YOUR RE/MAX Jacksonville, NC Agent!

December 30, 2011

As some of you may have noticed, I now work as a RE/MAX agent in Jacksonville, NC.  My decision to switch to RE/MAX was so I could concentrate on the customers’ needs and fullfilling those customers’ needs beyond their expectations!  RE/MAX Real Estate Solutions has a great property management division which handles over 250 homes, townhouses and apartments and then combining them with the Jacksonville MLS data base.  I still provide my same great service for your home rental or sale needs in Jacksonville, NC and Camp Lejeune areas.   I now have access to over 1,ooo rentals in the Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune market place.  I am very excited about this business opportunity and look forward to helping you in the new year, find your home rental in Jacksonville, NC and Camp Lejeune.   I am YOUR RE/MAX Jacksonville, NC agent!

The Best Move, Post-Move? Relax!

September 19, 2011

So the big moving day has finally come and gone. You are finally settled into the best out of all the Jacksonville NC homes for rent, the one that feels like it is the perfect place to start your new life with your family. Everyone is still recuperating from lifting heavy boxes and maneuvering massive mattresses and other cumbersome furniture into place. Clearly the only thing left to do is stress out some more about what else absolutely must be done as soon as possible. Right? Not quite.

Really, the best thing to do after a long and stressful handful of days filled with heavy lifting and careful maneuvering is to relax. Everyone is sure to be sore from doing heavy work they are unaccustomed to. Fortunately, the best thing for you and your exhausted bodies to do is to calm down, take a deep breath, and simply recuperate.

Lots of water is important to help flush out the lactic acid that builds up in the muscles and causes soreness. A warm bath filled with epsom salts is also an excellent way to relieve tension and loosen tight muscles. Speaking of relieving muscle tension, something to look into while you are getting fully accustomed to your new Jacksonville NC homes is a good place for a massage. Nothing helps bring your muscles back to feeling normal and happy better than a massage. Most people think that massage is just something for indulging oneself, but it turns out that it actually has numerous health benefits. Everything from increased range of motion to a better immune system. Not to mention that it feels like melting into bliss. The best part about a good massage therapist? You won’t even have to leave that new home in Jacksonville NC for rent that you have made your own.

After you have spent a day or two relaxing, getting your bearings, and making yourself feel at home in your new home, you will feel much better about being there. Getting out the residual stress and giving yourself time to truly calm down and center yourself in your new setting of Jacksonville NC real estate will not only make you feel better about your decision, it will also make you more confident and collected in anything you have to do afterwards. While some people may think that relaxing is simply a waste of time, taking a day or even a few hours to do just that will work wonders on both your physical and mental health.

3 Small Moving Tips Make a Huge Difference

September 13, 2011

Moving is never easy and rarely fun, unless of course you happen to have entertaining and jocular friends that work as movers for their day job. Since most of you probably are not close friends with professional movers, you will most likely enlist the help of friends for the Big Move to what was clearly the best of the Jacksonville NC homes for rent. Here are several little tips to help make the move as easy as possible. While they may be simple things, odds are, at least one thing on this list will make you think “Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. Hadn’t thought of that.” Jacksonville NC homes are beautiful and in great locations, why not listen to a bit of advice to make your move as tame as possible.

1. Move the drawers with the dressers! No, I don’t mean try to move that massive heavy dresser into the truck completely filled. In fact, it is highly advisable that you remove the drawers before you load the monster onto the truck. Once it is safely aboard, though, you should reload the drawers in it, then secure the whole shebang so that your clothes and nicknacks don’t go flying. This will save you space and time. I tried to move without following this step, and the drawers took up all the space I had in my car for moving the small stuff. It also seemed to take forever to load them all in without tearing the upholstery.

2. Use up your groceries! Something that can potentially save you several boxes, hours, or carloads of space and time. What is the point of having all those cans and various foods in your pantry if not to eat them? If you can’t come up with something to make using the various foods in your cupboard before your move day, it might be a sign that not all those cans need to come with you (or get stuffed back into the back of your new pantry to gather a new layer of dust). The idea behind eating the extra stored foods is to lighten the load, obviously. If you don’t buy new food for the week leading up to the move, your pantry should be relatively depleted and therefore far easier to transfer to your new piece of Jacksonville NC real estate or one of those nice Camp Lejeune homes for rent.

