so today I'm gonna be interviewing
Seth Teegarden
Seth
has absolutely no real estate
value to bring to the table
but Seth is one of my if
if not my best friend to be
to be completely honest and
every now and then I I feel like we need to kind of
kind of break up the content in the show
and so I felt like it was time to have
you know just a random episode with my friend Seth
we're gonna talk about a lot of things
from comparing Greenville to some other markets to
Seth actually
lives in a great little resort area in Georgia
that's a great little getaway for
for people
you know trying to get away from
from Greenville for a weekend or whatever
he also lives in a Log Cabin
we're gonna talk about some of that
so there's gonna be obviously some
plenty of real estate tie in
but but really just wanna have fun and
you know this is my show
so I can do whatever the heck I want with it
and so that's what we're gonna do
So Seth welcome to the show
thanks for coming on yeah man
I'm excited to be here I
you know go ahead
go ahead no
no no go go ahead
what were you gonna say no
just I love getting to watch some of your content and
and see what you're doing and obviously
you know how you've
how you've grown your real estate market
and use so many various ways
so I'm excited to be a part of it
Seth was
for those listening when I first released so when
when I when I 5 years ago when I did my first episodes
I did what what the experts say to do
and I recorded like 5 episodes right away
and release them all at once
and Seth was one of the first people to give me
feedback
So that was really helpful
and so that that tells you guys he's
he's been along for the ride
for quite some time here
been there for a while dude
it's been gosh man
well let's see how long have you and Michelle been married
15 going on 16 years yeah
yeah so
so I guess we've known each other for Almost 20 years
16 years is it yeah
something like that yeah
yeah long
long longer than that but yeah
it's it's crazy
but Seth why don't you tell the people just kind of what you do
you know and who you are just a brief introduction
yeah so Seth Gorden I
I currently live in LA J Georgia
which like Stan said is a really cool
kind of mountain resort town up here in North Georgia
but I've my wife and I over the years
have been involved in various different ways
in some type of full time ministry
that's kind of been been our life
and for a little while we actually lived in
in South Carolina just down the road from
from stand there where you are
and we were we were down a little town called Clinton
or if you're from there it's Clinton Clinton
you know Clinton
you gotta say it real fast
and so we we live there
from Atlanta originally
kind of the greater Atlanta area
if you're familiar with Atlanta
I grew up in
in Woodstock on the sort of northwest side
and my wife grew up in Lawrence
that's why you look like a hippie
that's right
yes it that's why it's
the Atlanta haha
and so no my wife Diana and I have
have been able to spend some really cool years
doing some kind of unique ministry
and so we've
we've experienced some kind of unique things with
working with at risk youth
and at risk youth population
and then we moved up here to
to beautiful LA
right over four years ago now it's
pushing four and a/2 years which is wild
for those that don't know where LJ is
you wanna kind of give him a geographic kind of idea
yep so essentially
you head to Atlanta
and you basically go kind of straight north
and we're about an hour and a half basically just
just due north from Atlanta
kind of heading up towards
you know there's
there's various different ways
you know you can head north towards Chattanooga
and I head north towards Greenville
and we're kind of in the middle
if you will of kind of those two pads on your way up
and so we're
pretty close to the top of the state
you know sort of as the crow flies
if you will we're
you know just a few miles away from like the
the Tennessee North Carolina border up there
so yeah
so for those that follow me on Facebook
which I tell people on here if
if you want to follow me on Facebook you're
you're certainly welcome to
I have some spicy political opinions
so you've got to be prepared for that
no not you no
not what am I saying
yeah no
I'm giving myself too much credit here
but you'll notice the
Seth angers every single post that I do and
and vice versa I do the same thing to him
including when he like
sorry go ahead
it's one of the highlights of my day
like truly
truly to get to get to scroll for just a minute and see
oh what Stan posted
only not
I genuinely could care less about half the content
but just makes me so happy
that I get to go in there and hold the little thing
and slide my finger over to the anger
and just walk away
my favorite is when you post
like a family photo or something
and it's like this this real sappy
you know
how many years you've been married and what not
and I get to anger that
It just it never gets old I
I think every once in a while that what
what really brings me joy is when all of a sudden
I'll get a notification that like
Stan angered your post and I look
and it's one from literally like 15 years ago
where you've like gone back intentionally and just God
just to find ones that you missed and anger them
oh it's so great
I know it's a it's a deep well
I haven't found the bottom of it yet
I need to I it was funny I
I'm sure you've gotten this
I get I get questions every once in a while
Like sometimes in person or like a message from somebody
and they'll be like so who is
who is Stan and and why did
why is he angry at what you're doing
just a very angry person all the time
which honestly isn't wrong but
there's some truth to that
so let's talk about topic at hand a little bit
so one thing and
and honestly all
of these things that I wanna talk about
are things that I'm
I'm just personally interested in you
like some of these things are
are things that we've talked about in passing
but like not really in depth
but you guys have gone through different periods of
of renting versus owning
including you know
you reference ministry
you guys have been house parents before
which by the way the
the ministry in
in Clinton what
what was that one called again
Thornwell Home for Children Thornwell
so it's a children's home ministry
I guess there are multiple children's homes there right
yeah there's
there's multiple houses that kids stay in
yeah there on
on campus and
well just why don't you just explain that for a second
how that works yeah
yeah so basically in in general when
when we talk about being a house parent
at a children's home there's
there's various ways that different places do it
but the the big picture is you have
you have kids that have nowhere else to go
for for one reason or another
they don't have a home and and
and they come and they need a place to stay
and so they'll stay in our homes
and so what we do we are
you know our
our job our full time job as house parents is
we are basically paid to parent
eight kids that live in our house with us
and so different
different homes do it different ways
in terms of your off time and all that but
but basically you you work for a certain period of time
and then you have some amount of time off
and then again depending on structure of the
of the home sometimes you stay in your home and
and the students or the
or the kids will leave and go to like
what's called a relief home
or there's some places that do it
