Headline Homes: Nashville’s top 10 sellers for July

Numbers don’t lie, but they sometimes make two statements at once.

The fact that two foreclosure transactions turn up in a list of July’s 10 biggest Nashville-area home sales might appear to be a rather dire economic indicator — especially since one of the homes is on the posh Green Hills avenue where Mayor Karl Dean lives.

But the average price of homes on this month’s list is $2.3 million — well above the $1.73 million average of last month’s list. That number, and the fact that at least a dozen sales of $1.3 million or more failed to make the top 10, may indicate a strengthening of the residential real estate market — at its upper reaches, anyway.

Here they are, then — the 10 largest single-family home transactions recorded in Davidson and contiguous counties in July, ranked by dollar value:

1. 505 Jackson Boulevard, 37205

Buyer: George E. Mudter Jr., trustee for Bob & Kathy Rolfe

Sale price: $4.85 million

Seller: Bette Sue Parrish 1998 Personal Residence Trust

Agents: None of record

This mansion sits on 2.54 acres in deepest Belle Meade. Bob Rolfe is CEO of Brentwood-based MyOfficeProducts Inc. According to the company’s Web site, it has set a goal of $125 million in annual sales for 2009.

Former First American National Bank Chairman Bob McNeilly is married to Bette Sue Parrish. They are downsizing to a $2.94 million home on Westhampton (see below).

2. 121 Westhampton Place, 37205

Buyer: Bette Sue McNeilly

Sale price: $2.94 million

Seller: Vianda Hale Hill Revocable Trust

Agents: None of record

This property is also in Belle Meade. Seller Vianda Hill comes from the family that owned Louisiana’s historic Acadia Plantation until it was sold in 2003.

3. 5125 Annesway Drive, 37205

Buyers: Alec T. & Kathleen Estes

Sale price: $2.14 million

Sellers: Ward & Shelley Cammack

Seller’s agent: Steve Fridrich (Fridrich & Clark)

Buyer’s agent: Jamie Granbery (Pilkerton Realtors)

This 7,300-square-foot home in Hill Place sold after just over a month on the market, having been listed at $2.275 million.

Alec Estes owns architectural building products maker Alexander Metals Inc. Ward Cammack is a principal with the Nashville office of Diversified Trust Co.

4. 704 Cantrell Ave., 37215

Buyer: W. Mark & Heather V. Schaefer

Sale price: $2.1 million

Builders/sellers: William T. & Judith L. Bright

Seller’s agent: Will Bright

Buyer’s agent: None of record

The listing for this one goes into some detail about what you get for $2.1 million in the Woodmont/Green Hills area: “Ten-foot ceilings, custom windows and skylights, his-and-hers master bathrooms, two stone fireplaces, up and down laundry, movie theater, wine cellar, exercise room.” Size: 7,700 square feet.

Buyer Mark Schaefer is president of Central Woodwork of Nashville Inc. The sale of the Schaefers’ home on Golf Club Lane is No. 6 below.

Will Bright also owns properties at 607 and 909 Cantrell, with a house under construction at 607. Judith Bright is a jewelry designer who used to work for the music publishing company of legendary producer Quincy Jones in the Hollywood hills.

5. 1900 Old Hickory Boulevard (344 White Swan Crossing), Brentwood, 37027

Buyer: SunTrust Mortgage Inc.

Sale price: $2 million

Seller: Ronald G. Steen Jr., trustee in foreclosure against Charlotte Coles Goldston

Agents: None

The fate of this property offers an object lesson in how long it can take for a bank to deal with a home loan gone south. Goldston, whose husband Michael deeded their home to her in 2001, filed for bankruptcy in late 2006 after efforts to subdivide their large property into luxury home lots ran aground.

Under the terms of the Chapter 13 plan, the home was to be under contract for sale by the end of 2007, and the Goldstons were to vacate it by the end of January 2008. The plan said if that sale did not happen on schedule, the bank could foreclose.

The August 2007 bankruptcy plan stated that the house had a fair market value of at least $5 million. SunTrust was owed $3.4 million at the time. The bank’s pain is not over yet, of course: It now has to find a buyer, at some price.

