Hot Springs, AR

1. Back Porch Grill for sunset any day- food is good and consistent (best suset spot)

2. Central Park- Great downtown locale easy level access nice views, easy parking, great food(best restaurant in Hot Springs) If dining inside after dark you will definitely agree the tacky flood lights they use for lighting are quite blinding and offensive, the food, service, and everything else make up for it. I know my dinner tabs would consist of a bottle wine purchase as opposed to a glass if the lights were dimmer..and that goes for most that imbibe I'm sure!

3. Joses Mexican Food- great Margarita patio. It quickly replaced On the Border for me. Joses is clean as opposed to the latter..

4. Salsa's- Good patio, crappy service and food, GREAT Margarita's(possibly the best in town- Don Juans is over, please do not bother me with "let's go to Don Juans" anymore! We have awesome authentic Mexican food in HS now!

5. Arlington Lanai any day. Also ask for a pool cup and take a stroll up to the 7th floor pool deck-trust me! AND do not forget to ask for a pool cup when ordering your cocktail.

6. One of the neatest patios in all of Hot Springs is currently being hogged by an awful restaurant downtown called..hmm..I had to phone a friend!! Rolondo's- sigh Slip in, head straight to the back of the restaurant to see this awesome area, then humbly bow out and go seek food,drink & service elsewhere. I have actually tried to go 6 times, yes six---they just can't pull it together. It is too hit and miss(mostly miss)

7. Best Sunday patio- Fishermans Wharf- hangover cure or just great Sunday spot, It is always the same- You are greeted by some high school tinnybopper likely texting whom adequately greets you, tells you the patio might be too cold and then carries out your wishes of getting you to the patio! The service is usually prompt and the food most always goodish. The drinks are equally goodish. The staff always has all of their teeth and it is clean & family friendly.

8. Brady Mountain Resort- Memorial day to Labor day, Lake Ouachita-truck stop waitresses, an occasional surprise to the norm, but rare. Country food that varies on quality since Ned Bass sold. Full bar-little wine-likely the same list I wrote 12 years ago when I worked for Glazer Distributors! HEY its lake Ouachita..its a holy spot!

9. Mountain Harbor-Im not even sure they have a patio, but when camping on an island in the middle of Ouachita, you need to know they have a breakfast buffet until 10:30!

10. Hamilton House is hands down the all time best spot in the state, but the new owner is CLUELESS when it comes to any form of restaurant operation, oh yeah, thats why the kitchen is closed and they just do room rentals in the bed & no breakfast! When the Smith's were to old to carry on their legacy of the Hamilton House it saddened me greatly. She was my restaurant inspiration, she just never realized it when I worked for her for a month or so years back.

LEAVING Hot Springs

11. Cafe Klaser.com Heber Springs- One of my favorite places in the state. Just go. Sit outside & just appreciate being. Get a chocolate truffle and a whole coconut creme pie to go. Stay a long time.

12. Pied Piper Eureka Springs- Its special. Fatima the owner is awesome. Her Dad owns Rogues Manor(i've never bothered) but Fatimas place is awesome. Last time I was there, she was on vacay and there was a for sale sign up, OPENED but for sale, I had a great time as always & her Reuben beats the hell out of Oaklawns any day.

13. Little Rock Cajun's Warf--back when she originally opened it in probably the 80's her slogan was "You don't need a yacht if you've got a big deck" She sold it to Landrys and later reconfiscated her great spot and reclaimed it as Cajuns Warf..2000-2001ish. She opened with a sassy billboard on Cantrell Rd. It had several shrimp lined up pointing to the restaurant and verbage "get your tails in here" I have met her once or twice. I love her.

14. Rev Room- It is an awesome hipster spot with all sorts of live music and probably one of the best bartenders in the state(besides me of course) He is short & beefy, blonde hair. Matt I think. A good bartender is RARE. The next one that comes to mind is in Dallas at the Melrose Hotel and her name is Kathleen.

Oh yeah, this is suppose to be a real estate site. I live it, breathe it, list it, sell it, and LOVE it. I am extremely busy. I have 30+ listings. I have done a lot of volume this year already. I'm thrilled. I hope this wave doesn't crash and if it does, I hope I land in sand. I practice very ethicly and appreciate your referrals. I now have a lot of references. Cheers my Real Estate brothers and sisters.

