Blog – Knoxville Real Estate Agent & Author

Updated: This bill was killed by the legislature.

I was incorrect in the post here. I saw that it had happened and then was informed that it didn’t.

By Rob Howard – KnoxvilleRob

If you’ve ever looked at the empty side yard or the garage nobody parks in and thought “I could put a little house back there,” this is the year that thought got a lot more legal.

Tennessee just took the zoning pen out of Knoxville’s hand when it comes to accessory dwelling units, the small second homes also known as ADUs, (Additional Dwelling Unit), granny flats, or carriage houses. Two new state laws, HB2031 and HB2552, changed what the city can require, how fast it has to answer you, and whether you’re even allowed to rent the thing out. Here’s what actually changed, and what didn’t.

The old rules

Knoxville has allowed one ADU per single-family lot by right for a while now, which already put it ahead of a lot of Tennessee cities. But the fine print had teeth. You needed a 5,000 square foot minimum lot. The ADU’s size was capped relative to your house. And here’s the one that tripped people up: at least one of the two units had to be owner-occupied. You couldn’t build a cottage and rent out both the house and the cottage while you lived somewhere else.

In Knoxville – check the zoning of your home at kgis.org

What HB2031 changes

The new law strips a whole list of tools out of the city’s hands. Knoxville can no longer:

Stop you from building an ADU before, after, or at the same time as the main house, as long as it meets residential building code
Prohibit you from leasing the ADU out
Require you to live in the primary home yourself

That last one is the big one for Knoxville specifically, since owner occupancy has been a hard requirement here. The state just preempted it.

The city also can’t pile on local density limits, extra development fees, or impact fees, unless you genuinely need a bigger water meter or a new one. And the process itself got faster. If a permit is required, the city has to review it ministerially, meaning against building code, design standards, and fire code only, with no discretionary hearing where a neighbor gets to show up and vote no. They’ve got 60 days to approve or deny. Miss that window, and it’s deemed approved. If a city breaks the law, you can sue and recover attorney fees.

What HB2552 adds

This one is simpler and it’s about speed everywhere, not just ADUs. Starting January 1, 2027, any Tennessee jurisdiction has 30 days from a complete permit application to hand you an approval, a formal denial, or a specific written list of what’s missing. No answer in 30 days, deemed approved.

Why the hurry from Nashville? The state is sitting on a shortage of roughly 74,000 housing units. Lawmakers decided the fastest lever they had was getting local governments out of their own way.

Those folks who we’ve been stuck in traffic behind are able to bring more friends now – this is a change that has lots of pros and cons, but it also opens up lots of opportunities for people who couldn’t buy a home otherwise.

What this actually means if you own property in Knoxville

Say you’ve got a lot with room in the back, or a house with a detached garage you’ve been meaning to do something with. Under the new rules:

You get to build it your way. Detached cottage, attached addition, or an internal conversion like a basement or garage unit, all three are recognized, and the city has to judge the plans on code and setbacks, not on whether the neighbors like the idea.
The rental math opens up. Live in the main house and rent the cottage. Live in the cottage and rent the main house. Under the preemption, nobody can force you to live on site or block you from leasing the second unit.
Nobody can sit on your application. No more indefinite planning commission continuances. 60 days on the ADU permit itself, 30 days on general building permits once January hits.

What hasn’t changed

This isn’t a free-for-all. You still have to hit setbacks, which vary by zone, and Knoxville still wants exterior materials and rooflines that match the primary home. Size is still tied to the house, with a detached unit capped at 40 percent of the primary structure’s floor area. Utilities have to actually support the new unit. HOA rules and deed restrictions are untouched by any of this, the state didn’t preempt private contracts. And short-term rental is its own separate animal, which brings me to the question I get asked more than any other right now.

Does this mean I can turn a rental house into an Airbnb inside city limits?

No. And this is exactly where people get tangled up.

HB2031’s ADU preemption and HB2552’s permit clock do not touch Knoxville’s short-term rental ordinance. Those are two completely separate systems.

Knoxville runs two tracks for short-term rentals, meaning anything booked for less than 30 days at a time, Airbnb, VRBO, or otherwise:

Type 1 is for owner-occupied properties in residential zones. You have to live there as your primary residence, though you don’t have to be home during the actual rental. One per person, and it can’t be issued to an LLC.
Type 2 is for non-owner-occupied properties, but only in non-residential zoning districts. An owner or entity can hold up to two, and yes, an LLC can hold them.

Here’s the piece that catches people: if your property sits in a residential zone and you don’t live there, you cannot get a Type 2 permit to work around it. Type 2 simply isn’t available in residential zoning, full stop. Before you list anything, pull up KGIS Maps, turn on the zoning layer, and search the address. If it comes back R-1, R-1A, R-2, or similar, you’re in Type 1 territory or you’re not doing short-term at all.

But I can do a 30-plus day rental, right?

Yes, and this is where HB2031 genuinely helps. Knoxville only regulates stays under 30 days as short-term rentals. Anything 30 days or longer is just a normal residential lease, and the new state law is specific that a city can’t block you from leasing an ADU or force you to occupy the main house.

So if you’re sitting on a residential lot with room for a second unit, and you’re not planning to live there, the play is a long-term or midterm lease, not Airbnb. That midterm market in North Knoxville, think grad students, traveling healthcare staff, folks relocating for a downtown job, is real and it’s steady. Just keep the lease at a 30-day minimum in writing, don’t list nightly with a “minimum stay” toggle on a short-term platform (Host Compliance is watching, and the city uses it), get a rental business license, and carry landlord insurance instead of a standard homeowner policy.

The bottom line

If you’re looking at a tiny home build or an investment lot around town, the playbook now looks like this: confirm zoning and lot size, sketch it against setbacks and the 40 percent rule, get engineered plans showing IRC code compliance, fire separation, and water and sewer capacity, then file. The city owes you a real answer, fast, not a maybe next quarter.

I’ve been walking East Tennessee property owners through zoning questions like this for over 20 years, long before anybody in Nashville was writing bills about it. If you’re trying to figure out what a specific lot or property can actually do under these new rules, that’s a conversation worth having before you spend a dollar on plans.

From Knoxville!

Big Ed’s Pizza: an Oak Ridge icon

I hadn’t set foot in Big Ed’s Pizza in at least five years, and I hadn’t planned to fix that on this particular Saturday either. I was driving back from a showing in Oak Ridge when I passed the place, neon OPEN sign in the window, that hand-painted cartoon of Big Ed picking his teeth over a slice, same as I remembered. I hit the blinker before I’d even finished the thought.

