Tuesday, June 12, 2012
ICF Home Testimonial
ICF Home Under Construction Survives Hurricane Katrina
The Sundberg's home construction was 85% complete, when hurricane Katrina slammed into the area on August 29 with a huge storm surge and reported sustained winds from 125mph. The water reached an elevation of 28 feet.
After the winds died down and the water retreated to the Gulf of Mexico, the Sundberg's found their home had survived the storm largely intact, with some blown out windows, and missing upstairs panels. Now they are focusing their efforts on finishing the building before the next storm strikes... They will certainly be prepared.
To view and amazing ICF home in Nashville that is currently for sale, please visit www.nashvillesafehome.info
Nick Woodard
www.nickwoodard.com
nick@nickwoodard.com
615.566.9839
Friday, June 8, 2012
More on ICF Homes
Your ICF home can look exactly like you want it to look, like any other home, for nearly the same cost as the wood house "Bob the Builder" wants to build for you. From the outside, ICF homes look the same as wood framed homes since all finishes, such as brick, stucco and siding, can be used. On the inside, homeowners like the thicker walls that provide deep interior window sills for use as window display areas.
To visit an incredible ICF home in the Nashville area, visit www.nashvillesafehome.info
This is an incredible property looking for a new owner! Come see the TORNADO PROOF HOUSE!
Nick Woodard
Realtor
www.nickwoodard.com
nick@nickwoodard.com
615.566.9839
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
More on ICF Homes
People everywhere are raving about ICF homes… why?
Once you have lived in an ICF home, you will undoubtedly never dream of going back to the flimsiness of a wood-framed house. The difference in quality is like comparing a Mercedes to a Kia. There are so many more reasons not to settle for just any home. You will enjoy: A high quality and energy efficient home. A sound resistant home. Lower utility bills. No drafts or cold spots. High fire resistance. Healthy air environment. Tornado resistance. No mold, rot or decay. Lower insurance premiums. Higher resale value than your neighbor's house.
If you are interested in a beautiful ICF home in Nashville, please check out our link: www.nashvillesafehome.info God Bless
Nick Woodard
Realtor
www.nickwoodard.com
nwoodard2@hotmail.com
615.566.9839
If you are interested in a beautiful ICF home in Nashville, please check out our link: www.nashvillesafehome.info God Bless
Nick Woodard
Realtor
www.nickwoodard.com
nwoodard2@hotmail.com
615.566.9839
Monday, June 4, 2012
Tornado Proof Homes
Many people are asking me more and more about ICF (Insulating Concrete Form) Homes. I have a beautiful Nashville ICF home that is superior quality to others in the area. Over the next few days, I will be blogging about some of the features of this home and some of the reasons ICF homes are superior to stick built homes. To take a look at this awesome tornado proof home in Nashville, visit www.nashvillesafehome.info
I want my family to be safe in a tornado or severe weather!!
Able to withstand 250-mile-an-hour winds and wind-borne debris, the storm resistance of ICF homes is the #1 draw for people in hurricane and tornado zones. ICF walls are reinforced concrete, which has an excellent record of surviving natural disasters. Surveys of damage from hurricanes and tornadoes confirmed that reinforced concrete survives high winds better than traditional wood-built homes. In many instances, standing ICF homes were surrounded by collapsed wood homes.
www.nashvillesafehome.info
Nick Woodard
www.nickwoodard.com
615.566.9839
nick@nickwoodard.com
www.nashvillesafehome.info
Nick Woodard
www.nickwoodard.com
615.566.9839
nick@nickwoodard.com
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Concrete Benefits...
Sticks and stones will break your bones...but 13 inch concrete walls will protect you! If you are unfamiliar with ICF Homes (Insulating Concrete Forms) let this blog be a little 411 for you to chew on. I am representing a property in Nashville that is constructed using concrete and steal instead of wood and nails. This 6,200 foot custom beauty has external walls built by infusing steel rebar surrounded with solid concrete. Not only that, but the floor joists between the 3 levels of the home are solid steel beams. There are many benefits to owning an ICF home. Here are just a few:
1. Safety: This home could take a direct hit from a tornado and still be standing. The entire home is literally build like "safe room". You might lose the roof and windows...but being surrounded by concrete and steel will save your life.
