Specials are not something SPECIAL, They Are Taxes!   Sometimes Realtors forget that not everyone knows our lingo. If you are shopping for your first home and your agent has never explained specials to you then take comfort that you are not alone. I work with a lot of First Time Home Buyers and it is actually rare that as I ask if they are familiar with special assessments that the First Time Home Buyer knows what specials are. The first thing you, as a First Time Home Buyer, needs to know is that Specials is a term referring to Special Tax Assessments on a property. A good example would be if you purchased a new home in a new development the City places a "special" tax on your home to help pay for the new services such as the water main, the street paving, and sanitary sewer. The life ... 03/23/2011

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY with Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, The Judds and more! What do you do if you are Scandinavian (Norwegians, Swede's, Danes, Ice Landers) living in Minot North Dakota? You throw the BIGGEST darn Party you can over 5 nights and 4 days by inviting about 75,000 of your bestest friends. How about inviting Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, The Judds, Charlie Pride, The Gaithers and many, many more. Throw in some commedians, artists, crafters, actors, great food and of course adult beverages. Let's use all the buildings on the Northg Dakota State Fair grounds and also see if we can top last years RV attendance (which I think was about 5,000 units). What the heck do you call this??? Norsk Hostfest 2011 Norsk Hostfest, THE LARGEST SCANDINAVIAN FESTIVAL IN NORTH AMERICA,says come... 03/18/2011

BUILDING BRIDGES THRIFT STORE, 6 of 6 Minot Thrift Stores This is my final report on Minot North Dakota's 6 Thrift Stores. Building Bridges is located at 19 2nd Ave SE Minot ND. I don't know a lot about the mission of the store but I believe it supports on or more Catholic mission in town. It has some what odd hours as it is usually not open until noon and then only for a few hours. I was told today by one of the two volunteers present that they really have trouble finding volunteers to keep regular hours. She said they get tons of donations but can not keep up without the volunteers. Sooo if you are looking for a mission of your own why not volunteer to help out this thrift store. The prices are right at this store and they will bargain if you think a price is to high. The store is a b... 03/12/2011

NO SAND FOR YOU!!! (said like the Soup Nazi) NO SAND BAGS FOR YOU! In the 8 years I've lived in my home there has been a "rain event" every year that fills the street in front of our home, the neighboring Ball Park parking lot, and the main arterial just a half a block away. Several times the water had lapped right up to the house when freekin idiots non-concerned SUV drivers barreled down the street (evidently compensating for a lack of manhood). This is a problem the City denies happens despite repeated news coverage and even slipped admissions that the storm sewer system is inadequate and actually scheduled to be replaced. I guess it is "no problem" for the City that it's tax paying residents are flooded out as long as the City doesn't have to deal with it. As a side note I have to t... 03/10/2011

The Mennonite Upper Midwest Relief Sale The annual Upper Midwest Relief Sale and Quilt auction is always held the first weekend in April so this year it's April 1st and 2nd. My bride and her side of the family spend all weekend at the sale admiring the quilts and just enjoying the fun atmosphere of the auction. There is also all kinds of food I only see when this Mennonite group meets here in Minot. The quilts are awesome, some will even sell for more then $1,000.00 Every penny of the auction goes to the Relief Fund. You can't Pay It Forward better then that. The only thing more awesome then the quilts is the way the money is used to help those out in need. If our government was run as efficiently as the Mennonite Relief Program we would have no waste at all. 03/05/2011

Minot North Dakota 7th Day Adventist Thrift Store This is Post #5 of my 6 Thrift Store Posts. Welcome to The Seventh Day Adventist Clothing Center and Thrift Store in Minot North Dakota. What makes this Thrift Store so unique is that most of the clothing is not for sale... it's FREE! Actually there are many things that make this one unique. The store supports or is supported by the church right next door. The store is only open one day a week (Tuesday) from 10AM to 3PM but I think it is certainly worth marking your calendar and stopping in. They have everything any other Thrift Store has and on the items they charge for they charge very little. They are GREAT people to visit with as well.     03/02/2011

Minot ND Thrift Stores, Post 4 of 6 The ReStore Thrift Store     The ReStore Thrift Store is located at 112 2nd Ave SW in Minot ND. Click on the link above for information on their programs including the thrift store. On each of my previous thrift store articles I've hit the high points of each store. The strong points of the ReStore are: The ReStore supports Re-Hab services. Rehab services has many services that help the community. All money stays local. The ReStore has one of, if not, the friendliest staff. Very reasonable prices and if you think they are out of line they may agree to cut them on an item. Good furnature selection most of the time. A bag sale every 3rd Thursday (all the clothes you can stuff in a bag for $6.00).   02/21/2011

