Clarksville Real Estate

As school is a mere week away for many of our children, I thought I would post some news for parents and those who are moving to the Fort Campbell and Clarksville area in the coming months.  First let me say that CLARSKVILLE AND MONTGOMERY SCHOOL SYSTEM IS OUTSTANDING

Now that I have got that out of my system, let me add the reason that the schools are outstanding are a combination of great faculty and teachers as well as INVOLVED PARENTS - yes - you heard it - Clarksville Schools are as good as they are because the PARENTS CARE AND ARE ENGAGED in their children's future.

If you are sitting there reading this and saying 'Wait a cotton-pickin minute - I aint involved!" then I say to you - GET INVOLVED PARENT! 

Okay, some topics of interest.  As I posted a bit earlier, they broke ground on the new Rossview Elementary School - a much needed addition to the Rossview/St Bethlehem area and Rossview Schools complex.

For those who have not read over this year's budget, I would encourage you to do so:  http://www.cmcss.net/archives/2009/Budget.pdf  Remember to help your schools out by assisting the teachers in acquiring much needed school materials - Folks alot of this is NOT bought by the government - alot of Teachers PAY OUT OF POCKET - which is unsatisfactory - it is your children - help them out - teachers simply do not make enough to be forking out that kind of money.

Some new Principles and Assistant Principles named:

St. Bethlehem Principal Named - A 14-year schools administrative veteran, Gina Biter has been chosen as the new principal of St. Bethlehem Elementary School.  Biter, who has served as assistant principal at Minglewood Elementary since 1996 and has experience as an assistant principal at Norman Smith, will begin her duties for the 2008-09 school year.

Sango Teacher Named as New Sango Assistant Principal - Erin Hedrick has been named as the new assistant principal at Sango Elementary School for the upcoming school year. Hedrick earned her bachelor of science in interdisciplinary studies from Austin Peay. She earned her master's degree in administration and supervision from Austin Peay.

Richview Principal Named - Clarksville-Montgomery County School System Director of Schools Michael Harris today announced that Dr. Mary Gist has been named principal of Richview Middle School. She joins the CMCSS from Franklin Special School District where she has served as an administrator at Freedom Middle School. She has 22 years of education experience, and earned her doctorate in education from Trevecca Nazarene. A native of Florence, Alabama, Dr. Gist has a background in teaching middle and high school science. She has eight years of middle school administrative experience. She earned her B.S. And M.A. degrees from the University of North Alabama. She will begin her duties at Richview on Monday, Aug. 4.

Richview Middle Assistant Principal Named - Lisa Clark has been named Assistant Principal at Richview Middle School. She will be transferred from her current position as assistant principal at Glenellen Elementary. She replaces Tracy Winters who requested assignment as academic coach at Northeast Middle School.

Is your child riding the bus?  Need to know the schedule and the route?  Click here.

Ground was broken June 27 at the future home of Rossview Elementary School, which will open in August 2009.  Pictured from left are Elementary Schools Director Ann Griffin; School Board Member Morris Stevens; Schools Director Michael Harris; County Mayor Carolyn Bowers; School Board Member George Giles; County Commissioner Keith Politi; and Jim Coleman,  Project Manager for Robert Biscan Company, the general contractor for the construction.

For those that are relocating to the Clarksville and Fort Campbell Area area, we have much to offer not only in our great city but in cities that are in driving distance. Anyone who says that there in nothing to do is simply not looking very hard.

Our daughter enjoys Girl Scouts, dance and other activities.  Because of this we have opportunities to travel to cities that are not to far from Clarksville for many fun and learning activities.  One of our sister cities is Huntsville Alabama.  Huntsville is a mere 2.5 hours from Clarksville.  It is an easy drive.  In Huntsville you can enjoy taking the kids to their awesome Space and Rocket Center.  They not only have educational activities for kids and adults but they even have some fun rides.  The Space and Rocket Center also offers Space Camp for kids.  This is an opportunity we plan to pursue for Ashley in the near future.  Check out their website for more info.  http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/   

Huntsville also has a wonderful Botanical Garden.   In the spring/summer months you can enjoy beautiful gardens and a fantastic butterfly house where butterflies of all breeds will be landing on your fingers.  The Botanicals is a wonderful site at Christmas time as they put on a drive through light show. Check it out at  http://www.hsvbg.org/      

There are so many other places to travel that are close by such as Beech Bend located in Bowling Green Ky.  The drive is only about 2 hours.  This is a wonderful park to spend the day with the kids.  It is not only fun but affordable. They offer many fun rides and a water park .  Going their I thought they would be bored and ready to come home by 3 or 4.  The Girls arrived as the park opened at 10 a.m.  They all had so much fun they stayed till closing hours with the kids were wishing the park would stay open longer,it closes at 8.  Check it out at http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/yellowpages/parks/beechbend_ky.shtml.    

