“Move That Bus!” ABC’s Emmy award winning reality program “Extreme Makeover Home Edition’s” catch phrase will soon be heard here in Northeast Georgia! Lake Country’s own Pilot Builders and Smart Properties, of Madison, are teaming up with Ty Pennington and the rest of the Extreme Makeover crew to surprise one deserving family with a home renovation or new home that few could only dream of. Pilot Builders will design the home and Co-Founders Chris Hilsman and Doug Tumlin could not be more excited for the opportunity. “We see this chance to help a family as the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a huge challenge and we all know that it is going to be hard to pull off but our team and suppliers have all jumped on board and we’re ready,” Chris told me on Friday. Hilsman and Tumlin founded Pil... 06/20/2011

Pay It Forward-The Tortoise and The Realtor. Not once, not twice, but THREE times this week while out driving around working I drove up on turtles trying to get from one side of the road to the other. The first turtle had barely even started it's trek. Poor little fella had a long way to go. As I crested a hill I happened to notice him off to the left of my car and he quickly closed himself up in his shell in defense. I slowed down and, after checking to see if there were any cars behind me, put my car in reverse and backed up. I couldn't help but laugh as I got out of the car and picked the turtle up and carried him across the road to the other side. I laughed because as I was carrying him, in my head I was thinking "Cool this can be my pay it forward for the week!" I know it wasn't a ... 06/19/2011

Below is the tentative schedule for the Swinging Sunday Concert Series held weekly at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation. Little Phil got things off to a great start this past Sunday during Memorial Day weekend! The concerts are from 7:30 to 9:30 and each week the music is followed up by a fireworks display. General admission is $10, free to hotel guests. Advanced tickets are not required or necessary. Bring a blanket or lawn chair, get comfortable, kick off your shoes, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show as you gaze out over gorgeous Lake Oconee. Swinging Sunday Concert Series & Fireworks – Sundays, May 29–Aug. 28, 2011 ·         5/29: Little Phil ·         6/5: The Jimmy Hall Band ·         6/12: The Tommy Talton Band ·         6/19: Davin McCoy & The Coming Attractions ·    ... 05/30/2011

Paying It Forward- Pay For Someone Else at the Toll Booth is not an opportunity I get very often. I live in a county with very few traffic lights let alone toll booths! It's a gorgeous place to live but not a lot of traffic which is one of the reasons I love life here on Lake Oconee so much. Sometimes, however, I get the chance to venture up to Atlanta to do something wedding related since I'm getting married in September, or most recently pick up a friend from the airport. Today I was in Atlanta for a little of both. My friend Courtney came down from DC to spend some time with me and Drew so I was taking her to the airport for her flight back and using the opportunity of being in Atlanta to make Drew go shopping for their suits for the wedding. He was thrilled : ) I guess in a way he p... 05/27/2011

My real estate partner/husband and I are in an unusual postion:we have listed the house next door to us for sale in Lake Oconee's Harbor Club! How do you show prospective buyers the home and not try to size them up as good neighbors? Do they have a large dog? Do they play loud music? Do they have a friendly personality? On the plus side, we are the perfect ones to extol the benefits of living in beautiful Harbor Ridge. Our neighborhood is close to amenities, the golf course surrounds us and can be easily accessed by one's personal golf cart. There is security in this gated community, and we even have lawn care taken care of at a reasonable price! Come view this beautiful traditional cottage, and "try out" to be our neighbor. 05/17/2011

This past weekend Drew and I attended the Lake Oconee Food and Wine Festival at Reynolds Landing. The tent was packed with tons of familiar faces, everyone looked to be having a good time, and Redeemer Episcopal Academy‘s academic and enrichment programs should fare well from the proceeds of both the silent and live auctions. Tons of local restaurants were on hand preparing tasty samples and wine vendors were there to wash it all down with wines from all over the world. Two of my favorite things in one place. I was a very happy camper! What was my favorite? Let’s see, the crab cake samples from Troutdale at Harbor Club were great but I’m still thinking about the white chocolate bread pudding bananas foster served by Aubri Lanes, located in Milledgeville. It was probably one of the best ... 05/16/2011

