My first blog....an introduction!

     Well, I guess it is about time that I start blogging.  I read a ton of blogs, on a daily basis, but I never thought I would be a "blogger".  Since this will be my first, of hopefully many, I am going to take this chance to introduce myself, my wife and tell you a little about our family.  After that, I'll tell you the story of how Real Estate found me and a little bit about how we do business.  To start with, I am 28 years old, born in February of 1980.  My wife is the same age, but more beautiful than I ever thought I could catch.  Brains and beauty, I don't know how I keep her.  We have one HANDSOME little sonAustin (AJ) and he is our world!  I would go to the end of the world for them both and will do absolutely all that I can to keep a smile on both of their beautiful faces.  AJ is 2 years old and growing ever more inquisitive.  He makes me proud on a daily basis and he always keeps me smiling.  I think my favorite thing in life is just being in our back yard, relaxing with my wife and playing baseball with my son.  As you can tell, we are all HUGE Razorback fans and I plan on taking my son to his first Razorback football game this coming fall...Go Hogs!  I am ecstatic about getting to share a passion with my son and if you are from Arkansas, you probably know where I am coming from. 

     Kathy and I met back in 2001, the week after I came home from Basic Training and AIT.  Sparks flew from the moment that our eyes met and boy did I ever make the catch of a lifetime.  We were married in June of 2006 just before I deployed to the Middle East for a year in the sand box.  Not to mention 3 months of training in Southern Mississippi before that.  That is a total of 15 months away from my beautiful wife and brand new baby boy for those of you keeping count.  Once I got home it did not take long to get caught up and my son came right to me when I got off the bus.  That was one of the greatest feelings in the world!  I am truly blessed with a loving wife and the smartest little guy in the world.  I thank God for the many blessing in my life on a daily basis and sometimes I wonder how I could ever be so blessed.

      My other passion, besides my family and the Razorbacks, is Real Estate.  One night I was up late, watching TV, living in a fraternity house when all of a sudden there was an infomercial that caught my eye.  I had thought about Real Estate all of my life, but if wasn't what I was in school for.  Well, the next thing you know I'm on the phone, package is in the mail, on my doorstep, ripped open, read, read again, and stuck in my closet.  Nope, didn't even cross my mind to get my Real Estate license.  I was going to buy and flip houses with all of that money I had, wait, I was a broke college student. How was I going to manage that again?  So, my first venture into Real Estate was a bust as I didn't pick that program up EVER again.  Then one day as fate would have it, I needed a vehicle.  So there I was...sitting in a small mom and pop used car dealership when I noticed that the wife of the dealer had Real Estate cards sitting on her desk.  So, being the inquisitive mind that I am, I asked her if she was a Realtor.  "Yes I am, are you looking to buy or sell a house" she replied.  I kind of snickered and then I told her that I was interested in "getting into Real Estate".  I talked with her for a while and she suggested I take the week long class and see if I liked it.  I not only liked it, I loved it.  I took my test shortly after the class and the rest is history.  The sweet lady at the car dealership would become my mentor in Real Estate and I could not have found a better one.  I truly learned a lot from her and I still send everyone I know looking for a car to her husband. 

     My wife received her license about a year later.  She went and got her license because it was better for us to do that, then to refer our clients that we had at the time.  We would have lost more than it cost us to get her started.  It was a smart choice to have her take over while I was deployed.  We now both work at ERA Armstrong Team Realtors in Little Rock and we make a great team.  We both truly believe the market is heading in a direction where most of the process will be done online.  We strive to find new ways to better help serve our clients in any way that we can.  We are working constantly to find new ways to get our listings exposure both online and off.  We have both worked hard to expand our knowledge of the local market and general Real Estate knowledge overall.  We now currently reside in the Cabot area just north of Little Rock, AR.  We really enjoy working Cabot and the surrounding areas.  Arkansas has always been my home and always will be.  Therefore I will be ever diligent to increase my knowledge of the area and keep up to date with what our market conditions are.  Hopefully in the process see a lot of these>>>> 

     I am going to close with an acronym and the meaning as I see it. I learned this acronym while I was at basic training.  It has stuck with me ever since and will always be a code that I live by.  LDRSHIP:  Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage.  I will always be loyal to God, my family and my clients.  I have a duty to my country, my family and a fiduciary duty to my clients.  I will always respect my wife, my son and my clients.  I will serve my God, my country, my family and my clients selflessly.  I will honor all of my commitments.  I will carry myself with the highest of integrity toward my family and my clients.  Finally, I will have the personal courage to face all adversity that may lye before me.  The acronym is something the military instilled in me, but the code is something I wrote myself and something I will always live by.  I would rather lose a listing or a sale than break any of my values.  I live a truly blessed life and I believe in the old adage that what goes around comes around.  God Bless you all and hopefully I didn't bore you to bad with my first blog.