Kris Moran

This home is one of the best listings I have right now! It's absolutely neat as a pin and it stands out in it's price range.

Located at 3045 Wedgewood Drive, Monroe, GA 30656, it's located in a swim community with HOA in the Between area of Monroe. Sought after elementary school, Walker Park, and zoned for Carver Middle and the new Monroe High.

The floorplan is open and bright and features a walk in tiled foyer with chandalier, vaulted ceilings in the great room, a white open eat in kitchen with breakfast bar, dining room & seperate laundry room.

The master is very large and has trey ceilings and nice natural light. It also has a walk in closet and double vanities in the bathroom. Seperate garden tub and shower are other wonderful features of the master suite.

The secondary bedrooms are wonderful as well and are painted neutral shades.

One of the most exciting aspects of this home is the lot! One lush acre that has been landscaped professionally with beautiful plants and flowers and a an oversized stone patio with steps leading down into the meadow! It's breathtaking and also features a covered patio! The property also features an outbuilding for additonal storage, and a hammock for ample relaxation.

Please call Kris Moran today if you know a buyer that is looking for an affordable home that is move in ready! Keep in mind that Walton County qualifies as a rural area for the USDA loan program which allows first time home buyers to move in with $0 down!

today as a realtor (edit/delete)

keeping it real, having a career in real estate is certainly not for the faint of heart. when i first got licensed in january of 2006, i was entering the field where it seemed that any home with a sign in the yard sold in 90 days. wow. i kind of missed that bus unfortunately.

today it takes more than a lockbox, 1 digital picture and a steel yard sign to get the job done. i really believe that it's down the bare basics now.

1. get in front of people: "belly to belly" as I've heard it said. meet people, network, pull in leads, and FOLLOW UP. you need 3 times as many listing to make the same money you were able to make years ago.

2. price it right the first time. back to my memories of when i first got into real estate. as long as you were "in the ballpark" your listing would sell eventually. now, you have to be vigilant and to the point when you set your list price. i often joke with my sellers that i need a grief counselor to accompany me on my listing appointment now. "i'm sorry mr. seller that you bought your house a year ago for $389000, but today it's worth $229,000." that's a tough pill to swallow no matter what their needs or abilities are.

3. show your own listings! get your buyers and show them your listings. no one will sell your house like you can. remember that. there is no place for a lazy realtor in this market! point out the deal the buyer is getting, the advantages of your listing, location and key features.

4. stay in the game. stay in the game! if you have to chant it every morning at breakfast, do it! you cannot and will not succeed in this career if you start to dabble in others! if listings aren't selling the way you need them to, then go get more listings and price them right! go pick up buyers and specialize in them! find a way to set yourself apart from the Realtors in your area and draw buyers to you.

5. the key is perseverence. if you are able to survive this market then you will be standing heads and shoulders above the rest in your market share when the market rebounds.

Imagine with me a time where the world was void of whiny crybabies; a time in America where life didn't center around who had done whom wrong.

No one had the time or energy to sit around sucking their thumbs, wailing about the injustice done to them.

Priorities played a role in the past and people focused on improving their lives actively, instead of casting blame upon someone else.

As we look around our country today, all that we see are people claiming they are victims while they point fingers at the person next to them.

In the media today, it's all about who's oppressing whom. The feminists claim that men are the devil, withholding rights and privileges from everyone lacking male genitalia.

The minorities yell out about oppression and discrimination, refusing to let go of past wrongs.

No one can seem to let go of anything.

I firmly believe that if we as a country could find the strength to forget past wrongs and our victim mentality we would see the world in an entirely different light. Perhaps it would no longer be the world against you, but maybe you would realize that all along it's been you against the world.

The alleged victimization does not stop in politics; it also has crept into the most personal of all places -- the family.

The new trend in psychology is to assert that any malfunction in your personal growth and development is a result of your parents' evil desire to create a worthless, dysfunctional human being. Ê

This once again places you in the most popular of roles: the victim. These psychologists would like for you to believe that if you happen to be one of those sick people who are fascinated with chopping up 3-year-olds and shoving them in your freezer, then it's all because Daddy didn't hug you enough.

Apparently no one is responsible for anything anymore.

You can be married to a man for 29 years, find out he's cheating on you, blow up his car and claim that he caused you to be temporarily insane.

In fact, you could claim that because of the emotional strain he put you through, you broke a nail and you'd probably get a new manicure out of the case.

This is the sad state of our country where everyone is frantically searching for a scapegoat.

Ice Cube and "NYPD Blue" are the reason that kids get shot in alleys. Let's just completely ignore the fact that citizens of our country write the lyrics to music and the scripts for our shows.

We'll just forget that our country was in this state of violence before the media took a turn for the worse.

Instead we can simply pretend to care by blaming the media for gangs and rape.

Yeah, that rich director in California smoking his pipe and wearing that goofy hat is really the one to blame.

Perhaps he should be serving time in prison instead of the stupid punk who pulled the trigger. Sounds rational, right?

If someone is so feeble and weak-minded as to shoot and kill his or her parents after listening to someone with a name like Snoop Dog, then we should throw that person in jail for being so stupid.

I don't care if Satan manifested himself in "Bow-Wow-Wowâ" and the demons told the kid to kill. Despite what people say, everyone wants to be a victim because being one implies you are helpless and without the means necessary to free yourself from your current condition.

What's even better is that it's not your fault.

You get to be screwed up without the guilt and responsibility.

