Always a "Top Producer"...
So you really like to read? If you've made it to the back page, then please enjoy - You're a researcher, and this is for you. Generally speaking, when I'm with you as my client, I'm absorbed in your intent, centering myself on your mind, heart, hopes, needs and objectives. It's your world, your future, and I'm happy to be a supporting player. You need to know my real estate viewpoint, perspective, and most recent experience in this market, and I provide it thoroughly in black and white. I've been described as focused, careful, precise, intense, and analytical, and not too long ago a client with a Master's in Psych told me I was "the best example of a Vertical Thinker she had ever met". Of course, she meant that was to her advantage! ;) On the other hand, a retired NYC Firefighter from Long Island recently said "you're like having a relative down here, looking out for us..."
So this page is for those who are interested in the colorful background of a successful real estate robot licensed 12 years, and it should give you a strong sense of why missionary zeal is an essential aspect of my work. Honestly, if I don't feel I'm instrumental in making your life better, I'd rather not do the work. I've enjoyed a miraculous life, and now I have the luxury of enjoying that experience on an individual family basis.
Ok...
The road to my work in real estate actually began back when I was the producer of over 50 stage shows, inspecting and renting 10 to 15 resort homes each year to house my seasonal employees and New York performers. I had an essential talent for recognizing cost-effective value (I'm a Scot), bringing all the right elements together - making possible nearly 500 jobs, and happy experiences for over 100,000 customers. That's right - show business.
I am the Founder (father ;) of The Blowing Rock Stage Company, which I originated and led successfully "against all political odds" as Producing Director through its first 12 consecutive summer seasons....the Golden Age of first class Off-Broadway AEA Union professional theatre in a town the size of Mayberry (with a monstrous underbelly that defies literary depiction.) And I survived.
Making other dreams come true as a younger man...
With my former wife, I started with nothing, and built that production company virtually single-handedly from the ground up - negotiating locally, and with national union reps, lawyers, agents, and publishers - casting - hiring - marketing - recruiting and educating Trustees - raising millions, and creating all the community relationships and partnerships necessary to launch, grow and sustain a not-for-profit North Carolina Arts Institution now approaching its 23rd season. I greeted and talked with the audience every night, and they felt a one-to-one relationship with me and our organization. For the first five years, I didn't even have an assistant. Julie and I worked seven days a week, always with deadlines of catastrophic potential. We treated it as the family we never had. 24/7 anxiety, adrenaline and euphoria - it was the miraculous start-up phase, wearing every hat, and one that few folks ever have the opportunity to experience in life. Beginnings have a unique magic - they only happen once.
In summer of 2006, apropros for the 20th Anniversary of my project, an $11m theatre monument was inaugurated to permanently house my theatre company, fulfilling a phase conceived and proposed in my master plan all those years ago.
I recognize that I am the living history and cornerstone of that era, and that we're in an accelerated age of misplaced ethics, abandoned integrity and histories revised, and thus it is that the current care-takers and stake-holders of our "children" inexplicably erased the origination of the company and have never even inquired...more odd, you won't even find a reference on the "official" web record, much like the erased pharoah hieroglyphics from certain pyramids thousands of years ago (now those were big houses!). So we're going to rise to the challenge of that responsibility with a new Blowing Rock theatre history website, a gathering place for the 500 employees and 100,000 audience participants to publish their memories and tell the true stories that were the golden years of this North Carolina landmark, turn the rock of "Mitford" over, and set the record straight. ;) We'll have archival material, including video, and tales to tell...
Still reading? Pretty good stuff, huh.
I loved my decade of public service in the non-profit sector...even as I paid myself a school-teacher salary for that baby to survive. That was Act I of my life, and today my service is far more individualized, and necessarily more commercial. This real estate firm is my business now, but having been a Casting Director has been a tremendous asset in interpreting distinctly different and diverse personalities. And the Box Office...well, that's where you really get to know the importance of the dollar...and customer satisfaction. And all of this is why the total experience of working with you is to me far more than the mere transaction of real estate. It's the relationship - it's the journey - and if those elements don't come together for everyone's good, I'd rather not have the sale of a home. And that's a fact.
William Christopher, Wilford Brimley, Lara Jill Miller and Arjuna are some of the stars Mark has hosted...
