Longtime Government Affairs Committee member and past GAC Chairperson Colleen Ratzlaff LeBeau has thrown her hat in the ring and announced her candidacy for Lakeville City Council.  Colleen was most recently recognized as 2005 REALTOR of the Year by the then Southern Twin Cities Association of REALTORS, and she hopes to bring her business knowledge to the Council.  "I decided to run for council after serving on a committee with other Lakeville business owners and personnel to review and give direction on the 2010 city budget.  Through this experience, I came to believe that the city would benefit from council members who have a greater understanding of budgets and expenditures from a business perspective."  There are eight candidates in the race for two seats.  For more information on Colleen's candidacy or to get involved go to http://www.colleenratzlafflakevillecouncil.com/  You can email Colleen at crlabeau@yahoo.com.   

RE/MAX North Central is proud to announce our support of Minnesota Vikings Football, U of M Gopher Football and Twin Cities Metro High School Football!

The incredible brand awareness generated by these sports marketing campaigns will drive leads and referrals directly to YOU and YOUR business!  Minnesotans are passionate about their football teams and we want our consumers to know that RE/MAX agents are too!  I hope you enjoy seeing RE/MAX in all of these sporting venues this Fall and encourage you to use the following slogans in your own advertising:

RE/MAX is a  proud sponsor of Minnesota Vikings football!
RE/MAX is a proud sponsor of Minnesota Gopher football!

Entering Rental listings into NorthstarMLS
Click the "Home Base" tab, select "Residential Rental" under Add Listing, and click the Submit button.
Complete the fields and upload photos just as you would for any other property type. (Note: if you do not
see the Add Listing option in Home Base, then your broker has assigned this responsibility to office staff.)
Also note that you cannot enter a "Comp Sold" Rental.

Finding Rental listings on NorthstarMLS
Click the "Search" tab.  Under the Single Family searches, you will find a link to a new search called
"Rentals."  Click the link to start your search.  Please note that it may take some time for the Rentals
listings database to grow.  Check back often or set up an automatic search to email you as new Rentals are
added.

Rental Forms
In WEBForms, you will find a new category called "Residential Lease."  By early afternoon on Wednesday,
September 1, this category will contain the three new Minnesota State Lease forms and the NorthstarMLS
Rentals Listing Input form.

Rental listings on Agent/Broker Websites
Listing data for Active status Residential Rentals will be available for you to add to your agent/broker
Website starting September 15 (advance notice has been sent to the Web developers).

For more information on Residential Rentals on NorthstarMLS
Check out our Q&A document originally posted August 10th.

For Help and Support
For help working with Rental listings on NorthstarMLS, or to make suggestions for future improvements,
please contact our Help Desk at help@northstarmls.com or 651-251-5456.  Please note that the Help Desk
cannot help or advise you on REALTOR requirements/issues with regards to representing Rental properties.
They can only help/advise on using NorthstarMLS to list and search for Rental properties.

RE/MAX North Central's Technology Manager and Trainer, Bill Lage, is hosting a webinar tomorrow, September 1st, at 10am on Promoting Listings with Twitter! This live 30 minute webinar will show you how Twitter will give your listings more exposure!

Not sure you are ready to be Tweeting? Bill will tell you why you should be!
Join in by registering at www.myremaxtools.com!  LIMITED SPACE!!!!!!!!!

Obeo is excited to introduce their new Obeo Mobile Tour!

As potential buyers view your Obeo listings with their mobile phones, the tours will now load in a special viewer built for mobile devices. This new vieweris designed for a smaller screen size, optimized for cell phone bandwidth and is supported on dozens of mobile phone browsers like the iPhone. 

Interested buyers can now view beautiful photos, property details and contact information on any Obeo listing from their phones. Obeo Tours also look great on the Apple iPad. This FREE upgrade to all your Obeo listings is just one more way Obeo is putting your listings in the hands of as many potential buyers as possible. Enjoy!

Hey RE/MAX Twin Cities agents!  Check out the video below for details on how you can star in a :30 RE/MAX TV spot that will air on Kare11 this fall promoting our new sponsorship of the RE/MAX Hot Highlights for the Prep Sports Extra with Randy Shaver! 

Only a limited number of agents will be selected for this great promotional opportunity and audition videos need to be submitted by this FRIDAY at noon!!!  Note: You must be available to film Monday, August 30^th from 4-7:30pm!

Click on video below or visit the Highlights tab at www.facebook.com/remaxnorthcentral for more details

RE/MAX Hot Highlights Promotion
Click here to watch

Successfully Selling Hud Properties in Partnership with Best Assets will provide instructions and guidelines for submitting proper bids for HUD properties. We will discuss marketing tactics and how to properly submit a HUD 9548 sales contract along with appropriate addendums.

Attendees will be able to successfully submit an application for a NAID, place bids and properly submit sales contracts in compliance with HUD requirements. They will also become knowledgeable about FHA financing programs, HUD sales programs and necessary disclosures.

Date: September 29th, 2010 Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm 
Location: The Mermaid Event Center in Mounds View 
Cost: $25.00 CE: 3 hours pending 
To register visit www.spaar.com
There will be a continental breakfast

iCan’t believe it’s finally here!

Supra eKEY service for the iPhone platform has arrived. The Supra iPhone Adapter plugs into the 30 pin dock connector. It adds Infrared to the iPhone. It is designed to hang from a key chain when not in use. When you are ready to show a house, just slide it out of its cover, and plug it into your iPhone.

You can visit the App Store to download the program; but before you can use it you will need to obtain the adapter from Supra. The order form is located here. You will also need a key serial number from MAAR to authorize the program.

The Minnesota Association of REALTORS® (MNAR) and MAAR are partnering to bring you the first Minnesota Statewide Open House Weekend. We want REALTORS®, you, around the state to hold open houses on August 21 and 22, during Statewide Open House Weekend. We hope that your clients who have listed their homes for sale will open their doors with a REALTOR® as a host. And, we hope that those of you representing buyers will be out in force as well.

 

 

MNAR will work to make the public aware of Statewide Open House Weekend - August 21 & 22. The public needs to know that this is still an incredible time to buy a home. Why?

• We have historically low interest rates
• There are a wide variety of homes available in many different price ranges
• The Minnesota economy is picking up and the unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country

How the event be promoted?

MNAR is working on advertisement placement in the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press, as well as outstate Minnesota publications in the week leading up to Statewide Open House Weekend. Balloons will also be available at MAAR the week preceding the event. Use the balloons to indicate your participation in Statewide Open House Weekend.

The gradual increase in demand for city living is having an impact on home
prices. Benefiting the most from property price appreciation over the past
five years are the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Next in line are
some of the developing ex-urban areas and most of the first ring suburban
communities.

Downtown Minneapolis Market remains dynamic. The combination of attractive
new developments and demographic shift seeing "baby boomers", empty nesters
seeking urban living opposed to suburbs.

This contributes to the commercial success of lofts in the North loop
(Warehouse district) and Mill Ruins areas. Also latest High Rise projects
like "The Carlyle" and the "Yvy Tower" have seen a strong interest from
buyers. Both have seen over 90% of units reserved within the first two days
of availibilty.

With a booming entertainment district circling Block E and a "Renaissance"
of the Mississippi River banks, Downtown Minneapolis offers to date its best
growth, leaving room yet for more affordable real estate.
Projects to come...

Uptown Minneapolis shows a remaining interest for 'condo conversions". With
yet a limited offer and continuously growing demand. Linden Hills
neighborhood of Southwest Minneapolis has successfully joined the pack of
conversion developments

Information obtained from:
http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond/Minnesota~Minneapolis~stephanecattelin