Experience Grand Rapids and West Michigan!

The sun was shining and a new year begun so we decided to take in the Richard Avedon exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum this past Saturday.  The GRAM is truly a Grand Rapids treasure with something for almost everyone.  This particular exibition was facinating because of the technique and sty...

A fierce winter storm blew into West Michigan early on Friday dumping over 12" of heavy wet snow.  Schools and businesses closed and life slowed to a crawl for a few hours! I was out earlier today and found many neighborhoods still a maze of ruts and one lane roadways full of heavy snow waiting f...

"Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it, it is what the client or customer gets out of it." --Peter Druke I had an interesting conversation earlier this week that prompted some thought about service and quality.  These are buzz words that seem to be everywhere.  Researchers t...

I recently had an interesting experience with a "professional ?" REALTOR in my market.  I share this because I think that often the public perceives us as "order takers" and often we are to blame for that perception! Last summer I listed a beautiful property and I went about marketing the propert...

As we near the end of the regular football season (Ohio State and Michigan will meet for their annual rivalry for the 105th time on Saturday) and enter the bowl series and basketball seasons it seems appropriate that Coldwell Banker should release its annual College Town Home Price Comparison Ind...

 I just returned from a meeting with sellers who have a home to sell that they no longer occupy.  They have purchased another home and have physically and mentally moved on.  Except for this one small detail...they have a home to sell!  The odds are daunting.  In their price range there are 22 ho...

It's a gorgeous day here in West Michigan and we are in the midst of the fall season.  I think it's my favorite season of the year.  The colors of fall are the color palette of my home and I find them warm and restful....greens, browns, purples, oranges, reds, yellows.  The mixture is breathtakin...

I just returned from visiting my oldest daughter and her husband in California.  Our first grandchild arrived on September 27th so our new grandson, Whitaker, was the star attraction of our visit!!  I've heard that grandparenting is the best but words hardly describe the feeling of holding a gran...

Everyone I talk with in the last few days has been keeping close track of the financial news and the hourly (even momentary) tweaks and nuances to the Federal Response to the financial crisis of the last several weeks. The landscape sometimes seems pretty bleak. We worry as REALTORS about the imp...

When my children were young one of their favorite fall rites was a visit (or two!) to the Grand Rapids Fish Ladder Park located on the banks of the Grand River which runs through the City of Grand Rapids, MI. The river runs through the state for many miles and eventually reaches Lake Michigan.  W...