This week the National Songwriters Association International inducted five new members into its Hall of Fame – Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, John Bettis, Thom Schuyler and Allen Shamblin. While Brooks and Jackson often record material they have written, many songwriters are not signed to major labels and have their songs recorded by various recording artists.

Songwriters are often the unsung heroes of the area as the recording artists actually present the song to the world. For example, I Hope you Dance is better known as a Lee Ann Womack song rather than a Tia Sillers/Mark D. Sanders song.

Tia and Mark are, to be sure, thrilled that Lee Ann cut the song and certainly received greater acclaim and cash for Ms. Womack’s works than they could have generated on their own.

In real estate, the glory goes to the builders more than the architects. In some cases, the homeowners – “We’re building a house” – take all the credit. If they’re smart, they are doing so with a great architect and a builder with a toolbox filled with good, recent, references.

Be it new construction, renovation or an addition, the role of architect cannot be overstated, even it is usually overlooked or underappreciated. Their fees, when you consider resale and safety, can save hundreds of thousands of dollars on larger projects.

There are hundreds of stories floating about in which a contractor made an onsite decision to change an architect’s drawings only to have the building collapse once the weight of the roof was added.

In one instance, in another state, buyers in a tract home neighborhood told the sales person that they would purchase a home with the condition that the walls in the bonus room be expanded two feet on each of the four walls.

The agent had the superintendent evaluate the situation. He saw no harm in the procedure and agreed to move the walls. The sales agent then had an ace up her sleeve and decided to offer the same option to other buyers that were sitting on the fence. It was well received.

That winter, it snowed. And it snowed. And it snowed some more.

The roofs over several garages began to buckle under the weight of the snow before snow, drywall, and lumber toppled onto the cars below them. The builder was sued. He consulted the architect who reviewed his plans and felt that the situation was impossible. It was only later that the “sales special” was discovered.

With the Nashville area swimming in a sea of creative types, it is understandable that many do-it-yourselfers would attempt to design a home, wing or renovation. They shouldn’t. What if Kenny Rogers had shunned Don Schlitz’s The Gambler for one of his own songs, or Lee Ann Womack had insisted that she didn’t need to listen to songs written by others?

In situations involving renovations, “load-bearing wall” seems to be the most misunderstood, overused term. It’s the UFO of construction. People think they spot them, but they are usually misidentified. When touring homes with buyers, it is uncanny how many people point to a wall and proclaim, “That’s load-bearing.” These walls are seldom bearing a load at all. So when they renovate, they remove the real load-bearing wall and the cracks begin to appear.

The flow of the house and spatiality are most critical in design, and the nuances of both are difficult for amateur architects. This causes for choppy rooms with spaces that are unable to be interpreted.

In real estate, follow the lead in the music industry and find the person behind the curtain to design the home. Finding the right artist to bring the plans to life is another story.

Richard Courtney is a broker with Pilkerton realtors and the author of Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles and can be reached at [email protected]