In my pursuit to share with everyone the wonderful history in the Greenville, SC Real Estate market I took a forty minute drive to Cowpens South Carolina. There is a wonderful preservation of the history behind the American victory at the battle of Cowpens in 1781. Below are some of the pictures and information that I found on my self guided tour. I hope that you enjoy this post. The picture below is of the Robert Scruggs' house. It was built around 1830 after Robert's father gave him and his new bride Catherine Connell 200 acres of land that were less than a quarter mile from where the battles of Cowpen's raged nearly half a century before. Life was hard for the Farmer and his Family of eleven children. Yoeman farmers raised wheat, corn, potatoes and livestock. Their wives would prod... 08/08/2008

The Greenville South Carolina City Council has reviewed the Master Plan for Downtown Greenville. The plan looks at all aspects of Greenville, present, past and then proposes steps to take to move Greenville into an even brighter future. Goals of the Master Plan are: Provide a framework for future development, continue to place Downtown Greenville as a catalyst for economic development, leverage Greenville's success to move up and Build a fully functional mixed use, sustainable urban environment. Moving forward a Five Corners approach is put forth as a solution and goal to growing Downtown Greenville. While the Main Street has a definite identity and is a destination creating five corners to the downtown area gives the space more variety, opportunities to explore and interest with stron... 08/07/2008

Well, I joined Facebook a few weeks back in the hopes of somehow leveraging it towards a networking tool for my real estate business. I had fears that it would be the furthest thing from that and instead turn into a high school reunion forum. At this point, it is officially a runaway train as a high school reunion meeting place! I guess that's OK, but I had higher hopes for it in terms of growing my real estate business. It is kind of strange, becoming online "friends" on facebook with people I haven't seen or spoken to in 20 years, yet I remember their names, along with images in my mind of what they used to look like, and they remember me. And now I'm one of "those guys" that for some strange reason has a little less hair today than I had in high school! Whatever! Pretty funny, I gues... 08/06/2008

My wonderful fellow Active Rainers have certainly inspired me to see the light as per a recent blog I posted about vacations and when a Realtor ever gets to take one. I will be taking my family on some sort of trip before the kids go back to school. Now the decision of where to go, what to do, where to stay, etc. My young kids seem to melt down and become impatient on very short trips (anything inside of 2 to 3 hours). So, we're exploring options that might include driving to any destination point within 3 to 5 hours from Greenville, SC (my kids will just have to survive the trip!). We were going to visit family in Michigan, but that's a 10 hour drive from Greenville, or a half way drive, overnight hotel stay, and then finish the second half. This option chews up vacation time and adds ... 08/06/2008

We went from 10AM to about 12:45 and we covered a very structured course outline, including "why we blog", "when we blog" and "how we blog". I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the class! I hope the people that were in the class are able to apply themselves to this wonderful gift called Active Rain and leverage it to the fullest extent towards improving themselves, helping others, and ultimately growing their businesses! Previous blog posted as part of training class: We are in the process right now of having a class on blogging at the Keller Williams, Spartanburg, SC office training room. This is a hands-on training workshop. Everyone in the room has logged in to the system, created an account profile and made comments to other people's blogs. We are now going through the process of creating... 08/06/2008

We are in the process right now of having a class on blogging at the Keller Williams, Spartanburg, SC office training room. This is a hands-on training workshop. Everyone in the room has logged in to the system, created an account profile and made comments to other people's blogs. We are now going through the process of creating our own blogs. Everyone is having fun and they're excited about the many benefits that Active Rain has to offer them as they pursue excellence in their real estate careers! Next, we will insert a photo and then end with a little "business card" with a link to our website: Kirk Westervelt Keller Williams Greenville Central Greenville, SC (864) 451-2402 www.upstatehomesearch.com   08/06/2008

