Living in the Hub City: The Ultimate Local Realtor’s GuideChoosing a place to call home is about more than just the four walls of a house; it is about the pulse of the community, the commute to work, and the quality of life you enjoy after the sun sets. If you are considering living in the Hub City, you are looking at a location that perfectly balances the charm of a historic Southern town with the economic momentum of a modern metropolitan center. As a local realtor who has spent years navigating the streets of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I have seen firsthand how this region transforms from a "college town" into a premier destination for young professionals, growing families, and retirees alike.The nickname "Hub City" isn't just a catchy marketing slogan. It was earned in the late 19th ... 04/17/2026

How Do I Love Thee?Let me Count the Ways! I took a walk down a westside Rapid City neighborhood and was hit by the love bug!  Yes - I was told I look like Elton John with these glasses on.  Watch to the end for my tribute!Listed by VIP Properties, Rapid City.  Give me a call to take a look!  605-391-7086 02/10/2020

In 2013 Vince Herman and his girlfriend at the time bought a house together. It was a simple starter home in Box Elder with a garage and unfinished basement.Life happened and they broke up about a year later. Since they both were on the title, it became necessary to sell and move on.Thanks to the strong real estate market, they actually made some cash on the sale!Fast forward to 2018. Vince landed a great job. He started enjoying life, taking exotic trips, and snorkeling whenever he could.And it was time for him to buy his own place again.The right home with a HUGE master bedroom (it was really big!) fell into our laps. Offer in, offer accepted, inspections, appraisals no problem. Easy deal, great closing.The next year, we were honored to attend Vince’s wedding. That’s right. He invited... 09/24/2019

At closings, us REALTORS are usually just there to smile, tell jokes, and answer questions.At the closing with Dusty and Maggie, I got to do a whole lot more!With another child on the way and a move from Georgia, Dusty and Maggie were looking for that family home close to Rapid City with a yard. We found a home with plenty of bedrooms and space in a Black Hawk neighborhood.Part of the financing required signatures from Dusty’s father who was still on the east coast. Easy stuff with our digital signature system!With closing just a few days away, I got the word Maggie was in labor.Fortunately, the Title Company was gracious enough to come to the hospital. We had a closing in the delivery recovery room!While Dusty and Maggie signed, I got my baby fix in holding the newborn (after 4 kids, I... 05/29/2019

5 years ago, Greg and Heather were referred to me by a mutual military friend.There was a little culture shock as we began looking for homes. After being in South Carolina with their large entryways, smooth walls, and white trim, our textured walls and popcorn ceilings weren’t what they were hoping for. We even talked with a builder about no texture on the walls. The estimate back from the mud guys was a considerable sum…It took some time to get used to homes in our area, but they did find a home with a 3 car garage they loved.Here they began their family with a baby girl and kitten!Duty would call again, however, sending Greg south.They took great care of their home. The pictures and videos looked so great! But they endured more unexpected twists and turns than most sellers should.Firs... 05/16/2019

Buying A Home Should Be FunAn Emond Team Client Story   “Yellow Car!”I glanced sideways from driving to the next home I was showing Alex and Brittani to see what that was all about.Alex, in the back seat, swore under his breath.  In the next moment, blurted out “Yellow car!”“OK.” I said. “What’s going on?”It was their car game.  You get into the car, the game begins.  Whoever sees and calls the most yellow cars before getting out of the car wins.  School buses, construction vehicles, and other commercial vehicles excluded, of course.I loved that they felt comfortable enough around me that they could keep playing their game – even in my car showing homes.Didn’t take long before I was hooked and calling out yellow car as well.  My inexperience did not help me win any of the bouts, howeve... 05/02/2019

Home Buyer LoansHome Style Renovation Program     Hi everybody! I'm Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty and this is Angelia with Gateway Mortgage. We're here at 15 Camp Drive just off Highway 385. We're gonna take a look at it and talk to you about some home buyer options. Ready to do this? Let's do it!Tristan: All right here we are, in this house. Obviously, we need some updating. There's some old, cool things here. But if I come in here, probably want some things taken care of.They probably don't want a heart bathtub.  How can a buyer fix this property up and and roll it into the loan? What kind of programs you have?Angelia: We have a really good one. It's called the Home Style Loan Program. What that means is, you can come in -have a purchase price, you can have your contractor... 04/30/2019

