Ch. 4 Cool Schools Comes to LHS

At 8:30 tonight, my 15-year old had already gone to bed … she and her friend are getting their beauty sleep for tomorrow!

From Tonya on Facebook,

Tune into Channel 4 News tomorrow from 5-7am…. Cool Schools will be at LaVergne High School!! Choraliers will be singing 1st thing!! Dont miss it!!

After the crazy hours I’ve kept this week, I expect to be in a deep sleep at 5:00 a.m.  Y’all tell me what I miss!

Good Afternoon, La Vergne!

I’ve had a long, hard morning of Mario Kart Wii and lunch with friends. I thought I’d relax with some news for y’all. Let’s take a look around the mid-state and see what’s happening, shall we?

The DNJ tells us the Garden Patch Thrift Store is celebrating it’s 1-year anniversary. I had no idea it existed, and I pretty much haunt all the thrift stores in the area. It appears to be in downtown Murfreesboro on Spring Street, according to their website. The DNJ says they’re having a half-off everything sale tomorrow, so I suppose I’ll mosey down there tomorrow if I don’t get too busy playing Mario Kart. What’s your favorite thrift store, La Vergne? Mine would be All Things Possible on Northfield Blvd. in Murfreesboro.

It’s a slow news day over at WKRN because they’re giving us a special investigative report about how snow costs taxpayers money. Shocking, really. Someone ought to do something about this “snow” thing. Maybe we can outlaw it. :::ducks the snowballs thrown by all the snow lovers:::

This, from the Murfreesboro Post: be careful who you let your kids spend the night with. Apparently a 12 year old girl was at a friend’s house staying the night, when her friend’s mother woke the girl and her friend up and told them they were going to North Carolina. What?! The girl’s mom called the girl the next day and found out her daughter was in North Carolina. I can hardly imagine the massive coronary her mom had when she heard this.

That’s really all the news that I found interesting. Slow news day, indeed. We can do better than this, TiLV-ers! Tell me your news, or make something interesting up. And don’t forget, I want to hear about your fave thrift stores as well.

Kudos to Finance Director

Hello!  I’m back – as promised – in my role as PR Director for LaV.  It didn’t take me long at all to realize there are some pretty amazing people who work here.  Which is why I’m “officially” writing now – to congratulate Ms. Phillis Rogers, the Director of Finance and Water Billing.  She recently earned an important designation on our behalf. 

Here’s the official news release after the jump,

TiLV Celebrates 5 Years!

Hey y’all, Ivy here. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of me here soon, so jump for joy or curse and scream depending on how you feel about me. As we celebrate being around 5 years, we’re at a turning point for this site. Our dear Kathy is now working for the city as PR Director, so stuff from her will primarily be city-related. So, I’m going to try to helm this with some help from our wonderful other writers.

I’m changing the site from wordpress.com over to the fully-hosted thisislavergne.com. This will take place over the next several days- I will let you know when you need to change your bookmarks and feed links over. For now, keep coming here. Not a whole lot will change between the old site and the new site, but this will enable us to have a more customizable template for the site and will allow us to have advertising on the site so we can pay for the hosting and so we’ll be able to have TiLV parties and other nifty stuff like giveaways.

I’d like to thank our readers and supporters we’ve had for this first 5 years of the site. We love you guys, thank you so much for everything! Here’s to another 5 years (at least)!

Petey Wants a Lemon Cookie

On Sunday, an interesting call came in to the city.  A lost parrot was sitting in a tree.  The tropical bird had been loose for three days in some bone-chilling winter temperatures, so it needed help.  LaVergne police officer J.B. Kilmon was dispatched to the scene and soon Vice Mayor Chris Farmer and Nashville firefighter Ronnie Mosley (the mayor’s husband) joined him.  And then a tree service came to help.

There was blood.

During the efforts to capture the elusive bird, both Mosley and Farmer were injured.   However, even after the bird drew first blood in the fracas (name him Rambo, I say!), he found a champion in the vice mayor.  He and his wife took the green-feathered military macaw – a breed that is usually even tempered, but can also be difficult and cranky – to the veterinarian.  The poor thing need some TLC after its trauma and who better than an EMT?

After neighbors investigated, they found Petey’s owner.  She had already planned to give the 10-year old up for adoption, so graciously said the vice mayor could keep him.

So what do we know about Petey Farmer?  His favorite snack is a lemon cookie (where he eats the filling first).  He loves hot showers and then being blow-dried.  He does know some dirty words.  He loves dogs.  And he will try not to bite his Papa anymore.

Congratulations to the Farmer household on heir newest addition!

Real Estate Update, YTD & 2010 Review

After this week, I will be losing my access to the drill-down real estate data as I am moving my license from Active status to “referral only” (at least until my current listings and contracts close).  I’m hoping to help Ivy recruit another real estate expert to write here … I know we have several amazing agents living right here in LaV — Robert Carroll, Lisa Morrow, Biane McGee come immediately to mind! Housing statistics really are wildly important for the city … we want people to know we have some wonderful, affordable homes available!

