There have been a multitude of experts screaming that the real estate sky is falling, and they have been on target for most of the nation. But Nashville has not seen price drops, only fewer transactions.

Last week, the only thing falling was interest rates. Realtor Grant Hammond posted in social media that he “just had a client get 6.499% on a 30-year conventional mortgage for a primary residence. That’s 1.5% below what they were quoted two months ago.”

It has been reported that Federal Reserve will drop interest rates three times during the next year. With inflation under control, some lenders are already quoting 6.125%, making the 2-1 buydowns fall into the 4% range. Curbing inflation only took 20 months. That was easy.

Sale of the Week

In scrolling through the residential sales for last week, one listing jumped off the screen – 1108 Nichol Lane.

1108 Nichol Lane

Realtor Emily Rosen has long been aligned with Catalyst Builders, which owned the lot and began to build planned to build a spec home on the property. A spec home is a project with no buyer in place, offered to the world on the speculation that a buyer will emerge during the building process. And that has occurred more than 100 times during Rosen’s career.

It is not unusual to see a Catalyst Builder listing go under contract before construction on the house is completed or for the house to sell for more than the price that Rosen first set.

Once under contract, buyers often upgrade various components of their future residences. Often, these change orders, as they are known, will accumulate to numbers into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yet, the Nichol Lane property sold for more than several hundred thousand more than the listed price. In fact, it closed for $2,739,582 more than the original listed price of $4,999,999, or $7,739,581. The term “upgrade” would be an understatement in this case.

The buyers of the home on Nichol had bought a Catalyst home in 2020 and had always fancied life on Nichol Lane. They learned of this property and jumped on the opportunity to make it their dream house.

Nichol Lane can be found in Belle Meade, well at least half of it, as the even-numbered addresses – including 1108 – are in Belle Meade proper. Those houses with odd-numbered addresses fall outside the city and are in the Highlands of Belle Meade, thus saving the Belle Meade property tax, which is less than 20% of Metro taxes.

The tax appraisal on the Nichol property was based on a 2022 Metro appraisal of $1.3 million, which is not too much lower than the $1.475 million the builder paid for the house. At the $1.3 million price, Metro taxes were $9,447.96, while Belle Meade levied $1,625.25. The Davidson County Assessor of Property office will be thrilled when they learn of this $7.7 million-plus sale.

For that additional $1,625.25, the residents have 24-hour protection through the Belle Meade Police Department, enjoy lawn waste removal, the utility pole mounted cameras that monitor everything on the roads and – what was once the dark side – its somewhat restrictive zoning and building restrictions. The close monitoring of the composition of the residences located within the City of Belle Meade is one of the reasons that it is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Nashville.

Although those who oversee the architectural designs are reasonable, it is always better to ask for permission rather than forgiveness as it pertains to the exterior design, placement on the lot and size of the home.

Once inside, the owner can go for the glory, and the new owners of the Nichol Lane and the buyers of the Catalyst property did just that by hiring the renowned Lyndsay Rhodes Interiors for the design. Rhodes and her firm have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, People magazine, House Beautiful and other equally impressive publications. More recently her firm had the home on the cover of Architectural Digest and earned a story in Garden and Gun magazine.

Lindsay poured her magic into the home with reclaimed marble mantels, antique chandeliers and fixtures imported from Europe to further enhance the 7,603-square-foot home, which includes six bedrooms, five full bathrooms and three half bathrooms.

The price per square foot jumped from $693 to $1,018, a number that is becoming more common as money flows into the city.

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