Website statistics for our primary web site, www.BestofHotSprings.com broke another record today! This site had 76,348 total hits during the month of March. That tells us that the real estate market is very active and heating up!

Along with this great news, one of my favorite financial analyst, Dave Ramsey, appeared on Fox News today and gave his opinion on the economy with much focus on the real estate market. Dave believes that the housing market will be the major player in getting the economy back in shape. He called attention to the most recent report on home sales being up around 5% in February nationwide. He also reiterated the wonderful opportunity for home buyers at this time with terrific interest rates around 4.5%, there is a huge inventory of homes to pick from, and then wrapped it up by stating it's the "best opportunity for buyers in 50 years". Dave also predicted that the real estate market would be "vibrant" by this fall and "on fire" by next spring. When asked "if we've hit the bottom yet?". He stated that he thinks we may have hit the bottom about a month ago and we're now on the upswing.

I tend to agree with Dave Ramsey, as we are seeing many signs of the upswing. Let's get busy and have a wonderful 2009.

It's a great week this week in Hot Springs. The spring weather is here with temperatures in the 70s, the Bradford Pear trees are blooming, the lake levels are back to normal, and the streets are packed with tourists in town for the horse races. You can feel the excitement!

On top of all this great news, our local Chamber of Commerce made the headlines in the local newspaper with their very positive reports on statistics. Here's some of the information that they reported earlier this week:

• Arkansas's unemployment rate is currently 6.4% - much better than the national average at 8.1%
  
  
• Hot Springs unemployment rate is 5.9% - even better than the state & national average, and also improved from Hot Springs' rate 5 years ago at 6.4%
  
  
• Hot Springs experienced a 28% growth in per capita income since 2004. This is the highest percentage growth in Arkansas.
  
  
• Arkansas experienced a 3.8% increase in tourism in 2008, & a portion of that increase can be attributed to Hot Springs, which saw a 1.54% increase in hospitality tax collections.
  
  
• As a major contributor to the tourism sector of Hot Springs, the Oaklawn Horse Racing Track is seeing higher attendance than virtually ever other race track in the country. Attendance at every race track in the U.S. is down by an average of 30%, while "Oaklawn" is up 2% over last year in attendance and bets made.
  
  
• Home prices in Hot Springs fell only 0.35%, while Arkansas reported an 8.3% decrease. Home values are holding in Hot Springs.

In addition, we are also pleased to report that our web site: www.BestofHotSprings.com is booming with hits. We are now averaging 55,000 hits/month over our last year's average at 35,000 hits/month. This tells us that we have more interested buyers out there.

So let's turn the TVs off and get out & enjoy some wonderful Hot Springs.

I hope everyone is enjoying the market change as I have. It has been a welcomed blast of business. Here are several new listings from lake to historic to 12 acres with a great house.

Website hits are up! The Kennedy Team's website, www.BestofHotSprings.com expects more than a 33% increase in site hits by the end of January. Historically, this website averages 35,000 hits per month. As of today, with one week remaining in the month, 42,500 hits have been calculated with an average of 1,635 hit per day! That's 470 more hits per day than the usual 1,166! If this increase in web activity continues, and it is expected that it will, The Kennedy Team should have 52,300 hits by the end of January 2009. What a great way to begin the New Year!

The Broker at the main office at Trademark Real Estate, Inc. also reports a swell in activity with increased showings on all of the office listings.

I asked Paulia Kennedy, real estate marketing guru, if she was advertising her listings any differently. Paulia's reply was, "I recently changed our print ads and focused on a professionally designed general print ad in the homes magazines which is different from the other agents' ads showing just little pictures of houses."


Paulia continued to explain, "Another reason for good hits on the site has been the attention paid to our holiday gifts that we sent out in December. We received lots of thank you's along with good referrals." The gift that keeps on giving!

Paulia and the Kennedy Team have a number of new listings this month. I've been posting virtual tours nearly every week. As a result, there are many more Kennedy Team lawn signs out there as well. Paulia said, "We're also getting more people say they see our signs everywhere... (and we've got more signs out there now)."

Along with these results Paulia is confident that the market is changing for the better. She has seen an increase in buyer confidence, and the Kennedy Team is preparing for a booming real estate market in 2009!

Janine Gregor
Virtual Assistant to Paulia Kennedy