I am writing to you today with a very deep and profound love for our dear Country and the Constitution.

We are Free. We have been Free our entire lives (most of us, anyhow), and as such, probably don't appreciate that fact like we should.

I sincerely hope that if you are reading this, that you love your country. I'm reading the book "1776" by David McCullough now. (If you want a synopsis, you can check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(book). It's a very historically accurate book about what happened in our Country-to-be the year our Declaration of Independence was signed.

It is simply amazing how perilous the path to Freedom was for America. If any of hundreds of events had turned out differently, then our Country as we know it would not have existed. It leads me to believe something about our great Nation:

Divine Providence Guided the Creation of Our Country.

Regardless of your Political beliefs, be glad you are in a place where you are free to express them.

Okay. Enough of the Philosophizing! In fact, being as this is being sent from a Real Estate Company, I should mention a bit of real estate news: In case you missed it, the Government has decided to reward folks purchasing a home for the first time with an $8,000 tax credit! For purposes only the Government knows, it has defined first-time homebuyers as those who haven't owned a home in the last three years. That's a tax CREDIT, folks. If you owe $4,000--and have paid that much through witholding and such, you will get a nice fat check with an "8" followed by three zeroes from the U.S. Treasury.

If you'd like to know more about this incentive to get the Economy going, please shoot me an e-mail or call the office. I'll be glad to inform. In the meantime, pass it on to someone you know, then tell them they need to talk to Chip, or you'll have to physically force them to do so (you have my blessing)!

Okay, on the Gratefulness front:

(if you don't know by now, I firmly believe that we, as Americans, have SO much to be grateful for, and can find good in almost anything because things HAPPEN FOR A REASON)

PROBLEM: My sweet daughter, Amanda (one of the kindest, most beautiful souls God ever put on the planet, not that I'm biased) was diagnosed with PNEUMONIA this week.

WHY I'M GRATEFUL: We have phenomenal health care in this great country! We took our sweet baby girl to Scott and White and she got antibiotics and other medication, and after one more day recovering--she's already back at school (a little TOO soon for her liking, hah!) and feeling good again! Whoo-hoo!

PROBLEM: Our well system at our home collapsed (I wrote about this when it happened a few months ago, but this month is when the entire hairy ordeal was concluded), and the cost to us was right at $18,000 at the same time we were opening  a new real estate office, and the "financial crisis" in our country happened--with the media scaring folks into NOT buying homes. A perfect financial storm for our dear family...

WHY I'M GRATEFUL: As we were re-shuffling finances, ready to write this unexpected, enormous check, our insurance company calls out of the blue and offers to pay for almost all of the destroyed well--after denying our claim after pondering it for nearly 3 months!

PROBLEM: The media in this country scaring the be-jeebers out of most everyone preparing to purchase a home! In November and December, it was as if someone turned off a faucet to our (quite special) real estate business...again, right as we opened our new and improved office at somewhat significant cost to us.

WHY I'M GRATEFUL: The fantastic real estate values in this market, coupled with super low interest rates (yes, NBC, CBS, and ABC...the Mortgage Companies ARE loaning money, you nitwits!), our Beloved Soldiers returning (welcome back!), and quite a bit of hard work on our part--turned into a great January and a FANTASTIC start to February. There has never been a better time to get a home in Central Texas, literally.

Try this little exercise: whenever you have a problem, look for ways in which you can be grateful for it. Think about it, if you can learn to be grateful EVEN FOR YOUR PROBLEMS, then you have it made in life.

Now that I've rambled on enough, here's your weekly dose of inspiration via the Morning Coffee...

Oh, before you get to that...my precious dog, Chupis (pronounced Chew-pees, as in 2 of her favorite activities...), short for Chupacabra (the mythical goat-eating Mexican monster) had a run-in with a SKUNK last night. We've done the baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, Dawn odor-eliminating formula, warm water bath treatment for her--but our house still stinks to high heaven this morning...I'm still working on being grateful for this little incident!

Hello, MarketPlace Blog-o-maniacs!

Part of the Code of "How Things Are Done Here at the MarketPlace" is Creativity! Specifically, what it says is:

*Creativity: We strive to inject our unique personality into everything we do, whether it’s a phone call, our Magical Marketing, showing homes or anything else related to our profession of helping Clients realize their dreams.

So, with that in mind, we decided to improve our "About Us" section at our website with a new and improved Q&A session so you can get to know your (hopefully) favorite Real Estate Company a bit better! I am including the questions here, and hoping our visitors to this fine blog will answer the questions themselves--an exercise in self-examination, if you will!

Here is the link to go check out OUR answers, http://www.marketplacelistings.com/about.asp

Now, respond with yours!

• If you weren't in Your Current Job, what would you be doing?
• If you went through life with a theme song, what would it be?
• What was your proudest achievement?
• Who/ What is your greatest inspiration?
• What is the one piece of technology you can't live with out?
• Who influenced your career the most?
• What is your favorite movie?
• What is the best concert you have ever been to?
• What is your favorite thing about Your Career? 
• Give us a quote (or else!): 

Thank you once again for your time...and we'll BLOG atchya' later!

Hello again, Crazy Killeen Real Estate Lookers!

I am writing today to do a bit of a rant...so, if this doesn't apply to you then please bear with me. If this does apply to you, then take it to heart, please.

I got a message from Wini, one of our Realtor Partners at the MarketPlace this Monday, Labor Day--which also happened to be her birthday. She was upset/mad because a potential Client set an appointment with her, at 9 AM (please remember that this is Labor Day, it's her birthday, and she had family in town) and the man did not show up for his appointment. No call, either. In fact, when Wini tried to call him to see if he was still coming...VOICE MAIL! No return call...and no decency.

