July 7 – 7/7 – is the 77th birthday of Ringo Starr, the little lad from Liverpool who last month marked the 50th anniversary of the release of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’’ album.
To many, it is difficult to absorb the fact that the shaggy-haired, good-natured drummer could be much older than our grandparents were when the British invaded in 1964.
With the Rolling Stones, Peter Noone (Herman’s Hermits), half the Who (whose drummer is now Zak Starkey, son of Ringo), Ringo and fellow former Beatle Paul McCartney leading the way, many of those 1960s groups are still touring and selling millions of tickets.
They are fit as fiddles, though their bands lack said instrument, opting for violins or keyboards with violin effects, and Starr may be singing of yellow submarines into his eighties. There are doctors who would point out he could drop dead tomorrow.
In the case of Starr, he barely lived past the age of eight years, by that time having survived a ruptured appendix with an onset of peritonitis that left him in a sanitarium for more than a year. Yet, here is, and from the looks of his svelte physique – thanks in part to a vegetarian, alcohol-free diet – he could last forever.
Humans should be able to live much longer these days, according to recent research from Europe that debunks the Albert Einstein Institute study suggesting humans bodies should not be able to withstand more than 115 years.
If human beings, with their fragile skin covering and tiny organs, can last more than 115 years, why shouldn’t houses? Yet there is a surge of structural engineers citing perceived deficiencies.
In the 1920s in Nashville, for example, in the days before Ringo’s birth, many of the houses that were constructed included basements that were dug for the purposes of housing coal-fueled furnaces. In these basements, the builders fashioned columns from cedar to support the structure of the homes.
Since these basements were not built to serve as finished space, the walls are often exposed dirt. As they are experts and have been paid to assess the integrity of the structure, the structural engineers share the foreboding conclusion that the dirt wall “could fail at some time in the future.’’
Although many are unaware of Ringo Starr, they could take a look and note that Ringo will die at some point in the future.
Yet, the facts are that both the house and Ringo are still performing well. There is no need to give Ringo a heart transplant. While he was a heavy smoker and drinker during his Beatle days, the doctors have not recommended that Starr replace his lungs and his liver.
The same is the case for the houses that have shown no movement in their 90 years of existence. Unfortunately, sellers are being extorted to build walls so that the dirt will not fail, to replace cedar post with steel, and to install beams where there have been no beams before.
Somewhere there are robots and machines that can play the drums, but they could not have created the fills on “Strawberry Fields Forever,” a song that will last forever – just like the 1930 bungalow.
Sale of the Week
If a person had $1,550,000 and told real estate veteran Cathie Cato Renken they needed to park the cash somewhere in hopes of receiving a 20 percent return over 18 months, the house at 3617 Sperry would have been the right investment.
Selling last week for $1,885,000 in a matter of only four days, the 5,713-square-foot, five-bedroom, five and a-half bath home proved a sound investment at $329 per square foot. Of course, the secret is that, even though the home is almost two years old, it is white. White homes translate into green backs.
The buyer was represented by the Sewanee twins, Scott Evans and Zach Goodyear of PARKS. The YSR (Yea Sewanee’s Right) Realtors spotted the home in its market infancy and left the competition in the lurch as they secured the property that features two covered porches – one with a fireplace – along with an office and exercise room on the half-acre lot.
The first half of 2017 was kind to million-dollar homes, for the most part, with 152 selling in Davidson County in the first six months as compared to 132 that sold in the first six months of 2016.
Even with the 152 sales during the first six months, there remain 214 homes on the market, a healthy 8.5-month supply. Real estate economists consider a six-month supply a well-balanced market favoring neither buyer nor seller.
Therefore, an 8.5-month supply would lean in favor of the buyers. Therefore, if there is a market segment weighted in the buyer’s favor, it is the upper end.
Pony up and grab a 20 percent return. It’s that simple.
Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney, and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].