So statistics… here we go.

YTD Current Properties Listed in MLS

Single Family Homes:  286
Current Houses Pending (aka almost ready to close):  25

Lowest Price:  $18,900 on Sand Hill Road. Let’s be realistic – this is a tear-down and the price is the value of the land.
Next Lowest Price: $29,900 in Plantation Village.  Mobile home on permanent foundation. Foreclosure.
Note: LaVergne actually has some houses that are quite nice now available. Elbow grease (new paint, good scrubbing with bleach and pine cleaner) and possible new carpet and appliances will transform these into real beauties.
Highest Price: $479,900 at The Woods at Martins Bend. Four bedrooms, four and a half baths, 4298 sq ft.

Condominium Homes: 21
Current Condos Pending (aka almost ready to close):  3

Lowest Price: $49,000 HUD-home in The Cottages of Lake. Two bedrooms, two and a half baths, 1041 sq ft.  Appears to be in good shape, but $500 needed for repairs.
Highest Price:  $122,000 home in Villas of Central Park. Two bedrooms, two and a half baths, 1356 sq ft.

Single Family Closed (so far) in 2011:   17
Single Family Closed (same time frame) in 2010:  20
Condos closed (so far) in 2011:  4
Condos closed (same time frame) in 2010:  4

2010 Review

Single Family Homes closed in 2010:  434
Single Family Homes closed in 2009:  517
That’s about a 17 percent (ish) drop in the number of sales.

Least Expensive in 2010:   $19,900.  Mobile home in Driftwood Village.
Total number of homes that sold for $100,000 or less:  167

Most Expensive in 2010:  $388,700 in McFarlin Point. Four bedrooms, three and a half baths, 4011 square feet, all brick.  Jaw dropping beautiful.
Total number of homes that sold for more than $200,000:  30
Top Listing Company:  Coldwell Banker Barnes (agent from company is working with a builder.)

Condos closed in 2010:  35
Least Expensive: $54,900  Two bedroom, two and a a half bath Fannie Mae home (which means they come in a re-do prior to selling. Great buy for someone!
Most Expensive:  $104,000 End unit two bedrooms, two and a half baths at the Villas of Central Park.
Top Listing Company:  HUD homes (ouch)

MLS Statistics for 2010

Hmmm… let me figure out how to present this information since I’m unable to simply cut & paste the table.  There are two “areas” of LaVergne on the MLS.  Area 31 is “East LaVergne” and includes the following subdivisions (among others): Ridgemont, Lake Forest, Heritage Valley, etc.  Area 32 is “West LaVergne” and includes neighborhoods like Farmingdale, Dove Creek, Greenwood, Chelsea Estates.  To visualize, it’s almost like the dividing line is Murfreesboro Road.

*Median – A median price is the number that is exactly in the middle of a list of numbers.  For example if we have a list of numbers:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  THEN 4 would be the median price.  it’s just “the one in the middle” of everything else.

Active Listings

Area 31
Average Per Day:   173
Average List Price: $131,891
Median List Price: $124,900

Area 32
Average Per Day:  121
Average List Price:  $170,349
Median List Price:  $146,900

Total Average Per Day: 294
Both Areas Average:  $147,719

New Listings

Area 31
Total Count:  652
Average List Price:  $125,828
Median List Price:  $115,900

Area 32
Total Count:  390
Average List Price:  $156,252
Median List Price:  $137,800

Total Count:  1,042
Average List Price of New Listings: $137,215

Pended Listings

Area 31
Count: 316
Average List Price:  $110,589
Median List Price:  $109,000

Area 32
Count: 175
Average List Price:  $138,415
Median List Price:  $121,900

Total Count:  491
Average List Price of Pended Listings: $120,507

Closed Listings
(Here’s where it gets interesting)

Area 31
Count: 275
Average List Price:  $108,142
Percent Closed Price v. List Price: 97.200%
Average Days on the Market:  74
Median Closed Price: $105,125
Median Days on the Market:  58

Area 32
Count: 151
Average List Price:  $136,799
Percent Closed Price v. List Price: 96.400%
Average Days on the Market:  97
Median Closed Price: $119,950
Median Days on the Market:  72

Total Count:  426
Average Closed Price: $118,300
Percent Closed Price v. List Price: 96.8%
Average Days on the Market:  86

Why in the world would the new listing numbers be so much higher than the active, pending, and closed?  This occurs when a listing is withdrawn or expires… and then relisted.  One agent in our area (no names mentioned) is notorious for listing homes for 30 days only because it appears the listing is new and fresh.  This actually skews the data for everyone else, but makes that agent look good. When you do look at listings online, though, an agent can show you the actual MLS history of a house and it will show how many times a home has expired or been withdrawn.