like Thornwell does it where
where the house parents actually leave for a few days
and they go to what's called their off duty house
and so through that we we've done it in
in multiple different homes
there in Clinton we worked there for a little while
and then we had a
had an opportunity to work for a few years at a home
down in South Atlanta
and both of those two different children's homes
operated in different ways
in terms of your house and
and your off time and so yeah
like the the one in
down there in in Clinton at Thornwell
we would we would work for a few number of of
of days I think it was nine days or something like that
and then we would
we would move out of the home into our off duty house
that was a house that we were simply allowed to
to live in it was part of our compensation package
right that we
we got to to live there
and then when we were at the other children's home
at Christian City down in South Atlanta
the way that worked was we stayed there all the time
so we lived there again so our
part of our compensation package was us
you know having
having housing fully covered and paid for
but we lived there the whole time
and then the
kids would transition out for about nine days or so
and you've also so
so you've had
people can kind of think of those as like parsonages
almost correct
in a way and by the way
I don't think you mentioned this
but Seth for this listing
is a youth pastor now at East LA J Baptist
yeah yeah
so I'm full time youth pastor here at East LA J Baptist
yep so anyway just still working with kids
loving it yep cool
so and you guys also rented too
right when you lived in Knoxville
I'm not sure what yeah
so we did just for I guess
it was about a year and a half
when I was finishing up college
now my wife and I got married
and we lived there about a year and a half
and we yeah
we rented a townhome there
and then you've owned you've owned in Georgia and
and correct
in the Atlanta area now you own in LA
so I'm curious cause
this is a question I get as a realtor all the time
but people don't like to people ask a realtor
but they're always like realtors are gonna
push you in the direction of being a homeowner right
right and right
I think you know the thing
the kind of ridiculous thing about that is like
if someone asks me should they rent or
or own like
I don't have a guarantee that I'm gonna
ever get a commission from that person
based on how I answer that question
so it's kind of ridiculous that I'm gonna
you know try to like move them in a certain direction
but because of maybe the slim possibility
you might get a yeah yeah
I guess yeah that there I
there's kind of a consideration that there's like a
an inherent conflict of interest the
the thing is that I also own rental properties
so that's where it kind of breaks down right
if everyone owned and nobody rented
my rental properties would be functionally useless yeah
but tell me from you know
from your perspective having had these different
having rented having had kind of a parsonage style
having owned what
what are some of the just pros and cons of
of each of them that you know
just kind of come to mind
yes and why are you currently owning as opposed to
obviously the personage option isn't an option
but like owning it right now as opposed to renting yeah
so so in general for me you know
obviously sort of there's the financial aspect right
there's the being able to build up equity in
in a home that you own and all that right
so there's there's that piece of it
but sort of outside of that
one of the biggest things and this might
I don't know this might be sort of a
a niche thing but I
I personally am
I'm pretty handy and I sort of work on things on my own
I have no problem fixing things
building that kind of thing and
and if I you know
not to be arrogant but like I'm pretty
pretty decent at
at doing that type of thing and so having
having your own home gives you an opportunity to
to do some of those things
fix some of those things
and you can do them as you want to
and kind of immediately
in in response to that
I need to wait for a
a landlord who may or may not even care about it so
so the I get to to be fair my perspective from renting was
you know
officially renting only about a year and a half there
and when we were in Knoxville and
and that that went well
we didn't have any issues there
now when we were sort of the
the percentage style if you will
which again is a very drastically different
different thing you know
we had a whole system of maintenance request
and when something would go wrong
we had to sort of submit that out and
put our hands up and hope it got
got fixed and
you know I would do small little things here and there
but
so so yeah
for for me there's
there's sort of outside of take
outside that sort of financial aspect of it
and there's just the practicality of being able to
to do things yourself you know so
so that's one that's but that's a
I get like that's a real niche little scenario
you know yeah
are there other aspects to it or is that yeah
is that kind of the primary thing
no I would
I wouldn't say I wanna own a home
just cause I can fix it
well I do well
I do enjoy the the project here
there
and one of which I'm currently knee deep in a pretty
pretty gnarly one there on
on the back porch thing that I'm
I'm basically having to rebuild my whole back porch
on a on a hill in the mountain
no thank you
yeah yeah
it's great
but yeah
I I think
I saw by the way but I saw yesterday a
a back deck to a house that
it was one of the few times I would not go on it
because I it wasn't rotted out or anything
but I went under it first and I
I kid you not the
so it was supported by 4 by fours
which are about the smallest supports that you can use
I I would
personally prefer
something a little bit bigger than a 4 by four
but it was supported by four by fours
but get this they went up to the decking
and the Joyce were completely unsupported
they weren't even no
and yeah there were no they
they had like Joyce hangers and and
and stuff like that but I was like this and then oop
and then we went around to the top
and they had taped off like
a small section of the deck
and I'm like
that part of the deck must be really dicey
cause like nobody should be going on any of this
so anyway yeah yeah
don't do that with your deck
no no
we no
not happening I will
I will attach him to at least two floorboards
and not one that's good
so that's good that's good
no yeah
I I think so much of it too has to be contextual
and where like where you live if there are
you know if there are good options to
to own and obviously within a budget and all that
you know we live
we live in an area up here where
you know it's kind of honestly it kind of sucked
when we moved up here 4 years ago the
the market was kind of just
you know housing
housing prices were very much on the rise
when we bought and
and we were we were blessed to be able to
to have found one that that suited our needs and
and that we needed and so
yeah I think
if this was happening
if we would have moved up there three months later
we wouldn't have been able to buy a house
it just it wouldn't
you know so
so for us that part of the
the contextualized that was our
our budget and where we were looking to move to
you know our
our our environment was maybe a speck unique
and I say that there's probably many
many many other communities very similar
but because of the amount of sort of short term rentals
with people that that buy homes up here
