Chuck Carstensen

The 2009 is finally here! As I have done in the past I like to post a game recap. People in my network look forward to these and its part of what I do so its blog worthy!

The weather was good enough long enough for my team Cambridge Lutheran #1 to pull off a win at Lewis Lake #2 in Ogilivie 17-12 in our first game of the season.

The game was a bit of a challenge because of a field situation. The school had a mesh fence placed in the middle of the softball field shortening the length of the field. We tried playing on the baseball field but got kickoff after one inning. Then we went back to the other field with the fence the length of a little league field.

The one inning on the baseball field was the difference as we won that inning 6-1 in the 17-12 final. We hit 4 home runs on the short field. Nate Smith had 2, Rob Willits and Rob Whiteford had 1 each. Josh Norby and I lead the team with 4 hits each.

Next week we look to end a four game loosing streak versus Spring vale in Grandy.

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Chuck Carstensen is a Realtor with The Discovery Team at RE/MAX; helping buyers, sellers, and investors of residential real estate. He is a Dynamic Life Coach; The Discovery Coach- "Helping you discover your talents, desires and purpose." Carstensen is a speaker and co-author in the best selling book series Wake Up...Live the Life You Love: Your Wake Up Moments (NOW available go to http://tinyurl.com/wakeupmoments).

I know I sell a good amount of houses. I also know there are a lot of REO agents that sell a lot more. I work hard and do the best I can to help my clients with their purchase. Not that rankings are the only thing that matters, but I think its important to know that if you work with me you are working with a TOP agent.

Below is an email I recieved this morning with the agents from the company I am with that ranked in the top 200 in the twin cities. I am the only one on this list who is not an REO/Short Sale listing agent.

Email:

Good morning Chuck

Congratulations to the following people in RE/MAX associates plus who are ranked in the top 200 agents based on number of transaction sides in the twin cities for the lst quarter of 2009. The following are in random order.

George Farkas

Mark Hebert

Lori Larson

Jim Borden

Eric Hooper

Dan Moore

Roxie Shkaberin

Troy Martenson

Curt Lingwall

Mark Callender

Chuck Carstensen

Conratulations to all of these people for a great start to 2009.

Dennis Anderson

Broker/Owner

RE/MAX associates plus

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Chuck Carstensen is a Realtor with The Discovery Team at RE/MAX; helping buyers, sellers, and investors of residential real estate. He is a Dynamic Life Coach; The Discovery Coach- "Helping you discover your talents, desires and purpose." Carstensen is a speaker and co-author in the best selling book series Wake Up...Live the Life You Love: Your Wake Up Moments (NOW available go to http://tinyurl.com/wakeupmoments).

I have started a blog for the league at: http://dalboareachurchsoftball.wordpress.com/ ...

For anyone who wants more information on the league go to that site and get the schedules and league rules. Throughout the season I will update the weekly scores and standings at that page.

This year there is again 2 divisions and 30 teams making it one of the largest church softball leagues in the nation! Teams are from Isanti and Kanabec county. Games are play in Cambridge, Braham, Mora, Dalbo, Grandy, Ogilvie and surrounding areas.

If you live in these areas and are looking to get on a team let me know.

Chuck Carstensen

612-290-3809

Prices have leveled off for the time being in the Minnesota markets I work in. Multiple offers are coming in on every home that is priced well. Many of these are getting bid $20,000 or more over asking price.

Buyers need to be aware of this and know that the prices they see on the GOOD listings are likely going up. Sure there are still a bunch of over priced listings, but most of my searches are not returning the results I used to see. There are less homes matching the criteria meaning that the prices bottomed out.

I look in the pending section and there are huge numbers of pending homes in most of the areas I work in. Some of the buyers that decided to hold off a couple months back had 5-10 house to choose from that seemed to be good matches for them. Now they are lucky to find 1 home that they would like. Everything else has sold and the new listings are coming back out in there price range.

It might be time to look through the older listings that are overpriced to see if the sellers will drop the price to where they should be. The new listings are getting most of the attention right now. So buyers hang in there, but be prepared for more competition on the home you like best!

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Chuck Carstensen is a Realtor with The Discovery Team at RE/MAX; helping buyers, sellers, and investors of residential real estate. He is a Dynamic Life Coach; The Discovery Coach- "Helping you discover your talents, desires and purpose." Carstensen is a speaker and co-author in the best selling book series Wake Up...Live the Life You Love: Your Wake Up Moments (NOW available go to http://tinyurl.com/wakeupmoments).

I am about to do some cold calling but I am procrastinating by writing a blog first. I am not cold calling for Real Estate leads, rather I need to find a few extra softball players for one of our church softball teams.

Cambridge Lutheran Church had two teams last year and this year a few more people wanted to play so I decided we would start a 3rd team. I captain Team #1, but overall I coordinate the program so to get things going I need to make sure there is enough players.

I got a list of people I don't know much or at all to call from one of the pastors and this morning I am going to start calling. I have not cold called for a while, so I needed to post a blog first to get me in the cold calling mode.

Thankfully I don't have to cold call for real estate clients because its not something at the top of the list for me. If this does not work to find enough players I will have to go door knocking!

It sounds funny but you need to do what you need to do...in this case to get a full softball team. For Realtors this is something you might need to do if you don't have enough business.

By the way anyone in the Cambridge Area (Minnesota) is welcomed on the team. Let me know!

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Chuck Carstensen is a Realtor with The Discovery Team at RE/MAX; helping buyers, sellers, and investors of residential real estate. He is a Dynamic Life Coach; The Discovery Coach- "Helping you discover your talents, desires and purpose." Carstensen is a speaker and co-author in the best selling book series Wake Up...Live the Life You Love: Your Wake Up Moments (NOW available go to http://tinyurl.com/wakeupmoments).