Charlotte Coles Goldston was the first female broker hired at J.C. Bradford & Co. Michael Goldston owns investment management firm Cambridge Equity Advisors.

6. 2320 Golf Club Lane, 37215

Buyer: Bill and Lee Anne Fry

Sale price: $1.9 million

Sellers: W. Mark & Heather V. Schaefer

Seller’s agent: Will Bright

Buyer’s agent: Betty Wentworth (Zeitlin & Co.)

William N. Fry IV was rather quietly named CEO of vacuum maker Oreck Corp. last year, not long after company President Tom Oreck purchased Minnie Pearl’s former home on Curtiswood Lane.

Fry held the top job at Easton-Bell Sports Inc., a publicly traded California company, as well as its Texas-based predecessors, until March 2007. Before that, he was president and COO of carpet maker The Dixie Group in Chattanooga.

The home, built in 1940 and recently renovated, has 6,300 square feet of living space.

7. 915 Oak Valley Lane, 37220

Buyer: Jim R. Vanderpool, trustee for Steven C. & Molly E. Rollins

Sale price: $1.9 million

Sellers: Wesley K. & Camille Patterson

Agent for both sides: Molly Edmondson (Fridrich & Clark)

Wes Patterson is division president for Centex Homes in Middle Tennessee. Steve Rollins is part of the family that owns Nashville Wire Products Co.

This five-bedroom, four-bath home in Oak Hill was on the market for almost three months after being initially listed for $2.2 million.

8. 371 Jones Parkway, Brentwood, 37027

Buyers: Bruno & Maryse Comoglio

Sale price: $1.85 million

Sellers: Steve & Martha Neff

Seller’s agents: Donna Tisdale (Worth Properties)

Buyer’s agent: Gail Greil (Zeitlin & Co.)

We’re still looking into the identities of these buyers and sellers. The home, offering some 6,400 square feet of space, features Tuscan glazed cabinetry, a Brazilian walnut fireplace, a home theater and a host of other creature comforts.

9. 2100 Hampton Ave., 37215

Buyer: CitiBank N.A., trustee for BSALTA 2006-8

Sale price: $1.73 million

Sellers: Shellie Wallace and Matthew Smith, trustees in foreclosure against Kathleen W. Ray

Agents: None

This foreclosure took place a couple of blocks down the street from the home of Mayor Karl Dean. Oakley Ray, a highly esteemed professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, died in early 2007. A professional association that he had managed then sued his estate and heirs, claiming he had misappropriated more than $200,000.

That case was eventually settled, but in the meantime Ray’s wife of 54 years fell behind on $2.4 million in mortgages on the house, which was tax-appraised for only $1.8 million. An online auction of the contents of the house is currently underway.

10. 4931 Franklin Road, 37220

Buyers: Gregory Scott Clayton & Pamela Cardin Clayton

Sale price: $1.73 million

Sellers: Randy & Jennifer Goodman

Seller’s agent: Amy Jackson Smith (French Christianson Patterson)

Buyer’s agent: Rick French (French Christianson Patterson)

Seller Randy Goodman, CEO of Lyric Street Records, first listed this Colonial-style mansion for $2.5 million in 2007. Built in 1925, it sits on a four-acre lot in Oak Hill.

Honorable mention:

1004 Vaughn Crest Drive, Franklin, 37069

Buyers: A.K. and Elisa O. Upadhyaya

Sale price: $1.39 million

Seller: The Bank of Nashville

Agents: None

Another example of what can happen to asset values in a tough property market: This house in Laurelbrooke listed for more than $3 million at one point, before builder Adam Stern Homes LLC went bankrupt.

The Bank of Nashville bought it out of foreclosure for $1.66 million and now unloads it at a substantial discount to that price.

600 12th Ave. S. (Icon condominiums), unit #2216, 37203

Buyer: Ben L. & Janine M. Cundiff

Sale price: $1.35 million

Seller: Icon in the Gulch LLC

Agents: None of record

This transaction appears to be the first sale of a penthouse unit in the sleek new Icon condo tower at 12th and Division.

Ben Cundiff is a Vanderbilt Law School graduate who served as managing partner at law firm Dearborn & Ewing in the 1980s. He now farms and owns a bank in Kentucky.