Owasso is a growing community.  We're the kind of town where we were all excited when Wal-Mart decided to build a supercenter here.  That was several years ago and since then, we've added a Home Depot and a Lowes and lots of new restaurants. 

One of the newest features to come to our town is the brand new "Owasso" Magazine.  This publication is the vision of its founder, creator and editor Anna Holton-Dean.  The first edition just hit the streets and the response around town is...wow! 

Here's a pic of the first cover.

I sat down with Anna today to get to know her a little bit better and to find out about the magazine.  Here's a couple of facts about her that I thought were interesting...

She was born in Lake Charles, LA (anybody remember which hurricane hit there?)

She and her husband moved to Owasso in May of 2007 to take a job.  On top of moving she also...

got married, graduated from grad school and lost her grandmother all in the same month.  Needless to say, May 2007 stands out in her mind as one of those life changing moments when her life seriously changed.

I asked her why she decided to publish the new Owasso magazine.  She told me that she had been thinking about publishing a magazine of some sort for quite a while.  Most of this thinking happened when she was working as an editor for the Oklahoma magazine and other publications.  Her husband was supportive and when they arrived in Owasso, she saw immediate potential.  "There wasn't anything like it in Owasso," she said.  So with a little bit of faith (or is that a lot???), their own money, a Macintosh computer and a ton of invested time, off she went.

When you pick up a copy, I think you'll agree that it was a good investment!

Currently, the magazine is free, but subscriptions are available.  It will be published monthly beginning in October. 

This first edtition focused on back to school with stories about the Owasso football program.  However, each month will include stories on each of the following:

A special feature (like a person of interest)
A local church
A local business
A city official
An Owasso "when" photo
A dining directory

Anna wrote the copy for the entire magazine and edited it herself.  In addition, she oversaw the pics, put together the intial advertising and worked with a graphic designer to create the beatiful Owasso logo for the cover.

She has a website up at www.owassomagazine.com.  There will be content added to her website soon, so be patient as it is still under construction.

If you'd like to contact Anna to submit story ideas or to advertise, she can be emailed at publisher@owassomagazine.com

I'll post up a pic of Anna as soon as I get one that she "approves"

The land rush finally made it to Oklahoma!  As of Thursday, August 7, 2008, we are on the map - that being Localism.com.

So welcome to our town!

Take a moment to check out our pics, read some of our articles and check out Owasso.  In the days to come, I'll be adding neighborhoods and pics from around town.  For now, suffice it to say that Owasso is one of the cleanest and nices places you can live in the US.

If you're looking to move to the Greater Tulsa area, be sure to give me a call!  I've got a dynamic team of four amazing people who can help you find that house you will want to call your home.  I'll be introducing the team to the world soon.  So stay tuned for more on that.

In the meantime take note!  School starts next Wednesday.  To enroll, you MUST live within the Owasso fence line OR have a pending contract on a house.  Speaking of school, Wal-Mart now has all the supplies you need as well as lists for each elementary school.

Drop us a note to say hi or zip over to our website for more info on our incredible town and to find that special home you've been looking for!

Ah, the wonderful art of blogging. 

You can say what is on your mind
You can give advice
You can tell funny stories
You can make comments
You can even make yourself look very smart or very stupid, depending on what you say!

If you've been a blogger for very long, you know that sometimes people actually read the stuff we write.  And sometimes they make comments.  And sometimes they even take what we write to heart!

Take for example, Lindsey Clark, one of our newest AR members.

Lindsey had been reading some of my posts in regards to making the jump into real estate from another career and all the adventures I've been having.  And I guess I must have written something that was pretty good at some point along the way because Lindsey sent me an email saying she appreciated my blogs. 

I thought, "Wow!  How cool is that!!!" 

Then she mentioned that she's thinking about jumping into real estate, so I told her the most important thing I could think of.  Join Active Rain!!!

And she did! 

So do me a favor and run over to her new AR profile and welcome her to the Rain!  Click here to find Lindsey

Welcome to a wonderful community Lindsey.  I know you'll find a ton of new friends here and lots of great advice!  Let me be the first to cristen your new real estate ship for the high seas adventure you're about to take!

Never heard that word before?  Me either!

I saw it this morning when I logged onto the internet and looked at my Dictionary word of the day in IGoogle.

IGoogle is a new feature of Google.  You can pick your background and choose various items to have show up each time you log onto Google.  In my IGoogle page I have a calendar, weather, dictionary word of the day and even videos from Youtube.  You can change, add and remove whichever "widgets" you want on your page at any time.  It's pretty cool.

Now, back to Vituperate.

According to the Dictionary word of the day it means to overwhelm with wordy abuse.

Hmmm.

I'm thinking here for a minute...

Where have I run into people who vituperate....

Hmmm.

Lawyers?  Maybe
Telephone sales people?  Yep
People I've known?  Uh-huh
Me?  Oh NEVER!!!
Real Estate Agents?  Oh surely not!

Lesson of the day as learned on IGoogle Dictionary word of the day...Don't Vituperate people no matter who you are or what you do!

Have fun out there!  It's only gonna be around 106 degrees here today!

Here in Oklahoma, we don't get awesome sunsets very often.  But sometimes it happens.

