About Stone County, MO

Whenever people tell me they are looking for land I get involved with a passion. I love to show land because of the views you get traveling around the Ozarks seeing all the natural beauty. There is land you can farm, land for grazing, timber land, residential lots, ranchland, upland, bottomland, wasteland, land with live water, waterfront land, waterview land etc.

The more questions I have asked, the better picture of what type of land is wanted. Even though that helps tremendously, you still need to see a lot of land before you can really get a picture of their need.

Showing houses is a lot like showing land but there are only some many available that will fit the kind of criteria most search questions help narrow your choices down to. True, there may be several that are close but I find I can get closer to knowing what to show people sooner when dealing with house hunting than looking for land. Yes, I do enjoy helping people find the home they really are looking for and find it very rewarding and fulfilling when they say they have fallen in love with this house. Mission accomplished and usually in less time that I would expect after showing several that did not seem close.

But it just never goes that way with land hunting and the hunt is what I enjoy, which is probably why I love searching for the parcel my clients have pictured in their mind the most, because it really is the most challenging. We will look for two or three times longer for a piece of ground that is just what my clients want than for a house they have pictured in their minds. Every land search takes that much longer and is that much more challenging in my opinion. Knowing the challenge it presents and the hunt involved must get the "old hunter" going in me and makes my ears perk up every time I hear, "We are looking for some land" Yahoo, here we go again, around the Missouri Ozarks on my rounds.

If you would like to see some great Ozarks Land listings you can go to my website and see more than you probably have time to but feel free to go back whenever you like. http://www.ozarksagent.com is my homesite or you can emailto: steve@ozarksagent.com and I will send you whatever you would like to see directly from the MLS. Call Steve direct (417) 350-9743 and get all the help and information you nee.

Steve Mattison is Your Ozarksagent with Souvenir Realty, Inc. (417)357-8326.

I snapped a quick photo of some hay spread out on the field by a local farmer and thought, what about the deer. Then I remembered, they are primarily nocturnal feeders and will probably be out here tonight cleaning up after the cattle have gone to sleep. I kow cattle sleep at night because one of the local fun things to do in the Ozarks is to go cow tipping. Just grab a flashlight and a couple of bubbas and you are in for a night of hysterical fun, that does nothing to please your neighborhood cattlemen. Well, we've enjoyed the snow for a few days and are ready for it to go away so we can get ready for the big bass to start moving up into the shallow water again, so come on sunshine, come on spring, come on warmer days and nights. Waiting for fishing season is almost as tough as it was to wait on Santa way back when.

County to be rezoned into two classifications - commercial or agricultural

In response to a suit filed by MPI (Missouri Partners Inc.) Judge Carr L. Woods ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, that Stone County Planning and Zoning Commission will need to establish a new set of Planning and Zoning Regularions.

Permits frozen
The Judge also ruled that the county has not adopted building regulations or a building code other than setback lines, which are required by the State. Stone county is prohibited from issuring permits under the "Existing - Use Zoning Procedure".

The Planning and Zoning Department will remain open , but no new applications will be taken until a new set of Planning and Zoning regulations are in place.

The Stone County Commission has said they will not appeal the ruling. They will try to streamline plat approvals. Dates will be published for public meetings to set the new guidlines where the county will be rezoned in two classifications - agricultural and commercial.

Call Joan for all your Real Estate needs. 417-846-7128

Tri-Lakes Realtors 417-858-3344

Politics aside, I have been hoping this year would be better than last year for quite some time. Thankfully, I can tell you already this year is better than I expected just a few months ago. Keeping a positive attitude and expecting the best always helps, but seeing more contracts and closings this month at almost the mid-point than a couple of the previousl months combined proves that it is truly happening locally just as I had hoped, and even better.

I am posting this only to encourage those who are still wondering if there is enough activity going on in the real estate market yet this year to dare hope that the market is turning around. I would have to say it is starting to get better, in my humble opinion.

You may think I am nuts but that is why I put this picture up. A few months ago my grand-daughter and I were road hunting for Grandma's favorite fudge ingredient to prepare for the holiday goodies we love. We were able to round up over a hundred black walnuts we found along the side of the road while driving through the local hollers. So, after spending a couple of long afternoon trying to husk them and getting very stained hands, we decided after talking to my brother and dad, to let them just sit a couple months and rot the husk off naturally.

Sometimes you can work and work and not get anything but tired with very dirty hands. That can make you stop and ponder the situation awhile. Later you go back and find that things have progressed right along at their normal pace without your help and are now ready for the harvest. You see, after the husk has turned black and the hulling worms have done their job, you can just knock that junk off them, crack the shell and get the meat. It seems so easy when you do it right. Duh! Naturally, getting all the prep work done is the KEY! You can't harvest what you haven't earned. So don't go nuts, just keep on working and waiting, you will eventually get to harvest!

REALTOR® for a brokerage that went out of business last year, I was forced to create a new brand and re-start my business from square one in an environment that could not be described as a "cyber-culture." Just to avoid any misconceptions, I am not saying that the Ozarks are full of illiterate, banjo playing, hillbillies, but our lifestyle is not a starbucks-fueled, hyper-blackberry, speed-racer paced one either. Branson and the Table Rock Lake area are more of the retro-baby-boomer oriented style of culture that know how to use the internet but are not dependent upon it daily.

My challenge has also been maximized by the reality that in our rural area, which is true in much of Missouri, there are no daily newspapers or even rarer, local radio stations. Communicating my brand to this rural region is therefore not able to be done by e-newsletters, newspaper advertising, nor occasional radio blips. Matter of a fact, there is no certain way to reach a majority of those who live in and/or frequent this neck of the woods. This brings me to reason for my story.

I have been doing the hated face to face, one on one, day in and day out word of mouth branding that requires a lot of gas, walking, and talking to strangers as well as friends and neighbors. One day I went up a driveway that was marked "private drive" and made face to face contact with the angriest man I have ever met in my life. I mean this man had demons, he would have killed me on the spot if his eyes had been loaded for bear. After unloading his verbal venom on me and making sure I knew he did not want to ever see me within a mile of his holler ever again, I made a courteous exit as I thanked God he did not have a gun with him that day. No wonder people hate to go out and meet strangers without being invited, it is dangerous, if not stupid. Guess I will have to find a better way to "get-r-done."

True, word of mouth and face to face is the best method of advertising I know of, however, between the price of gas, time it takes to develop trust in new relationships, and the inherit danger involved, the challenge has become, become branded before breaking the bank. I feel like I am in a real race against the real estate market recovery schedule and only time will tell if I will win or not!