Last week the Greater Nashville Realtors reported that sales in the nine-county Greater Nashville area were up for the first time in three months, albeit only half a percent. Growth is growth, and it is exciting in these uncertain times.

GNR President Kristy Hairston, who sure could use a little good news, noted the market had stabilized, and next month looks like a breakout month for the area with 4,648 pending sales at the end of June. That compares to 3,645 pending sales last July.

In Davidson County, the news was not as good with 1,307 closed sales, 171 less than June 2019’s 1,478. All things considered, the numbers are promising. If the local population can stay safe, perhaps these positive sales numbers will continue to climb.

Sale of the Week

Maggie Bond entered the real estate field following an illustrious career selling print advertising, a career that spanned several decades.

714 Davidson Drive

As she made the foray into residential real estate, she brought 30 years of experience of marketing and advertising experience along with her. She writes the advertising copy and works with the graphics department in designing and placing the ads for many of her busier, high-profile real estate clients. The results speak for themselves.

Last week, the house located at 714 Davidson Drive sold in one day on the market for more than list price after Bond, now with Village, created the perfect storm.

With enticing, yet disclaiming, verbiage in the description, she offered the perfect bait for the feeding frenzy that ensued. After wading through the usual “hardwood floors, fresh paint” language, she mixed and melded tantalizing, evocative phrasing with words of warning trickling into the flowing prose.

With aquatic imagery abounding, she painted the picture of the perfect pool while diminishing a nearby creek when she wrote “perfect lot to build your pool or have a great play yard by the tiny creek.” There will be no visions of the Flood of 2010 with that description of a summer sun shining on floats in the pool, all with nature babbling ever so slightly in the background.

Even better is her sylvan and botanical wordplay interspersed with a term that can strike fear in the hearts of the unaware. “Incredible trees, perennials, French drains and more,” Bond wrote. “French drains and more?” What the heck? More what? More drains? More need for drains?

Doesn’t matter anyway, not with all the incredible trees and perennials. Was there something about a creek? Maybe it was a pool.

Listed for $525,000, the house sold for $536,000 in a matter of minutes.

Bond had warned the appointment center that there would be a flurry of activities, but the flood of calls drowned the operators and, despite the pleas of schedulers, the Realtors marched into the home two by two and sought shelter from the storm.

The precipitous planning of Bond backed with the precipitation poured upon visitors produced the desired result, as as she was showered with multiple offers, providing the seller sunshine on a cloudy day.

Luckily for all concerned, the buyer was represented by none other than Tom Andrews, who owns his own firm – has for 25 years – and is recognized as an industry leader, as are many of the agents under his leadership. He is the perfect agent to ferry his client through the transaction.

Andrews knows his way around a French drain, can ford a creek when it rises and recognized the house would sell for more than list price. Being the omniscient broker that he is, Andrews has vast knowledge of the West Meade area, and properties such as 714 Davidson Drive do not come along every day.

While housing inventory is down considerably, the number of new agents has reached more than 1,000 in at least each of the last two years. In many cases, their inexperience allows good deals to float down the river as there is the tendency to over-represent. They do not know what they do not know.

The two brilliant brokers sailed through the transaction and calmed the seas and closed on the 1,883-square-foot house for $285 per square foot.

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