Chickenhawk Scratchings

Simpsonville South Carolina is a great town.  It's got many of the amenities of a large city, but it has a small town atmosphere.  For instance, you can go down to Barefoot Annie's coffee shop on SE Main Street and enjoy a laid-back session with a local musician, or you can go walking on Main Street and look at the shops.  Near the interstate, there's several major department stores, and everything in-between.

There are several nice parks in Simpsonville, including many sports fields (including the one I play ball at).  Simpsonville Public Works does a great job of maintaining them, keeping them in top shape for everyone to enjoy.

Many great subdivisions lie in and around Simpsonville, with price ranges starting under 100,000 to a million.  Just about anyone can find what they're looking for if they come to Simpsonville,

If you haven't experienced it for youself, try out the Big Little Town of Simpsonville,  You'll enjoy it, and you may just decide to stick around a bit longer!

The best real estate decision I ever personally made was to purchase a home with a screened porch.  In Upstate South Carolina, our climate is very mild most of the time, making a screened porch ideal.  For about nine months out of the year I use the porch.  It's great to have quiet talks on, enjoy family time, play with the kids, or just sit on the swing and think deep thoughts.

Tonight, I went out just a little while ago.   The air was nice and cool, and the yard was dark. I sat on the swing and thought about my week - about the good things, and the difficult things.  It was nice to get a moment to unwind and mentally purge.  It was similar to what a massage does to your physical body.  I got to relax and just enjoy life itself.

They may not be ideal in many areas, but if you live in Upstate SC, or you're GOING to live in this area, get a screened porch!  You'll love it!

The International Center for Automotive Research (ICAR) is doing great things for the Greenville, South Carolina economy.  As this project unfurls, it is bringing more and more engineering jobs, management jobs, and other high paying work to the Upstate.  Estimates have stated as many as 20,000 new jobs were going to come from the ICAR project.

What will that do for our market, and our property values.  For one thing, the properties near ICAR will probably see an increase in value in general.  People tend to want to live near their work, or a reasonable drive from work, so the areas within a thirty minute drive of ICAR will see more influx of these jobs, and therefore, these relocations. 

I don't personally think that it will cause any property values to skyrocket, but it certainly will help.  Our local market has had slow and steady appreciation (overall) for the last several years.  ICAR will simply help certain areas to increase more than others. 

As a closet techno-geek, I admittedly was far behind when it came to my cell phone.  I had an old phone whose best feature was the fact that it could actually take pictures (ooooooh).  I try not to be wasteful, so as long as the phone worked for me, I kept it.  Soon after I got the phone, this funky thing called BlueTooth started becoming more and more popular.  There was only one problem:

My phone wasn't equipped for it!

I didn't know if I needed some kind of phone dental surgery to get the blue tooth capability, but found out that it was just something the phone wasn't compatible with.

*SIGH*

In February of this year I finally upgraded to a new phone, and lo and behold it (and everything else) was blue tooth compatible!  There was even a blue tooth headset on sale for twenty bucks.  I figured what the heck, I'll try it out and see...

Now I have found that I am hooked to it.  When I forget it, I'll turn around - whether it makes me late for something or not.  It feels very natural to have a conversation and be able to move my hands, or type on the keyboard, without straining my neck to hold the phone.

I used to think people talking on blue tooth headsets were rude, because you couldn't tell that they were on the phone.  I'd be standing next to them in line, and they'd say, "Hey, how's it going?"  Of course, I'd respond, and then I'd see that they weren't paying attention to me...

I also was worried about sticking a device in my ear that resembled some sort of Borg transmitter.  Any good Trekkie knows what I'm talking about.

Oh well, I'm hooked, and my teeth are officially blue.... and it's not from blueberry pie this time!  Now, I've got to run - Seven of Nine is calling me.

I am trying to implement a concept that I learned from my real estate coach, Craig Proctor.  Several years ago he devised an outside-the-box method for doing open houses.  He called it his Sunday Tour of Homes.

This Tour of Homes takes place at six different listings.  Each listing is scheduled to be open for about fifteen minutes.  The tour starts at the office, where people sign the registry.  The agent then leads the tour to the first listing, opens it up, and after fifteen minutes shoos everyone out and locks it.  They go onto the second property, and so forth.

There are many bonuses to this.  First, your sellers are only inconvenienced for about 20-30 minutes, instead of a couple hours for a traditional open house.  Second, you get more interested buyers in the home together, which can create an auction-like effect, assuming that some of them are interested in the home. 

Third, and most important from the agent point of view, you get the lead generation potential of six houses rather than just one, and you can meet more buyers for your investment of time.

Has anyone done the Sunday Tour of Homes?  What have your experiences been?  I'm excited to do it, but I'd still love to hear from those who have "gone before me".

