Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Finding Rentals in Johnson City, TN and Tri-Cities

As the ONLY Exclusive Buyer Agents in Johnson City and the Tri-Cities Area of NE Tennessee, we are often called to assist RELO's, retirees, transferring families to our area. Some transferees want to purchase before relocating, but others decide to rent first before buying. A Buyer's Best Choice Realty prides itself on assisting the relocating individuals and families, whether they are renting or purchasing.

One of the hardest rentals to find are units that can be rented short term, with a minimum of 2-3 months, NO SMOKING, and PET FRIENDLY.

That is why Dr. Dean Wilson and wife, Broker Janine J. Wilson, have purchased several area properties for rental purposes. All of the rental properties are currently rented, except for the duplex, which they have just completed renovating. New tile has been installed throughout the unfurnished Unit #1 and new carpet in the 2 bedrooms of Unit 1. This like new unit has approzimately 1200 sq ft, 2 BR and 1 bath with washer/dryer hookups. Out of season storage is available above the oversized carport, and a carport closet. It rents for $750/month including water/sewer/trash pickup fees. And best yet, NO SMOKING INSIDE either unit, and Pets are allowed with prior approval and refundable deposit with no damage.

The other half of the DUPLEX is coming back on the rental market as a fully furnished unit (linens, towels, pots and pans, EVERYTHING!) The furnished unit has been extremely popular for SHORT TERM rentals, such as travel nurses coming for 13-26 weeks at the highly touted Johnson City Medical Center Hospital or individuals/couples relocating to the area, who want to rent before purchasing, etc. The fully furnished unit #2 rents for $785.00 including water/sewer/trash pick-up and has a separate yard and parking area from Unit 1. Minimum rental time on this unit is 1-3 months. NO INSIDE SMOKING, Pet okay with refundable pet deposit separate from security deposit (also refundable).

This property is within a block of the Indian Trail Middle School, is in the LakeRidge School District, and Science Hill High School district.

And individuals wanting a month or longer rental, can also go to the guest suite website at http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/suites/suites.htm and check out the Ashley Ryan Guest Suite(NO SMOKING and unfortunately NO PETS at guest suite)

And for those relos looking for something other than these units, our Exclusive Buyer Agents are always happy to assist in finding comfortable and reasonably priced rentals for short or longer terms. Buyers are not our ONLY specialty...we pride ourselves on assisting with all of the needs of individuals and famillies wanting to make the Tri-Cities TN area their home.

Give us a call or send an e-mail: 877-693-0533 toll free or abuyerschoice@earthlink.net
http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Travel Nurses Love Working the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol TN , Tri-Cities Area

Johnson City, TN is a popular location for travel nurses to work 13-26 weeks. Over the past 4 years, Dr. G. Dean Wilson (founder of Tri-State Mountain Neurology Associates) and Janine J. Wilson (Founder of A Buyer’s Best Choice Realty® and Ashley Academy) have hosted many travel nurses, in their furnished rental properties.

Some of the traveling nurses have extended their stays; others have returned to the Tri-Cities for a second or third time. And now a travel nurse has decided to move to the Tri-Cities to live and work.

When asked what drew these travel nurses to the Tri Cities, TN area, responses include: (1) the outstanding medical facilities and ease of travel between Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, TN ; (2) hiking, camping, biking, and lakes surrounding the Tri-Cities TN area; (3) the beautiful mountains, with 4 distinct seasons; (4) the high quality of medical care in NE Tennessee with Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health Systems setting such high standards of care; (5) the nationally ranked Quillen College of Medicine, the new School of Pharmacy at ETSU, the new School of Public Health adding notoriety to an area conscious of it’s contributions nation-wide to training outstanding medical specialists and support personnel.

Dr. and Mrs. Wilson also provide free area tours and information packages to physicians, medical residents, nurses, students, retirees, and other individuals and families contemplating living, working or visiting the Tri-Cities area of TN.

For more information Dr. Dean Wilson and Janine Wilson can be reached at 423-737-4040, e-mailed at abuyerschoice@earthlink.net, or visited on the web at http://TNBuyerBroker.com .