Big Ed’s Pizza – 101 Broadway in Oak Ridge, TN

The clients I’d just shown homes to already work in Oak Ridge. They live in Knoxville now, and tired of the daily commute each way during rush hour, which increasingly in East Tennessee terms might as well be a part-time job. Cutting that drive down is the main reason they’re looking to move, and honestly it’s one of the most common reasons I hear these days. People aren’t just chasing square footage. They’re trying to get an hour of their life back.

They’d already headed home by the time I made my detour, so this one was just for me. I love to introduce folks to places like this, but sometimes it’s also fun to sit alone and soak in the culture!

Enjoying the last slice of a small pepperoni!

I ordered a small pepperoni to tide me over while I waited, and a Coke, and then did the thing you do at a place like Big Ed’s when you haven’t been in years. I ordered a large to go. Big Ed’s Special, the works, ham and sausage and mushroom and onion and green pepper, headed home to my wife Amy, who had no idea a Saturday afternoon pizza surprise was coming.

Big Ed’s has been serving pizza out of the old Service Drug Store on Broadway since 1970, when Ed and Ginger Neusel moved their restaurant east from Huntsville, Alabama and set up in Jackson Square. Word is Ed served as a Marine in World War II before he ever opened a pizza oven, which might explain why the walls are covered edge to edge in flags and old photographs, fifty-plus years of regulars adding their own alongside his.

A long oar from the Rollins College Women’s Rowing Team hangs over the counter where I ordered. A 12’ 4” memento from a hearty meal after a competition on Melton Lake in ‘96.

The original booths from the drug store days are still in the building. The soda fountain is long gone, but the bones of the place never left. They make the dough and sauce from scratch every day, and as far as I could tell, they still only serve two things. Pizza and beer. No wings, no dessert menu, no distractions.

What hits you first walking in is the walls. Every inch of them. Flags and military patches, trophies, old photographs, an old jukebox still lit up in the corner, red and white checkered tablecloths on tables worn soft by decades of elbows. That kind of clutter only comes from a community deciding, one framed photo at a time, that a place belongs to them.

I ate my slice at the counter, reading glasses off, watching the place go about its Tuesday like it has for fifty-some years. Thin crust, the kind that folds instead of flops. I left a five-star review before the large pizza was even out of the oven, food and service and atmosphere across the board, no wait, and a staff that treated me like a regular even though I hadn’t been one in years.

I didn’t get to play tour guide this time. My clients were already gone, and the whole stop was really just me chasing a memory. But it’s exactly the kind of thing that reminds me why I love working in this pocket of East Tennessee. You take a day of showings in Oak Ridge, and on the way out you stumble into fifty years of somebody else’s history, and you come home with a pizza for your wife and a story for the blog. That’s not a bad way to spend a Tuesday, and it’s a pretty good argument for anyone still on the fence about a shorter commute and a town with this much character.

Big Ed’s Pizza, 101 Broadway Avenue, Oak Ridge. Go hungry, and maybe call ahead if you want a large to go.

More stories like this one live at KnoxvilleRob.com. If a shorter commute or a move anywhere in East Tennessee is on your mind, I’d be glad to help.

Rob Howard – cell: 865-385-9070 @KnoxvilleRob on most social media

Keller Williams – Knoxville, Farragut & Hardin Valley 865-966-5005

Knoxville in America 250: The Politician, the Paperboy, and the Rest of Knoxville’s Strange Gift to America

by Rob Howard – KnoxvilleRob.com

Two hundred fifty years of America, and if you trace the wiring back far enough, an unreasonable amount of it runs through a town of roughly two hundred thousand people tucked into the foothills of the Smokies.

I’ve lived in and around Knoxville my whole life, and I still catch myself surprised by how often this happens. Somebody founds a movement, breaks a story, or changes a law, and if you follow the thread back, it snags on Knoxville.

American Flag when William Blount was charged with the “Southwest Territory” by President George Washington.

Two men make the case better than anybody: one who helped write the rules of the American republic and nearly got run out of it in disgrace, and one who showed up broke, folded newspapers before sunrise, and grew up to define what honest journalism looks like. Between the two of them, and a long list of others who deserve their own paragraph, you get a pretty good snapshot of what East Tennessee does to people. It either makes you or it exposes you. Sometimes both at once.

The Senator Who Got Away With It

William Blount signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. A few years later, President Washington sent him west to govern the brand new Southwest Territory, the raw stretch of land that would become Tennessee. Blount picked a spot on the Holston River, negotiated the Treaty of Holston with the Cherokee in 1791 to open the land for settlement, and built a house that’s still standing downtown. We call it Blount Mansion now. He chaired the convention that wrote Tennessee’s first constitution in 1796. Blount County still carries his name.

Here’s the part they leave off the historical marker. Blount had gambled hard on western land, millions of acres of it, and by the mid-1790s he was drowning in debt. In 1797, while sitting as one of Tennessee’s first two U.S. senators, he got caught trying to help the British seize Spanish Florida and Louisiana, hoping a British-controlled Mississippi would send his land values through the roof. A letter in his own hand made it to President Adams.

The Senate expelled him by a vote of 25 to 1, the first expulsion in its history, and the House opened the first impeachment proceedings against a federal official the country had ever seen. George Washington, the man who’d appointed him governor, said he hoped Blount would be held in detestation by all good men. Abigail Adams called it a diabolical plot.

Facing arrest, Blount posted bail and rode straight home to Knoxville. The town met him with a military parade.

A parade. For the guy who tried to sell out the country to protect his real estate portfolio. That’s East Tennessee loyalty for you, and I mean that as a compliment. Blount lived out his last few years as a popular member of the Tennessee state senate and never spent a day in jail.

He’s buried at First Presbyterian downtown, a few blocks from the mansion where he once ran an entire territory.

Next time you’re parking in the garage behind Tennessee Theatre glance to your left at the final resting place of William Blount and many other early Tennesseans.

The Paperboy Who Told the Truth

A century later, a different kind of Knoxville kid was making his own mark, this one from the bottom instead of the top. Adolph Ochs’s family landed in Knoxville broke after the Civil War, his father a struggling shopkeeper who eventually declared bankruptcy.

At eleven, Adolph was delivering the Knoxville Chronicle before school. By twelve he’d worked his way up to office boy, and a couple years after that, to printer’s devil, learning the trade under an editor named William Rule who took a liking to him and never really let go.

