December 2015 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!!

We hope you are preparing to enjoy some time away from work and the hustle and bustle of life to spend with family and friends and truly be thankful for what we have. After some horrifying events around the world, it can become difficult to be grateful and thankful for what you have. Here are a few things for which we are thankful and will not take for granted:

Our health
Our family
Our faith
Our friends
Our country
Our clients
We are curious, for what are you most thankful?

Thank you to all of our clients for attending our final Happy Hour of 2015 last Wednesday at Matt The Miller's!! We had another great turnout and it was so nice to see so many clients & referral partners. We are grateful for the trust you have placed in us and for our friendship. See you in January!!

Thank you to so many of our clients for attending our Pictures with Santa on Saturday!! Santa was so happy to see so many smiles and hear all of the presents the kids asked him to bring. We will be sending you the photos from that afternoon in the next couple of days as we know many of you are waiting on them for Christmas cards. If you didn't get a chance to join us this year, please plan to attend next year. It is always a great time!

You should have received an invitation to our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event on December 12th from 8:30-11AM at Hamilton Towne Center movie theater. We already have a big group attending and look forward to seeing you there. We will have food and drinks and then show the soon-to-be-released movie The Good Dinosaur. It has received excellent reviews and know kids and adults alike will enjoy it. Please come and join us as we say Thank You for everything you have done for us. Parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren are all welcome. Please RSVP by December 1st to Kylie Zajac @ Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com with the number of adults & children in your party. Thank you for letting us 'love' on you!!

Our family had our Thanksgiving a little early this year and celebrated it yesterday with Brigid's parents who were up from Florida. Brigid did another amazing job cooking and Mary Anne and Michelle helped with bringing delicious desserts. No one walked away hungry!!

The reason we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early was Steve & Brigid are crossing off a 'bucket list' item and are flying to Germany & Austria on Wednesday for 12-days. Ana & Tali are coming along and are very excited about being out of the country for the first time aside from some cruises. We fly from Chicago to Berlin and then on to Salzburg. We plan to stay in Bavaria the entire time and enjoy the Christmas Markets, sled down the Alps, play in a thermal spring-fed water park, see Neuschwanstein castle, and much more!! This will be Steve's 3rd trip to the area and Brigid's 2nd, but our first trip to Europe since Brigid was 7-months' pregnant with Ana 10-years' ago!! Although recent events are in the back of our minds, we refuse to cancel our dream vacation. We are looking forward to getting away and showing our girls other cultures so they have more of an appreciation of how people can be different from us, but that doesn't make their way of life wrong or ours better. This is going to be a trip experiencing other cultures and traditions and one of tolerance and understanding. We can only hope that people in other countries and throughout the US adopt that same mentality as our world would be a much better and peaceful place for us our and children to live. Please say a prayer for our safe travels as we confront some obvious fears.

Finally, the housing market continues to be good. We are getting asked this question quite a bit. Inventory is extremely low and in some areas near 1-month-very unhealthy. First-time buyers only make up approximately 30% of the overall buyers and normally, they comprise 40%. We need first-time buyers to start the domino chain and we need people to put their houses on the market. Prices continue to rise and so will interest rates, so now is the time to sell, even though the holidays traditionally see lower traffic. With so few houses with which to compete, your chances are pretty good with each showing you get. Call us today if you or someone you care about is thinking about selling in the next 6-months. We would love to consult with you about your options and share facts and data so you can make an informed decision.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you and your family!!! We hope to see you at the movie on December 12th!!

Click here to read our holiday edition of our newsletter.

Click here to access coupons & discounts at stores you will be shopping this holiday season.

Click here to download the most powerful real estate app in Indy.

Steve & Jack Rupp

November Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy November! We hope that you had an enjoyable Halloween whether you handed out treats, accompanied your little one(s) Trick-or-Treating (as we did) or went downtown to see the Pacers' game. The weather couldn't have been better and certainly beat last year!

Steve & his family joined Jack & Mary Anne on their annual family vacation and this year we drove to Stowe, VT and stayed at Smuggler's Notch Resort. Being there at the end of October, the colors were absolutely beautiful and so was the terrain. We visited a Sugar House and saw how they made maple syrup, Lake Champlain Chocolates to see how they make their yummy goodies, Cabot Creamery to see how they make their world-renown cheese, & Ben & Jerry's to see how they make their sinfully good ice cream. We also walked around the Von Trapp Lodge where they lived and still own. Very neat! Ana took one of her soccer teammates for the week, so that was fun as well (we attached a photo of the girls at the Von Trapp Lodge).

