Jim Lee & Janet Holt Edmond Oklahoma Luxury Home Realtors

My favorite place to have Starbucks in the morning. Every morning is simply breath taking and ever changing.

When Janet and I work with relocating buyers, we send them a questionnaire in order to help target their needs. We know that in most cases we will have only forty-eight hours with them. We also know they need to find a house in those forty-eight hours, in one of the countries largest metro areas. (That’s by geographic size not population.) Under our "additional comments" section we usually always get a question regarding tornadoes.

Since the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado that ripped through the metro area and killed 44 people and destroyed over 10,000 homes, we understand the concern. It was horrible and the destruction horrific but I have to say, Oklahoma has one of the most advanced weather services in the country.

A famed native Oklahoma son, Will Rogers, once said, “If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes.” As a native Oklahoman myself, I would say, “Truer words t’aint never been spoke.” This year our season started early. Our first tornadoes of the year popped up on February 10^th. Three tornadoes move through the metro and yes did do damage but the weather coverage was superb.

When tornadoes come to Oklahoma a well oiled machine moves into action. All three major networks move into storm tracker mode and we have some of the most awesome weather coverage in the world. This last bout with Mother Nature happened mid day and did not interrupt any of my favorite television viewing, therefore affording me the luxury of just watching and not being ticked off because they interrupted just when we were about to find out who that disembodied head belonged to on CSI. I say this to emphasize the fact that when it come to tornadoes even CSI and Law and Order aren’t safe. The local networks dump the top shows in order to insure that Oklahomans are well informed about weather conditions and life threatening events. Local newscasters with at least three kinds of storm tracking radar team up with storm chasers to create an action adventure show that some times rivals even classics like Indian Jones. Even the public can get involved by texting in info regarding the weather.

The point of my sermon today is simply this: In times of severe weather in Oklahoma, LISTEN to what the weather service is telling you and then DO what they tell you to do and in most cases you’ll be fine!

After May 3, 1999, the hide-e-hole (storm shelter) business was off the charts here and many folks have them and use them religiously. Personally, I’ll take my chances out running the storm verses hopping in a hole in the ground and risking some heavy object ( like a car, a house, a dead cow) landing on top of the EXIT door.

I guess all things are a trade off. An Oklahoman can walk down most any street at night and feel safe. In Oklahoma the people are very friendly. In Oklahoma the cost of living is great!!! You can bask in the ultimate in luxurious living (sans ocean and mountains) for around $295 a square foot. Typical square footage in our luxury home markets are between 3800 square feet to around 8000 square feet. We are only an eight to ten hour drive from snow skiing, have many beautiful lakes, and are ten to twelve hours from the Gulf of Mexico.

It isn't London, Pairs or Rome but I like to call it home base!

Every January, I have a ritual of searching the bookstore for motivational CD’s to help keep me pumped all year long. Sometimes the offerings have been great and sometime less than stellar. However, this year I ran across a book that in a mere three weeks has changed my life. The title of that book is “Money and the Law of Attraction” by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I’m sure many out there have found these folks but it wasn’t my time until now. They have answered so many questions I’ve had for an untold number of years.

It is really so amazing! I can’t even began to tell you what a difference using the techniques laid out by Abraham/Esther have positively changed my life in just a matter of weeks. I just can’t quit listening to those eight disks. The more I put it into practice the more it works. I am currently happier with my life, career, and spiritual growth the ever before. Never in the fifty years I’ve lived so far have I had so much good flow into my life in such a short period of time. Money is flowing in like someone has just opened the floodgates of some magical bank vault somewhere. My health is better than it’s been in long time and I am enjoying my family more than ever. Things that would have caused me major stress just a month go are having no negative affect on me.

The first time I listened to the set, I made it through the first six CD’s thinking I’d made a crappy purchase but when I got to disk seven and eight my outlook changed. Now I’ve listened to the book through nearly three times. I’ve never read a book more than twice!

I’m sure it can change anyone’s life it they’ll let it. Give it a read or a listen. As an example my partner and I have closed eleven times the amount of real estate in January that we have in the last eight years we first partnered up. I keep hearing folks talk about how bad the market is…..well if this is considered a bad market then I hope it stays this way or it gets worse because I’ve made more this January that I made in the first nine months of last year!!!

The old adage, “The Only Consistent Thing Is Change” seems to be truer today than ever before. I have to be really honest. When I got into real estate some fifteen years ago I was much more advanced than technology. I envisioned having the tools we now take for granted everyday. I wanted a fax in my car. Now I have e-fax on my iPhone. I hated writing contracts by hand because my handwriting was merely scrawl. Now not only can I type in forms, with new voice recognition software I recently dictated my first contract and emailed it without ever picking up a pen or touching a keyboard. I will really know I have arrived when I’m able to dictate, email, and have the buyers and sellers sign electronically from the Bluetooth hook up on my iPhone. Can you imagine, meeting with a client at the property, them wanting to place and offer, you writing that through verbal dictation, emailing it to the seller and having them answer back in seconds. An entire transaction negotiated in minutes not days or hours!

I know there are folks out there that say it can’t be done, but they also said the same thing about airplanes, mp3 players, microwaves, and digital cameras just to mention a few. I love being a Realtor and just like most boys I love my toys.

Any body got any edgy ideas they want to share. Its okay to dream big and dream way out there! Here’s a sci-fi thought. Once they really invent the transporter, do you think we’ll be able to text, phone and use the net while we’re broken into billons of tiny particles? OMG! What if we loose bars? “Beam me up, Scotty!”

I’ve been on Active Rain the better part of two months now and a big chunk of that time has been the Holidays. I’ve tried to follow the advice of so many of the Rainers by posting blogs using the formats they described, installing pictures, reading other blogs and making detailed comments. It has been great fun. I feel like I’m learning more and more about what’s happening in the national real estate market, not just in Oklahoma and more specifically not just in the Edmond Oklahoma real estate market.

But this weekend blew my mind. I sold not one but three homes in two days directly related to my posting here on Active Rain! It doesn’t top my personal best of five in a day but in a real estate market that is purported to be down and for it to be January to boot, I think I’m killing bears. What was even more amazing is the fact one couple read a comment I made on another blog and it was that comment that got them to first look at our properties on our website and then get in touch with me.

In the short time I’ve been on Active Rain, I have already become a huge fan so I doubt there will be any stopping me now. All three of these properties belonged to one builder-Sooner Traditions. After telling the builder how all three of the sales came about, he is listing more with me today. Thank you Active Rain and thank you to all the bloggers here on AR that share so openly. Good things come in threes. Because of those three sales three other wonderful things happened this weekend.

1. The folks that bought those homes got a well built house with great amenities plus spectacular after market service during the builder warranty period.

2. The builder is happy with his three sales in two days.

3. And as for Janet and me…….well like Gene Kelly, we just threw that old umbrella away and we’re just “Dancin’ and Singin’ in the Rain!!!”