Ochs left Knoxville at seventeen with nothing but ink under his fingernails and a stubborn idea: that a newspaper should print both sides of the story fairly, even when it was inconvenient, at a time when most papers existed to shout for one political side or the other. At twenty, he borrowed two hundred fifty dollars and bought a controlling stake in a failing Chattanooga paper, and turned it profitable within a few years. By 1896, he’d borrowed his way into ownership of the New York Times, a paper on the edge of collapse with a readership of about nine thousand.

He cut the price to a penny to outlast the sensational papers of the day, brought in an editor who insisted on getting the facts straight before getting them fast, and hung a new motto over the masthead: All the News That’s Fit to Print. Circulation climbed past three quarters of a million within a couple of decades. That line is still on the front page every single day.

He built one of the most trusted institutions in American journalism out of a work ethic he learned on Gay Street.

What I Take From These Two

I don’t know that Blount and Ochs ever crossed paths, though Knoxville was small enough in the 1870s that they easily could have. They didn’t need to. One shows you what happens when ambition outruns integrity. The other shows you what happens when a kid with nothing decides honesty is worth building a whole career on. Knoxville produced both, and honestly, that tracks. This has never been a town that does anything halfway.

The Rest of the List

Blount and Ochs are the two that stuck with me, but they’re nowhere close to the whole story. A few more worth knowing, in no particular order.

Forty years before the Civil War even started, a Quaker printer in Jonesborough named Elihu Embree published The Emancipator, the first newspaper in the country dedicated entirely to ending slavery. It didn’t last long, but it laid groundwork the rest of the nation wouldn’t catch up to for decades.

When the war did come, East Tennessee stayed stubbornly pro-Union while the rest of the state voted to secede. A Knoxville newspaper editor known as Parson Brownlow spent the war years attacking the Confederacy in print, and local Unionists coordinated a raid that burned nine railway bridges across the region in a single night, gutting Confederate supply lines from the inside.

Fast forward to 1920, and the entire fate of the 19th Amendment, women’s right to vote nationwide, came down to one deadlocked vote in the Tennessee legislature. A twenty-four-year-old representative from McMinn County named Harry Burn walked in planning to vote no, then got a letter from his mother that morning telling him to be a good boy and vote for suffrage.

He switched his vote on the floor. One East Tennessean, one letter from home, and the amendment became federal law.

Twenty miles from where I’m typing this, the federal government built Oak Ridge in near-total secrecy during World War II to enrich the uranium that ended up in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Most of the people running the machines were teenage girls straight out of East Tennessee high schools, kept completely in the dark about what they were building. They outperformed the PhDs sent to supervise them.

Around the same era, Franklin Roosevelt’s most ambitious New Deal experiment, the Tennessee Valley Authority, set up headquarters right downtown and rewired the rural South with electricity and flood control, proving the federal government could engineer a regional comeback.

A couple decades later, the Highlander Research and Education Center near Knoxville trained Rosa Parks in nonviolent resistance months before she sat down on that bus in Montgomery, and hosted strategy sessions for Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. Around the same time, a young Knoxville man named Theotis Robinson Jr. simply applied to UT, got denied because of his race, and pushed until the university integrated peacefully, without the riots that tore through other Southern campuses.

And before any of that, a group of Knoxville business leaders spent the 1920s and 30s raising money and donating land to help establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, now the most visited national park in the country, years before the rest of the nation took conservation seriously.

Why I Keep Digging Into This

I grew up thinking of Knoxville as home first and history second, if I thought about the history part at all. The longer I do this job, the more I think that’s backward. Every street I show a house on, every courthouse record I pull, every old building somebody wants to tear down, there’s usually more sitting underneath it than anybody realizes. Blount and Ochs just happen to be the two who made me stop and write it down.

If you want more of this kind of digging, it’s basically what A Knoxville Podcast has been doing since 2007. Find it, along with everything else I’m working on, at KnoxvilleRob.com.

Rainy day in Knoxville

A few days ago one of my friends made me a “too good to skip” offer of a pair of the Ray-Ban camera glasses and being the goofball who loves all things visual and slightly off-beat, I bought them.

This morning was a dreary day and I needed to go to my North Hills rental house before heading toward the office. So I recorded my drive and made this silly little “Even Dreary, I love Knoxville” driving around video.

In other news, I released what I’m calling the “Birthday pre-lease” Beta Reader’s Edition” of “The Second Story” the sequel to my first novel in the Frank Merchant real estate mystery series, “Principles of Real Estate & Murder.”

Birthday Pre-lease Beta Reader’s Edition of a “The Second Story” available exclusively at Addison’s Books!

Somebody’s Moving to Knoxville Today. Probably Right Now.

Posted by Rob Howard | KnoxvilleRob.com

Here’s a number that stopped me cold when I looked it up yesterday: more than 30 people move to the Knoxville area every single day.

Not every month. Every day.

The Knoxville metro added about 11,000 new residents in 2024 alone, reaching 796,000 people — a 1.53% increase over the year before. Do the math and that’s roughly 30 new neighbors arriving every 24 hours, every week, all year long.

A home I currently have pending in Farragut.

And between 2020 and 2024, Knoxville captured 18.7% of all positive net domestic migration to the state of Tennessee — second only to Nashville. For a city that a lot of people outside the South still think of as a quiet college town, that’s a striking number.

I’ve been a real estate agent here since 2003. I was buying rental property back when you could get a decent house for $50,000. I started noticing it all the way back in 1999 when the Old City still felt like it belonged in a different century. I got my first house for $32,500 on the wrong side of the tracks, behind an old laundromat.

Alliance was once the home of laundromat.

Not long ago that same house hit the market again (I hadn’t owned it in years). A visit to the home – listed at $220,000 – revealed the same paint I’d put on two decades before and relatively no other changes. What changed was the area. The laundromat gave way to Alliance micro-brewery. The whole street got VERY COOL!

I’ve watched this city change in ways that would have seemed like science fiction to the version of me graduating from college in 1996.

I can tell you from the front lines: the migration isn’t a trend anymore. It’s just Knoxville now.

Why They’re Coming

Tennessee adds new residents at a remarkable clip — between July 2023 and July 2024 alone, the state grew by nearly 80,000 people, with nearly all of that growth driven by migration rather than births. The largest shares of newcomers arrive from Illinois and California, which together account for close to 40% of Tennessee’s net positive domestic migration, with another significant portion coming from the East Coast.

