Blog :: 2008

Marathon Fever

I ran in the local marathon this past weekend and I must say it was extremely exhilarating. I ran the last leg 5.6 miles on a relay team with some friends. What an incredible event the city of Burlington puts on. There were over 7200 runners and 30,000 spectators experiencing the event. The weather was great, a balmy 70 plus degrees sunny,
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More on the ball field

DuringMemorial Day, me and two other volunteers took advantage of our time off to put the roof on the new storage shed that we will have for our new baseball field for the kids when it is complete. We started this project almost a year ago to construct a new baseball field and we are getting in the home stretch for completion. We hopefully
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Happy Post Memorial Day

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone well after such a wonderful weekend we had here. The weather could not have been better for the Memorial Day Weeend festivities. I hope all of you were able to spend the time the way that you wanted to. Ialso want to acknowledge the huge sacrifices that all our Veterans have made so that we do have
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Selling tips 101

If you are thinking of selling your home today, here are a few pointers that you may want to take advantage of to help sell your home. First of all, make sure that you are completely realistic about your price. If you are at the top of the competition, plan on staying put for quite some time. Secondly, hire an experienced agent. Someone who
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Too Happy to be Rich?

I just got done reading an interesting article in Money magazine which compared the amount of happiness one felt with their financial status and spending habits. Based on a study done by World Values Survey which measured the happiness of their respondents on a scale of 1- 10 with 10 being the happiest, they found that income did indeed
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Market Upswing

Today's local newspaper has an article in it talking about the positive turn the real estate market has taken in a number of places across the country. This speaks to the point that there is no such thing as a national real estate market, just like there is no such thing as a national weather report. All real estate is local and so is the
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Enhance Your Curb Appeal

If you are thinking about selling your home, you may want to take a moment to think about what makes some homes sell faster than others in a neighborhood full of like kind homes. There is definitely one thing that all of them have in common, curb appeal. Most homeowners view their homes as being bigger and better than most of their
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Legislative Session Ends

I just went to a Government Affairs Committee meeting this morning to get an overview of what the last minute finagling by our legislators did for the future of housing in our state. All in all I was pleased by the report we received by our representative, but also put on notice that there will be some things down the road that we will need
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Healthy Living

May is almost half gone and we are all starting to feel good about the warmer temperatures. My kids are playing baseball and soccer and my wife and I are training to run in the marathon. Living in Vermont is such a wonderful experience. There are so many outdoor activities to get involved in that it truly makes Vermont one of the most
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Our Business is Up

We just got our numbers through April and I have to admit, our business is up from last yearat this time. If you listen to the national news and even the local media, they are promoting a picture of real estate doom and gloom . Well let me tell you folks, we have had 3 deals in the last two weeks where there were two offers on the same
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Retire or Not ?

Today's retirees are much different than retirees of past. Years ago we thought of retirement as the end of the line. Nothing much planned other than to kick back and wait for our maker. Certainly, retirees look much different in today's world. Most of them have a plan and don't take the plunge until they are ready to fulfill new dreams,
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Steps to Buying a Home

It is a funny thing when you talk to some people about buying their first home. They often have the impression that it's a couple of steps, find a home and get a loan. Not to mention that is the order of how they think it should go. Needless to say, the order is incorrect especially after the mortgage crisis that we have recently
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Happy One Hundred Years

Did you know that this year marks the 100th Anniversary for the founding of our Realtor Association? It was at that time that a group of real estate practitioners met in Chicago with one goal in mind, toestablish a licensed professional group with a list of priorities that included a code of ethics, continuing education,licensing laws and a
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Foreclosures Can be Everybody's Problem

Ijust read an article on MsnMoney.com talking about the affects that a foreclosure can have on a neighborhood. It is easy for people that are making their payments on time to notthink aboutthose individuals who may be living in their neighborhood struggling to make their payments. Unfortunately, everyone needs to stop and think about the
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Second-Home sales fall in '07

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of vacation and investment homes fell with the overall market in 2007, but second homes still made up a third of all home sales. Investment properties accounted for 21% of the market in 2007 down from 22% in 2006. Vacation homes sales accounted for 12 percent of the market down from
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Can my Realtor help me get a loan?

In today's world there are a many options one has to choose from when trying to obtain a mortgage for their new home. The reality is that there are so many options that often times it can become confusing and that is where your Realtor can lend a hand. Because a Realtor is in the business of helping people buy and sell homes, they are
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Protect Your Money

With so many publications, television and radio promoting so much doom and gloom I thought it might be prudent to give some advise on how to protect yourself from the recurring nightmares that are being discussed. If you have forgotten or walkthrough life with your head in the sand, let me remind you of the big four. Let's start with the
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The Right Time to Buy

I recently went to a meeting attended by a number of successful real estate broker owners. I found it interesting the conversation we had about the market. The national media would have us all think thatour local market is all doom and gloom, when in fact things are moving quite well. Just like there is not a national weather forecast,
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Financial Intelligence

I have read a number of very good books over the years about money management and how things can work out extremely good or extremely poor for some people. With these books there is always an underlying theme, and that is for those individuals that live below their means who have a savings, and investment plan they will almost 100% of the
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It feels like Florida

Yes we have finally hit the weather jackpot today and this past week. The temperature has to be near 75 today and sunny. I think the weatherman said that we are about 20 degrees higher than the normal temperature for this time of year. It feels incredible. Everyone is in a good mood and I wore shorts to work today for the second time this
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