Also, in the Bowling Green area are Mammoth Cave Park and the National Corvette Museum (and Covette Factory) as Tim just reminded me of!  There are more activities close by. I'll be posting those in the future so tune back in for more fun sites in surounding areas.  

Please give a warm welcome to our newest Active Rain member Ms. Beverly Anderson from Sango's Crye Leike office.  I am sure that Beverly will find Active rain to be a great place to meet new associates as well as to learn some valuable tools of the trade.

I am hoping that Beverly will jump right in and start blogging away with the rest of our Clarksville Crew!

As I read more about the 'Mortage Bail Out Bill' it makes me wonder just what our society holds as values and morals. Many liken the struggles we are facing in America to the beginning of the Great Depression, but is that really the case?

Or, is it that some of us in America think of our lives as a board game? Or at least our financial well being? Granted there are those who are down on their luck, who had absolutely no choice - but again are they the rule or the exception? I know these thoughts are most likely going to be seen as a slap - well, if it is a slap to some, maybe they take this to heart and maybe they should.

Let me ask a question - If you put $25,000 into the stock market - say you put it all into one stock - "Fido's Corporation". You bought this stock at market value and you felt real REAL good about this stock and looked forward to the appreciation of this stock over the next couple decades - because, after all, stocks ARE a long term investment right? Well, let's say that Fido's takes a hit - or as some would call it in the market - and adjustment and loses 60% of it share value - what are you going to do? Are you going to stick with it (because it is a long term investment) or are you going to sale! Well, of course saling would mean a loss of around $15000 of your initial investment - now that would hurt. Would you look to Uncle Sam to give you back your losses?

Okay - bad analogy and not the picture I want to paint. I have been trying to find the right brush in the last week as I have read articles and watched various commentary on the 'mortage' saga that is having such an impact on our economy and nation. 

Let me throw the brushes in the trash - here is what I see - I see that many folk bought homes that were overvalued - an adjustment was made - folks got mad - decided they did not want to pay for a home that was not valued at what they had originally bought it for - especially when Joe next door bought at a much reduced rate. It was just not fair! Seeing how many of these folks did not have any real money in these properties they simply stopped paying the mortage and waited for the foreclosure. No shame in that right?

That IS going on in our country and these type of people are placing a bad light on those who have done absolutely all they could to save their homes because they truly could not afford to make ends meet due to impacts of economy, loss of job, etc.

Some in our society seems to think of their economic lives as a monopoly game - when the game is over, they simply wipe the board clean and start all over. To blame the government or the mortage brokers for the mess that IS would be wrong. Education is key - those who took the balloon/jumbo or whatever the fancy word for the loan was were GAMBLING and the gamble did not pay off - FIXED RATES rule the day folks.

My own dad, who is going through this mess due to a job move and a home in Minnesota that has not sold is still trying to make ends meet and still paying his mortage because his PRIDE will not allow him to take the easy way out. A shame really that it has come to this. We had a client not too long ago that had relocated - a successful doctor no less - took a higher paying job and instead of taking a loss on the home, or rather having to PAY REAL money to honorably sell the home they simply walked away. You wanna bet they will get a home where they are now? Who's fault is that? The mortage broker? The Real Estate Agent? Our Government?

Come on folks - is it really that easy? Do we really have no pride in ourselves anymore? This is not a game and when you commit to something you do all that you can to follow through on the commitment. Just because you pay 10 dollars for a share of stock today and Jimmy pays 5 dollars for the same share tomorrow does not mean that you were wronged or that the company owes you five bucks back.

When you look to Uncle Sam to make it all right for you - you are looking to your left and to your right - you are looking to your parents, your brother, and your sister to PAY for your inability - no not inability - refusal to follow through on your committment. In the case of the mortage situation, we very well may be leaving it to our children to pay for this.

Is it too late to turn the tide? Possibly so, but it certainly is not too late to ensure that those who simply walked away are not the beneficiaries of any government assistance. Hopefully the rules will be such as to ensure that folks not only are approved for what they can afford, but also I would like to see some mandatory counseling or education for first time buyers to ensure they understand what they are getting into.

This blog is not to slap everyone out there that is down and out. There ARE innocent victims in this whole mess - that is no doubt, but there are also many who simply walked away and that is where I have serious heartburn.

Crye-Leike is one of the very few agencies that are open SEVEN DAYS a week, complete with a receptionist and an Agent on duty.  Many of the citizens here in the Clarksville Real Estate Market do not realize this, but I am here to let you know that we are open and ready to serve you!