They’re coming for the obvious things — no state income tax, lower cost of living, proximity to mountains and lakes that people in other parts of the country pay a fortune to visit on vacation. But a lot of them are coming for something harder to quantify: the sense that Knoxville is a real place, with roots and neighborhoods and a story, at a moment when a lot of American cities feel like they’ve lost their identity entirely.

I’ve been telling that story since 2007 on A Knoxville Podcast. It turns out a lot of people were already listening — they just didn’t live here yet.

The Professors, the Grad Students, and the Folks That Follow

One of the most interesting parts of my practice over the years has been working with the University of Tennessee community. That led me to build UTrelocation.com — a resource specifically for faculty and staff making the move to Knoxville, because relocating for an academic position is a different kind of move.

There are timelines tied to semester starts, there are households making significant decisions from 800 miles away, and there are families uprooting their entire lives based on a few campus visits and a lot of Zillow scrolling at midnight.

I’ve been part of some of those stories in ways that still make me smile.

Joe is a good example. He came in as a professor and, after a year renting, needed a home that worked for his life here, and we found it. A few months later, when his father retired from a long career in law enforcement, Joe called me again. His parents were moving to Knoxville to be closer to family. Great new neighbors for the folks who lived nearby.

That’s two transactions, but more importantly, it’s one family putting down roots — and I got to be part of both moments.

The grad students are a different story, and honestly one I’ve been part of for longer than I sometimes remember.

Over the years, more than a few of the people who rented my investment properties were UT graduate students — young people in their mid-twenties figuring out the steps toward their careers, building habits that would eventually lead to buying their first house.

Many of them are homeowners now. And I’m proud to have been the realtor in several cases.

Lakes, River, Mountains – Who wouldn’t want to be here?

The Neighborhoods Nobody Talks About Anymore (Until Everybody Does)

When I was buying my first rental properties in the late nineties and early 2000s, there were neighborhoods in this city that represented opportunity precisely because nobody wanted them yet.

Old Sevier was one of them. It sat along the south bank of the river, a little industrial, a little forgotten, with a bone structure that deserved better. Parkridge was similar — solid older homes, walkable streets, but carrying a reputation that kept the prices honest.

Neither of those neighborhoods is a secret anymore. The City of Knoxville is currently in the middle of a major Sevier Avenue Streetscape Project, with underground utilities, new ADA-compliant sidewalks, and a new roundabout at Sevier and Island Home Avenue — all expected to be complete by early 2027.

There’s a 3.8-mile rail-to-trail greenway being built parallel to Sevier Avenue that will connect Chapman Highway all the way to Ijams Nature Center. The city is investing serious money in this corridor because serious people started investing serious money in it years ago, and the momentum is undeniable.

Dogwood season signals real estate “Mad Season!”

The lesson isn’t that you missed it. The lesson is that Knoxville keeps producing new versions of Old Sevier — neighborhoods with the bones, the location, and the story, just waiting for the moment the rest of the city catches up.

Finding those spots is what I’ve been doing for 25 years. It’s the most fun part of this job.

What the Market Looks Like Right Now

Here’s the practical part: spring 2025 is an interesting moment to be in this market.

The relocating buyers are a constant — 30-plus people a day, remember? That’s a steady drumbeat of demand that doesn’t take a winter break. But right now, local Knoxville buyers are emerging too. Spring does that. People who spent January telling themselves maybe next year start calling in March, and by April, they’re serious.

East Tennessee is alluring all year long!

That means inventory is moving. And it also means inventory is arriving. Both things are true simultaneously, which creates real opportunities — especially for buyers who’ve been patient and are ready to act.

One of the homes I’m proud to have listed right now is a great example of what a well-priced, quality property looks like in this market.

8029 Sharp Road, Powell, TN 37849 — Listed at $324,900

This is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath all-brick home with 1,344 square feet in Powell. All-brick construction is not something you stumble across at this price point. It’s solid, low-maintenance, and built to last in a way that newer vinyl-sided construction simply isn’t. Powell gives you the quiet and the space without sacrificing access to the rest of Knox County, and the Powell school zone has long been a draw for families who care about that kind of thing.

This one is priced right and won’t last long. You can see the full listing details here.

How to Think About This Market

Whether you’re one of those 30-a-day newcomers trying to figure out how Knoxville works, or you’re a local who’s been watching the market from the sidelines wondering when to move, the answer is usually the same: the best time to act is when the right home appears, not when the calendar says so.

I’ve been buying, selling, and advising in this market for over two decades. I know where the value is, where it’s going, and — maybe most importantly — where it’s been. If you’re relocating to Knoxville for work, for UT, for a family move, or just because you finally figured out what the rest of the country is slowly realizing about this place, I’d love to help you find your version of it.

That’s what UTrelocation.com is built for. And that’s what I’ve been doing, one family at a time, since before Parkridge was cool.

Rob Howard is a Knoxville-based Keller Williams agent with 23+ years of experience, a husband to Amy and dad to a very opinionated Havanese named Dickens. He hosts A Knoxville Podcast, writes mystery novels set in Knoxville neighborhoods, and genuinely loves this city.

📞 (865) 385-9070 | KnoxvilleRob.com | UTrelocation.com

From 2019 to 2026: How Seller Secrets Evolved with East Tennessee’s Real Estate Market

When I published the first edition of Seller Secrets back in 2019, the real estate world was a different place. We were still riding the wave of post-recession recovery, interest rates were hovering around 4%, and sellers could list almost anything and expect multiple offers within days.

Fast forward to 2026, and I’ve completely rewritten the book—not just updated it, but rebuilt it from the ground up. Why? Because the market changed. Buyers changed. And if the advice didn’t change with it, it would be worthless.

What Stayed the Same

Some truths in real estate are eternal:

Location still matters most. You can renovate a kitchen, but you can’t move a house out of a bad school district.
First impressions are everything. Whether it’s 2019 or 2026, buyers still judge your house in the first 30 seconds.
Pricing is psychology, not arithmetic. The right price isn’t what you need—it’s what the market will bear.

These principles anchored the 2019 edition, and they anchor the 2026 edition. But the application of these principles? That’s where everything changed.

What Changed (And Why It Matters)

1. The Market Reality Check

2019: We were in a full-blown seller’s market. Houses sold in 36 hours with eight offers over asking. The advice was simple: price it right, stage it well, and get out of the way.