2. ICF homes are incredibly energy efficient. The cost to heat and cool this 6,200 square foot home is roughly the same cost that the owners had when they lived in a 2 bedroom apartment!!!
3. The home is relatively "sound proof". When you walk into this home it feels like you are walking into a music studio. Extremely quiet. You can't even hear the neighbor mow his yard
4. Fire: we all live with the fear of fire burning down our homes and taking everything that we own. Both concrete and steel do NOT BURN
5. Termites: Unless you find an African strain of Terminator Termites with steel jaws....the little bugs that we as Realtors in Tennessee have to always hated with don't stand a chance of causing damage.
These are just a few of the benefits to owning an ICF home like this one. Other than the ICF benefits of this property, it is fully custom and unbelievably beautiful. On a hilltop overlooking Nashville, the home has the same type of feel as something that you would find in Annandale...located just 2 miles away. Custom flooring, ironwork, windows, doors, etc... make this one unlike anything you have ever seen. This property would be valued well over $1,100,000 if located in the Annandale Subdivision...but just 2 miles away off of Edmonson Pike...we are a steal at $784,990 for 6,200 feet on a full acre lot with a walkout basement. For more information, please check out our website www.nashvillesafehome.info Thank you and God Bless!
6027 Woodland Hills Drive
Nashville, TN
MLS # 1316122
Nick Woodard
Hodges and Fooshee Realty
www.nickwoodard.com
nick@nickwoodard.com
Monday, July 11, 2011
Great point of view!
When to ignore real estate market reports
Focus on what you can control
By David Fletcher
Inman News™
Share This
It doesn't happen very often, but I am offering something today that will help all of us improve our attitude about the economy. It's not as bad as we have been led to believe. I have the numbers to back it up.
You will see why I am so excited about what I have discovered. After all these years, my degree in economics is finally paying off.
I am about ready to quit reading monthly housing reports. Instead, I plan to focus on listing and selling homes. I am asking my readers to join me in this movement.
It's a big step, because it means I will have to quit complaining and worrying and go to work, which no one should be expected to do cold turkey.
That's why we should start reading market news only in part. The key is to focus on today's numbers, not the trends. We are salespeople. We don't make things.
I understand why companies that make appliances, Sheetrock and carpet would care. After all, they have to plan and make projections. We don't. We sell homes.
Our long-range plan is a pile of short-range ones, ranging from the next phone call to the next email or text. We are real estate agents. We don't plan. We are first responders.
The secret is to focus solely on this year's numbers. Do not read or heed the comparisons to last year or projections for next year. They do not matter to you.
Try it. It will change your entire outlook.
The Census Bureau reported last month that the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace for new-home construction stood at 319,000 homes in May. But what does that mean? Is it great news or bad news?
"I can't tell without comparing them to last year's numbers," say the purists, most of whom are just waiting to spew some high-sounding, emotionally debilitating analysis around an office filled with commission salespeople.
We live in the moment. Next year's projections don't make our house payment or fund this summer's vacation. Our attitude -- not the market's altitude -- is what makes the difference to us. That's why we need to purposely protect what we see and what we think.
Last year's number can cause your attitude to harden, and next year's numbers can be discouraging. Fortunately, neither comparison matters.
Let's take it further:
New-home real estate agents make about one sale for every 10 prospects who register in their sales offices without a broker (I am being conservative).
If 319,000 new homes are going to be sold in 2011, that equation means that about 3.19 million people will shop new homes this year! I don't know what your sales-to-prospect ratio is, but annualized sales for resale homes are projected to be in the neighborhood of 4.81 million homes sold this year.
The secret is to not compare this year's numbers with last year's or next year's projections. They do not matter. We are commission-based sales agents.
Numbers tell us all kinds of things about out business.
There are about 1 million REALTORS®, so that means there will 4.8 resale homes sold per agent, based on projections -- and the National Association of REALTORS® expects the median price of a resale home to be about $168,800 this year.
Since you are not average, because you don't worry about what you cannot control, you stay focused on what makes you money: listing and selling real estate.
