While the broader residential market is throttling back — the Nashville area's total home sales have slipped for two consecutive months for the first time in years — the tippy-top is still sailing.
Twenty-six homes in the area had seven digits on their price tags in April, and included in the top 10 are some intriguing stories.
The folks who bought Alan Jackson's lakefront home in 2012 purchased the house on Hillsboro that Hasbro built. A digital sports media magnate sold in Oak Hill, and the Titans' new coach almost certainly bought in the Governors Club. The owner of a popular outdoors store picked up hundreds of wooded acres in Williamson County, while the estate of the president of a beloved former Nashville retailer sold on Chickering.
What follows are the top 10 single-family home sales in Nashville and surrounding counties for April, ranked by sales price:
1. 5840 Hillsboro Pike, Forest Hills, 37214
Buyer: Roventi LLC
Sale price: $3.85 million
Seller: Rita Dee Hassenfeld
Seller's and buyer's agent: Richard B. French, French King Fine Properties
Built in 1943, this 6,000-square-foot home sits on 21 acres in Forest Hills. The listing indicates that perhaps the new owner might just be interested in building a new home on the site, as an "elevated, wooded plateau" sits just behind the existing home (which has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths). The main house has 10-foot ceilings throughout, and the property includes a 1,000-square-foot pool house built in the mid-1960s.
Roventi LLC has a mailing address in Adams, Tenn., and is associated with Joseph Calabrese and Tracy Guarino, principals at Clarksville's ForceX Inc., an aviation software company. The LLC first showed up in Headline Homes in October 2012, when it was the listed purchaser of the DeKalb County lakefront home of Alan Jackson.
Rita Dee Hassenfeld is the wife of the late Harold Irwin Hassenfeld, the former president and CEO of Hassenfeld Brothers — now known as Hasbro — and chairman of the board of Empire Pencil Co., where he led the development of creating pencils from resins instead of natural cedar wood.
2. 1019 Stonewall Drive, Oak Hill, 37220
Buyer: The Dogwood Trust, William T. Chapman IV, trustee
Sale price: $3.3 million
Seller: Shannon B. Terry
Seller's agent: Richard B. French, French King Fine Properties
Buyer's agent: Jane McCracken, Keller Williams Realty
This three-year-old home in Oak Hill was built with "old brick." The 7,400-square-foot seven-bedroom main house and 2,453-square-foot two-bedroom guesthouse flank a pool. The property also includes a "sport court," which is appropriate as seller Terry is the founder and CEO of 247Sports, a digital sports media site, which he started after founding the popular site Rivals.
3. 8 Oxmoor Court, Brentwood, 37027
Buyer: Asberry Partnership LLC
Sale price: $1.85 million
Seller: Robert C. Elliot
Seller's agent: Martin Warren, Fridrich and Clark Realty
Buyer's agent: Rodney Evans, RE/Max Elite
This Governors Club home promises that "every room represents a dramatic entry into the world of haute design." The 8,900-square-foot home overlooks the 18th fairway and has all the touches one would expect in the Governors Club.
The buyer makes a valiant effort to disguise the true identity of the purchaser with an LLC created seemingly for the sole purpose of buying the house. But the registered agent on the company is powerful Memphis-based sports agent Jimmy Sexton, who — as luck would have it — represents newly minted Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt.
3 (tie). 7300 S. Harpeth Road, Franklin, 37064
Buyers: Brandon D. and Christie Y. Binkley
Sale price: $1.85 million
Sellers: Henry A. and Joyce Duvier
Sellers' agent: Jane Hunter Hicks, Bob Parks Realty
Buyers' agent: Woody Jackson, Bob Parks Realty
While the home was built in 1990, the property — according to the listing, at least — is historic, located near Buzzard Bluff. There are logging and riding trails throughout the 220 acres, along with waterfalls and springs. It's perfect for Binkley, the owner of the popular independent outdoor store Bink's.
5. 112 Church St., Franklin, 37064
Buyer: Lori Ray
Sale price: $1.775 million
Sellers: Carl T. and Connie Haley
Sellers' agent: Michele Ashton, Hodges and Fooshee Realty
Buyer's agent: Tim King, French King Fine Properties
At the corner of Church and First in downtown Franklin, this home has "every amenity you can imagine." The property includes a "tranquil courtyard and fountain" right in the heart of downtown Franklin. This is the second appearance of this brownstone on Headline Homes. The Haleys — at the time via Still House Hollow Farms LP — paid $1.569 million in July 2009.
6. 1624 Chickering Road, Forest Hills, 37215
Buyers: John and Kimberly M. Sonday
Sale price: $1.625 million
Seller: The estate of Evalina Harwell Andrews
Seller's agents: Betty and Elaine Finucane, Fridrich and Clark Realty
Buyers' agent: Mary Beth Thomas, Fridrich and Clark Realty
At nearly 5,000 square feet, this home sits on six acres in view of Percy Warner Park and has an exquisite kitchen: granite tops, Fisher Paykal fixtures, Gaggenau cooktops and oven.
The late Mrs. Andrews was the granddaughter of Samuel Knox Harwell Sr., a prominent Nashville merchant who founded McClures department store. McClures was later led by Mrs. Andrews along with her late husband David and a number of other family members. Eventually Mrs. Andrews became president of the company, which closed its last store — one of the few remaining independent department stores — in 2002.
7. 6220 Murray Lane, Brentwood, 37027
Buyer: Murray Lane Trust, Beatrice Holt, trustee
Sale price: $1.4 million
Seller: Jerry Kenneth Chandler
Seller's and buyer's agent: Lynn Tuttle, Market Street Properties
The logs for this home were cut in 1837, though the house (which sits on 32 acres in roughly the middle of Brentwood) was not built until 1976. It includes four stone fireplaces, a hewn oak mantel and red cedar flooring, The property includes a barn, pasture, woods and — as can't go unmentioned these days — multiple building sites if whoever is behind the trust wants to put up something else.
8. 14 Tradition Lane, Brentwood, 37027
Buyers: Mary Jo and William G. Freels III
Sale price: $1.36 million
Seller: K. Thomas Sidwell
Seller's agent: Chris Fuller, Bob Parks Realty
Buyers' agent: Chris Mannino, The Lipman Group Sotheby's International
Mimicking a French country estate, this nearly 8,000-square-foot home offers a view of the Governors Club's 13th hole and has both a card room and a billiard room if half the party wants to play bridge and the other half is more interested in nine-ball. The Freels got a solid deal here. This home last sold in 2006 for just a shade under $2 million.
9. 1808 Waterstone Court, Franklin, 37069
Buyers: Jennifer and Barry Dean
Sale price: $1.35 million
Seller: Jennifer K. Cooke
Seller's agent: Laura Baugh, Worth Properties
Buyers' agent: Janet T. Jones, Worth Properties
There may be no villas remaining in all of Tuscany, as Seinfeld's Maestro insisted, but there is a Tuscan villa in Laurelbrooke. Barry Dean is a songwriter whose credits include Little Big Town's No. 1 hit "Pontoon."
10. 4101 Copeland Drive, Nashville, 37215
Buyer: Wilhelmina Barr Trust, Jeffrey Mobley, trustee
Sale price: $1.235 million
Seller: Copeland Avenue LLC
Seller's agent: Steve G. Fridrich and Gerald Chip Fridrich Jr., Fridrich and Clark Realty
Buyer's agent: Shawn Hackett, Music City Realtors
At the corner of Copeland and Dorcas, this home has Southern Living's "Oak Hill Alternate" floor plan and sits on a solid-sized corner lot in Green Hills, which has been owned by various and sundry LLCs for years, presumably because the home was being built.
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