3. Load the heavy stuff towards the front. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is mighty tempting to want to start packing in those nice square boxes in all the empty space they could fit so seamlessly into when you first see the empty truck. Don’t give in! Unless you would rather have those boxes of clothes and glassware to get smashed into oblivion by all the heavy stuff behind it. Load the heavy things first, then use the smaller stuff to fill in the gaps. Remember, you can always accelerate slowly to prevent the backwards shift, but sometimes a quick stop is necessary. If the heavy stuff is in front, there is nothing in the way for it to smash before it comes to a rest. This way, when you get to your Jacksonville NC homes for rent, everything is unbattered and in great condition to refurnish the new place!

2 Simple Meals, Great for Moving Day

September 5, 2011

Everyone knows that it is very tiring and exhausting to move into a new place. For those of you looking at the Jacksonville NC homes for rent, you may be taking this into consideration. When it comes to moving day, a lot of people plan out, room by room, just how the move is going to go. What remarkably few people think about is what they are going to eat either during the Big Day or in the following handful of them. During the day of the move you will get hungry. It is entirely likely that nothing from the kitchen area will be out of the moving truck yet, meaning that you will have to fend for yourself. You could make a fast food run, but that is typically terrible tuck, especially when you are trying to move into your new Jacksonville NC homes. Or you could plan ahead for something super simple.

Lunch: Packed lunches. Yes, they remind us all of sending the kids off to school with a relatively balanced meal and hoping they actually eat the fruit. This does not mean it is not a viable lunch option for you movers though. Make a few sandwiches with some cold cuts on them. Get a bag of chips to share. Pack an item or two of fruits and some water to drink. Though it may sound lackluster now, come the day you move into whichever of the Camp Lejeune homes for rent you picked, that water will taste like the nectar of the gods after lifting heavy boxes and furniture all day. Clementines are coming into season as well, and they make an excellent snack to help round out the lunch. Pack it all into a cooler with some ice and that meal is ready to eat as soon as you are.

Dinner: Chicken, rice, and broccoli. These staple foods can be prepared easily and relatively quickly. All you need are two pots, and a pan to make it. Brown rice is healthier than white for you, but it cooks differently and I have become quite fond of it. I have found these instructions make perfect fluffy brown rice every time. Now just steam some broccoli starting about the time you turn off the rice burner. The chicken, of course, is the most versatile part of this meal. You can prepare it any way you feel, with some rosemary, lemon, salt, and pepper, or some cumin, lime and Adobo seasoning. Either way, let the seasoning on the chicken determine the tone of the dinner, because the rice and broccoli easily compliment just about anything you use to season the chicken.

These are just suggestions, but they are also great ways to replenish energy after a hard day. Not to mention that plenty of people find cooking rather cathartic after a busy or stressful  day. So when you move into your Jacksonville NC homes for rent don’t forget to properly feed yourselves, and remember that something healthy as suggested above won’t leave you feeling like a bloated mess after you’re done like fast food tends to.

How to Get Your House Properly Warmed (Figuratively Speaking)

August 24, 2011

So you are all moved into your new piece of Jacksonville NC real estate, but while most of the boxes have been unpacked the place still doesn’t feel quite like home. What does one have to do to make one’s favorite out of all the Jacksonville NC homes for rent truly feel like a home instead of a big hollow box you have to sleep in. Everyone goes about breaking their home in differently, but there are several common things that a majority of people like to involve when it comes to the process of making their new Jacksonville NC homes for rent a part of their family.

Whether you’ve decided to look at Camp Lejeune homes for rent or properties in Jacksonville NC for rent,  the idea of housewarming is nigh universal. There are a lots of different activities people engage in to make the new house feel, but only a handful are considered by almost everyone. Firstly, we have what everyone thinks of when they hear the word “housewarming,” and that is a housewarming party! Now, keep in mind that just because this is a party, it doesn’t mean that you have to go buck wild with four kegs and a hundred people. Several people I have spoken to said that the ideal housewarming party involves somewhere around a dozen people or so. That way you don’t have to stress about food and drinks very much, but you still have a decent gathering of people for conversation and fun times. Some say that it is a good idea to have a basket or somesuch with little goodie bags for your guests to take when they leave (since part of throwing a housewarming party is the expectation of gifts for the new place). A gift for a gift is always a nice gesture.

The next and possibly most important thing to make your favorite of the Jacksonville NC homes feel like your home is simple: cook! Nothing gets rid of the sterile , empty smell of a new house quite like cooking. Make some of your favorite meals; they don’t have to be anything particularly fancy. It could be something as simple as chicken and rice. It is the smell of cooking that permeates the house which helps it feel like home. Not to say that the smell of chicken will linger in your home forevermore, but by bringing fresh smells, especially those of your own favorite dishes, you start to infuse the house with scents that are essentially home. Smell is the sense most closely tied to memory, after all. So once your house no longer smells sterile and boring, it has truly become your home.

