Last week a Middle Tennessee business silently disappeared from the scene. It was almost a one-of-a-kind business, the Harpeth Clock Company of Pegram. There aren’t many companies that repair quality clocks left in the area. (Although, there is one in the Madison area, where we learned of the demise of Harpeth Clock. That does make this second-hand knowledge on my part so please correct me if I’m wrong.) The owner apparently, at 90 years old, was convinced by her children that it was time for her to stop working and start acting her age.

They’d been there a long time. Harpeth Clock was probably Pegram’s biggest draw. And if you have a clock that might need repairing, don’t put it off too long. The guy in Madison told my wife that he’s closing in the next 5 years so they can go be near their grandkids. Clock repairing seems to be dying out as an occupation, probably as an unintended result of the digital age where all you have to do is replace a battery.

Aunt B. has been talking about buying a house, but it’s a bit daunting.

Okay, so, I’ve been talking to everyone I see in person about buying a house, everyone except for a banker, because I just don’t want to go in and waste time if I can’t afford a mortgage.  And so I’m playing this f**ked up game in my mind where I talk about getting a house and I dream about getting a house, but I go to the mortgage calculators online and they say that I can’t afford a house.

Never mind that every month I write a check that is a house payment.  Hell, it’s probably more than the payment on this place.

Is it a good time for her or not? There are plenty of real estate folks out there who might be able to give her some logical good advice but also remember, buying a house is also about our inner emotions and fears about setting down roots.

What does one do?

Sadcox is getting his entrepreneur on.

Why can’t a guy who works for a large corporation while remaining a blogging powerhouse out of his home office share workspace with a freelance marketing research consultant recently transplanted from LA? And why shouldn’t they have access to another guy who works a job locally but is tied into the local web development community? And wouldn’t it benefit everyone to sit next to an altrupreneur who is in Knoxville by way of San Francisco and may be here for a month or a year? Why can’t all of these people share internet access, and a conference room, and a big whiteboard?

Why can’t this movement grow to the point that people are actually attracted to come here to be a part of it?

I’m very intrigued.

The Rich half of country duo Big & Rich is building a home called Villa Rich on top of a hill in Nashville.  It could easily be called Villa Big if the photo at That’s Messed Up is accurate.  It reminds me a little of a water slide.

But even better is this link brought to us by our beloved CeeElCee.  He directs us to the architecture company’s design of the home and it’s well worth a peek.

Community Health Systems in Franklin, the parent company of a hospital in Illinois is being sued over an accidental baby swap.

The mixup occurred when the IDs were apparently taken off and put back on incorrectly when the babies were taken away for circumcision. Both mothers claimed to have felt unsure of their babies identities, but one went home with the baby she was given anyway. But within a few hours, the hospital recognized the mistake (it’s not clear if the recognition was a direct effect of one of the mothers’ complaints) and arranged for the babies to be reunited with their real parents.

Certainly, I understand that the hospital needs to be held accountable for the issue and that an investigation into the causes should occur and steps put into place to prevent it from happening again, but I don’t understand why the mothers think they should receive over $50,000 each as compensation for the error. A few months, a few years…yes, then I think they’d have a claim. But a few hours? I don’t think so. Heck, when I was born, my mom was the last person to see me. She and I were both asleep for quite a while–probably as long as it took for the hospital in this case to recognize the error.

Our litigious society…and some of us wonder why health care is so expensive…

I adore Evil Amy who happens to be house-hunting right now.  She wrote a post giving real estate agents and home flippers some excellent advice - if only they would listen. 

• If I were a listing agent and someone came to me and said, “hey, I want to sell this house, but I have piles of crap everywhere,” you know what I’d say? “Rent a storage unit and call Professional Organizer Person.” OK, so the listings in my price range aren’t exactly the kind that one would want to pay to have professionally “staged,” but you could at least bother to not have a giant, rabid pit bull caged up in each room of the house. Just make SOME effort.
• “Bars on windows” is not a feature, no matter how many exclamation points you put after it.
• and my personal FAVORITE (besides telling lazy agents to take some pictures and stop lying on the listing!)… Just say no to Boob Lights. They’re not that much cheaper than good lights, and they look half ass. And like boobs.