Or a link to the Guest Suites and rentals: http://tnbuyerbroker.com/suites/suites.htm

Friday, February 13, 2009

East Tennessee To See Relief From TVA Rate Cuts

Although TVA is a large reason that the East Tennessee region is one of the lowest areas for cost of energy in the country, the increases over the past year have hit many pockets harder than the local population would like to see. In an effort to help the community, The Johnson City Power Board had absorbed a small portion of those rate hikes, but there still was a large percentage to swallow. Thankfully, the Tennessee Valley Authority, in light of recent figures, has cut rates back, not just once this year, but has announced a second cut in April 2009.
It is nice to see companies that not only care about the "bottom line", but can see how it may affect their customers. If the customer is having trouble, eventually they will, also.
Thanks to both organizations for your concern for your communities and markets!

Please see link below for a link to a short article with more figures:
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=9833891

If you would like to visit our website, (The ONLY Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents in the area), Please visit: http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Carbon Monoxide Press Release - The Silent Killer

Our agency (A Buyer's Best Choice Realty) has been giving Carbon Monoxide Alarms to clients for over 10 years. It has saved 2 families already!!! Definitely a valid concern for new clients and current home owners!! See local release, below:

Carbon Monoxide — The Silent Killer

The winter months are here. As the mercury begins to dip, some families, struggling to pay their heating bills, will turn on the kitchen stove burners and the oven in an effort to take the chill off their home. What these families don’t realize is how dangerous this practice can be. A gas oven or range top should never be used for heating. A fire could start and poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) fumes could fill the home. Any fuel-burning heating equipment (fireplaces, furnaces, water heaters, space or portable heaters), generators and chimneys can produce carbon monoxide.

Often called a silent killer, CO is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels, such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil and methane, burn incompletely.

CO enters the body through breathing. CO poisoning can be confused with flu symptoms, food poisoning and other illnesses. Some symptoms include shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, light headedness or headaches.

Everyone is at risk for CO poisoning, but infants, pregnant women and people with physical conditions that limit their ability to use oxygen, such as emphysema, asthma or heart disease, can be more severely affected by low concentrations of CO than healthy adults. High levels of CO can be fatal for anyone, causing death within minutes.

The goal of the Johnson City Fire Department is to reduce the number of carbon monoxide incidents in Johnson City and discourage anyone from using the range or oven to heat their home. Install CO alarms inside your home to provide early warning of accumulating CO. Chief Paul Greene recommends that your heating equipment be inspected by a professional every year before cold weather sets in.

• CO alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms. Know the difference between the sound of smoke alarms and CO alarms.
• Test CO alarms at least once a month.
• If your CO alarm sounds, immediately move to a fresh air location and call for help. Remain at the fresh air location until emergency personnel say it is okay.
• If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries or other trouble indicators.

The Johnson City Fire Department wants everyone to be warm and safe this winter. Make sure your home has carbon monoxide alarms.

01/27/09

For Immediate Release: January 21, 2009
From: The Office of Fire Chief Paul Greene
Contact: Assistant Fire Marshal Sam McLain (434-6182)

Posted here, courtesy of: ABuyer's Best Choice Realty

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Local artist's work on exhibit at Fossil Site-Yet another reason to visit or relocate to Johnson City/Tri-Cities TN area!

Local artist's work on exhibit at Fossil Site

By Allison Alfonso

Press Tempo Writer

What a surprise to discover Suzanne Stryk is exhibiting work at the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site. She's exhibited a lot of places, but few where it seems as appropriate.


Stryk has a master of arts degree in painting and bachelor's degree in art history. She's done medical illustration, illustrated her husband Dan's poetry and exhibited her nature and science-inspired paintings while taking occasional teaching jobs and workshops. Her color palette has evolved from muted greens to shining blues and more as she painted dragon flies, beetles, snakes, birds, antelopes, butterflies, nests, monkeys, seashells and ocean life. Her journals of images and fragmentary sentences suggest a scientist at work, and her works portray in format and substance man's need to categorize and make sense of the wild world.


As a child, she'd fill the bathtub with wild animals she'd found. Stryk told me she thanked her mother for never saying "no." She and Dan recently went to the Western coast and studied the shore life there: he wrote poetry and she painted pictures. What a life.


