Julie Teel, Broker Corsicana Navarro County Land & Homes

The new office REMAX Lakeside Dreams is going to be sooo awesome! We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to serve the Richland Chambers Lake Area! The office is coming right along and is located right in the heart of the Lake area giving us easy access to all Lake subdivisions. We are so excited about the Lake map mural that will be the a Lake attraction once it is finished. It is painted on the entry wall 19 feet high and 16 feet wide. Everyone will be able to stop by and see where they are in relation to where they want to go and enjoy a clean bathroom facility. We will welcome all passers by as well as our clients and look foward to building many lifelong relationships on the Lake! We hope to be opening in December and having a Grand Opening celebration in the early Spring.

We just returned from Galveston last night. There was a RE/MAX of Texas event there, that had been scheduled several months back at the Moody Garden Hotel and Convention Center. The REMAX of Texas staff sent an email out that the hotel was back up and running and that we would go and support the people of Galveston. We were the first group back. As we drove into Galveston at 1 am Wednesday night, we were stopped by the highway patrol. You see, everyone was beeing stopped at that time of night to keep out gawkers and looters. As we went through the checkpoint, we started seeing boats everywhere except in the middle of the roads. I guess they had had time to clear them from the middle of the interstate and put them on the dge of the roads. As we were trying to find the hotel, we took a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood that was pitch black! We could just make out the piles of trash and debri on every sidewalk.

With the news media being so enthralled with the election, this national disaster has not gotten the attention or exposure that Hurricane Katrina got and is just as bad.

Every home and apartment at ground level looked to be destroyed. Businesses were shut down all across town and were trying to rebuild if the resources were available. Piles and piles of trash, debris from the structures that had been cleared out of homes and businesses, personal belongings, appliances, computers and you name it were scooped up in piles for disposal.

I am blogging about this because we were there, we met the people that this disaster has affected. Brave men and women that worked at the hotel that had nothing to go home to and no clothes except the ones on their backs.

Its just someone elses problem or tragedy until you experience the pain of others for yourself.

We were talking to the lady in the gift shop on Friday when we were searching for some tylenol and asked her how she was. She told us that she lived in Kema and that she had lost everything including her house. She is in the middle of fighting her insurance company. They have offered her $65k for a property that is worth $185k. She has already retired from 2 jobs, this is her third. Let this be a lesson to us all to make sure we have enough coverage on our property.

My husband awoke in the middle of the night our first night there and thought he was being attacked by fleas. It turned out that the bed was inundated with ants. We just calmly got up and picked the bed clean for ants before returning to sleep.

You see, a few ants are nothing when you put everything in perspective.

I am so blessed that I was able to see that destruction with my own eyes, because it opened my eyes.

Before we left they gave us forms to send in money to REMAX International to help those in need. There are a lot of people in the REMAX system that have lost their homes and businesses as well and that are trying to rebuild.

If anyone would like a form I would be happy to send one to you. If everyone just sent $5.00, it would be a great help!

It is way too easy to focus only on ourselves during this time of National uncertainty. But, at least we still have our homes, offices and clothes on our back. We still have inventories to sell, and we continue to be blessed by a business in which the rewards are great! Please do what you can to give back!

John and I are so excited about our new office opening at The Richland Chambers Lake in Navarro County, RE/MAX Lakeside Dreams. We decided on the name because that is exactly what we hope to accomplish--Making dreams come true of realizing ownership on one of the most breathtakingly beautiful lakes in Texas! We have a great location on Hwy 287 south of I-45 in Corsicana. Our new office is located in the small town of Eureka, Texas! It will be in the heart of the popular Mildred school district and just north of The Shores!! It is a beautiful building designed by my husband and fellow team member and Realtor, John, with a wrap around porch to enjoy the cool fall summer evenings down by the Lake! It has stone and cedar stained siding and will be landscaped with tropical plants! We are working on hiring someone to paint a lovely mural of the entire lake on the entrance wall with roads and locations of every subdivision! That way people can just stop by if they are lost and find out where they are on the map and where they want to go! I will be posting a picture after it is completed. The wall is 16 feet wide and 18 feet tall! We look forward to being the fresh new face on Richland Chambers and providing the ever expanding Richland Chambers Lake community with another local option! We feel that with the recognized RE/MAX branding and the level of customer service that we strive to provide is the key to being very successful in that market. We have consistently been top producers in the market since opening our first office in Corsicana September 1st of 2001! We opened just 10 days prior to 9-11 and God has blessed us beyond measure since that time. If you are looking to be in that market to buy or sell, Just call the John and Julie Teel Team and we will make all of your DREAMS come true!