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Investing in Real Estate in Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, Louisiana is a great place to invest in real estate for a variety of reasons. Here are the top three reasons why you should consider buying property in Baton Rouge:

Strong job market: Baton Rouge has a strong and diverse economy, anchored by major employers in industries such as healthcare, education, and petrochemical manufacturing. This means that there is a steady demand for housing in the area, making it a good place to invest in rental properties.
Affordable housing: Compared to other major cities, the cost of living and housing in Baton Rouge is relatively low. This makes it an attractive option for both first-time homebuyers and investors looking for a deal.
Growing population: Baton Rouge is one of the fastest-growing cities in Louisiana. This means that there is a growing demand for housing as more people move to the area. Additionally, the city’s population is relatively young, which bodes well for the long-term growth of the housing market.

All in all, Baton Rouge is a great place to invest in real estate, whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or an experienced investor. With a strong job market, affordable housing, and a growing population, Baton Rouge offers plenty of opportunities for real estate investors

5 reasons to move to Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, is a vibrant and diverse city that offers a range of benefits to those considering a move. Here are the top 5 reasons to make Baton Rouge your new home:

Affordable cost of living: Baton Rouge has a lower cost of living compared to other major cities in the United States. This means that you can enjoy a high standard of living without breaking the bank.
Cultural richness: Baton Rouge is steeped in history and culture, from its famous Cajun and Creole cuisine to its lively music scene. The city is also home to several museums and art galleries, as well as an annual film festival.
Education opportunities: Baton Rouge is home to Louisiana State University, one of the largest and most prestigious universities in the state. The city also has a number of other colleges and universities, providing plenty of opportunities for education and career development.
Natural beauty: Baton Rouge is surrounded by natural beauty, from the Mississippi River to the many parks and gardens found throughout the city. The city is also a short drive away from the Gulf Coast, providing easy access to miles of sandy beaches.
Strong economy: Baton Rouge has a strong economy with a number of large companies, including ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical, having operations in the area. This diversity of business, along with a strong healthcare sector, makes Baton Rouge a great place for job opportunities.

In summary, Baton Rouge offers a great quality of life at an affordable cost, a rich cultural heritage, outstanding educational opportunities, beautiful natural surroundings, and a strong economy. All of these reasons make Baton Rouge a great place to call home.

The Houk Group is hiring agents to join our team! Is this you?

If you are a motivated individual who wants to learn all the necessary systems and processes to build a successful real estate business, we’d love for you to be a part of our team.

Our program teaches agents what they need to learn from the people who know what it takes to succeed. We give our agents every opportunity to learn, grow, take on leads, and, ultimately, close transactions. We teach our agents how to love their career and make money without giving away their lives. Our agents can make six figures while also maintaining the all-important work-life balance.

Send your resume’ to admin@timhouk.com and let’s get started today!

The journey continues

As you can imagine this journey has had an emotional component and a physical component. Physically, I feel great currently. Exception: emotionally and mentally draining days have my nights pretty sleepless. In turn, the days turn out to be pretty draining themselves. I have been eating a super low sugar diet, avoiding commercially processed meats, taking lots of vitamins, lots of water, and lots of antioxidant’s. Working with my trainer 2x a week and making my appointments for the Cancer and the wreck. Work as it turns out is a great escape and fortunate to love what I do.

I have had 3 camera’s inspecting my innards, a CT Scan, and a Pet Scan and we have not successfully located the primary source of my cancer. Mary Bird Perkins have been fierce advocates and I have enjoyed working with them. I was scheduled for a surgery to remove my tonsils at another hospital and due to the bureaucracy of it all ( I am being kind here) I walked out of my scheduled appointment. Quite a few sleepless nights after that experience, I asked and received a referral to MD Anderson in Houston from my Dr’s. Next week, I have 2 appointments scheduled to continue the journey in their capable hands. I walk in faith.

