Mostly hidden by great oaks, the Greenville County Museum of Art boasts an unequaled collection of Southern paintings, an outstanding collection of contemporary American art, four floors of exhibition space, an auditorium and theatre, art school, classrooms and studios in a large, modern building. Beginning with colonial portraiture from the early 1700s, the collection contains at least one example from every major movement in American art. The museum is noted for its collections of work by Andrew Wyeth and Jasper Johns, as well as a contemporary collection that features such notables as Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and others. It boasts the finest collection of Andrew Wyeth watercolors including his most recent works plus features the highly acclaimed Southern Collection which pres... 02/07/2008

The West End Historic Area and Westend Market is located at the South end of Main Street at Augusta Street in Greenville, just across the Reedy River from downtown. It has a long and interesting history. After earlier settlements in the 1830’s the Furman University was established in 1852 on fifty acres of land in the West End, where it expanded and remained until 1958. This development and the arrival of the Greenville & Columbia Railroad in the West End in 1853 led to both residential and commercial development of the area. In the 1890’s this area was called Greenville’s second downtown. This district was full of life and was a place where the people of the city could get their daily necessities. Cotton and fertilizer warehouses sprang up as well as other commercial activities that su... 02/06/2008

Here are some pictures of Greenville and Greenville county, just to have a glimpse how beautiful our town and area is: Westin Poinsett Hotel             Liberty Building                    Riverplace fountain                Art galleries at RiverpaceThese pictures are taken downtwon Greenville.   Shops at Westend                                  Liberty Bridge                                Falls Park             These pictures are taken downtown Greenville.   BMW Zentrum and Museum                   GSP airport                                       Pinnacle Lake,Table Rock State Park Cliff's Valley Golf course & community     Blue Ridge Mountains              Blue Ridge Mountains Visit our website: TransDomo, Greenville, SC real estate agent 02/06/2008

South Carolina is the new up and coming real estate secret. Prices have been steady here, in spite of a national dropping of realty sales and house prices. The Upstate is the fastest growing region in the state and positioned as it is, between Charlotte and Atlanta, its future development and growth prospects are said to be bright. The largest city in the Upstate is Greenville, a beautiful town to call your own, and awarded the 'Great American Main Street Award' in 2003. Greenville builders have been anticipating the growth curve and there are currently around 1500 brand new and sparkling homes for sale in this delightful town.The largest number for sale is in the price range spanning from $150,000 - $300.000. There are also more than 1300 existing condos in the downtown area - a very s... 01/31/2008

 Greenville liegt in der nord-westlichen Ecke von South Carolina, an der Interstate I-85 jeweils auf halben Weg nach Charlotte, NC und Atlanta, GA. Greenville ist eine einladende Stadt mit baumbestandenen Strassen, am Ufer und Wasserfall des Reedy Rivers. Am Fusse der Blue Ridge Mountains und auf einer Höhe von ca. 300 Metern über Meeresspiegel gelegen, verfügt Greenville rund um’s Jahr über ein angenehmes Klima, das einen atemberaubenden Wechsel der Jaherszeiten mit sich bringt. Die niedrigen Temperaturen liegen durchschnittlich bei ca. 9 Grad Celsius; die Höchsttemperaturen durchschnittlich bei 26 Grad Celsius. Im Hochsommer klettern die Spitzentemperaturen durchaus auch über 30 Grad Celsius. Im Winter wird es nur selten einmal unter 0 Grad Celsius kalt. Greenville’s Verwandlung in ei... 01/31/2008

   Greenville is located in the northwestern corner of South Carolina, halfway on the I-85 between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA Greenville and the surrounding areas are commonly referred to as the Upstate or the Piedmont region. Lying in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the first ridge of the mountains approximately 20 miles to the northwest and on an elevation between 800 to 1,100 feet above sea level the climate for Greenville is pleasant year-round, with spectacular seasonal changes during the year. The weather in Greenville is moderate with an average low temperature of 48 degrees F and an average high temperature of 78 degrees F, peaking sometimes in the 90’s. Greenville is an inviting upstate city on the banks and at the waterfalls of the Reedy River with b... 01/31/2008