that rent them out as Airbnb's for people that come in
you know to vacation in the mountains
there was multiple factors that
that coupled up
but basically as those housing prices were increasing
you know we weren't able to find a house to live in
so we would have we would have been looking to rent
yeah and
and so that just would have been the reality of it
sure sure
so yeah
so you mentioned the you know
that you're handy and I've
I've seen that that first hand
where do you kind of draw the line like
yeah
because you're not a contractor
like that's right
I honestly
I don't even know where you learn those skills
are you self taught or did your dad teach you
all the above
I Learned growing up from
from my dad
and I would say I've probably
kind of surpassed some of the things that dad has done
would do and would would
would take on and for me
a lot of it is just come from it just
just learning studying YouTube university
is a is a huge
huge piece of that so where do I draw the line
first of all I have
you know if I have to be comfortable with the project
for whatever that is
so so let me take the deck project right now
so here's a here's an easy one to use
cause there's pieces of it that I will do myself
and there are probably
aspects of it that I'm gonna have to
so the whole project is basically I've
I so we're on a
on a mountain cabin and we've got on the back end
we've got three levels of deck and it for
for about half of the span of the house
the deck goes up three levels
and over time as we've moved
lived in there the side of the deck has been sagging
down towards the ground
and so I knew that needed to be fixed
so step 1 has been going down to
to the base resupporting where the
where the deck is supported
Jack it back up and then do what should have been done
in the first place which is pour concrete
to to where the to where the supports go to the ground
it's good to have gutters and and things like that
ideally the so unfortunately
what I have found is all 6 of my posts that
support that that deck have rotted at the dirt
and so that
that massive deck is basically being supported
by rotten timbers anyway
I digress to answer the question those
the physical moving the deck up
raising it up rebuilding the deck part fairly simple
straightforward not easy but it's straightforward
yeah like a pretty simple process in terms of
here's what you gotta do and you do it
now there's some some
you know some legal ramifications too
depending on what you're doing
if you
you know you gotta find out what your local laws are
maybe you have an HOA or your local
you know what can you legally do to your house
and not need a permit for
so in this case doing redoing the deck I'm simply
fixing damage I think is a technical term
or I'm not adding anything new
I'm not modifying
I'm just fixing something that was broken and re
repairing it
now the ultimate project is as I resolidify the
the deck at the at the base on the third level
that part
ultimately is going to be turned into a finished space
with half of it being an office
and half of it being another bedroom
so there is an area that functionally I
I can do the work
but legally is a
is a spot where I'm gonna have to rely on
on the use of contractors and and
and actually even in in this case
a structural engineer to come out and look and
and sort of verify and check off
you know we're supporting another level of
of a of a house finishing that in
and so so yeah
the the line really has to be
first of all your comfortability
but then you know
where does that legal side come in'cause if you
you know if you
if you do something without a permit
and you end up selling or
or add something to your house
and the tax assessor comes by and takes a picture you
you know you could be out thousands
and thousands and thousands of dollars
that you have to redo potentially tear down the work
yeah for sure yeah
that's that's a
a thing that sometimes
out of state clients that come to
to Greenville
don't understand is that in Greenville
we don't permit a lot of the work like house flippers
I mean
there's very Greenville County
in particular
there's not a ton of stuff that like
you'll get in trouble for if you don't permit it
and fascinating and our appraisers recognize this too
so as part of the appraisal process
they don't go digging for permits
or requiring anything like that
like
they just understand this home's been renovated and
you know pretty much
unless there was some kind of a massive add on
or something like that
you know
there's not a whole lot that's gonna be required like
there's actually a joke among contractors that they
do roofs on the weekend
because they'll get away with it without having to
to permit it yeah
whereas if it's during the week
you know they might have a Greenville County keyboard
not keyboard warrior but a skateboard warrior come out
yes and
and tell them you gotta get this permitted
which is you know
I understand why they do that
but it's a it's a roof
you know it's like right
what's gonna happen is it gonna cave in on
on you or you know
but I think I understand
when it comes to things like running electrical
or even plumbing you know
I'll be a plumbing error is only gonna
it's only gonna cost you yeah
an electrical error you could lose your house right
and people could die
so so on those level
you know I or
or potentially even like with what I'm dealing
with like a potential structural issue where where
you know somebody that has some knowledge
I might think I do and I you know
and if it didn't need to be permitted
I probably wouldn't do it if we're being honest right
sure
so I feel confident being able to do that
but at the same time
property within the bounds of what sort of what those
those laws are you know
having somebody that actually knows
not just thinks they know to say yeah
actually I think this can support a room
you know yeah
at what point do you
are you gonna have to involve the structural engineer
whenever it comes time
to actually finishing in that room
so so you currently
you don't have to do that now as you're putting in the
the support correct
well because again
all I'm doing now is just redoing what is
what is currently there okay
right so all I'm doing is
is going and taking every one of those 6 posts
that supports that whole deck
pulling it out with supporting it
pulling it out
digging out the old part and then pouring in
in concrete and then the concrete actually coming up
out of the ground as it's supposed to
you know
in a tube so that that that post is not touching ground
it's it's
you know sitting on concrete
and won't ever have any contact with the ground
so that's all I'm doing I'm just
I'm just redoing that currently
and then rebuilding the deck
that all can be done without
without needing any of those permits
right right right
so
are you doing any other
are you taking any other steps to
with regard to the the deck itself to
to try to extend its life or anything like that
yeah I'm building it the right way haha
so so currently the way it was constructed
there are no Joyce hangers
on on any of the
any of the of the Joyce
how old do you think the deck is
well
I think it's original house
I think it was built in 2007
I think okay
so yeah pushing 20 years okay
you know so yeah
so no no Joyce hangers
you know obviously the
the 6 by 6 is what straight down to the ground
and so what I've understood
talking to contractors that are friends of mine
up here in LA
