Contact Me
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Call or email today for a custom home search or Market Analysis for your current home 

Melody Bourell
Marx-Bensdorf, REALTORS

5860 Ridgeway Center Parkway, Suite 100
Memphis, TN 38120

Office- 901-682-1868 ext 364
Mobile-901-461-4016
melody@marx-bensdorf.com

About Me
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headshotimage.jpg Make Service your First Investment

Native Memphian, helping people accomplish their Real Estate goals since 2005. I was a former Sales Rep for SYSCO  the country's largest food distributor, and grew up in the restaurant business. Great customer service, dedication to your needs, sincerity, and great work ethic. New ideas, and thinking out of the box is what I strive for. I love helping people accomplish their goals of selling their current home or finding the perfect home to purchase. I pride myself in knowing the city and surrounding suburban areas very well. I especially love the city. My favorite areas are Midtown, Downtown, East Memphis, & Germantown (suburb closest to the city). It's a great feeling to help someone with their very first home. I enjoy helping everyone understand the process step by step and making the right decision for the largest investment they'll ever make no matter if it's their 1st, 2nd or 3rd home. With today's historic low rates, who wouldn't want to purchase a home! I am also lucky enough to work with an incredible group of people. Marx & Bensdorf was founded in 1868 and is the oldest broker in Memphis. It's a privilege being associated with such a fine agency.

 

When buying your home, my approach is very unobtrusive. I email clients with potential homes that fit their specific criteria. If they want to go look at homes they let me know when it's a good time for them. I don't like to call unless I've found something  that I really think can work!  I've been know to call at 8:30 am on a Sunday before...but it was the one!

When selling your home you'll receive a high level of service to include, emails with any activity in your neighborhood i.e. new listings or price changes, comparative market analysis for your area, help with staging, beautiful photos shot for online marketing, custom video, custom signs, help with repair people, continuous networking with other Real Estate professionals, estimated net proceeds, Youtube exposure, and many other search engines! Once we start working together you'll soon notice I go the extra mile, & will always have your best interests in mind first. Plus I'm fun to work with! Feel free to email or call if you'd like to talk about selling your home or finding your new home. References available.


Thank You~

Melody 

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My Listings
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6388 BROOKS MANOR CV
MEMPHIS, TN 38119
5 BEDROOMS 3.5 BATHROOMS
$389,000
See all 8 of my properties
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Open Houses
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About Marx-Bensdorf
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1900 S pICTURE.jpg Since 1868, Marx-Bensdorf, REALTORS has provided guidance and expertise our clients need for their most important investment, their home. Our Clients describe us as professional, results oriented and trustworthy. We've earned the reputation by providing superior service with uncommon integrity for over 140 years. We are committed to the philosophy that our agency does not serve you, our agents do. We proudly differentiate from franchise firms. Our Concept, the key to our success, allows us to offer you advice from the finest team of Realtors in Memphis and surrounding area.
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facebooklogo.jpg Join me on Facebook today & see how I market Clients homes  and network with others to find opportunities for my Buyers and Sellers.
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Market Snapshot
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Staging Your Home
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Here's How:

  1. Disassociate Yourself With Your Home.
    • Say to yourself, "This is not my home; it is a house -- a product to be sold much like a box of cereal on the grocery store shelf.
    • Make the mental decision to "let go" of your emotions and focus on the fact that soon this house will no longer be yours.
    • Picture yourself handing over the keys and envelopes containing appliance warranties to the new owners!
    • Say goodbye to every room.
    • Don't look backwards -- look toward the future.

  2. De-Personalize.
    Pack up those personal photographs and family heirlooms. Buyers can't see past personal artifacts, and you don't want them to be distracted. You want buyers to imagine their own photos on the walls, and they can't do that if yours are there! You don't want to make any buyer ask, "I wonder what kind of people live in this home?" You want buyers to say, "I can see myself living here."

  3. De-Clutter!
    People collect an amazing quantity of junk. Consider this: if you haven't used it in over a year, you probably don't need it.
    • If you don't need it, why not donate it or throw it away?
    • Remove all books from bookcases.
    • Pack up those knickknacks.
    • Clean off everything on kitchen counters.
    • Put essential items used daily in a small box that can be stored in a closet when not in use.
    • Think of this process as a head-start on the packing you will eventually need to do anyway.

