Kim Brown, Keene, NH...New England at its Best!

Even chickens know that the place to get all the latest gossip is around the watercooler...

Since I don't speak "chicken", I have no idea what or who they're talking about. Which is probably for the best...Who wants to be known as a gossipy old hen?

Have a fun and relaxing Labor Day Weekend, everyone!

I love the discount corner at my local grocery store. Yours probably has one, too...usually hidden at the back of the store, you can find some shelves tucked into an out-of-the-way corner stocked with all kinds of things that have been discontinued, have damaged packaging or simply weren't selling, and they're typically marked way below their suggested retail price in order to get them sold.

On my last trip I scored big time! One-pound packages of imported pasta from Italy: 50 cents each. (MSRP: $4 each)

Here at Chez Brown we go through a lot of pasta. It's quick and easy, and, good mother that I am, I've made sure that everyone in the family is an accomplished water boiler. At 50 cents/pound, I couldn't resist. I bought 10 of them.

Would I have paid the manufacturer's suggested retail price of $4/pound? Not bloody likely.

I bought them because they were very attractively priced, the packaging (in this case) was in perfect condition, and the pasta suited my needs.

My supermarket in Keene, NH offers lots of different brands of pasta, the vast majority of them competitively priced, and when it failed to sell, the fancy-shmancy Pasta Italiano was banished to the dark and dingy discount corner.

Clearly, somebody believed that consumers would pay a premium for their pasta. Had it been the only brand of pasta available, or offered some special feature or rare ingredient, they probably would have been right. In this case it was essentially flour and eggs wrapped in bilingual packaging. Pasta is pasta in either language.

How many people are going to pay a premium for what, at the end of the day, is the same basic product that they can buy for significantly less?

As long as the pasta eventually moves through the check-out line and out the door, I suspect the supermarket considers it a win, although I doubt they'll be placing any more orders for that particular product. I wonder how the manufacturer feels about that? Definitely food for thought...

Buon Appetito!

After reading a post by Lisa Hill, Does Your "Professional" Photo Look Like A Facebook Picture? I really started thinking about it.

I see all manner of profile pictures in my social media travels...logos, avatars, casual shots, glamour shots...you name it...and as I read the post, I began to wonder whether or not my profile picture (which also happens to be my personal Facebook profile picture) might be considered unprofessional.

I have a business page on Facebook, complete with my "professional" head-shot. The very same shot that I use on my business cards and on our business website. And I hate it. Oh, it's not necessarily a bad picture...actually, it's pretty good. My age has apparently diminished, and the zit that had, predictably, chosen that morning to put in an undeniable appearance...HA! What zit?

The photographer was skilled, and before my eyes rendered the digital images "print worthy". Included in the mix were several poses, including what I refer to as my own personal glamour shot. Love that picture..it's the image I wish I saw first thing in the morning (bet hubby wouldn't put up a fuss, either) but it's just that...an image...and one that I couldn't possibly replicate. Honey, there ain't enough spackle in the world, and handing out filtered lenses to all and sundry hardly seems practical, you know?

When I first joined AR, I actually used my glam shot...why not? Nobody knew me, so what difference would it make, right?

Then I started to get to know people out there in the Rain...and they got to know me. I began to feel as though the picture was a sham:

at worst, a misrepresentation; at best, a serving suggestion.

One afternoon a couple of years ago I decided I needed to find a more honest photo. One that looked like me. One that looked like I might look if I were actually in the same room listening to them...and since I tend toward snarkasm, a bit of skepticism wasn't completely out of line. So, one day, whilst seated at my desk, I whipped out the ol' Motorola Flip-phone.

I centered myself in the tiny fisheye mirror on the back and, with a digital <click>, the deed was done.

But now I'm thinking...should I be even more honest? I'm professional, but I want to be real. I'm a tad weary of hearing "gosh, you don't look like your picture". Um, I thought it looked like me...but since everyone else sees me more than I do, I suppose I should take their opinion to heart.

