I’ve mentioned in several blog posts that I’m quite the explorer. Not the type of explorer who traverses the world (although I’d like to do more of that) mind you, but more of the explorer who looks for different things to do in his own backyard.
Take Randolph County for example. Formed in 1779 from Guilford [...]

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Last year, I was asked to chair the 2012 Cultural Vision Plan Process, the fourth such event of its kind. Every eight to ten years, the challenge is to assess the greater community agenda (themes, ideas, and issues) and determine how the cultural community at-large can facilitate movement and advancement of those community-wide opportunities.
In previous [...]

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Have you heard about Charlotte’s butterfly park?
No? Well, it is kind of a secret park in Charlotte’s Sedgefield neighborhood located just a few minutes from downtown Charlotte. If you ask people who live in the Sedgefield, Myers Park or Dilworth neighborhoods about parks and which they would recommend, most will mention Freedom or Latta Park. [...]

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Not too long ago, two of our outstanding leaders, were each recognized for their tremendous accomplishments.
On December 9, Allen Tate President/COO Pat Riley was named Realtor of the Year by the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association. Can you believe that this is the third time in his career that he has received this honor? Pat is [...]

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“The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette.” – Henry S. Hoskins

Recently, I attended a builder event for Regent Homes at St. Johns Forest. The moment I walked in the door, I felt not only warmth from the hospitality, but also from the home itself.
This made me wonder why some homes just [...]

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Do you dream of owning your own home someday? The pundits want us to believe that your generation – born between 1980 and 1995 – are disenchanted with the dream of homeownership. But I, for one, don’t believe it for a moment, although for the first time in history, you’re not leading the charge in [...]

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As a young child growing up near the Pennsylvania Turnpike (the nation’s first “modern” turnpike), I was convinced that my parents were paying “the troll” to enter its broad swath of concrete. I would duck onto the car’s floorboard in order to avoid laying eyes on the hideous, man-eating (but very short in stature) beast. [...]

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On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 was forced to make a water landing in the Hudson River with 150 passengers and five crew members on board. The passenger flight, scheduled from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, lost thrust in both engines several minutes after takeoff when it [...]

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What is playing out in the Carolinas is that October 2010 was the bottom based on closed unit sales. The Allen Tate Companies closed over 14,400 properties in 2011 which is 400 more than 2010 and more than 2009 and 2008.
That supports the theory that we’ve hit the bottom and it’s onward and upward from [...]

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With the NFL season coming to a close, I like to sit back and reflect on some of my favorite moments. As a corporate sponsor of the Carolina Panthers, Allen Tate Realtors was invited to join the team in their journey to Indianapolis, Indiana to see the Panthers take on the Indianapolis Colts on November [...]

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