I have shared this with a few people…and that is 2020-2021 was really heavy on me. The news, social media, and Covid just wore me down. This experience has completely restored my faith in humanity! Since my diagnosis on 3/10/2022 peoples words, actions, prayers have overwhelmed me. For too long I have been influenced by the negativity in the world. Thanks to everyone who has supported me, reached out, called, texted, emailed ,messaged…I love you all. It helps me more than you know

The Houk Group is looking to hire its next leader! Is this you?

Your job title: Director of Operations

Where you will work: Wise Investment Group, LLC | Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Who’s the Boss: Tim Houk | CEO

Who are we?

Our mission is to provide the premier customer service experience for each home seller, buyer, and investor we work with. Knowledge we’ve gained through years of working in the local market empowers us to provide our clients and staff with the advice they need to make informed decisions. Whether it’s selling a home, searching for a home, or negotiating a contract, each member of our team is an experienced real estate professional who applies their expert skills to each step of the process to help each client achieve an outstanding result. We look to make an impact in our clients lives, and each others. Success here is about our collective journey.

Who are we looking for?

The DOO is a key Empire Protector for the growing business entities. This Director is the master of systems, consistently seeking new, innovative, and efficient business processes that save time and money. As a key leader in the Expansion Hub, the Director of Operations increases the ability of the Hub to process transactions, freeing our partners to focus more on the client experience and customer service. This person relishes the opportunity to build, implement, and manage multiple systems, and is seen throughout the organization’s as the expert on efficiency and systems. This person exhibits a drive to use systems as a strategic tool for creating an advantage for the organization. This individual will have some ability to show patience in finding a solution, though accomplishing the objective is more important for this person than using one specific process.

The VP of Operations is deeply committed to supporting the growth of the Hub business entities in achieving greater and greater levels of success, and to growing his/her own skills and developing into a supportive leader within the organization. As the success of the business grows, this individual will be responsible for hiring, training, and leading additional department members to ensure all administrative tasks of the lead agent’s business continue to be completed to high standards with maximum efficiency.

What will you do?
These are the standards a well-above-average performer will maintain or exceed:

- Build, implements, and manages all systems for transaction coordination, internal communication, client communication, financial management, recruiting, information management, central database management, and marketing.
- Assists as needed in documenting the systems of other departments, including customer service, buyer, seller, lead generation, tracking, property management, and expansion systems.
- Is responsible for all financial systems, including maintaining the books, paying the bills, handling payroll, assuring the collection of commissions, maintaining the budget, and generating financial reports.
- Oversees all contracts through closing.
- Creates and maintain an operations manual that documents all systems and standards.
- Coordinates the purchase, installation, and maintenance of all office equipment.
- Is responsible for hiring, training, consulting, and holding accountable all additional administrative department members.

Essential duties and responsibilities

- Database management to include overall health and growth.
- System development, implementation, documentation, and management
- Information management
- Oversight of contracts through closing
- Customer/Vendor relations
- Bookkeeping (A/R and A/P)
- Leading administrative department members (as appropriate to organizational structure)

Communications/Interactions

- CEO – daily
- Expansion Partners – daily/weekly
- Administrative Department (as appropriate to organizational structure) – daily
- Buyers/Sellers/Vendors – as appropriate

Knowledge/Skills

Bachelor’s degree preferred
Real estate license preferred and Real Estate knowledge essential
1–3 years of service and management experience
3–5 years of administrative experience, preferably in real estate

Compensation

Competitive base salary, profit share, and performance based bonuses.

How To Be More Energy Efficient

Welcome to the best online resource for How To Be More Energy Efficient. Call or text (225)-234-0022 for more information!

Have you been wondering about ways to use your energy at home more efficiently? Read this guide to learn ways to help save energy AND money!

