TW Shortt Reports

By TW Shortt, CRS™, CRB™ 
Broker/Manager, REALTY WORLD® Knox Realty Group and Flat Fee Connect, LLC 

Hardin County Fiscal Court is considering a temporary moratorium on rezoning requests and conditional-use permits involving data centers while the Planning Commission studies the issue. The matter appears on the Fiscal Court’s September 22 agenda.  

There is nothing wrong with taking a careful look at a new type of development. Data centers can require substantial electric capacity, and communities should ask tough questions about utilities, roads, noise, water use, neighboring property and who pays for needed infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Energy has acknowledged that growing data-center demand is putting new pressure on the electric grid.  

But legitimate questions are different from scare tactics. 

By TW Shortt, CRS™, CRB™ 
Broker/Manager, REALTY WORLD® Knox Realty Group and Flat Fee Connect, LLC 

If you bought your home with a small down payment, you may have been paying private mortgage insurance, commonly called PMI, as part of your monthly mortgage payment. 

A recent change from Fannie Mae could make it easier for some homeowners to find out whether they may now qualify to have that mortgage insurance removed. 

On September 16, 2026, Fannie Mae announced that mortgage servicers may proactively contact borrowers whose loans may be approaching the requirements for mortgage-insurance termination based on the current value of the home. 

This could matter for homeowners whose properties have increased in value since they purchased them. 

Your Equity May Have Grown 

By TW Shortt, CRS®, CRB®, Broker, REALTY WORLD® Knox Realty Group of Kentucky 

Nearly 20 years before offers of buyer-broker compensation were removed from participating MLS systems, I warned the U.S. Department of Justice that certain real estate rules were restricting competition and consumer choice. At the time, I operated TW Shortt Realty and FlatFeeDirect.com in Kentucky, where alternative brokerage models were often treated more like threats than legitimate consumer options. 

  Flat-fee, limited-service, and rebate brokers challenged that system long before the recent national lawsuits.