Blog # 1 Continued -- Most Interesting Real Estate

             For nearly 40 years, my dad’s family has owned a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama. In 1976, my grandpa, Thomas Howard paid $80,000 in cash for the lot and house. My dad and his family lived in Georgia at the time and they went down to the beach house every couple of weeks for the first few years working on the house, making renovations and enjoying the beach front propery. We have always been a family that enjoyed fishing so the 50 yard walk down to the water always made for good fishing adventures.

            When my dad was in college the entire Howard clan migrated to Dallas, TX for my grandpa’s work. But they kept the beach house 12 hours away in Gulf Shores and transitioned it to more of a rental property. The house and lot is managed by Kaiser Realty, one of the two major property management companies in GS. Gulf Shores is somewhat of a second home for me. I have been every year of my life and hold fond memories of my time there with family.

            When my grandpa purchased the house it was the last house on the road. Since the 80’s the area has grown tremendously and there are now 3 more miles of houses past ours. Before Hurricane Ivan there was an extreme shortage of available houses and lots in the area which caused the prices to spike upwards. The value rose to 2.5million. It was the first time in 25 years my grandpa considered selling the house. He chose not to and within months there were over 60 available lots and the price was down to $600,000 in a matter of months after a brutal hurricane season.

            Gulf Shores is one of the most interesting places for real estate because of how volatile the market is. In Gulf Shores there are two main types of real estate: Beach Front and Lagoon front. The beach front is valued at 2-3x as much as the lagoon front and it is only a 30 ft walk across the street. The actualy aesthetics of the beach is what makes Gulf Shores such an attractive place for owning beach realty. The sand beaches, great water, fishing and the lack of a tourist-town feel make Gulf Shores such an amazing place.

Blog # 1--Introduction

Howdy! My name is Richmond Howard. I am a senior Finance major from Austin, Tx and am scheduled to graduate this December. Over the past few years most of my free time has been spent being involved in organizations on campus. I have served as President of a fraternity, a Director for an All Greek Leadership Conference, an exec on Build Command Team and as a Student Senator for the Mays Business School. I have also been involved with Abbott Leadership Conference, Student Body President campaigns, and have been on 3 university committees. In the time I don’t spend doing organization activities I enjoy reading, working out, spending time with friends, A&M sporting events and church.

After my senior year of high school on a mission trip in Atlanta, Georgia God called me into a lifeof vocational ministry. The last three summers I have further developed and refined that calling to a focus on high school youth ministry. In the short-term I want to work in high school ministry and eventually be the director of a youth ministry spanning middle school to high school. Long-term, I hope to be the executive or administrative pastor of a church with a focus on leadership development within the church staff. Even though my career plans are to work in a church, I want to learn more about Real Estate because it plays such a pervasive role in our economy and day-to-day lives. I want to learn how to make financially smart real estate decisions for personal living as well as investment and equity opportunities. My dad works in commercial construction and my extended family owns 3 beach houses and a lakehouse. Real Estate is a part of our family.

One of the most embarrassingly-unique things about me is that I was ranked 4^th in the world in a video game when I was in middle school. I am an introvert but I consider myself a “trained extrovert”. I love to read. Last year on a cruise I read 8 books, 4000+ pages, in 6 days. I have read nearly every book by John Grisham, Vince flynn, David Baldacci, Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy.

My Bucket List items:

·      Compete and total “Elite” in a powerlifting meet

·      Graduate from Seminary

·      Write a book

·      Travel to Australia

·      Travel to the Middle East

·      Teach a seminary course

·      Become friends with a U.S. President

·      Raise 3 kids to be spiritually mature

·      Serve on the A&M Board of Directors

·      Work in some form of Higher Education

Favorite Links and Resources:

·      http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/

·      http://www.artofmanliness.com/

·      http://seekingalpha.com/

·      http://www.denisonforum.org/