I don’t know what’s worse when I show houses:  1) the used underwear laying on the floor, 2) the cockroaches ambling across a counter-top, or 3) the neighbors screaming profanities at each other.  No wonder the seller wants to move.  While some things are out of their control, picking up underwear and spraying the house for bugs is something a seller can do.  Just do it or you won’t sell the house or you won’t get what you want for it.  And Evil Amy will write about you!

Read Evil Amy’s whole post right here.

Saturday and Sunday, April 19-20, are going to be a big real estate days in Nashville and the surrounding communities.  The Historic Germantown blog brings us news of the Fifth Annual LIVE IT UP! Downtown Home Tour to “showcase urban living in Nashville.”

At the LIVE IT UP! Downtown Home Tour, you will experience the exciting urban environment, the unique architecture, and the contemporary developments available or on the way. From true lofts to luxurious spaces….panoramic views…floor to ceiling windows…unique floor plans….original historic elements left in the design…you’ll see it all downtown!

That’s totally my cup of tea.  I’ll probably go on Saturday because I’ll be holding my own open house on Sunday. Watch The Tennessean on Friday, April 18, for a special section on “Affordable Housing” as a supplement to the weekend paper.  A map will be printed with locations of open houses participating in the Sunday “Tour of Homes.” Only homes priced under $150,000 can participate. 

Looking for unique gift ideas? Want to support local entrepreneurs? Interested in original designs and stylish artwork? Then check out Mamamade!

Mamamade is a group of Nashville area moms who have put their creative minds together and started an online bazaar. You can order directly from most of their websites listed on the Mamamade blog or you can go to their 2008 Spring Market to be held on April 26th at Lillie Belle’s Tea House in Franklin, TN.

Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on this:

The Nashville Bag!

Wannabe country music star Jessica Simpson may be making a big move - from L.A. to Nashville.  Casa Sugar is reporting that she may have purchased a 10,925-square-foot, 7-bedroom, 8-bath home in Nashville, TN, known as “The Queen of Northumberland” for $3.47 million.

I found it online and it’s a really pretty house. The inside is gorgeous:

And now, Daisy Duke:

Six Meat Buffet brings us a link explaining the mortgage crisis using simple stick figures and some saucy, adult language.  It’s a must read.

Stick Customer: Gee, I’d like to buy a house, but I haven’t saved any money for a downpayment and I don’t think I can afford the monthly payments.  Can you help me?

Stick Lender: Sure! Since the value of houses will always go up, we don’t need downpayments anymore!

My picture is nowhere near as good, but since stick figures are the only ones I can draw, I take every opportunity.

Menh.  Go read the real good stuff here.

Foreclosures are just bad for everyone involved.  Not only do decent hard-working people lose the roof over their heads, but to rub salt in the wound, the value of your home dips because of their hard luck.  My friend and colleague Butch gives us a scenario about about how foreclosures hurt the neighborhood.

The lender just wants enough money to pay off most of the loan regardless of what it’s worth.  The house could go for $150,000, but the bank sold it for $125,00 just to get rid of it. 

Butch links to an MSNBC news article that I’ve seen floating around at Comcast, The Tennessean, etc.  And while you’re digesting that troubling information, here’s more from CNN.  My cheerful outlook is dimming.

Courtesy of Newscoma and Brittney’s job blog. Because I’m not sure how this will work, I’m trying to embed this and giving you the link.

Edit - ok, never mind the embed thing. Click the Newscoma link.

I really enjoyed reading a post by Les Jones about his Mom’s First Brush with Electricity.

Once the family had a place with electricity her dad bought her mom an electric clothes washer. There was room in the kitchen for the washer, but her mother didn’t want it there. She wanted it on the porch so that everyone could see that she owned a washing machine. I used to wonder why people around here used to have washing machines on their front porches and I guess that’s why. If you had never owned an electric appliance in your life you’d be mighty proud of it and you’d want to show it off.

