Jessica Willis, REALTOR®

I sell homes and land across Fentress, Cumberland, Morgan, and Overton Counties and the surrounding area, with a particular focus on rural property.

Before real estate, I spent more than twenty years leading strategy and operations, and I hold an MBA and a master’s in industrial-organizational psychology, which largely studies how people decide and how incentives influence those decisions. That turns out to be most of this job. Pricing a home means making a decision without complete information, and negotiating a deal means reading what the other side actually wants.

How we chose the Plateau

My husband and I came to Fentress County nearly five years ago, and we did not pick it casually. We could live anywhere we wanted, which sounds freeing until you realize there is no one to blame if you get it wrong. So instead of going with a feeling, we wrote down everything that mattered to us in a place we would call home and tested it against all fifty states. Then we changed how much each thing counted, to see whether a different set of priorities would point somewhere else. Tennessee came out on top every time.

We still did not take our own word for it. We spent the next four months living out of a converted Sprinter van, driving these counties to see whether the place matched what was on paper. It did.

That is the work I now do for buyers. You tell me what matters to you, and I go find out whether a property actually delivers it. You should not have to become an expert in any of that.

Five years later, we are still here and still glad we chose it. My husband is a retired Air Force pilot. I am a TN Master Gardener, which keeps me outside more than is strictly necessary. Between us we have five grown children and three grandchildren, and a good deal of what we have built out here was built with room for them in mind.

When I am not working, you will find me hiking, camping, kayaking, or out on the OHV trails. That is also how I have come to know these counties as well as I do.

What I work on

Most of my work is rural and land: raw acreage, equestrian property, working farms, and the questions that come with them. What a parcel can actually support usually matters more than how it photographs, so we talk early about access, water, septic and perc, and what greenbelt status will mean when the land changes hands. I also work residential, in town and in Fairfield Glade and the golf communities.

What you can expect

I will tell you what the market supports and why, even when that is not the number you were hoping for. You get one point of contact who negotiates on your behalf and tracks the deadlines, and you will hear from me before you have to ask.

Every month I publish a market report for these counties, so you can see how I read a market before you ever hire me to read yours. [Subscribe here]

I would be glad to hear what you are looking for, whenever the timing is right.