Fun Stuff

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The Peoples MLS

Lydias Assistant April 24th, 2008

Have you wondered what the future might bring? Click the thumbnail at left for larger image…

Life in a town that hosts a ‘Major Sporting Event’ like the Masters Golf Tournament can be fun and aggravating at the same time. The Augusta National course is absolutely breathtaking. But even though Master’s tickets are the hardest passes in all of sports to get, the massive crowds and snarling traffic that come here can test any Augusta resident’s patience. So in that vein, I’d like to present my (tongue firmly in cheek) list of activities that some Augustans might think of doing during the greatest week in golf.

Avoid Master’s traffic - Washington Road in particular is to be traveled on only as a last resort. Meanwhile, tell visiting in-laws that Washington Road is ‘the easiest way to get anywhere’.
Make mental note to apply for Master’s Badges so you can visit one time before you die (waiting list is over 30 years).
If you have Master’s Badges, rent your home for the week for an exorbitant sum - leaving Master’s Badges on the kitchen counter - and vacation in Panama.
Take a job in the food and beverage industry. After working for only one week, use the spare $30K you earned in tip money to retire to Panama.
Take a week’s vacation in Panama, showing up to work the Monday after Master’s week with a farmer tan and a Master’s 2008 visor, yelling loudly in the office about how ‘Tiger was an ass at Amen Corner and didn’t sign my T-shirt.’
If a teenager, find the nearest corporate hospitality house in the neighborhood and steal a couple cases of complimentary booze out of the garage.
Surf the free seafood buffets all over town, mumbling incoherently about how you are ‘a local’ and you are ‘taking an extra plate home to warm up later’.
Stand in front of any lot on Washington Road, holding a sign saying, “Parking - $20.” When angry homeowner comes out (or lot gets full), move a block down the street and start over. Use proceeds to vacation in Panama.
Camp out in front of any bar on Broad Street with a camera. Sooner or later some drunken celebrity will get thrown out into the street. We all know that Drunk+Celebrity+Photo = Profit. Vacation wherever you like, according to A, B, or C-list celebrity income.
Lawn Chair - $10. Umbrella - $5. Hand painted sign - $2. Selling your free Par 3 tickets to a guy from Michigan with screaming kids in the car - Priceless.

The following list was a carefully crafted attempt at humor. If you didn’t find it funny, feel free to tell me during your visit next year, and NO - I’m not giving you Master’s tickets, so don’t ask!

A day in the life of Lydia Taylor

Lydia Taylor April 3rd, 2008

Many people wonder what in the world a real estate agent does all day…well here is a day I had last week. Knowing ahead of time it was going to be busy, I took notes because I decided to blog it!

7:30 a.m. Already showered, shined, and ready to go! I jumped into my Honda and I was off! I was headed to a house that was in need of a termite inspection. I had to meet my client and the termite guy to make sure that the home was termite free.

8:00 a.m. Arrived at the house - the termite guy had already begun his inspection of the exterior. I was merely there to open the house and as a full service real estate agent I like to be present in case I was needed for anything.

8:30 a.m. The inspection was finished and the house was termite free! I bid the termite guy and my client a good day, and I was off to my next destination.

8:45 a.m. I arrived at a Realtor’s house to go over a pending deal and to pass a few minutes while I waited to go to my next appointment.

9:15 a.m. Left my Realtor friend’s home and headed to a local attorney’s office for the first of two home sale closings that I had scheduled for the day.

9:30 a.m. Arrived at the attorneys office with my calculator in hand. Typically I get the HUD statement ahead of time and I can add my numbers in peace. However in this case, the HUD was not ready early. I sat in the lobby going through all of the figures - making sure that all the numbers were correct and that my seller did not have any surprises.

9:45 a.m. The people involved in the house transaction begin to trickle in for the 10 a.m. closing.

10:10 a.m. We sit down at the closing table. I have pretty much nothing to do during this time except be there for questions and moral support. I was representing the seller, and as this was a listing sale, my seller had little to do but sign the deed and collect his check!

