Tag: sponsored content

by Audra Anders for The Aha! Connection

Recently Karen Cannon invited Peggy and me to see a section of The Branches neighborhood that we didn’t even know existed. There’s a row of beautiful new homes built by Hudgins Property Group on land acquired in 2017 with Karen’s help from Colonial Pipeline.  I had no idea there was vacant land anywhere in Dunwoody, particularly in the ever-so-popular Branches neighborhood.  

Denese and Andrew Hudgins have been married for 19 years and have worked together 10 of the 19!  Andrew, a Georgia Tech engineer, is the builder and Denese is the very talented designer. Be sure to visit their website to see all of the beautiful homes they’ve built together in our community.  Some have been renovations, some new construction and others have been homes that were torn down and re-built.  They have 3 active children, a 14 year old boy and 12 year old twins (boy & girl).  Watch the video we created to see the beautiful HUGE yard these kids are blessed with on Trailridge Court.

The Hudgins chose their particular home location because of its unique lot at the end of the street with a huge yard and open space across the street.  They build every home like they would live in it, never cutting corners, and always improving from home to home.  One unique practice Andrew is very proud of is spray foaming the entire house before installing the drywall.   This creates superior insulation in all of their homes.  Denese focuses on the design of each home.  She keeps functionality in mind for all of her designs….in fact, their newest project, 5208 Hidden Branches Lane, contains a “prep kitchen” because this is one room she and Andrew wish was in their own home.  In case you are wondering, a prep kitchen is an additional space that is accessible from the main kitchen.  Its main purpose is to support the focal kitchen, acting as the working space whilst concealing the more practical kitchen elements from the main kitchen design.  5208 Hidden Branches Lane is elevator capable with a built in shaft, three floors, a front and back covered porch, phenomenal technology upgrades and are over 5,000 square feet.

• 5166 Trailridge Court is coming soon with Karen Cannon Realtors.  The original owner is moving and selling this beautiful Hudgins Property Group home.
• 5208 Hidden Branches Lane, Dunwoody, GA 30338 is the home currently under construction.  You can see this under construction home in our video….be sure to notice the spray foam already in place before the drywall!  I can hardly wait to go back and see the finished product!

I’d like to formally thank my friend Karen for introducing us to Andrew & Denese Hudgins of Hudgins Property Group.  Karen has worked with them exclusively for 10 years and has sold all of their properties.  They have an extraordinary working relationship and we wanted to help spread the word about how amazing they are!  Contact Karen if you would like to know more about either of these two beautiful homes for sale!

Karen Cannon Realtors
1317 Dunwoody Village Parkway #103
Dunwoody, GA 30338
770-352-9658
Website
Info@KarenCannon.com
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by Audra Anders for The Aha! Connection

The Whitney Agee Team is the #1 medium size team in the Dunwoody Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices office!

Whitney resides in Dunwoody and has built her team from zero to Chairman’s Circle Gold in a  year and a half!   Chairman’s Circle Gold is top 3% out of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nationally.   When I learned about this, I was intrigued so decided to stop by and meet her.  As I approached Whitney’s glassed in office, I noticed she was meeting with a beautiful young pregnant woman that literally appeared to be about to POP out a baby!  I waited outside for them to finish their conversation and overhead so much sweet concern from Whitney as if she was herself, about to be the grandma (she’s way too young BTW!)  As it turns out, the beautiful mom to be was Audrey Lane, and her C-section was scheduled for two days later.  She had just stopped by the office to fill in her mentor on last minute work and plans for the baby.

Whitney seems to be in her element when helping mentor new agents.  She says all of her team has great nicknames for her all centering around her being like their “Work Mom”.  She’s relatively new at Real Estate herself, having obtained her license towards the end of 2018.  She briefly worked in Fayetteville, Georgia where she accumulated $3.3 million dollars in sales during her FIRST year as an Agent.  In October of 2019, she moved about 40 miles north to be near her family in Dunwoody.

Once moving to Dunwoody’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices office, she was excited and ready to meet new agents.   She loves to collaborate with others and kept meeting agents and thinking how great it would be if they were on a team together.  While based in Dunwoody, she had clients all over metro Atlanta and was so busy she was afraid many of the leads she collected would be lost.  So at the very end of 2020 she approached Sally Moore, her boss/Broker, with what she was afraid would be a “crazy idea”.  Sally loved the idea and the rest is history.  Whitney’s team has typically consisted of the newer agents in the Dunwoody office.  In 2021, her team accumulated $23 million in sales.  They are projected to reach $50+ million dollars for 2022.  Whitney is in the top 3% of a network of 55,000 agents worldwide.

Whitney’s role is to provide leads and guidance to the members of her team.  She practices going through homes with her teammates and teaches them how to be educated on everything to do with the sales/purchase processes.  She even helps them with their paperwork!  The joy she experiences watching her agents become successful is extraordinarily fulfilling.  In fact, Whitney mentioned she loves the hard and difficult situations and seeing her agents and/or new homeowners reach their goals after turning hard situations around.

I laughed when Whitney mentioned she may as well be a contractor.  She apparently wants to know the ins/outs and corners/crevices of every single square foot of any home she’s working with.  Even if there’s a tiny crawlspace, Whitney dives in to investigate and inspect.  Why does she does she do this?  Because she would never let someone buy a home that she wouldn’t personally purchase herself.  In fact, she told me about personally finding a “wood destroying fungus” in the crawlspace of a home one of her clients wanted to purchase.  Because Whitney found the problem early, she was able to have the seller get it fixed without her clients having to pay! 