Bucket list item-Steve & Brigid are taking our girls to Germany & Austria over Thanksgiving this year! Brigid and Steve have been to Germany before, but this will be the girls' first experience overseas. We are so excited and plan to Skype with Ana's entire 5th grade class and interview an Austrian family in the bed & breakfast where we are staying. We plan to visit Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and some small mountain towns, see some of the famous Christmas Marts, sled down the Alps, and stay at a thermal spring-fed water park! We can't wait and will share our experience next month upon our return.

This is always a great month focused on giving and being thankful. Although it is always good to give and be thankful throughout the year, this month is a nice time to laser-focus on that. For what are you thankful? What do you do to give back? Something we have learned is that you get back what you give. Coming from a spirit of gratitude is so important and so is not judging your insides by other peoples' outsides, yet it is so easy to do, isn't it?

We want take this opportunity to model this behavior and publicly thank a few people for helping us and always being there. First and foremost, our families-Mary Anne, Michelle, Steve, Caleb, Abbey, Claire & Brigid, Ana, & Tali. Although we try as much as possible to keep 'regular' work hours, that isn't always possible and our business takes time away from you. Thank you for understanding and 'sharing' us with our amazing clients we so love to help. Also, thank you to our unbelievably talented Director of Marketing & Client Services Kylie Zajac. Without you, we wouldn't be able to deliver the high level of service we promise to our clients. You always make us look good and constantly take fantastic care of our clients.

Finally, thank you to YOU! There are too many clients and referral partners to list, but you know who you are. Thank you for entrusting us with one of the most important times in your life and one of the largest financial transactions of your life. We know how important it is to you and your family and are grateful you continually invite us to help you as we know you want and deserve the absolute BEST experience and service possible for you and those about whom you care. Thank you for continuing to introduce us to your friends, family, & co-workers as we promise to always take excellent care of them and provide them a 'magical' level of service. Kylie starts real estate classes on Monday for the next month so she can become licensed and help us even more. Way to go, Kylie!!

Now, onto the giving part...As you know, we try and do many extra things for our clients, including Santa Night, our Happy Hours, VIP Client Appreciation Event, Fun Day Monday contests, gifts, movie tickets and celebrating happy occasions and milestones with you and your loved ones. Thank you for allowing us to 'love' on you. We enjoy doing it and giving back to you for your generosity to us and those about whom you care.

Speaking of these events, we have some reminders to share. You should have received an Evite for all of these events as well as paper invites for the VIP Client Appreciation event. We hope you will consider joining us at one or more of these events so we can show you our appreciation in person.

1) Special Client Appreciation Event-This was held this PAST Wednesday, November 4th at Stone Creek Dining in Zionsville. This was a one-time event as an additional thank you to our clients and co-hosted by a couple of friends of Steve's. Thank you to those of you who attended!! We had a great time. We will let you know if another one is planned in the future.

2) November Happy Hour-This is our monthly Happy Hour at Matt The Miller's the third Wednesday of every month from 5-7PM. This month, it will be held on November 18th. We hope you will attend & enjoy a drink or two along with some yummy appetizers as we say thank you for your support. Please RSVP through Evite, but know you are always welcome to drop in even if you didn't RSVP. We would just love to see you!! **Please note that there will be no Happy Hour in December due to the holidays. We will start back up again in January.

3) Pictures with Santa-We have been hosting this for over 10 years now and it has become a family tradition for many of our clients. If you attended last year, you know that Santa and Mrs. Claus look EXACTLY like Santa & Mrs. Claus. Don't miss out and join us. Please RSVP through Evite or Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. This year, we are hosting this event a little early due to the holidays on Saturday, November 21st from 12PM-2PM at our office. Santa is looking forward to seeing you there!

4) VIP Client Appreciation Event-Saturday, December 12th from 8:30AM-11AM at Hamilton Towne Center. Another family favorite and annual tradition, we invite you to enjoy a donut, fruit, juice, & coffee bar, photo shoot, and then the soon-to-be-released Pixar movie The Good Dinosaur. It has received excellent reviews and is perfect for the entire family. Friends and family are both invited. Bring grandparents, grandkids and enjoy fun, family entertainment. Please RSVP to Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com with the number of adults & children so we can let the theater properly prepare for our arrival.

We hope your Thanksgiving holiday is a fun one spent with friends and family and reflecting on things for which you are thankful. Thank YOU, again for being such a big part of our real estate family! Enjoy this month's special November edition of our newsletter and please let us know what you think of it.

Click here to read our very special November newsletter

Click here to access our PinPoint Perks savings site

Click here to download our POWERFUL real estate app

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack