About Knoxville's View Harbour

This delightful duplex is near UT and has 1 two BR and 1 1 BR units, will cash flow.

Happy New Years fellow Knoxvillians; it's now officially 2010.

Following is the latest report from the Knox County Register of Deeds office for real estate transfers (sales) completed last week (January 3, 2010).

I counted 88 property transfers in the past week.

That's a low number compared to the 150 we have been averaging for all of 2009 but I believe the holidays had more to do with that than other factors.

Are you like me and wondering what the new year will bring for the Knoxville real estate market?

Here's what I think is likely to happen:

One of the things I enjoy doing and that helps my listings not only sell but stand out from the others is to produce inexpensive and eye catching printed materials like flyers, just listed & sold post cards, brochures, and other printed items.

You don't have to hire a graphic artist or expensive custom printing to produce your own distinctive flyers, post cards, ete., all you need to do is learn how to use a desktop publishing program like Microsoft Publisher. If you don't have Publisher even Word or Power Point can be used to turn out some beautiful and effective pieces of printed materials.

After you create your item you can then transmit it to an online printing company like Kinko's or Express Copy who can turn it into the finished product you're looking for.

Below is an example of a flyer I just did for a new listing. Express Copy will print 100 of these for only 45 cents each and deliver them to you via overnight mail at no extra charge.

I put my sellers in charge of keeping their brochure box full because they live in the house in most cases and are delighted to join in my marketing efforts. Checking the flyer box ever day or so also give them visible evidence that I'm on the job working to get their house sold.

I usually just have Express Copy deliver the printed flyers to the listing which saves me a trip over there to deliver them. I tell the sellers just to give me a call when they only have 20 or so left and I order them another 100.

I love "Just Listed" and "Just Sold" post cards because they're a quick inexpensive way to advertise yourself and your listing in a positive light. Neighbors are also good sources for buyers because they often know people that are looking for a new home.

Express Copy will print in full color on both sides, apply addresses you supply, first class postage, and mail great looking post cards for only 54 cents each including the postage. Here's a sample:

I also promote myself and drive traffic to my website and the new listing on the back side.

And when the listing sells and is closed it's very quick and simple to modify the front of the post card to further advertise your success in getting it sold.

I like just dropping a simple, red "SOLD!" tag on the front of the "Just Listed" post card and send it out again.

I also do my own business cards, brochures, calendars, door hangers, and other printed material this way.

As I was walking into my office today I noticed a yard sign standing beside the front entrance. Nothing unusual there; other agents drop them off all the time from closed listings.

But this one was a little different and too rare these days; it had a big SOLD sign sticking on top.

I often wonder what makes a house sold, what caused buyers to choose this house over the multitude of choices they have in today's market.

Then at the bottom I saw a sign rider that I believed to be the answer to my question. The rider simply said "REDUCED"

If you're a seller in today's market you're far better served to price your house aggressively, that is, a little below what the market value was a few months ago because chances are it's lower now.

If you're had your house on the market for a while now and it hasn't sold chances are it's priced too high. To get one of the sign riders on top of this yard sign you need to seriously consider putting the one on the bottom on your yard sign.

Not a guarantee but REDUCED very often leads to SOLD.

Search www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter to see what your competition looks like and get some great selling tips.