10:45 a.m. The closing came to an end. Time to congratulate everyone on their selling and buying of this home!

11:15 a.m. After a chat with my seller in the parking lot, my clients for my 11:30 closing arrived. I was representing the buyers on this transaction. Thankfully, there were no calculator pulls on this one - I had already done the math and my buyers were getting a fantastic deal.

12:45 p.m. The closing went off without a hitch and I took time to thank and congratulate everyone in the room.

1:00 p.m. LUNCH! I ate my favorite to keep me going for the rest of the day…MEXICAN!

2:00 p.m. Lunch was over and I had to head to the house to change into jeans and pick up my husband’s truck. My client for the second house sale did not have a way to get their newly purchased bed to their house. They said if they waited for it to be delivered, they would have had to sleep on the floor for 3 nights. I volunteered to help them out.

2:45 p.m. I was off to meet my clients at the furniture store in the truck.

3:30 p.m. The truck was loaded with the bed and I was off for delivery!

4:00 p.m. I arrived at the new house, helped them unload their new bed, and I was back in the truck headed to my house. I had to change back into my real estate agent appropriate clothing, pick up my real estate friendly Honda, and meet my next appointment.

4:30 p.m. I darted in the house - swapping clothing in a hurry - and jumped back into my Honda for my 5:00 showing.

5:00 p.m. I met up with some home buyers I’m representing and we viewed 5 houses in a new subdivision.

6:00 p.m. I was off for my next appointment to show a listing of mine in Edgefield, SC.

6:30 p.m. Arrived at the listing and showed my prospective buyers the listing. It went well - they said they were interested, but you never know.

6:45 p.m. I was back in my trusty Honda, finally headed home.

7:15 p.m. I arrived home - looking a little worn and torn from the day - but overall feeling pretty good. During a typical day, I get tons of incoming cell phone calls. I check the handset and see that I had 18 incoming cell phone calls and and a few office voice mail calls. I don’t bother looking at outgoing calls - Verizon needs to send me a gift basket or something. But, I had just had the kind of day I love…I was running all day!

9:30 p.m. I’ve done the dinner thing, kissed my husband, petted the dogs. Now it’s time to check the website and make sure there are no emails.

9:32 p.m. Groan at my inbox. You want extra information on how many houses again?

10:35 p.m. Done with emails. Time for bed.

A trip down memory lane…my favorite blog posts!

Lydia Taylor February 20th, 2008

It’s been (almost) a couple of years now of blogging. Over that time, I’ve published some good posts, some great posts, and some really BAD posts. Going back through the archives is almost like a digital archaeological dig…the top layers are of a little better quality than those layers dating back to the beginning of the website. I’ve learned a little bit about writing over time.

Just for fun, I’d like to relive some of the posts that I’ve featured since the start of the site, some good, some not so good. Would you care to stroll along memory lane with me?

The Top 5 (or so) most read articles in terms of traffic:

Top 10 Haunted Sites in Augusta (The winner of the traffic contest by a country mile. Go figure!)
A tie between Augusta’s Haunted Column and A profile on West Lake Country Club
A profile on North Augusta’s River Club
Investing in Student Housing (a guest post)
(a whopping 3-way tie) Fun Stuff to do in Augusta, a writeup up Bettis Academy, and the 2007 Kelsi Long Memorial Ride.

My favorite 5 real estate articles:

My favorite 5 that were (mostly) unrelated to real estate (but I thought were really good anyway!):

North Augusta Trivia
The Listing Appointment from the Twilight Zone
The Story of ‘New Savannah’
How to subscribe to an RSS feed (Not sure why I bothered, but a good writeup despite that. Grr!)
Elegant Homes don’t have Hand Grenades

Drop me a line and let me what you think! Should I stop now, or keep it up? Drop me a line and let me know what your favorite is, or even point out a stinker (there’s a few)!

I was tagged…so now I will tell you a little about me!

Lydia Taylor February 6th, 2008

My pal Stacy Macioszek over in Bluffton, SC has been nice enough to include me on her list of people that are ‘memed’ or ‘tagged’ to tell a little about themselves. It’s a simple game to get people to share a personal tale or two.

