Gary Poppens's Blog

Ever since the beginning of time or at least forty years ago a group of us that graduated from high school together have gotten together on New Years Eve. There are only four couples so its not a big crowd and we can all be together for games. This year I noticed a different theme that was eviden...

Last night amid the storm warnings of dangerous travel we made our way to my parents house, about twenty miles from ours, to celebrate Christmas with my parents, my brothers all their families which include a number of grandchildren and of course my family in its entirety. We had thirty plus peop...

Every night when I get home my wife has another string of lights, wreath or something for Christmas to put up. Well not every night but it seems like it. I love the season of Christmas not only for the birth of our Christ child but the get togethers we have with family and friends. Our tradition ...

Here I sit two weeks before Christmas and I haven't even thought about shopping, this year we are going to do something a little different instead of buying presents for each other we are taking a winter trip, plus we finished the lower level of our home. We love to go south in the winter for a c...

Only two days away we celebrate the day of Thanks. when the pilgrims and natives started the event way back in the earliest days of our country they were giving Thanks for the bountiful year that they had and this was a way to celebrate, with food. The focus of the day now seems to be the meal or...

Its not fair why should be pay the Realtor his commission he didn't do anything. We all have heard this statement usually its when we sell the home in a short time for the price that the home was worth, only its not from the homeowner but from the siblings that are to receive the money. They thin...

Comparing sales for the month of August 2009 they were up 26.5% compared to August 2008, this growth has been a steady indicator of the direction sales are going in Sioux Falls. Even as we get into the winter months the outlook seems to be fairly positive, especially with the extension of the $8,...

Nineteen sixty nine in the height of the Vietnam conflict my oldest brother got the draft notice that he wasn't excactly looking for, Uncle Sam wanted to see him. I was in high school and knew that my time was running out also for the draft with a fairly low number, what bought me some time was t...

This weekend we had the opportunity to have our granddaughter stay over night. Little Emma is only 5 years old and is super adorable. On Saturday night after spending a afternoon with Grandma and her mother at a play I was sitting watching TV an checking up on emails. Soon I noticed she was stand...

In our profession we deal with people on a daily basis, some days we maybe just don't feel like being friendly and cordial, but in our profession we have to always try to please the client even if sometimes it gets a little tiring to listen to how great they are, or how they know more about our j...