  Cool, play and splash in downtown Greenville. Kids love to play and cool off in this beautiful water fountain at River Place in downtown Greenville. The fountain can be found at the new River Place along the Reedy River. The design of this unique fountain reminds of a railway which ran from downtown Greenville to the Jones Gap area and was called the Swamp Rabbit. Parts of this original old railway line will soon be a walking and biking trail connecting Northern Greenville to Downtown.The fountain at River Place is located across the street from the new Falls Park and the award-winning Liberty Bridge. More information about things to do with kids can be found on our events website at: TransDomo.com © Flavia Westerwelle TransDomo, LLC - Real Estate, Start-Up and Business development I... 08/05/2008

We took a regional trip over the weekend and explored downtown Asheville, NC. I had never been there before and it was an enjoyable trip for me. Asheville has quite a few older buildings downtown, some of which were amazing and reminded me of certain parts of San Francisco. We enjoyed lunch with the kids at a long bartop soda fountain type of place. It was cute seeing my 4 boys all lined up at the bar with their rootbeer floats. After a lot of walking, exploring, and visiting a couple beautiful old churches we headed back to Greenville and the kids all passed out for the ride home. Of course, we enjoyed 88.7FM on the radio the entire time up to and back from Asheville. On the weekends this station features regional blue grass music and it cracks me up when my son, Justin, says "daddy, a... 08/05/2008

We decided to be tourists in the region this past weekend. We went from Greenville, SC up to Tryon and slept there at our relative's home. We got up Sunday morning and got an early start with the kids and then drove to Asheville, NC to explore and be tourists. Wow, what an interesting and beautiful city! The downtown area reminded us of parts of San Francisco, CA. We had lunch at the old Woolworth location which is now an art gallery with a long soda fountain bar that serves sandwiches and rootbeer floats. The kids got tired of all the walking, but we had a great time exploring and just being tourists in our region of the country. Asheville has some pretty amazing architecture and some beautiful old churches. Sometime in the future we'll get a babysitter for the kids and then go experie... 08/05/2008

Greenville South Carolina has some of the lowest priced gas in the country. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's due to lower state taxes as part of the overall cost of a gallon of gas. Perhaps it's due to our proximity to distribution routes or a refinery. Whatever the reason...I don't really care! I simply enjoy the fact that in addition to incredibly affordable housing, we've also got very affordable gas prices, compared to most other states. I moved here from Orange County, CA where $550k got you a 3 bedroom condo with a tiny patio and a carport, and a gallon of gas was recently $4.61 a gallon. I just filled up today in Greenville for $3.48 a gallon. Still expensive, compared to last year. But very attractive compared to $4.61 a gallon in my old neighborhood in Orange County. Again, I don... 08/02/2008

Thanks to my colleague giving me a little guidance, I was able to take advantage of the Active Rain Customizer tool to make my blog pages look like something special! It's a wonderful tool and very easy to utilize. In today's world of intensive and constant visual marketing images, it only makes sense to offer visually stimulating blogs. My newly dressed up blogs did require some fancy steps taken in Photoshop, but that was my choice and certainly not necessary. You don't need Photoshop to take advantage of this tool and make your blog pages look more visually interesting. Give it a try if you haven't done so yet. You'll enjoy it!  08/02/2008

It's almost impossible to imagine, but General Motors lost over $15 Billion in the second quarter of this year. Forgive me if I've got my numbers wrong, but I'm fairly certain that was the approximate amount of money they lost in the second quarter. They're proceeding with multiple plant closures, laying off thousands of employees, and terminating health insurance benefits for retirees. Yesterday I heard that while they're deeply in debt, they've got only enough cash on hand to get them through another year of operations. It's sad that this American icon with such a profound history that has touched the lives of millions of Americans for so many years could soon be another bankruptcy statistic. Toyota, Honda and other imports have been handing GM's rear end to them for many years now. P... 08/02/2008

As the title of this blog suggests...I'm just a little confused. Every time I get a tad closer to sticking to my plans to take the family on a well deserved vacation, I'm suddenly blessed with another prospective client who asks to go out looking at homes during the time I'd like to take off! I know, I can "just say no" but sometimes it's just too attractive and I need the income. We're supposed to take off later this week, but all of a sudden I've got someone coming in from out of town to shop for a home. I guess when you're self employed, and you love what you do, it's all too easy to be a workaholic. When you've got a J-O-B the company makes you take your vacation time...or you will lose it. Hopefully I'll be able to pull off a vacation this month. We'll see. 08/02/2008

