Greenville Drive - Blood Drive

 

The Greenville Drive is having a Blood Drive and each donator will receive a $5.00 Drive gift card and a T-shirt. Go by the Fluor field on March 24 between the hours of 11am and 3:30 pm to donate blood for patients here in Greenville.

Here we GROW again!

 

Greenville/Spartanburg area grows again!

Master Precision Global LLC plans to hire 120 people for a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Duncan!

They plan to occupy the community college property for 18 months then find a permanent location.

They will assemble water dispensers, plastic and glass shelving for refrigerators

New Housing Project in Greer for Seniors

Housing for seniors in Greer

It has been announce that there will be a three story apartment building for low income seniors by October 2009.  The complex will
consist of 38 buildings and be located at the corner of Village Drive and Chandler Road.

Apartments will have one bedroom and bath.  There will be community area with different programs for the residents.  There will be
manger on site. The project is sponsored and will be managed by Volunteers of American National Services.

Entertainment News for Simpsonville SC!

Starting this summer Simpsonville will be having events in the cities amphitheater that seats 16,000. In the next few weeks we will see a roof over the amphitheater’s 80 X 100 foot stage as a national venue management companies starts to book events. The competition in the area should be positive for all. The theater would compete with the Bi-Lo Center in downtown Greenville which will hold 15,000. Simpsonville leaders want to grab the share of the market that would prefer to play in an outdoor venue. The management company SMG also manages the Carolina First Center along with other stadiums, arenas, and exhibition halls. There have already been concerts in the amphitheater during the Freedom Weekend Aloft, Shoutfest and Memorial Day weekend festival. The city will be adding offices, restrooms, concessions areas and dressing rooms along with the addition of the roof. The 2 cent hospitality tax will be supplying the funding of the renovations and upgrades. The total costs for Heritage Park will run over 12 million dollars.

Technorati is the way to go!

Hey everyone
Just wanted you to know that we are now in Technoraiti. We are using the Post linking code to connect the two together.
Technorati Profile
Visit our Website

Hey Get LOOKOUT for your OutLook!

During the holiday season, I have been going back through all my emails for the past year have been struggling in finding certain e-mails from various clients.

Then in reading my e-pro posts (that I have fell behind with), I discovered this handy little plugin for MS Outlook and from Microsoft called "Lookout".

This drop-in will actually add a nice little menu bar to your MS Outlook for indexing not only your MS Outlook Mailbox but also your archived folders and anyother folder on your computer.  Very Handy!

Its just what I have been looking for and its FREE!  So you have no excuse to go and get it for yourself at Microsoft.com; just search for it.  I highly recommend it!

-- Just wanted you active rain people to know --   Cheryl

Want to be a SMARTER AGENT? It's all in your CELL PHONE

I was watching the morning CBS news over the weekend and noticed a little blurb about how internet technology is going to hit consumers by way of CELL PHONE for searching homes for purchase.  This intrigued me, so I stopped to watch and see for myself.

The business is called Smarter Agent http://smarteragent.com  The deal is simply this:

1. You drive around with your Cell phone with the Smarter Agent app downloaded at $5/month.
2. You see a home (ANY HOME for sale or not) and stop the car.
3. The phone will report your exact position to their servers (like a GPS)
4. You use the phone to inquire about the property and it reports back that it IS or ISN'T for sale
5. THEN, the phone will tell you its last date of closing and the settlement amount (scary huh??)
6. The phone will show you similar homes with same features in a 5-mile radius
7. If want to see these home, It will provide a map and guide you there as you drive.
8. When you get there, it will give #bedrooms, #baths, price, etc.
9. If you want to see it, you hit a button and your connected to a pre-screened Smarter Agent Agent.
10. Smarter Agent receives referral fees for the closings.

Smarter Agent is not yet in our market but I am thinking about giving them a try once they do get here.  I was wondering if anyone here on The RAIN has had experience with these people and is this the way of the future?  Comments are Gladly welcome.

