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Choosing the right real estate agent is the first step in purchasing or selling a home. When it comes to deciding on an agent to work with, it’s all about the details. From suggesting mortgage lenders to explaining signing papers, I am here to make this normally daunting experience a smooth and successful transaction.

My goal is to assist you in finding that perfect home. Whether you want a big backyard or a 3-car garage I will find you that special property. And my experience will ensure that you are satisfied.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about current listings, financing options, the market in general, or any other way I may be of service to you. I look forward to working with you and fulfilling all of your real estate needs.

Press Release November Market Report November 2011

With 2012 just around the corner, many local markets have enjoyed strong sales volumescombined with falling inventory levels so far this year. For the 12-month period spanning December2010 through November 2011, Closed Sales in the Greater Lakes region were up 4.9 percentoverall. The price range with the largest gain in sales was the $200,001 to $275,000 range, wherethey increased 9.1 percent.The overall Median Sales Price was down 2.4 percent to $139,700.

The property type with thesmallest price decline was the Water Access/River segment, where prices decreased 1.8 percent to$157,200. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $150,000 and below range at161 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $400,001 and above range at 255days.

Market-wide, inventory levels were down 15.1 percent. The property type that lost the leastinventory was the Water Access/River segment, where it decreased 6.2 percent. That amounts to10.8 months supply for Non-Waterfront properties and 18.9 months supply for Privately-OwnedWaterfront properties.

Here in our area(Brainerd Lakes) a foreclosure is a legal event and there are benchmarks that must be met. Once the case is turned over to attorneys, the impending foreclosure must be advertised, usually in both the local papers and in the largest and closest metropolitan daily. The entire process can take a very long time from initial default to the actual public auction of the property. If you are a member of the military  and you are the owner of the property, there are additional safeguards required by federal and in some cases state laws From the beginning of the process, however, the meter is running. The longer the foreclosure takes, the greater the debt that accrues and the larger the liability the homeowner has, something that will become critical down the road.

RE-post

Internet giants consider blackout to protest SOPA

(RNN) – Popular websites and internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and AOL are considering shutting down in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA – a controversial bill that has critics and supporters battling each other in Congress before it even reaches the House floor.
“There have been some serious discussions about that,” Markham Erickson, head of the NetCoalition trade association told CNET. “It has never happened before.”
NetCoalition represents companies such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay and Wikipedia and was founded, in part, to stop the passage of SOPA and its senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, or PIPA.

“Clearly, what happened with the PIPA companion bill, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House at the end of 2011 ignited the Internet community like never before,” Erickson said in a statement.

Please help us save the Internet

http://stopcensorship.org/

The blackout option is receiving support from many users who depend on the services of the web giants considering the blackout.

“I’m glad companies like Google are doing things like this to raise awareness,” said Daniel Horton of Huntsville, AL, on WAFF-TV’s Facebook page.

Horton, a web and graphic designer for the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said the proposed bill would turn the web into a police state, inhibiting sites that promote sharing and communication.
The tech giants are following in the footsteps of other websites in what is quickly becoming a showdown between the internet and Hollywood.

A recent Wikipedia blackout successfully got the Italian parliament to back down on a similar measure in October when the Italian branch of the website went offline.
“An ‘internet blackout’ would obviously be both drastic and unprecedented,” Erickson said in a statement.
The proposed blackout comes after fierce debate in the House Judiciary Committee just before Christmas, with supporters of the bill refusing to hear any expert input on the subject, and voting along party lines.

Supporters of the bill said it would create and protect American jobs, while keeping foreign, rogue websites at bay.
“The impact of intellectual property theft by rogue sites is felt in countless ways and across every creative genre, from romance authors, to church and gospel music songwriters, to independent filmmakers,” Copyright Alliance Executive Director Sandra Aistars said in a statement.
“The Stop Online Piracy Act represents welcome action by the Congress to protect American businesses and jobs.”