I got a call the other day from an older woman, a widow, who was seeking to list her home and downsize. She's all alone and she recently decided to climb a ladder to do some cleaning up high around some columns in her home. She fell off the ladder and tore up the ligaments in her knee. She's scheduled for surgery any day now. After realizing that I lived just around the corner from her subdivision, I asked her to please stay off tall ladders and to call me if she needed something done. I pass by her house every time I get on the freeway, so it only seemed natural for me to make such an offer. Anyway, my sincere expression of concern for her future well being was well received. I'll be following up with her as soon as I can after her knee surgery to see how she's doing and to see if she'... 08/02/2008

Well, I just noticed that I'll now clocked in at just over 200 blog posts on Active Rain. Kinda funny, actually, as I only got started on this new hobby last February (as my memory serves). I have enjoyed this hobby, which is also a powerful tool to market my services to the general public FOR FREE! I've also made some long distance friends with colleagues who are interested in sending referral business my way and receiving referral business from me. So far, I have not even sought out additional real estate blogging websites to join. My time is limited, and I'm pretty happy with the Active Rain community and the way Active Rain seems to be so intelligently and efficiently executing search engine optimization for the blogs we all post. Great job Active Rain! I appreciate everything you d... 08/02/2008

I'm sitting in an open home that I'm hosting right now, enjoying some down time from visitors and tending to my Active Rain habit. The model I'm in happens to be staged quite nicely and it has wireless internet access. Wow! What a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday! I've just met two nice couples, built rapport with them, taken their information and I'll be following up with them this week. Both couples are serious buyers and if all goes well, it would prove to be quite an addition to my YTD gross commission income. We'll see. It's all in the rapport building effort, listening to their needs and following up! Gotta go! More people are coming in now! 08/02/2008

Congratulations are in order! My colleague Bill Kennedy is our new BIC as of earlier this week. The Greenville Central Keller Williams office is in good hands! Bill is well liked, greatly respected and appreciated by all of us at the office! He's incredibly knowledgeable and helpful to all of us. His patience and tireless work ethic are just a few of the many attributes that help define him as the most obvious and perfect choice for our office BIC. Congratulations Bill! 08/02/2008

IMAX movies are coming to Greenville. Regal Entertainment Group is converting a screen at their Hollywood 20 on Woodruff Road into an IMAX screen. The screen is slightly curved and moved closer to the audience. The IMAX will be the only one in the Upstate. The IMAX expects to open in time for the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," scheduled for release November 21st. For information on Greenville South Carolina Real Estate on or near Woodruff Road contact us. 07/30/2008

Greenville County Schools start back to school August 19th.  Here are the dates for time off for Greenville County Schools! Now is the time to start preparing your child for the first day of school, time fly so pay attention to dates and times, these will help when you need to plan for time off and vacation time! Greenville County Schools Student CALENDAR School Start/End Dates First Day.............................August 19 Last Day (half day)...................June 4 4K First Day/Staggered.....Aug. 27-28 4K Last Day.............................May 22 Student Holidays Labor Day.......................September 1 Teacher Workday...............October 17 Teacher Workday...............October 20 Election Day....................November 4 Thanksgiving Break..........Nov. 26--28 Winter Brea... 07/27/2008

Greenville SC is one of the fastest growing  cities in the upstate of SC. Residents of the upstate are friendly and caring and want to be a good neighbor.  It is really nice to be out shopping and still here thank you and yes sir , it feels good to walk down the street and be meet with a smile and respect! .  Greenville  is growing but in a smart way.  Check out Main Street,  It is one of the pretties cities I have seen.  Everything is fresh and green and open.  The city has put a lot of time and effort in making Greenvile a great place to live.  The new West End offers the Reedy River park and ball field.  There are tons of great places to eat and shop.  You can get lost for hours in the shops on main street.  The economy is growing and new business continues to grow.  The housing slum... 07/27/2008