Headline Homes: Nashville's top sales, December 2011

Editor's Note: The number-one home on our list was originally listed as a purchase by country star Gretchen Wilson due to a filing error with the Wilson County Register of Deeds. In fact, Wilson sold the 340-acre estate. The story below now contains the correct information. NashvillePost.com regrets the error.

 

Presales — or apparent presales — were the name of the game in December. Four of the top 10 homes officially spent zero days on the market, usually an indicator buyer and seller had something worked out before turning it over to the market at large.

A few folks of some broader renown make the list. Country superstar Gretchen Wilson sold 340 acres that were originally planned as a log-cabin development on the delightfully named Tater Peeler Road in rural Lebanon. And a former Newsweek editor who had a bestselling biography of Andrew Jackson bought in Belle Meade. Too bad it wasn’t in Old Hickory.

There was another new build on the list, which we’ve come to once again expect each month after a few years of rare appearances. As always, what follows are the 10 largest single-family home sales in Davidson and surrounding counties for the month of December 2011.

1. 5727 Tater Peeler Road, Lebanon 37090

Sale price: $2.9 million
Buyer: Jere Hinman
Seller: Gretchen Wilson
Seller’s agents: Pam Adams, Keller Williams Mt. Juliet and Phyllis Hobbs, C&D Realty
Buyer’s agents: Angela Jones & Lisa Doss, Crye Leike

“Redneck Woman” Gretchen Wilson sold her sprawling Wilson County spread. Originally imagined as a “log cabin community,” the 340-acre estate includes three logs homes, a studio/office building, a pool, a pavilion, two shop buildings, a stocked lake and “miles of beautiful trails.”

Originally on the market for $3.2 million, the asking price went up to $3.5 million when Wilson added two more homes and 27 acres. U

2. 4411 Herbert Place, Belle Meade 37205

Sale price: $2.15 million
Buyers: Jon E. and M. Keith Meacham
Sellers: Arthur G. and Mary Fort
Sellers’ agents: Trudy Byrd and Rita S. Puryear, Fridrich & Clark Realty
Buyers’ agent: Barbara Keith Payne, Pilkerton Realtors

Former Newsweek editor and Andrew Jackson biographer Jon Meachem is the new owner of this Belle Meade home. The spacious 6,000-square-foot structure built in 1915 — it’s known as “Horseshoe Hill” — sits on more than four acres and was a former Junior League of Nashville Decorators’ Showhouse.

3. 1716 Talbot Trail, Franklin 37069

Sale price: $2.01 million
Buyer: Kevin Forster Living Trust
Seller: Kevin Elnicki
Seller’s agent: Robin H. Dahl, Parks Properties
Buyer’s agent: Louis Belote, Fridrich & Clark

New Carlisle Companies chief Forster is the new owner of this Laurelbrooke home. The agents must have counted on it to sell itself, as its listing mentions none of its surely glittering furnishings. Regardless, the sale was quick, with the house listed for a whopping zero days.

Elnicki’s buy in Franklin showed up rather mysteriously at No. 7 in May 2008’s Headline Homes, when he paid $1.73 million. Elnicki’s company, an environmental remediation firm from Rutland, Vt., could shed no light on why he bought locally.

4. 621 Westview Ave., Nashville 37205

Sale price: $1.81 million
Buyers: Owen D. and Lydia Jones
Sellers: Mathieu and Roberta Berman
Sellers’ agent: Tracy Barton, BrokerSouth Real Estate Partners
Buyers’ agents: Janice R. Lovvorn and Jennie Garth Needham, Fridrich & Clark

Owen Jones is the director of the MacArthur Foundation-backed Law and Neuroscience Project at Vanderbilt University, an interdisciplinary network examining the impact of neuroscience on criminal law. Built in 1937 but with a recent renovation, this home spent 278 days on the market, and had its own website and everything.

5. 9290 Exton Lane, Brentwood 37027

Sale price: $1.55 million
Buyer: Susan Rutledge
Seller: Legend Homes
Seller’s and buyer’s agents: Susan Gregory and Lisa Culp Taylor, Bob Parks Realty

New homes are now becoming regular on our monthly list. This one in Annadale actually won’t be ready for occupancy until mid-June, and when it does, it will have nearly 7,200 square feet, a his-and-hers study and two wet bars. (Also his-and-hers? Unclear.)

6. 1204 Nichol Lane, Belle Meade 37205

Sale price: $1.465 million
Buyers: John P.G. and Margaret M. Thompson
Sellers: Kerry and Linda Graham
Sellers’ agent: Margaret H. Taylor, Fridrich & Clark
Buyers’ agent: Anne A. McGugin, Fridrich & Clark

John Thompson is an executive sales manager at Thompson Machinery, a director of PHG Energy, and owner of Thompson Properties LLC, a real estate property investment company. He is also a member of the Nashville Predators’ local ownership group. Kerry Graham is the president of advertising power players Bohan.

This was another zero-day listing.

7. 611 Lynnbrook Road, Nashville 37215

Sale price: $1.44 million
Buyer: Unknown
Seller: Natalie Renee Dickson
Seller’s and buyer’s agent: Brett Wright, Landmark Realty Service

The deeds office has not yet registered this sale, despite the listing information noting a Dec. 12 closing. Yet again, it was a zero-day listing. Seemingly, many folks were trying to offload their homes before year’s end. Dickson is an oncologist.

8. 1154 Hillview Lane, Franklin 37064

Sale price: $1.425 million
Buyers: James Ewel and Chandra K. Adkins
Sellers: Jay and Jill Luna
Sellers’ agents: Mamie McArthur Sanders and Brent M. Sanders, McArthur Sanders Real Estate
Buyers’ agent: Kim Fennell, Main Street Real Estate

This was a custom build by developer Jay Luna. Relatively close to town in Franklin, but secluded nonetheless, the house sits on 23 wooded acres with pool and waterfall.

9. 1644 Jacobs Drive, Gallatin 37066

Sale price: $1.42 million
Buyers: Paul D. and Michelle L. Cook
Sellers: Joseph and Connie Godfrey
Sellers’ agent: Joe Godfrey, Godfrey Realty Group
Buyers’ agent: Lisa Leonard, Zeitlin & Co. Realtors

Things may be starting to look up at the once-troubled Fairvue subdivision in Gallatin. The Godfreys had this home on the market for nearly two years, originally listed at almost $1.8 million. The Cooks got a nice discount for the 7,800-square-foot lakefront mansion.

10. 2314 Hampton Ave., Nashville 37215

Sale price: $1.415 million
Buyers: Edward and Jessica White
Sellers: Michael and Wendy Baker
Sellers’ agent: Ruby Doss, Fridrich & Clark
Buyers’ agent: Mary Beth Thomas, Fridrich & Clark

Edward White is a local gastroenterologist. This one was pre-sold — a zero-day listing once again — but still with a small discount of $35,000. The Bakers are also doctors: he a cardiologist, she a pediatrician.