Suzanne's "Keeping An Eye On Things" is on display through April 12 at the fossil site and features paintings, sketches and drawings from 2001-08, journals, animal skulls and insect specimens. Some of the work was inspired by bones and materials found at the fossil site and the Smithsonian Institution and some by the insect collections of others.


Stryk's imagery is increasingly complex and her paintings more physically layered. Trying to understand is increasingly challenging. I can define the imagery, but there's no overall clarity, just mystery. Perhaps that's a point. Time is long and the world too vast to make sense of. Man is small: That's the feeling I left with.


Jessica Evans, fossil site exhibitions and marketing coordinator, walked through Stryk's second floor exhibit with me one recent Monday. We talked about interesting elements of each work while researchers and other site workers worked behind closed doors and open windows on fossils they've unearthed. Those fossils will someday tell us something new and definitive. No such luck with art, but then, we don't expect that. If it opens a small window of knowledge and curiosity for us, we're lucky.


"The artist listens, keeps a close eye, and attempts to translate the voice of nature so that others may hear," Stryk said in Evans' exhibit essay "The Natural Connection." "But the artist, also, sometimes resembles a scientist: collecting evidence, investigating what the subject can tell us, and interpreting this data to the rest of the world. Yet, in turn, the scientist at times resembles the artist: gathering specimens, arranging them in a fitting order, deliberating, then telling the story."


If that's not enough richness for you, visit the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Feb. 7-May 3 to see "River of Gold: PreColumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte." The exhibit of Panamanian gold circa AD 700-1100 by master artisans includes hammered repousse plaques, gold-sheathed ear rods, pendants, bells and precious and semi-precious stone, ivory and bone objects. Animals that reflect the diversity of species and animal-human composites are recurring themes.


The exhibit provides archaeological and cultural context, ethnohistorical information, excavation drawings and videotaped segments from the 1940 film footage of the excavations by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The cemetery and artifacts were overlooked by gold-seeking Spaniards in the 16th century and rediscovered when the Rio Grande de Cocle shifted its bed. The Peabody Museum at Harvard University carried out the first expeditions in the 1930s.





Allison Alfonso is a Tempo writer for the Johnson City Press. Reach her at aalfonso@johnsoncitypress.com.



For more stories, please visit http://www.johnsoncitypress.com. Thank you!

Reposted courtesy of ABuyer's Best Choice Realty: http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Thursday, January 15, 2009

#1 Question Homebuyers ask Exclusive Buyer Agents

Almost all Home Buyers have learned that they need a Buyer’s Agent.
But NOT all Buyer’s Agents are created equally!

The NUMBER ONE (1) QUESTION that we are asked is:

“What is the DIFFERENCE between a BUYER AGENT and an “EXCLUSIVE BUYER AGENT” ???

There is a big difference between a Buyer Agent and an Exclusive Buyer Agent!

For example, the State of Tennessee requires all licensed Realtors® to give potential buyers a Disclosure Form that explains the various types of agency available in TN. This Document also ‘explains’ or describes each agency type and describes their responsibilities.

The problem with this requirement is that “EXCLUSIVE Buyer Agents” were omitted from the Disclosure Form altogether as a separate “Agency Option”! Here is where the Conflict of Interest arises.

There are Buyer Agents and Designated Buyer Agents in TN. The ‘designated’ means that one person in the firm is designated to represent the buyer and another represents the seller. But the Seller’s agent could be in the same firm, if you buy a firm listed property. That is one conflict.

Another is when a ‘Buyer Agent’ of a firm that lists properties asks you to sign an agency agreement. They most often ask you to “understand that (s)he will have to ‘default agency to a lesser form of representation, if you choose an in-house listing to purchase.” Since the word ‘default’ has received a negative response with buyers, the word has been changed in various states to ‘transfer, step up, shift, evolve, progress, advance, reassign, etc.” Attorneys are even suggesting terms to use in real estate teaching seminars, that have less negative connotations than what they are doing: ‘defaulting agency’!