There's nothing difficult about throwing your arms up and blaming defeat on someone else.

What a different world it would be if we all took responsibility for our lives and their outcomes

Most of the column that I have written for The Red & Black get torn up in the Mailbox of the Opinions Page.

When people ask me if it bothers me, I am quick to say that it does not.

I like to hear why people disagree with me. It causes me to either confirm, or to question, what I believe. And I enjoy that.

In fact, I would rather someone argue with me, than sit idly by, indifferent.

The people who don't care about anything is what disturbs me.

They don't pay any attention to political issues, casting them away as irrelevant and petty, and moral conflicts are considered headaches that they never even bother to examine.

To tell the truth, I am sick of indifference.

It seems to me that most students in college consider this point in their lives to be one in which they simply have to coast through.

Mom and Dad are throwing money at them so they can study as little as possible and get the grades that are just good enough for them to stay.

I believe they take this same "coasting" method through all aspects of their lives.

Don't think about anything too hard or decide for yourself how you feel about anything.

This way you don't make anyone else mad or uncomfortable by taking a stand.

God forbid they might actually decide something that is socially unacceptable. Society is so consumed by accepting everything and everyone.Ê

I don't buy that line of reasoning.

Not everything in society is right or acceptable, but everyone is too scared to admit it.

Politics and religion are areas they don't feel like thinking about.

It could be they're postponing coming to terms with their opinions until they reach that point in their lives where it's comfortable.

Maybe when they get married and have some kids, they'll give a little thought to morals and consequences.

Perhaps when they start paying taxes, they'll realize that politics affects every aspect of their life.

I really believe that most people postpone making these moral choices until it's convenient for them.

College students want to live their lives to the fullest and, apparently that means not having any stable moral ground whatsoever.

By never choosing to believe in anything, they consider themselves safe from being considered hypocrites.

News flash: We are all hypocrites. To be human is to be imperfect.

As you age, you are in a constant state of redefining who you are and what you believe.

Of course, you are going to contradict yourself. Get over it. Am I saying that I am perfect? No. I do things every day that conflict with what I believe to be morally right.

However, I know when I do something wrong and why it is that I consider it to be wrong.

Some claim that as you age the issues that once were shades of black and white become a dull gray, full of ambiguities.

I realize this is true for most of us.

However, I think our own selfishness is the culprit for this confusion.

We realize our human weakness and we want to leave room in our conscience for our inevitable screw-ups.

Therefore, our idea of what is acceptable grows as we continue to rationalize our beliefs.

Get mad. Get angry at things that you disagree with.

Don't be afraid to stand up for things you believe, but please, don't just sit there without any grasp on the life that surrounds you.

If you continue to do that, then you'll just barely coast through life without ever experiencing it.

-- Kristy Kellis is a senior in consumer journalism.

You'd think that we would have learned from our mistakes.

Even after hours spent furtively scribbling through our embarrassing school yearbook pictures with a black Sharpie and our embarrassment when Mom insisted on showing the home videos of us break-dancing to "Thriller," we still haven't caught on.

Surely we should have known better, but nevertheless, Generation X feels compelled to relive the hell of our past and reinvent the decade of the 1980s.

You see the manifestations of the '80s invasion everywhere.

It has crept into our music, which once tried so vehemently to overcome pop-culture with Nirvana and Pearl Jam and has manifested itself in the shallow, bubblegum music that we call pop.

I recognize the reason that these silly bands have resurfaced is due to the fact that they appeal to a large amount of people within our population, but that is exactly what worries me.

We seem to be doomed to repeat our mistakes.

To name a few: Bobby Brown, Paula Abdul, Billy Idol and the Hammer.

In the late 1980s it was the New Kids on the Block who rocked the worlds of 9-year-old girls across the nation.

Now, these nine-year-old girls are 22 and are bopping their highlighted heads to the sounds of the Backstreet Boys.

I'll be the first to admit that I loved NKOTB, and Jordan's 12 inch braided rat-tail made my heart palpitate, but I grew up.

Now, I cringe to see women my age going nuts for five or six boys that undoubtedly shave their chests.

Tiffany and Debbie Gibson have given up their thrones as pop queens to the reigning princess of powder-puff, Britney Spears, who sounds like the world's greatest helium addict and has the IQ of an ant.

If you dare to listen to her lyrics, they have the depth of backwash. And if I have to listen to one more song about how sexy, lucky, clumsy and enslaved she is, I will surely die.

If the trend toward revisiting the '80s is true, then we can safely predict that punk will make a comeback.

Or better yet, did it ever really leave?

Perhaps punk rockers were simply in disguise as indie rockers, hiding out in Starbucks, discussing the ever-glorified Europe, and plotting the demise of America.

But now they've tossed aside their pink mohawks and chains for a resemblance to a J. Crew model with a hangover.

Girls are wearing clothes that are dangerously close to the fashions sported during the '80s -- lovely shirts with one sleeve missing -- or both sleeves that hang carelessly off the shoulders in a "Sixteen Candles" prom dress sort of way.

We are just a stone's throw away from paint-splattered acid washed jeans.

It seems that Nancy Reagan was a visionary leader because her slogan to combat drugs in America seems ironically appropriate today in the battle against society's new plague: untamed tackiness.

We should tread carefully on this sacred ground.

Unless we decide to just say no to the 1980s, we will inevitably have to just say yes to leg warmers, parachute pants and teased hair.

-- Kristy Kellis is a senior in consumer journalism.