Mars Hill Realty Group

 It's 5AM and I can't sleep.  

I'm lying awake in bed thinking about a piece of furniture I had delivered for the office.  The floors weren't complete so it had to go to the back patio...which is covered, but leaks a little.  Outside, the rain is pouring down and I'm wondering how wet this $500 piece of furniture is.

Almost 3 months after demolition, the building is still not complete.  I expected to be completely finished by May 1st!  My brokerage is having an open house for select agents just five days from now, on May 20th, and I was just notified last week that the materials for sealing the floors will be delayed until Monday night.  Which means nobody and nothing can be on the floors until Wednesday, the day before the event!  I had an "emergency meeting" with my contractors on Friday and was scrambling to just get as much done as possible.  

As I lay awake in my bed, I had to remind myself that my expectations will not always line up with reality.  God is in control and knows everything from beginning to the end (Rev. 22:13).  Ultimately, how I respond to unmet expectations reveal my true character and what I really value.  This was a literal wake-up call for me and I had to re-align myself with the fact that this is just a building.  A building that may be a little dirtier and incomplete than I had hoped...but at least it has electricity (and hopefully plumbing!) by May 20th.

Demolition week is complete!

Wayne put the finishing touches on the bathroom floor which was a mix of concrete, tile, glue and laminate.  What a nasty mess that was!  The picture you see below isn't because of the dirty lens, it's all of the debris that the flash is reflecting off of!

All the floors are now concrete and ready for the micro-top and staining.  Also, I took down most of the lights that needed to be down.  Really, the only thing left is the big kitchen island that the business I am renting to, Purfect Pets, wants to use.  

Good thing Brett dropped by again as I was taking down the lights, he probably prevented me from getting electrocuted a couple times.

I had to break the momentum of the work I was doing because I had a lunch appointment with a client.  Looks like a busy weekend is ahead of me and I'm glad I was able to get it all done and had plenty of friends pitching in at just the right times.

Check out the video below for the day's recap:

Demolition week is almost finished!  My body sure is feeling it.  As a real estate agent, the most physical work I ever do is opening and closing doors.  That's why I need my weekly swimming regimen or else I'll get fat.

This week, I feel like I've been training for an Ironman Triathlon.  Even my fingers are sore as I'm typing this and I have muscles in my back that hurt that I didn't even know existed.  Waaah, waaah, waaah.

I must thank David for teaching me the technique of getting down low to scrape.  Yes, even poles with razors at the end of it require proper technique.  With my newly found skills, I went to town and removed ALL of the flooring today and still made it home by 4:30 PM.  That includes picking up pizza for dinner too!

Today, I called up Wayne and Danny for reinforcements at the city dump.  Check out our little adventure below: 

Check out the pics below for the results of the scrapped floors.  The pictures for the two other Future Offices are missing because they already have concrete floors and don't require scrapping.  Also a picture for the other Bathroom is missing because we need to smash up the tile in that room tomorrow and scrapping just won't cut it.

Today I hired The Stripper and I have pictures to prove it..

...and it was a regrettable experience.  Imagine a 100 pound weight, with a razor sharp edge, that sounds like a train when you turn it on...congratulations, you now have this wonderful machine known as "The Stripper."  With a name like that, I guess I should have known better.  

Well, the day actually was pretty productive:  Conference room floors are stripped, appliances are gone (thanks to Craigslist) and the junk in the Master Bath (future office) is now removed.    Check out the video for the day's synopsis:

There's just got to be something wrong with having your body vibrate that much in one day.  Thanks to that machine, I think I jiggled off about 5 pounds and gained blisters on each of my toes.  

Today was a success.  Why?  Because nobody got hurt.  It was cold, it was snowy, but it was a success.

I thought I would be able to get started on scraping the old floors off, but little did I anticipate that debris removal takes as long (or longer) then the actual demolition!  Making two trips to the city dump going 30 miles an hour didn't help...but again, nobody got hurt and I had my chance at retribution from my little accident yesterday.  Check out the video below for the quick summary:

The biggest pain so far has been taking down the yellow tile in the small bathroom.  That's taken much longer then we anticipated, but Wayne is chipping away at it with the sledge hammer.  Ralph was able to cut a doorway into the office I'm creating from the former Master Bathroom.  I focused on debris removal and just not getting hurt.

(Before shots of the two bathrooms)

Today is the day!  I finally closed on my future office space and in typical fashion, I wasted no time to get it ready for action!  Today was DAY 1 of DEMOLITION.

I must admit, the days leading up to this were filled with excitement and anticipation and a little nervousness at attempting a remodeling project that is way out of my league.  But by the time today came around, nothing by excitement and joy and peace filled my heart!  I am also blessed by an awesome brother, Brett Gottlob, who has been guiding me throughout this process.  He had the tools and even some protective eyewear for me to try on.  However, as you'll soon find out in the video below, it wasn't the eyes that needed protecting!