Here is an example taken from a blog post that lists 12 months' worth of sales for three ZIP codes in the Pittsburgh, Pa., area:
Existing-homes sold: 1,080, for an average price of $132,000. New homes sold: 94, for an average price of $303,000. I have no idea how these numbers compare to 2010, and what could I do about it if I did? Let's assume that sales are down 10 percent, or whatever percent you want to use. So?
You may find yourself in a conversation where the economy is being discussed, and a cloud of hopelessness hangs over the conversation.
I always wait for the opportunity to ask this question: "So, what do you think we can do about it?" And there the conversation turns to sports or politics. It's true. We cannot do one thing about last year, next year or even the inventory.
But there is one thing we can do. We can quit making excuses and believing that "nobody is buying." The numbers prove us wrong.
People in your market are buying. The good news is that you can do something about it: Start prospecting harder and smarter, and watch your own local market share grow.
Focus on what you can control
By David Fletcher
Inman News™
Share This
It doesn't happen very often, but I am offering something today that will help all of us improve our attitude about the economy. It's not as bad as we have been led to believe. I have the numbers to back it up.
You will see why I am so excited about what I have discovered. After all these years, my degree in economics is finally paying off.
I am about ready to quit reading monthly housing reports. Instead, I plan to focus on listing and selling homes. I am asking my readers to join me in this movement.
It's a big step, because it means I will have to quit complaining and worrying and go to work, which no one should be expected to do cold turkey.
That's why we should start reading market news only in part. The key is to focus on today's numbers, not the trends. We are salespeople. We don't make things.
I understand why companies that make appliances, Sheetrock and carpet would care. After all, they have to plan and make projections. We don't. We sell homes.
Our long-range plan is a pile of short-range ones, ranging from the next phone call to the next email or text. We are real estate agents. We don't plan. We are first responders.
The secret is to focus solely on this year's numbers. Do not read or heed the comparisons to last year or projections for next year. They do not matter to you.
Try it. It will change your entire outlook.
The Census Bureau reported last month that the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace for new-home construction stood at 319,000 homes in May. But what does that mean? Is it great news or bad news?
"I can't tell without comparing them to last year's numbers," say the purists, most of whom are just waiting to spew some high-sounding, emotionally debilitating analysis around an office filled with commission salespeople.
We live in the moment. Next year's projections don't make our house payment or fund this summer's vacation. Our attitude -- not the market's altitude -- is what makes the difference to us. That's why we need to purposely protect what we see and what we think.
Last year's number can cause your attitude to harden, and next year's numbers can be discouraging. Fortunately, neither comparison matters.
Let's take it further:
New-home real estate agents make about one sale for every 10 prospects who register in their sales offices without a broker (I am being conservative).
If 319,000 new homes are going to be sold in 2011, that equation means that about 3.19 million people will shop new homes this year! I don't know what your sales-to-prospect ratio is, but annualized sales for resale homes are projected to be in the neighborhood of 4.81 million homes sold this year.
The secret is to not compare this year's numbers with last year's or next year's projections. They do not matter. We are commission-based sales agents.
Numbers tell us all kinds of things about out business.
There are about 1 million REALTORS®, so that means there will 4.8 resale homes sold per agent, based on projections -- and the National Association of REALTORS® expects the median price of a resale home to be about $168,800 this year.
Since you are not average, because you don't worry about what you cannot control, you stay focused on what makes you money: listing and selling real estate.
Here is an example taken from a blog post that lists 12 months' worth of sales for three ZIP codes in the Pittsburgh, Pa., area:
Existing-homes sold: 1,080, for an average price of $132,000. New homes sold: 94, for an average price of $303,000. I have no idea how these numbers compare to 2010, and what could I do about it if I did? Let's assume that sales are down 10 percent, or whatever percent you want to use. So?
You may find yourself in a conversation where the economy is being discussed, and a cloud of hopelessness hangs over the conversation.
I always wait for the opportunity to ask this question: "So, what do you think we can do about it?" And there the conversation turns to sports or politics. It's true. We cannot do one thing about last year, next year or even the inventory.