While there are only a few Exclusive Buyer Agents in the state of Tennessee, that does not excuse TN (or any state) from recognizing a type of agency (‘Agency Choice’) that the National Association of Realtors® (NAR®) recognized and defined in their 1993 publication, “Agency Choices, Challenges, Opportunities,” (p. 25).

In the NAR® publication, Exclusive Buyer Agency is defined as follows:

“Exclusive buyer agency – The practice of representing only buyers and never sellers
in a transaction. The company never lists a seller's property and thus never has a seller as a
client.”® NAR® 1993

In 1995, EBA’s founded the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents® (NAEBA®) based upon NAR®’s definition of Exclusive Buyer Agency.

Internet savvy buyers, retirees, and former buyers may question, before or after a sale, if there is, or might have been, a ‘conflict of interest’ with their representation. Those buyers now call an EBA, an EXCLUSIVE Buyer Agent, to represent them. Many buyers know that a Buyer’s Agent is NOT an EXCLUSIVE Buyer’s Agent, unless (s)he is affiliated with a company that does NOT LIST properties!
That is the real difference between a ‘Buyer’s Agent’ and an ‘Exclusive Buyer’s Agent’! www.TNBuyerBroker.com -> see Video of a Client testimonial

or go directly to our MLS page http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/mlsdata/mlslistings.htm
Search Homes for FREE +++ No Registration Required +++ read more testimonials at website +++ TN Taxes

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol TN New Year News Update

1) Today's the day that Johnson City's Science Hill High School is performing at the Rose Bowl! Only six (6) bands throughout the nation were chosen for this special honor. See previous blog on DEC 28th, 2008, for more in depth information.
And for Real Estate BUYERS and relocation info for Tri-Cities TN, contact Janine or Ashley Wilson, Buyer Brokers: A Buyer's Best Choice Realty: Buyer Representation Exclusively.

2) News From Airfare Watchdog.com, check out the bargain airfare prices for travel from Tri-Cities TN airport to Seattle WA. Reported TODAY, flights are $275.00. Flights are limited, must be bought 7 days ahead, are on United, U.S.Air and last until April 9, 2009.

SUBMITTED BY: Janine Wilson, Buyer Broker/Founder, and Ashley Dean Wilson, Broker/Manager, A Buyer's Best Choice Realty: Buyer Representation Exclusively

http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Johnson City TN's Science Hill High School Band Performing at Rose Bowl

Once again, Johnson City Tennessee's Science Hill High School Band is performing in the Rose Bowl Parade! Thanks to Tom Stites, Science Hill's acclaimed Band Director and Instructor, TN's Science Hill School Band has once again achieved national recognition.

Stites has achieved a record that few high school band leaders attain, graduating almost 100% of his band members over the years. He is known for 'training musicians and performers' rather than merely marching band members. Johnson City, Tennessee, the Tri-Cities Tennessee area, and A Buyer's Best Choice Realty congratulate Tom Stites on his outstanding record and his many years at Science Hill High School!

For more information about Johnson City, TN, schools in the Tri-Cities TN area, relocation to NE Tennessee, travel and vacationing in the first ever "All American City/Region," contact http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Johnson City, TN has 2 of only 13 FREE EMBARQ phones nationally for homeless

Johnson City, TN has 2 pay phones of 13 in the United States to have free 10 minute calls offered by Embarq to families at homeless shelters…… the Salvation Army Center of Hope and the Johnson City Housing Authority, according to Sue Guinn Legg, writer for the Johnson City Press. The phones are available for homeless shelter residents to call their families or friends throughout the U.S. Johnson City (and Jonesborough TN, which is the "Oldest City in Tennessee) are located in the Tri-Cities Metro Area of Northeast TN (Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN/VA)

“Johnson City (TN) was the only city in Tennessee and one of only two cities in the Southern Appalachian region included for free service,” according to Legg. The calls began at 8:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve and will continue until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, the 28th of December.