you know building codes have only
sort of come into the 20th century
in LA or sure
in our county
Gilmer County in the last probably five to seven years
okay
where people are actually
you know doing
being checked on as they build things
so back then nobody would have thought two things about
you know you throw a deck up
put it into the ground and you move on
you know sure
even though out of all the places
in the world where where you might
would want to make sure the deck isn't going to slip
away is when it's literally on a
yeah
on a 90 degree hill yeah
yeah yeah exactly
and I mean
there's got to be all sorts of termites around there
as well which I you know there are
I mean we
we we're treated for termites and
you know
obviously living in a Log Cabin
you know that seems like step number one
Yeah and so yeah
we're we're treated and
and routinely checked
for termites and you know
but again having
having the posts that don't go into the ground
you know it'll eliminate some of that yeah
potential the potential for
for damage yeah absolutely
so I've
I've looked at log cabins for a long time
I actually have a search in the Greenville MLS
specifically for log cabins
just because just I just
I love I love log cabins
I always have yes
and I don't know one day maybe I'll
maybe I'll get one maybe not
but I always like I said I
I have that search
you need to enhance that search to LJ
well I have kind of
I have it
I have looked at some in your neighborhood before
but
not not to
not to move there anyone just
you know just vacation ideas
but
what's it like being a Log Cabin owner
what are what are some of the differences in
in terms of maintenance and all of that
so so first of all
a lot of times
you'll notice
a lot of log cabins were built internally as a
sort of a transient place to be right
not a place to live and so
that means a lot of houses were made
without things like closets
and places where you normally have closets
kitchens that are maybe a little smaller
and so that's one of the things that
that we noticed when we first moved up here
so
so so to the Log Cabin piece of it
I'll talk real quick we
we have wanted to live in a Log Cabin for
our whole marriage
we have I mean even so far back as to when we were
I mean within the first couple of years of marriage
when we were down there in South Carolina
I I
I don't know if you remember me doing this or not
I don't know you've seen them now but I had
this was I guess 12 years ago
I made this massive I call it my throne
this is massive wooden chair
oh yeah yeah yeah
out of
out of a tree that was cut down
where we lived there in South Carolina and
and as I carved this I mean the
the the chunk of the tree that I was using was
like 3 foot tall and it was
I mean you can't get your arms around it
it was
literally a throne that I carved out with a chainsaw
and I remember telling my wife when
when I finished it like man
one day when we live in our Log Cabin this
this will be perfect
and then subsequently like a few months later I
I made this random
chandelier out of the root of a cedar tree
it's a it's a darnest thing
and
and the
the root system was hollowed out of the cedar tree
and I was able to to make this light fixture that
that drops inside of it and it
and it hangs up and again
I had this with my massive wooden throne
and I told Diana like
these things one day will
will go perfectly in our Log Cabin so
so they are they're now in our Log Cabin
we've totted around with this all these years
so we had wanted to live in that type of home
and so when we moved up here
or we're looking to move up here
that was sort of the
the top of our list was that that was what we
what we wanted but we Learned pretty quickly
like I mentioned a minute ago
that a lot of those houses we're not made to live in
they were made you know
throw up a house to vacation
exactly that you don't need all these extra things
so bathroom floor plans were kind of wonky
so we got really lucky with our home
that was built specifically by somebody
for it to be his personal vacation home
not to rent out and not so
he built it more for
respect of a home that you would live in
and not that you just rent out as a short term rental
and so so that
that's one thing that you could potentially have
and even in that there there's still some
some oddities that
that we have that we've had to sort of come around
you know smaller closet spaces
you know our master closet
being a little smaller than what you would normally
have
that that type of thing and so
so there's that aspect sort of floor plan stuff
and then you've got
my favorite thing about living in a Log Cabin
and that is
do you wanna hang a picture wherever you wanna hang it
yeah put up a nail and there you go
it is it don't have to worry about studs
don't have to worry about no studs anchoring things
no yeah
no none
none of those no
no having to find no
you can you can literally hang up a picture wherever
what do you do when you want to take it down though
do you do you just like leave the hole behind
or is there a good
is there a tasteful way to like plug that hole
so I have found most of the time
so I'm not using big nails right
unless you're hanging a a hefty painting right
so I'm not putting
you know framing nails in I'm
you know using and
but you pull them out you never know
you never see that that there was a hole there okay
so our
our house personally not all log cabins are like this
but our house internally is 100% all wood
slab wood up the walls we don't
we have zero drywall in in the entire house
and so
I always when I'm when I'm looking at these log cabins
if I if I see a room with drywall and I'm just like
oh come on
you know I
I immediately just close the tab
I'm just like yes
not looking at this anymore
well that or
and I know this might step on toes
but like painting the wood oh
I hate I hate when people paint wood
they do that in long cabins yes
yeah they do that the ceiling a lot of times they'll
they'll put white a slanted ceiling white
they'll use other colors sometimes
but a lot of times they'll like whitewash it right
yeah and oh
I hate it I'm like
leave the wood alone yeah
no I don't
I don't like that what
what are some of the maintenance issues that you are
yeah so
like woodpeckers or wood bees or powder post beetles
that kind of stuff yes
so so
so two things I'll talk about the
so the the insect aspect but
but one other piece because
you know a lot of times log cabins are made
specifically designed got big loft spaces in them
that's kind of a
a lot of times kind of a standard thing
that means that heating and cooling
those massive rooms can can become problematic and
and I've I've found not just for our house but
friends that have them and other people around here
the HVAC systems were
very poorly designed to handle that volume of
of cooling or heating that needs to take place
and so we have had to modify some of that internally
so what we've done
this is sort of a practical thing
we never would have thought about living in a
in a cabin with this this
you know massive loft style ceiling
we had to
to redo all the fans so we've got a a
a loft
and then that sort of flows out into the downstairs
living room area which is all one massive
open area that is essentially two stories of open air
and so we put in two new fans up in the loft
that actually worked because the old ones didn't work
and then our
our main fan in the living room we upgraded to a
a big wide
I think it's like a 10 Blade fan