2026: We’re in what I call a “negotiator’s market.” It’s not the feeding frenzy of 2021, but it’s not the fire sale of 2008 either. Average days on market in Knoxville went from 30-40 days to 55-65 days. Buyers have choices now, and that means they’re pickier.

The 2026 edition opens with an entire chapter dedicated to understanding this market—not some theoretical market. I break down what 5-6% mortgage rates mean for buyer psychology, why inventory levels matter, and how younger buyers (Millennials and Gen Z) care about different things than their parents did (spoiler: they want to know your utility bills, not just your square footage).

2. The Team Chapter Got a Complete Overhaul

2019: The team chapter was basic—find an agent, maybe hire a photographer, get a title company.

2026: I spent seven years watching sellers succeed or fail based on who they assembled around them. So I built detailed profiles:

Brett Schraufnagel (Princeton Mortgage) explains how to vet a buyer’s financing and why not all pre-approvals are created equal
Ethan Hotchkiss (Brass Tacks Home Inspections) breaks down what sellers should fix before listing versus what they can ignore
Robb White (Crown Title) walks through title issues that can blow up deals at the last minute

These aren’t just names I threw in to look credible—they’re people I’ve closed hundreds of transactions with. Their expertise is embedded throughout the chapter because their mistakes (or brilliance) become your outcome.

Rob Howard at his new listing in Cosby, TN. Call for details 865-385-9070

3. Pricing Psychology Got Deeper

2019: We covered comparable sales and adjustment formulas.

2026: I added an entire section on buyer search behavior. Did you know that buyers don’t search for “$247,000 homes”? They search in bands: $200-250k, $250-300k. If your house is worth $248k and you list at $252k, you just jumped into the next bracket—where you’re competing with $300k houses.

I also explained why Zillow’s Zestimate is often wildly wrong (median error rate of 2.4%, which on a $250k house means $6,000+ swing), and why you should never base your pricing decision on it.

4. The Staging and Photography Chapter Reflects 2026 Technology

2019: Professional photos were nice to have.

2026: Professional photos, 3D virtual tours, video walkthroughs optimized for social media, and twilight shots are non-negotiable. A 2024 NAR study showed that homes with professional photos sell 32% faster and for 3-5% more. That’s $7,500-$12,500 on a $250,000 house.

I also added guidance on how to stage for camera, not just for in-person showings. Because in 2026, 90% of buyers see your house online before they ever schedule a showing. If your listing photos look like iPhone snapshots with the toilet seat up, you’re dead in the water.

5. Marketing Went From “Post It and Pray” to Strategic Campaigns

2019: Put it on the MLS, maybe run a Facebook ad.

2026: Full chapter on targeted digital marketing—Instagram Reels, TikTok walkthroughs, Facebook carousel ads targeted to likely buyers based on demographics and behavior, email blasts to agent databases. The modern buyer lives on their phone. If your agent isn’t reaching them there, you’re invisible.

6. The Mistakes Chapter Doubled in Size

2019: We covered 10 common seller mistakes.

2026: I expanded it to 20 mistakes, because I watched sellers make new and creative errors over the past seven years:

Leaving personal items scattered during the moving process (turns your house into a storage unit)
Not keeping utilities on during showings (buyers assume things are broken if they can’t test them)
Trying to hide problems instead of disclosing them upfront (honesty builds trust; deception kills deals)
Rejecting the first offer because “more are coming” (spoiler: they usually don’t)

Each mistake includes:

What it looks like in practice
Why it costs you money
How to avoid it
Real numbers showing the impact

7. Real Estate Has Local Nuance—And I Leaned Into It

2019: We tried to make it applicable to “anywhere.”

2026: I made it specifically about East Tennessee. Because a book that tries to work for everyone works for no one.

I reference Knox, Blount, Sevier, Anderson, and Loudon counties by name. I talk about how our school districts affect pricing, which neighborhoods are quietly appreciating, and why termite inspections are non-negotiable in the South (they’re not required everywhere). If you’re selling in Phoenix, you need a different book. If you’re selling in Knoxville, this one is built for you.

8. The Tone Got More Direct

2019: We were encouraging and polite.

2026: I’m still polite, but I don’t sugarcoat. If you’re overpricing your house, I tell you you’re wrong—and why. If you’re making emotional decisions that will cost you money, I call it out.

Why the change? Because after 23+ years in this business, I’ve earned the right to be direct. And more importantly, my clients appreciate it. They don’t need a cheerleader—they need someone who’ll tell them the truth even when it’s uncomfortable.

What About Brandon?

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that Brandon Hutchinson, my co-author on the 2019 edition, isn’t on this one.

Brandon’s a fantastic agent and a good friend. But our paths diverged. He’s building his business his way, and I’m building mine my way. The 2026 edition reflects my philosophy, my systems, and my network—not a compromise between two people.

That doesn’t diminish what we built together in 2019. That book helped hundreds of sellers. But this one is the book I wish I’d written back then.

The Big Picture

The core truth hasn’t changed: Selling a house is a team sport, and execution beats hope every time.

But the how of execution—how you price, how you stage, how you market, how you negotiate—has evolved dramatically. The 2026 edition is 50,000 words of updated strategy, real-world case studies, and tactical advice for sellers navigating today’s market.

If you read the 2019 edition and thought, “This is helpful,” you’ll find the 2026 edition is a completely different animal. It’s not an update—it’s a rebuild.

And if you’re thinking about selling in East Tennessee, it’s the only guidebook you need.

Want the book? Head to RealEstateMystery.com to grab your copy, or reach out to me directly at KnoxvilleRob.com.

Not ready to sell yet but want to stay in the loop? Subscribe to A Knoxville Podcast wherever you listen, or visit RealKnoxville.com.

And if you’re one of the folks who helped shape this book—whether you bought a house from me, referred someone who did, or sat through one of my two-hour pricing conversations—thank you. This book exists because you asked better questions than I had answers for.

Here’s to getting it right the first time.

— Rob Howard
Knoxville, Tennessee
February 2026

If You Don’t Like the Weather: An East Tennessee Winter Tale

by Rob Howard – Knoxvillerob.com

There’s a saying around here that folks claim about a lot of places, but in East Tennessee, it actually holds true: if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes.

Right now, Knoxville sits under an icy glaze. The trees—mostly barren this time of year—glisten as much as they can through a thick cloudy haze. It’s the kind of day that takes you back. For me, it recalls my 9th birthday at the end of April, walking through the crunch of unexpected snow. Or around 2013, when it got so warm that the dogwood trees staged a second bloom, their characteristic pink petals striking against a backdrop of snow that nobody saw coming.