The 11 other shelter sites are in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

To learn about the Tri-Cties TN Area or to relocate or retire in NE Tennessee, check out our website at http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Counties in NE Tennessee, Washington and Sullivan,Tennessee’s lowest unemployment rates in November, 2008

Two Counties in NE Tennessee, Washington and Sullivan, had two of Tennessee’s lowest unemployment rates in November, 2008. And the Tri-Cities TN rate was the lowest of all Tennessee large metro areas, according to staff reports in the Johnson City Press. “The Tri-Cities’ 5.9 percent rate was a full percentage point below the state average.” The TN state average in November was 6.9 percent.

Washington and Sullivan Counties of NE Tennessee include the Tri-Cities’ largest towns, Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, as well as the smaller communities of Gray, Jonesborough, Piney Flats, Blountville, Bluff City, Colonial Heights, to name a few.

To compare tax rates of the NE Tennessee counties and communities and for RELO information, go to : http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Jobless Rates Down In October

If you're looking to Buy a home in the Area, check us out at: http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

As of The End of November, Wednesday's October unadjusted employment data was another positive economic story for NE Tenn. cities and counties.
The data show unemployment dropping or staying the same in most of the cities and counties. The only exceptions were 0.2% increases in Unicoi and Hawkins counties and the city of Bristol unemployment rates.
In the cities category the biggest unemployment drops came in Johnson City and Bristol at 0.4% below the Sept. total. Kingsport's unemployment rate dropped 0.3% and Morristown stayed the same as the Sept. rate at 10.7%, which is the highest unemployment rate in the NE Tenn. cities category.
Looking at the data for the number of jobs shows Johnson City as the region's leader with 30,420 jobs. Kingsport ranks No. 2 with 17,940 jobs and Bristol barley edges out Morristown with 11,890 jobs.
Among the counties Sullivan continues as the county with the most jobs - 70,570. Washington County is second with 58,310 jobs.
October's unadjusted jobless data follows a bleak seasonally adjusted third quarter job report that show the regional losing 2,300 jobs.
CLICK HERE for that report.
In that report from ETSU economists Steb Hipple the Tri-Cities metro area lost 2,341 jobs in the third quarter v. the same time last year. Job losses were reported in professional and business services, government durable and nondurable manufacturing leisure and hospitality, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and utilities and other services.
According to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Tennessee's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October 2008 was 7.0 percent, 0.2 percentage point lower than the September rate of 7.2 percent. The United States unemployment rate for the month of October was 6.5 percent.
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for October 2008, show that 53 counties decreased. The rate increased in 27 counties and remained the same in 15 counties.
Williamson County registered the state's lowest county unemployment rate at 4.7 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from the September rate. Perry County had the state's highest at 17.4 percent, up from 16.7 in September, followed by Lauderdale County at 14.5 percent, up from 13.1 percent in September.
Knox County had the state's lowest major metropolitan rate at 5.0 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from the September rate. Davidson County was 5.5 percent, down from 5.8 the previous month. Hamilton County was at 6.1 percent the same as the September rate, and Shelby County was 7.1 percent, down from the September rate of 7.4.


Original Article By: Don Fenley

If you're looking to Buy a home in the area, check us out at: http://www.TNBuyerBroker.com

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Schools rated in East Tennessee: U.S. News and world reports

If you find the following information helpful, and are looking to buy home in this area, please check out our website at: http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/ for more information and contact info!!

Last week, in a U.S. News and World Report study, several Northeast TN schools were rated among the best in the nation with regard to exceeding their state proficiency benchmarks and for serving all students including those who aren’t college bound.

Based on the study’s findings 2 Hawkins County schools, Volunteer High School in Church Hill and the small K-12 Clinch School in Eidson, would be ranked within the top 10 percent best performing high schools in the nation.

The U.S. News and World Report study analyzed 21,069 public high schools in 48 states using data from the 2006-2007 school year. There wasn’t enough information available from Oklahoma, Nevada or the District of Columbia to be included in the study.

Every school was judged in three parts including how well it served its entire student body, not just students who are college bound. It also judged how well students met or exceeded state proficiency guidelines.

The final part of the study assessed how well schools prepare students for college-level work.
A list of the “gold medal” winners, or the top 100 schools in the nation, was created from the results of the study, with Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., being named number one for the second year in a row.


504 top-performing high schools nationwide earned silver medals after being ranked based on their college readiness index scores.

Tennessee had two silver medal schools including University School in Johnson City and Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville.