So now if we see a washer on the porch - or a couch - maybe we should be proud that we have electricity and a nearby furniture store!

In all seriousness, we sure take things for granted these days, but it hasn’t really been that long since our modern conveniences came on the scene. We have the nice LCD panel TV sets where things are brighter, clearer, crisper, but I vividly remember the day I stepped off my school bus when I lived in Arkansas. My 10-year old legs ran all the way home so I could see our brand spanking new COLOR television! No more black and white! We didn’t have a remote control then … had to wait a few years for the mute button (the best part of the TV remote). When I met my husband, his grandmother still lived in a home with no indoor plumbing and heated by a coal stove. The trips to the outhouse were not fun in the heat of summer nor during frigid winters.

Given oil prices and water shortages, I wonder if it’ll take just 50 to 100 years to come full circle in the way we live.

Yes, I’m channeling Johnny Carson in my quest to know EVERYTHING you’ve ever wanted to know… (*sigh* …god, I’m old)…

Anyway, I ran across this fantastic primer from Jim and Lynnette about the business of songwriting, and I really like their approach…

Trust me, neither of us has any interest in being a songwriter. We’re just everyday music listeners who are simply intrigued by the business of songwriting, and we always seem to have more questions than answers about how things work in the music industry — particularly the Country music industry.

They include reference links to some really interesting information, as well!
Here’s an example from their Q&A:

#2 How much do songwriters earn for their songs?

Mechanical Royalty — Writers receive 9.1 cents for a song that sells on an artist’s CD. However, this is usually split with the publisher, leaving the songwriter only 4.55 cents. If the song is co-written, then they receive only 2.275 cents! So, if a writer has a song on a million-selling album, they earn around $22,750.
Performance Royalty — A songwriter is paid when his or her song is performed live or on radio, television, or cable. The average performance royalty is under $5,000 per year for those who are lucky enough to receive performance income.

– How Songwriters Are Paid

Under the traditional recording agreement, recording artist royalties usually range from 10% to 25% of the suggested retail price for top-line albums (although many record companies have begun to compute royalties on the wholesale price). However, there are many deductions made for items such as packaging costs; free goods; responsibility for the payment of producer royalties; reserve accounts; return privileges; midline, budget-line, record-club, and foreign royalty reductions; 90% sale provisions; new-technology rate reductions (which may even affect CD royalties); cut-out and surplus-copy provisions; video, tour support, and promotion expenses; recording costs; advances for not only the current album, but past albums as well; ownership of websites; and merchandising rights. In addition, if the artist is a songwriter, there are provisions in the recording agreement (known as the “controlled composition clauses”), which reduce and limit, among other things, mechanical royalties.

Music & Money: Recording Artist Royalties

Informative stuff! Go check out the rest at The Fun Times Guide…

Last year at this time, I was curled in the fetal position whimpering in my dark bedroom.  My phone wasn’t ringing.  While at work, these phones weren’t ringing.  Something was up in the real estate world and that something was real estate business was waaay down.  January through May ‘07 were early indicators to me that the economy was turning bad.  We then started hearing the news about subprime loans hitting the housing industry below the belt.

I am still hearing news of gloom and doom.  U.S. News & World Report just published an article called “Nightmare on Main Street” describing how our subprime disaster has “cascaded into a global financial mess.”  However, contrary to what everyone else is saying these days I think the market is getting ready to rebound.  I base this solely on my own incoming calls, inquiries, and gut feeling.  The difference, though, is my calls are now for higher end homes rather than the “affordable” homes ranging up to the $150,000 price mark.

My first thought is that people with money are doing what they should be doing… buying low now to sell high later.  But if that was the case, I think we’d see more of the lower prices moving quickly rather than the $400,000 up market soaring.  In considering my own higher end clients, these are people who have thought of an idea and pursued it like Newscoma does her Bigfoot.  These are the true stories showing that through a lot of hard work and luck, you can build a hugely successful business.

