BHP offers big shout out to readers, Realtors and writers
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
A year ago today, Brentwood Home Page marked its first anniversary with the launch of our BHP Real Estate section. We felt sure it would be popular, but the response has been amazing and the feedback we get from local readers as well as people considering a move to Brentwood from thousands of miles away has been validating.
It’s been a newsworthy year as well as related to real estate. Brentwood and by extension Williamson County have come through the recent housing slowdown in much better shape than the rest of the nation although we haven’t missed it completely, especially in the $1 million-plus price points. First-time homebuyer rebates have come and gone this year, and Brentwood approved its first mixed-use, high density rental community. A new assisted-living facility, Brentwood Morning Pointe, is on its way.
The City of Brentwood has issued 155 single-family residential building permits so far this year. “We expect to get close to 200, ” planning director Jeff Dobson said Wednesday. During the same period in 2010, 90 permits were issued, with a total of 140 for the entire year. That is still far better than 2009’s 68 – “our lowest point since 1996,” Dobson noted.
Since our launch, several newer subdivisions which had seen building slow to a trickle, if not stop altogether, have seen remarkable rebounds. In July 2010, for instance, Pulte Homes invited potential buyers to a “hard-hat tour” of several model homes under construction in Whetstone. The subdivision, located off Edmondson Pike, was created by another developer as a neighborhood of million-dollar homes. Today, many of Pulte’s 141 homes have been built with a starting price of $449,900.
Dobson expects permits to be pulled soon for the first homes in Elmbrooke. In February, First State Bank’s revised site plans were approved for the neighborhood that abuts Hampton Reserve and is bordered by Concord and Crockett roads. Its original developers foreclosed on the property in 2009, after most of the infrastructure – roads, curbing, street lights, etc. – for an exclusive, gated community had been installed.
Since our launch, we’ve also reported on several other subdivisions where the sounds of hammers on wood ring out daily, such as Kings Creek, Glenellen, Taramore, Annandale, Windstone, Valle Verde and Olde Towne.
A tip of the hat
We want to thank our real estate writers, first Nancy Mueller and now Amy Stumpfl, who have touched on just about every topic imaginable when it comes to real estate in the past year. We’ve posted 51 staff-written feature stories that have covered everything from landscaping and ranch “re-dos” to home value appraisals and picture-perfect porches to how to shop for a short sale and how to finance a construction loan if you’re buying a fixer upper.
To go hand-in-hand with our exclusive Neighborhood Directory, we’ve highlighted 51 Brentwood subdivisions in our weekly Where We Live column. Speaking of the directory, it is the only place where you will find in-depth information, a photo and a locator map of – almost – every subdivision in the city. We had no idea when we set out to catalog them that there were so many! All can be found in our searchable database.
The Brentwood and Cool Springs real estate communities and professionals have been supportive and always available when we’ve needed sources and perspective and background. This includes the leadership at the Williamson County Association of Realtors and the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
Playing favorites
Honestly, we’re not sure what our favorite part of the Real Estate section is. Everyone in our office loves to visit open houses, model homes and show houses, so it’s no surprise that we love the weekly Showcase Home feature, which gives listing agents and individual homeowners the opportunity to “showcase” a property to a targeted and interested readership – and potential buyer -- at a very nominal cost.
Some of our best readership has come with our Builder Spotlight feature which shines the light on individual and company homebuilders or those in related fields.
We also want to remind you of the depth of the section in hopes that you will spend some time visiting the features not found on the front page each week, such as our “Living in Brentwood” quality of life stories, the First Community Mortgage mortgage calculator and up-to-date property transfers. Our Property Search feature allows you to find a new home specific to your needs and price range.
What’s next?
With a year in the books, we are examining this section from top to bottom to see how we can make it even better. Do you have suggestions or feedback or a critique? We would love to hear from all of you -- readers, real estate professionals, lenders, builders, designers, architects, landscapers, etc.
If you love real estate as much as we do, we know you have something valuable to offer in terms of improving our coverage. Email me your thoughts at susan@brentwoodhomepage.com or give me a call at 712-6500.
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