Montana, here I come!

		Newsletter from Montana January 2004 Newsletter from Red Lodge, Montana Two-thirds of our wealth is wrapped up in Real Estate, property value exceeds our entire supply of gold and greenbacks by far, and the value of mortgages, trust deeds and land contract exceeds the value of all stocks and bonds!* Looks like I am in the right business :-) When I went to school I learned that the US has 240 million people. Now there are 275 million and by 2010 there are predicted to be 300 million. The era of the wide-open frontier and seemingly unlimited supply of free or cheap land is long gone. With the new age of technology many people can live out in the country and don't have to depend on urban areas for jobs. Of course the pretty land with water sells first and prices go up. The concept of the home mortgage is fairly new, many can afford a house that actually don't have the money to buy it. Other goods, if there is a high demand, more will be manufactured. We are out of luck with that regarding land. The national median existing-home price for all of 2003 rose about 8.0 percent to $170,800, while the median new-home price is expected to be up 3.7 percent to $194,500. ** I ran across teacher, author and speaker Christine Karpinski, she specializes in renting vacation properties "By Owner" It can be the difference between affording a property or not if you don't want to pay a property manager. Or if you can't sell your house but need to relocate anyway. If you loose the address, you can find her again on my links page. Actually I had good luck with "renting by owner" myself when I had to leave my home on the Oregon Coast. I left it behind with a white carpet, knick knacks and antique furniture. I rented it out over the Internet as vacation rental. They mailed the check, I mailed the key and I told them to leave it clean. After a year I came back. What did I find? The house was cleaner than when I left it, nothing was scratched, all knick knacks where in place… I still believe in people. I have a couple of new listings: This first one is a whopper, built with aged 24" diameter Tamarack and Spruce Logs overlooking the Clark's Fork River and the ceiling soars to a heights of 28 feet. It's a little spendy, but it will last you 780 years! Excellent drinking water right out of the ground, pond with well fed fish and a boat dock. 6000 square feet of living space and garage. $ 1,200,000 The second one is also a nearly new log home, and comes fully furnished, dishes and all, some furnishings are European antiques Only two miles north of Red Lodge, on ten acres with unobstructed mountain views - and if you have a pussyfooted car - it's only a quarter mile off the pavement! It has a seasonal creek on the property and the well pumps 75 gallons a minute. $ 510,000 Remember that castle I have for sale in Nye? The architect had contacted me and I have added a link to his website. The home that grows out of the ground on his website is the same home I have listed! I found this quite impressive. The price for the motel has been reduced to $ 375,000 and I added a link to the financials and gobs of more photos. So if you would like to buy yourself a fun job in a small town where the world arrives at your doorstep, would just love to plant 200 flowers every spring and take care of the neighborhood cats, this is the place for you! Also Hawkins and Powers in Greybull is planning a new hangar hiring 100 new people and they will need lots of new homes there. Not only that, but the gas wells are coming across the mountains, and there will be quite a bit of money in that area shortly. If you are ambitious, how about building a spec home in that neighborhood? I found some nice ranch land West of Greybull straddling the Greybull River for half a mile or so near Meeteetse, Wyoming. 1400 acres with outstanding trout fishing. 120 acres flood irrigated (ditch), with good timber growth along the river. 1290 acres of this land are native range with diverse character, stock reservoir and new well. Excellent mule deer and whitetail habitat, upland birds, wild turkey, waterfowl, utilities and paved access road. Additional 900 acres BLM lease for 85 AUM for 4 months. The owner now runs about 100 cow pairs and 6 horses on the land. About 150 to 180 ton of hay per year. Planted to grass. All owner held mineral rights will convey. Annual rainfall 10," no improvements. $1,450,000 I have photos and more information if you are interested. If you are a fan of the Big Horn River and would like to have a small farm with a beautiful home, guest house and apartment in the shop for hunters and a horse barn to boot: DOUBLE D FARM, $1,500,000. 