Meanwhile for others, hardship continues to rock their worlds.  Earlier in the week, the marketing director for the company stopped by and showed a map of foreclosures across the nation linked through our web page. 

I was shocked that Tennessee has as much red as it has, yet thankful I’m not an agent in a western state, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, or Michigan.  I am seriously considering a move to Maine!  (Just kidding, too darn cold for me there!).  Nevertheless, I still believe the recovery of the housing market will begin long before the economists-in-the-know are predicting (late Fall and into 2009). 

So let’s take a jog around the park and see what’s going on in the real life housing market and neighborhoods.

UPDATE:  Well hello MCB.  I published this while at lunch!  So here’s the rest of the post…

Four Door Handbasket may have found an affordable home in the Sylvan Heights ‘hood.  When “they” say “time is of the essence” they mean it.  If you love it, don’t let it slip away.  Jeffraham’s scooter nearly slipped away in is ‘hood.  But he scared them off defending his bike like Braveheart defended his true love.  Didn’t she die? 

In Southern Beale’s neck of the woods, the mosquitos are under a death watch.  Maybe.  Unless the neighbors opt out of the mosquito spray.  When our yards were sprayed in Kentucky, they were done with a “stay indoors for two hour”-type warning. 

And finally, Chris is bragging on the group of private citizens who’ve weighed in on a design for a new Music City Center.  Nice

Okay, now I’m done.

UPDATE 2:  Some day I’ll figure out this whole time stamp stuff. 

Chris Elrod has been writing a great series on warming up your winter interiors.  My favorite, of course, is the cheapest least expensive.  You can paint, get new curtains window treatments, change your room, accessorize!, and put in new shag carpet.  Shag really is making a comeback, but not the purples, greens, and oranges of the past.  I’ve seen a lot of speckled beiges.

Singer Michelle Branch just bought a home here. 

Singer and longtime Big Time Listings fave Michelle Branch has paid $1,350,000 for a house in the Belle Meade area of Nashville, Tenn.

I want so badly to show you a picture of the stone home, but alas I must respect copyright photo laws.

Michael Jackson may lose his merry-go-round and the rest of his estate due to nonpayment of mortgage. 

“There are plenty of lenders willing to work with him. The real estate market is very bad right now and Jackson is being affected just like many other Americans,” the source said.

I wonder if the [maybe] Bahrainian had a subprime loan when he bought the Neverland Ranch.  Maybe he had an ARM.  Or maybe he’s been laid off work or had a major medical problem.  But not to worry!  The same source says it’s unlikely that Jackson will allow the home to be foreclosed when he just caught up with the taxes on it a few weeks ago. 

Speaking of taxes… Slarti posted a while back that property taxes may be going up.

I don’t know what this will mean in your household, but in ours, reappraisal means our annual taxes go up. Most of the time, pretty substantially. It’s like a tax hike without anyone having to take the political hit for instituting a tax hike.

Meanwhile, the foreclosure market is alive and well in Spring Hill.  Local agent Rodney offers some advice about buying a foreclosure:

Yes. There are alot of foreclosed properties on the market. However, there are alot of existing and new homes that have significantly come down in price as well.  …AND…

Most home owners who have fallen in foreclosure over the last 2 years, owe just as much on the house as it’s worth. In reality, the banks want as much of their money back as possible. So, don’t always assume it will be an even better deal than an existing or new home.

I read not-too-long-ago that the Tennessee Bankers Association has asked the state to set up a database that will track foreclosures in the state.  The link in the Tennessean is lost behind a pay-for-a-password-archive, so you bloggers who hate bloggers who regurgitate the news have lucked out!

In the business, we call it REAL(i)TY tv.  Some of the shows are dreadful, others not so bad.  To help you out, Katherine Coble reviews the good, the bad, and the ugly.  See if you can figure out the show:

Show 1 - The Good
I admit I have a certain amount of glee when people point out a house they think they’d like to live in and she kindly tells them that the house goes for about triple the amount they can afford.