High schools nationwide that excelled in the first two parts of the study were awarded bronze medals.

Aside from Volunteer and Clinch in Hawkins County, the other bronze medal winners in Northeast Tennessee included Unicoi County, Chucky Doak, North Greene and South Greene. A total of 25 Tennessee high schools were awarded bronze.

Volunteer High School principal Jim Dykes said his school’s bronze medal can largely be attributed to his hard-working staff.

Excerpts FROM: TIMES-NEWS ONLINE http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9009360

If you found this information helpful, and you are looking to buy a home, please feel free to visit our website at: http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/ for more information, and contact information to reach us. Let an EXCLUSIVE BUYER AGENT help you and your interests!!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

A Buyer's Best Choice Realty: Johnson City/Tri-Cities TN 'safe haven' article

Let A Buyer's Best Choice Realty (The ONLY Certified Exclusive Buyer's Agency in the
Tri-Cities/East Tennessee Region) help you find your place in a beautiful environment!! And, as
the excerpts from the article below show, you should find peace of mind in a safe investment, in a 'safe haven' as well as a GREAT community. You may visit our website at:

http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/ ... Search MLS data for free, without registering, and contact our knowledgable agents today!!

Two recent pieces of real estate news may not fit the national profile, and they don’t
mean the area’s housing industry is on easy street, but the reports from Kiplinger’s magazine and a national agency suggest the Tri-Cities market remains somewhat protected from the problems plaguing many areas of the country.

On Saturday, Kiplinger’s, a national financial monthly, tabbed the Johnson City metro area
(Washington, Carter and Unicoi counties) as one of six “Safe Havens in Real Estate.”
And Tuesday — the same day the large metro-related “Case-Shiller Index” showed continued
plunging prices in its markets, another index showed the Kingsport-Bristol metro ranking 14th best out of 291 areas nationwide for year-to-year home price appreciation through Sept. 30 at 3.93 percent. Nationwide, the figures released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) showed, prices declined by 6.0 percent over the same period.

Kingsport-Bristol’s 14th-place showing was identical to the second-quarter placement,
though year-to-year appreciation was down from 4.75 percent. Johnson City’s latest figure, shown in an index of unranked metros, was 3.63 percent, which would place it 18th, and was an
improvement from the second-quarter gain of 2.86 percent that would have put it 58th.
The OFHEO report also showed data for the July-September quarter compared to the quarter
before, and Kingsport-Bristol remained above water in that regard with a 0.69 percent
appreciation. Six of the top 20 year-to-year markets lost value in the third quarter compared to
the April-June quarter.

The Kiplinger’s article used data from Fiserv Lending Solutions, a home-price research
company, to determine that “in certain pockets across the country, the damage has been minimal. The article lumped Johnson City in with Lancaster, Pa., Clarksville, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque and Burlington, Vt. among cities whose “local economies have kept unemployment and foreclosure rates below average.”

That piece also noted that the cities making the list measured well on the “affordability
index” that measures home prices versus family income.


Kiplinger’s lists Johnson City’s median home price at $120,000, lowest of the cities
shown, but it also puts the 12-month change in home value at negative 0.4 percent. The other
metros all had modest gains. It notes the Johnson City market is driven by East Tennessee State University and new retirees — the so-called “halfbacks” who “used to spend summer in the north and winter in the south but are now making Tennessee their home year round.”
In the OFHEO release, Tennessee also made out well as a state. It saw annual appreciation of 1.38 percent, ranking 11th, though prices showed a drop of 0.68 percent from the second quarter to the third. Several other “Mountain South” metros also placed high on the OFHEO annual appreciation list. They included Greenville, S.C. (9th), Spartanburg, S.C. (11th), Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C. (17th) and Asheville, N.C. (43rd). The OFHEO numbers come from sales of existing homes and refinances.


(Excerpts from article at Johnson City Press) (For full article, visit
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=HOMEPAGE&ID=65933 )

You may visit our website at http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com/ ... Search MLS data for free, without registering, and contact our knowledgable agents today!!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

ABuyer's Best Choice Realty: Truly The Best Choice In NE Tennesse For Buyers!!