What makes this case especially egregious (yes, nice word) is that this SAME fellow set a previous appointment with Wini a few days earlier, and insisted that they meet at 8:30 am. He was 'busy' later in the day so that would be the only time that would work for him. Guess what? He didn't show...thus the phone call to set up the Labor Day appointment when he would be off of work.

Now, if you've read our website and perused some of our Calling, Vision, Values and Beliefs, then you know how we do business and how much we TRULY want to help our Clients. With that said, please understand that our time has value, too. We have families, and we want our time with you to count. So...please...we're begging you:

Don't be "That Guy"!

Thank you for your time...and sorry about the rant!

Chip Franks

Broker/Owner, Sometimes speaks in the Third Person as "The Chipper"...

P.S. That's me on the lower right...

Hello once again, Blogees...

The question is: does a pool add value to real estate? The answer is, generally, yes. At least in our area. The next question is: how much value does a pool add? The answer to that: not as much as it costs to put in a pool.

I've worked with many Buyers that want a pool, and even some that would not consider a home without a pool. I've also worked with Buyers that would not consider a home WITH a pool. In fact, my brother-in-law just purchased a home here recently and fit into that camp (much to my disappointment, I wanted a pool in the family and we are at least two years away from ours being built!).

Depending on the size and quality of the pool and the home, a general rule of thumb is that the pool can add about half of its cost to the value of a home. A $20,000 pool equates to roughly $10,000 in property value. So, if you're thinking a pool is a great investment, you may want to re-think that idea...at least financially. If you're going to add a pool, do it because you want one for your family, and make sure you'll be in the home a while to get more out of your investment.

In the pictured example, the cost of the pool was roughly $2.50--thus the value added to the home would be about $1.25. ***Editor's Note*** This is only an example and approximate value--hah!

Of course, as always if you have questions, please call the real estate authority in Central Texas, the Real Estate MarketPlace at (254) 953-5911. You may now go back to your regularly scheduled lives...

Howdy again, Blog-o-maniacs!

I just visited a family of past Clients of mine this afternoon, to advise them on whether to sell or keep their real estate (a home and a 4-plex).

They will be staying in the area at least another year or two before a job transfer takes them away, and I explained that it was best to keep these properties at least until that time.

--BUT here's what I took away from that conversation, and I hope you take notice of this:

If they were to sell the house that they purchased here in 2000, and the four-plex they purchased in 2003 and "cash out" when leaving the area, they would literally put $70,000 in their pocket! Now, to be fair, they put a down payment of about $17,000 on the 4-plex when they bought it, but that was the only investment they had on these properties, as the house was purchased with no money down, and the seller in both cases paid the Buyer closing costs!

To make matters even better, they have been getting a positive cash flow on the four-plex all this time, as well and taking the tax benefits to owning these properties. Not too shabby.

I wanted to point this out to you and let you know that this happens every day, and can happen to you, as well. If you'd like to know how to get started, send me an e-mail or call us at 254-953-5911 and we'll show you how this can be done.

As always, thanks for reading!

Hello, fine Blog Readers...

We have sweated, and argued, and bled (no, scratch bled) over our "Mission" statement for our fine company, and have emerged with a winner.

I am posting it here for your reading enjoyment, and am hoping that you (our Clients/potential Clients) will let us know what you think.

I am completely against un-inspiring, technical sounding Mission statements that won't move the soul (i.e. We exist to facilitate our customers' needs and exceed expectations...ugh), but don't think ours is like that at all. In fact, rather than a generic 'Mission,' we call ours "Calling." Sounds better, no?

We've had a bit of debate over our Value of: God first, Family next...but we kept it, because that's how we feel--and we bet that you understand that and know that as much as want to take care of our Clients, that some things HAVE to be more important to us. We think that makes us better at what we do, too.

So, without further preamble, here is "The Calling, Vision, Values and Code of The Real Estate MarketPlace."

Calling

The Real Estate MarketPlace exists to affect lives and have a blast while helping Clients purchase or sell their homes EXCEEDINGLY BETTER than anyone in Central Texas!

Vision

We are the real estate company of choice for Clients. We do the job better, faster, and with fewer hassles than anyone, and do it with flair and originality that inspires open-mouthed awe.

Values

* God first, Family next, then Business done exceptionally well (and if you don’t agree, then maybe we’re not a match).

* We do FABULOUS work—and engage, enchant, and enthrall our Clients by doing more than they expect and by never giving boring or commonplace real estate service.

* We have a Supportive, Fun-filled, Outcome-based environment where there is no politics, no drama, no gossip, and no divas (men, too)!

* We attract exciting Partners and Clients—more than a few are a bit crazy—by the virtue of the company we are.

* We take in substantially more money than we spend—where spending includes sharing the wealth with Partners and a high level of investment in the future.

* We believe that INTEGRITY MATTERS, and we always (always, always) do what is right for our Clients AND Partners.

Code

At TREMP, we hereby un-solemnly swear and declare to conduct ourselves by the following “The Righteous Code of 5 C’s”:

*Clients: Treated like they feed our families…because they do. To remind us of this, we make a habit of capitalizing the “C” on Client.

*Communication: We say what we do—by communicating with Clients and letting them know what we are doing for them and why we are doing it.

*Commitment: We do what we say—we call back, we follow up, we dot our “i”s, cross the “t”s, and in general never forget the magic of a job well done.

*Creativity: We strive to inject our unique personality into everything we do, whether it’s a phone call, our Magical Marketing, showing homes or anything else related to our profession of helping Clients realize their dreams.

*Comedy: We take our Business seriously, not ourselves!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tell us what you think!

Signed,

The Chipper