Then there was the Blizzard of ’93. I was home from college when it hit. We hunkered down in the basement, cooking breakfast for every meal on an old pot-belly stove my mom had insisted on installing “just in case.” My dad—bless him—trudged off through waist-deep to chest-deep drifts to join his National Guard troop several miles away. That stove turned out to be more than decorative after all.

My Papaw Ross used to talk about the summer of 1925—long and blazing hot, he’d say, back before air conditioning was popular around here. Those old stories connect us to a different Tennessee, one where weather wasn’t just an inconvenience but a force that shaped daily life in ways we can barely imagine now.

Amy and I pose by the “Knoxville Christmas Tree” downtown on Gay St.

The 2-3 Rule

East Tennessee winters follow what I call the 2-3 rule: it usually snows 2-3 times per year, we usually get 2-3 inches, it usually hangs around 2-3 days, and then everything goes back to normal. We’re not the Rockies. We’re not Minnesota. We’re somewhere in between—just enough winter to remember what it feels like, not so much that we’re actually prepared for it.

Dickens loves the snow … for a couple minutes.

Which brings us to the French toast phenomenon.

We joke that everyone must be craving French toast during snow forecasts because there’s always a run on milk, white bread, and eggs. (Presumably everyone already keeps cinnamon and powdered sugar in stock.) The grocery stores get slammed. The weather reports get dramatic. Todd Howell shares his folksy warnings on the local news, and we all nod knowingly while doing exactly what he’s warning us about anyway.

The Characters Make the Storm

You can always spot the classics—those breeds of men who choose to wear shorts in almost any situation. My friend Jody Collins is one of them. He might have a parka, toboggan, and hiking boots on, but sure enough, there are the winter shorts. God bless him.

Classic Jody Collins. Chilling at the Bijou Theatre.

Then there are the kids, dreaming of dramatic temperature changes when the big test is coming and they haven’t studied enough. But honestly, it’s nearly impossible to sit around reading when there are snowmen to build, snow angels to create, and snowball fights to be had.

A Memory From the Bottom of the Hill

One of my earliest memories takes me back to when I was 3 or 4 years old. We lived at the top of a hill in Benton Station, and my grandparents lived at the bottom. When the snow came, kids from my age to twenty-somethings all congregated at my Mamaw’s house – now the Cottage at Howard’s Pond. They’d pull sleds, trash can lids, pieces of plywood—whatever they had—up to my driveway and slide down the hill to where the house was warm to the point of hot.

Inside, the smells: black coffee, bacon and eggs frying. The sounds: dozens of folks laughing, telling stories. My grandparents absolutely loved having all that life gathering at their place. It’s one of my favorite memories—not just of snow, but of what snow does to a community when you let it.

Local realtor day off! Megan Stansbury’s kids found a sled hill a few years ago.

What Changes, What Stays the Same

Some things have changed since then. We’ve got better forecasting now, more sophisticated equipment, apps that tell us exactly when the sleet will start. But in terms of actual preparation? We’re about the same. The city still scrambles. The salt trucks still can’t get everywhere. And we still act surprised every single time.

What hasn’t changed is the magic of it—the way a few inches of snow can turn Knoxville into a slower, quieter, more neighborly version of itself. The way it makes you remember your 9th birthday, or your Papaw’s stories, or the sound of laughter in your grandmother’s kitchen.

If you don’t like the weather in East Tennessee, just wait a few minutes.

But if it snows?

Don’t wait. Get outside. Build the snowman. Make the memory.

Because in 2-3 days, it’ll all be gone.

New Year’s Eve in Knoxville!

Toss the egg nog and pass the champagne!

One of my favorite clients just asked me for a suggestion of the greatest spots to ring in the New Year. I dug through my usually bag of sources and then dug a little deeper to curate this list of can’t miss date nights for that all important New Years Kiss in Knoxville!

New Year’s Eve in Knoxville TN!

The “Main Event” (Classic & Grand)

1. The Big One: NYE at the Sunsphere (World’s Fair Park)

• The Vibe: This is the quintessential Knoxville celebration. It’s outdoors, high-energy, and impressive because of the sheer scale. Family- friendly so no toasts, but certainly a spectacular!

• The Schedule:

• 9:00 PM: Festivities begin with a Silent Disco (free) and food trucks.

• 9:00 PM – 11:55 PM: Live music by Liquid Velvet (covers of classic hits).

• Midnight: The Ball Drop from the Sunsphere and fireworks.

• Why it works: It’s a low-pressure but high-reward date. You can walk around, grab food, and the fireworks against the Sunsphere are a great romantic backdrop for a midnight kiss.

• Cost: Free.

Downtown Knoxville NYE!

The VIP Upgrade: Sunsphere Events 6th & 8th Floor Party

• The Vibe: Exclusive and swanky. You are inside the Sunsphere (floors 6 & 8) looking down on the crowd.

• The Schedule:

• 9:00 PM – 1:00 AM: Doors open.

• Dining: Prime Rib dinner buffet and a late-night breakfast bar after midnight.

• Entertainment: Live music (Wasted Major) and a champagne toast.

• Why it works: It screams “I planned ahead.” You get the best view of the fireworks without the cold weather or the porta-potties.

• Cost: ~$150 per person (Tickets sell out fast).

The “Romantic & Unique”

The Fairy Tale: Ancient Lore Village

Ancient Lore Village New Year’s Celebration — Ancient Lore Village in South Knoxville

• The Vibe: Whimsical and cozy. This venue looks like a hobbit village or a fantasy book come to life.

• The Schedule:

• 5:30 PM: Gates open/Charcuterie boards served.

• Dinner: Gourmet dining under fairy lights.

• 8:00 PM: Early Champagne toast (perfect if they want to head downtown afterward or call it an early night).

• Throughout: NYE Trivia and mingling by the “Unity Firepit.”

• Why it works: It is incredibly unique. If she likes fantasy, cottage-core, or just very distinct atmospheres, this is a winner.

• Cost: ~$99 per person.

The Classic Ball: Crowne Plaza “Boys Night Out”

• The Vibe: Traditional, dress-up formal. Think hotel ballroom, round tables, and a big dance floor.

• The Schedule:

• Evening: Dinner buffet followed by live music from Boys Night Out (a local favorite horn/party band).

• Midnight: Champagne toast.

