Today we are celebrating Fergus Falls, MN as the Needle in a Haystack!  If you are thinking about purchasing Fergus Falls lakeshore property - we hope you choose LakePlace.com!  Our website features over one hundred Fergus Falls lake homes and lake lots.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us! 

Thanks and Happy Lake Home Hunting!

 

Here is a fun site. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Talk to you on Tuesday.

Here is a beautiful Clitheral Lake Home priced at $379,000 - Today’s Needle in a Haystack!  This property is offered by one of our favorite affiliates - Coldwell Banker Backstrom & Associates.  This three bedroom, two bathroom lake home was built in 1994 and features a professionally landscaped yard with 154′ of lakeshore on beautiful Clitheral lake.

Click here for several images (9 total) and more information!

If you are the average consumer (or even real estate agent), you have probably not heard of Realogy (which is/was also known as NRT in some circles and Cendant in others). Realogy is the massive corporation based in Parsippany, NJ that owns Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, and Sotheby’s Realty. That’s right…if you are buying from Coldwell Banker instead of Century 21 - it doesn’t really matter - in the end, it’s basically the same company.

Anyway, Realogy has accepted an offer of $9 billion (including debt) - or $30/share from a private equity firm. The deal allows for Realogy to continue shopping themselves around through February ‘07. Realogy CEO Henry Silverman hopes to create an auction type atomosphere - and Wall Street thinks he can do it. The stock is up to $31/share (at the time of this post) from a $25 Friday close - based on specualation.

So what does this mean for you - the consumer (or real estate agent)? I have no idea.

My guess is that it does not mean much at all. But if you are doing business with -or- employed by a company that has agreed to sell, you may want to ask someone who can provide the answers…or maybe not - that would be up to you.

Note: Most (but not all) Realogy franchises/offices are independently owned and operated.

LakePlace.com offers owners/managers of Minnesota resorts & Wisconsin resorts the opportunity to place your property in front of tens of thousands of visitors each week. LakePlace.com has become the default starting point for thousands of people searching for their next vacation spot - contact us today and let us put the power of LakePlace.com to work for you!

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Rock will look forward to seeing you, and your site helped a lot w/ last min reservations–the way most of us manage life! It was Awesome!! Thanks again for letting us know and doing a Wonderful job of getting the word out.

Lee Gillson (owner)
Life of Riley Resort

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LakePlace.com has not only provided the traffic to our web site they said they could, but has far exceeded our expectations. We can highly recommend their site.Â

Andy & Marilyn Einspanier (owners)
Delta Lodge

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I want to complement you and LakePlace on your marketing. You’re really getting yourself out there and bringing in a lot of business. Seems like most everyone has heard of you. NO small task these days.

Peg (owner)
Buckhorn on Caribou

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Your Testimonial Here!

I just received this email from my wife…thought you might get a laugh…

Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system>activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn’t work on Wife 1.0. Please help!

Thanks,
A Troubled User. (KEEP READING)
______________________________________REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application “Yes Dear” to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag, Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0! WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system. Best of luck,
Tech Support

Have a question about buying or selling lake property? Have a question about renting out your cabin or lake home? Have a question about 1031 exchanges? Have a question about lake/river property values? Wondering where we think the best deals are? Are you relocating and need some help?

Just ask LakePlace.com! Heck, Money Magazine asks us, the Star Tribune asks us, even the National Association of Realtors asks us - you can too!

Our blog - The Pine Needle Lawn - is a great place to ask your questions. Over the years we have received a ton of great questions (and have provided some pretty good answers) and we are currently working on an extensive FAQ for our visitors - we hope to have that done soon.

In the meantime, we hope that you have a question for us. Your questions help out the entire community and we are more than eager to help.

Please feel free to email (blog at lakeplace.com) or just leave a comment!

Thanks and have a great weekend - we look forward to hearing from you!

I normally do not get into discussions about the real estate world on this blog…but I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss my thoughts on Zillow’s announcement.

Today Zillow announced that they are opening up the site to brokers, agents, and anyone who owns a home to list their home for sale - for free. This is a move many anticipated - and now it is reality.Â

So what does this mean? It does not mean much for LakePlace.com (the majority of our listings are not in the Zillow database - yet - when they are, we will definately consider using their service!) - but it is probably scaring the pants off of Trulia.com - a real estate website that raised about $8M earlier this year. You see, Zillow has a much larger war chest, a much more experienced management team, a much more robust website, a much larger database of real estate info, a much larger user base…and now they will be competing on Trulia’s home turf. While trulia is celebrating a milestone - many are predicting a slow (or not so slow) and painful death.

Monday going slow?  I thought I would share these 3 really cool illusions with you - #3 is the best. 

1. Focus on the dot in the center - and move your head backwards and forward.

2. You should see a man’s face -and- a word…
Hint: Try tilting your head to the right, the world begins with ‘L’

3. This is the coolest one of all.

Instructions:

1. Relax and concentrate on the 4 small dots in the middle of the picture for about 30 seconds.

2. Then, take a look at a wall near you.

3. You will see a cirlce of light developing.

4. Start blinking your eyes a couple of times and you will see a figure emerging.

5. Pretty cool - eh?

P.S. - take a look at some lake homes when done!  Thanks & have a great day!

Well, it is December 1 - and still no snow here in Minnesota…but, we all know it is coming. Most LakePlace.com visitors have a mental picture of Minnesota resorts & Wisconsin resorts during the summer months. But many of our lakeside resorts are open year-round.

Instead of heading to Florida or Mexico this winter - I suggest that you think about re-living some of those childhood memories. If you think real hard, you will remember the days when winter in the Northland was more than just COLD - it was FUN! I remember tunneling through 12 foot snow banks, attempting to build world-record snow men, and sledding down the steepest hills I could find…winter was about a lot more than scraping windshields and shoveling sidewalks. If you set your mind to it, I think you could find some of that winter fun again.

Here are some direct links to some of the more popular areas you may want to take a look at…

Hayward resorts (Wisconsin), Brainerd resorts (Minnesota), Grand Marais resorts (Lake Superior Northshore - Minnesota), Alexandria resorts (Minnesota), Northern Wisconsin resorts, Northern Minnesota resorts. You may want to check out the official tourism websites as well. Checkout Travel Wisconsin and Explore Minnesota for more info.

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Have a great weekend!