Maine, the water is high in rivers and spring is the season for canoe, kayak races down those swollen, fast moving water channels. Come on, get in. Tighten that life jacket and paddle. "Hut" means switch sides and keep the rhythm. As you watch the canoes, kayaks launch do you see the many different approaches to the race? Some just a day on the river to celebrate spring. Others out to win something with a gold plated plastic trophy attached. Others in between but all in the race, making the event a celebration of spring on the water on Maine. Maine, the way life should be. 04/30/2011

Diamond mine work is way way off for the Seven Dwarfs with marriage knot tying at new lows and Snow White becomes a designated real estate broker.But SW has to be very diplomatic.Spread around the talent she has to work with and tries her best to build a successful real estate agency with the seven little guys.Need help remembering their names? Once upon a time. Time to tell a real estate story.Think two S's, two D's, and three emotions. Here's the way Snow White's logic works.Grumpy- The hardest to fit in to the organization if you think just bring me your best for listing, marketing, selling real estate right? But Snow puts him in charge of the rental collection arm of the real estate operation. "Pay you stay, don't you won't" is Grumpy's motto. Renters know going in not to mess with ... 04/17/2011

In the beginning the first two Active Rain bloggers had the pair of tin cans, pulled the string tightly to communicate. Like the early black and white video game of ping pong actually. Slow, back and forth, not much excitement or fireworks.Then the numbers of Active Rain bloggers grew.Can you say 205,651 bloggers? The last count number looking over my shoulder up at the board before this hunt and peck process today. Big number.And you know what that means?Traffic, lots of noise, messages being beamed from blogger keyboards all over the blue and green marble. It got loud, fast, kinda crazy.Like six lanes of drive time traffic during rush hour but all the time. Not once in a blue moon. No lull, the real estate blog conveyor belt spinning faster with new post uploads.The blog posts getting... 04/08/2011

The old Pepsi Cola bottle. How old do you think it is? And why it is important to me? I saw it a lot growing up in Maine. The story here.                               Do you have something small that packs powerful, strong good memories from back when you were a kid? I hope you hang on to a few of those day to day items when you lose your parents, loved ones as keep sakes to fuel childhood memories brightly. Keeping the ordinary items that take on more meaning, a deepening appreciation for the folks you loved that used them. Or those items you yourselve used as a kid as part of the family where everyone worked. All had chores, a place in that family and would have been missed if you were missing, not there. In a home, the house you grew up in, the most valuable items are the ones that ... 04/06/2011

Everyone has talents, shines in some departments brighter than others and in real estate, it takes a certain personal wiring, a special breed of cat to list, market, sell property. Not everyone is cut out to wear the "R" either. But your own home grown story about your decision to actually put your all in to the real estate sales process happened how, why? Did it start because you bought an apartment house or owned a mom and pop small business and in the process of selling it, you thought this is for me? Your dad was a carpenter and you had grown up around the building industry or related trade field so it was a natural tractor beamed in to it progression? We all know you don't call yourself a real estate agent, broker, REALTOR because "it's just a job". Real estate is a jealous master ... 03/23/2011

The new US Border Patrol family is heading to the Houlton Maine crossing and have questions about the local schools. Real estate brokers that shoot, edit, render and upload videos can show these folks with guns and a badge the area on the map they are toying with moving to. Those local flavor of the home town videos can show them, let them hear and see the events up close and personal. If done right, the viewer, listener of the video is at the event. The local Maine community videos are huge in helping someone like a US Border Patrol, Customs, Immigration Service see the local landscape. Those videos, the on line helpful blog posts can make them determine if this is the destination or not for their family, relocation. If they like what they see, their kids could be at these events they ... 03/14/2011

Rush hour, drive time, fingers tapping on the wheel, bumper to bumper tension commuting to work not something I go through on a daily basis.   Oh sure, the day when new snow makes the 32 foot commute a little slower. Visibility poor. Have to stop to pet the cat, stratch behind his ear delays happen on some summer days. Set me back in commute time. No hunting for a parking spot.  Have a bank for real estate deposits 100' feet to the south.  And for lunch can hit the Chinese restaurant across the street, another hike of over a whopping 250' west to work up a real appetite for the egg roll and lo mein. Traveling to your job, does it take long where you live, hang your real estate shingle? In Maine, have to rarely use radar. All from memory, habit really. But not to the point of plugging in... 03/11/2011

