CaringRealtors.org needs to especially thank...

I just wanted to take a moment to not only thank our sponsors and donors mentioned before for making The Morris Mingle such a great and successful event, but the many others who need to be recognized who worked behind the scenes to make this such a great event.  

I want to thank Kelly, Mark, and the staff at The Vineyard in Sugar Land Town Center for allowing us to host the event at thier place and for graciously providing great service to the many guests and friends who arrived.

I want to thank Aimee Montgomery of Land America Title for helping out so much. Aimee has helped us every step of the way to support John. She helped distribute invitations and flyers, spread the word, volunteered, shared ideas and thoughts, and donated in so many ways. Not to mention she was the leading raffle ticket seller! Great job Aimee and thank you for all of your help and support.

Glen Taggert of Keller Williams also went out and sold many tickets and promoted the event in the community. Its people like her that made this event a huge success.

I also want to thank the committee members: Judy Kay, Nikki Ann Ramsey, Shayne Stone, Khanh Vo, and Patsy Stikeleather. Khanh and Patsy were instrumental in organizing this event with The Vineyard. Nikki Ann donated items from her jewelry line Pearl Elegance. Shayne contributed to the website and promotion, and Judy kept everyone on track. I also wanted to thank my office and fellow committee members for allowing me to be a part of this and showing everyone what the KW family is all about.  

I want to thank all of our guests for attending and supporting our dear friend John Morris. Thanks to our sponsors, donors, and friends. Thanks to the many who helped and volunteered without being asked. There were so many people that contributed, some who I have never met but I saw them helping out the committee members. Your efforts, your support, your kind words were all appreciated. Thank you so much.

Caring Realtors Thanks Our Sponsors for The Morris Mingle

The Morris Mingle was a successful event with a great turnout this week. First I would really like to thank The Vineyards at Sugar Land Town Center for graciously hosting our event and their wonderful staff for taking care of our guests. Kelly and Mark provided an elegant venue and the perfect environment, and donated to the John Morris fund.

Here is a list of donors and sponsors who provided prizes at our event:

Pearl Elegance donated two custom designed fashion necklaces by Nikki Ann Ramsey also a Keller Williams Realtor.

Laura Miller of Keller Williams donated an autographed Joseph Addai Indianapolis Colts football helmet

Laura Miller of Keller Williams: Moet White Star wine

Riverstone Development in Missouri City: donated two $50 Chipotle Gift Certificate

Live Oak Grill at 12935 Dairy Ashford donated a $20 gift certficate 
 
LandAmerica Title = Aimee Montgomery donated a huge wine basket

First American Title in Sugar Land - Cookie Mangine donated a $50 gas card and dinner gift card

Robin Nicholson donated a personalized makeover by Mary Kay Cosmetics

Beazer Homes - the Asian Cowboy Mr. Paul Lim at the Lakes of Pine Forest donated a gift basket

Universal Land Title donated a wine basket and plant basket with an elegant metal stand

First Bank: Domingo Gonzales donated a $100 Savings Bond

Startex Title: Tita Horrel donated a gift basket and gift card

Land America Home Warranty Gloria Amezcua donated a gift card for dinner

First American Title: Trish Bui donated two $25 gas cards

Dr. Frasier Cosmetic Dentistry donated a gift basket and dental service gift card

Spa Romano (Greatwood) donated a Aveda Products gift basket

Jeanette Sun of Keller Williams donated a Coach purse

The Vineyards at Sugar Land Town Center hosts The Morris Mingle caringrealtors.org

Here are more photos of the successful event we celebrated at The Vineyard in Sugar Land Town Center. Thanks to them CaringRealtors.org had a beautiful space to host the benefit event. The staff at The Vineyards did an excellent job serving the crowd of hundreds that showed up to support John Morris.

Just some of the many great items donated by our vendors for the raffle drawings every 15 minutes!

H&H Music donated thier time to provided live entertainment and great songs all night to our guests!

The crowd and guests enjoyed the live music and dancing in the beautiful lounge area!

Judy Kay on of the MC's for the evening thanks our guests and volunteers

 
Guests also enjoyed wine in the courtyard at Sugar Land Town Center as the crowd expanded outside

Did you make it to the Morris Mingle?

So did you get to join us for The Morris Mingle at The Vineyard in Sugar Land Town Center? It was a spectacular event, with hundreds showing up to support and rally for John Morris a dear friend, inspiration, and mentor to me.

The crowd packed The Vineyard to full capacity within an hour, then overflowed into the courtyard. Many of our vendors and sponsors came with even more donations and items, and graciously helped us with the frenzy of raffle ticket buyers.

Here are some photos of the event. I'll be following up with a list to thank our donors.

Our CaringRealtors.org committee members selling raffle tickets

The Vineyard at Sugar Land Town Center filled up quickly

The great staff at The Vineyard kept our guests refreshed with a great selection of beverages

Special thanks to The Vineyards for providing us a beautiful venue to host our event

The Man we gathered to honor and support: Mr John Morris and a guest dancing

Please join us at Sugar Land Town Center for The Morris Mingle at The Vineyard

The event is finally here! Please come out and join us for The Morris Mingle at Sugar Land Town Center July 22, 2008 from 5:30 to 8pm. The Vineyard is graciously hosting our event to support a Realtor in need. We hope you can come out to enjoy the live band, wine, raffle, and the social event.