The meme rules are: I state 7 interesting things about me, and then link with 7 people to hear their stories.

Well Stacey, upon reflection, I always thought I had led an interesting life until I had to write something!! Since you were such a great sport doing your meme (you are much more interesting), I’ll give it a shot:

When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a stunt woman. I spent several years giving my mother heart attacks practicing my craft. My favorite stunt was when I used my favorite blue skates and an umbrella to sail down the main street of Palacios, Texas.
Both my husband and myself come from immigrant families. My father was born and raised in Paris, France; while my husband Austin’s mother was born in Berlin and raised in Recklinghausen, Germany. Both of our fathers served in the military.
The best part of my honeymoon to Alaska was sitting on the deck of a ship with Austin under a wool blanket, sipping hot chocolate while watching icebergs float by.
I have two sisters, and the one that is closest to my age is fourteen years my senior! SURPRISE baby!
My first dog was ‘Mokey’ named after a character on Fraggle Rock. My second dog was ‘Puddles’…no explanation necessary.
The first apartment that Austin and I lived in had an interesting plumbing problem…the soap suds from the apartment upstairs would bubble out and over the top of our toilet…NASTY!
I love to paint and I love to volunteer for charities. One time I combined both: I painted a 30′ foot mural for an elementary school (with some help)!

Now for the hard part…7 people to link to. Hmm.

So let’s hear from: Dave Smith, Ryan Ward, Eric Bramlett, Wayne & Donna Long (do they count twice?!), Joe Lane, Eric Blackwell, and last but definitely not least, a fellow female Realtor pounding the bricks in Sacramento California: Julie Jalone.

I look forward to hearing your stories!! Anyone else have an exciting tale to tell?

I am the Realtor who fell down on the job…

Lydia Taylor January 22nd, 2008

I try very hard to be a competent and hardworking Realtor. I try to provide the best service possible - and I try to go the extra mile for all of my clients.

However sometimes grace leaves my side and things go a little pear shaped.

I was meeting with some pretty important clients and we went to tour some homes they were looking to invest in. Typically I drive my clients around. In this case one of the clients wanted to go in his truck. So, I piled into the back of the work truck and we were off.

I was trying very hard to impress them with my enthusiasm and knowledge. By my scale I thought I was ROCKING IT, however that would not be what I would be remembered for on this day. We toured the homes and then it was time for me to be dropped off and go back to the office. Whether what happened next was caused partially by my high heels is still up for debate - as I stepped out of the truck my pant leg caught on the hook that secures the back door. It was like slow motion… I could see there was no stopping me from falling to the asphalt below! As gravity took hold, my pant leg that had been caught helped swivel me around, to fall on my back at the last second.

I landed right on my back in downtown Augusta in the middle of Broad Street.

Wanted for questioning…

Suspect wanted for questioning?

So there I lay… purse in one hand… my files in the other… and my leg stuck on the door of a truck a good 3 feet above my head! The sight was so unusual it brought people out of a nearby restaurant to stare.

As I lay there laughing, I was wondering how in the world I was going to manage getting up. To assist, my client graciously unhooked my leg. But I still had nothing to grasp onto to get off the street. So I continued to lay on the asphalt laughing in embarrassment.

Finally, realizing that I was not going to pick myself up - my client decided to do it for me. He bent over, put his hands under my armpits and placed me like a little doll right back on my feet. Speechless, I just stood there laughing. He looked at me with concern and asked if I was alright. I looked at him and said, “No, I am embarrassed.” That was the truth - I had not a scratch, bump, or bruise to me physically - but my ego had been shattered.

Trying to regain my composure, I said, “Grace is not my strong suit, but I am always memorable and good for a laugh.” My client said I was either the klutziest person or the most brilliant salesperson he had ever met - because of all the real estate agents he had worked with, one thing was for sure…he would never forget me!

So, for my Realtor friends who read my Elegant Blog (and everyone else that works with the public), remember that falling down on the job is not always a bad thing!