yeah
it's huge it's like
it's like the fans they have at my
at my Planet Fitness I go to yes yeah
those helped
but what really made the impact was
we put a couple of mini splits in
and or well what we one one head unit that you can
you can feed off multiple feeders into your house
or you know
or you know
where the air actually comes out
and so we put one of those in our bedroom
and one in that loft so
that's one thing that sort of is unique
that you might have to
to try to figure out every house is gonna be different
how
how that works we had some H
fat guys come out and look
and see if we even needed to like
sort of close off some of the ducks
that weren't really doing anything
to force air other places
and then in place put those mini splits in and
and those types of things so
so that's
that that's sort of a a unique piece as far as the
the like bug piece of it
because the whole outside is wood
we have carpenter bees
that potentially could wreak havoc and
so we get treated for that we've got
a great pest
control guy that comes and does all of our
you know the termites and all the external stuff
so they'll spray the whole outside of the house
but I didn't realize until we had him in come to
to come and spray was that essentially the
now I'm I'm not a pest control guy
so if this isn't right
I'm gonna I'm gonna send you to him
you can help him for my understanding
this is pest control advice or real advice
these these
these these carpenter bees will
will bury into the wood and then they'll leave their
their larvae in there
and as they leave the woodpeckers come and
and get at the larvae like they wanna eat the
so that ultimately you know
you're not just destroying your house from the little
little holes everywhere but then the woodpeckers come
and they just completely destroy
and so
sort of have to stop the problem by stopping the
the the bees getting in there in the first place so
so yeah we get we get sprayed for that
and that has seem
for the most part has eliminated any of
any of those issues yeah
do you do you like
I've seen those
like carpenter bee traps and stuff like that
do you guys we've never had to no
the the treatment so far has
has been enough to keep them away
and then we've got obviously the
you know the the bigger animals you know
we've got bears periodically that are around
the we call them big trash pandas
cause that's really all they care about is
is your trash and
I know I have
had to fend them off of destroying my trash before
there's yeah
it's a it's a great story of nobody was home but
but of Seth having to run outside
naked yelling at a bear because it was destroying my
it was it was walking away
literally walking away with my trash can
as I was getting ready to get in the shower and so I
it's one of those things where like
I'm glad nobody was home but at the same time
like
I kind of wish somebody would have like got a video of
of me running out of my house with no clothes on
yelling at this bear to put the trash can down
and yeah it's a shame that we don't have that
that memorialized that would be phenomenal
yeah that
that that would have been one for the ages right there
oh man yeah
so tell the people a little bit about LJ cause so
yeah well
I'll start real quick give
give you give you a second to catch your breath here so
for this listing Michelle and I
obviously very good friends with the tea gardens
since all the way back to college
and so when they moved to LA
we didn't visit them right away
but once they got settled in then
then we visited we've been back many times since then
and it's it's always a great little getaway for us
it's a unique mountain town that's kind of like a if
if you like Gatlinburg
but want something a little bit more low key
and hopefully this isn't offensive
but also kind of a little bit more redneck
which might be hard to believe but
you can get a little bit more redneck than Gatlinburg
that's kind of what LJ is
is for me and
and without all the traffic that you get in Gatlinburg
obviously
and and
you know
there's no rundown theme parks like Ober Gatlinburg or
or anything like that
but yeah
but it's about what
trying to think three three and a half
and a half hours away from Greenville Drive yeah
and it's not a bad drive
you know
you don't have to like completely go through Atlanta
so you take 85
I've never gone through Atlanta to go yeah
to go up to Greenville you go down 85 and then
and then kind of work your way up
so it's a it's a pleasant drive but like
Yup what you know what are some of the things that
you know people want to do that getaway
that they should be prepared for
yes so Ella
that's a that's a pretty good description
we've you know
we're we're the small town mountain community
that's that's a good way to put it
but here's the
I'll put this is this is what I like to tell people
cause you know
immediately when you think
when you you say we live in a small town
you think like Dumpy Rundown
you know that it's not that
it's not that at all here's
here's how I describe it we are big enough to have
we have a chick fil a a Walmart and a Lowe's
so you know yeah
so we're not we're not super tiny town for sure
and so
so we've so fit I mean
I'm still angry that
how many times did we get like
KFC or something like that
I don't even remember what we
what we were getting
and I didn't realize you had a chick fil a
and then like
I found that out like the fifth time that we visited
that you guys had a chick fil A yes
we've been getting like all this other crappy fast food
it was like you there's a chick fil a right there
you've been holding out on me
oh and it was
it was Dairy Queen that's what we kept getting
I'm like I don't
nobody likes Dairy Queen well
my daughter does but well yeah
I tried yeah
not not
not the hot spot no
but so yeah yeah
we
it which
you know sort of laugh out
but at the same time for me
it's sort of practical to have
you know we've got everything we need to to
to live here right
like we don't have to go somewhere else yeah
to get groceries or anything like that
so that's sort of the main part of town
then we have the really cool like the historical
like the downtown
the walkable shopping area type of thing
and and actually I'm
I'm personally very familiar with
with that part of the town
I actually ran
a retail store in in that downtown space
for the better part of about 3 years
and so
having been in yeah dude
it was it was
it was right hard to believe it was that long
I know but so I have pretty
firsthand experience with what it looks like to
you know we're a
we're a pretty big tourist economy in
in the downtown area you know
a lot of our
a lot of our income is
is directly related to those coming in to visiting
and so that's obviously
you know spring breaks
summer Christmas time is
is a is a big one
actually bigger than I would have thought that
that people vacation at Christmas and New Year's so
so anyway LA has as the
the downtown
sort of quaint little downtown shopping area
restaurants that type of thing
but then outside of that in
in the surrounding areas you've got
if you're into the outdoor stuff
you've got all kinds of hiking
mountain biking matter of fact
I just got off the trail couple hours ago
out mountain biking and I about this time of year
it's beautiful my mountain bike stays on top of my car
just about 99% of the time
unless it's gonna rain I take it off
we have actually our county is a is officially the
the Mountain Bike Capital of Georgia