But critics said the bill would cost more jobs than it would potentially protect by shutting down the tech industry, and would effectively isolate American internet access from the rest of the world.
On Dec. 15, 80 internet engineers, builders of the internet itself, sent a signed, open letter to the United States Congress opposing the bill.
The letter implored the U.S. Congress to put an end to the bill and PIPA. It also said the bill would only serve to damage the security of the network and “give authoritarian governments more power over what their citizens can read and publish.”
“We cannot have a free and open Internet unless its naming and routing systems sit above the political concerns and objectives of any one government or industry,” the letter read.
“Senators, Congressmen, we believe the Internet is too important and too valuable to be endangered in this way, and implore you to put these bills aside.”

So why are the bills drawing so much heated debate from both sides?
It’s because SOPA targets not only online piracy, counterfeit drugs and products, but also any organization that is remotely affiliated with them, whether they engage in illegal activities or not.
Under the proposed bill, entities like search engines, payment systems and advertisers would have to stop payments, advertising and business with potentially infringing websites or face prosecution.

Also, it would expand criminal offenses to anyone who not only downloads copyright material, or “pirating,” but anyone who streams copyright material.
That means uploading a video of your child singing along to their favorite song to YouTube could potentially be considered illegal use of copyright material, since you are streaming a copyrighted song for others to view.

Copyright holders, such as Viacom or Disney, would ultimately have the power, and be able to take down offending websites by notifying the Attorney General. Penalties would be extended to service providers if action is not taken against the website.

Critics were able to postpone a vote that would have likely sent the bill to the House until after Congress returns from their holiday vacation, but even that is tenuous. Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, and head of the House Judiciary Committee, said he was committed to passing the bill, and said critics have blown it out of proportion.
“The Stop Online Piracy Act specifically targets foreign websites primarily dedicated to illegal activity or foreign websites that market themselves as such,” Smith wrote in a blog on The Hill. “The bill addresses the problem of online criminals who steal and sell America’s intellectual property and keep the profits for themselves.”
Erickson called for the Senate to cancel its vote on PIPA, which is scheduled just hours after Congress returns from its winter break on Jan. 23, and said in light of the SOPA debate, it was “completely inexplicable.”
“We hope that the Senate will cancel its scheduled vote on PIPA so that we can get back to working with members on how to address the concerns raised by the MPAA and others without threatening our nation’s security or future innovation and jobs.”

Please help us save the Internet

http://stopcensorship.org/

Sincerely,

Rachel Bennett

A Family’s History on Ten Mile Lake

Gail Dahlstrom – February 10, 2011

Christmas Eve, 1940, Uncle Sam called my father, Dr. L.G. Idstrom, to report for duty in the U.S. Army. His final orders came on November 1, 1941, Fort Snelling. We moved back to Minneapolis, and on December 3, 1941, my brother, John, was born four days before Pearl Harbor! I finished third grade in Minneapolis even though Dad was transferred to Camp Crowder, Missouri.

In May, we were on the move again, this time to Neosho, Missouri, where I attended fourth grade (1942‑43). It was during this school year that my parents heard about a cabin on Ten Mile Lake! Ms. F.O. Padgett was selling a cabin, the address was Fernhurst, Ten Mile Lake, Hackensack, MN. A one‑bedroom cabin that was supposed to have been the bath house for a girl’s camp, front and back porch, completely furnished, with boat! They decided they would take it, sight unseen!!

The summer of 1944, my father received his orders and was sent overseas to England and France. My mother’s brother, Dr. Harry A. Johnson, had already received his orders to the South Pacific. The summer of 1944, with gas rationed and World War II threatening, my mother, Gladys, my brother, John, and I, Auntie Esther, (Uncle Harry’s wife) and their four children, 11 years and younger, spent the summer at Fernhurst, on Ten Mile Lake.

We learned to live that summer without running water or electricity. The original kerosene lamps are still at the cabin. At night, when it was late and dark, before bed, we would line up to gather and walk single‑file along the pathway in the woods to the “outhouse”. We were concerned, we thought for sure that we had seen bobcat tracks in the sand during the day, big ones too! And what was that rustling noise? The hanging mirror on the Birch tree was a familiar sight, perched high above the oil‑clothed shelf which held, securely, the enamel water pitcher and basin. It was up to us kids to keep that pitcher filled with lake water for washing and brushing teeth. With only one bedroom, we used the front and back porches and the living room for sleeping. If it rained really hard at night the porches would get wet. But we sure had fun anyway, swimming, rowing, and paddling the boats, hiking, and hunting for rocks and wild flowers!