• Why it works: If she likes an excuse to wear a sequined dress and dance to Motown/Soul/Pop hits, this is the safest, classiest bet.

• Cost: Packages vary (often includes room + dinner).

“Cool & Trendy” (Fun & Active)

The Hipster Party: Pretentious Beer Co. Silent Disco

• The Vibe: Craft beer, glass-blowing studio aesthetic, and a Silent Disco (everyone wears headphones with 3 different DJ channels).

• The Schedule:

• 9:00 PM – 1:00 AM: Headphones on, party starts.

• Why it works: Silent discos are great for dates because you can actually take the headphones off and talk without screaming over the music. Plus, Pretentious makes some of the best beer in town.

• Cost: ~$20–$30 entry.

The SoKno Vibe: Hi-Wire Brewing

• The Vibe: Industrial, colorful, and very inclusive. Usually features a “Pop-Up” theme or Drag Show for NYE.

• The Schedule:

• 9:00 PM: DJ sets (often vinyl/disco/house) or drag performances.

• Midnight: Balloon drop.

• Why it works: It’s super fun and low-stress. You can play ping pong or soccer pool if the dancing gets too intense.

For the Knoxville Foodie in your life!

The Power Couple Dinner: Oliver Royale or J.C. Holdway

• The Vibe: Upscale, intimate, and delicious. Market Square (Oliver Royale) or a block away (J.C. Holdway).

• The Schedule:

• Dinner: Expect a Prix Fixe (multi-course) menu specifically for NYE.

• Why it works: If the way to her heart is through incredible food. Pro-Tip: Book this reservation immediately. After dinner, you are steps away from Market Square to watch the ball drop. The closest in Knoxville to a Michelin Star experience. J.C. Holdway fare is under the direction of Knoxville’s James Beard award winning Chef Joseph Link!

The Rooftop View: Radius Rooftop Lounge

• The Vibe: Chic lounge on top of the Embassy Suites downtown.

• The Schedule:

• 9:00 PM: Ticketed entry usually starts.

• Why it works: It’s the highest rooftop bar in Knoxville. Weather permitting (they have heaters/fire pits), the view of the city lights is unbeatable.

J.C. Holdway: A Foodie’s Ultimate Knoxville Destination

The Speakeasy Vibe: The Kennedy or Vida

• The Vibe: The Kennedy offers a dark, moody, classic steakhouse feel. Vida (in the Holston building) offers incredible Latin-fusion and cocktails in a historic bank vault setting.

• Why it works: Both feel expensive and sexy. Great for a “sit down and look good” kind of evening.

The “Wild Card”

The Old City Pub Crawl

• The Vibe: Rowdy, loud, and young. One wristband usually gets you into Hanna’s, Wagon Wheel, and Southbound.

• Why it works: Only choose this if she loves a crowded bar scene, country music, and dancing on tables. Knoxville gets rowdy! If she does, this is the most fun place to be. If she hates crowds, avoid the Old City.

Christmas Through The Years in Knoxville and East TN

My first Christmas! This tiny rocking chair was at my Mamaw and Papaw Howard’s house. We still have it!

Christmas in East Tennessee just hits different.
I was scrolling through old photos this week and found myself lost in decades of holiday memories—from growing up in Polk County to celebrating in Knoxville with friends who’ve become family.

The now-famous
Christkindlesmarkt at Schulz Bräu in downtown Knoxville.

There’s something about Christmas in this part of the world. The lights on Market Square. The chill in the Smoky Mountain air. Christmas shows at WDVX & The Bijou. Front porches decorated with care in small towns where everybody knows your name.

It’s always one of my favorite events of the year seeing some of the Christmas WDVX shows.

These photos span years of Christmases. Some from when I was just a kid. Others with friends I’ve celebrated with for decades. And one very special Christmas with my mom—her last, as it turned out. She passed in early 2024, making these photos all the more precious.

Edna’s last Christmas. We always did Christmas big – church parties, beautiful Christmas trees and lots of presents (nothing too expensive) a perfect childhood. She loved this tiny tree when she was too weak to deal with more.

I’m sharing them here because that’s what the holidays are really about, isn’t it? Looking back. Feeling grateful. Holding onto the people and places that made us who we are.
Merry Christmas, Knoxville. Merry Christmas, East Tennessee.

Circa 1990 – my Aunt Melba (in the background) gave this picture to me this Thanksgiving.

At Benton Bank – for many years – Mr. Robert Johnson, one of the greatest teachers at Benton Elementary, served as my dad’s “Santa” for Christmas pics.

My Dad’s first Christmas at home in 1959! As a young teen he was rescued from an orphanage to live with my grandparents at what was to become Howard’s Pond.

Amy & I hosted both sets of parents for Christmas lunch in 2019 at the Crown Plaza.

Brandon & Brittany in one of my favorite action shots EVER!

Amy & I pose with the “Knoxville Christmas Tree” downtown on Gay Street in Knoxville.

Posing with Albert, my dad, at the Polk County Christmas parade this year 2025.

Carrie Mays & Christina Black after Hutch & Howard Christmas party 2024

I snapped this picture of Amy with her parents Lynn & Stuart at Founder’s Park Christmas in Farragut.

One of the amazing homes featured in past years at the Old North Knoxville Christmas Home Tour.

Santa & Krampus joined us at Shulz Brau – posing with my sister-in-love Robyn and our awesome friend Ashley Manning and their pups.

Wonderful old memories at a KW Christmas party. Adam still always looks like he’s up to something!

Friends & teammates at KW Christmas party 2025. Devin Pressley, Carrie Mays, me and Brandon Hutchison.

Principles of Real Estate and … Ice cream!

Earlier this year, I did a TikTok about one of my Knoxville real estate listings being “dangerously close” to the Cruze Farm flagship out in Strawberry Plains. I went full Dateline spoof—dramatic music, ominous voiceover, the works—warning potential buyers about the lethal proximity to Tennessee’s best ice cream.

@knoxvillerob
#Knoxville Tennessee @Cruze Farm is JUST. TOO. CLOSE. To my listing. #IceCream Mystery. Check out https://www.flexmls.com/share/CDJye/4638-Thurmer-Drive,-Knoxville,-TN-37914
♬ original sound – KnoxvilleRob – Rob Howard

“The House That Came Too Close!”

That video got some laughs. But here’s what’s actually dangerous: Cruze Farm’s downtown location at 445 S. Gay Street just expanded their menu, and it sits exactly one block from where my fictional realtor, Frank Merchant, got gunned down in my novel Principles of Real Estate and Murder.