there's trails all over the place
so there's that there's beautiful hiking
I think we've taken you on
on some of the hiking trails kind of down to the river
and
and then actually one of one of our claim to fame is
our county
is the official start point of the Appalachian Trail
so the famous at that goes all the way up to Maine
you actually start from
from our county and because of that we
we have a thing called a trail fest every year
and I'm actually the vice president of the Gilmore
County Trail Association
that helps put on that that
that trail fest and
and support that so a very outdoorsy town
we've got kayaking you can tube down the rivers
you've done the kayaking part with me before
it's and the tubing it's a blast and the tubing
that's right
and so the other thing I would say is it's
it's fun for all different styles
like if you just want a a chill float down a river
there's a spot to do that
if you're looking for something
a little bit more intense and a few rapids
we've got you know
you you can do that as well
so so all the outdoor stuff
and then if you're here for a chill
we've got incredible wineries up here
all littered all across our county
everything from really cool vibes
to really beautiful views
and some mix in between
and so there really is incredible things to to do for
for just relaxing and then in the fall
apple picking season is sort of a big deal here
we've got our Big Apple Fest once a year
and we've got tons and tons and tons of apple Orchards
that are all most of them lined down one of the
the main highways headed kind of out of town
and there's tons of things to go do there
and festivals and stuff so
yeah
it's for a small town there's there's
there's quite a lot going on again
sort of mostly in the outdoorsy space
you know kind of thing yeah
and I would say for those that like
are wanting a reference point for like
how large like downtown area is
and kind of LA as a whole I
I kind of consider it comparable to like Travelers Rest
yeah yeah
I I think it
it's a it's a little bit the the downtown space is
is more walkable than tr probably
probably a little bit closer to like Greer
in that sense that Greer was what
first came to my mind
I think with the only caveat though
and this is where it's it's so hard to to
to to speak in those terms'cause the problem is like
Greer you know
you could consider it like a suburb of of Greenville
right right
it's just an extension of
whereas LA is just its own thing
like there's not a suburb of anything
there's nothing close to it
you know you
you have to physically
leave our town to go to the next one
and then the same thing there go to
you know so we're not a suburb of Atlanta you know
we're an hour and a half from Atlanta
we're not so yeah
it's like when you think of a downtown area yeah
but like
our whole community is kind of its own self sufficient
little face me ish thing yeah
you know well
and this is really really off topic kind well
kind of but how how far away is the
is the where the cocaine bear story took place
how how far away is that from you guys
so I think that's a blood mountain
I think is officially the
the cocaine bear story and actually
I was just hiking up there not too long ago
to did
did you see any white powder lying around anywhere
no
sniffed a couple of things but it didn't no
it didn't do it wasn't doing anything alright
about an hourish hour hour 15 maybe
to where that sort of trailhead is yeah
beautiful area up there yeah
that's yeah
that's not our our county
but yeah that's that's
that's a it's pretty
pretty crazy story ha ha ha yeah
that was that was quite the movie too
did I tell you I've actually seen the
the actual bear that they caught
did I think oh yeah
I think I think you did
where where is that
you told me it's it's in Lexington
Kentucky the
the most random this
this is maybe the most random story I've ever
experienced personally
I was listening to a podcast
we were on our way down from Cincinnati
headed back down to Atlanta
and I happened to be listening to a podcast
that was describing the
so I'd never heard of the cocaine bear story
didn't know anything about it
and on this podcast is this before the movie
yes OK
yes it was
the movie was about to come out
which is why they were talking about this
and they mentioned this cocaine bear story
and then the guy
proceeds to describe what the story was
and randomly somebody says
well yeah
I think they've got the bear now on display in
Lexington Kentucky
I looked at my map I'm not kidding
we're driving south
and we were driving through Lexington
Kentucky
and so real quick I googled Cocaine Bear Lexington
Kentucky and found the spot and I dude
I if I'm lying I'm dying
the exit to get off was the very next exit
I was passing and so I literally like
like got off the interstate and Diana's like
what are we doing I was like
just wait just wait
and so we pull up to this
not the only time you had to tell her that right
yeah
truth
I don't even know how to describe
this place that we went to
it was like a
a weird souvenir shop slash T-shirt thing that was like
in an old mill place
kind of remind me some of the old mill
Greenville places yeah
and anyway we walk in and lo and behold
in front of us is this stuffed black bear
and there's all these things written up about it
about this being the famous cocaine bear
that the story was that the movie was coming out about
so anyway unbelievable random yeah
yeah yeah
that that
that is right yeah
you you had
I think told me that you had seen it
but I I
I didn't know all of those details
that's that's a
that's very interesting so a couple more questions here
we've we've gone for close to an hour
I think if I'm not mistaken
So 1 one thing that I'm
I'm again
this is something we
we've probably talked about this in
in bits and pieces
but just to kind of pivot a little bit
I'm curious to hear from your perspective
so you so probably most of my listeners
or at least a lot of them
didn't know me prior to me getting into real estate
so you know
everyone that knows me
they associate me with real estate
you know in one way or another
now with you I'm guessing it's not really the case
because our friendship well predates that
so you've seen kind of you know
as I
the evolution yeah
I yeah
I'm like trying to think of what the word is
but you've seen me get into real estate and all of that
and I'm I'm curious if there's anything I
you know that you've Learned about my
like hearing about my job
me telling you
what it's like being a realtor or the
the world of real estate anything that was like
surprised you or like
hasn't aligned with your expectations or
or anything like that yeah
so I
I think a couple of things one
I think before sort of really
you know I mean
you know we
we've had some pretty
pretty in depth conversations about real estate
like when we're we're together like
you know I
I I
I love learning about what you're doing and
and you've you yeah
you're sure gone into some kind of really niche things
and so I've I've really enjoyed
but as I've Learned more especially kind of early on
when you were kind of learning you know
it was all kind of new to you and
and we're kind of learning through you some
some of those things and
and some things you were experiencing
I think
one of the biggest things that stuck out for me was
sort of how
how complicated the real estate could be
I think my perception a lot of times was
you know real estate was
excuse me an easy way to make some cash and and