ABuyer’s Best Choice Realty® (http://www.tnbuyerbroker.com) is committed to providing THE BEST home buying experience available, from NE Tennessee's, Tri-Cities (Including Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, Jonesborough, Greenville & more) ONLY Nationally Certified and Award Winning Exclusive Buyer Agents. Check out our Questions and Answers for more information about Exclusive Buyer Agency. Get informed about your opportunities as a home buyer, and the advantages you gain by using an EBA.
Our
Principle Broker/Founder, our Managing Broker, and our other experienced Broker and Agent can assist you with Area Information (including Tax Rates), Loan and Mortgage issues and information, and even occasional short and longer term Rentals, if it can further supplement your relocation needs. Rentals might include an extended stay (minimum 1 month) at the Ashley Ryan Extended Stay Guest Suites, or short or long term rental at a Cabin at Watauga Lake, or elsewhere in our area.
You can
Search For Homes without registering or being ‘tracked,’ unlike many other realty websites. Your Privacy is important to us! Or you can see a Video Client Testimonial or read some unsolicited, Written Testimonials
If you wish you may Contact Us for a free consultation, or for more information on how we may be able to assist you in procuring your new home! You may also wish to sign up for our Free Newsletter or our Free Relocation Information & Homes Book. The chamber will charge you for this material, but we will send you a preliminary package, which contains MUCH of the same info, and MORE, free.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

East Tennessee: Tipton-Haynes video episode focuses on civilians during the Civil War

One of three episodes on East Tennessee history was being taped Monday at Tipton-Haynes Historic Site by the East Tennessee Historical Society.
The videos will be part of a permanent exhibit titled Voices of the Land — People of East Tennessee that will be housed at the East Tennessee History Center at 601 Gay St., Knoxville.
The segment being filmed here is on the Civil War from the standpoint of civilians, according to Cherel Henderson. The filming will next move to the Dickson-Williams Mansion in Greeneville, focusing on the diary of Rhoda Williams, who opposed the division of the nation although her family owned slaves.
Other diary entries come from Effie Eagleton and Eliza Fain. Eliza Rhea Anderson Fain opposed Union intervention in what she considered the South’s business. “We are asked to submit to this rule ...They should treat us as brethren and let us go,” she wrote.
Williams, while favoring Union, recognized it was a hopeless case. “The Southern people will never come to any terms with Lincoln,” she wrote. “His policy is to crush the South and make us all slaves.”
The first film will be an orientation to the exhibit and the final will be on country music and how traditions were passed from father to son or daughter.
The script, utilizing the diaries, was written by Hillman and Carr from Washington, D.C., the producers of the series. The Johnson City unit is under the hands of producer Jennifer Gruber.
“The Civil War home front is a unique story to East Tennessee, Henderson said. “There was so much bitterness and division between families. The diaries show this agony.”
The taping began with doing exterior shots of the buildings involved. Monday’s session actually involved actors running lines.
Adam Alfrey, curator of the exhibit, said it will cover 8,000 square feet of the old customs house in Knoxville, and will also have a traveling exhibit. The total exhibit will cover from early settlement up to the present, combining artifacts with images. The videos will each run about six minutes.
Unlike most Civil War film re-creations, this one will not involve battles or scenes with uniformed re-enactors, but will focus on the lives of civilians as they try to cope with the hardships and violence that was ripping East Tennessee apart.

By James Brooks
Press Staff Writer
Johnson City Press Chronicle

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Johnson City, TN : ANOTHER store coming to N.E. TN/Tri-Cities

Johnson City, TN : ANOTHER store coming to N.E. TN/Tri-Cities

By Jeff Keeling
Press Business Editor
Johnson City Press Chronicle

Natural foods outlet to open State of Franklin location in June.