According to a 2007 survey by Realtor.org, 84 percent of people use the Internet to search for their home. Many even purchase a home sight unseen, relying heavily upon the information and photographs they see on the Internet. It's no question that photography plays a critical role to the home buying decision-making process. It's not enough to have the prettiest home on the market, especially if the photos of your home are unflattering and give no compelling reason for anybody to look at your home, let alone buy it.

Most people can recognize an excellent photo when they see it, but achieving professional results yourself can be a challenge. Where do you start? The first place is with a high quality Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. This is important not just from a photo quality standpoint, but also because you are going to need the ability to switch out your lens and utilize a wide-angle lens. A wide-angle lens helps the viewer of the photograph get a better sense of reality in smaller rooms, like bedrooms and bathrooms. For example, you can capture 3 or 4 walls of a room rather then just 1 wall (see picture on left - bedroom picture is really just a window). If you've ever seen a picture of a shower curtain, rather then the entire bathroom, you are seeing what happens when you take a picture using a regular "dinky" camera with no wide-angle ability.

I don't celebrate Halloween. There, I said it.

It's not because I don't like candy (I do). It just doesn't make sense for me to celebrate something that means absolutely nothing to me. Here are some other major holidays that I could really care less about:

          January 26 - Republic Day in India

          March 30 -- Muslim New Year in Indonesia

          November 12 -- Sun Yat-sen's Birthday in Taiwan

The list goes on and on. Basically, there could probably be a "major" holiday for every day of the year if you really did some digging. I stick Halloween in this group of holidays that have absolutely no meaning to me. Why celebrate something just because everybody else is doing it? Where do you draw the line? I have enough things in life to celebrate, and too much candy just makes you fat.

I do celebrate October 31st for other reasons.

On this day, 6 years ago, I was honorably discharged from serving 5 years in the US Army. That marked a new chapter in my life. It's the day that I changed into my civilian halloween outfit and the day that my family celebrates the way God protected me during my time in Iraq, and continues to protect our family today.

Today we're going to celebrate God's protection by going to Chuck E Cheese for the kids and then enjoying a nice family dinner at some restaurant. Autumn's been craving the Olive Garden salad and soup so we'll probably end up going there!

Your Best Choice for Georgetown Texas Real Estate and Finding Georgetown Texas Homes For Sale

If you're choosing a Georgetown, TX real estate agent to help you buy or sell a home, how do you separate the best from the average?

Most Georgetown, Texas real estate brokerages don't have a certain reputation for the way they operate. To the public, these brokerages are just "holding companies" for a massive amount of agents with varying levels of skill. The skill level of these agents can range from part-time, HGTV-trained hobbyist to a bona fide full-time professional. The focus of their training is to help their agents sell more homes and convert more leads instead of improving the skills that will directly benefit the customer. As a result, you have "multi-million" dollar producers who are great salespeople, but just average agents. Do you really want to settle for average?

Let us introduce you to Mars Hill Realty Group. We are a locally-owned real estate company located in Georgetown, Texas that is dedicated to the most important part of every real estate deal: Our Clients. Our training philosophy is to focus on specific skills that will benefit our clients directly. We would rather our agents be savvy at the negotiation table then be an expert at lead conversion and phone scripts. We believe that if we create value for our customers, our business will naturally grow. We accomplish this by focusing our recruiting efforts, company culture and training in attracting real estate agents who have a desire to master four core competencies: Social Networking, Negotiations, Analysis, and Photography.

You would expect the interest rates and terms for a commercial real estate loan to be following the downward spiral of the residential side of things. You would expect.

Last week, I decided to investigate how much money I would need and what my payment would be on my future real estate office building in Georgetown, Texas. I decided to take my daughter, Sabrina, with me and do a little Father/Daughter bonding at the same time.

The first bank I went to was Chase Bank in Wolf Ranch. I was pretty much handed a business card and told that I would need to get in touch with their commercial lending specialist. I haven't called him yet.

The second bank I went to was Capital One in Wolf Ranch. The moment I walked in I was greeted nicely and the branch manager brought me into her office. She took some information down and then told me to expect a call from their commercial lending specialist. I got the call a few days later with a follow-up email. As an added bonus, this bank has a little play area for the kids. Sabrina liked this bank and I think I did too.

The third bank I visited was Wachovia at the Rivery. They have a pretty high-tech looking bank, but no play area. Sabrina managed to get her hands on a dum-dum lollipop (her favorite) so this bank gets high marks. When we used the bathroom here, they had to unlock the door and allow us access into the break area. Kind of strange. Bottom line here: I was told I would get a call, but haven't heard from anyone yet. Bank seemed a bit too sterile.