Free ways to be more energy efficient

Turn your water heather thermostat down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Turn all lights off when no one is in a room, or open your windows if it is sunny outside.
In the winter, set thermostats to 68 – 70 degrees Fahrenheit when you are home, and change it to 62 degrees Fahrenheit when no one is home.
When running the air conditioner in the summer, set thermostats to 76 – 78 degrees Fahrenheit when you are home, and change it to 82 degrees Fahrenheit when no one is home. By lowering the thermostats when no one is home, you can save between 5% – 15% more money than if you are not doing this.
Use energy-saving settings on washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, and refrigerators.
Clean your refrigerator condenser coils once a year.
Air-dry clothes outdoors over throwing them in the dryer.
Close heating vents in unused rooms.
Repair leaky faucets and toilets (leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons of water annually nationwide).

Inexpensive ways to be more energy efficient

Install a water-saving showerhead or faucet heads for your sinks.
Install a programmable thermostat.
Plug air leaks in any attics or basements that small animals could crawl through, and replace broken window panes.
Clean or change the air filter on your warm-air heating system during the winter, and clean or change the filters on the air conditioning unit during summer.
Insulate the first six feet of hot and cold water pipes.
Install a compact, fluorescent lightbulb in the light fixtures that are used the most.

More expensive Ways to be more energy efficient (these will have an impact on IAQ)

Get a comprehensive energy audit, including a blower door test to identify sources of air infiltration.
Caulk and weatherize all leaks that are identified by the blower door test. Start with the attic or basement first, then weatherize windows and doors.
Seal and insulate warm-air heating or cooling ducts.
Have your heating and cooling systems tuned up at least every two years.
Have insulating shades for windows.

Ways to be more energy efficient that will take 3-15 years to pay for themselves (MECHANICAL VENTILATION should be present at this level of activity)

Foundation: insulate the inside rim joist, and down the foundation wall to below the frost line to R-10. Caulk the rim joist and sill areas first.
Basement: insulate the ceiling above crawl spaces or unheated basements to R-19 in cold climates. If your basement is heated, insulate the inside of the basement walls to R-10. Basement or foundation insulation is usually not needed in hotter climates. Install a ground vapor retarder if none is present.
Walls: Adding wall insulation is more difficult and expensive, but it is more cost-efficient if your house is uncomfortable and you have empty wall cavities. Installing insulation at a high density will greatly reduce air leakage.
Replace exterior incandescent lights with compact, fluorescents, and put them on a timer or motion sensor if they are on for more than a couple hours a night.
Convert to solar water heating, and perhaps also supplementary solar space heating.
Upgrade your water heater, furnace, boiler, air conditioners and refrigerators to more efficient models. Newer units are far more efficient. Upgrading is often cost-effective, and definitely so if you need to replace failing units anyway. Also, if you have weatherized an insulated unit, you will be able to downsize the heating and cooling systems. If the house is tight, use only sealed combustion appliances. If the air handler will be used for ventilation, or even when the furnace runtime will be long, choose an ECM.
Replace high-flow toilets with modern, water-efficient toilets that use 50-80% less water.

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We want to help you with all of your real estate needs, so if you would like us to provide you with a list of our home energy experts, call us at (225)-234-0022 or click the button below!

5 Winter Staging Tips That Will Get Your Home Sold!

Welcome to the best resource for 5 Winter Staging Tips That Will Get Your Home Sold. Call or text (225)-234-0022 for more information!

Follow these tips for some ideas to get your home staged in the best way during the winter, and get your home off the market as quick as possible!

1. First Impressions are key

First impressions make or break what someone thinks of your home, so it is important to make a good one! Keep both the interior and exterior of your home looking nice and presentable. Curb appeal is an important feature, some things you can do to make your home’s exterior looking nice is to keep the yard clean, clear any clutter like toys, and keep trees or bushes neatly trimmed. You can hang a colorful wreath on your door or put a new doormat out. If you want to go all the way, you can even repaint the exterior, update your mailbox, or replace your house numbers!

2. Turn up the heat

This one is simple, take advantage of the colder weather by turning up the heat! This will keep potential buyers who are touring your home want to stay inside longer.

3. Lighten it up

Now that it is getting darker earlier in the day, have your home well lit both inside and outside to give it a more delightful and homey feel. Outside you can hang some string lights around trees or bushes, or even add some lighting along your walkway to make it better lit up. On the inside, clean your light bulbs or even replace them if they do not look bright enough. Also, open the curtains and blinds during the day to allow lots of natural light to come in.

