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This may be the only place you’ll hear it, but the market up here is painfully slow right now. Usually, we prepare ourselves for the annual spring season jolt, as the winter trickle of buyers becomes a raging river of second home shoppers with the fever for spring in the mountains. However, we’re still looking at a trickle and spring has sprung.

In Fannin County, in the last seven days, there have been 7 properties that have gone pending and 9 properties that have sold. Only 3 of the solds and none of pendings were over $400K. Divide that among all of the re firms/agents in the county, and in my opinion you have, “sloooooowww”.

Typical people contacting me right now? Mostly, they’re wanting to spend $150K - $250K for a $350K cabin. Agents, if you have any that fit-the-bill, drop me a line.

Recently I encountered a situation with a cabin being sold as furnished. Generally, if a cabin is marketed as furnished the Buyer receives all of the furnishings in the cabin minus the owners personal items. Examples of personal items should basically include the obvious toothbrush, robe, slippers, and sometimes Grandma’s antique dresser or other personal heirlooms.

Well evidently everything in this “furnished” cabin fell under the personal heirloom category. The seller cleaned the cabin out except for the furniture too heavy to move or that maybe would not fit in the seller’s vehicle. In the eyes of my buyer and myself, this was not a furnished cabin; all of the charm that was for sale as a furnished cabin was packed away and removed.

To me if sellers have items not included in the sale of a furnished cabin either there should be a crystal-clear list of items NOT included in the sale or they should be removed before the cabin is placed on the market. My advice to buyers is to have a thorough checklist if you want anything that’s not nailed down, though in 5 years of selling real estate in this area that’s a first.

Buyers or sellers: how do you define “sold furnished”?

Single women now purchase 22 percent of all homes. Single men accounted for only 9 percent of purchases.

Single females accounted for almost a quarter of all homes sold, more than double that of single males. I hadn’t really thought about it until now but my numbers do pretty much match the unmarried female-to-male ratio. Perhaps bachelors rent in anticipation of marriage (choosing a home together, etc.) and single women aren’t quite as optimistic as they used to be and have wisely learned how to cover home base?

According to Pat Vredevoogd Combs, the president of the National Association of Realtors, that shows real change. “Thirty-five years ago, when I started out as a realtor, a single woman couldn’t even get a mortgage,” she says.

Part of the reason why women have become so big a buying bloc is that more women are single than ever before.

CNN Money - Real Estate: Who’s Buying Now?