Show 2 - The Bad
Most of the time they want the valuation in order to get a large Home Equity loan for more renovations. But it still smacks of greed. I’ve seen people throw a fit because their house only appreciated $300K in two years. I just don’t get that mindset.

Show 3 - The Ugly
After watching about nine thousand half hour episodes I’ve decided this show could also be called Fools And Their Money. It’s gotten so bad that the newest episodes begin with a disclaimer about “real people risking real money” lest any of us other real people get an idea in our head.

Go ahead and try to guess what shows Kat is describing!  Her full post over here is very insightful and funny!

Blogger and wife of blogger, Christy Nicholson was featured in this week’s All the Rage:

“I wanted to sell things at Target prices,” she says. “I think everyone needs that option.” So several business classes and research sessions later, the entrepreneur now offers Web surfers stylish treats like purses crafted from recycled saris in India, locally made lip balms from Thistle Farms and even a few of her own crocheted creations, with most items less than $30.

 Check out shopghia.com and pick up a few pretties for yourself.

When I drive by the humongo homes in Brentwood and other areas, I sometimes wonder where I’ve gone wrong in my life.  Although my husband and I have worked for years and years, we still stress when it comes to paying bills.  I’ve asked the question before: what do these people do for a living to afford these homes?  I’ve often heard from lenders that the people have no back-up plans and one missed paycheck or illness will do them in… just like other everyday folks like me running after the American dream.  They’re in debt up to their eyeballs.

*Tamara K. links to an article in USA Today that says home ownership is just plain and simple unaffordable for many people - especially those who work in the service industry.  I just read or saw that the service industries comprise 70-80% of jobs in the country today, but I can’t find the source so take that statistic with a grain of salt.  Meanwhile, Tamara says,

They should have farmed this study out to the Department of the Obvious, who could have done it much cheaper. If they wanted to run with the theme, they could have pointed out that home ownership is also out of reach of the incarcerated, minor children, and the deceased.

Owning your own home IS the American dream, but my advice is to forget it if you’re not ready.  Don’t be so anxious that you hurt your long-term financial stability because you jumped in too soon.  Put up with those obnoxious neighbors (hey, you get them when you own, too), that greedy, lazy landlord, and living without a garage.  Try to save some money.  Yes, this is a good time to buy but take your time and make sure you have a couple of mortgage payments set aside in preparation of an emergency situation.  The waiting is never fun, but it’s better than losing your home.

In other housing news - or in this case nonhousing news i.e., homeless - Chris Wage brings us this information.  There are ramifications of homeless policies.  Very sad stuff.

*HT: Les Jones.

While the country is focused on the political races today, the economy is taking a tumble. The Dow has fallen close to 400 points today.

I haven’t found any local bloggers talking about it yet. CNN is the first place I saw news that economists are declaring we are in a recession.

So, on Super Tuesday we get the not so friendly reminder: “It is the economy, stupid”.

Which candidate is going to fix the economy and how?

More from Jim Voorhies:

Today is Wall Street’s worst day in three months (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by 370 points today) and coupled with economic news that reports a decline in the service sector (first time in 5 years) of the economy, some economists think we’re now in a recession. (The National Bureau of Economic Research hasn’t made it official, but they never do until it’s months into the recession.) Nashville, with a more diverse economy, has a chance at more restrained impact.

Repeating it from Southern Beale’s view - which I agree with - about most Planning Commissions, SoBeale described the overbuilt condo units in Nashville as the fault of the “flaccid Planning Commission.” 

It’s the fault of greedy out-of-state developers who are not invested in our local community, just here to make a quick buck and move on. It’s the fault of a flaccid Planning Commission that never saw a construction permit it didn’t like.

In my own neck of the woods, I live near a massively massively overbuilt subdivision whose developer is from out-of-the-country (as in not in the U.S.) specialized in “affordable housing” and who allegedly had two of his ”guys” named as members of the Planning Commission.  The members of the Planning Commission approved everything that came before it unless constituents got in their faces.  The result?  Poorly constructed homes stacked on top of each other with neighborhoods now crying woe-is-me because of cars parked in mudpits formerly known as yards and drive-by shootings because many of the buyers brought their criminal spawn with them (not ALL the homes, mind you - just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel).

