Last  post on Memphis Real Estate Buzz

Moving to http://Blog.Spake.com

Image by joespake via Flickr

If you have come to this URL – http://MemphisRealEstateBuzz.com for the last few years for my local and national real estate news and comments, thank you!  This is the last post on this blog.  No I am not giving up real estate blogging – just changing the blog’s URL and look.

I am integrating Memphis Real Estate Buzz as a sub-domain of my main site, http://spake.com.  From now on you can find my real estate posts, and hopefully other interesting posts at http://blog.spake.com.  This blog will be automatically redirected there.

Thanks for your support.  If you are an RSS subscriber, please go to http://blog.spake.com and subscribe there (all the posts from this blog are archived and searchable there).  You won’t be automatically subscribed at the new location.  You can use this link to subscribe right now.  If you would prefer to receive new posts by mail, use this link.

So, I will see you on the other side.  I will leave this site up for a while, to make sure all the permalinks to posts transfer properly to a new and permanent location.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

Midtown Memphis Bungalow

Most of Memphis’ Bungalows are located in the Mid-City area, roughly bounded by Bellevue, the Wolf River, Highland, and South Parkway, however you see samples of the style in other parts of the city that saw development in the 1920s.

Memphis Bungalows feature low pitched roofs with usually with significant overhang; 0ne or one and a half stories, and a front porch.  The interior features a practical floor plan, usually with a short central hallway, separate living and dining rooms.  Many of the Bungalows found in Memphis were built from Sears Kits.

So what is a Bungalow?

Probably the most definitive description and examples for the layman can be found in this article.  There are many definitions in the United States and around the world: Craftsman, Prairie, and Chicago styles are perhaps the most recognizable.

Bungalows for Sale in Memphis

Here are samples of bungalows currently on the market in Memphis.  Since this is a dynamic slideshow (automatically updated), and since we have to depend on listing agents’ definition of  ”bungalow” some images may not be representative of the classic bungalow style.

To see ALL the bungalows currently on the market in Memphis, CLICK HERE.

Related link:  Memphis is a great bungalow town

By the way, if you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

The Downtown Memphis condo market has gotten a lot of attention over the last decade – the boom, the bust, the foreclosures, the snail’s pace recovery.  Downtown has been a very popular nesting place for a wide variety of residents from first time buyers to empty nesters,  and condos have been the link from apartment living to home ownership for many.

Midtown was all over the condo thing before the condo boom Downtown.  You can get a nice unit for significantly less than $200,000 and still cash in on the convenience, and, dare I say it, the hipness of In town living.  Midtown is as walkable and bikeable as Downtown and offers a fairly wide selection of units.  Almost all the Midtown neighborhoods are represented.  There are panoramic views of Overton Park, the bustle of Cooper Young night life, and lots of  unique homes, starting at $30,000.

CLICK HERE to view the Midtown Condo Inventory. Contact you want to learn more about owning a condo.

Related articles

• There’s a new sign in Memphis real estate (memphisrealestatebuzz.com)
• 5 Reasons To Buy A Condo (gyhousehunter.wordpress.com)
• Article: Double your condo pleasure (candelagroupcanada.wordpress.com)

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

NO! I haven’t changed companies again.  The sales division of Revid Realty has rebranded as InCity Realty.  The name change and contemporary logo emphasize  our company’s commitment  to representing residential real estate buyers and marketing  properties inside Memphis.  While my concentration is in Midtown, Downtown, and East Memphis,  InCity can help with your real estate needs throughout the greater Memphis area.

A new sign for Memphis Real Estate

Finally, a real estate sign that is good looking enough for YOUR yard.   Let me know what you think about our new look.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

By David Shankbone via Wikipedia Commons

OK, I will admit on the front end that I do not require home buying customers to sign a binding Buyer Representation agreement before I show them properties.  I like the feeling of  building rapport and  relationships in a laid-back, friendly manner without wielding the big stick of an employment contract.  For the most part my customers like this Andy Griffith-Mayberry method of doing business, and the vast majority of folks I show houses to end up buying with me.  I know that is contrary to everything they tell you in real estate classes, but I think that the majority of my colleagues take the same approach.

“Buyers are Liars”

Everybody who has ever worked in real estate has heard that tired cliche.   It’s not true;  but given a real estate professional working for free, finding and showing properties, doing estensive research on individual schools, day care centers, or golf courses, and providing multiple detailed market analyses at the customer’s whim,  it might be easy for some customers to take that professional for granted, or even fire him without notice or explanation.

Working without a net

A couple of times a year I lose a non-contracted buyer.  Maybe they stumble into an open house and fall so madly in love that they have to write an offer right there with the listing agent.  Maybe they are calling FSBOs, thinking they will save a few bucks if they try to negotiate on their own.   Or they meet someone at a cocktail party who insists, “you must use my agent”.  Maybe they just don’t like me  - our styles don’t mesh – even though we have spent 25 hours and seen 30 houses together.  For that  time I have invested I get nothing.   And what’s almost as painful as losing a 5-figure commission is that these runaway buyers don’t usually have the integrity to tell me the truth or pick up the phone and  fire me outright.   Its always like,  ”we’ve decided to put the home search on hold for a while;” “we’re not sure we want to buy in any of the areas we have been looking at;” or the last minute “we are going to have to cancel for today; sorry you went to the trouble of setting up those 10 appointments; we’ll get back with about re-scheduling”.  Then, a while later, comes the crowing about their new home on Facebook.   I don’t care much for Donald Trump, but at least when he fires you, you know you are fired.

So I just want to tell all my loyal clients, I LOVE YOU ALL.  Thanks for doing business with me, referring your friends and families, and taking the time to write  nice reviews about me online; and thanks for acting in good faith, allowing us to have a win-win relationship with everyone in the transaction.   Please understand, though, that from now on the home buyers you send  and all the buyers who find me online and through other sources will be under a Buyer Agency contract before they cross the first threshold with me.

Related articles

• Does anybody read this blog? (memphisrealestatebuzz.com)

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.