It's good to be #1

Well it sure was nice to be home this past weekend. After several weeks on the road I finally got to stay put and spend some time around Raleigh. It's nice living in a town so close to where I went to school, in only two nights I saw a lot of faces that I haven't seen in a while.

This past Saturday was our season ending Lawn Wranglers cookout. That's the softball team I was playing on for those wondering. At first I was pretty disappointed I couldn't be in attendance because of a day long open house. In a way that couldn't of worked out any better, I got the house sold on Friday and was back in control of my weekend.

Shannon had some mint growing in her garden so we drank mint juleps, cooked on the grill and played some yard games. We also surprised Lars with a gift the girls made him for coaching this season, a gold shiny cape. He will certainly be the only pitcher wearing one on the mound next year, but after this season it will be tough surprising any teams with our dress code. From BK Knights, to jean shorts & yellow jump suits, we may not have been the best team but it sure was fun.

Over at the office, a Triangle newspaper recently had it's readers vote Fonville Morisey as the #1 real estate company in the triangle. It was no surprise either that Kiplinger's has just rated Raleigh as the #2 place to Live, Work, & Play. Their rankings involve criteria like local economy & activities, but also what potential they see in a city. With all the downtown revitalization going on it is clear why it made the list. I was a little skeptical of it all when I saw Fayetteville at #7, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I have seen our local market making some nice improvements over the last few months. The average home is selling in a weeks less time than when the year started. As other markets have battled depreciation and foreclosures since 2007, we have seen about a $6,000 increase in the average sale price. However, in May of last year about 1,000 more homes were sold, and in 10 fewer days. There is plenty of room for improvement and I see these changes starting to happen. I can say that I am open and ready for business, and glad to see it's coming in.

I wanted to say congratulations to good friends James & Brooke Kirkpatrick who were recently married. They had a splendid wedding & reception in the bride's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Best wishes to you both.

For those of you wondering where the koozies are, don't fret. They got off the press as of about an hour ago and should be arriving in you mailboxes in no time at all.

Fore!

Hope everyone is doing well. It's time to get back to work for me. I've had the benefit of being able to visit the beach the past couple weekends; it's so hard to get in the car and leave on Sundays. I'm usually with clients on the weekends so it's nice to get some time for these things. This past weekend I was down in Myrtle Beach with a group of friends and I spent Memorial Day weekend down at Topsail Island. Talk about two different places.






We had perfect weather for golf this past weekend. The squirrels at this course were especially friendly, this guy rode in our cart for the back 9. I've played quite a bit of golf lately, I hit an eagle a few weeks back and thought I was on my way to being a decent golfer. I proved to myself this weekend that I was mistaken.

We had our company golf tournament not too long ago and it was a blast. There were plenty of trophies given out, but none to our foursome. All the proceeds for this event went towards MS.

So here is the new place, a good size bigger than the old cottage. I've got a lot of work along with a lot of moving to do this week. We got the truck unpacked on Wednesday but took off for the weekend so the place is still a mess. It doesn't quite feel like I moved yet, I've barely spent anytime there so far. I will say it was nice to go 1 minute up the road for Char-Grill burgers & shakes the other night, food doesn't come much better than that.

Up until now, I've spent plenty of time in Raleigh but this is my first time living here. I'm excited to start spreading out my business. I'm going to remain based out of the Chapel Hill office for the time being. I really like the people there, and we have 13 other Fonville Morisey offices I can use. I'll have to tour some of the other offices soon and see which one I'd like to make my regular stop. My goal for the time being is to learn a little more about the Raleigh market, and just how to get from place to place for that matter.

I wanted to also give a quick mention to my new roommate and attorney at law Rob Hale. I had a closing scheduled with him last week and the lender botched things beyond belief. We thought the closing was never going to occur, but Rob got us in his office last minute and made it happen. It was the type of service I couldn't have gotten anywhere else, so he'll be getting a lot more of my business in the future.

Oh, almost forgot, I'm at the Kiosk today. Maybe it's just a slow day, but I'm pretty sure this was a waste of time for me. No one even seemed to approach the darn kiosk, oh well.