RE/MAX is celebrating their 38th birthday with great successes!

The RE/MAX brand was established 38 years ago and forever changed the face of real estate by creating maximum commission based businesses for top producing professionals. RE/MAX Chairman Dave Liniger opened the first RE/MAX office in 1973.

This past year saw many great accomplishments:

1. Worldwide franchise sales were up nearly 30% in 2010
2. Two national surveys ranked top performing RE/MAX agents above all other national franchise agents in average transaction sides of sales.
3. Reader's Digest Canada named RE/MAX the Most Trusted Brand in Real Estate
4. RE/MAX became one of three companies to pass $100M in donations to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
5. RE/MAX was named Top Ten Military Spouse-Friendly Employer by Military Spouse Magazine for the 4th year in a row.

And in the Bloomington area, RE/MAX accounted for the greatest amount of real estate sales with RE/MAX Acclaimed having the greatest sales volume.

The Master Plan for the Indiana University Bloomington Campus is now online

I just attended an event today with guest speaker Lynn Coyne of IU. The master plan for IU is truly phenomenal and very progressive. You can see the entire master plan, along with great historical information about IU at http://www.indiana.edu/~uao/. Simply click on master plan logo (shown above) and you will be directed to a vast amount of information about the future of the IU Bloomington campus

Check out what's happening in the Indy real estate market this weekend

This weekend is the Parade of Homes for Indianapolis. So if you have some time and are curious about our neighboring city's real estate market, this is a super opportunity to get inside a collection of new homes.

Homes are open today and tomorrow from 1:00 to 5:00. Check out more information at the Indianapolis Parade of Homes website: http://www.paradeofhomesindy.com/

The Beauty and Diversity of Bloomington's Architecture

I usually walk 45 minutes to an hour every day. I have three primary routes that I take and all of them include passing by beautiful houses that showcase the diversity of Bloomington's architecture. So today I brought my camera and took pictures of a few of my favorite houses on this route. Some are unique, some are classic and some are simply sweet. What can I say, I love houses!

From an article in Realtor Mag, the online magazine for Realtors from the National Association of Realtors, these ten cities are showing the greatest signs of continuing a declining trend in home values:

1. Atlantic City/Hammonton, NJ
2. Provo, UT
3. Portland/Vancouver, OR
4. Glen Falls, NY (home to Rachael Ray)
5. Bellingham, WA
6. Flagstaff, AZ
7. Charleston/Sommerfield, SC
8. Eugene/Springfield, OR
9. Salisbury, MD
10. Salt Lake City, UT

These figures were compiled by Forbes.

Fabian Seafood is heading back to Bloomington

You know spring has arrived when Fabian Seafood starts coming to Bloomington again. The next visit is this Tuesday, April 20th from 1:30 till 5:30 at the Bloomingfoods East location on Third Street.

This is fresh shrimp and shucked oysters straight from the Gulf. These folks drive up from Galveston Texas to share their bounty with us land-locked folks. It sells out fast, so if you are interested, get there early!

BTW, if you sign up for their email notices, you get a discount. Simply email them at SteveF@fabianseafood.com or visit their website at http://www.fabianseafood.com and sign up.

A Sample of Today's Interest Rates

An article in Sunday's New York Times said that interest rates were going nowhere but up. But they are still at historically low rates. Rates that we may not see again for decades. Here's a sample of today's rates from local lenders. Keep in mind that rates are subject to change and posted rates are based on credit scores, etc.

• Fifth Third Bank (www.53.com): 5.00%
• Premier Home Mortgage (www.premierhomemortage.com): 5.00%
• People's State Bank (www.peoples-bank.com): 5.25%
• United Commerce Bank (www.unitedcommercebank.com): 4.875%