Gatlinburg Real Estate Updates & Community News » gatlinburg cabins

Real Estate Market’s Ups & Downs Present Many Questions

lheraty — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:32:29 +0000

The real estate roller coster leaves many questions

Let’s face it, times are tough and on any given day the mood is a different one than the day before. The market’s up, then down, we’re in a recession, we’re recovering, it is hard to know what is really happening out there with so many mixed signals. Real estate is difficult to figure out, and remains relative to where you are. Is real estate improving? Sales are up, inventory is down but foreclosures are expected to keep coming, especially with unemployment figures on the rise. To find out if real estate in your area is improving talk to a real estate agent and look at the statistics that they provide. Each market has it's experts and in Gatlinburg you can find yours at Century 21 Four Seasons Realty. Have we hit bottom? Parts of the country have hit bottom other parts still have a way to fall. Home prices are apparently steady in parts of the country and climbing in others. In Sevier county where you'll find Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, the fall of home prices has slowed and the number of sales has increased. This gives some professionals in our market the feeling that we are in for a persistent increase in the number of homes sold while the prices will start to increase modestly by the Summer and continue an incremental upward trend into next year. It's not a return to the lofty prices of a few years ago but a steady rate of appreciation will be welcomed by everyone. In a nutshell, real estate is relative. It is improving in many areas and as soon as our recovery includes job growth real estate is going to improve in many more areas. Click here for an article about real estate on Yahoo Finance.

Selling Your Home? An Inspection Can Make or Break Your Deal

mscuderi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:21:44 +0000

Be prepared for what a home inspection might reveal when selling your home

Home inspections can often make or break a deal. If possible sellers should have one done ahead of time so repairs can be made and a home can be in its best possible condition. However, often a seller does not do a home inspection first and is caught off guard by a long list of repairs presented in the due diligence portion of the contract process. The most common home ailments that show up in the home inspection process are:

Faulty electrical wiring
Roof damage
Plumbing issues
Poor drainage
General lack of upkeep

These are issues that can add up to a potential home buyer walking away if a seller is unable to step up and make the repairs or commit the money to make the repairs. Examine these aspects of your home yourself, if you know everything is in good condition and the work that has been done to your home has been completed by professionals then you can rest easy, otherwise be prepared to make repairs in order to sell your home.

Waiting For the Bottom

lheraty — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:59:24 +0000

Waiting for the bottom in real estate is similar to grabbing a yo-yo at the bottom, you are usually a little early or a little late

There are many people out there waiting for the bottom to hit in many facets of the economy, including real estate. Perhaps there will be a big announcement one morning across newspaper headlines and across the internet “THE BOTTOM IS HERE: NOW IS THE EXACT MOMENT TO BUY”. Of course by the time the announcement comes the bottom will have hit and the exact time to buy real estate will have come and gone. A great analogy to the bottom of the real estate market is a yo-yo. Take a yo-yo in your hand and use it. Can a person grab the yo-yo at the exact moment it hits bottom every time? Chances are a person will grab it just before it hits bottom or just after, rarely at the exact bottom. Real estate is the same game, if it is indeed a game. If people knew, absolutely knew, the exact time to buy stocks, real estate, or any other investment then no one would ever have a financial worry. For people who believe in investing in real estate now is a great time to buy. Interest rates won’t be low forever, real estate has either already hit the bottom, is about to, or is already on its way up, we’ll know for certain sometime in the future. If you want to buy at the bottom, buy now or wait until it’s too late, when you can look back and say, “If only I had bought then.”

Media and I Don’t Always Agree

broadway — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:24:31 +0000

I suppose I’m an eternal optimist. I do think the best of people more often than not. I have to admit I was really excited when one of my agents was asked to do an interview for the local ABC affiliate.

The story was supposed to be about how some absentee property owners here in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge areas were taking the rental income from their overnight rental properties and using it to pay their mortgages on their primary residences (lots of them are in Florida). Thus, creating a situation where mortages on their second homes/investment properties here are going into foreclosure or short sale and creating opportunities for the savvy investor. A complicated story I suppose.

The report ended up highlighting the foreclosure/short sale portion of the story. Leaving out what I think most of the interview was about, the investor deals. I know editorial freedom is always going to be part of a news story (I’ve submitted my share of articles to the newspaper to barely recognize them when they were printed) but I had high hopes, perhaps too high, that this story would end on an uplifting note. Primarily, that our properties here have an inherent value that is not entirely determined by outside forces due to the rental income they produce.

A New Twist In Luxury

broadway — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:50:49 +0000

: View from a Big Log Lodge

The Gatlinburg real estate market has seen many styles over the past 5 decades. None of which was more pronounced than the a-frames of the 1960’s and ’70’s that dot the mountainsides. Today, a new grand style of luxury has made its way into the mountain scenery. The Big Log Lodges have arrived in Gatlinburg.

This style has been around for many years in the $10 to $30 million dollar estate homes out west in Colorado and Utah. The appearance of these super luxury cabins in the Gatlinburg mountains is still relatively unknown except to the savvy overnight renter. In fact, these homes are bringing in such incredible rental numbers (some over $200,000 per year in gross income) that many of the purchasers have been neighbors and friends passing the word to one another about the investment opportunity.

The most prominent mountainside community of Big Log Logdes right now is Pinnacle Vista. Mind-blowing views, big log construction, very large private lots, and exceptional rental income have combined to make this particular development feel like an overnight success. However, it’s success has been several years in the making. A local developer SKL, LLC (David Moersdorf, his wife and sons) have made Pinnacle Vista their primary focus. Building with the extremely large logs does take some time and they have committed to the task much to the joy of several new owners of these Lodges.

It’s not often that you get to see your hometown transform with new high-end communities, underground downtown utilities, and a flurry of new investment (a new Hilton, several restaurants and a downtown waterpark are slated to be completed within the next 2 years). I am happy to say that I have been and will continue to be here to witness it all.

Gatlinburg Market Report

broadway — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:58:47 +0000

It’s always easy to tell when the Summer rental season is happening in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. The streets are busy and the sidewalks are full. The locals are making the most of the “back roads” and the few lucky tourist who have found out about them are too. If you are lucky enough to have a contact in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge that can direct you around the traffic, take advantage of it.

Of course, your friendly local real estate agency will be happy to help.

One more thing that always reminds me of tourist season is when the grocery stores are full. The produce is always fresh!

The sales environment in the Gatlinburg real estate market this year has seen it’s ups and downs. Fortunately, right now everything seems to be going up. The average list price to sale price ratio this ytd is 93.7%. An impressive number for an off year. The average sales price in Gatlinburg (includes homes and condos) so far this year is $214,653. We’re starting to see more of the homes in Gatlinburg over $350,000 go under contract right now. I predict that this Fall will continue to be a busy time for us.