Peter Tamura

We'd looked at about twenty four houses, and wrote an offer on one. It was the nicest house in a medium house neighborhood, I had some concern about regression (from real estate class, when the biggest homes in a neighborhoods values tend to regress to the mean) and we didn't quite bid high enough to get it.

Then I tried something new. I took out all the square footage requirements that my clients had suggested and, lo and behold, some new construction homes popped out. Of course, a lot of builders don't put their square footage in for their homes so I had been inadvertantly excluding them. Out popped Providence Hills, a new community in Jenks with Bixby schools. We looked at some Simmons homes in the subdivision. My clients were amazed by the amenities at the subdivision, splash park, basketball court, stocked fishing pond, swimming pool, clubhouse and walking trail. Also, the value was amazing, they were getting about 500 square feet for a custom brand new home compared to the five year old home they were looking at. Also, Simmons offers fantastic options on subsidized financing!

Fourteen years ago, when Greg Simmons was starting in the business, my mom helped sell two of his homes in Owasso. Greg sent her two dozen flowers in appreciation. To this day, my mom talks about that! Simmons is now the biggest builder in Tulsa. Now generally, realtors and builders have an uneasy alliance but Simmons decided early on to embrace and support realtors and offer great deals to consumers. In a realtor appreciation breakfast that Simmons recently held, Greg was talking about how lucky he has been. Yes, he is lucky to have been in the Tulsa market and escape the troubles that a lot of the national builders are now facing, but certainly lucky and smart.

Simmons was recently involved in "New Orleans" Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. It will be on the finale of the popular ABC series, May 18th as a two hour show. Take a look at http://extremesimmons.com/.

On Monday in the WSJ, there was an article about whether companies are rewarded for being socially responsible. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121018735490274425.html Have a look, it's very interesting, but it warms my soul to see a company like Simmons Homes succeeding.

Well, Monday was my birthday and I've been really busy all week but today a Heartland Steak was delivered to me at the office to the extreme jealousy of many of my colleagues. There was nothing on the outside to tell me who it was from, I guessed that it was probably my mom or my wife. Inside there was a card from........Simmons Homes! Do I need to tell you that I am a big fan?

For all the buyers' agents purchasing homes, it may be prudent to add a roof inspection to the slate of inspections for your buyers as a safeguard due to the recent hailstorm.

In addition, if the home is in contract, and the roof in question does need repair, the seller probably needs to contact their insurance company to make a claim on their insurance to repair any roof damage. You certainly wouldn't want your buyers stuck with this new expense but depending on where you are in the contract, it may force both parties back to the negotiating table, especially if the sellers have a big deductible for roof repair in their homeowner policy.

I was around 61st & Memorial when the hail happened, (around 3:30AM), I opened the door and watched as it came down. I braced myself for the sound of windshields cracking, but at least where I was, the hail didn't get big enough, but it did leave twenty or thirty mini-dents on my car, observable if you really look. Lots of people told me that the hail woke them up, what a morning!

What monumental event could singlehandedly rivet the nation's attention on Tulsa, OK?

The icestorm? No, that's history

The lowest gas prices in the nation? Yes, that usually makes national news but that's not what I'm talking about here.

YES, you guessed it, it's the beautiful BOK Center designed by the renowned architect Cesar Pelli (designed the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tallest building in the world from 1998-2004).

Well, last Wednesday RE/MAX Executives was lucky enough to go on a group tour of the work in progress. Here are some pictures and comments, enjoy!

Two of our members were not allowed to go on the tour because they were wearing open toe shoes. You can see that there are lots of people working on the Arena as we are touring, on any given day there are 650-700 people working on the job site. You can see some of the 25,000 stainless steel plates, adding the curves and the metallic element that Cesar Pelli is renowned for. The plates toward the bottom have blue tape to prevent damage during construction.

Did you see the photo in the Tulsa World that showed the view from the Suites? It looked like the basketball court was already complete. How did they do that? Well, the answer is that a mock suite with a simulated view of the Arena was actually built in the TulsaVision Building. The rooms is not quite as wide as the real suite but most other things are to scale including the view. The suites are on the exclusive second floor and offer a remarkably intimate view of the court. If you are thinking about getting a suite but haven't done so already, forget it. They are all sold for a five year commitment at $40,000 and up per year! It's a reflection of how excited Tulsans are about the BOK Center.

Our fearless group leader Rick Cole. Note the eye protection and the hard hats. This is in a suite on the second floor, perhaps the last time that I get to set foot on the second floor, unless I make some quick friends with some suite owners!!

The state of the art sports and entertainment venue has a seating capacity of 18,041 according to the information on BOKCenter.com, the opening is fall 2008 and is currently on schedule! Thanks, Rick for the tour, can't wait until the grand opening.

Some crane operators hard at work. You can truly see the scale of the building from this picture. The BOK Center is owned by the city of Tulsa and was part of Vision 2025. It will add to the quality of life of Tulsans for years to come as the beautiful building will attract world class sports and entertainment.

I went to Memorial High School in '85, left and went to and lived in various places like Arizona (went to ASU), California (Fremont) and Tokyo. When I came back to Tulsa last October after about twenty two years, I found a lot of interesting things to do outside of work.

I have always believed in my motto that I could live anywhere if there's a soccer field close by. By all accounts, the Tulsa soccer scene is alive and thriving. I will provide all the information here to hook you up!

pickup games- The only ones that I am aware of are at TU by the rugby pitch off of Harvard, on Wednesday evenings around 6:45P-7PM and Saturday mornings at 9AM. The only thing to watch out for is that the location sometimes changes if the fields are reserved. Then they move usually south of the fitness center which is the next street over west of the rugby pitch.

When I came back in October, it was week three of the NEOASA soccer season. (Northeast Oklahoma Adult Soccer Association). Neoasa.org The lady in the office emailed my info to all the Master's leagues teams, Master's is forty and over by the way, and FC Dynamos was kind enough to email me back and say that I could play on their team. You pay $65 per season, they give you a pass with your picture on it, and you pay twenty dollars or so for the team shirts.

As Tulsa got colder toward the end of the year, the soccer action moves indoors. There is a great facility called Soccer City, which is close to 61st and Garnett. SoccerCityTulsa.com. Basically, if you are going east on 61st, you go past Garnett to the first light, turn left and go about 150 yards and then make a right down a long driveway toward the facility. It's a building with two well maintained indoor fields that seem to get use around the clock. You can get indoor shoes, or you can play with your regular outdoor cleats here. I played on two separate teams, Thursday nights and Saturday nights. The scheduling is pretty nuts sometimes, we had games scheduled to start at 12:30AM and 1AM in the morning! The cost depends on how many players are signed up for your team but it's around $55 an eight week season. You can sometimes just go there and ask teams to let you play if they are short. Usually, the later the game, the higher the likelihood that a team is short. Usually, a lot of players play two eight week seasons here and head back outdoors as it warms up, but they do have spring leagues as well. For indoor, it's a different type of fitness, the game is much quicker and the halves are twenty minutes each. It's six aside in the leagues that I was in, so nine on the team with frequent subs was a good number.

There you have it, this is not comprehensive, but hopefully enough to get you started. Enjoy Tulsa!