We thought it was someone trying to sell something when Chris Prentice from BusinessWeek.com called the office last week, asking to speak to the owner. She said she gets that a lot. But she was an actual reporter. And she really did run a piece in BusinessWeek with a pierce about my small office. Here's the article:
Doing Business on the Gulf Coast, Post-Spill (12)
And for the rest of the story...
The things she didn't have room to include in her space allowed...
Can I just get the following information from you:
-How much was your claim for, and when did you receive it?
Without stating exact numbers I can tell you that what I received from BP ended up being between 11%-12% of my gross income this year. June-August is usually some of our highest income months, but this year was our lowest income months. In September I received a check from BP which did help offset what we didn't earn. I have to make sure I have told you that many companies in our area would not be in business today if it were not for all the all the hard work done by the Keith Kelly, who was President of the Alabama Association of Realtors, (which was a volunteer position) during a very difficult year and without the hard work and persistence of J. Danny Cooper, AAR's executive vice president. These two men and their staffs, plus countless others throughout our association worked seven days a week and well into many nights, and they are still working hard to make sure that BP understands the unique problems this disaster has caused the Realtors along the Gulf Coast.
When you say you've been working more with investor customers, what types of investors?
In every disaster there is opportunity. In Mobile County between the economy and the BP disaster the prices were good for investors who were buying houses to rent to tenants. In Baldwin County I had a lot of fun with a different kind of investor. I had buyers who had been coming to Gulf Shores every year for years in their campers/RVs and staying at a campground. They were not people that had ever considered buying a vacation home. Last year when they got to Gulf Shores and started looking at the prices they saw that there was an opportunity to purchase a house or condo, off the water, but near the water, at incredible prices. I had buyers buy in Baldwin County at really low prices that really would not have been in a position to do so before. They were a lot of fun to work with.
By the way she even included my website link! Does anyone know if that will help my google juice?