“To everything there is a season.” The Hebrew Bible used the phrase first in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, then the Byrds, a folk/pop/rock band, borrowed it in 1965 for “Turn! Turn! Turn!” featuring Roger McGuinn on the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.

And for not quite as long, the principle has rung true for Nashville real estate.

The seasons have become less definable over the years once the Californians joined the throngs of people moving from the East and now the Midwest. Using pre-COVID numbers from April 2019, there were 1,279 sales in Davidson County in what would have been considered the spring market.

This year, COVID or not, there were 1,299 Davidson County sales in October in what would have been deemed the end of the fall market.

With more than 2,000 sales pending at present in the county, November looks to be another stellar month, thereby debunking once and for all the theory of seasonality that has been the gold standard for residential real estate sales for years.

J. Fred Pilkerton

COVID took the life of another Realtor last week when the esteemed J. Fred Pilkerton succumbed to the virus. Fred was the founder of the J. Fred Pilkerton Company, long known as one of the most successful firms in the Nashville area. Now known as Pilkerton Realtors, the company has offices in Green Hills, Brentwood and 12South.

Like so many of his era, Pilkerton began his real estate career at Dobson and Johnson, by far the largest real estate firm in Nashville in the 1960s. In 1969, after nine years with Dobson and Johnson, Pilkerton launched the J. Fred Pilkerton Company, which quickly emerged as an industry leader in the area, especially in the higher-priced market of Green Hills and Belle Meade.

Despite being from the old school of real estate, Pilkerton possessed a keen business acumen and led the real estate industry into the age of technology. He was a teller of tales and could turn a phrase.

Fred’s son, Jimmy Pilkerton, entered the real estate business in 1986 and took the reins of the company in 2000, establishing another Pilkerton reign that lasted until Jimmy’s untimely death in 2016. Young Pilkerton had contracted pancreatic cancer only months before his demise.

Sale of the Week

Following the lifting of the moratorium on residential development of downtown Nashville, each new project has been met with skepticism.

When Tony Giarratana announced plans to construct the 31-story Viridian high-rise, which opened in 2006, critics emerged ballyhooing their argument that no one would want to live downtown. Their argument was based on the fact that very few people lived in the urban core at that time, and the neighborhood lacked such necessities as a grocery store and other services most considered essential to day to day life.

As a matter of fact, less than 500 people called downtown home when the Viridian was announced.

By the end of 2019, 13,000 people resided in housing in the downtown area, the Downtown Partnership reported, and some predict there will be 21,000 urban dwellers within the next few years.

Don Klein of Don Klein Consulting was the CEO of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors during the Renaissance of Nashville’s downtown living.

“The city owes a debt of gratitude to Tony Giarratana for his vision and his willingness to take that sort of risk,” Klein states. “Without that step, who knows what would have happened?”

The Viridian was quite successful and in 2007 won the Project of the Year Award given by the Urban Land Institute. Giarratana followed the Viridian with another high-rise, this one near the Symphony Hall. And since it was his encore to the Viridian, he named it “Encore.”

Opening in 2011, the building sold out quickly, and unit #1402 sold for $194,000 with 810 square feet and one bedroom and one bath.

Naysayers said the downtown properties would never hold their value, especially as the cranes began to line the horizon. But in 2014, unit #1402 sold for $300,000, and two years later sold for $345,000.

In 2018, #1402 sold for $390,000, thereby doubling in value in seven years’ time.

Last week, it closed for $402,000 after Cindy Crocker, Realtor extraordinaire with the ever-expanding Wilson Group, listed it for $425,000. Jamie Hawkins, one of the exciting brokers of Compass, delivered the buyer.

In her description, Crocker noted the condominium has wood floors, a chandelier and a breakfast bar that seats five – no small feat for 810 square feet. She also noted the design allows for a “true private master” and includes a parking space.

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