and and people
you didn't need a whole lot of of
of training
thought process you can just kind of go
go do it
and vice versa because of that
I didn't have
I thought I would say I don't have a lot of respect
didn't have a lot of respect for Realtors
I don't know if that's the right way to put it
cause cause like
as people know I didn't
I don't know that I valued the agent to the level that
that I have grown to
like in comparison to other careers
yeah
I don't know that I saw it as necessary right
I knew it was necessary in terms of legal
but like you know
how what do
what do we really need you guys here for
you know
and and so I think
I think that's been one thing
that that there's
there's so much complexity to so
so there's two aspects of it
not just like the transaction itself
I think that's that's one piece
but the the entire like market knowledge
there's so much that goes into to knowing and learning
and I know you know
cause I know you personally
I know the time that you put in to learn that study
that speak to that constantly
the changing ever evolving landscape
yeah and so I think those two things not
not just the transactional value of
of how do you go about selling a house
and there's some incredible value to have
in a real estate agent that knows what they're doing
on the flip the flip side
knowing the market
both from the buying and selling standpoint
also brings incredible value right
and so
I think that that's the one
one big thing
and then the other thing I would say is from
from knowing you and and now that the time that I've
you know gotten to know you
or been with you
while you've done the real estate stuff is
and and maybe this is more to
to those of you that are that are listening
like there are a ton
I don't know what you're about to say
here we go there's a ton no
there's a ton of realtors that
that maybe don't put the same amount of effort
into those two things that I just described Seth
Seth is the one that I that when I need to vent it's
it's either my wife or it's Seth
and I I just have to
I have to get off my chest
the stupid stuff I have to deal with sometimes
well let me
let me with that caveat too I
I have
here in where I live I have
two or three very close friends who are also realtors
so this is more than just you calling and inventing
right like this is like I can
I can actually say more than just one person
that this is true yup
there's a whole lot of people that are
are real estate agents by title or
or by like
you know pass the test
that that do not put the same amount of care into the
the transaction of of
of the the sale of the house buying or the sale and and
and the market research
in in general right
and so I think what I didn't realize before
was the value that actually brings
and and
and then not just sort of
those are all almost like back end things
right like the
the the market research is an ongoing thing
a lot of times
I think people think about the transactional piece
like it happen you know
get everything to contract
we got it and then you're sort of off yup
and
and I think the the amount of work that
that you put in to make sure that that's not the case
and that you know
whether it be responsiveness
whether it be you know
getting something that comes in
I mean I've
we've been together before when you've been on
quote unquote vacation
which you know
I think you would argue doesn't
doesn't necessarily really even happen right yeah
and so it's
it's it's a you're
you're you're working with a different viewpoint
that's right that's right
it's at your house I'm
I'm working with a cabin in mountain yeah
but but
you know where
where we'll be you know
in the middle of doing something
playing a game or have a conversation or something and
you know and you'll
you'll peel off for a minute
because something needs to be done
and this is this is not a
you know I can get to it later
whereas I know that that's not the case for
for many many
many agents and yeah
sure I
I think that
you know if I can toot your horn for a minute
and maybe you know
those that are listening if you're looking for an agent
yes I am biased but
no you really do you do a
you do a great job it
it continue to serve your clients
both
both you know
before during and
and after
that that process
so yeah
yeah yeah
I I appreciate that yeah
I just had a client from several years ago
reach out to me for some random thing that I'm not
gonna get paid for
and I got to them within like an hour
you know yeah
and
and that's what I what I tell people is that
I well
I don't tell everyone this
but jokingly that when they sign up for my service
it comes with a lifetime warranty as long as I'm alive
they're gonna still be able to to
to tap into my expertise and
and still be able to come back
you know and
and you know
like I I'll have clients that like
years later
will ask for like a contractor recommendation
and they benefit from the fact that I
I might have new contractors now
that I didn't have three years ago
you know
I might have a new electrician or a new plumber
whatever the the case may be
well I think ultimately that speaks to
you know your
the the the the foundation of all of it is
you know a heart to kind of serve people right
and and
and yeah ultimately you're
you're making money and
and that's a piece of what it looks like
to be a real estate agent
or any profession for sure
like I can make the same argument
do you know I'm
I'm a paid full time staff member at a church right
like I'm I'm getting paid by a church but
but ultimately the heart is I'm here to
I'm here to serve people and I
I think that's that's where that heart comes from
that's why you do those things
absolutely that's why you
you know it's
it's because it's a heart not
not to get a check but it's a heart to serve
to serve people you know
for sure alright
last but not least
you you're in a unique perspective
you you know Greenville really well
you lived in Clinton for years
you've been you've spent a lot of time in Greenville
but you've mostly lived outside of Greenville
I'm
I'm curious for those
what would you say to those who are listening
from outside of Greenville
but are interested in in this area
what are the things from your perspective that's like
okay here are the
here are the the things to consider that
you know
I'm not even asking for good things
it could be could be something that's like
here's a here's a hesitation point whatever
yeah
what's what's your perspective
what would you what would you say to them
so I'll I'll put it this way
and I'll and I'll expand
but almost four years ago
or over four years ago when we were
we were looking to move and
and we didn't necessarily we
we sort of
had our options open as to where to go at the time and
and LJ wasn't even in the cards
didn't even honestly
the only thing I knew about LJ
was I used to have to drive through this dumpy
little town
cause it used to be it used to be real dumpy
I used to have to drive through this dumpy little town
well Greenville used to be pretty dumpy as well well
yeah 40 years ago yeah
so well anyway so I knew nothing about LJ
it wasn't in the cards when
when we were when we were ready to move and
and make sort of a next step
and I think you know this
we we had we had two options
one was move to Greenville and and personally
Greenville you know
we're very familiar with the area
we have family and friends that you know
all of
my wife's side of her family lives in Greenville