Due largely to the fact that only myself and one other person in my office consistently blog, I will be leading a blog workshop for agents who are interested in joining the blogsphere or who actually have AR accounts set up, but have never done anything with them.

I've only been blogging since about August of last year, but it's had a big impact on my business.  It's also been a great learning tool for me, as I can now tap into a network of thousands of agents who know a variety of things.

What types of things would be good to go over at a blog workshop?  What has helped you the most with your Active Rain blog, or other blog?  What type of things are motivating to you to blog?  I'd love some ideas so that I can put together an informative and meaningful workshop.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I just got back from the Greenville Little Theatre production of "There Goes The Bride!"  It's HILARIOUS. 

I've never laughed so hard at a GLT production before, and I've gone to them all for the last six or seven years (well, either attended or performed *Grin*).

The cast is made up of some of the best local comedy talent that Greenville has to offer.  Liz Floto plays the bride - she did backstage work when I was in Into The Woods - and she's a great actress.  Ryan Bradburn is a HIT.  He's one of the best physical comedians to grace the GLT stage, and he plays the bride-to-be's Dad.  Finally, at least of those I'm going to note tonight, Shane Willimon plays the bride's Grandfather.  He steals the show!  I got the pleasure of performing with Shane in an AEIOU murder mystery dinner theatre event (Actors, Entertainers and Improv of the Upstate).  The laughs literally took nearly a minute to die down at some points, which is a long time for a performance!

I don't know if tonight or tomorrow is the last performance, but if you can't see it at GLT, I highly recommend that you see this comedy somewhere.  I needed a good laugh! 

Perhaps I'm biased.  No, scratch that, I'm definitely biased... but if you're looking for a great place to live, then you may want to check out the Simpsonville SC Real Estate Market!  Our town of Simpsonville (Simple-ville to residents) has grown by leaps and bounds, and yet has not lost it's laid-back, true Southern feel. 

Simpsonville is now home to many retailers, such as Target, Wal-mart, Lowes, and many others.  You can find just about any kind of restaurant within the city, including some awesome pizza joints.  New subdivisions go up like crazy, and the houses are selling! 

There are several parks in Simpsonville, which contain several great sports fields (I play baseball on one of them!), an ampitheatre that can hold 16,000 people, as well as great places to play.  There are other recreational opportunities in and around the city, including some fabulous golf courses.

Minutes from Greenville, Simpsonville is located 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta or 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte. 

What more could you ask for? Check us out! 

...and you're the agent who shows up to check it out.  Hmm... perhaps a poor choice of words. 

Our Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS(R) recently sent out a warning about a gentleman (I use the term loosely) in a subdivision in Simpsonville who calls up female agents, tells them he is thinking of putting his house on the market, and asks the agents to come by.  Then, when they arrive at the door, he exposes himself to them.

This kind of behavior is not only disgusting, but it's scary.  Who knows what acts that man is capable of if he's gaining enjoyment out of a female's obvious discomfort? 

If you ever have a call like this, please notify the police immediately.  Laws are different in every jurisdiction about what constitutes "lewd acts" or "public nudity" (remember, he's standing in his own doorway).  Don't take any chances though.  Your next call needs to be to your broker-in-charge, who should notify the local board ASAP so that the word can get out.

This type of situation might just be embarrassing for some of you, but remember to protect your fellow agents. 

On a light note, at least they could tell he didn't have any concealed weapons!

Be safe!

I'll be the first one to admit that I am not a work-a-holic.  Oh, don't get me wrong - if you poll the people in my office, or if you ask my family, they'll tell you that I'm the guy who is up on the computer at midnight sending emails, or at the office until the wee hours working on this project or that.  What I can't do is completely shut out the other facets of my life to concentrate on real estate.

I have to play.  If I don't play, I get grumpy.  If I get grumpy, I tend to make others grumpy, and that's a bad cycle that just doesn't need to play out if all possible.

How do I keep from being grumpy?  I do my best to keep Sunday free. 

I say my best, because it would be lying to say that I always took Sunday off.  I make a concerted effort to do so, but sometimes I give in - if I have an out-of-state client, for example. 

Sundays are family days, spiritual days, and baseball days.  Sunday is the time to enrich the spirit, relax the mind, and enjoy my beautiful family.  I play and umpire baseball, which, for some, would be hectic, but it relaxes me and allows me to release a lot of the week's frustrations or pent-up energies.

My wisdom is this:  Whether Sunday, Thursday, or whatever day you choose, keep a day for yourself.  If you're a work-a-holic, don't let yourself burn out.  Remember, you'll burn out much faster if you constantly burn the candle at both ends.

Relax.  Chill.  Catch a fly ball.  It works for me!