We ate a lot of pancakes and popcorn. After pancakes in the morning we always had a “rest” time for reading, writing, or helping, before swimming! The big tan and green enamel Tea Kettle would be filled with pump‑water to the brim, put on the cook stove, and heated for washing dishes. Sweeping the sand off the linoleum floors for our mothers, writing letters to our respective fathers overseas and walking way up to the mailboxes on the main road to mail them, and waiting for Mr. Prince to bring us a letter from our Dads, will be everlasting memories. Gertrude Hertzmen and friends would come by rowboat to swim, visit, and have coffee. The Steins would come to visit from Ah‑gwah‑ching and sometimes we would go to Ethel Burns’ cabin on the North Shore for a picnic. We loved their sandy beach.

It was always exciting to hear Burton Woock’s truck coming! We knew that he would be delivering ice. He would lift up the top of the ice‑box and with big tongs, he would drop a chunk of ice inside, sometimes we would “hitch” a ride on the back of the truck, if he let us! Sometimes we had fun going up to Al Woock’s Farm.

I found a letter I had written to my father that he had saved through the years. It was written to him, overseas, via Air Mail, dated August 7, 1944:

Dear Daddy,

Today is Sunday and Mr. Colonel Harold Cox just came, but I haven’t seen him yet, but we sure hope to. Oh, Daddy, did I tell you, Mr. Prince made two paddle boats ‑‑‑ orange and green ‑ with orange and green paddles! Dr. Hertzmen came two weeks ago and is staying until the 13th of August. Carl built a dock on their beach and is it nice. Auntie Esther got 4 letters from Uncle Harry yesterday. We got your “TABLE GRAM” the day before yesterday and two letters. We were so happy. Daddy, will you write to me and tell me about England ‑‑‑ if it isn’t against the rules?

The day before yesterday we went to Dr. Herbert Bums’ cabin across the lake on the North Shore. You know Ethel, she invited us and we had a picnic and then we went swimming ‑‑‑ you can walk out twice as far as here. Ruth Ann is getting to be a pretty big girl now. She plays the flute.

Last night we went to the Serley’s and was their cabin nice! It had electric lights and an upstairs! When we got home we made popcorn and went to bed. This morning we ate pancakes and milk. Then we waited for an hour to go swimming. Just now we got through riding in the motorboat! The Coxes are renting the motor and it was really fun! I guess that is all I can think about to say. “JoBoy” is “rationing” his kisses. Mother is okay and so am I. Auntie Esther and her family are fine to! Take care of yourself, Daddy.

Good Bye Dear Daddy,

Gail

Summer, 1946, the War was over! We were thankful, more time spent again as a family at Ten Mile Lake! What a glorious time to remember! Still no electricity, no indoor plumbing. We were just thankful that Dad was finally home and that we were all together!! I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day when Dad brought home a surprise for all of us…A Champion motor from Montgomery Wards! Wow! A 5 Horsepower motor! We were all very excited! And a Coleman lamp (just like having electricity) that we were going to “try out”. We had about fifty house guests that summer. Relatives came from as far away as New York and Arizona, Illinois and Minnesota and still no electricity, running water or indoor plumbing. It was that summer that Dad “rigged” battery-operated (home-made) miniature lights for the children’s beds, so that if they would wake up at night they wouldn’t be afraid. Outside of some having hay fever and some catching poison ivy, the main concern that summer was the polio epidemic affecting the cities and large crowds which caused many to spend time away at cabins up north. Because of the epidemic, schools started later that fall.

The summer of 1948, we finally had electricity, how exciting! The cabin was remodeled in the early fifties and it had running water and indoor plumbing!

In 1956, Donald Dahlstrom and I were married. During the summer of 1959 through September, before he started medical school at the University of Minnesota, Don hauled rock and helped as a carpenter, working with Al Woock and Andrew Jackson Bray to build a boathouse. Two years earlier the basement had been built. Fortunately, I was an English schoolteacher and had my summers free.

That next summer, 1963, we took our new baby daughter, Deirdre, out on the dock and for a ride in the motorboat with our German Shepherd, Angel. The summer of 1965, we brought Deirdre and her new baby sister, Alissa up to Ten Mile Lake. Of course Angel always loved coming with us.

