West Meade is fast becoming one of the most popular neighborhoods in Nashville, a statistic difficult to prove as every neighborhood in Nashville thinks it could lay claim to that prize, and all have the statistics to support their arguments.

The house at 6705 Greeley Drive in West Meade is a “Tale of Two Christies,” or the “Sale of Two Christies,” Christie Bradley the listing broker and Christie Wilson the buyer’s broker.

Wilson doubles as the owner and principal broker of the Wilson Group. She also sells houses like Greeley for $2,823,925 from time to time, some for even more. Some less.

Bradley sells houses like the Greeley property all the time and does not have to worry about agents bemoaning the lack of inventory. This Christie is experiencing the best of times.

Bradley aggressively priced the Greeley house at $2.799 million before it sold – as is so often the case in this novel real estate environment – for more than list price, though only $25,000 more.

In “A Tale of Two Cities,” the 1859 classic, Charles Dickens wrote prophetic prose describing the Nashville real estate market. His work is set in the French Reign of Terror, a period many homebuyers in this market might feel they are experiencing.

Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Over the years, the first part of that quote – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” – has become one of the most-quoted verses in literature. Few realize how far Dickens took the paradoxical paragraph, as many find it difficult to interpret even those opening words.

Yet here we are, some 163 years later, and the entire paragraph has become quite clear. It is the best of times for sellers who reap hundreds of thousands of dollars more than asking prices they had thought to be pie in the sky – a term that would raise the hair in the beard of Dickens.

To slide into another work of Dickens, these sellers are not the scrooges many buyers think. The word scrooge was created by Dickens to describe his character in “A Christmas Carol.” It did not exist before the novel. The buyers often refer to sellers – especially if they are developers or homebuilders – as greedy scrooges, if you will.

In fact, these sellers are accepting the best offers resented to them by buyers’ agents. Taking something lower than that would not assist in the medical attention required by the Tiny Tims of the world and would not make a dent on the tuitions required by the colleges and universities.

It is without a doubt the worst of times for buyers when, as was noted in my April 8 column, the property at 4006 Dorcas in Green Hills sold for $4 million, $500,000 more than the asking price. Such is the case throughout the Midstate area, as brokers like Lisa Culp Taylor have witnessed the real estate wars from the front lines, seeing scores of showings followed by dozens of offers in her listings in Williamson County. Culp has long been a favorite in the area, and her sellers are experiencing the best of times.

Steve Fridrich, veteran real estate broker and seller of many things expensive, has often said in “multiple-offer scenarios, there is one happy buyer, and the rest are disappointed.”

Disappointed certainly, some are downright angry and ready to lead the listing brokers to the guillotines. Unfortunately for the buyers – and unlike the character in “A Tale of Two Cities” – there are few buyers willing to sacrifice their contracts so that another would be able to buy their houses.

Back to Dickens, who continued with “it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief.” With real estate prices skyrocketing, there are those who feel those buyers are foolish in overpaying for houses. These people are often found in the “rejected” stack of offers. They will pay more later and receive interest deductions, property tax deductions and see their properties appreciate.

Then there are those who fall into the “epoch of belief” category who believe prices will continue to fly upward and that they have found haven for their family and made a wise financial investment. The tax assessor refers to these as homeowners, winners of the multiple-offer contest.

It is the season of darkness for those who sell, as seemingly exorbitant as the price might be, who have no direction to their new home. When sellers become buyers, Dickens’ “season of light” quickly becomes his “season of darkness.”

They join the angry throngs in buyer prison. We hope they will not languish there for 18 years, as did Doctor Manette in the book.

Lastly in the first paragraph, Dickens wrote “it is the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” As those relocating to the Nashville area have found, there is a spring season in Nashville. It began in February only to give way to snow and ice in March, then warmed in early April and fell cold again last week. When spring has sprung, winter returns.

“Hope springs eternal” is a quotation from Alexander Pope, not Dickens, and the winters now disguise themselves as spring as for real estate sales, selling as much as any other season.

So, from the despair of the buyers hoping for falling prices, there comes hope for spring purchases. They know this is TEGWAR, a game from the movie “Bang the Drum Slowly.” It’s an acronym for “The Exciting Game Without Any Rules.”

And that, dear readers, is the Nashville real estate market, where buyers are liars and sellers are, too. Play to win.

Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty, LLC and can be reached at [email protected]. He is the author of Simon and Schuster’s Buyers are Liars and Sellers are Too (2006).