That said, I am an opportunity kind of guy and like to swing by the office on the weekends if I do not have alot going on.  Yesterday was one of those days - so I stopped in and found that there was an open period for floor duty - so I took it.  Now, many agents do not care for floor duty - but again I say I see the opportunity as it ONLY TAKES THAT ONE CALL to make it all worth while.

Well, I got three calls yesterday and two were rather interesting and raise some questions and or interesting thoughts.  The first call came from a fellow agent and mentor of mine.  He happened to be out of town and had someone call to view his home.  He found that I was in the office so asked me if I would be willing to show the home to this couple.  He went further to tell me that he beleived this was the same couple who I had shown the home to a week prior.  Of course I agreed - after all he has helped me out alot and beyond that - IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

The other two floor calls were interesting because they were a mere five minutes apart and in regards to the same listing.  While that in and of itself is NOT interesting, what happened after was.  I took both calls, provided all the information I could and gave the two callers my phone number and told them I would be happy to show them the property. 

Well...back to the first call - the appointment was set for 130pm - when the couple showed up, they looked at me odd and stated 'your the man who showed us this property last week' to that I responded 'yes maam, I was' and left it at that.  Now some of you might get on  me and say I should have given them another card, but at this point they were the other agent's lead or client and that just would not be right.  They obviously knew what they were doing, but they sure looked like the kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.  I showed the property professionally and thanked them again and off they went.

About twenty minutes later I get a call on my cell phone and it is one of the callers from my floor time that wanted to see the property they had inquired about.  Now, WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE at this point was to ask if they were working with an agent, but alas, I did not.  I went ahead and set up the time.  Not five minutes later - you guessed it - the other caller was on the line wanting to view the same property.  I am thinking at this point WHAT ARE THE ODDS?  Also I am thinking - is this a setup of some sort?  Nonetheless I set it as well.

The first caller arrives and seems VERY interested in the property - I had the time to research the property and look around (vacant) to ensure I had a good feel for the property and answered all the questions prompt and professional.  At the end of our thirty minute walkthrough I ask the person what they are looking for - ' I am looking for a ranch with a three car garage in this area' Thinking to myself that I was getting somewhere, I then ask for their email address and phone number so that I can run some custom searches and find some properties that would be in the criteria.  The gentleman pauses for a second and then states 'Tim, ya know, I really don't want to do that' Still at this point I am not phased - I still got some homes in the area I can show - then he states 'I got to be honest with you, I just bought a house around the corner that I close on in two weeks.  I just wanted to make sure that there wasnt something I was missing..'  Now, at this point, one would think I would have lost my cool - but I passed that test, I did not even give a hint of frustration, disappointment or any anger.  I simply stated that his agent had found him a great property and that he would be more than happy with it.

The second couple were very pleasant - NOT working with a realtor and seems to be very interested, so hopefully Pam and I will have a new client to work with.  They will be coming by to visit us at our open house today. 

Not sure if many would call this an interesting day, but it certainly gave me some valuable lessons and also keeps in your mind that NOTHING is for sure in this business. 

I also know that many are thinking 'he should have got them to sign a buyer's agreement' right?  We do not like to push this on potential clients - there is a time and place for everything - first meetings in this respect is not it in my opinion.

Anyhow, the Clarksville Real Estate Market is thriving!!  Situations such as the above make the profession all the more interesting and keeps educating me daily.

Regards

Tim and Pam Cash

Crye-Leike Clarksville

All, please join me in welcoming two more of my Crye-Leike family.  Trish is the first person you are greeted by when you call the Crye-Leike Sango office (Make sure you say hello!)  Mike joins us from the corporate headquarters in Nashville. 

Again, as I have said before I hope that these great folks will quickly realize the value of Active Rain and start blogging with us!  Welcome aboard folks!!

Tim and Pam Cash

Crye-Leike Clarksville

We invite you to join us today at our public Open house!

215 Longwood Lane in the one of Tucker Corporation's Savannah developments.  Anyone who has had the opportunity to view the homes in this area will quickly realize the appealing nature of the area.

Offering over 3400 square feet, the all brick home also features a full unfinished basement, 1.32 Acre lot, & Circular Driveway. This is an excellent floor plan with large rooms thru out.  Awesome master suite (on main level) with fireplace.  HUGE Kitchen with island/cooktop.  We will be available to assist or answer any questions you may have from 2-4 pm this afternoon and look forward to serving you in all your Clarksville Real Estate needs.

Directions:  From Highway 76 Connector/MLK Pkwy to Old Farmers Rd, Left on Runnymeade, Right on Longwood Lane.

Tim and Pam Cash

Crye-Leike Clarksville

931-338-1375