Johnson City will become home to the Tri-Cities’ first natural foods supermarket later this year when Fletcher, N.C.-based Earth Fare opens for business in a space near East Tennessee State University.
“We’ve been looking at Johnson City for a couple years, actually, and it was just difficult to find a site,” Earth Fare CEO Michael Cianciarulo said Monday. He said the company will put a couple of million dollars into retrofitting the 24,000-square-foot space – currently home to a White’s Fresh Foods – at 1735 W. State of Franklin before opening in June, and eventually hire about 100 employees.
Cianciarulo said Tri-Citians can expect a store that caters to, among others, the vegetarian, health food and epicurean markets, that sources much of its product locally and that is a good employer and corporate citizen.
“We think it’s going to be something that brings a lot of good products and options to the people of the Tri-Cities,” he said.
The origins of Earth Fare lie in “Dinner for the Earth,” a small natural food store that opened in Asheville in 1975, changed its name to Earth Fare in 1993, upsized in 1994 and opened its second store, in Charleston, S.C., in 1997. Today, Earth Fare has 13 stores in four states, with three more under way, but still espouses the values that spawned the first store, at least according to the “Mission and Values” section of the company’s Web site:
“We support the empowerment, development and wellness of our customers and staff by operating a successful business focused on education, fair trade, organic and local foods, and other healthy choices for the environment and ourselves.”
Earth Fare’s pending arrival means the 24,000-square-foot anchor of the University Plaza strip center won’t sit waiting on a tenant. That was good news Monday to Larry England, who owns a Cartridge World store occupying one of the center’s smaller spaces.
“I was in a different business before this in a strip center and one of our main anchors went dark about a year after we had moved in – it really made a huge impact on our traffic,” England said.
England is excited about the arrival of Earth Fare and expects it to have positive effects on the 20-year-old center. “I think it’ll help draw additional tenants,” he said.
Cianciarulo said Johnson City probably would have a store already were it not for the difficulty in locating the chosen site, which he called a good size (Earth Fare’s prototype is 27,000 square feet) and good location for Johnson City and for access to shoppers from other parts of the Tri-Cities.
“We have Johnson City people that travel a long way to buy groceries,” Cianciarulo said. “We bring almost 30,000 items in one building that may be available throughout the market in scattered smaller stores, but can’t be found in one place.”
Earth Fares have full-service meat departments, large produce sections, gourmet cheese that is cut and wrapped on-site after weekly deliveries from New York City and Europe, and extensive beer and wine selections, though the Johnson City store won’t have a wine section. The new store also will feature a deli/cafe, a large selection of nutritional supplements and, Cianciarulo said, selections from local farms and small businesses.
“We’re going to go out and open the door to anybody that we can support in the local arena,” Cianciarulo said. “It could be somebody with a marinade sauce that’s locally produced or a small farmer. We’re buying broccoli from Boone, N.C., and shipping it to all our stores, we purchased millions of dollars worth of local products last year, and we go out of our way, no matter how small a guy is, to try and support them.”
Despite becoming the country’s third-largest natural foods retailer (sales exceeded $100 million last year and its plans call for opening five or six stores a year), Cianciarulo said the company is sticking to an approach that benefits employees and seems to avoid running the “little guy” – such as Johnson City’s two existing health food stores – out of business.
“We bring more exposure to what they stand for, and they seem to thrive after we come in,” Cianciarulo said of independent competitors.
He said Earth Fare offers good benefits and gives full-time jobs to about 65 percent of employees, compared to about 30 percent in the supermarket industry as a whole.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Happy New Year 2008 To A BUYER'S MARKET!!!

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Bristol Motor Speedway Raceweek Is HERE!!

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Summer Homes Heat Up In East Tennessee! It's A Buyer's Market!

Summer has sprung, and so has the housing market in the upper east Tennessee region. In the last 2 days alone, approximately 220 new listings have come on the market! If you are a buyer, it is definitely YOUR market! Come search for new and available MLS listings for land, condos, residential homes, commercial properties in the areas listed below in "Searching For "Homes In Johnson City, TN or Tri-Cities Tennessee"; Search for free with no registration; Look up tax rates for the Tri-Cities and surrounding area counties; Check out School or Law Enforcement/Police sites in the east TN area, Learn about Exclusive Buyer's Agency and how we can serve your best interests as a Buyer. If you are local, or relocating, our agents CAN assist you! Please see our "Did you know???" posted on June 14th, 2007, below!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Searching For Homes In Johnson City, TN or Tri-Cities Tennessee?

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