Only 67 Homes Available Today in Minot ND Oak Park Realty 1500 Oak Park Center Minot ND 58703 (also known as 1500 NW 4TH AVENUE) WHAT'S FOR SALE IN MINOT? Homes for sale under $100,000.00 as of 02/17/2010 =     4Homes for sale between $100,000.00 and $124,999.00 =   2 Homes for sale between $125,000.00 and $149,999.00 =   7 Homes for sale between $150,000.00 and $174,999.00  =   4 Homes for sale between $175,000.00 and $199,999.00  = 11Homes for sale between $200,000.00 and $249,999.00  = 21 Homes for sale over $250,000.00                               = 18 AS OF 02/17/2010 THERE ARE EXACTLY 67 HOMES FOR SALE IN THE CITY LIMITS OF MINOT* Only 6 homes under $125,000.00. There are 148 pending sales *Single Family, active status  It's hard to believe in a City with the population of 38,000... 02/17/2011

The Dakota Boys & Girls Ranch Thrift Store, #3 of 6 Minot Thrift Stores. Each Saturday for 6 weeks I am high lighting one of the 6 thrift stores in Minot North Dakota. Each one has good and poor points as does any store so I've been trying to do a brief summary of each one for you. This week I'm featuring The Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch Thrift Store. The "cause" that this store (and they have several stores in North Dakota) champions is their facility just out side of Minot for at risk boys and girls. I've linked the first picture below to their website so you can check them out. It's an amazing facility with a full scale school of it's own. I've gotten to know a few people at the Ranch and they are all top notch professionals. Now a little about the Store. It's a very clean store. The ... 02/12/2011

Turn A Hundred Into Three!  Have you ever wondered how to turn $100.00 into $3.00? Got kids? Every heard of Chucky Cheese? Well even though we don't have one here in Minot North Dakota we have two knock-offs... Planet Pizza and Space Aliens. There is also Splash Down and another location or two specifically designed to make kids euphorically happy and Mom and Dad broke in record time. Although the main feature is Pizza (Yea Right) or a Water Park the real attraction is the video games and the quarter falls machines that spit out those tickets depending on how skilled lucky you are. A dollars worth of tokens gets you about 3 cents of wonderful (break as you take it out of the wrapper) junk.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a stick in the mud. Just like every other parent out there I love... 02/11/2011

Minot North Dakota Housing Picture February 6th 2011 Oak Park Realty 1500 Oak Park Center Minot ND 58703 (also known as 1500 NW 4TH AVENUE) WHAT'S FOR SALE IN MINOT? Homes for sale under $100,000.00 as of 02/06/2010 =     4Homes for sale between $100,000.00 and $124,999.00 =   3 Homes for sale between $125,000.00 and $149,999.00 =   9 Homes for sale between $150,000.00 and $174,999.00  =   5 Homes for sale between $175,000.00 and $199,999.00  = 13Homes for sale between $200,000.00 and $249,999.00  = 23 Homes for sale over $250,000.00                               = 18 AS OF 02/06/2010 THERE ARE EXACTLY 75 HOMES FOR SALE IN THE CITY LIMITS OF MINOT* Only 7 homes under $125,000.00. There are 124 pending sales *Single Family, active status I'm seeing more and more new names on pickup truck... 02/06/2011

The Salvation Army Thrift Store in Minot North Dakota This is post 2 of 6 in my series of the 6 thrift stores in Minot ND. As I mentioned in post one each store has it's strong points. The Salvation Army Thrift Store in Minot North Dakota's strong points are: 1) The staff is always friendly. If you say Hi to them first they will remember you for life. 2 The merchandise is usually reasonably priced and if you don't think so then they may drop it for you. I only recommend asking if you know it's way out of line. Let's face it, trying to bargin at a thrift store really does not work good with the image of being a successful Realtor that we want to convey to the public. 3) They have a large variety of stuff. 4) Easy parking. The store is a little hard to find the first time but it's in a go... 02/05/2011

GOODWILL THRIFT STORE, Minot ND There are 6 Thrift Stores in Minot ND and I will blogg about each of them in the next few weeks, this will be post 1 of 6. Each store has it's strong points and I will do my best to point them out. This one is our families favorite for the following reasons. 1) It's the cleanest and brightest lit. 2) It's the best run. 3) The tags a color coded and each color rotates as a special from one week to the next. 4) Things are usually priced fairly.       I apologize for the blurry pictures , I was trying out a new camera and had not figured out the settings yet. Hopefully you can still tell that this is a thrift store that covers about everything including clothes, household, toys, books and media, furnature, a little bit of sporting goods and seasonal items. T... 01/30/2011

