With Thanksgiving in the taillights and a plethora of religious holidays on the horizon, anyone owning a home should be extremely grateful they are not forced to experience the homebuying process during this frenetic market.

Those selling their homes, or pretending to do so, are not doing buyers any favors, either, as showings are becoming difficult, at time due to inefficient, unprofessional real estate brokers. Sellers need to take a line from the wise bard and decide if they want to sell or not to sell. That is the question, and a seemingly easy one. There should be no dilemma.

It is for sale or it isn’t. If it is for sale, it should be able to be shown to prospective Realtors and their clients, often known as buyers.

Recently, a home in Inglewood had a restriction that it could not be shown until after contract was negotiated.

Another home in the Music Row area requires appointments be arranged by the listing agent. Said agent is missing in action. He did find time to attend the Tennessee-Vanderbilt football game. Facebook makes detectives of everyone.

Showing the house is the first step in a process known as selling. If a seller actually would like to move, the home for sale should be ready to be shown at all times. Visitors should be warned that they might have to take in a movie or grab a bite to eat on a moment’s notice.

Although it seems foreign to many sellers, holidays are busy times for showing houses. Many people are not required to work, thereby allowing them opportunities to engage in the homebuying process. Although these buyers relocating to Nashville realize Nashville is in the southeast, many have not to come to grips that there is an athletic conference that goes along with that geographical description.

They know of the Bible Belt, but not the religious affiliation with football.

“The game kicks off at 2 o’clock” is not justification for a declined showing to the newcomers. They think barbecue is a verb and football is played with round balls that cannot be touched with the hands.

There are families, children in tow, who spend tens of thousands of dollars to visit Nashville to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they had hoped in order to buy one of these overpriced houses.

Buyers are floored when they see Nashville real estate prices. Once they regain consciousness, they are ready to hit the trail, usually armed with a few dozen listings fresh from Zillow, most of which are under contract. “How can that be?” they ask. They soon learn.

Jack Miller, a Realtor renowned as much for his wit as his real estate success, had the following post on his Facebook page: “Please don’t pick on older children who still believe in Santa. There are grown adults who still believe Zillow is accurate.”

3916 Wallace Lane

As Paul McCartney wrote: “Do me a favor. Open the door. And let ’em in.”

Sale of the Week

With the impeachment hearings as a backdrop, Realtor James F. Neal Jr. sold 3916 Wallace Lane for $2.099 million or $358 per square foot. Neal represented the buyer. His father, James F. Neal Sr., who once represented the prosecution in the Nixon Watergate affair. He also prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa.

Neal died in 2010 following an illustrious career that included defending Exxon for the Valdez oil spill, Ford for its fire-prone Pinto and Elvis Presley’s physician among many high-profile cases.

Young James Neal recalls vividly the day his father cut the deal with John Dean during in the Watergate prosecution.

Dean and his wife flew into Nashville and stayed at the Hermitage Hotel; Neal recalled in a recent interview. Mr. Neal said both Mr. and Mrs. Dean came to the Neal residence at 2225 Woodmont Boulevard, and it was in his home office that Neal and Dean arranged the deal that changed the world.

Young James Neal’s real estate transaction changed the world of his buyer, who bought the home built and owned by Ethan Colclasure at 3916 Wallace Lane near Julia Green School in Green Hills. The house has five bedrooms, five bathrooms and one half bathroom spread about its 5,860 square feet.

Designed by Parkes and Lamb, the house includes Wolf and SubZero appliances, custom cabinets, marble counter tops, a back porch with a television and a woodburning fireplace.

The house is set more than 300 feet from the street on a sprawling 1.2-acre lot.

Neal noted Ethan Colclasure, a principal in the development company of the same name, repaired every item cited by the home inspector and was most accommodating in the transaction. It would seem to be in the best interests of anyone in Nashville dealing with someone named James Neal to be accommodating.

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty and can be reached at [email protected].