I still remember that morning like it was yesterday... I was living on a sailboat in the South Pacific with my boyfriend, who is now my fiance, and we were anchored off the coast of an island in French Polynesia called Moorea. "We're going to swim with the rays today," he says to me. "Oh, Tampa Bay's baseball team is here too!?," I reply. My sarcasm wasn't appreciated by him and much to my dismay not the case at hand for me. My palms started sweating. I felt the sting of tears coming to my eyes. I'm scared of deadly things that swim in the ocean. I...was...petrified. Just because my fiance would rather live underwater than on shore with me and just because he has gills somewhere on his body I have yet to be able to locate does not mean that everyone enjoys jumping head first into water... 05/10/2011

A reminder to those in the area about this Saturday’s Lake Oconee Food & Wine Festival. Who doesn't enjoy the chance to drink wine for hours on end without judgement!? Not to mention the incredible opportunities for networking. It’s not too late to get tickets but you don’t want to wait until the last minute as last year’s event sold out! The Landing at Reynolds Plantation hosts the event this year from 5-8 p.m. For $50 you can enjoy over 100 premium wines, food from local restaurants such as Aubri Lanes of Milledgeville and Troutdale at Harbor Club, both silent and live auctions, as well as live entertainment. New to this years event is the Vintner Dinner being held on Friday, May 13th in the Linger Longer Ballroom at the Oconee Clubhouse. Chef Yann Chupin (whose edible masterpieces I ... 05/09/2011

  The residents of Lake Oconee have been seeing spots the past few days. Cow spots that is! The 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge wraps up this afternoon here on Lake Oconee with this years winner yet to be determined. 12 teams consisting of university head coaches, former players, and celebrity alumni are battling it out on Reynolds Plantation golf courses for their share of the $415,000 scholarship purse up for grabs. The championship team is set to take home a $120,000 scholarship donation to their university. Some of the team pairings for this years tourney include Steve Spurrier & Sterling Sharpe representing the University of South Carolina, Nick Saban & Chris Mohr from the University of Alabama, and Frank Beamer & Dell Curry of Virginia Tech. Coach Beamer is a property owner on Lak... 05/03/2011

As a Realtor I spend my days helping people realize that living on Lake Oconee is the best place in the world to be. With Lake Oconee as my canvas, it's not a hard picture to paint, I assure you. After six months in a condo, this past weekend my fiance, Drew, and I moved into our own lakefront property. Now I can start living the lifestyle I so often talk about! Perfect timing too as warmer days seem here to stay. In recent weekends activity on the lake has picked up dramatically. Our nine award winning golf courses around the lake have been packed and boat engines are cranking up and knocking off the winter's dust. There is no better way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon than lounging on the dock or riding around the lake hanging with friends and family. Over 390 miles of shoreli... 05/02/2011

Unique Offline Advertising Strategies and Setting Myself Apart is something I think about on a daily basis. Back and forth, back and forth you hear the constant argument of is paper dead. Will offline advertising in magazines/newspapers/flyers ever make a Realtor money again? Sure, it'll make you some money. Just not the money it would have made you years ago. You'd have to be buried twenty feet in the sand to not realize the effects that the Internet has had on advertising and marketing. Everybody who's anybody is all over the Internet and using it's powers to advertise and reach people all over the world. All of this is great and as a Realtor I use the tools at hand to make sure people in the area in which I sell know my name and my brand. I've only been doing this about 5 months and ... 04/04/2011

Coldwell Banker University Training Programs are an incredible learning utensil for those associated with the Coldwell Banker company. I recently completed a 4 week, 25 hour virtual online training course called eFastStart, in which I was connected to over 15 other Realtors all throughout the country via headsets and microphones. General consensus was that everyone participating had been in the business for less than 6 months. Everyone but our instructor, Cheryl, who has been actively involved with real estate for over 12 years. In the program, Cheryl spent an hour and a half, three days a week helping us learn different core skills involved with listing, selling, prospecting, and electronic networking. At the end of each session on most days we would have what was called a "breakout" g... 03/15/2011

$405865 Tremendous Home at 1111 Water Front Rd, Greensboro, GA 30642 (Greensboro)You Can'T Beat Living in This Beautiful Lake Community! That's Right - Over $9m in Amenities, A Full Time Lifestyle Director, Numerous Active Clubs and Groups,For more information about this property or to view all photos, please visit our websiteFor up-to-the-minute pricing and information on this listing, please call our 24x7 automated hotline at: (888)311-2628 x 1193 today!For more information about this property or to view all photos, please visit our websiteListing ID: 82968676If you like this home you may want to check out these other homes for sale 1070 DELCOVE WAYGREENSBORO, GA 30642We'Ve Been Perfecting the 55+ Lifestyle for More Than 50 Years! Come and See Why So Many Homes Are Selling at One of L... 01/20/2011