So yeah.  If I had a magic wand to wave, I’d make all members of planning commissions and developers LIVE where they’ve built, with no option to sell and move for at least four years.

Back to Southern Beale: The good news about overbuilding is that eventually the market will even out between new construction and existing homes.  I see builders (and building industry employees and ancillary companies) suffering most while we go through this adjustment period (I know, duh!).  People will continue to buy, but in a buyers’ market they have more to choose from and will be in a better negotiating position.

In other news, if you are working with a Realtor and he/she seems a tad paranoid to you, this is why.  A 24-year old real estate agent in British Columbia was killed on Sunday showing a home.  If your agent seems skittish, it’s not that Realtors don’t trust you… rather it’s that we are kind of partial to living.  Don’t be offended if you’re asked to show your driver’s license prior to a showing (and a copy of it is made).  It’s just a safety measure.

The latest cut by the Feds to the interest rate isn’t exactly being met with open arms and glee. CurrencyTrading.net posted a list of reasons we should be critical of the Federal Reserve including several that are fairly obvious:

• Warning signs ignored The argument: Early subprime whistleblowers, including a senior Fed official, tried in vain to elicit a reaction from the Fed. It’s true that the Fed should never act as a regulator, but it could have easily called for lending reform. … and …
• Reward for bad behavior The argument: …Fed policy in the wake of the economic slowdown seems to reward it [bad behavior]. Financial stocks have been justifiably hammered in recent months, but the Fed’s recent economic interventions are tailored to bailing them out first.

My personal mortgage lender appeared last night and this morning on Channel 2 News talking about how the rate cut doesn’t necessarily equate to a rate cut on home loans - that there are a lot of factors that come in to play (credit score! type of loan!) when financing a home.

Mortgage rates fell Thursday, in the wake of another federal rate cut, but not necessarily because of it. “People automatically think that because there is a federal rate cut there is a mortgage rate cut. Quite honestly they don’t correspond to each other,” Scott Matuk, broker with First Community Mortgage, clarified Thursday.

Finally, Miranda at the Loan Shak found a parody of what the rate cut means to “everyday” people.

Here’s a link to the vid! (Note, Ginger the techno-savvy one has embeded this video below for your viewing pleasure).

I’d love to save a thousand a month on my four million dollar properties. Ha.

It’s only been a short time since I discovered LeBlanc over at a natural deficiency of moral fiber and since then I have fallen madly in like with his posts, like I did with Newscoma two years ago.  So here I am flailing around as Miss Real Estate and Neighborhood person who needs to find some more real estate and neighborhood bloggers.  You can sense the desperation when I can tie-in spackling with real estate - even this kind of spackling.

There’s some of THAT spackling that needs done at my house.  Meanwhile, shoot me your URL at that linkie-email-hoo-haw on the right (aka tips @ musiccitybloggers . com) if you write about neighborhoods or real estate and I’ll add you to my feed reader or reader feed.

Oh, and thanks LeBlanc for Le dessin animé.

Rex Hammock has posted On Business Models. Here is his take:

My bank has yet to accept a deposit from me for something called a “business model.” The only business model I care about is one that results in something that, at the end of the day, will be accepted as a deposit by my bank.

While a business model has no value when it comes to balance sheets, it is an incredibly valuable tool/exercise for entrepreneurs. It is easy to start a business, it is hard to get to a point where you are making regular deposits in the bank. By modeling your business after a strategy that has been known in the past to result in deposits, you are increasing your chances for success. A business model is like a “recipe for success” (or disaster as the case may be); the challenge is in following and executing the recipe.

My bank has also never accepted a deposit for something called a business model, but they have granted a withdrawal. Without a plan we would never have gotten a loan.

So yeah, a business model is not the same thing as a successful business, but it is not exactly useless either.