Minot ND Elementary Schools Family Fun Nights Each year the elementary Schools in Minot host a Family Fun Night. Fortunately or uunfortunatelyfor us they are not all on the same night. I say that because our kids go to one great school, Sunny Side Elementary, and my Bride works at another, Lewis and Clark Elementary. These are fund raising events put on by the PTA. That means they are pocket emptying nights for mom and dad. We limit our spending to $20.00 which last about an hour if we keep the kids reined in pretty tight. They are always fun and I tried to capture the fun below. This was the Lewis and Clark Family Fun Night. The Sunnyside Family Fun Night will be April 8th. Any/Everyone is welcome so even if you don't have students at that school you can still attend their night.      ... 01/30/2011

Minot North Dakota Housing Shapshot. WHAT'S FOR SALE IN MINOT? Homes for sale under $100,000.00 as of 01/27/2010 =     3Homes for sale between $100,000.00 and $124,999.00 =   3 Homes for sale between $125,000.00 and $149,999.00 =   9 Homes for sale between $150,000.00 and $174,999.00  =   7 Homes for sale between $175,000.00 and $199,999.00  = 14Homes for sale between $200,000.00 and $249,999.00  = 24 Homes for sale over $250,000.00                               = 15 AS OF 01/27/2010 THERE ARE EXACTLY 75 HOMES FOR SALE IN THE CITY LIMITS OF MINOT* Only 6 homes under $125,000.00. There are 118 pending sales *Single Family, active status Minot ND has a very unique housing market. In general it is the total opposite of the rest of the nation. We have a sever housing shortage and we have ha... 01/27/2011

Credit Repair in North Dakota National Credit Fixers: 330 Roberts Street Suite 402 East Hartford CT 06108 phone: 860-282-6181. National Credit Fixers boasts of 14 years experience repairing low FICO scores. Whether your credit has been damaged by a foreclosure, bankruptcy, slow credit, collections, judgments, repossessions, etc. we can help. We are the experts in credit restoration and credit repair. We have helped numerous residents of North Dakota and are experts in North Dakota credit repair. If you want the cheapest credit repair company then you need to keep looking.  If you want a credit repair company company that is going to get you the best results possible - then you have found the right one.  Wouldn't you want the best doctor possible if you had a medical problem?  Well we ar... 11/28/2010

Minot ND continues to be a hot spot for home sales due to the expansion of our Air Force Base and the Oil activity in our region. We have been very fortunate to have had an ever increasing economy for as long as I can remember. Over the last two years we have had 100% occupancy in our rentals and in a town of approximately 35,000 people we have only 142 homes on the MLS (that's our HIGH for the last two years! WHAT'S FOR SALE IN MINOT? Homes for sale under $100,000.00 as of 09/21/2009 = 8Homes for sale between $100,000.00 and $124,999.00 as of 09/21/2009 = 6Homes for sale between $125,000.00 and $149,999.00 as of 09/21/2009 = 19Homes for sale between $150,000.00 and $174,999.00 as of09/21/2009 =  13Homes for sale between $175,000.00 and $199,999.00 as of 09/21/2009 = 20Homes for sale be... 09/21/2009

Not to long ago I wrote a post about Day Care in Minot ND. There is indeed a great shortage of licensed Day Care in Minot as I reported BUT I erroneously reported that the YWCA Early Learning Center had closed down. I spoke with Christi, manager of the center and they are here to serve you as they have been for many years. They are located at 435 21st Street NW in Minot ND and you may phone them at 701-857-4023. Again my apologies for this oversight. 09/21/2009

Creative Beginnings Daycare Center, Minot North Dakota has been a God send for our family. Daycare Availability In Minot North Dakota is a challange to say the least. For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis you are aware that Minot North Dakota has been experiencing a housing boom over the last two years due to our Air Force Base expansion and an Oil Boom with the biggest oil find in North American history. Creative Beginnings Daycare lovingly cares for children from 6 weeks of age to 10 years old. There philosophy is: Creative Beginnings Daycare will seek to provide a Happy, Positive, early Learning environment for your child's social, mental, and physical growth. Creative Beginnings Daycare is a licensed facility with rules and regulations set forth by Ward County Socia... 08/12/2009

Broadway Tesoro is my Minot ND business of the day. We all need gas don't we so why not recommend a place that has a smiling face and a hot cup of Java every time you stop to fill up. You may have seen pictures of "The RealMan Mobile" on my posts or on my website and you might know that my other vehicle is a big Dodge Grand Caravan with the biggest motor and towing package available so you can bet that I'm at the gas station no less then once a week. When I can time it right I make sure I stop at the Broadway Tesoro in Minot on a Saturday. Why Saturday? When you stop at the Broadway Tesoro in Minot on a Saturday you not only get a nice smile and a hot cup of Java but you also get a car wash for only ONE dollar! Let me clarify a couple of things here. That free cup of Java, it's not made... 08/06/2009