Another Successful Expo

The annual Annandale Business Expo was held this last weekend at the Annandale High School. Our staff truly enjoys working this event. Local businesses gather to share their services with the community, and year after year the community turns out to show its support.

The expo gives us a chance to say hello to old friends and make new ones. We handed out our “Summer in the Heart of the Lakes” postcards (a favorite calendar for area refrigerators! If you don’t have one, stop in our office!) and brought along our new Sky Cam. Here is a shot of the side of the gymnasium our booth is on…

This camera is going to be so much fun this summer!

And once again, our annual expo drawing gave away a masterfully-crafted bird house, built by Myron Morris. This year’s lucky winner was Karen Christofferson of South Haven! Congratulations Karen!

Easter Eggstravaganza 2009

Record attendance was this years highlight for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was a comfortable, sunny day and there was an abundance of excited kids to enjoy the event that The Lion’s Club sponsors every year. They do a great job putting on this event. What a great way to get the community together for something so fun. The event location is always held at the end of Main Street by the pavillion. The Annandale Ambassadors were also there, handing out balloons and greeting kids. It was an event that was fun for all ages, including members of the Oak Team! If you missed it this year, make sure to be there next year!

Hearing the rules first!

The Annandale Ambassadors: Heather, Paige, & Darice

Look at that crowd!

Let the games begin!

A huge thanks goes out to the Lion’s Club for sponsoring an event that brings so much joy to the children of Annandale.

Going Green By Building Green

You’ve heard a lot about “going green” in the past year and may be adjusting your lifestyle to reduce your own carbon foot print. Well, one of the best things to do in the Real Estate business is to build or buy ”green.” We had the privilege of hearing a presentation by Jim Green of Lumber One in Cold Spring about the “green” homes that he has built, and the many benefits of doing so.

First of all, did you know that Minnesota is a leader in green building? Number 3 to be exact, and working our way to number 1. Some of the features of a green built home include:

*95% efficient natural gas furnaces, sealed duct work, all light fixtures have CFL(compact flourescent) bulbs, advanced wall framing, insulated hot water lines, carpet that can be recylced into new carpet, low VOC paints and primers and Energy Star appliances. They also use as many solar tubes in the home as they can to let in natural light during the day time hours. Dual Flush toilets that save on average 6,000 gallons of water per year, are also standard in a green built home. If everyone was to use these toilets, think of the improvements it would create! The most suprising green feature to us was the use of drought tolerant plants in the yard to cut on watering costs. With the dry times around here, that would not only cut back on water usage, but the frustration of having your landscaping ruined by drought.

In order for a home to be considered “green built,” builders must adhere to the requirements on the MN Greenstar New Home Checklist. They are awarded points for every requirement that they meet. In order to be a certified green home, they need to accumulate 276 points. There are also two higher levels to attain; Silver and Gold. To be classified as those, you need 419 and 554 points respectively. The elements that go into the house should not only be efficient, but come from within a 500 mile radius of the home to cut back on car emissions.

Jim Green belongs to the National Association of Home Builders and spends much of his time educating people on the benefits of building green. There are many statistics explaining why building green or buying a green built home is more efficient than buying a used home. This is the best way for home owners to reduce their carbon foot print, and save themselves money in the end. For more information on going green, call Jim Green at 320-980-4761!

5th Annual Lake Home & Cabin Show

Oak Realty's booth at the show.

As the weather starts to warm up, you may find that your spring fever is starting to spike, and you may be wondering if this is the right time to fufill your dreams of owning a lake home, cabin, or lake lot. At Oak, we say yes. The market is turning around and we are hopeful that people will see that buying these properties is a wonderful investment in their future.

We also would like to suggest that you come to the 5th Annual Lake Home & Cabin Show  held at the Minneapolis Convention Center, April 3-5. This is a show that we at Oak look forward to because it gives us the opportunity to get to the cities, meet new people, and showcase some of the best in lakeshore living. It also gives us the opportunity to brag about Annandale and the wonderful things this community has to offer.  Not to mention that we have the best lakes around!

For more information on the show, vistit www.lakehomeandcabinshow.com, or read about it on our homepage. We are booth 945. Hope to see you there!

Introducing The Sky Cam

Oak Realty has been getting many compliments on some of the photos taken from the Maple Lake St. Patty’s Day Parade, & questions are arrising about just how we get such great photos with such an interesting angle. Well, we would like to introduce to everyone our new Sky Cam.

Sky Cam extended to it's full 60 ft.

The Sky Cam is a camera attached to a tri-pod that extends up to 60 ft. in the air. It is attached to the back of the truck and connects to a laptop. The laptop controls the camera and takes photos at an angle that you don’t see very often. With this new camera, we at Oak are able to take better photos of your property. Normal photos can only capture parts of the house, but this amazing camera can get your whole house and yard from what we consider the best view possible.

Photo of Oak Realty from the Sky Cam

When you drive by our office, you only see the side and the front. With the Sky Cam, we are able to capture the office and the entire property it sits on. The Sky Cam is portable and can be taken anywhere. It captures the best photos from land, water, & anywhere in between.

Setting up the camera on the ice allowed for some amazing photos of this home!

At Oak, we take extreme pride in showcasing your home in a way that makes it stand out among the others. This Sky Cam has opened up creative avenues to the endless possibilities we now have for showing off your home! Call us if you would like to sell your home and would like to see it showcased in a way that no other realty company can!