But there is one thing we can do. We can quit making excuses and believing that "nobody is buying." The numbers prove us wrong.
People in your market are buying. The good news is that you can do something about it: Start prospecting harder and smarter, and watch your own local market share grow.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Are we at the bottom?
Research Firm Says Housing Currently Undervalued by 14% to 17%
December 13th, 2010
Today’s post contains a link to another article, which was first sent to me and other real estate professionals in Real Trend’s periodic email update on the industry. The article itself is from a web site called DS News.com, which bills itself as a site “delivering stories…impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.”
The article itself, as you’ll see, cites research by a group called “Capital Economics,” and it cites a number of other sources in arriving at the conclusion that overall, housing prices are now 14% to 17% undervalued “relative to disposable income per capita.” Low interest rates also play into the affordability mix. The point, as we’ve been saying for months, is that today’s buying opportunity is compelling. The article also muses over possible reasons why this record level of affordability hasn’t done more to spur sales. They finger the usual suspects: high unemployment, tight credit, and negative equity for many current homeowners.
We certainly agree that these are all factors at the margin, and will remain so for some time. We continue to believe, however, that plain old-fashioned fear is a bigger driver than any of the others. We continue to hear from buyers who are afraid to commit because they hear, or fear, that prices may fall further, and they don’t want to get in too early. While this widespread attitude may create a self-fulfilling prophecy in the short run, the fact remains that over the longer run, markets will always fight to return to balance, and a fundamentally undervalued market won’t stay that way for long.
We understand that, human nature being what it is, many people will wait until they see convincing evidence that we’ve reached the bottom before they take the plunge. In other words, they’ll wait until the bottom has passed, and then they’ll jump into a rising market. They may not gain anything by waiting, and may well lose a little, but they’ll feel better about it. We’re already seeing this phenomenon with relation to interest rates. 30 year rates have risen from 4.25% to 4.75% in the last few weeks, as we said they would. We’re starting to see buyer move to get in before they go higher. This may be the impetus to get prices themselves moving up soon, as inventories start to decline. In other words, the evidence is starting to mount that the “bottom” may have already passed.
Nick Woodard
www.nickwoodard.com
Hodges and Fooshee Realty
615.566.9839
December 13th, 2010
Today’s post contains a link to another article, which was first sent to me and other real estate professionals in Real Trend’s periodic email update on the industry. The article itself is from a web site called DS News.com, which bills itself as a site “delivering stories…impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.”
The article itself, as you’ll see, cites research by a group called “Capital Economics,” and it cites a number of other sources in arriving at the conclusion that overall, housing prices are now 14% to 17% undervalued “relative to disposable income per capita.” Low interest rates also play into the affordability mix. The point, as we’ve been saying for months, is that today’s buying opportunity is compelling. The article also muses over possible reasons why this record level of affordability hasn’t done more to spur sales. They finger the usual suspects: high unemployment, tight credit, and negative equity for many current homeowners.
We certainly agree that these are all factors at the margin, and will remain so for some time. We continue to believe, however, that plain old-fashioned fear is a bigger driver than any of the others. We continue to hear from buyers who are afraid to commit because they hear, or fear, that prices may fall further, and they don’t want to get in too early. While this widespread attitude may create a self-fulfilling prophecy in the short run, the fact remains that over the longer run, markets will always fight to return to balance, and a fundamentally undervalued market won’t stay that way for long.
We understand that, human nature being what it is, many people will wait until they see convincing evidence that we’ve reached the bottom before they take the plunge. In other words, they’ll wait until the bottom has passed, and then they’ll jump into a rising market. They may not gain anything by waiting, and may well lose a little, but they’ll feel better about it. We’re already seeing this phenomenon with relation to interest rates. 30 year rates have risen from 4.25% to 4.75% in the last few weeks, as we said they would. We’re starting to see buyer move to get in before they go higher. This may be the impetus to get prices themselves moving up soon, as inventories start to decline. In other words, the evidence is starting to mount that the “bottom” may have already passed.
Nick Woodard
www.nickwoodard.com
Hodges and Fooshee Realty
615.566.9839
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