So many homes - so many folks to keep happy! I was responsible for housing all the stars I cast, including William Christopher (Father Mulcahy of television's long-running M*A*S*H), Wilford Brimley (movies Cocoon and The Firm w/Tom Cruise, and television's Our House), and Lara Jill Miller (5 seasons of NBC's Gimme A Break and today the voice of Clifford of PBS' Clifford's Puppy Days). More serendipity? Today, Pauline Frommer (my production of Oliver!) is travel writer for MSN.com, Special Correspondent to MSNBC, award-winning author of the Pauline Frommer travel guidebooks, and co-host of The Travel Show with her father, Arthur Frommer, now heard on more than 100 radio stations nationwide. Actress Robyn Peterman (daughter of the REAL J. Peterman of the infamous J. Peterman Catalogue spoofed notoriously on Seinfeld) is now married to movie actor Steve Zahn. Another of my favorite castings was the elegant Marie Wallace, beautiful star of the cult classic ABC series Dark Shadows (and if you know what that is - yep, I met Barnabas!) I supported the development of Radio Gals by Mark Hardwick & Mike Craver (Red Clay Ramblers) as it made its way to Off-Broadway. We also produced several world professional premieres, including The Melody Lingers On: Life and Music of Irving Berlin, now published in the Rogers & Hammerstein Music Theatre Library catalogue.
I remain a member of Actors Equity, the National Union, to this day. When I was a kid in college, I supported myself working at Charlotte's Discovery Place Museum of Science and Technology, and as host of a (really awful) afternoon children's cartoon television show Cosmos and the Captain, even hosting the Ice Capades (can't make this stuff up). I was also creator and host of Real Estate Matters, a very briefly locally-produced public service program for real estate buyers and sellers here in the Research Triangle area, (which reminded me why I don't produce shows anymore! :) Ironically, my Grandmother's former home in downtown Raleigh is now the home of the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency which provided many grants I wrote successfully for the start-up and growth of the theatre company. Even my Find My Dream Loan associate is a descendant of the legendary Booth theatre family. Spooky. Some of my other eccentricities include playing a little blues piano, some serious gardening, yep, I'm a pretty good cook, yes, I'm flipping a townhome (living in the process), and I come from a family of proud cat fanatics. That was my best buddy pictured up there far right end, at my home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
There you have it. The theatre's still there. And I'm happy to share a show business story or two with you someday, if interested... but today, the best part of my work is having your dream become reality. Your home real estate investment is the most serious step in the business of building your financial future, and it's my pleasure to apply my experience that you avoid unnecessary mistakes.
I treat my clients as I did my theatre family - I put your best interests first always, and I do for you as I would do for my own. Please call me when you're ready to get your show on the road. I'd be honored to help.
And speaking of the road! ( ...What, he's a diesel mechanic, too?)
A Side Trip: Why I Drove My Classic 1982 Mercedes Benz 300SD... on a Green Planet. (1982 - 2007)
Many of my younger clients ask me why I don't have a brand new Lexus (ok, I do have a Lexus, geez), and instead drive the car they've termed endearingly "the silver bullet". I can give you the facts here. I can tell you my car IS environmentally correct! But the main reason is that the W126 Chassis is the only vehicle style that has ever really "flipped my switch". It's that classic diplomatic emissary...or mafia mobile (and I like those gangster movies, too). I've come to the joy of auto hobbyist mechanics "later" in life. Automobile restoration is a lot like restoring an old home....it's a labor of love. Who doesn't like "Overhaulin", "Flip This House", or "Designed To Sell"...?
Yep, the 300SD is a rumbler, but then again, it is a diesel truck trapped in a 4-door sedan. And when all is said and done, we're in 3,500 pounds of rompin', stompin' solid German metal, which I hope you never have the accidental misfortune to challenge with your SUV. The legendary 300SD is the best and safest automobile Mercedes ever built...30 miles per gallon...and its life-span can approach 500k miles. Mine is now a true antique. It can even be converted to recycled vegetable oil fuel, as Rudolph Diesel predicted it would. I am a supporting member of Piedmont BioFuels Coop, and my Benz burned B100 BioDiesel - state-of-the-art cutting-edge environmental protection. ...'Tis A Green Machine!
~It's parked for now. We made it @ 335,00 miles. Look for future chapters.
It runs in the family! Reckon my father felt the same? ...And my Grandmother as a girl on the farm? Her ride ran on OATS!
If you too are a Mercedes, rare or exotic car enthusiast in this area, I rely on experts Lawson at Quality Import Parts (919-878-0140) and Drew at Capitol Quick Lube (919-831-1371) because the funny thing is ... I don't change my own oil.
The internet sure does help with research and learning to do new things, but it's difficult to become an expert at everything, and also have quality time for the things truly important to you!
That's the best reason for having professional RealtorŪ expertise for the rare and special occasion of buying or selling a home.