all of her extended family are are there Greenville
Greer area so we know the area very well
you know we have
some decent friends in the McCune's
that we hang out with here and there
so you know
there's there's some there's a few good things
but it was really it was either sort of move
move back closer to where our parents were
in the Lauren Stone Mountain area or
or Greenville and
and and ultimately like
out of nowhere LJ LJ came up but but we were
we were really pursuing every possible
lead to move to Greenville
during that time so
so I'll start with with that in terms of that was
you know had had it not been for this pretty crazy
out of the blue
set of circumstances that brought us here to LA
and I'm so thankful for now
the odds are we probably would have end up
ended up in Greenville there sure
four years ago
and
and the reasons were obviously there's personal reasons
we have friends and family there right
so for us that that is a piece of it
but I think you know
we we lived for three years just south of Greenville
so
Greenville was our biggest city that we would come to
so everything that we would would
would do shopping wise and
and you know
entertainment wise was all
was all their ingredients yeah
the shopping for for all of Clinton's perks the
the shopping and entertainment scene in Clinton's
not super hot at the moment hey
we had an IGA dude I mean
that's a good point
you might have a food line too somewhere
I don't know they do yeah
that was on the other side
we didn't go there as much oops
the other side of the Quinn sounds bad
yeah dude
you gotta you gotta watch
so obviously we've got kids and family
so I can only speak from my perspective and
and Greenville just has so many things to offer in
in terms of being able to
to plug your family into community
you know what
whether it be you know
in in ways of faith
if you're you know
going looking for a church
school systems
other ways to get involved in community
get to know other families
honestly
one of the massive things is the parks
Greenville has some incredible parks
we
we you know
when I'm up there we love to go play disc golf and
and there's so many beautiful
parks to go play disc golf
and yeah we love to take our kids to
you know they're
they're putting in new parks all the time
and each one has sort of a cool
unique feel
and so from from that aspect
that's some really cool things
and obviously the downtown part of Greenville
you know you've got all sorts of
you know the vibe
if you will is
is really cool there's
there's lots of stuff going on
and then what I have loved to see happen in Greenville
over the last probably 10 years
maybe you could speak a little bit more specifically
but all these sort of restorations of the old Mills
in these little pockets that
that are being revamped and redeveloped
I'm a big fan of like the
the mixed use space that sort of builds from one area
and you can sort of have a
an all in one zone where you can yeah
kind of hang out shop
eat live potentially
so
yeah I
I I think
I've described to people before
Greenville is like kind of the best of of all the world
it still feels from I don't live there right
but it still feels
a little bit and I'd say small town
not in terms of like living in an LA but
but small town in terms of ease of access
getting around traffic isn't insane everywhere you go
you still bump into people that you know
that's right that's right
but then you've got everything
you know outside of a major sports team
you've got just about everything that
we do have Clemson which is close
but it's not a professional sports team
I said major sports team
yeah says the guy that lives in Georgia
and is an Ohio State fan
this is true I was born there
I was born in Ohio yeah
you know
anyway but
but but yeah
I mean you were
you have literally everything else that you could want
you know from and
and then just the the ease of access to
to other cities like you know
if you need to be in Charlotte or Atlanta
you know professionally wise
like if if that
you know if you're if you travel a lot
you know
Greenville has airports too obviously
but you know so yeah
that that would be my if you're looking to to move to
to Greenville
really just phenomenal place
really cool unique things like a
like a loves grocery store or a Lowe's sorry
not loves a Lowe's grocery store
I don't know if it's is that specific
unique to Greenville no
I've never seen them anywhere
no it's not
OK
it's not a I don't
I don't know much about specifically about the
the chain like where it
where all it is but it's
it's not a Greenville chain OK
and then just on
on the one last thing I'd say there's
there's so much diversity of
of of people and influence
all over the city you know
you've got all sorts of international influence
it
it it feels like there's
there's there's multiculturals
you know whether it be from restaurants or
or to people you get to see and
it's yeah it's
it's just it's a very enjoyable place to
to be at and and to
I say live I've
I've never actually technically lived there but
but yeah
Clinton Clinton counts to me
I mean yes
close I mean
I've sold I've sold homes in Lawrence County and yeah
and and Anderson County
like all all down those areas
so that's all part of the upstate
it's not Greenville but it's part of the upstate
it's part of the greater Greenville area
as we well
I guess too like
like we've you know
I love the outdoor spots here in LA
Greenville is not adverse to its own close proximity to
to outdoor things right
like oh yeah
you've got lots of great outdoorsy things and
you know are pretty close to
you know if you want to get up
up further north up in the mountains
North Carolina and stuff you know very
very accessible yeah
yeah absolutely yeah
we've got Panther Town
which you and I have hiked at Table Rock up there
Caesars Head
and you know
you keep going I mean
it just and of course
Asheville is one hour away basically
is it really only an hour
yeah well
I mean it depends
it wouldn't be an hour from like Clinton
but from right from where we are
it would be about an hour yeah
yeah okay
so yeah yeah
well thanks man
I by the way
I didn't pay Seth to say good things about me
or about Greenville
you know before we did this
I had sent him like a list of
here are some questions I'm gonna ask
I didn't
I didn't ask for him to go in any direction
I just if he said anything bad
I was just gonna edit it out
so hahaha
as one should as one should
but Seth thank you so much for coming on if
if you guys I'm
I'm not gonna put Seth's contact info in the show notes
but if you guys do want to visit LJ I'm
I assume Seth that you would be more than happy to
share information with them absolutely absolutely
yeah
and so I'd be happy to
to connect you with him to to give information
I do recommend
that you that you do visit that area at some point
it's definitely worth doing and
and I'm looking forward to once I post clips of
of this interview online that Seth's going to anger
anger my own self he's gonna anger himself
I can't wait and I will too
we're we're gonna have
we're gonna have to anger it since we're both in it
this is gonna be the greatest thing ever
ha ha ha
thank you guys thank you so much dude
ha ha ha sorry no
you're good thank you guys for listening
that's all for today's episode like rate
review subscribe if you need a realtor in Greenville
please reach out to me
my information all my contact info is in the show notes
we will talk to you guys again next time