15404 Donner Pass Road
Donner Lake
$2,195,000
Recently, there's been quite a buzz in the media about impending changes. On March 15, 2024, after four years of legal proceedings, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) disclosed a $418 million settlement concerning broker commissions. However, amidst the coverage, there's also been a lot of speculation and misinformation circulating.
The settlement agreement, though pending court approval, introduces two significant adjustments. Firstly, buyers and their agents will establish a written agreement at the outset of their home-buying journey, mirroring the practice between sellers and agents when negotiating a listing agreement. This agreement will outline the services provided and associated costs, bringing clarity to the transaction. Secondly, compensation for buyer's agents will no longer be facilitated through multiple listing services. However, this doesn't signify the end of compensation for the services they render. Sellers retain the prerogative to offer compensation to buyer's agents or opt not to, while buyers may elect to directly compensate their agents.
Quality real estate agents offer a professional service deserving of compensation, akin to doctors, accountants, attorneys, and other service providers. Our agents provide invaluable expertise to buyers and sellers, including assessing property values, adept negotiation, risk management, navigating complex timelines and legal documents, interpreting inspections, and furnishing ongoing guidance and resources. Buyers and sellers directly benefit from their agents' education, connections, experience, and know-how.
As the real estate landscape evolves, so does our industry. Meanwhile, we'll continue to align with agents committed to lifelong learning, ongoing training, professionalism, and delivering exceptional customer service to buyers and sellers alike. While we're uncertain how these changes will affect buyers and sellers or if they'll achieve the intended outcomes, we support any adjustments that aid our clients in reaching their real estate objectives.
While we might not have all the answers as this shift unfolds, we're always here to engage in conversation if you have questions. Reach out to your favorite Dickson Realtor! They're eager to chat.
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Lake Tahoe, West Shore
Single Family Homes - 1st Quarter 2024 vs. 1st Quarter 2023
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suddenly everyone has heard of, is taking the world by storm, one dink at a timeBy Lisa Klein
The pressure on, you land a few dinks and cookies before the plastic, yellow ball comes flying back your way and you pull off an Erne over the kitchen to end the game-winning rally. Depending on where you are, your friends all high-five paddles and crack a cold one, or a crowd of tens of thousands goes wild.
This is the wacky world of pickleball: A social, welcoming sport that appeals to anyone and everyone — and the fastest growing in the United States, with its sights set on worlddomination.
“I was drawn to the game immediately,” says Arvind Prabhoo, president of the International Pickleball Federation (IPF). “It is a community game; it is both recreational and competitive. [And], the fact that pickleball is a very social game with no gender bias, not extremely strenuous on the body, and has ease of adaptability across various age groups has led to the explosion of the sport.”
Pickleball was invented in 1965 in Washington State by a few resident dads who started batting a wiffle ball around with ping pong paddles out of boredom. After coming up with rules for their new game — a cross between ping pong, tennis and badminton played with a perforated, plastic ball and paddle — it started to slowly gain in popularity locally.
“A lot of people assume that it just came around recently,” says Melissa Zhang, director of communications and content for USA Pickleball (USAP), the official national governing body and goto resource established in 2003. “There have been people involved in the sport for decades — there’s even a pickleball hall of fame.”
From the first tournament in 1976, pickleball
grew steadily, spreading to all 50 states by 1990, played especially in warm, year-round retirement communities in Arizona and Florida.
“You have all these retirees, but they’re not your average ‘grandfather’ retirees — they don’t want to be sitting on the couch; they want to be active, they want to be social, and they started playing pickleball,” says Terri Graham, who founded the Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida, with her partner Chris Evon in 2016 after she noticed how fast the sport was catching on.
Those seniors became ambassadors, introducing friends back home to pickleball, which had 2 million players in the U.S. at its 50-year mark in 2015, according to the Sports Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). The COVID-19 pandemic drew more attention to pickleball, as people searched for ways to be social outside, and the SFIA named it the fastest-growing sport in the country in 2021, 2022 and 2023, when it reached 8.9 million “picklers.”
Courts are popping up in parks, country clubs, abandoned malls and warehouses, and even back yards across the nation. Plus, the age range has widened considerably, with everyone from children to college kids to their parents and grandparents picking up paddles.
