Kathleen Lordbock Keller Williams Realty Brainerd Lakes

October’s big Real Estate story will be the expiration of the $8,000 tax credit on November 30th for eligible first time homebuyers. Since most transactions are taking a minimum of 30 – 45 days to close after an offer is made, buyers who need financing will need to sign a purchase agreement by the end of October 2009 in order to close their loan by the Nov. 30 deadline. Buyers who are hoping to utilize the $8,000 tax credit should be only making offers on properties that are able to close quickly and do not require bank approval. We do not know whether an extension on the tax credit will take place – or what that opportunity might look like – we only know how things are right now.

Buyers do not delay; you may be gambling away $8,000. We are also in a rare period of low interest rates, low prices, abundant inventory and down payment assistance programs – there's no better time to buy in our area of Minnesota. If you are looking in the Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota, I have properties in all price ranges from county to city to lake. Many more are coming on the market so if you didn’t find what you wanted before, do give me a call. I will find your dream home for you. 80 acres of Hunting land adjoining State land and a 15- 25 acre rural parcel will soon be listed along with a 5 bedroom, 2 bath, 3 car just a few miles North of Baxter. A 3 bedroom on 7.5 acres and a 2 bedroom/2bath/ 2 car in town also are upcoming.

If your home is not selling and you want to try something different - give me a call at Keller Williams Realty Brainerd Lakes. I will help you get your home show room ready, priced for this market and sold. The home that shows the best, is heavily marketed and priced correctly will sell first.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
- Stephen Covey: Author, organizational, leadership, and family expert.

Try this out for a month-just a month, you can do it.

Copy the above quote and print it out. Tape it to your bathroom mirror, your car dash, your computer monitor, your exercise bicycle, and your refrigerator. Read it and think about what is most important to you = your big why. Reflecting on this quote every day for a month will help your realize what you get up to do and why you are doing it. The small things, the bumps in the road, the elbow scrapes, the client who is not so cooperative – will become smaller as you focus on what is truly important to you.

That will differ for all of us so I am not going to give you a list. You can come up with your own. Then as the days go on in your month, you will be more aware and more focused – letting the trivial things go and marching on to achieve your goals, hopes and dreams.

Just a month - you can do it!

Kathleen Lordbock

Keller Williams Realty Brainerd Lakes

Minnesota

REALTOR-STAGING & SHORT SALE SPECIALIST

House not selling?

Need to move soon?

Falling behind on payments?

Want to sell your home for the most money and in the least amount of time?

218-829-4664

klordbock@kw.com

Top Brainerd Agent

photo by Flickr

In reading a blog on the net , I came across the idea of the 50% Space to Stuff Ratio This was new to me but may be old stuff to some of you.

The concept is that you are to evaluate the floor space in your home. If it is almost completely covered, there is no room left for new opportunities to come in. Reduce what is on it by 50% and there will be room for movement and the ability to change out what you want for now and for the future. When you have an open house and there are a lot of people in the room - they need to be able to get around.

Then when you bring in something new, something old goes away - far away- permanently.

This will help considerably with your organizing, as there will be less to organize. Once your home is ready to be sold, you will not have all your stuff to deal with. What is left is what you really want to keep and/or need.

This may help in explaining things to clients about how much to remove before staging.

Once again, it is 50% available space to how much stuff is in that space, for some you may need to give a 75% figure. Men probably like this numbers concept better than most women, we go more by how it looks.

Here in the Brainerd Lakes of Minnesota, 2 special corn fields have been silently growing and planning for the Fall. Soon these innocent looking fields will be sculpted and designed into twisty labyrinths for the sole purpose of making you walk in circles. You can spend an afternoon winding your way through the towering stalks and the evening on a hayride drinking cider. There are special days for families with small children and appropriate age crafts. Several nights will be for those who like a little excitement with their confusion. Scary creatures will inhabit the maze ready to make it a screaming adventure.

"Our labyrinth of twists, turns, and dead ends, carved into a 14 foot high cornfield, offers an experience that is perfect for those searching for adventure.

Near Halloween, what was a dark, quiet, gentle maze becomes a field of screams, with ghosts and goblins added for your late night spooking pleasure!"

Support local farms in your area and enjoy our Autumn Season. To learn more about corn mazes visit Corn Maze Directory.

This week I was invited by Wells Fargo lenders to travel by covered wagon (coach bus) to Minneapolis. We left by 9:30 AM and I got home by almost 9 PM so it was a long but educational day. It is always fun to see old friends in the real estate business and to meet new ones. Hello, Brian Emerson! Our ride down was conversational and real estate was the topic of the morning. Wells provided us with delicious box lunches to eat on the way and we were ready to face the educational session.

Our speaker was Rich Casto and along with a good deal of coaching and tips, we got a few laughs from his stories and examples. As always, the listening part is the easiest and then the implementation another story entirely Although probably no one ran home and put into play everything that was suggested - we all learned and picked out a few things to do now and many to do later.

Sam (Stephanie) Hall from Wells Fargo Baxter, MN shared a few of her inventive ideas on the way home. If anyone is looking to invest and get a sure fire product patented and produced -Sam has one that women would buy. Absolutely necessary! She could probably arrange the loan for you as well.