About Washington County, TN

812 West Maple Street Johnson City Tennessee, Absolute gem in the tree streets. You won't believe the wonderful space, natural light, high ceilings, chef's kitchen, walk-in closets in all upstairs bedrooms. Whirlpool tub in upstairs bedroom - could easily have 2 masters! Great bones - lots of care and love into this home. Large covered front porch. Perfect family home - Character at every turn. Tree-lined street, friendly neighborhood. It's simply delightful! 812 West Maple Street Johnson City Tennessee

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Johnson City Tennessee has a great new investment on the market. 621 East Pine Street Johnson City Tennessee a two bedroom, 1 bath home with a large dining kitchen combo and open floor plan which ties in the living room. Only $54,500.00 will place this home at 621 East Pine Street Johnson City Tennessee in your portfolio. Contact us today!

I’ve wondered why more agents aren’t sharing serendipities in the new Active Rain Serendipity group. I mentioned this to my brother in California, Bob Alders, and he immediately thought of a couple. His stories are not related to real estate, but maybe they'll prompt someone else to look back and see some - or better yet, to expect them.

Bob's story: In about 1971, after I had graduated from the University of Texas in Austin, I was working for a high-tech company where my job was to travel to customer's facilities and install our equipment. During one 5 week stint at a GE plant in up-state New York, I traveled over a weekend to Rochester to visit my sister Mary and her family.

Mary already had plans for some friends to come for dinner on Saturday night, so naturally I joined them. During dinner conversation, after Mary mentioned to the visiting couple that I lived in Austin, they mentioned that their daughter was going to school in Austin. After additional back and forth sharing, we discovered that I had dated their daughter several times.

And so we discovered this quirky connection between myself on an unplanned weekend trip 2500 miles from my home, and the parents of my friend at a serendipitous weekend dinner at my sister's home on the same evening I happened to be there also.

Bob’s story reminded me of a similar one. At a dinner in New York State where I didn’t know anyone but the host, on learning that I’d grown up in Texas, the person sitting next to me told me he’d just applied for a job in a college there. Further conversation revealed that he had applied to teach in the English Department at Stephen F. Austin State College, where I’d majored in English. Dr. Kallsen, a prof I remembered from several years before was the chairman to whom he had applied.

One thing leads to another. The lady sitting next to me on a train in Colorado turned out to have also been a student at SFA, with our time there overlapping by a couple of years.

We can't be the only ones this kind of thing happens to. Come share your stories.

For more, see www.TNTrICitiesHomes.com/marysblog, or the Serendipity group on Active Rain. A few of my many others are at www.TNTrICitiesHomes.com/serendipities. If you have a real estate need in Northeast Tennessee, especially Johnson City, let’s see what we have in common other than your need and my willingness to help you get what you want.

A buyer called, thinking I was someone else she’d talked to previously about Waterbrooke, Hunters Lake, Villas at Browns Mill. She said we'd talked about those and others, about their need for at least three bedrooms. I thought I couldn’t possibly have forgotten, but she insisted we’d talked. She said she even remembered that I’d said I was a widow.

Back up. I’m happily married. We still don’t know who that other first agent was, but since Sue had never got the information, she and I had a pleasant phone conversation this afternoon.

I understand they’re just wanting to get acquainted with possible areas now, and that can’t buy until they sell their house elsewhere. I told her what I do to be sure my referrals are good, and that I’ll will tell her why she can be comfortable with the agent I decide would be great.

She’d done her research well and I knew the areas well. In fact, I'd done market analyses of two of the developments very recently in anticipation of listings. And just three days ago, I had noticed a For Sale by Owner sign in one of the neighborhoods– one of the rare three-bedroom units. When I checked tax records, I discovered that the owner of that one was someone I’d learned a lot from when I had had time for quilting a few years ago. That one may well be the best one on the market now for her, and I had already planned to see it. (I saw it Monday morning.) Another serendipity.

My follow-up email said in part, “You should know that I collect serendipities, and one happened when you called me. Several, in fact."

I sent her to the blog on my website, to which I’ve just recently been adding a few that are related to real estate. I told her also about the many serendipities (by no means all of them) that I’ve put on another page of my site, www.TNTriCitiesHomes.com/serendipities . I still have a couple dozen serendipities that haven’t been in print in any form yet.

When I called the FSBO, she remembered me from the quilting group, and I told her about the other serendipities involved in my calling her. She invited me over, it’s a great place, and the rest of the story will come later.

Re-connecting even after years is worth the effort. I called Marcie last week to be sure I was remembering accurately a serendipity that involved her. And to be sure she remembered as I did "who represented whom."

“We still love the house.” “You should see what we’ve done with it.” “The deep voice when you called wasn’t Bill’s. That’s the kid who was a baby when we bought it.” It’s always neat to connect with people we’ve not talked to in too long.

Marcie and Bill had been looking for a house in Silver Spring MD with a really big garage. After we’d looked for a good while and hadn’t found the right combination of features, I mentioned casually that I had friends with the perfect place - three-car garage with the house backing to parkland, but it wasn’t on the market. The next time we were driving near there, I mentioned the house again, and detoured a couple of blocks to drive by it. The setting was fantastic - parkland behind and on one side, and riding stables and regional park within walking distance. The three-car garage was behind the house, but just thinking about it made Bill covet. He asked me to call them, just in case.

That evening, I called my friends. Good timing – another serendipity. Kathy was in Florida interviewing for a job, and if she got it, I would be marketing their house. They decided to let the young couple see the house, just in case, not knowing whether the job would be offered and not having decided on a price yet. Marcie and Bill saw the house without knowing for sure that it would even be available, depending on whether or not seller got the job. I volunteered to reduce my fee if this couple bought it, to compensate for their not being represented and to make it possible for sellers to give them good closing help.

Kathy got the job and they listed the house. When I did the comparables, we decided on a reasonable price - a little high for the young couple, but they couldn’t have made an acceptable offer anyway with their house not yet sold.

I worked on both houses and a lot of people came, but no offers had been made on either after a couple of weeks. On the very day another buyer made an offer on the three-car-garage house, Marcie and Bill got an offer on theirs so that same day so they could make their competing offer. They offered the maximum they were qualified for and the amount that another agent would have made for selling the house gave them the closing help without which they couldn’t have paid that price. I made detailed written disclosure about my relationship with each party and that fact that the buyers were not represented.

Marcie remembers all that clearly - I had been their agent for a few weeks and had explained this new thing called "BUYER AGENCY" to them. (This was many years ago and I was one of the four agents in Montgomery County offering to represent buyers - before our fee was even in MLS.)

Now I had to remind them that the sellers were long-term friends and I would be listing their house shortly. Having heard many times in those days that Dual Agency is DANGEROUS, I couldn't represent both, and I agreed with the principle - "No one can serve two masters" in real estate either. They were comfortable with not being represented.

I don’t know how else I could have handled it - the buyers didn’t want to work with another agent, the sellers wouldn’t have wanted to pay another agent and the necessary closing costs, and I could not have represented buyers in selling my long-term friends’ home. It’s ironic that as a pioneer buyer’s agent and opponent of dual agency, I could attract a situation like this.

All's Well that End's Well, as Shakespeare said.