  4. Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets.
    Buyers love to snoop and will open closet and cabinet doors. Think of the message it sends if items fall out! Now imagine what a buyer believes about you if she sees everything organized. It says you probably take good care of the rest of the house as well. This means:
    • Alphabetize spice jars.
    • Neatly stack dishes.
    • Turn coffee cup handles facing the same way.
    • Hang shirts together, buttoned and facing the same direction.
    • Line up shoes.

  5. Rent a Storage Unit.
    Almost every home shows better with less furniture. Remove pieces of furniture that block or hamper paths and walkways and put them in storage. Since your bookcases are now empty, store them. Remove extra leaves from your dining room table to make the room appear larger. Leave just enough furniture in each room to showcase the room's purpose and plenty of room to move around. You don't want buyers scratching their heads and saying, "What is this room used for?"

  6. Remove/Replace Favorite Items.
    If you want to take window coverings, built-in appliances or fixtures with you, remove them now. If the chandelier in the dining room once belonged to your great grandmother, take it down. If a buyer never sees it, she won't want it. Once you tell a buyer she can't have an item, she will covet it, and it could blow your deal. Pack those items and replace them, if necessary.

  7. Make Minor Repairs .
    • Replace cracked floor or counter tiles.
    • Patch holes in walls.
    • Fix leaky faucets.
    • Fix doors that don't close properly and kitchen drawers that jam.
    • Consider painting your walls neutral colors, especially if you have grown accustomed to purple or pink walls.
      (Don't give buyers any reason to remember your home as "the house with the orange bathroom.")
    • Replace burned-out light bulbs.
    • If you've considered replacing a worn bedspread, do so now!

  8. Make the House Sparkle!
    • Wash windows inside and out.
    • Rent a pressure washer and spray down sidewalks and exterior.
    • Clean out cobwebs.
    • Re-caulk tubs, showers and sinks.
    • Polish chrome faucets and mirrors.
    • Clean out the refrigerator.
    • Vacuum daily.
    • Wax floors.
    • Dust furniture, ceiling fan blades and light fixtures.
    • Bleach dingy grout.
    • Replace worn rugs.
    • Hang up fresh towels.
    • Bathroom towels look great fastened with ribbon and bows.
    • Clean and air out any musty smelling areas. Odors are a no-no.

  9. Scrutinize.
    • Go outside and open your front door. Stand there. Do you want to go inside? Does the house welcome you?
    • Linger in the doorway of every single room and imagine how your house will look to a buyer.
    • Examine carefully how furniture is arranged and move pieces around until it makes sense.
    • Make sure window coverings hang level.
    • Tune in to the room's statement and its emotional pull. Does it have impact and pizzazz?
    • Does it look like nobody lives in this house? You're almost finished.

  10. Check Curb Appeal.
    If a buyer won't get out of her agent's car because she doesn't like the exterior of your home, you'll never get her inside.
    • Keep the sidewalks cleared.
    • Mow the lawn.
    • Paint faded window trim.
    • Plant yellow flowers or group flower pots together. Yellow evokes a buying
Disclaimer
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Copyright © 2009 | Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. | Real Estate Website Design by BigFish  
    
Historical Homes
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Driving Tour of Historic Homes in Midtown Memphis

If you're driving around Midtown and want to absorb a bit of history, here's a short list of Midtown Historic Homes:

The map to the right is interactive, click on icons to see locations of properties. View Larger Map

  1. Clanlo Hall. Circa 1853. 1616 Central Avenue. The oldest house on Central Avenue, once used as a Yankee headquarters was originally all clapboard. The brick façade was added about 1925. The name Clanlo comes from the first two letters of each of the names of three sisters who lived there after 1954....Claire, Ann, Lois.
     
  2. Ashler Hall. Circa 1896. 1395 Central Avenue. This home was designed and built by Brinkley Snowden who graduated in architecture from Pinceton in 1890. The name comes from the term "ashler" used to describe squared, hewn stone.
     