Who's FAT Now?

It's an fact that more and more of my clients are wanting information about our area when they relocate here.  They want Maps of Education, Housing Costs, Median Income, (you know) the usual demographics.  So it's my job as their professional to serve their needs.  I always get an interesting request here and there.

I have many clients coming here from Florida and California.  Once they move into Greenville, they love it!  It actually grows on them! 

This is an execellent segway into my next subject based on a demographic map (that I found from CDC) of each state in the US and the percent obesety that each state is.  I know its a little old, 2002, but I thought it was so intersting that I would share it for discussion.

Humm... Florida is not so fat but look out in Alabama and Mississippi!!!   Any ideas and thought about this?  I thought it was interesting and perhaps could generate some interesting discussion.  I leave it open to the floor for some heavy weighted discussion. 

 

One year after Hurricane Katrina - a quick look at National Disasters areas.

Yes we all will remember Hurricane Katrina this week.  Still devastated, the Gulf Coast will be rebuilding (for years) not only the buildings and memories but the broken hearts of a place that they called home.  Will another oce come soon?  Who knows? Do people think that all beach property is now unsafe?  What has changed?  All these questions?????

In my studies during the past year, I have found that many other areas of the country have been hit hard and many more times by various national disasters.  Just last winter, the Upstate of South Carolina was hit extremely hard with an Ice Storm that left may citizens without power for well over a week.  We were declared a national disaster for once in a VERY long time in history.  Other parts of the country have hit with other various disasters as well.  I found a handy FEMA Map that shows individual counties across the nation.  It can be studied below.  Turns out that the Upstate of South Carolina, (Greater Greenville area) has some of the lowest disasters that other areas in the country.  I really feel bad about the people of North Dakota.  Let me know your comments!

Don't waste time with Discount Real Estate Agents

Thinking of selling your home
but don't want to pay a high commission?

As a seller, you may be thinking that in today's market you don't need to pay a full commission to sell your home. You know of several "Discount Real Estate Agents" who are willing to list your home for a discounted commission. Here are a few things to think about before deciding to go that route:

#1  Not putting your home in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Many real estate agents will say they already have pre-qualified buyers willing to pay big bucks for your home.  Some may tell you that they have a "Buyer's Specialist" who handles these buyers perhaps confusing you into thinking that the Listing Agent is representing you, when in fact if the same brokerage represents both buyer and seller this is still considered dual agency. These agents may tell you that you will save thousands of dollars in commission fees if your home sells to one of their buyers, however, if you save several thousand dollars on commission but the selling price is tens of thousands less, you have lost money. These agents may also tell you that you don't want to be bothered with all kinds of people coming in and looking at your home. Unfortunately, in order to achieve the highest selling price, you need to expose your home to the greatest number of people in the shortest period of time. The good news is that in our present market, Cheryl's marketing plan typically results in your home selling for top dollar.

#2.  Insist on MLS submission
When you list your home with a discount broker, the exposure your home will be extremely limited to a dozen or so interested parties at the most. However, when you list your home with a local marketing expert who knows where, how and when to advertise your home to the "Open Market" and fully expose your home to co-operating real estate agents you will literally have hundreds of interested buyers who will compete for your home. As a result your home will certainly sell for top dollar and typically much higher than if you did not expose your home in the Multiple Listing Service, resulting in more money in your pocket - which is the bottom line isn't it?

#3.  In House Companies, Escrow, Mortgage and Title
Many discount brokers will charge you less commission and compensate by providing you other services, such as in house lenders, in house escrow companies or in house title companies - check these service provider's fees carefully, they may be overcharging you in countless add-ons or garbage fees.

As a Greenville SC area native, I have a vested interest in our neighborhood. My clients trust me with their single largest asset; it is a responsibility I take seriously!  Find out how I will create a customized marketing plan to meet your needs as a seller as opposed to my needs as an agent. I will target market your property to find the buyer who will pay the highest price for your home. To find out more contact Cheryl today at www.cherylteague.net