is atrocious. It looks like I stopped caring about college football a few years too early. I should have waited until this year to jump off the bandwagon. Every fan deserves at least one season of pure agony, right? I’m not talking about the agony of losing close games either…I’m talking about going out and getting abused by good teams and squeaking out wins (or losses) against bad ones.

If I were UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton, I’d be worried about my own job if I don’t get a football coach that can meet the expectation of fans who are being charged more and more for tickets.

Beat the rush…fire Phil Fulmer at halftime. Of course, sports talk radio isn’t nearly as entertaining when the Vols or winning, so for personal reasons I hope he stays around.

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Christmas in September

Via Michael Silence, gas in Knoxville is at $3.99:

That would be a $1 drop in 24 hours.

Think stations were gouging yesterday?  Did it make you mad?  If so, logic dictates that you must now sing their praises for the generous gesture of dropping their prices.

Or it could be that everyone got scared, filled their tanks, and now there aren’t any lines.

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Fire Fulmer! Redux

Here that?  That’s the muffled sound of cars running in closed garages all over East Tennessee.  There are big problems in the area.  Well, big problems unless you advertise on sports radio here and want your ad heard in between the “Fire Fulmer” calls.  It seems like I wrote this exact post exactly one year ago.  Oh yeah, I did.

After the stats about how long it’s been since the Vols won an SEC Championship, coasting since 1998, and how good Florida is every year, we’ll be asked that age old question…

“When are we gonna get somebody in here that can get it done?”

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Knoxville Central High School Shooting

I just talked to a friend with a son at Central who is ok, so I’m relieved about that. Apparently he was just walking in this morning when the shot when off and was able to get back outside immediately. I’ll be adding reaction as I read it.

**UPDATE**

Again, Twitter is the best place to keep up. As always, Michael Silence has roundups. I’m following vagredajr, djuggler, cathymccaughan plus people from Middle and West Tennessee who are sending thoughts and prayers.

**UPDATE**

An article on the victim by the KNS. Interesting in the comments that people instantly look for someone to blame. Instantly–without having all the facts. Makes you wonder–would their reaction be different if this shooting had occurred on a Friday night in the streets? Would they even care? Would there be this much coverage?

Something to think about…

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Straight Outta Knoxville

Thanks to the guys at Knoxify and Rootclip, I’m wearing a shirt today…my new Rootclip T-shirt that I won via Knoxify’s giveaway.

Eastcoast? Westcoast? Nope. This is all about Ebenezer and Westland–aka The Westland Ghetto. Entry to Knoxify’s contest was open to anyone discussing their ‘hood in the comments, so I figured I’d represent my block here.

And here’s a better look at the high quality T-shirt. Thanks again for helping save on my clothing budget, and check out Knoxify and Rootclip if you get a chance…both are examples of high quality interneting.

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Fair Is Fair

I just heard on Boortz that The Unabomber had a copy of “Earth in the Balance” in his shack when they arrested him.  Does that mean that Al Gore should be held responsible?

Seems reasonable using the logic that right wing nutjobs are responsible for this weekend’s shootings.

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Knoxville’s Miracle Mile? Huh?

Wh-wh-WHAT?  KnoxTalks has the lowdown on an NBC reporter making the statement about the stretch of Kingston Pike between Sequoya Hills and UT:

“people call it The Miracle Mile”

C’mon.  Making things up to make a news story more interesting is soooo 2003 New York Times.  But I’ll play along by making my own completely false and ridiculous statement and see if I get some play on big blogs for my nifty wordsmithing…

Big media clowns make up so much stuff about Knoxville, we call them all Jayson Blair.

Find me one Knoxvillian who has ever called this stretch “The Miracle Mile and I’ll buy you both dinner at The Varsity, which everyone knows is the place where all Knoxville locals eat.  It’s located out there in the new Turkey River development.

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I’m a Big Winner

Just wanted to say thanks to the guys over at Knoxify for rigging their random number generator so that I could win their contest.  Look for me around town wearing a shiny new RootClip t-shirt.  Hopefully by the end of the summer it won’t look like it’s two sizes too small.

I’ll be repesentin’ the Westland Ghetto in style.

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Church Shooting Here in Knoxville

I was enjoying a nice peaceful day with the fam and just now heard about this. Not much to say except that I’m stunned. Things like this are so rare here. We were just having a conversation last night about what a great place this is to live and have a family. I’m reading a lot of other people’s reactions right now, and I’ll update this post with links…

SugarFatPie–“That is my church”

SayUncle–“The Mrs. often asks why I carry to church. It’s because shootings keep happening at churches.”

Michael Silence–A ton of updates and links to blogger reaction

More via Michael Silence–“Jim D. Adkisson singled out the church for its support of “liberal” and “gay” issues.” Here’s to hoping someone in prison gives him some enlightenment to gay issues.

More info on Jim David Adkisson–“He disliked blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him.”

More stuff, really good stuff, from SayUncle:

The only difference another citizen with a gun would have made in this particular case is that instead of going to jail for three hots and a cot, Jim D. Adkisson would be going to the morgue.

The people who subdued him did so quickly and bravely. And hats off to them for that!

KnoxvilleTalks:  “I finally had to turn the radio off after the call in which a man literally said that the UU church was ‘reaping what it sowed.'”  That just proves that idiots can dial a phone.

::UPDATE::

I watched the local news, and I have to say I’m pretty disappointed in the coverage. Honestly, I expected programming to be preempted and coverage to be pretty heavy on this story.

::UPDATE #2::

Hat’s off to the News Sentinel for doing a tremendous job of following this story with constant updates.