Hawkins Agency - Your Real Estate Specialist

Vogue Magazine’s:

Don’t Call Them Flyover Cities: Why You Should Visit Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Oklahoma City

flyover states
Photo: Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art / @imamuseum

The vast, middle of our country, known as “America’s Heartland,” appears as an endless patchwork of farmland and snaking rivers, punctuated by the occasional city that often seems so small and inconsequential—especially from an airplane window. To coastal dwellers, these “flyover cities,” a slightly disparaging term, refer mostly to the swath of land making up states like Illinois, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Missouri. Beyond the well-traversed Windy City of Chicago, a few smaller Midwestern cities are luring travelers with their creative cuisine, live tunes, new museums, and serious laid-back charm. Here, a guide to three cities worth landing, and lingering, in.
Read More

As seen in IndyStar

551 Forest Boulevard, Williams Creek

In the 1920s, architects Edward Pierre and George Wright set out to develop a swatch of farmland in Marion County, building five distinctive homes in an area they called “the Switzerland of Marion County,” also known as Williams Creek. Each home was designed in a different style.

For the past two decades, Bruce and Stefany Mitlak have resided in the house built in the Italianate English Tudor style, retaining many of the original features of the home, but modernizing when necessary…

To read complete article, please click here.

You can also visit our website for complete property information on this listing by clicking here.

About the home:
• Location: 551 Forest Boulevard, Williams Creek.
• Details: Four bedrooms, five bathrooms, finished basement, dual staircase, four fireplaces, two-car garage, 6,211 square feet.
• Asking price: $1.55 million.
• Listing: 21436959.
• Contact: Sam Hawkins, F.C. Tucker Company, sam@talktotucker.com, (317) 580-7854.

fp_sept_3

 

9 Ingredients of a Great Neighborhood, Ranked

Sam Hawkins is the #1 Realtor in Meridian Hills and Williams Creek.  He knows what makes these areas among the best neighborhoods in Indianapolis…

Article written by:
Angela Colley from Realtor.com

kid playing soccer in nice neighborhood

Imgorthand/iStock

You’ve checked out the schools and researched the crime rates. You’ve driven by your would-be future home three times to make sure the neighbors take care of their properties, there isn’t a profusion of weirdos wandering around at all hours, and there are no Pokemon Go “gyms” in the immediate vicinity.

So, you know this is a good neighborhood. But will you like it?

Truth be told, there’s way more to a neighborhood than just good schools and conscientious neighbors. To really love where you live, you need amenities. But which ones?

Since we can’t all have all the things, we asked real estate pros to break it down by ranking a variety of neighborhood amenities on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “gotta have it” and 1 being “seriously, this is what you’re obsessing about?” We averaged those results to come up with a definitive list of what you need for perfect neighborhood bliss. Let’s take a look.

Read More

9 Tips for Living a (Semi-) Normal Life While Your Home Is Being Shown

Preparation, routine and treats help you make the house you’re selling presentable at a moment’s notice…

July 24, 2016, Houzz Contributor

Selling your house? Those frequent showings can be a real hassle. You know it’s worth it to do your best to accommodate them, but that doesn’t make it any easier! Here are tips to make keeping your house ready to show to prospective buyers more doable, plus a handy checklist of what to remember before you clear out each time — from someone who’s been through the process (and lived to tell the tale).

A Beginner’s Guide to Managing a Remodel

How do you make your design dreams a reality? Here’s some project management know-how to help you

May 22, 2016
Houzz contributor, interior design project manager and blogger. I have a passion…

Browsing photos and ideas on Houzz can be a fun part of creating your dream room. But making your designs a reality also takes smart planning and organization. Project management is an essential part of remodeling, and there’s nothing like the feeling of implementing a plan to create something new and beautiful. These tips can help you achieve your desired results.

Underhouse Yourself to Live More Life

by: Peter Dunn | December 12, 2011

I’m with you. I have no idea what in the hell this blog title actually means. But it’s exactly what I’m talking about. If you don’t push the limits on your budget allocation towards housing, then you will have the freedom to have more interesting life experiences.

Want to experience life? Then you need to get out of your house. Want to get out of your house? Then make sure that your house isn’t holding you as a financial prisoner.

Paging Dr. Hypothetical. Dr Hypothetical, you have a call on line 1:

Let’s say that your household income is $75,000. After taxes, healthcare, and other paycheck deductions, you bring in about $4300 per month. Pete the Planner’s ideal household budget tells you that you can spend up to 25% of your net income on housing. And in this example that would equal a maximum housing expense of $1075. What most of us do (and yes, me included) is try to spend as much on housing as we can up to the point of restless nights. Not only does this manufacture undue stress, but it precludes us from spending money on other things. This is true whether you are buying or renting.
Read More

Click here for the latest issue: Volume 05 | Issue No. 02

Luxury Portfolio International® is the luxury face of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® the largest global network of premier locally branded companies dominated by many of the world’s most powerful independent luxury brokerages. Our award-winning website was launched in 2005 and in its first year featured more $1 million-plus residences than other luxury real estate organizations. The network continues to grow and now markets over 25,000 of the world’s most remarkable homes annually and attracts over 3 million high-net-worth visitors a year by presenting a gallery of the finest luxury properties and brokerage worldwide, our brand is recognized throughout the world as the luxury standard of excellence.  In addition, we are unmatched in the global arena, with properties in over 47 states in the US and 30 countries, website visitors from over 200 countries/territories every month, site translation in nine languages, conversion to multiple currencies and a total inventory of available properties totaling over $44 billion with an average price over $2.6 million dollars.
Read More

By Peter Dunn 8:58 p.m. EST January 4, 2014

I firmly believe in the importance of hiring a competent financial professional to help guide your financial life.  This probably doesn’t surprise you. What may surprise you is who I think is the most important financial professional in your life.

It’s not who you think. Consider the choices. Or course there’s a financial planner, an insurance agent, an accountant, and even a lawyer. But I believe the most important financial professional in any of our lives is a Realtor. A bad Realtor can create havoc in your life for 30 years or more, while a great Realtor can insure stress-free living within your financial limits.

Realtors help people make the largest purchase most of them will ever face — and take-on more debt than they will ever take on again. I don’t know about you, but to me, those two factors alone make the Realtor the most important financial adviser a person can have.

Here’s why most people don’t feel like I feel: I believe a financial adviser’s job, whether it’s a stockbroker or a Realtor, is to help prevent mistakes.  There’s an old adage in the investment world: The first step in making money, is not losing money. A great financial professional will assess the situation, calculate risks, and advise you on what not to do. Show me a financial professional that is a “Yes Man,” and I’ll show you a worthless financial adviser.
Read More