I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by a company full of people who do everything they can to support one another. If you try to take on this business right now 100% on your own and the only person you're looking out for is yourself then good luck. I know that I need the support of my Broker, my fellow Realtors, the lendors, and in a sense my competitors in order to be successful. So I ask you...what good does it do me or anybody else in this business to repeatedly sell each other short? We all want to sell homes. We all would like to make money. But at what risk are we willing to do so and how many of us are really seeing the big picture? Yes, there are incredible deals out there. Yes, there are opportunities to get property for a steal. Just be sure to recognize it! If your ide... 01/19/2011

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, customer DISsatifaction with banks has continued to plummet four years in a row and more and more consumers are switching over to try their hand at a cash only lifestyle. About 9 million US households are in fact doing just that citing high fees, protection for themselves, and bad service as reasoning behind the move and their unhappiness. In turn, this got me wondering...how many buyers/sellers out there are dissatisfied with their real estate agent? Enough so to take their business elsewhere, cancel the deal altogether, or turn their home into a FSBO? What are we as agents doing to prove to homeowners that our "high fees" (i.e. commission) is being earned, that we're not slacking off and giving bad service just because times are toug... 01/12/2011

Whether you've been in the business for a month or ten years I think everyone has those days where nothing goes right, you can't get ahead, and the stack against you just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. I've been with Coldwell Banker for less than two months. Fully aware that it would take time to establish myself, for whatever reason one particular morning I was unable to see the big picture. I'd been blogging, taking online courses, helping other agents, studying websites, whatever I thought would help further my knowledge. Maybe it was a mixture of work and wedding planning (I'm getting married in September) that was getting to me, I don't know. A colleague of mine must have seen the doubt in my eyes, my voice, something, because she pulled me into her office and told me to ta... 01/10/2011

      I am excited to announce that a new real estate company is being formed here at Lake Oconee to facilitate the merger of RE/MAX Lake Oconee and Coldwell Banker Lake Oconee. The new company will be Coldwell Banker Lake Oconee Realty in the Lake Oconee area and Coldwell Banker Lake Country in the Lake Sinclair area and will be a subsidiary of Bank South.  By joining forces we have no doubt our new company will have dominate market share and the combined assets, expertise and professional sales teams that will make us the strongest in the area.  As any good realtor knows, innovation, technology, resources and strong support are essential to success in our current real estate market.  This combination of companies will ensure that buyers and sellers in our area will continue to receive... 01/06/2011

You Better Adapt Or Get Out Of The Way! This market has really changed, not only at Lake Oconee, but everywhere else in the United States due to the subprime crisis and economic climate for the past 3 years. I don't know if things will ever be the way they were before. Many agents that were "Order Takers" are now looking for new jobs. Other agents are scratching their heads wondering what hit them? I have been selling real estate for 21 years, and this is definitely a new era in real estate. Previously, we rarely ever had any foreclosures in our area. Now, we have plenty of them, and that seems to be the focus of what buyers are looking for. Now, our new buyers at Lake Oconee are looking for foreclosures, steals, and deals! I've spoken to some other agents, and they are fighting even de... 09/24/2010

Set on the shores of the magnificent Lake Oconee is the country’s only Del Webb community located on a navigable lake. Just 75 miles east of Atlanta is Del Webb at Lake Oconee. This scenic community boasts fantastic opportunities for outdoor recreation including boating, fishing, sailing and more. Lake Oconee is a 19,000 acre lake stocked with four kinds of Bass, Crappie and Catfish. This man-made lake runs along 400 miles of shore where wildlife abounds including deer and bald eagles. Towering pines and dogwoods grace the natural landscape of gently rolling hills. Del Webb at Lake Oconee has 1,400 feet of direct lake access including 38 boat slips, a boat launch and boat storage facility. The Greensboro area has a friendly, rural feeling yet is also convenient to all the basic everyday... 09/07/2010

Don't Cost Nuthin' To Be Nice At a Touchdown Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul"Bear" Bryant told the following story:I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my oldcar down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to havebeen a pretty good player and I was havin' trouble finding the place.Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign outfront that simply said "Restaurant."I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me.  SeemsI'm the only white fella in the place.  But the food smelled good so Iskip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit.  A big ole man in a teeshirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?"  I told him Ineeded lunch and what did they have today?  He says, "Yo... 05/21/2010