You Can't Turn Left HereA special edition of Tristan about Town    You Can't Turn Left HereHi I'm Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty.I've got a problem.I have a pet peeve of people turning left in places when the road is so busy turning left is an impossibility.So on this special edition of Tristan about Town... Rapid City: You Can't Turn Left Here.Welcome to O'Hara Stadium. There are football games, track and field games, and when you've got Central playing Stevens, everybody's here. There's people lined up all the way across the road. When things get out...you can't turn left here.The parking garage on Fifth Street. Lot of activities, lots things happening. This gets piled up all the time. You can't turn left here.You know, you really can't turn left here - it's a one way street... 02/14/2019

Get Your Home Ready to SellTristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!  Get Your Home Ready for Sale!  Don't wait too long!  Hey Everybody! I'm Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty.Welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!Today we are talking to home sellers who are thinking about getting your home ready for sale.And I know that every REALTOR will probably tell you, "Yup. You got it ready, now is a great time to list!"I'm here to tell you now IS a great time to list.Lemme tell you why.Since January 1st, where in one of my last videos I reported we had a really low amount of inventory, we have put well over 100 plus homes under contract. Over a hundred under contract.There was on property we looked at with a buyer, he decided not to put an offer on it, But eight offers on that one pr... 02/11/2019

We can be your real estate agent of the family…It’s one thing to have 2 closings in one day.It’s another when those 2 closings are from the same family – the parents AND the daughter.But…let’s back up a bit.Back in 2010, we helped the Fredrichs buy a cabin in the Hills for a vacation home.  They put love and sweat into it and made it into an amazing place!As time went on, they sent their family and friends to us for real estate transactions.Fast forward to 2018.  It was time to sell their cabin and buy a forever home closer to town.At the same time, their daughter Emily had been approved to buy her first home.We found the places they loved about the same time and scheduled the closing for the same day.  (their vacation cabin was under contract and was scheduled to close a few weeks late... 02/05/2019

Conventional versus Government LoansTristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!  Conventional Versus Government Mortgage Loans Hi everybody. This is Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty. Welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!Today I'm with Angelia Dale with Gateway Mortgage.And today we're going to talk about the difference between conventional and government loans. DownpaymentSo first of all, Angelia, give us a quick synopsis of what each one is. Okay so your conventional loans - they require a down payment. You know, anywhere between 5% and however much you want to put down. They're more your traditional loans that we do.Our government loans are FHA VA and Rural Development. Some of them require 0% down up to 3 1/2% down for the FHA loans.Okay so biggest difference at this poin... 01/28/2019

The Dream Came True - an Emond Team Client StoryOn December 1, 2011, Jessica posted on her Facebook status:“Someday I aspire to own a home on the Boulevard.”Someone should have warned her about putting things out there… 😊In the fall of 2014, we listed a historical home on 11th street. The owners had bought it as a complete fixer-upper. They had worked to make it a cute space while retaining as many of the historical pieces as possible.The open houses on this property were phenomenal! But…the comments were the same. People loved the idea of an old home, but they really didn’t want to live in one.The following Spring was the beginning of Jessica’s dream. She called me to view the home. As she walked through the living room, the floors creaked. Her eyes lit up.I knew she was a buyer that w... 01/21/2019

2018 Rapid City Real Estate MarketTristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!  Rapid City Real Estate Market in 2018. Hi everybody - happy 2019 and welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD LIVE! So... of course we need to check out the 2018 Rapid City residential real estate numbers. See what happened last year. So, you can see up here I've got a bunch of numbers. We're gonna go over a few things - we'll look at how things went. We see the last year we were up 6 and 1/2 percent on our average sold price from 2017. What was really interesting to me was that in 2012 - since 2012 we're up 21%.  So steady growth - consistently - in our market as far as sold price is concerned. I like to look at the price points that are selling the most to kind of give you an idea of where all the action is going ... 01/17/2019