4. Clean the house

Have your house looking spotless, and make sure there are no unusual odors lingering around. Clean the floors, curtains, furniture, and dust all your fans, shelves, or any other spots that easily collects dust. Also, creating a scent appeal will help make the home seem more pleasurable to potential buyers. Comforting scents like vanilla or cinnamon will help create a scent appeal, but try to use candles instead of sprays. Click here to view a list of more comforting scents you can buy to help create a scent appeal in your home!

5. keep it cozy

Potential buyers like to be able to imagine themselves living in the homes they are looking at, so decorate your home in a way that will allow them to do this. If you are wanting to decorate using a specific color scheme, try using warmer colors. For these colder months, lay out some accent pillows and fuzzy blankets in the living room to make it seem more inviting. Have your furniture facing each other, seated in a circle, rather than having them all pointed towards one object. If you have a fireplace, decorate it! Style it up by adding flowers or plants, framed photos, candles, or any other cute, smaller decorations. In your kitchen, set up a coffee or tea area, this will allow potential buyers to imagine picture themselves sipping their hot beverages and warming up. Click here for more tips on how to make your home cozier!

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We want to help you with all of your real estate needs, so if you want more staging tips, want to know your home’s value, or have any questions, call us at (225)-234-0022 or click the button below!

10 Winter Home Maintenance Tips

Welcome to the best resource for 10 Winter Home Maintenance Tips. Call or text (225)-234-0022 to get our free home maintenance checklist!

Now that it is finally starting to get cold and stay cold outside, it is important to remember to keep your home maintained so everything is working smoothly during the winter time. Here are 10 tips to remember when servicing your home this month!

1. Change furnace filters

Dirty filters are a common cause of heating problems. Luckily, there is an easy solution for this! Just buy a new filter and change it out, this will lead to cleaner air and a low energy bill!

2. Test carbon monoxide & smoke detectors

Check and replace the batteries if needed. During the winter time, there is an influx of house fires caused by malfunctioning heating sources. Check these detectors at least once a month to ensure your family is warm and safe in your house.

3. Clean range hood fan (if you have one)

Range hood fans reduce fumes, smoke, grease, and it cleans the air whenever you are cooking. It is important to clean this so it works properly year round! Click here for a video on the best way to clean it.

4. Vacuum Fridge coils

These coils are located either under or behind your refrigerator, and they are responsible for pushing hot air out so the contents inside the fridge stay as cold as possible. Make sure to vacuum or sweep the surrounding area to prevent dirt and dust blockage.

5. run water

Any amount of running water will prevent your pipes from freezing, which ultimately will prevent any bursts. Adding insulation such as pipe sleeves and heat tape will stop your pipes from freezing.

6. check fireplace

Especially if you are using it a lot this month. Have it cleaned out and checked out for any buildup or cracks. If you have a wood fireplace, it should be serviced at least twice a year to keep it working properly. Click here for an easy to follow chimney cleaning guide!

7. clean garbage disposal

Not only will this avoid any nasty odors, but it will also prevent blockages that might be building up. An easy way to clean out a garbage disposal is to dump a handful of ice cubes down and run it as usual, doing this will sharpen the blades well enough without causing any damage.

8. Clean gutters

Clean them out and check for any ice dams that may have accumulated, make sure there is no other debris build up. While you are up there, take a look at your roof for any damage.

9. Inspect ourdoor lighting

Now that it gets dark outside early, make sure your outdoor lights are working properly. A well lit front and backyard area can prevent any slips and falls.

10. reverse ceiling fans

Switch all your ceiling fans to where the blades are running clockwise. When they run this way, the fans push heated air down to the floor, making everyone warmer!

Whether you are looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate, it is always better to work with a team! We want to help you with all your real estate needs, so just reach out to us by calling (225)-234-0022 or click the button below!