There are some other pictures of me floating around...like the picture of me when my youngest graduated from high school...that looks like me, right?

But then again, this was taken of me that same night...and, sadly, it looks like me, too.

I can't be the only person in the entire social media realm "faced" with this quandary!

Perhaps I should just go with this caricature a friend did for me:

Would you buy or sell a home with this agent?

Life in Westmoreland, NH ...How a Clever Flatlander came to be living in the hills of Southwestern New Hampshire.

When my husband learned he was being transferred from Flatland Sudbury, MA to work in Charlestown, NH, we were thrilled! We'd always hoped to escape suburbia in order to embrace a more rural lifestyle, and when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped at it. After some preliminary research, we were pretty sure that we wanted to be near Keene, NH, although we preferred something just outside the city.

We decided to take the first available weekend to head north to check things out. Bear in mind that this was over a decade ago...long before GPS...so we decided to wing it and go wherever the roads led us.

Crazy as it sounds, we kept finding ourselves in this very small town outside of Keene, NH. No matter where we began, the small farming community of Westmoreland was where we ended up. It took us nearly two days to realize that the roads that lead into this country town are like spokes on a wheel, (albeit a bent wheel with wonky spokes) and, once we did, we acknowledged that Fate was likely tiring of repeatedly pointing us in the direction of our destiny. So, we decided to stick around and explore this town of approximately 36 square miles...with no map and virtually non-existent cell service; nothing but a clueless curiosity sense of adventure and a sneaking suspicion that this just might be where we belonged.

Looking back eleven years later, I have to laugh at our initial trepidation as we traveled through hills and valleys, up dirt roads that seemed to have no end, and our fear that we'd end up, literally, in the middle of nowhere, hopelessly lost and never to be seen again. Being Clever Flatlanders, we decided that the best way to determine whether we were still within the reach of civilization was to keep an eye on the power lines and poles. As we bumped our way down rural stretches of unpaved road, we made sure that our "lifelines" were within view. If we reached "the end of the line," we turned around and backtracked. 'Cuz that's what Clever Flatlanders do.

With the car windows wide open, we marvelled at the countryside. One minute we'd be driving through a shady tunnel of gigantic maple trees, the next we'd be overlooking rolling fields and hills laid out before us. Charming old farmhouses dotted the landscape, the only movement a gentle breeze flirting with the grasses and wildflowers and the lazy meanderings of cows and sheep as they grazed in the distance.

Another unexpected turn graced us with a picture perfect view of the Connecticut River: a wide and sparkling ribbon marking the boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont. Not only was it absolutely beautiful, it was reassuring, for Clever Flatlanders know that if you follow a river downstream, eventually it leads to the sea (or, in our case, the Atlantic,) and we knew how to get back to Flatland Sudbury from the coast.

Supposed geographic certainties aside, we were completely taken in by the scenery, and the incredible feeling of tranquility quelled any residual fears we had of being lost forever. In fact, it had just the opposite effect. Without even uttering the words, we knew: we were home.

Unbeknownst to me, this was only the beginning of The Flatlander Follies...

JULY 2010 MARKET REPORT FOR CHESHIRE COUNTY, NH

The July Real Estate Stats are in!

Below you will find Real Estate Market statistics for July 2010, for Cheshire County, NH, broken down into four categories: Residential, Condo, Manufactured (mobile homes) and All Properties.

Sellers will be encouraged to see that the average days on market for Residential properties from January through July 2010 are reduced by 13 days compared to the same time period of 2009, and the average days on market for condominiums has dropped a whopping 57 days during the same time period. That's a reduction of 9.03% and 22.8%, respectively.

Although the median sales price for residential listings dipped by 3.85%, the median sales price for condominiums increased by 23.05%, Year-to-Date.

If you would like further clarification on any of these figures, please give me a call or shoot me an email. I'd be happy to go over them, as they pertain to buying or selling your property in Cheshire County, NH.