We'd love to have as many people as possible see these two awesome properties. In order to add a little incentive we'll be having two drawings each weekend day through June, one for each house Saturday and Sunday. In order to enter the drawing you have to tour them both and then fill out comment sheets about both of them. At the end of the day we'll match up the comment sheets from each house, draw two winners (using a random number generator) and then call the winners to find out which one of the following four great prizes they want:
1. a round of golf at Magnolia Greens Golf Plantation (including cart)
2. a $35 gift certificate to Front Street Brewery in Downtown Wilmington
3. a $35 gift certificate to Antonios Pizza and Pasta Restaurant (three locations: 1 in Leland and 2 in Wilmington)
4. (for the first two weekends) Either 1 VIP ticket or 2 general admission tickets to The Buckinghams concert on June 20th).
Buyers, friends, REALTORS, anyone over the age of 18 is invited to participate in this drawing. Mostly we want you to see the houses, but we'd also like to meet you to give you a chance in the drawings, so come on out!
Getting ready for the event.
This SeaBrooke model was a Parade of Homes Bronze Award Winner.
The party Luau theme was promoted with vigor and hilarity by Christy and Greg Beck.
Music for the event was provided by the Pantastic Steel Band.
Catering by Charles Davis himself of Saw Mill Catering. Good, good stuff - my fav was the Caribbean style chicken.
As you can see from the following four photos, area REALTORs showed up in force.
On-site agent Laura Heal hosted the event, along with developer/builders Robin and Deans Hackney.
Obviously some of the agents attending the event came in the spirit of the event. This happy dancer is Mike Walton of Network Real Estate.
Area photographer Wendy Hunt of NBM Magazine was on hand to record the festivities.
Those who dared posed behind this cutout.
Adults had a lot of fun at the Luau in LA. Kids who live in SeaBrooke will have fun on this cool playscape. 
So here's some general information. Both homes were built in 2007 and each one has plenty of inside and outside living spaces. They're both brick homes with open floor plans, great kitchens with granite counter tops, etc., three bedrooms, two and a half or three full baths, home offices, two car garages, and water view.
Both homes are priced significantly below new construction. And yes, you can still have one of these homes built new, but it will cost more, take 4-6 months, and you won't necessarily know what the rest of the neighborhood will look like. And if you were to build either of these homes on a lake or pond? - Whoa! The price would be way higher!
I won't go into all the details of each house in this post, but here is the link to my Cape Fear area listings page blog where you can see all my listings. Each house also has its own blog - the links for which are below.
Jefferson Landing Brunswick Forest - 2178 Talmadge Drive, Leland, NC 28451. 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, FROG, office, screened porch, lake front, 2,436 heated and cooled square feet. MLS# 433951. $364,500. Blog: http://www.2178talmadgedrive.blogspot.com/
Jefferson Landing Brunswick Forest - 1202 Lillibridge Drive, Leland, NC 28451. 3 bedrooms, 2 full and one half bath, office, caged lanai, fenced back yard, 2306 heated and cooled square feet. MLS# 433958. $384,500. Blog: http://www.1202lillibridgedrive.blogspot.com/
OK, so these are two awesome houses. But how is this a social media experiment? Well, here's the 411 on that. We are going to track how people who come to our 16 open houses in June heard about them. We will
- advertise the open houses in the Star News on the weekend days of the open houses,
- we'll also have the open houses on all the major and even some of the minor real estate web sites, and
- I'm also going to list/promote the houses on my blogs (like here), on the 5 area social media sites, and on the hottest social media applications - including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and MySpace.
So we'll have all kinds of coverage and promotion.
It will be very interesting to see which form or forms of advertising/promotion bring the most people.
But you don't need to be concerned about that (unless you're interested and if so let me know and at the end of the month I'll send you the stats). I'd love it if you focus on the houses (the owners would, too), but even if you just want chances to win a round of golf, dinner at Wilmington's premier micro brewery, dinner at Leland's focal local Italian restaurant, or concert tickets to an awesome group, The Buckinghams on June 20th, come check out the houses, every Saturday and Sunday during June from 1-4PM.
The purpose of the remote, scheduled but informal meetings is to have a chance to speak with area residents about their concerns, their stand on issues, and subjects or stories they'd like the Star News to cover.
Shelby met with folks one to one and also spoke with small groups.
The Lockwood Folly Marketplace is a one-stop combination gift shop, coffee shop, fresh produce market, and sandwich shop.
Marge and I were a bit late arriving due to a fractured frammis (or something) in Marge's car, but even though we got there for only the last 30 minutes or so, it was a high-energy event. Lots of info sharing about Twitter and other social media, new acquaintances, and even some business card swapping!
Here's event planner, networker supremo, and Front Street Brewery PR person Sarah Barbee saying a few words about the evening.
Andrea West of Hagood Homes welcoming us:
Practically the first thing people said to us as we walked in the door was, "You've GOT to try the cheesecake." So I spoke with Kristin and Chris Lubben, the owners of Chris's Cosmic Kitchen and the donors of the cheesecake.
Here's Kristin:
And here's Chris:
And here's a shot of the cheesecakes. Vanilla on the left, and kahlua coffee on the right. Soon after I took this shot they disappeared.
The next Wilmington Tweetup, which the ever-busy Sarah Barbee organizes, will be on the last Wednesday of June - location to be announced - but I'd guess you can pretty much figure on another well-attended houseparty type Twitter-focused networking event. See you there!
Our office is located in the hottest area of one of the most-moved-to counties in the U.S. If you're looking for an area ripe with opportunity, for employment, for business, or great living, call me.
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