  3. The Hunt-Phelan House. Circa 1830 with façade additions in 1851. 533 Beale Streeet. Go enjoy a fine meal at the Inn at Hunt Phelan as this antebellum mansion is now used as an inn and restaurant. The original home was built for a land surveyor in the Federal brick style and the 1851 addition of the Greek Revival style portico really "spiffed it up". There is a lot of Civil War history in this place including its use as a hospital in 1863.
     
  4. The Mollie Fontaine Taylor House. Circa 1886. 679 Adams Avenue. Currently a bar/restaurant you can get up close to this very Victorian structure where the phrase: "if one is good, two must be better, and three divine" certainly is exhibited. This home was built as a wedding present for a daughter, finished about 1890 and could easily be compared to wedding cake! You can see the father's house across the street as it is a museum call the Fontaine House.
     
  5. Annesdale. Circa 1855. 1325 Lamar Avenue. Originally built by a wholesale druggist from Maryland, Annesdale has been home to the same family for at least 7 generations since 1869. It is Italian Villa in style built with bricks made on the sitewith a four story tower overlooking the present seven and a half acre park-like setting.
     
  6. The Rozell House. Circa 1853. 1737 Harbert Avenue. This six gabled home is built of yellow poplar and tapered shingles by one of the families that donated land to build and support First Methodist Church. It sits on one of the highest elevations in this part of town. This family also donated land from their acerage for right-of-way for the first railroad that came to Memphis.
     
  7. The E.H.Crump House. Circa 1908. 1962 Peabody Avenue. "Boss" Crump is said to have picked every mayor the city had from his own term starting in 1909 til his death in 1954. Doric columns support the Greek Revival front porch.
     
  8. Beverly Hall. Cira 1906. 1560 Central. Once named "Greenwood", the land this home sits on was once a part of the Clanlo property. Designed by a Louisville, Kentucky architect, W.J. Dodd and the local firm of Jones and Furbringer it is the earliest example of Colonial Revival Architecture in Memphis and the precursor of the Galloway Mansion.
     
  9. Clarence Saunders Home. Circa 1918. 1561 Peabody Avenue. It is said that this home had the first central vacuum system in Memphis and that many of the plan features were enlarged and used in the more famous Saunders home, now the Pink Palace Museum on Central. This home was also once the home of the Binswanger family of local stained glass fame.
     
  10. YOUR NEXT HOME! Make your own history in Midtown.

Memphis Historic Homes are Abundant in Midtown

Midtown Memphis development began in the 1850's when non agrarian, commerce oriented citizens built their homes in the showy French, Italianate and Victorian style mansions of Victorian Village and extended to the postwar construction of the 1940's West of Highland. So if one is to talk about Memphis historic homes, there's a lot of ground to cover.

It would be impossible to list all the Midtown homes that are significant to the history of the Memphis Community. Every home has a story or history significant to the owners and the previous owners; but most would concede to use the term Historic House in reference to: Architectural significance, significance of location, or significance of resident.

Midtown Memphis Neighborhoods

Ask any local and you'll get different answers for the boundaries of Midtown. The Post Office has one definition with the Midtown Post Office, zip 38104, in the 1500 block of Union. This definition is somewhat outdated since most Memphians would consider Highland, in zip 38111, the Eastern boundary today.

Here are some neighborhoods within Midtown.

  • Central Gardens: Some residents wouldn't hesitate to define Midtown as "Central Gardens"... one of the largest and oldest active neighborhood associations in the South. You can review their website at www.centralgradens.org. But Central Gardens doesn't even contain...
  • Annesdale Park: The first "subdivision" development of the MidSouth... Annesdale Park (of 1903), which has its own neighborhood association, but alas no web site that I can find.
  • Evergreen Historic District: Also residents of the historic Evergreen Historic District Association www.evergreendistrict.org would certainly want to be included in the "Midtown definition".
  • Vollintine/Evergreen at www.vecacdc.org
  • Cooper/Young at www.cooperyoung.org.

Home of the Week
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$189,000
274 MILL AVE
MEMPHIS, 38105

Historical Home-Circa 1854; Completely restored; Dbl-lot, 12ft ceilings, moldings, All period materials, Beautiful center hallway, Gourmet kitchen, Master-suite down, Steps from downtown, Fullofcharacter,3000+sqft Architectual details throughout

Photos