720 deeded acres of which 550 are irrigated and planted to alfalfa (app. 5-6 tonnage per acre) 170 acres River bottom and dry ground, Farm could alternatively produce sugar beets, barley, beans or corn. There is a Yellowtail Habitat between the farm and the Big Horn River, the farm follows the river for about 2 miles. Hunters pay $ 1,000 per rifle, and for the Red Flats Farm across the river, it was not rare that they made $ 6,000 on a weekend, but they always gave families a break :-) I went to the annual convention of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, where mineral rights and the impact of gas wells on ranches and farms were discussed. I learned that many a rancher would have had to sell his cattle during the last drought years, if it wouldn't have been for the wells drilled by the gas companies! I thought that was an interesting bit of information. If you like to read more, I wrote a summary under "mineral rights" on my "S Montana's Vitals" page. Those of you who wrote a postcard to the Second Grader in Illinois, here is a note from her Mom: "I just wanted to say thanks for helping Tallia along with her project. She's received lots and lots of postcards. She is so excited! She says her map at school is almost marked full of flags from the places she's received cards. She said her East coast is a little bare and she hasn't got one from Washington yet. Other than that it is GREAT! Thanks Again to you and your friends. All of the wonderful postcards are appreciated!" So, there you have it ~ thanks from me too! :-) If you missed out on this venture, her address is posted in my November newsletter, pretty much a the end You know how you get the latest gossip when you go to the hairdresser? Well yesterday I went to the Chiropractor and he told me that "Vail" had made an offer on our ski mountain here in Red Lodge, but the offer was turned down (they only offered $ 12 million). Still, can you imagine what will happen to this area when a big developer moves in? At any rate, in the Carbon County News on January 22, 2004 appeared another article "Firm chosen to develop economic strategy" and all the business owners had to fill out a survey, next week there will be interviews with assorted citizens. If you really need a laugh and you don't mind a cat doing it for you, click on this Lachkatze All those really goofy links hang out at my personal page about myself. On my page about the Ski Mountain, I added a link in the left margin to the Nordic Center. They have the only groomed trails in the area, for cross country skiing. The Nordic Center, is located west of Red Lodge on Highway 78 (watch for the signs, just past the cemetery). Since the Yellowstone Park and it's volcano make the news once in a while when things are slow otherwise, I put a link to the USGS site in the margin for the Yellowstone Park listing on my webpage Any volcano that is 30,000 years overdue should be regarded with suspicion. But then the east coast and the west coast are supposed to fall in the water and the third world war is hanging over our head, so what is there to worry about? Stuff happens, ready or not. At least for the WWIII we can prepare with extra beans in the basements, a jug of water and some protein powder, or a whole line of complete foods in powder form. But in the process of worrying about the negatives that may happen tomorrow, we should not miss out on all the positives that are happening in the here and now. Preparation is good, but getting paralyzed into fear is not. If you are a pessimist at heart, look at the website of Despair, Inc. Their trademark is :-( Click on any of their links in the right margin and stay inspired :-) Save them all to your hard drive and weave it into a screen saver, it will make a nice Valentine's gift for your favorite pessimist. If you like cats, I put a kittycat on my website which you can install on your desktop. It will give your mouse a good swat once in a while. Instructions as how to install are below the listings. May you get inundated with Valentines until my next newsletter at the end of February! Best Regards, Dorothea Lowe, Broker More Newsletters
		Subscribe to my monthly Newsletter: Name E-mail: References: * Real Estate Economics, 2nd edition, Walt Huber, Glendale College, CA and William Pivar, Professor Emeritus. Levin P. Messick, IFAC, Chief Editor, Professor, Mt. San Antonio College and Glendale College, President, AC Appraisals, Inc. Copyright 1995, 2002, Educational Texttbook Company, Inc. PO Box 3597, Covina, CA 91722, 626/339 7733, 636/332 4744 (fax) HD 1375 M37 2002 ISBN 0-916-772-66-7 www.etcbooks.com ** "Market Matters" (January 26th, 2004) as distributed by Washington Mutual, Burt Keltner, Billings Home Loan Center, 877 BJK-WAMU toll free, 406.248.1117 phone, 406.896.8883 fax burt.keltner@wamu.net (send him an email to receive his newsletter and/or to get a quote on a loan www.wamuloans.com/burt.keltner Click on this envelope to send me an email, I am looking forward to hearing from you!