3 Things To Consider When Building A Home Office

3 Things To Consider When Building A Home With an Office By Tina Martin of Ideaspired.

Welcome to the best online resource on 3 Things To Consider When Building A Home Office Call or text (225)-234-0022 for more information!

Recently, the migration from commercial office spaces to home offices has picked up a lot of steam. Many businesses are discovering that it is possible to allow most or all of their employees to work remotely with good productivity results. Additionally, many people are responding to a downturned economy by starting their own business ventures.

It is challenging to achieve excellence in professional pursuits if you do not have a dedicated space where you can work without interruption. If you are thinking of building a custom home with an office, we can help! Here are a few things you might want to consider before finalizing your building plans.

1. Consider Home Prices In Various Locations

If you think you can not afford a home with a large office, you may be looking in the wrong area, as prices can vary significantly based on location. If you are willing to put down roots in a new area, you may be able to get more space for your money. While some research will tell you that home prices in Baton Rouge average around $234,900, this will only give a general idea of what to expect.

It is wise to work with a realtor during this process, since real estate agents hahttps://timhouk.com/about/ve access to information an average person does not have. They know a lot about the housing market in various areas and can recommend where you can build a home with a spacious office for an affordable price. There are also many other reasons to work a real estate team when building a custom home. Generally, they can make the process much easier and deliver results you expect.

2. Decide on the best office location

When finalizing the custom home floor plan, it is important to decide on the most ideal location for your office within the home. Many homeowners put their office right by the front door. This may work, but if you want a more secluded spot, a basement office or mother-in-law suite may make more sense. Or, you might even decide that a loft office is more suitable for you and will give you the most privacy.

If your office is in a high-traffic area of the home, you are more likely to be interrupted throughout the day. Balance family activity with concerns like meeting clients virtually and in-person, and with accepting and sending deliveries.

If the home you are building is small, you may need to be creative when it comes to incorporating an office into the existing space. Whether you turn a closet into a working area, of simply adding a desk behind your couch, it is possible to make practically any space work as an office.

3. button up legal details

There are a lot of things involved with starting your own business. The last thing you want to do is get in trouble because you failed to set things up legally. That is why you should carefully review all applicable federal and state laws before getting started. Some cities also require local business registration, even if you have already registered with your state. Small Business Rainmaker suggests doing a little research in advance, and you will have confidence that you understand how to operate your business legally in your area.

Along those lines, you may want to consider forming an LLC if you are launching a new business. A limited liability company offers the following advantages:

Limited liability (which means reduced likelihood you will face financial ruin if sued)
Less paperwork
Tax advantages
Flexibility

Remember, different states have different rules around forming an LLC, so make sure you understand local regulations before getting started. If you file yourself, you can avoid hefty lawyer fees. There are also formation services online that you can rely on if you do not want to dance through the legal jargon yourself.

While there are a lot of things to consider when creating a custom home with an office space, the benefits outweigh the costs when working remotely or running a business from home. Work with us, and we can help you find the right location, consider your workspace needs, and ensure the legal details are sorted out to ensure your work days run smoothly!

The 66 Day Challenge

Welcome to the best online resource for information on The 66 Day Challenge. Call or text (225)-234-0022 if you have any questions!

We want YOU to participate in the 66 day challenge. Developing or getting rid of a habit it not an easy task, but you will feel so much better knowing that you are putting in the work and accomplishing your goals! Also, once you build your habit, it will be easier to stay consistent with it! If you feel like you have been needing some change in your life, this is the perfect challenge!

There is no better time than now to come up with some goals that you have been wanting to accomplish, whether it has been a long time coming, or very recent. It is important to ask yourself this question when deciding what habit you want to develop or get rid of: “What is ONE THING I can do such that by doing it, everything else in life is easier or unnecessary.”

Our operations manager and marketing coordinator made a video for this challenge, and it is up on our YouTube Channel! Check that video out here!

Email us at marketing@timhouk.com and request a goal planner that we have created so it is easier for you to keep track with your progress!

If you have any questions on buying, selling, or investing in real estate, call (225)-234-0022 or click here!