Housewarming Parties: How to Break the House in

August 15, 2011

Congratulations! You have finally taken your pick of the litter of Jacksonville NC homes for rent and rented one for yourself. You finally finished moving in and you’re exhausted, but the biggest load is off your shoulders, possibly literally. Now all that’s left to do is to get it at least somewhat presentable, by which I mean ensure that there are places for food bowls and for people to sit, and invite some friends over to help break the house in. The trick here is to keep you and your friends from breaking what was your favorite of the Lejeune homes for rent down into a ramshackle hut before you have been there a full week.

Both Camp Lejeune homes for rent and Jacksonville NC homes for rent share something in common: they are nice homes that should be broken in by a more or less family-friendly event, not a wild frat-influenced night of ribald drunken debauchery and property destruction. What I am trying to say here is that alcohol is a nice touch to many a grown-up party, but make sure it is available in tasteful quantities. A full keg of beer might be a little overkill for a party whose goal is to get people to socialize and reacquaint your new piece of Jacksonville NC real estate with the warmth and comfort of friendly company. You want people to remember what your house is like afterwards, after all.

Unless it is an outside event, cooking for a housewarming party may, in general, be unnecessary. Make sure that there are plenty of finger foods and light beverages available for people to snack and sip on as the socialize and mill about. Remember this is a social event, not Thanksgiving. Some chips, dip, veggies, and perhaps a small something you looked up on the internet and threw together to have at least something that wasn’t just poured out of a bag, like stuffed peppers or a 7-layer dip. This is not to say that cooking is bad, just that something much more substantial than hotdogs and burgers out on the grill may be overdoing it. Speaking of which, if you do have your party with backyard socialization planned, be sure to invest in some citronella candles or something else to ward the bugs off. Few things drive people prematurely inside than being eaten alive by an army of mosquitoes.

Follow these two general rules of thumb and you will certainly have a pleasant evening getting your friends familiar with your favorite of the  new Jacksonville NC homes for rent.

3 Ways to Turn Your House into a Home

August 9, 2011

After finally deciding on which of the Jacksonville NC homes for rent is perfect for you, you have moved your family in. The school for your kids is a great one, and the move itself was rather painless. Unfortunately, as often happens when people move, the new house does not quite feel like a home yet. So what is it that makes a house a home? Of course you have to invest some living time into it, but that isn’t exactly something anyone can do right after moving into their new Jacksonville NC homes. Here are three simple things you can do to help turn your newly rented or purchased house into a home where your family lives and feels… well, at home.

1. Throw A Party! Nothing helps get a house nice and cozy than a housewarming party. Have friends over to show off the new place and have a good time. Invite the neighbors, so that they can join the roster of friends you invite to the next shindig you have. Nothing like a little cookout, or pizza, and some music to help people feel comfortable and content. Think of the party for your house as seasoning for a good pan. A little bit of preparation and fun will turn what was once one of the Jacksonville NC or Lejeune homes for sale into a personal home where you and the kids sleep safe and sound.

2. Unpack Your Books! As Cicero once said, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” They may seem like just a small detail that could easily be left packed up and in a corner of the attic, but it is truly impressive the personality a collection of books can lend to any room. Jacksonville NC homes have plenty of space for bookshelves, so why leave them empty? Not to mention the fact that each room is likely to have its own unique assortment of books. The living room may have coffee table books, while the kids have adventure and picture books. Personalizing a room with books brings out a warm, homey quality in it, which is the idea here of course.

3. Cook! Nothing smells up the house quite like baking a cake, or throwing together some stir-fry. It’s a good smelling-up too. Few things bring families together like a good home-cooked meal. Turn what was once one of many Jacksonville NC homes for rent into your own home by filling it with the scents of comforting foods that you and your family love the most.  Make it smell less like an empty house waiting for a buyer and more like your own familiar home.

5 Simple Methods to Make Your Move Easier

August 2, 2011

No one really enjoys moving into a new home. Yes, it is nice to have a new home, but the process of turning it from an empty building into your personal home can be not only time consuming, but also tiring, stressful, and sometimes even painful, if you aren’t careful. Here are five simple steps to help you make your move as easy as possible. Whether you are moving into one of the nice Camp Lejeune homes or one of the many beautiful Jacksonville NC homes for rent, the process is going to be essentially the same, so read on and learn how to make your moving day as hassle-free as possible.

