Kent Anderson

The Australian Open just ended...OMG! The finals may have been the best final ever between the best two players ever. Nadal finally bested Federer in five sets...7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. The emotional awards ceremony was as great as the match!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFHbGCgx4jI

This brings me to tennis in Sandpoint, Idaho...yet another reason to look at Sandpoint for retirement, 2nd home or a career move. I can't wait for the weather to cooperate and start the new season. We have a very active tennis community and a long season to enjoy the sport. It is not rare to head up to SCHWEITZER MOUNTAIN to ski in the morning sunshine and then return to the Sandpoint valley for tennis in the afternoon. It just doesn't get better.

We have a very active tennis association (The Sandpoint Tennis Association) with about 85 members. The association runs a summer-long singles and doubles league 4 days a week from 5:00 p.m. to nightfall. The outdoor season can run from early March to Thanksgiving. We do not currenly have a public indoor club, but there are constant rumors of this happening.

The Sandpoint Tennis Association also sponsors clinics and lessons for kids and adults throughout the summer. The Tennis Association works in conjunction with the Sandpoint Parks & Rec. department to maintain the Sandpoint City courts with wind screens, top quality nets (including center straps) and resurfacing when needed. We have three tennis parks: 1) Traverse Park - 6 courts; 2) Memorial Park - 3 courts and: 3) City Beach - 2 courts...all impeccably maintained. Tennis is considered a VITAL part of the recreational health of the community.

You haven't lived until you have hit on the newly resurfaced City Beach Courts! The two courts are situated on the Sandpoint City Beach peninsula with panoramic views of the spectacular Cabinet Mountains dropping into Lake Pend O'reille on the east vista, The Selkirk Crest (one of the largest wilderness areas in the U.S and Canada) on the north vista, Schweitzer Mountain to the west /northwest and the famous Sandpoint Long Bridge crossing the Lake to the south.

Sandpoint is truly a 4-season paradise. It is a pleasure to sell real estate here and we invite tennis players to live and play here and help grow our tennis community!

NOTHING. All the realtors on our mountain MLS tour agreed..."GREAT CONDO" they wrote on their evaluation cards..."PRICED RIGHT"...."NICE LISTING!" So what's up? I know the economy is trashed, the real estate market is down but, hey, this is Schweitzer Mountain Resort...This is Sandpoint, Idaho! This place rocks! My wife and I decided to switch it up.

We decided to follow the rules of Feng Shui and "redecorate" the condo (we did get the clients approval, by the way). We needed to cure what was wrong. We didn't go too nuts but we did try to utilize a few principles of balance (Yin/Yang) to create a more welcoming atmosphere.

It is a small condo, so we really only needed to attack one room...the family room. It is a square room but within the room was a rectangular table. The table had leafs, so we extended those to create a round table...it now reflected the shape of the room.

We changed the placement of the sofa so that it faced the door and windows...this offers more of a feeling of security. We brought in a basket of fresh, colorful fruit - a symbol of wealth and prosperity...yang colored fruits (red pomegranites, oranges and pineapples).

Basically, we rearranged the place as best we could following my wife's suggestions (an accomplished Feng Shui practicer). It felt good. I actually noticed the difference.

One week after the Feng Shui make-over, we had a clean Purchase & Sale Agreement to present the client. Question...is this just a conincidence? I know this, my next listing will have some elements of Feng Shui implemented from the start!

LISTING AGENTS! Please help us all out and be prepared to sell your listings!

I met a very excited client at the top of a mountain to preview a great listing. (We drove seperately). After a 22 mile drive, we ventured up the winding driveway approach to a spectacular butte overlooking a gorge peppered with bull elk and their herds. You could not have had a more perfect beginning to a home preview.

After a 25 minute search for the key to the front door (it wasn't where I was told it would be) we finally made it inside. It wasn't too cold out...maybe 15 degrees F...but cold enough after 1/2 hour to look forward to a little "home warmth".

THE FURNACE WAS TURNED OFF.

The place had great potential and we were able to form a bond, of sorts, as we struggled to maintain decorum against the onslaught of the COLD. (Kind of like the bond mountaineers develop climbing Everest).

It was a cool (pardon the pun) place and we did persevere for over an hour. Finally, I pulled out the "Blue Agency Brochure" for him to sign and we briefly discussed the importance of agency, etc. With a modicum of difficulty, he was able and willing to sign. The "Buyer's Rep Form" was out of the question. I know the desire and willingness was there, but neither of us could control our trembling fingers. After the ordeal, we both just wanted to go home...which we did...seperately.

Maybe these adverse conditions were a good thing. The bond remained and several days later he not only signed the "Buyer's Rep" but also a "Purchase Agreement".

IN A PERFECT WORLD...I THINK WE BOTH WOULD HAVE DONE BETTER IN A HOME ABOVE 60 DEGREES.

I know it gets repetitive, but ...SCHWEITZER MOUNTAIN RESORT was absolutely over the top today! I left a very cloudy Sandpoint and headed up to the mountain (hidden in the clouds) at noon. Half way up the pass I broke through the cloud layer and burst into the indigo blue skies of Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

These are the magic days that brought me here in the first place and I was not disappointed. Skiing the front (South Bowl) was perfect but the best was still ahead.

We ventured to the back Bowls and found ourselves in a mystical paradise. Heading up Snow Ghost chair toward the peak, filtered fingers of sunlight shone in our faces through a wispy, "Tolkein-like" fog. You just don't experience this very often. As the chair headed up the the last third of the face, the fog lifted revealing the indigo skies once again. This time, however, the direct sun was hidden behind the headwall of the North Bowl and only the mysterious individual rays of the sun shone through the snow encapsulated pines (called Snow Ghosts) lining the top ridge. I am not eloquent enough to accurately describe the beauty of this scene and I didn't have my camera with...(I apologize for that) ...You will have to trust me, this will be an image that will hold in my memory forever.

So, Schweitzer did it again.

By the way, the skiing was great...hard to find powder stashes (but they were there) and soft, top-to-bottom groomers.

Just another day in Paradise.

Oh my gosh! It just doesn't stop. Sandpoint, Idaho once again finds itself getting the accolades of the national press. This time, CITY GUIDES.MSN (http://cityguides.msn.com/citylife/cityarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=16209353) has listed Sandpoint as one of the TOP TEN "WINTER WONDERLAND" cities in North America...pretty interesting group, too:

SANDPOINT, IDAHO

ASPEN, COLORADO

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

QUEBEC CITY

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

SARANAC LAKE, NEW YORK

WHITEFISH, MONTANA

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO

PARK CITY, UTAH

VANCOUVER, BC

Sandpoint has been praised in so many periodicals...among them, Outside Magazine, Sunset Magazine, Powder Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Nesw York Times, Ski Magazine, Skiing Magazine...the list goes on...

By the way, when I left the mountain this afternoon (1/10/09) there was another blizzard taking place. Tomorrow the skiing should be amazing!

I do love it here!