Well, I've been toying with some ideas (for a while now) of how to use video in my efforts to keep the public informed, and I've finally implemented one... Central Oklahoma's first daily hotsheet video.  Here's day 1:

What do you think?

Those of us in the real estate business get a lot of laughs from the things we see each day, and sometimes from the photos we see on the MLS. I thought I'd have a little fun this morning and see what captions the braintrust here at AR can come up with for this photo I took earlier in the week:

LEAVE YOUR CAPTION HERE

A good friend of mine bought a gorgeous home in Summer Ridge last year, and he's really in tune with what's going on in the neighborhood. Of course, I'm always interested too, since it's one of the communities I had a part in developing, so I thought I'd dig in to see what's been going on in the neighborhood over the past 60 days.

So, what’s selling, what’s not, and what’s new on the market in Summer Ridge?

Here are the Summer Ridge homes that closed within the past 60 days:

And here are the homes currently on the market in Summer Ridge (Active & Pending):

**All statistical and listing information provided to and compiled by MLSGateway.com, Inc. covering a period (1/21/08) through (3/21/08). MLSGateway.com, Inc. does not guarantee or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Listing information is deemed reliable at the time of this posting, but subject to change without notification, and should be verified through a licensed agent for accuracy.

For more information about a specific home, or to find out how to get yours SOLD for the most in the shortest time, call or email me.

It's amazing how many people are searching for more information about the tornado that swept through Edmond Sunday night/Monday morning, and I've since discovered that I actually know several of the home owners who were affected by this storm, so it's been a crazy couple of days. Our prayers are with you guys, and we're so thankful that you're all safe!

The city still has Danforth closed between Western and Santa Fe, while the crews work to get all the power lines back up in the air, and those folks who live in Valencia are still working to get things cleaned up and repaired. I've posted some photos that I've taken over on my Edmond real estate blog, for those of you interested in the mystery of what a tornado can do.

You see, when I wrote this post, I had only been caught up in a tornado twice in my life. At about 1:45 this morning, that changed. I found myself, my wife, and my kids crouched down in our laundry room, riding out a tornado that hit dangerously close to home.

It had been a normal night for the most part. I was up late working and had the TV on, just to keep an eye on the severe weather that had been buzzing around the state for quite a few hours. Once the high winds hit our area, I started paying a little more attention.

You see, night-time tornadoes, IMO, are the most dangerous. During the day, you can step outside, take a look around at the clouds and get a pretty good idea of what's going on, but at night you have to rely completely on what the guys on TV are telling you. Thing is, they're going almost completely by what the radar shows because, big surprise, they don't have any better vision at night than you and I do.

So, they're showing radar coverage of the 'hook' and how this slow-moving storm is just dumping tons of rain and hail all over the metro. Next thing you know, they're fully geared up, talking about a 'touchdown' (do you know the two types of touchdowns that occur in Oklahoma?)around Danforth & Western. Yep, that's exactly one mile West of us, and this storm's moving East. Sounds like trouble right? Yeah, that was enough for us to go get the boys out of bed and make a mad rush for a safe room in the middle of the house.

Long story short, we faired well. This thing skated by about 1/8 mile South of our home, taking down power lines and snapping the poles in half. The boys had a great time & I guess they thought we were playing hide & seek or something. They enjoyed playing with the flashlights & stuff.

Later, we found out that several homes in the Valencia area (just west of our church, and 3 miles from home) got hit pretty hard, but praise God, there were no reported injuries. One house in particular had almost the entire roof ripped off, with Mom & her twin boys inside.

It was quite a site this morning, as I drove around checking on clients & friends and their homes. Several of the main intersections were closed to through traffic as the power company worked to get the lines back up. I couldn't really get any pictures of the damage to homes, but you can see here one of those utility poles snapped in half.

By the way, I want to applaud those from my church who decided on their own to go over to Valencia this morning and help those residents any way they could, with cleanup and prayer. What a great bunch of people!

So, here we are, a month after my first post, and I now have to increase my number by 50%. Yes, it's true, I've been in that crouching position 3 times in my 36 years.

Here are some of the local news articles on last night's storm:

• http://www.koco.com/news/15747998/detail.html
• http://www.koco.com/news/15747998/detail.html
• http://newsok.com/article/3223273/