One of her favorite types of clients to work with are first time home buyers.  She loves being a part of making their home ownership dreams come true.  Watching the light bulbs go off in their heads when they finally do the math on renting vs. buying is satisfying.  Whitney loves to share these happy experiences with her agents and their clients.

Not just anyone can join Whitney’s team.  They have about 10 people now and Whitney suggested her team is best only for motivated new agents who really want to learn and be successful.

When I asked Whitney why homeowners would want to hire her team she responded; “We provide focus on whatever the clients’ goals are.  That is the single motivator….working hard behind the scenes while focusing on and helping clients reach their real estate goals.”  She really cares more about getting you in the right home than anything else.  Want to meet her team?  Click here to see the people Whitney loves working with every day!  Fun fact:  Apparently you can also find most of the team working out together at Onelife Fitness Perimeter.

Whitney Agee, REALTOR
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services The Whitney Agee Team
5481 Chamblee Dunwoody Road
Dunwoody, GA 30338
470-345-1668
whitney.agee@bhhsgeorgia.com
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by Audra Anders for The Aha! Connection

Sitting down with my friend Kerry Arias is always a joy.  You may remember last year when I made the connection: From Cutie Pies to Residential Real Estate with a stop or two in between – Audra’s chat with Kerry Arias.  

Last week I had the pleasure of dropping by her office right in the middle of Dunwoody Village (think walking distance to NFA, Fresh Market, Bar{n} and more!) and so obviously we eventually detoured from real estate to food. Before we jump into some of Kerry’s favorite recipes, let me tell you about the rest of our conversation.

So many people I know, including Kerry, are dropping their first kids off at college.  Her daughter just began her collegiate career and her son is a junior at Blessed Trinity.  Empty nesting is close at hand for Kerry and she’s about to celebrate her 60th birthday.  She doesn’t look a day older than 41!  Last year when we chatted she was just starting her real estate career.  Now, a little more than a year later the first thing she said to me was “I should have done this ages ago!”

I can see how much she loves her job all over her face and in her body language.  She’s a people person in the people business.  She loves helping people!  Whether it is investing, buying, selling or renting that her clients are looking for she’s all in.  Actually, Kerry is the first realtor with whom I’ve discussed renting.  Over the past two years she’s helped several executives relocating to Atlanta and they often want to rent first to get a feel for Atlanta before purchasing.

In fact, just this month she held a two-hour open house for a rental property in Alpharetta near Avalon.  After the open house she received 12 applications!  The current tenants are paying $1,650/month but the new lease negotiated by Kerry is for $1,950/month!

Kerry is constantly finding ways to learn and improve.  In fact, she told me every morning while getting dressed and ready for the day she listens to podcasts.  Some of her favorites are Ninja Selling, Institute for Luxury, and Sherri Johnson.  I can just see Kerry walking around getting ready, brushing her teeth and stopping to write notes on her note pad as she hears things that pique her interest.

She told me a funny story about clients recently relocating from Savannah.  They were touring a townhouse in Buckhead but had their two big dogs with them.  It was a hot day so they decided to leave the car running with the dogs in the car while they toured the home.  They were inside the gated community so not worried about car theft.  The humans all went inside and Kerry left the couple to tour on their own.   Kerry looked out the window of the home and the dogs were having a big time playing and running around in the yard!   They had rolled down the electric windows and escaped the car!  Kerry quietly opened the front door and ushered the dogs inside.  As the couple descended the stairs from touring the top floors, they were greeted happily by their sneaky doggies…It’s a good thing Kerry “met” the dogs on this tour date because she was able to quickly realize that her new canine friends were a bit over the HOA’s weight limit for dogs.  Kerry proactively worked out a dog meeting with the HOA president to get a special stipulation approved for her clients and they are now happily residing there!

Kerry does a few things for her clients that I’ve never heard of….If they have pets, she brings a goody bag for the pets on move in day.  She also purchases all the moving boxes for her clients and includes a moving kit with a box cutter, tape, markers, etc.  How cool is that?  She says it just helps take one more thing off her client’s to do lists and she loves to help.

Kerry recently sold a beautiful home in the Branches.  Side note…Kerry told me this house has a paper towel drawer and now both Kerry and I covet one.  Kerry looked so sad when she told me how much she was going to miss these particular clients.  Apparently they’ve moved to Amelia Island.  But Kerry won’t have to wait long to see them because she and her husband plan to visit them this fall.  I wonder if they have a paper towel drawer there?

Kerry told me she is having fun working everywhere…not just in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs.  She’s recently sold 4 houses in Cumming, discovered a neighborhood on a “beach” in Villa Rica, and she’s helping a friend’s cousin connect with a realtor to sell an estate in Notasulga, Alabama!  I believe that finding her dream job later in life helps Kerry have a fresh and new perspective.  She realizes that buying and selling homes is typically a large and emotional transaction.  She treats every client experience as a luxury experience…hence providing the moving kits and pet goody bags I mentioned before.  Her goal is to always provide a seamless experience while protecting her clients’ best interests.

Finally, she loves to cook!  This of course got my attention so I asked what she had cooked recently.  As promised, below are three of Kerry’s must make recipes.  I think I need to head to the grocery store now 🙂

Barefoot Contessa’s Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter

Panzella – Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Recipe

Kerry Arias, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties
kerry.arias@bhhsgeorgia.com
770•605•7545 (cell)
770•393•3200 (office)
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