 Some of you have already heard of AT&T spending millions to update their Broadband Network in the Upstate. So what does that mean for us? The bottom line--TIME. Now we can truly be "mobile' and can have all the tools to effectively run our business at remote locations so we can have more time for what matters--our clients. I recommend three wireless devices from AT&T Wireless that are the best:1) Sierra PC or USB Card--this 3G Broadband Device is the best--just insert it into your laptop and Bam! You are connected to Blazing speed--even in rural places in the upstate. [For coverage inquiries, please email me]2) AT&T TILT--I highly recommend this new device. I think this is so much better than the I-Phone. The features I like about this device is its 3G / Quad Band capabilities, built-i... 01/23/2008

Well, alot has changed since my last blog. I have just relocated to Greenville, SC and am excited about the new state and company I will be working in and for. The company is South Carolina Mortgage Associates and there are several branches through out South Carolina. The associates I work with are very personable and informative. I look forward ito helping the community with all of their financial needs.  01/22/2008

The Greenville Market seems to be showing signs of stabilizing after the buyers market we have had over the past few years.  Prices are  increasing in our market.  I attended a meeting yesterday that addressed this phenomena, along with the fact that our homes are also selling faster.  This is not necessarily the end of the Buyer's Market but the trend seems to be shifting into neutral.  The talk of the Fed lowering its lending rates to 3+% by year's end is another factor to watch.  A few market facts to share....as of Nov 30, 2007The AVERAGE home sale in our market in 2007 was $186,123 selling in an average of 86 days!  Just a couple of years ago, our market averages sold at 169K in 133 days.  Our market SOLD 9,349 homes to November 30th in 2007.   (Source GGAR 1/08)On the downside of ... 01/11/2008

 Greetings from the Real Estate world in the month of mistletoe, reindeer, and Santa Claus.  Our office recently hosted a Saturday where children could have their pictures made with Santa Claus, play games, face paint, and have refreshments.  It was a huge success and made me start thinking.  If I could sit on Santa's lap today and ask for something (and still believe that I would actually GET it), what would I ask for?  World Peace  -   No, I am not a beauty contestant and do not think that would work.End to Global Warming  -   Not being a huge Al Gore fan, this would probably not be a good idea.  Plus, I am sure that I have contributed to this problem (we realtors log a LOT of miles) and do not want to be hypocritical.Low Interest Rates  -   But wait, we already have them.  Why waste ... 12/17/2007

Good news for real estate agents and all other heavy cell phone users. Wireless service should soon get better and offer more advanced features around Greenville, Spartanburg and Clemson. At&T will upgrade and expand service including deployment of third generation 3G broadband mobile network in early 2008. According to wikipedia.com : "3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Typically, they provide service at 5-10 Mb per second".For mobile services users that means not only improved voice access, but also high speed internet, data transfer and w... 12/13/2007

Hello AllBelow is what MSN Money Staff are saying about home appreciation as of Sept 30.  May want to scroll down and check your city.  For Example, this is what it says about home values in Greenville SC area (aka Upstate South Carolina, Greenville, Spartanburg, Pikens, Oconee, Anderson Counties).  Some values under the 5 years column are eye catchers.RegardsSusanne Casewww.UpStateCarolinaOnLine.comHome price appreciation as of Sept. 30Metro areaRankQuarter1-year5-yearGreenville-Mouldin-Easley, SC381.116.221.42  By MSN Money staffHome price appreciation as of Sept. 30Metro areaRankQuarter1-year5-yearAkron, OH202-1.190.128.88Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY790.784.3565.89Albuquerque, NM331.336.557.4Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ770.924.4163.37Amarillo, TX621.185.0226.21Ames, IA1320.352.91... 11/29/2007

Imagine finding a "secret room" in your house.Jason and Kerri Brown of Greenville found a secret room in their home behind a bookcase, and what was inside was a massive mold infestation.  It seems that the bought the home from foreclosure and decided not to get a mold test done.It seems that the previous owner left a note detailing the mold problem inside the secret room.  The note read something like this:"Hello. If you're reading this, then you found the secret room. I owned this house for a short while and it was discovered to have a serious mold problem. One that actually made my children very sick to the point that we had to move out."Now the owners have sued Fannie May, Century 21, and the Realtor that sold them the home.  Fannie May was dropped from the lawsuit when they agreed t... 11/04/2007

