All Neighbors in Auburn, AL
Top Neighbors: The magic behind the mirrors
You will never have to pay to be listed as a top neighbor. Period. That important detail clarified, let's discuss how we arrive at two "top neighbors" for a given region:
Localism is a bustling collection of hyper-local communities, and the top neighbors should reflect those members who are most active. When ranking users in a given region, several factors are considered. To get your foot in the proverbial door, you need to have posted at least one "Localism" article or photo for the region.
The very best way to quickly rise to #1 is to post high-quality local content. Keeping a steady strem of incoming posts and photos will massively tilt the scales in your favor.
What doesn't count toward the top neighbor ranking? ActiveRain points and community sponsorships. The top neighbor spots will always go to the most active members in a region. We want to create a level playing field that encourages the growth of communities — talent and dedication are required to win the day.
As I grow older---or younger as I'm sometimes accused of---I understand better the usefulness of contrast in our lives...the value of LIGHT after having been in the dark, the value of shelter after having lost a home, the value of a best friend after losing one, the value of RAIN after a drought and the renewed value of a dollar for the same reason in every season. Through the lens of contrast, I can, at one point, view LIFE as 
statistics and LOSS in the shakedown of major banks and the stock market and, of course, the real estate industry. Like a drought, there's been a severe draining, drying up, critical mass of symbolic cancers in corporations, emptying of foundational resources, including many homes gone to foreclosure. As a REALTOR, this hits my heart like a ton of bricks and mortar, as I operate from the premise that every house can be a home...but it requires a family, a household, a dream of shelter and usually a financed mortgage. Everyone I know has been jolted and affected by the economic shifts of 2008. The Opelika-Auburn, AL area, where I live and work, has had some good press in recent years, spotlighting this University town as a most viable geographical area for new business growth and development. In anticipation of the surge, building and development went full speed ahead in most recent years, some more experienced and visionary than others who merely jumped on the building bandwagon. This past year, however, even the best of them---the cream of the crop---were severely hit by the refusal of banks to continue financing construction loans on their buildable lots. Now some banks are ready to work with these builders & developers again, but the damage has been done, and most are no longer available. So much came to a screeching halt...a standstill of silence. Some new homes under construction were burned down out of anger. Unkind words were overheard and thrown around town---it all seemed so misplaced. I felt a HUGE LOSS and heard the shattering of broken hearts and homes, families and dreams, especially for the builders and developers that I worked closely with since I began in this business just a few years ago...the ones that encouraged me and inspired my 
efforts. I was able to learn so much, first-hand, about building a house, developing land, having a vision---and a marketing plan. I grew to LOVE the land, the homes, the vision, the people who came along and saw the value of anchoring their dream of a home to one of these new houses. It was a world I came to live in and work in---and loved...and the one that came crashing down this year with foreclosures and Chapter 11. One particular development, THE COTSWOLDS, is particularly tragic to me, and I still cannot drive through the place without feeling a heaviness choke my spirit. Not so much for the loss of potential sales, but for the loss of a vision for Auburn that I believed was so inspired and even prophetic for a town like this---and now it remains to be seen. Some of the most beautiful homes I've ever walked through here in Auburn were built as spec homes at THE COTSWOLDS---and remain empty, surrounded by skepticism and poor judgment. The one I've done this video on is nearly 4000 sf and sits on a beautiful half-acre---with no family to make it a home. The subdivision is quiet now...hibernating...hopefully dreaming of renewal in the not too distant future...perhaps waking up to Buyers who can capture the essence of what this vision once was---they'll be able to see the intrinsic beauty of this land. My gut feeling is that in about 5 years, these homes will be happily inhabited and no one will remember this story. TODAY, however, the last day of 2008, I AM REMEMBERING the story of THE COTSWOLDS in Auburn, Alabama, and the at least 11 Chapters of Change that hit the real estate market in this county this year. It's occurred to me that I need to acknowledge the LOSS, the sadness, the heartache for these nearly abandoned homes and for the individuals and companies who designed and constructed them and had to let them go, along with their livlihood. It suddenly feels very important to me, that LETTING GO and SAYING GOODBYE to the way things were is a soulful requirement for embracing the landscape of 2009...a lot of wilderness. And so I put my offering on this cyber-covered table... offering up my grief for the LOSS of dreams this year, offering my heartfelt sympathy to the builders and developers whose lives & families were deeply affected by these changes. I offer my strength and best hopes for families who have been evicted or lost their homes and jobs.
(THE COTSWOLDS landscape)