Yeah. Murder, ice cream, and historic downtown Knoxville homes. Welcome to my brain!

The Cruze Farm Phenomenon: A Downtown Knoxville Icon

If you’re looking into moving to Knoxville and aren’t a local yet, let me catch you up: Cruze Farm isn’t just ice cream. It is a cultural institution.

The story starts in 1980 when Earl and Cheri Cruze got married. He was a fourth-generation dairy farmer dreaming of bottling milk with his name on it; she was a 29-year-old woman who just wanted a horse. Fast forward to 2011, and their daughter Colleen Cruze Bhatti (UT Class of ’11) entered the university’s Graves Business Plan Competition with a wild idea: bring back the hand-churned ice cream her family used to sell at farmers markets.

She won. Five thousand dollars. And more importantly, she won her father’s blessing to take over the ice cream side of the business.

That $5,000 turned into four locations, 130+ employees, and in 2021, Food & Wine magazine naming Cruze Farm the best ice cream in Tennessee. The soft serve is made fresh daily with milk from their Jersey cow herd that grazes 365 days a year on a farm now under permanent conservation easement.

And those red-and-white gingham dresses? That’s Colleen honoring her grandmother, Frances Louise Burkhart Cruze. Frances worked in the very building where Cruze Farm now operates—the historic Miller’s Building at 445 S. Gay Street. She was a teacher who had to keep her marriage to a farmer secret to keep her job. She eventually left teaching to work the farm—always in a dress, always happy. That is the heritage Colleen is preserving.

Now they’ve expanded the menu downtown. If you haven’t been, you need to fix that. Get the sweet cream. Get the lavender honey. Get an affogato if you want espresso poured over ice cream like some kind of caffeinated adult sundae. Just go.

But watch your back. Because one block north, things get deadly.

Gay Street Real Estate: Where Frank Merchant Almost Died

In my novel Princ iples of Real Estate and Murder, my protagonist Frank Merchant—a retired Knox county detective, turned realtor navigating contracts, clients, and occasionally corpses—finds himself rounding the corner at the Knoxville Visitor Center in a meeting with a friend when he is gunned down in front of Chivo by … you’ll have to read the book!

Shots are fired. Frank survives. Barely.

I set that scene there for a reason. Gay Street is the central nervous system of Knoxville’s cultural life and of course – a hub for Knoxville real estate. It’s where historic preservation battles gentrification. It’s where local businesses like Cruze Farm prove you can honor your heritage and grow. It’s where the Tennessee Theatre’s 1928 marquee lights up the night while new hotels fill in the gaps that had been empty for decades.

It’s where the old Knoxville and the new Knoxville collide. Sometimes violently.

The Second Story: Exploring Old City and North Knoxville

Here’s the thing about downtown: you can’t throw a rock without hitting a story. In my forthcoming novel, The Second Story, Frank’s adventures take him further up Gay Street, through the Old City, and up Broadway toward another Knoxville ice cream institution that’s been serving this city since the 1950s: The Original Freez-O.

“The Freez-o” around here. When I see it I always think about my friend, Jody Collins – host of the BEST podcast about Knoxville people and culture “The Ramblin’ Man podcast” and his affinity for their “Full house” a magical marriage of tamale and chili.

The route from Cruze Farm to The Freez-o is only about eight blocks, but wandering the area you pass some of the most vital landmarks in Knoxville history:

The Tennessee Theatre: Where Dolly Parton performed and the Mighty Wurlitzer organ still rises from the pit.
The Bijou Theatre: Opened in 1909 (George M. Cohan was the headliner).
The Old Arnstein Building: A classic piece of our skyline.
The Standard Knitting Mill: Adaptive reuse at its finest and a hot topic in Knoxville development.
The Old City: Breweries, galleries, and gritty history.

Every block has secrets. Every building has seen deals go down. And Frank Merchant is about to stumble into more of them.

I won’t spoil what happens in The Second Story, but let’s just say that developers, historic preservationists, and people who really care about Knoxville’s architectural heritage don’t always play nice. When millions of dollars are at stake, people get creative about removing obstacles.

Frank’s trying to close a deal. Someone’s usually trying to close Frank.

The scene of the crime. Where Frank got shot.

The Real Estate Lesson: Why Location is About Story

As a Knoxville real estate broker who has worked in East Tennessee since 2003, I tell clients this all the time: Location matters. But in downtown Knoxville, it’s about STORY.

Want to live near the best ice cream in East Tennessee? Done. There are condos and lofts for sale within two blocks of Cruze Farm.
Want to be walking distance from three historic theaters? I can show you options.
Want to live where actual chapters of my murder mysteries are set? (Look, I know that’s a weird selling point, but I’m leaning into it.)

Properties along the Gay Street corridor between Summit Hill and the Tennessee have appreciated significantly since the downtown revitalization took hold in the early 2000s. When Cruze Farm opened their permanent downtown location in 2018, it was a signal: Downtown is worth investing in.

Now, when I show properties in downtown Knoxville, I don’t just talk about the walkability score – actually I never did, but it’s there! I talk about being able to walk to Bliss or Mast General Store on a Tuesday night. I talk about the fact that you can hit the Market Square Farmers Market, catch a show, and end your night with soft-serve from a dairy farm that put a conservation easement on their land to make sure it stays a farm forever.

That’s not just location. That’s lifestyle.

Where Murder, Ice Cream & Real Estate Collide

So here’s my pitch—and yeah, I’m making it weird:

Read the Book: Check out Principles of Real Estate and Murder (thanks to Rita F. Speers for this Goodreads review!) to find out how Frank Merchant survives that shooting on Gay Street.
Get Ready for 2026: Keep an eye out for The Second Story. Frank is heading up Broadway, and things are about to get messy.
Buy the Real Estate: If you want to live in the middle of Knoxville’s most storied blocks—where you’re equidistant from Cruze Farm and The Freez-o—contact me.

I’ve been doing this for 22+ years. I can tell you stories about every block downtown that would make your head spin. Some of them are true. Sometimes I mash some of them together for Frank Merchant’s adventures.

And honestly? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

Rob Howard is a licensed real estate broker with Keller Williams East Tennessee, host of “A Knoxville Podcast” (since 2007), and author of the Frank Merchant mystery series. He specializes in Knoxville real estate including family residential, historic homes, and real estate investment. Reach him at 865-385-9070, Keller Williams at 865-966-5005 or find him getting ice cream on Gay Street.