What's behind Nashville's priciest house sales, August 2009

The dollar tally is down, but the mystery quotient is way up in this month's list of the top 10 home sales in Nashville and surrounding counties.After July's headlining sales added up to a whopping $25.2 million, the upper reaches of the real estate market yielded a more typical total of $16.7 million in August. The main cause for intrigue this month, however, is not how much the houses sold for, but rather who shelled out the cash—at least in the top three positions on the list.

One of the buyers, a Nashville Predator, doled out a bit of his $31 million pay package for an 18-room crib in Governors Club that could accommodate just about the entire Preds squad.

Sadly, your ever-inquisitive chronicler of palaces and personages must admit defeat, for now, in identifying the other two buyers at the top of the list. Number one in the rankings is a spectacular home perched along Laurel Ridge Drive in Forest Hills. Number three is a penthouse atop the Adelicia condo tower. In each instance, the buyer of record is a trust represented by an accounting/management firm.

Time to crowdsource: If one of our esteemed readers will spill with the buyer info, we'll update the online version of this piece accordingly.

Largest single-family home purchases recorded in Davidson and neighboring counties in August 2009, ranked by dollar value:

1. 1825 Laurel Ridge Drive, 37215

Buyer: JRYSW Trust

Sale price: $4 million

Sellers: Fletcher D. Foster & Dennis J. Johnson

Agents: None of record

Foster, senior vice president and general manager of record label Universal South, and Johnson, a broker at Worth Properties, bought this 2.4-acre bluffside parcel in 2006 and constructed a home with a magnificent view of the city from the two-story rear colonnade overlooking its pool. Visible in photos of the house that were available online before its sale closed were vaulted, exposed-beam ceilings, open-plan entertaining and dining areas, arched doorways throughout, a spacious kitchen centered on a six-burner stove and griddle, and many other top-of-the-line details.

Someone paid well over double the property's 2009 tax appraisal of $1.6 million to get this place. The mailing address of the trust belongs to accounting firm RSM McGladrey Inc. in Chicago. Our usual sources have been entirely mum on who the new occupant might be. When we reached Johnson, he didn't even want the sale mentioned in this column. With regrets for any inconvenience, we are including it because it is, like all the sales listed here, a matter of public record.

2. 4 Crooked Stick Lane, Brentwood, 37027

Buyer: Martin Erat

Sale price: $2.175 million

Sellers: David J. & Sherie J. Hockenbery

Sellers' agent: Jack S. Miller (Bob Parks Realty)

Buyer's agent: Danny R. Anderson (Zeitlin & Co.)

Erat plays right wing for the Predators. He turned 28 last month. He is about to enter the third season of a seven-year, $31.5 million contract with the NHL team. Talk about a hat trick.

Bachelor Erat's new pad is a five-bedroom, five-bath, 8,600-square-foot home in the gated Governors Club. Features include a billiard room, four fireplaces and covered porches.

The property spent 483 days on the market after the sellers first listed it, in February 2007, at $2.75 million.

3. 900 20th Ave. S., unit #1710, 37212

Buyer: Roger D. Clark, Trustee

Sale price: $1.99 million

Seller: Adelicia Investors LLC

Agents: None of record

Roger D. "Duane" Clark is an entertainment industry business manager with Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy Inc., which represents many of Nashville's best-known country stars and other entertainers. All efforts to figure out whom he represents on the purchase of this Adelicia penthouse have been fruitless, so far.

4. 428 Royal Oaks Drive, 37205

Buyers: Karey L. Witty and Joan W. Witty,

Trustees of the Joan W. Witty Revocable Trust

Sale price: $1.895 million

Builder/seller: HR Properties of Tennessee

Seller's agent: Richard F. Bryan (Fridrich & Clark Realty)

Buyers' agent: Jamie Granbery (Pilkerton Realtors)

Nashville-based insurer HealthSpring tapped Karey Witty for the post of executive vice president and chief financial officer in June. He was previously CFO of Valitas Health Services, the St. Louis-based parent of Correctional Medical Services, which provides health care to prison inmates.

The Witty family's newly constructed Belle Meade abode has six bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half-baths.

5. 109 Bellevue Drive, 37205

Buyers: James T. Sowell & Denise Yardley

Sale price: $1.325 million

Sellers: William C. & Judson C. Allen

Agents: None of record

The buyers of this Belle Meade property are a double-doc couple. Breast cancer and hematology specialist Denise Yardley, M.D. practices at the Centennial Medical Center office of Tennessee Oncology PLLC. James T. Sowell is a clinical pharmacist, also affiliated with Centennial.

Bill Allen is president of Southern Sales Company Inc., a dealer in water and wastewater products for municipalities.

6. 6255 Hillsboro Pike, 37215

Buyer: Kathy Snider, trustee for

J. Greg and Linda H. Hardeman

Sale price: $1.189 million

Seller: Mark D. & Cindy S. Sanders

Seller's agent: Jim Terrell (Pilkerton Realtors)

Buyer's agent: Shane Burton (American Heritage)

Greg Hardeman is a Nashville attorney. His family's new home sits on 2.9 acres and backs up to Otter Creek. It was originally listed in April at $1.445 million.

7. 412 W. Brookfield Drive, 37205

Buyer: Katie G. Steele

Sale price: $1.125 million

Seller: Grace Ward Hall, Wende Hall

Stambaugh, and Richard Rhoads

Hall Jr., Trustees of the Grace