A large part of the appeal is that pickleball is just plain fun — and can be so for everyone. What Ms. Graham calls “ping pong on steroids,” the game is easy to learn, has a smaller court than most racquet sports, the serve is underhand and is overall low impact. People in their 70s and 80s can play a leisurely game of doubles, former athletes in their 50s and 60s can
get their competitive edge back, and pro athletes can choose to jump and run to their limits.
“What attracted me to it is that people of all ages and all levels of athleticism play pickleball and have fun doing it,” says Lauren Faby, a pickler and real estate agent in Naples with John R. Wood Properties.
Especially during the pandemic, pickleball brought families together, and continues to be a bond: Grandparents can play with their grandkids, Ms. Faby’s college-age children picked up the game when visiting her in Naples, and Ms. Zhang plays with her siblings and parents. The social side of pickleball extends far beyond the family, too. In retirement communities, seniors find comfort in pickleball after loss or a bout with illness, while elsewhere a wide mix of players meet new people with a love of the game.
“That kind of camaraderie around a shared passion is a way that you can meet people that you may not meet in your everyday life,” Ms. Zhang says. “I have friends in their 20s who have made these great friends in their 60s and meet them every week and play pickleball. I think that aspect of it is really beautiful — it’s a really good uniter of people.”
Seasoned picklers are also known for welcoming new players with open arms. “The community is incredible,” Ms. Graham says. “You could walk up to a court and not know anybody, and I guarantee somebody will ask you, ‘Are you new? Can I help you? Can I get you a court?’ And then you get out there and
we’ve got you. You’re addicted.”
Those fun-filled, community vibes extend to larger pickleball events such as the U.S. Open, held for a week each April in Naples, which Ms. Graham came up with while involved in other racquet sports and working for Wilson Sporting Goods, and envisioned as the “biggest pickleball party in the world.” Since it began, the tournament has grown to include a 64-court home park, over 3,000 amateur and pro players, and 39,500 spectators. The party involves daily live music, a Margaritaville lounge, vendors and groups of friends having a blast.
“We wanted people to come from all over the world, even if they weren’t playing, to have the time of their life, and that’s what people do,” Ms. Graham says. “What I look forward to is just seeing people on the medal stand — you wouldn’t believe it. They’re 60 years old, and they’re calling their mom saying, ‘I just won a gold medal at the U.S. Open!’ It’s a very cool experience.”
USAP hosts its own amateur-and-pro tournament that continues to grow exponentially — 50,000 people attended 2023’s event. “The energy is super high,” Ms. Zhang says. “People who are in the sport are really passionate about it, so they’re there all day, they’re cheering, people always celebrate after points.”
Along with other U.S.-based tournaments, pickleball is growing globally in Canada, Mexico, Peru and some other parts of South America, Europe and
Image Credit: Alexander Saks on Unsplashespecially China and the rest of Asia. The IPF has plans to take the sport worldwide with marketing campaigns, tournaments and, hopefully, an eventual inclusion in the Olympic Games.
“It can be seen as a stamp of approval, acknowledging the sport’s importance and cultural significance on a global scale,” Mr. Prabhoo says of the bid. Along with attracting new players and fans, “inclusion in the Games allows sports to transcend national boundaries, fostering a sense of international community and understanding,” he says.
Still, the heart and soul of the sport are the amateur players who get together in local parks and neighborhood leagues, like Ms. Faby, who plays on her Naples community country club’s intramural and interclub teams, as well as in its “Sunday Funday Potluck Dinner,” where residents bring a dish, a cooler and their pickleball paddles to the courts for a few hours of end-of-week fun — the winner getting a jar of pickles as a trophy.
“I really like how my neighborhood has embraced it as a really big social event,” she says. “I have met so many people through pickleball that I would not have met otherwise —men, women, old people, young people, their guests — and it’s just super laid back.”
More and more people are looking for this kind of fellowship, too. “Naples has become a hub for pickleball — people have moved here to play yearround,” Ms. Faby says. In her real estate business, homebuyers are asking for locations near the East Naples Community Park, where the U.S. Open is held, and she has even started adding how many neighborhood courts are available in the listings of her homes for sale and set up the website pickleballproperties.com.
THAT ENTHUSIASM is a testament to the true power of pickleball: the community it fosters. “It’s incredibly inclusive of everyone — all ages, all backgrounds,” Ms. Zhang says. “That’s really what we’re here for, and the fact that it’s also a fun and quirky sport makes it even better.”
