Five years inspecting houses.
Three years building them.
Nolan founded and ran Tennessee Valley Home Inspection, then developed residential property as managing partner of S&S Development Group, running projects from acquisition through construction to sale. He has been in the crawlspace with a flashlight and he has written the cheque to the subcontractor who framed it. That is what sits behind the read you get on a house here, and it is why an inspection report is where the conversation starts rather than where it ends.
Three people on your file,
not one.
Most representation is one agent doing every part of it at the level they can manage. This is split between people who each do one part of it properly.
How it was built
Five years running a home inspection company and three developing residential property. Grading and drainage, roof and flashing detail, framing that has been modified, mechanical systems sized for a different house than the one they ended up in. Then, once a list exists, PMP and PMI-ACP certification means the change orders get run as a project with scope, cost and dates attached, not handed back to the builder as a wish list.
What the contract says
Devon Griger is a litigation attorney at Maynard Nexsen practising construction and commercial disputes. The failures she handles professionally are the failures a purchase contract is written to prevent, and she reads yours before you sign rather than after something goes wrong. She acts here as your broker rather than your attorney, and her firm is not engaged in the transaction.
Whether it happened
Every contract deadline, inspection window and lender request tracked from binding agreement to the closing table. Deals rarely fail on price. They fail on a date nobody was watching.
Kim carries the transaction from binding agreement to the closing table. Every deadline, every inspection window, every lender request, tracked and chased so nothing lands on you. You are not going to get a call about a date that was missed, because watching them is her whole job.
A new build in Brookhaven,
and a house to sell in Dallas.
New construction is not
the same as no problems.
A $1.5 million new build that photographed beautifully and came back from inspection with a lengthy change order repair list. Long enough that the question stopped being whether to ask for repairs and became what the contract actually obliged the seller to do about them.
That is the point where most buyers are alone with a punch list and a seller who has already spent the money. Here the list was run as a managed set of change orders, each with scope and cost attached, with a construction litigator reading what the contract obliged. The work was negotiated rather than absorbed.
The other half of it was 800 miles away. The buyer had a home in Dallas that had to sell for the purchase here to happen, so we placed that listing with an agent in that market and stayed in it through their closing. It went for $1.1 million. Two transactions, two states, one set of dates that had to line up.
We list and sell
luxury property.
Buyers and sellers at the top of the Atlanta and Chattanooga markets. Buckhead, Brookhaven, Chastain Park, Sandy Springs and Ansley Park on the Atlanta side, and the equivalent streets in Chattanooga.
A higher price point does not change what a transaction can go wrong on. It changes what it costs when it does. Same three things every time: the contract, the condition of the house, and the dates. That is what this team is built around, and it is why the work below is worth doing properly at this level.
Priced off comparable sales, with the differences between your property and those comps accounted for rather than averaged away. A list price arrived at with you, on the evidence.
Presentation that matches the price. Photography, staging and a marketing budget appropriate to the number on the listing, not the same package used on a starter home.
Discretion where it is wanted. Private marketing, no sign in the yard, controlled showings. A normal request at this level and one we are set up for.
Qualified before they walk in. Proof of funds or a lender letter ahead of a showing, not after an offer. It protects your privacy and keeps the process to people who can close.
Condition read properly. Five years running a home inspection company and three developing property, which matters more here only because every finding has a bigger number attached to it.
A move has two closings.
When a purchase here depends on a sale somewhere else, the transaction that goes wrong is usually the one nobody was coordinating. Two agents in two states who have never spoken, working to two different closing dates, is not a plan.
We represent the purchase here and place the departure sale with an agent in your market, then keep both calendars in one conversation so a slipped inspection on their end does not strand you on ours.
Placed. A listing agent in your current market, chosen and briefed on your timeline rather than found in a directory.
Followed. We stay in the loop through their listing period, so you hear about a problem before it becomes your problem.
Disclosed. Referrals pay the referring broker. You should know that, and it costs you nothing beyond the commission you would have paid an agent you found yourself.
All three said
the same thing.
Not that the house was nice. That somebody understood what was wrong with it and what it would take to put right.
An incredible agent. It was a long, painful home-buying process for me with a difficult seller and their agent, but Nolan was always there to help me navigate through the process. I found his in-depth knowledge of structural elements of houses and intimate familiarity with contract laws as his key differentiator.
Nolan was an absolute dream to work with when my husband and I relocated from DC to Chattanooga. He was so engaged, took the time to really understand what my husband and I were looking for in a home, what level of "fixer upper" we could handle, and was the best partner and support system for us as we navigated this big transition and found our perfect forever home.
Nolan advised us on the perfect home in Rossville. He helped us understand the future property's needs, and assisted in scheduling contractors to help make it ours. His consultancy has helped immensely.
Rated 5.0 across 20 Google reviews on the verified Business Profile for The Nolan Scott Team.
What buyers ask
before they commit.
What do you look at that another agent would not?
How the house was actually put together, and what it will cost when it was put together badly. Grading and drainage, roof and flashing detail, framing that has been modified, mechanical systems sized for a different house than the one they ended up in. An agent who cannot tell a cosmetic complaint from a structural one cannot advise you on which repairs to press for, so the negotiation defaults to whatever the seller feels like conceding.
Is new construction safer than an older house?
Not automatically, and sometimes the opposite. An older house has already revealed most of its problems. A new one has had everything covered in fresh paint, and the builder's warranty is a document written by the builder. New construction is precisely where an independent read on build quality, and a careful look at what the contract obliges the seller to correct, is worth the most.
What does having an attorney on the team actually change?
Contract review happens before you sign rather than after something goes wrong. Devon Griger is a litigation attorney at Maynard Nexsen whose practice is construction and commercial disputes, which means the problems that end up in court are the problems she reads a contract to prevent. On a purchase that matters most in three places: what the inspection contingency actually entitles you to, how repair negotiations are structured, and what happens if the seller fails to perform. Most buyers meet a closing attorney once, at the table. To be clear about what this is: on a residential purchase Devon acts as your licensed real estate broker, not as your attorney. Maynard Nexsen is not engaged in your transaction and provides no legal services on it. What you get is a contract read by someone who litigates construction disputes for a living, and you still retain your own closing attorney.
I am moving from out of state. Can you handle the home I am leaving?
Not personally, because we are not licensed there, but that is the point of placing it. We identify a listing agent in your departure market, brief them on your timeline, and stay involved so the two closings line up rather than leaving you carrying two mortgages or living in a hotel. A relocation has two transactions in it and only one of them is local to us. Ignoring the other one is how the timing goes wrong.
Which markets do you cover?
We are licensed to transact in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, with the most depth in metropolitan Atlanta and in Chattanooga. Those two markets sit about two hours apart and attract very different buyers, which matters if you are deciding between them rather than already committed to one. Outside those three states we hold referral partnerships across all fifty, so a move in either direction is covered at both ends rather than half of it.
Before the timeline
starts running.
The best time to have this conversation is while you are still deciding. Which market, what the budget buys in each, and what has to happen to the house you are leaving before any of it is real.