Brownie's can do anything, the power of the cookie. Fund raising by my neighbor Kim. Here is the follow up to last year's Active Rain Houlton Maine girl scout blog post. The weather is not as spring like today as last year but the cookies have landed. A trailer truck load and now  boxes, bigger boxes than the girl scouts lugging and tugging them. Getting them to folks that pledge boxes to purchase to help the local troops. Small town volunteers come in all sizes. The hearts of those volunteers, well, nothing stronger. Especially when local Maine kids are involved. What is your favorite kind of girl scout cookie to munch on, that you can not say no to when a brownie knocks on your door with a sash and all those merit badges on it? Watch our local Maine videos on community living for the ... 03/05/2011

You can promote your communities, do the local chamber of commerce splash and propaganda, along with real estate dog and pony but the buyer has his / her own community template to slide over and size up your area.   Why? We're all different and thank goodness everyone you and I deal with in the wide wonderful world of real estate is not a carbon copy clone of either of us.  If the buyer has kids, a whole extra clipboard list of questions, concerns get run down, checked off through one by one interrogation. Maine schools, real big and like factories? Do they have metal detectors? "Resource personnel" (I.E police) at the place full time? Any gangs? (If asked, if this line of questioning comes up about Houlton Maine schools answered "nope, nada, no, zip".   And traffic, what is your idea o... 02/01/2011

 You need a motel room for the night, vacation in Houlton Maine, Aroostook County and wonder where to stay?Here is a Google map showing the locations of Houlton Maine area motel rooms, options for staying on the way through to Atlantic Canada on a business trip. Or on vacation to Houlton Maine in Southern Aroostook County. The Crown of Maine, the largest of the sixteen counties in Maine.Houlton Maine is also the oldest town in Aroostook County. Border town with Canada, you will cross over to sample what's in New Brunswick Canada too during your stay. Or if you move, retire, relocate to Houlton Maine. A little ways beyond the big green bridge that greets you on the southern end oif Maine. Houlton is worth the travel time to get here and explore.Here is more on the places to stay, motel r... 01/24/2011

The variety of Maine home mortgage options to help buyers own real estate is large and varied but the RD (Rural Development USDA) house loan can be one of the more tedious to corral, to end up screwing a SOLD sign rider panel on out front.One of the real estate closings we had yesterday afternoon was a USDA RD home loan started 20 months ago and went through three houses to finally stick.First Maine home, a quality place for in the $50's (you're in Maine remember, "always the low price" like Walmart touts). The Maine home buyer all approved, the home ready for inspections from roof to electrical and everything in between.The house sided, updated heating, plumbing, etc but if a contractor that is looking for lots of work does the examination for the USDA, inflated and various extras are ... 01/14/2011

Had two boys who were Blackhawks, played on the Houlton Hodgdon Maine high school hockey team and still enjoy following the team.   We started a website to promote the team and post images, embed Maine hockey videos on and try to keep it up to snuff. This is the Blackhawks Maine Ice Hockey site. The feeder league for the Blackhawks hockey program is the Southern Aroostook Minor Hockey Association.  If you have watched hockey on the high school, college or national / Olympic level, you know it is not a game viewed sitting down. You are on your feet, trying to catch all the passes, retaliation, zone defenses and penalties. Here is the SAMHA hockey site we did when the boys were in the lower levels. Both play hockey on the college level now and it all started with many early morning trips ... 01/11/2011

In local Rotary meeting in a club of close to 80 in Houlton Maine, I like to sit at different tables each week. To get to know other Rotarians better I might not get to other wise and to not get in the habit of same seat, same table. Active Rain New Years Resolution, to seek out and find a real estate or related industry blogger I have never read, never commented on before. To avoid same old, small social circle and to meet more folks, hear from more bloggers that I have not gotten to know yet. Or made the effort to reach out further to find them. Maine, big state, friendly people, drop dead gorgeous four season living. Check out our 168 exclusive Maine real estate listings.  I'm Maine Real Estate Broker Andrew Mooers 01/01/2011

As you glean blog posts on Active Rain, other real estate industry media channels, the hardest property selling markets are often the larger ones, the places with the most zero places in their listings. Rural America real estate agents, brokers, REALTORS live more frugally. Like they are preparing for a recession at any moment, around any corner. Ready, poised, cautious. And the homes, land, farms, waterfront, business properties, listings in those markets are way way lowered priced. Like the local pay scale, cost of living. Everything you know, divide by three, four. Property listings that cost less, get paid for quicker, easier. Or no mortgage is needed at all if you are leaving high cost suburbia for Hooterville, Mayberry. These small town, safe not crowded real estate markets do wel... 12/10/2010