This picture was taken on my Blackberry Sunday night.  I had been visiting with a client and had walked out to go to my van (in the pic) when we saw this spectacular sight.  Wow. 

It was so pretty that he ran back into the house and grabbed his wife.  We just kind of stood there in the driveway for a long time watching the sun fade into the distance as the beams of light got more focused and then faded.  It was a perfect moment.

You don't get very many perfect moments in real estate, but when they come they are sweet.

Perfect moments I've enjoyed since going into real estate 1 1/2 years ago have included...

Helping a single mom successfully sell her home after her husband passed away this year during our ice storm.

Selling my first million dollars in real estate!  That was fun!

Getting to be Rookie of the year for 2007 with my company. 

Watching a young couple literally fall in love with the house they were walking through and watching them (and helping them) to make it their own.

Real estate is an amazing career.  It's challenging at times and heartbreaking as well.  You can be highly successful in this business or flop miserably.  It largely depends on how hard you want to work at it.

At the end of the day though, it is moments like a beautiful sunset in a driveway with satisfied clients that make it worth the time and effort.

This is the official logo of Owasso, OK.  Owasso is supposed to be an Indian word meaning end of the trail.  Owasso was at the end of the trail or a turn around point. As the story goes, the Owasso railroad station had been built by the Northern Pacific Railroad company and marked the end of the line that ran from Minneapolis to Oklahoma. 

I don't know if that is true or not, but this is what most folks hold to be true.

Owasso is a community of 26,552 according to Zipskinny.com.

One of the features of our town is that Tulsa is only 10 minutes south.  Tulsa is much larger at just under 400,000 people (2000 census count).  That means everything you need can be found there IF we don't have it in Owasso.  Of course, with the internet and high gas prices, trips to Tulsa don't happen as much these days as they did in the past.  My family used to take daily trips to Tulsa.  This was before we had a Wal Mart supercenter, Lowes, Home Depot, Target or Best Buy.  In fact, at that time (1997) we didn't have a national steak house in town!  Owasso now has all these things and more!

Owasso is one of those cities out there in America where life is good!  If you are moving to Oklahoma, you should consider moving to Owasso, a suburb of Tulsa.  Here's a few reasons why...

1.  Owasso is a planned growth community.  From housing to shopping to hosptials, we've been on a growth track for the last 20 years.

2.  Crime is very low, in spite of the continued growth.  For a look at crime stats, click here.

3.  Housing prices continue to be very affordable.  The median price of a home is $143,397 (2007).  Here's some sample housing prices and sizes.

For information from the official city of Owasso website, click here.

Here's some pics from around our town:

Owasso 6th Grade Center

Owasso City Hall


Owasso Playground at the Sports Park

Beautiful Owasso Sunset

Garth Brooks calls Owasso home!

Yep, Owasso is a great place to live!  I'll post more in the days and weeks to come about this amazing community.  Stay tuned!

I posted a blog this morning and checked the box for it to appear in Localism and the box for it to appear on my outside blog.

Now the blog isn't showing up on Localism - only on my outside blog.  Odd.  I think some behind the scenes "editing" may be going on here?

After reading the pro's and cons of Localism I'm wondering if anyone has noticed this situation? 

On Localism, is it a given that what you post will be there and stay there?  Or is our content subject to a "selection" process of some sort. 

Does anybody know what's going on here?

With school beginning on August 13th, it is time to shift from summer back to school calendars.  Here's a few tips to help you get ready for a great school year!

For school supplies, make sure you visit Wal-Mart, Target, Office Depot or other similar stores.  That's where you'll be able to pick up your school supplies list.  And of course, you can get your supplies there too.

For a school year calendar, click here.

If you plan to enroll your child or children in the Owasso schools, make sure you read this...

Initial enrollment for students new to Owasso Public Schools takes place at the Central Enrollment Center, located at 202 E. Broadway, Owasso, OK in the Student Services Center. 

*Acceptable forms of Verification of Residence are:  CURRENT, original full-page electric, gas, or water bill reflecting the service address or CURRENT mortgage documents, a CURRENT lease agreement , or a real estate purchase contract (no contingency clauses).

For specific enrollment dates of each grade, click here.

One VERY COOL feature that the Owasso public schools offers your family is email updates.  This is especially handy for the wintertime when you will want to know if school is canceled due to snow or ice.  The emails are sent out early in mornings so that when you wake up, you already have good and accurate information. 

To sign up for the Owasso school email alerts, click here.

Now, finally, if you want to see all this information in one place, go to the Owasso Public school website by clicking here!

This new housing development welcomes you!  It is located just west of Highway 169 North at 126th Street North in Collinsville, OK.  Collinsville is a town just North of Owasso.  Both Collinsville and Owasso are just 10 minutes from Tulsa.

Creekside offers affordable new construction with prices below $200,000.  There are a variety of builders and a variety of styles.  You can choose from 3 or 4 bedroom homes and 2-3 car garages.  Most of the builders will custom build for you.  Harrold Elementary is within walking distance of the neighborhood. 

If you're looking to live close to everything but not in the middle of everything, then Creekside is a neighborhood to definitely check out!