Homeowners could finally be getting some much needed relief when it comes to Adjustable Rate Mortgages(ARM's). The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has put together a temporary program designed to provide refinancing opportunites to borrowers of conventional Adjustable Rate Mortgages who are delinquent under their current mortgage as a result of their interest rate adjustment. Eligible applicants must demonstrate that prior to the reset or adjustment of their ARM loan they were able to meet their mortgage obligations. In some cases, an eligible borrower may be permitted to include past due mortgage payments in the new FHA loan. The true intent of the program is to assist those non-FHA borrowers who have been harmed by recent rate adjustments. The borrower's payment history on the no... 09/12/2007

When you read this article's title, the first thing that pops into mind is... what's a Dina?  Is that a misspelling?  (I'm famous for them, though they are infrequent and generally occur at the worst possible times - see my blog!). No misspelling this time.  My Dina is Dina Lopez, my closing coordinator.  I outsource my closings to her.  Once I place a buyer or seller under contract, all of the paperwork is forwarded to Dina, and she takes care of almost everything from that point on.  All I have to do is negotiate the repairs and show up at the closing.  For this, I pay her a nominal fee of a couple hundred dollars. So why is my Dina going to make me a ton of cash?  Well, she won't make it for me directly.  It's in the amount of time that she frees up for me.  If you think about it, ta... 09/03/2007

A little while back I posted a request for ideas on removing smoke odors from a property.  I received some good feedback, and I promised to make a follow-up post to tie them all together. If you check with a local air conditioning cotractor, they may have an Ozone machine.  The ozone machine removed odors that are embedded in walls and furniture (Thanks Dan Forbes!) At a minimum, replace the carpet and curtains/window treatments.  This is especially true if you have a heavy smoker (Thanks Charles McDonald!) Konnie McKee lives by Fabreeze.  Konnie recommends buying stock in Fabreeze and spraying it on everything, then opening the windows and letting it air out for a few days (Thanks Konnie!) Kevin May commented that he thought ozone treatment was about 60% effective, and if you include c... 09/03/2007

Over the years, I have found a common denominator among real estate agents:  They like to spend their commission checks.  I have also found another common denominator:  They all like to stay alive.  In order to enjoy those checks, sometimes we have to think about our safety. I bet you can relate to this:  All agents, at one time or another, have really been excited to show a house to a potential client.  They practically dance through each room, pointing out the features with a flourish, all the while anticipating that the next thing the prospect will desire is their name on a contract. What if the prospect desires nothing more than to take your money and leave you for dead? It's a sobering thought, but unfortunately, it happens more frequently than most of us want to acknowledge. As a ... 09/03/2007

I'm considered an out-of-the-box type of real estate agent, from my marketing techniques all the way to my training classes, so it should not come as a surprise to my aquaintances that I am going to take YouTube in a completely different direction for free real estate advertising. What do most real estate agents use YouTube for?  They take visual tours, or digitally recorded tours of their listings, and post them on YouTube to try and get more marketing bang for their buck (or in this case, for free!).  I don't fault these real estate agents - instead, I applaud them!  This is truly out-of-the-box thinking, and we may all be doing it in the near future. Being how I am, though, I want to take YouTube and real estate to a different level (I won't call it the "next level", but who knows?).... 09/02/2007

I have read several posts on AR asking questions on how to market to FSBOs, and I wanted to share something that I started doing several years ago that seems to work like a charm. First of all, you need to have a telephone call-capture system up and running (otherwise called an IVR system, or a "hotline" system).  If you don't know what a call-capture system is, here's the nutshell version... for those of you familiar with them, skip the next paragraph! Call-capture systems are toll free recorded phone lines.  They usually look something like this: For Toll-Free Recorded Info Call 1-800-999-1111 ID#1234.  I'm sure you've seen these in advertisements.  When someone calls into a call-capture system for the advertised information, the system captures their phone number (similar to caller-I... 09/02/2007

I was having a discussion with a fellow Training Director for a real estate office, and he shared some training woes with me.  I tried to help him with his predicament, drawing upon my own experience in training.  As the Director of Training for my market center, I am tasked with the responsibility for making sure that our agents receive awesome training.  We take our commitment to training VERY seriously.  In fact, as a whole, Keller Williams Realty has been called "A training and consulting company cleverly disguised as a real estate company."  Between our team leader, operating principle, the agents and myself, we've come up with some great topics for training, and have SOMETHING on the calendar for every weekday. His problems are all with the instructors.  Instructors show up late. ... 09/01/2007