July 20, 1967, we brought our third baby girl, Amy, from the hospital and straight home to Ten Mile Lake. Amy was ten days old! It was a beautiful day on the lake and Mother and Dad wanted to take a ride on their pontoon boat. With my Aunt Ruby Seashore visiting from New York, we all decided to go, of course! And there was plenty of room! The lake was as calm as glass. We would take Amy for her first boat ride on Ten Mile Lake! Everyone was commenting on the beautiful day and the perfect weather, and by this time we were way across the lake when all of a sudden the clouds started rolling in, and the wind started to blow, and the waves grew larger in size. We changed our plans immediately and headed back to Fernhurst. It was a wild and wet ride! I remember our neighbors on the cove waiting for us as we headed into shore with Baby Amy. Her big sisters were exclaiming with excitement all details about the ride! In May of 1973, our fourth daughter, Enid was born. Of course, her big sisters, and their favorite companion, Angel, introduced her to the lake that summer.

Memories, memories! A very special treat was going into Walker for the Pow Wow, or to see a special movie at the State Theatre on Main Street or the Marlow Theat

re in Pine River. It was always fun to stop at the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park in Brainerd on our way to the cabin.

We liked to come up in the wintertime too! Of course, everything looked so different in the winter! We would drive as far as we could go, which was to the mailboxes, and then toboggan through the woods to the boathouse, with children, luggage, and dog in tow. It was always fun to shovel a patch of ice for skating on the lake, and to snowshoe in the woods! Our family celebrated many New Year’s Eves on Ten Mile Lake!

Now, Ten Mile Lake is like home to our daughters. They grew up here, and now their children are growing up here. Ten Mile Lake bonded our family together through the years, summer and winter! ”It is always, and always has been home to me!” exclaimed our daughter, Deirdre.

Our four daughters are married now and they and their husbands: Deirdre and Christopher Hultgren, Alissa and Eric Canfield, Amy and Adam Gislason, and Enid and Shane Mason, all enjoy coming up north to Ten Mile Lake! Our eight grandchildren, Lacey Canfield (15), Jackson Canfield (13), Olivia Hultgren (13), and Carver Hultgren (10), Walker Hultgren (6), Ellery Mason (6), Lily Canfield (5), Colton Mason (4) are making a whole new set of their own memories at Ten Mile Lake!

Housing starts surge to a 1-1/2 year high

Collateral backing industrial commercial mortgage-backed securities recently hit a delinquency rate of 12.05%, a 22-year high,Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Monday.

The high delinquency rate in the segment generally tracks alongside the nation’s gross domestic product activity, which shrank for four quarters in a row during 2008 and 2009 before beginning a slow climb back up.

S&P noted that “the industrial segment is the only major CMBS property type for which delinquencies are currently at historical highs.”

S&P said based on studies of servicer-provided net operating income, more than 47% of CMBS industrial collateral has undergone some type of decline since its original issuance.

About $2.4 billion industrial loans are scheduled to mature next year, a factor that is expected to prevent improvement in the number of industrial delinquencies, S&P said.

“With industrial vacancy rates at historical highs and rents remaining stagnant or falling, we don’t expect much near-term improvement in NOI at the property level, and it could even decline for certain properties and markets,”

Press Release

With 2012 just around the corner, many local markets have enjoyed strong sales volumes combined with falling inventory levels so far this year. For the 12-month period spanning December 2010 through November 2011, Closed Sales in the Greater Lakes region were up 4.9 percent overall. The price range with the largest gain in sales was the $200,001 to $275,000 range, where they increased 9.1 percent.

The overall Median Sales Price was down 2.4 percent to $139,700. The property type with the smallest price decline was the Water Access/River segment, where prices decreased 1.8 percent to $157,200. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $150,000 and below range at 161 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $400,001 and above range at 255 days.

Market-wide, inventory levels were down 15.1 percent. The property type that lost the least inventory was the Water Access/River segment, where it decreased 6.2 percent. That amounts to 10.8 months supply for Non-Waterfront properties and 18.9 months supply for Privately-Owned Waterfront properties.  Click on the name below for the report.