Finally,

My listing on Bill Stewart Blvd. has been transferred to my colleague Teresa Phelan for $124,900.  It has over 1700 square feet… a very nice house!  You can reach Teresa at my (old) office number 459-4040.

So that’s it from me on real estate.  My MLS access will end at the end of the week, so if you have any questions for me … this is the time to ask.  Otherwise I can refer you to another trusted, smart Realtor.

Looks Like Ours, Isn’t Ours

There’s some conversation going on over at the TiLaV Facebook page that this tunnel looks like ours (thanks Steve!).

It’s not.

Read about it from Channel 5 here.

Or see the Facebook conversation here.

Still waiting for the snow, aren’t we?!

Another Post About Snow

So yeah.  Snow.  Again.

Here’s my prediction.  We’ll get a half inch to an inch… maybe.  I’m thinking the ground is too wet for any serious accumulation.  Then again, I’m not a meteorologist.

How’s our salt stash?

A New Chapter

On February 2nd of this year, we celebrate the fifth anniversary of This is LaVergne.com.  My first post was called Welcome to LaVergne and I simply pulled information about how the city got its name,

The history of the City goes back to the 1700’s when the ancestors of some of La Vergne’s current residents settled in the area to begin their new life. The man the city was named after, Francois Leonard Gregorie de Roulhac de lavergne, eventually moved to Tennessee from France.

Relatively new to LaVergne, I wanted to get to know people.  I looked around and was inspired by This is Smyrna… “Genius!” I thought.  What a great way to get involved AND to do something I loved – writing.  Even then, I thought our little site here could become an important source of news since there was no newspaper or other media dedicated solely to the city.  Even in my little bitty home town of 3,000 people in Kentucky, there was a weekly paper … not so in LaVergne.

And so we began.

We’ve had some ups and downs in these last five years.  It’s pretty clear this is not a drama-free zone, but that’s the nature of what happens when people are given the opportunity to exercise their first amendment right to free speech.  Unless commenters tiptoed into the dangerous territory of causing Ivy and me possible liability issues, readers have had free reign to speak their minds.

Many people have gained our trust.  I hope I earned yours in return because I applied for and today accepted the position of Public Relations Director with the City of LaVergne.  Here are my qualifications for the position.

• B.S. in the communications field
• 15 years at The Council of State Governments
  • 2 years as Research Associate publishing The Book of the States and supplementary directories
  • 13 years as Communications Manager for the National Association of State Treasurers
  • 10 years as lead staff of the College Savings Plans Network (where we lobbied and gained federal tax exemption on earnings for State 529 plans) and the State Debt Management Network
    • lead staff in talking with national media about 529 plans
    • conference planning of up to 12 events per year
    • oversight of all written and electronic communications
  • 1 year as Communications Specialist with the University of Kentucky in the Tobacco Research & Development Center
  • And all kinds of other stuff that I’ll be glad to share with you if you ask, including real estate, newsletters, speech writer, web design, brochure design, award-winning writer, editor, publisher, and more.

What will this mean for TiLaV?  First, we are very fortunate to have people in the city who recognize This is LaVergne can be used as an important communications tool for our town and its residents.  This is LaVergne lives on.  My friend and colleague Ivy is taking over as the lead administrator of the site.  Our other writers will continue their interesting and informative posts, as well.

Like the house guest who won’t leave or the bad song stuck in your head, I’ll still be hanging out here.  However, my role will be different.  Effective January 31st, my posts will be news from the city as the Public Relations Director. If there are other things I want to write about and they do not conflict with my new position, I’ll speak up.  (For example, I will continue to post lame pictures of birds and flowers… hahahaha…)

Ultimately, residents found a voice through This is LaVergne and we’d love more writers to volunteer to keep that voice loud and clear.

Meanwhile, I thank you for your support these last five years, LaVergne.

Rachael Ray How I Love You

In general I love Rachael Ray… always interesting.  She must work out a lot given the meals she fixes.

Like Rachael Ray, I also love our road crews!  WAY TO GO keeping our main roads salted… I say this in response to the wonderful comments we’ve received on the previous post about how our roads seem to be in better condition than our neighboring city’s roads.

Today.  I’m debating whether I should wrestle the kitchen away from the mother-in-law for dinner.  If I do, what can I put on the menu that’s not too hard to make and affordable?  It seem like a great day for a big pot of soup … maybe clean the leftover veggies out of the fridge and make some stone soup.

Stone soup:  put whatever you can find in a pot of boiling water like leftover corn, green beans, peas… even broccoli or cabbage.  Add some celery and carrots and onions.  Fill it out (if you’re a meat eater) with chicken, turkey, hamburger, or beef tips.  Season with some salt & pepper.   Eat.

Maybe I’ll bake a chicken.  Or make some lasagna.  I don’t know.  What do you think?