Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Stuff to DO near DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS!

WE ARE SO LUCKY! We live in Harbor Town- that wonderful little village that sits right along side of the downtown core of Memphis. There are lots of thing to do here- beautiful walks, nice restaurants, kayaking and bike riding- but sometimes you just want to get out and explore a bit further! So here are  some of the little treasures that I have found along the way.....

Take a drive north off the Island- did you know that there is an amazing state park just a 15 minute drive up there? It is called "Shelby Forest" and it encompasses 13,467 acres of bottomland hardwood forests. There are 20 miles of hiking trails, 5 miles of paved bike paths, 8 miles of horse trails, two lakes and the Mississippi River! Tim and I go there regularly to commune with nature. It is fantastic! There is nobody there! On our hike last week we saw two bald eagles circling overhead! The forest is also home to deer, turkey, beaver, foxes, otters and bobcats. Stop by the park nature center and grab a map before you set out.

On the way to the park, stop by the Shelby Forest General Store. It remains unchanged since it was built in the Great Depression! There you can grab a sandwich and a drink- say hello to "Jay-Jay' the rooster- maybe catch a little bluegrass on the patio and chat with the ever cordial owners, Doug and Christin.
They also sell frisbee discs for the neighboring frisbee disc golf course ( the largest one in the southeast!)

After you have had your delicious sandwich and walked off  the calories on the trails- drive on up a few more minutes north and visit the Old Millington Winery at 6748 Old Millington Road! You heard my correctly! A WINERY- just north of here! You can pick up a couple of bottles of their award winning red wine and enjoy them in their garden watching some live music (Sundays)!

Need to stock up on some farm fresh produce? Keep driving to Highway 51 and you will find the "Jones Orchard" fruit stand where they sell veggies, homemade cakes, jams and jellies. There is even a small concession stand there.

On the way back home you will pass the ever-so cute Dewitt Spain Airport where, for a small fee, you can be whisked away on an aerial tour of the city! You may even be inspired to take flying lessons!

So those are my suggestions to while away some summer hours....what are yours? Please share!




If you hear the words "SHORT SALE"- RUN !!!!

What, exactly, is a short sale anyway? Everyone asks me that question- so let me try and map out a scenario for you-

You see a home that you love for $300,000 and decide to purchase the piece of property by taking out a mortgage. The bank lets you borrow the money at 5% interest and a 5% down payment. Now you owe the bank $285,000 with payments of $2000 each month for 30 years to repay your debt. Something terrible goes awry, you lose your job or something, and you are unable to pay back your debt. You stop making your house payments. The bank is threatening foreclosure. You tell the bank you will try and sell it and save everyone the hassle of a foreclosure- The bank won't have to evict you ( you can stay in the house). They won't have to maintain a vacant property and the bank won't have to be responsible for the property taxes and homeowner association fees etc.. (you will).  The bank says ok- lets try it- we will give you some time to see if you can sell it yourself before we foreclose on the property. So you call a realtor and say- "do what ever it takes to get me an offer on this house". And the realtor says "okay, lets ask $150,000 for it- that ought to work!" But wait a minute- you OWE $285,000-( that's the 'short' part of a 'short sale'.)  So $150,000 is an arbitrary number- the bank has not agreed to it. It is completely made up by you and the realtor.

Lets look at this scenario from another persecutive, that of the potential buyer of a short sale. The property is being offered "for sale" at 50% of the original price of the home. "WOW! What a deal"you say!- But wait! Remember, the number is an arbitrary one- who said $150,000? Certainly not the bank! The realtor and the seller did- and they have absolutely no idea if the bank will take that amount or not ( and if you think about it- why would they?)- however, what the seller does know, is that the bank will not be evicting him as long as he is trying to go down the "short sale" route- so he is now living rent free as long as he can string this short sale out.

During this process the bank is going to require that the seller send them all of their financial information each and every month- if they don't the process will be delayed. And if the bank doesn't accept the $150,000- the deal is dead.

I don't think that you can get into much more of a convoluted mess.

And short sales are ripe for fraud. A friend told me that he was looking at a short sale in Destin, Florida. It looked like a GREAT deal- $550,000 to purchase a home that once sold for $1.2 million. The seller met him at the property and told him that if he could see his way to pay the seller $30,000 cash for a "chair" that would remain in the house- he would take the $550,000 offer to his bank. ( In other words the seller would receive a $30,000 payday for making the deal happen).

I have also been hearing about realtors, who once they have had a persons home on the market and been unable to sell it iwithin a couple of months or so they actually "recommend" that the seller stop paying their house note and begin slipping into the short sale process! Oh my!

And a couple of months ago one of my clients attempted to purchase a 'short sale'  and the seller asked for $10,000 in cash. Jeeze!

It's murky out there in the 'short sale' world....if you hear "short 'sale' it's best to just RUN in the other direction! If you must dabble in the world of distressed properties- stick to the foreclosures. When you get a foreclosure the process has already been taken care of. The bank owns the property. They have contracted with a realtor to sell the house at a certain (usually depressed) value- and things are fairly straight forward. Also, know this- these days most regular sellers have "considered the market". There are GREAT deals out there without having to go through any type of distressed sale.

It also goes to show you that a realtor with the knowledge and expertise to help you avoid these new mine fields ought too be worth their weight in gold to you!