 Come see Gilbert Arizona, the area and homes here are beautiful!Gilbert is situated just southeast of Phoenix, it is a a short drive to one of 2 airports, Mesa Gateway and Phoenix Sky Harbor. With our amount of sunny days and wonderful neighborhoods this could be your next home! Gilbert has many cultural attractions, safe neighborhoods and great schools, top notch Golf Courses and gorgeous parks are everywhere!It is also noted that Gilbert is in the TOP 20 Thriving Cities in America. Come look at homes with pools in Gilbert. You can find 3 bedroom homes in Gilbert, 4 bedroom homes in Gilbert, pool homes in Gilbert, Adult communities in Gilbert, Gated golf Communities in Gilbert.Really, everything you are looking for is in Gilbert.   01/03/2019

Should You List Your Home in Winter? Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!     Should you list your home in the winter?  Or keep it active through the Holiday Season? Hi everybody!  This is Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty.Welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!Today we're going to talk about something that's pretty important as we're getting close to the holiday season and winter. And that question is: should you keep your home on the market or should you list your property through the holidays and the winter time?  And the answer actually is - it depends!  (of course, right?) Less CompetitionMy first point for the reason that you should keep your home on the market or still list your property is there is less competition.  You've got people that are like "You know, I'm... 11/30/2018

 Sometimes we have to win our clients over.Bad past experiences with another realtor can really suck.In 2013, Brian and Mahala’s kids were gone. It was time to downsize from their family home to a West Boulevard charmer.A mutual friend hooked us up and we got the call to help out.We had our work cut out for us.When Brian and Mahala originally bought their home, Brian never felt like his agent had their back. He silently questioned his loyalty and whether or not their best interests were really at the forefront Which led to a general distrust of realtors.Understandable...Since Mahala’s job at the time allowed minimal contact during the day, Brian became the guy to deal with “them thar” realtors.Sarah and I were managing both transactions at once – making sure the buyer bought their house... 11/15/2018

Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!Rapid City Home Sewer Line Issues and the Home Sale  Sewer line issues and the home sale.Hi everybody, this is Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty.Welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!Yes, I've got drawings on my board already and no - my kids did not draw them...I did.  Yes, I am an artist. I've even got the sun shining on the house!Today, we're going to talk about sewer lines.  And this is a very important thing to talk about when it comes to the buying and selling transaction because...we will talk about now!The sewer line, as we know, runs from the house all the way to the street.  As a homeowner in Rapid City, you are responsible for everything from here to where it connects into the city line.Now, normally that's not a problem.  ... 11/13/2018

Do you Need 20% Down to Buy a Home?Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE!  Hi everybody, this is Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty.Welcome back to Tristan and his WHITEBOARD - LIVE.Here again with Angelia Dale with Gateway Mortgage.Today we're going to talk about something that's kind of prevalent in the mortgage industry, especially.It's the thought form that you have to have 20 percent down to buy a home.  And hey - who has that kind of money anymore? I mean, if you do, you know, you can bring my way...Anyway, so this question is: "Do you really need 20 percent down to buy a home in today's market?"You don't!  So, there are...we have our conventional loans which you can do 5% down.You can do the government loans which require zero to three and a half percent down.There's a lot of d... 11/12/2018

Four Minutes to Beat the CompetitionAn Emond Team Client Story  FOUR Minutes.  It only took 4 minutes for Claton and Renee to beat out the competition and get their home.Wait, wait.  Let’s back up….Claton and Renee were ready to buy a home.  Kid was on the way, their space was too small…it was time.They had some unique needs in a Westside home that, quite honestly, I was skeptical we could find in their budget.But then we walked into what would be their new home.  (spoiler alert)It was springtime.  In Rapid City.  And the market was hot.  I called the listing agent to let him know an offer was coming.  He had just received one that day.BAM.  Bidding war.Claton and Renee were not discouraged.  They presented a strong offer that included a “we’ll pay ‘x’ more than those guys” clause.The n... 10/30/2018

The BeginningIt was getting cramped in the double wide mobile home.Michael and Seth were in bunk beds in one room and Isaiah and Emily shared the other.Fortunately, that was on the other side of the house from our master bedroom. 😁 On those cold winter days when the kids didn’t get a chance to go outside, the open living room/kitchen/dining room got a bit noisy. Fortunately, real estate was took off in 2008 and we got the thumbs up to look for a home. It was a simple matter: the BIGGEST house for our budget. (those 4 kids ain't gonna get any smaller!) Our First "Real" Home We settled on a 4 bedroom split level home with detached garage. The previous owner had built an addition on the side giving us a family room upstairs and unfinished bedroom in the basement. This is where my kids have... 09/25/2018