Everyone is invited, our entire family of Realtors in the community. Our title companies that have generously supported this cause, mortgage lenders, home warranty companies, home builders, inspectors, local news media, clients, the public, everyone please join us to show our support and raise funds to help a Realtor continue getting the treatments he needs to get well.  

Thanks to everyone who is contributing and volunteering to make this event a great success. Thanks to our donors and sponsors, your commitments are greatly appreciated. I cant wait to share the pictures from the event here with everyone!

You're Invited: Join us for "The Morris Mingle" with live music, raffle, and wine

This is the last week of promotion hoping for a great turn out to support a dear friend and mentor to me: Mr John Morris. John was diagnosed with cancer this year and is courageously fighting it. He has incurred overwhelming hospital and medical expenses, and we are raising funds and support for John to focus on continued treatments to get better.

Please join us this Tuesday July 22 at The Vineyard in Sugar Land Town Center from 5:30 - 8pm for a great event and cause. Everyone is invited from our Realtor community and family as well as the public. Please join us to help us help John.

Here is a link to the annoucement in the Fort Bend Star. Please invite and let other people you know about this event. Hope to see you there.

Are you nervously watching the Gulf of Mexico again? Hurricane Season is here!

Do you remember where you were last season? Were you READY?

I posted a series of blogs back in may in anticipation of the hurricane season which is now upon us. So far we have watched a couple of tropical storms and disturbances develop, and thankfully not come our way. Here is a chance to revisit them and remind everyeone to prepare early and avoid the additional stress

Are You Prepared for the 2008 Hurricane Season? Part 1

Are You Prepared for the 2008 Hurricane Season? TIPS Part 2

2008 Hurricane Season Checklist

Please bookmark them. Print them out. Email or share them with your clients. Its great information. Also my Keller Williams office has joined with Channel 11 News in Houston to provide free hurricane tracking maps and checklists for our clients. Contact me for your personal copy.

Lets be better prepared. Protect our citizens, families, friends, clients, and the public.

What's in the air in Fort Bend?

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has spread out monitoring deveices all over Houston, Galveston, Kingwood and Tomball to track ozone levels in the area. This is how they can issue accurate alerts and forecast when the air becomes a danger.  

However there are no such monitoring devices in our Fort Bend County. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said they have monitors surrounding Fort Bend County, and they say that's close enough. TCEQ reports data from 8 monitors within 10 miles of Fort Bend County and believe that gives them a fairly accurate representation of what's happening there.

But not everyone is convinced. "It does no good to track the edge of a storm," Matthew Tejada of the Galveston-Houston Association of Smog Prevention said. Tejada said pollution from traffic and industry in Houston gets sucked back out to sea at night, and then blows right back into Fort Bend the next day.

GHASP installed a monitor of their own in Fort Bend County.  They said the monitor showed higher levels of ozone than what was picked up on TCEQ's outlying monitors over a three-day period. But the TCEQ stands by their monitor readings.

Texas Real Estate Market Still Outpacing US Trend

Texas property markets continue to outpace the nation, but things are likely to cool a bit through next year according to a research economist with Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center: Dr. James Gaines.

Home sales statewide still declined more than 14 percent through May compared with the same period of 2007. With the tougher lending standards and a pullout by home investors, the drop-off in sales in Texas could have been much steeper.

"Sales volumes should have fallen somewhere around 40 percent, but they haven't fallen that far," Dr. Gaines said. "It's a testament to the strength of our economy and the fundamentals in Texas. Generally our housing prices are sustaining and holding up."

Statewide home prices are up about 1.4 percent this year. The housing markets in Dallas-Fort Worth and the rest of Texas will benefit from huge population increases. The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex is bigger than the state of Arizona in population, and It's bigger than 30 other states. Job growth in the area is close to the highest in the country.

That's kept the commercial real estate market in North Texas and other markets strong. Rents and occupancy rates in Texas commercial properties will probably stay high for the rest of this year. Developers have been adding millions of square feet of new construction in Texas.

Starbucks closing 11 stores in Houston

Starbucks Corp. has announed it will close 11 stores in the Houston area as part of a plan to close 600 underperforming outlets around the country. Most of the stores are scheduled to close during the remainder of fiscal year 2008, which ends Sept. 30, and in the first half of fiscal 2009. Did you location make the cut?

The local stores closing include:

• 3821 Shepherd at Farnham

• 6001 North Freeway at Red Ripple

• 12503 Tomball Parkway at Antoine

• 914 Dallas at Main

• 1018 Preston at Fannin

• 6400 Fannin at MacGregor

• 14333 Westheimer at Briargreen

• 10611 Bellaire at Wilcrest

• 20131 U.S. 59 in Deerbrook Mall in Humble

• 27943 U.S. 59 in Rosenberg

• 24406 U.S. 59 in Rosenberg