1. Plan your move step by step. As simple and obvious as this first point may seem, you will realize once you get really started that there are so many things to do, pack, and move that it can get a little overwhelming. Plan out which rooms are going to be filled first, and which rooms are going to be used as temporary moving-box storage until the truck is emptied. Don’t forget that even the truck and vehicle loading stage needs to be planned carefully as well (big, bulky, and heavy stuff should go in first with smaller boxes packed around them to fill the spaces).

2. Make sure all your boxes are clearly labeled. Nothing is worse than trying to get your new spot of Jacksonville NC real estate in order than not being able to find either the dishes or your clothes! It is best to label each of the four sides on all the boxes so that nothing gets confusing. Oh, and make sure to use a big, easily visible marker, because labeling with a pen can result in almost as much confusion as labeling only one side.

3. Measure twice, move once. Make sure that you measure the dimensions of each room before you get too ambitious about what will go where. It would be a travesty to find out after hauling that couch or dresser upstairs that the room you wanted it to fill in your choice of the Jacksonville NC homes for rent simply cannot house it. It might help to make a rough blueprint of the house, labeling the dimensions on the walls and the windows to help determine where your furniture will fit. Don’t forget to measure that furniture while you are at it!

4. Get friends to help! What are friends for, if not to help each other when in need? Not only can they make your move into your favorite of the Camp Lejeune homes for rent easier and faster, since they are friends they help to make it fun too! Jokes and good times often abound. The best part? Most will do it for nothing more than some pizza and a cold drink after or during the move.

5. Lastly, but possibly the most important: get moving early! Get the project started in the early morning while it is still cool out, and you can most likely finish by early afternoon. Not only will you still have some daylight left, you will be done before nightfall and not forced to stumble and break things because you couldn’t see that lamp on the ground.

Jacksonville NC’s Great Schools

July 25, 2011

One of the most important things on people’s minds when they move is where their children will go to school. Fortunately for those of you looking for Jacksonville NC homes for rent, Jacksonville has several excellent Elementary schools and even one of a handful of the highest ranked Middle Schools in the state. The online school-rating site Greatschools.org has a number-based ranking system used by the organization itself, and a 5-point star system where members of the community and parents of attending students can give a review of the school. On a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the most distinguished, and a 9 also being a very noteworthy rank (there are only a few public schools in North Carolina to receive either a 9 or a 10). Jacksonville’s New Bridge Middle School is one of the few bearers of this prestigious recognition, garnering itself a 5-star rating by the local community.

Following almost directly behind it in terms of community satisfaction is Stateside Elementary. It earned an 8 out of 10 from the Greatschools website ranking, but the surrounding community and those involved with the school ranked it with 5 out of 5 stars as well.  Carolina Forest Elementary also got an 8 of 10 ranking but received only 4 of 5 stars from the community. Don’t forget, though, that just because it isn’t perfect does not by any means  imply that it is not an excellent school. An 8 out of 10 is still a very enviable score and proves that it is an exemplary environment nonetheless. Jacksonville NC houses for rent in the areas within these schools’ jurisdictions are very popular, since everyone wants their child to have a good education. So do not be shy about asking for a nice house in a good school district. Michael Banks has the houses and the local know-how to get you in the perfect location to get your kids to and from the perfect school for them. So check out the Jacksonville NC homes for rent that he has waiting just for you to discover it.

Jacksonville Has Turtles Too!

July 18, 2011

Last summer there was a marked increase in the number of sea turtle sightings and incidents of people interacting, not always positively, with them. This led to the state of North Carolina issuing a temporary ban on large mesh gill net fishing in the southern Sound area near Jacksonville NC homes. Since there has, in the last several weeks, been an increase in sea turtle reports again this year, the state of North Carolina has once again closed the southern area of the Core and Back Sounds as well as the North River and the Straights to said fishing methods. While they don’t want to bring the fishing industry in the area to a grinding halt, protecting the threatened and endangered sea turtles is still a priority. Therefore several types of nets, namely those used to encircle a school of fish and pull them up immediately thereafter, are still allowed.

This effort goes to show that Jacksonville NC real estate is not simply a place for people to live, it is also a part of a community that participates in wildlife conservation efforts. Folks here can join groups that focus on keeping watch over turtle nests and protecting them from other beach-goers, pets, and most importantly seagulls. The lucky groups on duty protecting the nests might even get to see them when they hatch and make their way towards the relative safety of the ocean. Jacksonville NC homes are not just places to live, they are places where there is a sense of community and where it is not only easy, but also generally encouraged for people to take part in community-building and conservation efforts about the area. It makes for a nicer place to live, and that bond, that sense of closeness that develops between people of like minds working toward similar beneficial goals makes the whole neighborhood and surrounding area feel more like extended family than just neighbors.