Old Maine homes were built to last, by skilled craftsmen that were world class, taking major pride in their real estate projects. In the 1913 Maine home that is a whopping 32 foot commute daily to my job as a REALTOR, Houlton ME real estate broker is no exception to the rule on how they built houses years ago. In remodeling, replacing the harvest gold colored 1972ish kitchen, the ceiling was removed and after gaining a foot and a half, this is the crown molding, raised panel original ceiling that was flawless, hidden. A little paint, a pot light here and there on a dimmer and voila. I asked the former owner Patty Crawford how they happen to cover up, drop that ceiling from view with an acoustic tiled one. She said she and Carl wanted the top of the cabinets to be flush with the ceiling ... 12/08/2010

Experienced, where have you worked, interned to know the ropes, the ups and downs, twists and turns of any profession, not just real estate. Had neat talk with kids this weekend about the path they decide to take and where college fits in to the rest of life's carnival ride. Big believer in not programing kids, but letting them think for themselves. Develop their own repertoire but exposing them to lots of travel, heart to heart talks, and whatever I was taught by a pretty neat set of parents. Business, learning a trade along the way as your summer college job will not hurt. Life is a business of living within your means, watching your overhead and spending. How to get maximum value for those hard earned dollars. Because debt makes you old, worry makes you sick. And their kids will be ... 11/27/2010

Real estate agents, brokers, REALTORS are a lot like Mother Goose. Many listings that get cared for, pampered. Brought in to the spotlight to promote, marketed. But never so many you know not what to do with them. The process from when the listing is just taken on a seller's kitchen table and all the information about the place is scribbled on a sheet, raw images, video is shot, collected until all the bells and whistles are operational. How long does that process take you? And how much goes in at each "station" on the assembly line? Is it "Ta Da" all at once? Or slowly picking up speed and building in presence as you tend the real estate flock ? How you spend your time, juggle the real estate day can dictate how much effort goes in to just the presentation of the new property listing. ... 11/27/2010

You forget until the event gets closer...to Black Friday, even New Year's parties and where to put the Christmas tree this year. Folks with Thanksgiving holiday plans...real estate buyers, sellers, agents, brokers and all the other related industries here on Active Rain's nearly 200,000 head count. Are you thinking stuffing the turkey, football, mall trips and who sleeps where coming home for the holidays? Or are you on the road and side stepping the office? Or doing both as an accomplished multi tasker, wearing the "R", the hardest working letter in the alphabet bar none? Happy Thanksgiving and hope you are able to spend it with your family this year. In my hometown of Houlton Maine, the local Rotary Auction heads in to night two tonight in the process of peddling, raising money from $... 11/23/2010

The sweet stuff, the juice you squeeze from an Active Rain blog post is tastiest when the opening query is the "juicer", the commenters the "fruit" of the exercise. If you eye ball, scan the blog post entries here on AR you see a myriad of topics tossed up, thrashed over and then gone from radar. Squeaky wheeled in an over flowing shopping cart down in to the bowels of the AR hard drive to draw from, dust off in a blog topic search. But what if on a daily basis (or as AR's Bob Stewart suggests weekly), a wire frame, minimalist approach to the blogging exercise offered a hot topic that is simply thrown up on the daily special blackboard on what today's special is. And instead of a few cronies commenting on the topic, you had hundreds of Active Rain bloggers weighing in. Sliding in to a b... 11/20/2010

In the hurry scurry of day to day, it is easy to forget the American soldier serving nationally or overseas. Especially if you do not have anyone related that is a veteran. Or unless you are one yourself. The death of a young solider serving to protect our freedoms overseas is the sobering reminder of the stakes, costs involved. Newspaper articles, photos of a hearse picking up the red, white and blue US flag draped casket as it gets lowered from a military transport will cause all conversation in a room to stop, stall. To create a knot in your stomach. The expression "Many gave some, some gave all" hits home if you are in Washington DC and see the memorial stations for every branch of the armed forces. Today there is a funeral in Houlton Maine for Lt James Zimmerman killed November 2nd... 11/11/2010