Steve Bruggeman & Justin Wisner of Oak Realty setting up the Sky Cam at Maple Lake Parade.

St. Patty’s Day 2009

Oak Realty was again part of the annual Maple Lake St. Patty’s Day parade on Saturday March 14th! The weather was beautiful, the candy was flying, and we managed to capture some great photos with our new sky camera. This is a camera that can extend up to 60 ft. and takes amazing aerial pictures. Maple Lake puts on a great parade every year and this year was no exception!

The Oak Team coming down mainstreet.

Oak Team members who helped at the parade.

We at Oak are very fortunate to have great friends who allowed us to use their vehicles for the parade. Included in the line-up was:

1950 Chevrolet ton truck owned by Tim & Laurie Risbrudt

The Bruggeman's having fun in the parade.

1946 Ford truck owned by Tom & Denise Blizil

Charlene Wurm of the Maple Lake office throwing candy. Dean Hoglund also of ML office driving the truck.

1969 Plymouth GTX owned by Tom & Denise Blizil

Owner & driver Tom Blizil.

1967 Chevrolet Chevelle SS owned by Chris & Mary Elfmann

Owner & driver Chris Elfmann

Charlene making those kids very happy!

So, last year in the parade we thought we had plenty of candy and ran out half way through. This year we decided to double our candy amount and ended up with roughly 44,000 pieces and still ran short! Watch out next year and bring your big bags because we will have 44,000 more pieces!

Tiff getting ready to launch a handful of candy!

Thanks to the owners of the vehicles for allowing us to use them for the parade. We had a blast in Maple Lake and look forward to attending in 2010!

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

News has been circulating recently of the first-time home buyer tax credit. This chart shows who is eligible, how much you get, and the current interest rates.

 

Call us at Oak Realty today if you’d like more information on this and to see if you qualify.

*Information from the National Association of Realtors.

Monthly Payment Breakdown PITI.

Whether you are in the process of buying your first home, already in a home paying your mortgage, or shopping around for a new home, you may or may not know what PITI stands for. PITI is what decides your monthly mortgage payment. We decided to give you a  break down of the acronym.

P= Principal: The amount of the total payment that goes to reduce the loan that month.

I=Interest: The amount paid that month for the use of the investor’s capital(money). Principal and interest payments are determined by the use of “mortgage factors” (monthly payment per thousand at a given rate over a pre-determined length of time.)

T=Taxes: Annual real estate taxes divided by 12= monthly tax. (Government loans require taxes to be paid monthly to the lender with the payment to protect their interest in the property).

I=(Homeowners) Insurance: Insurance paid annually to protect both the buyer and the lender against loss by fire, etc. With government loans, the lender will require that this be paid monthly (escrowed) to the lender to protect their interest in the property.

I=(Mortgage) Insurance: An insurance premium (PMI on conventional loans) paid by the buyer to protect the lender in the case of buyer default on the loan. Most lenders require this insurance on loans with a down payment less than 20%. FHA (MIP) and VA require mortgage insurance also. DVA refers to as “funding fee.”

We at Oak don’t expect you to be experts on this stuff because let’s face it, it isn’t an easy concept. That is why any of us here would be happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding this topic, or anything else for that matter!

Financial information from DF Institute, Inc.

Have you noticed the billboard?

In 1925 Allen Odell gave his two sons Leonard, and Allan, $200 to purchase some scrap lumber to construct one of the most creative advertising promotions in the history of advertising. He had them make signs 8 inches by 36 inches filled with humorous, whimsical, homespun wisdom, and positioned them at intervals along major highways. For about 40 years these signs were a part of the American landscape until the cars started moving too fast for any one to read them, and the original Burma Shave company was purchased by a large conglomerate that suspended this marketing idea. Yet, most of you that remember this era, also remember the name Burma Shave.

In the last year, or so, Oak Realty started there own Burma Shave ads on the bottom part of its billboard in front of its national headquarters in Annandale. The words of wisdom, and whimsical sayings have changed with the times, but for the countless commuters that drive by and read the sign on a regular basis, it gives them something to ponder as they venture to work in the morning and when they return again in the evening. For others it’s when they drive up on the weekend and return again the following weekend.

People have commented about the sign and say it makes them chuckle, or think for a moment before they say “Oh. I get it.” Sometimes they said they couldn’t read in the first pass so they paid more attention on the return trip. Some are too focused on the hood of their car, or their cup of coffee to even notice where they are at, much less to have the time to look around and read a billboard.

The theme on the billboard changes by a list of “The Top Ten” that is created on a random seasonal pattern. And the entire list of the top ten cannot always be posted because of a lack of space on the billboard. How many times has the sign changed? We’re not even sure of the number. We’ve tried to keep it changing every week or two, depending on the weather, and Steve’s state of mind.

Note: (You see Steve is the one that has the laborious duty to drag the ladder out to the sign and change the lettering.) My job is to just keep a list of Top Ten coming, on regular basis, so there is always something new to post.

Mike

Welcome Baby Grady!

Grady Robert Miller

Oak Realty team member Amy Miller brought Grady Robert Miller into the world on 1/27/09 at 6:03 pm. He weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Amy and her husband Jim also have another son named Weston who no doubtedly is very excited to be a big brother. We are certain that he will be a great helper in looking after Grady. What an amazing blessing a new baby is! The Oak Team wishes the Miller family all of the best in the weeks to come, and would love to formally welcome Grady into the Oak Family!