About Knoxville's Freeway Subdivision

You hear a lot these days about lower price, lower price, and lowest price as the only way to get a house sold.

Here are 9 things you can do that will make your house stand out from the crowd, appeal to more potential buyers, and probably sell faster. None of them have anything to do with cutting the price.

1. Curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal! I can’t emphasize this one enough. Buyers have to be attracted to your home to want to see it. I’ve had lots of buyers say: “Let’s pass this one buy.” when we’ve pulled up to a home that was not attractive from the street.
2. Bright, shiny, and inviting entry. Once you get buyers out of the car and walking up to your front door, you want to continue to set a good tone for your showing. Make sure your front entry is spotless, sweep away the cobwebs over your door, clean front door, paint if necessary, bright, shiny new door hardware if necessary, a new light fixture if the old one is rusty. All these things go a long way towards keeping the mood for showing positive.
3. PAINT! Biggest selling bang for your buck possible. Neutral paint is the word of the day, no bright or funky colors. A fresh, uniform coat of paint throughout your house if needed will bring a faster sale and more dollars in your pocket.
4. Your kitchen. Lots of Realtors and buyers say the kitchen is what caused the sale. De-clutter your counter tops, cabinets, pantries, and storage space so buyers can see it.
5. DEEP CLEANING! It’s gotta be not just spotless but “white glove” inspection clean. No grease on kitchen appliances, bathrooms including tubs, showers, and sinks spotless and clean smelling, all light fixtures wiped down or washed including the bulbs, clean the blades on your ceiling fans, cobwebs from along ceilings and underneath. In fact it will likely pay you to hire a professional house cleaner to do the job for you.
6. Straighten up, “lean out” and neaten all your storage areas especially your closets. Don’t forget the fresh paint here too.
7. Let the sun shine in. All blinds and shades should be open for showing even in the evenings. Of course your windows need to be included in the deep cleaning too.
8. Get a pre-sale home inspection. This will alert you to potential problem areas you might not be aware of and let you fix or repair them at your leisure and also prevent a buyer from using some minor issue as a negotiating tool.
9. No funky odors or smells. This one is tough because you live there every day and some odors might not be apparent to you. Ask a friend, neighbor, or real estate professional to give your home the “smell test” to see if there might be something there you’re not picking up on. Don’t get carried away with scents to mask odors; too much is almost as bad as the odors you’re trying to cover up. Get rid of the cause of the odor.

You can find lots selling tips as well as get a free copy of my 52 page e-book titled “450 Ideas To Help Your Home Sell Faster” at www. KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com or just send a blank email to 450Ideas@JimLee.com

Most every fall we take one of the annual color cruises on nearby Norris Lake. Operated and narrated by a ranger from Norris Dam State Park, these cruises take you places you can only access by boat.

Friends of Norris Dam State Park donated this pontoon boat for park use.

This past Friday wasn't the best weather conditions for a trip on the lake. It was rainy, cold, and blustery; in other words a fairly typical fall day in east Tennessee. However the leaves were almost ready for viewing so off we went.

The showy maple trees were a vibrant red and easily the star of the show. There is a lot of shoreline showing because the Tennessee Valley Authority drops most all the local lake levels in the fall to make room for runoff in the spring and for flood control downstream.

The fallen trees along the shoreline are allowed to remain in place because they provide great fish habitat when the water levels are raised in the spring.

Even thought the water level is down about 20 feet from summer levels Norris Lake is still very deep with an average winter/fall depth of around 75 feet.

Norris Dam State Park is a very popular attraction with over 800 miles of shoreline and clear, pristine waters.

On other color cruises we have seen lots of wildlife of all sorts but I guess given the weather, they were all staying near shelter. We only saw two Mallard ducks flying over and a Belted Kingfisher sitting on the bank.

Even though it was a cold fall day we still had a great time and saw some beautiful scenery.

Now is a great time to be looking for a home in the greater Knoxville area so you can enjoy places like Norris Dam State Park and Knoxvilles many other family friendly attractions.

Knoxville Home Center is a great place to look for that new home.

OK, spring fever has finally caught up with me.

For a cure, me and 2 other hiking buds took the day off this past Friday and did a nice 7.5 mile loop trail over in the Cataloochee Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Cataloochee Valley is a fairly remote part of the park and is tougher to access than most of the rest so it's never crowded. We saw a total of 5 other people all day on the trail. When is the last time you only saw 5 people in 1 day???

Here's a link to my photoblog.

Scenic overlook entering the Cataloochee Valley

Lots of delicate, Painted Trillium was in bloom along a lot of the trail. This a very abundant, springtime flower in the Smokies.