There are many coasts, both inland as well as outland. I haven’t been to all of them, or even to a few. But for getting out of dodge, going on sabbatical, or just hiding out, nothing compares to the rugged North Atlantic coast of Maine. I don’t often leave Northern Michigan-after all, it is where everyone dreams to live-but comes a time when things get too familiar, taken for granted, and frankly…boring. So a spur of the moment decision took us to a great little cottage sitting on a small ridge, about 20 feet from the shore on Sprucehead Island. There is something about the ocean that seems to wash away all that is burdensome, all worries, all grief and pain. It certainly humbles the individual human just to watch the power of even a small storm. It rained heavily this morning. The rain shattered the silence of sleep when it hammered the metal roof of the cabin. The wind roared in off the ocean howling like a snowstorm. Looking through the large picture window to open ocean that spans all the way to Ireland, I watched the waves of the incoming tide, and tried to imagine them in relation to a tsunami. Humbling.

The ocean coast of Maine is almost like a separate state from inland Maine. Here, there is a great deal of hidden wealth from people who are from “away” as the locals call them. They come here on retreat to their grand, cedar shingle sided summer homes from New York, Boston, Connecticut, and, from Canada.  And then, there are the locals who, like us in Bellaire, get their towns and shorelines back after Labor Day. Most of these coastal locals are in fact…lobsterman. Passing the houses going to Rockland and back, you see lobster traps stacked for the winter in nearly every yard as well as colorful hills of lobster buoys…each lobsterman is required to have a unique color for their buoys. In season, when they are all floating in the bays and coves and harbors, the ocean is dotted with hundreds and thousands of floating  buoys of vivid color and it is like looking at Christmas lights and brings a smile always.

In Novemeber, it is gray most mornings with a fog of salt water mist that drifts in and out with the tides. It is very quiet here and perfect for reflecting on what we have, where we are, and where we’re headed over the next year. That’s why we came…to plan and decide our direction in 2012 with…and without, the real estate business.

Sometimes, when I look for out over the ocean to the east, I imagine German U-boats silently sitting off shore in 1942 and maybe even dropping a raft in the water with Abwher spies paddling to a remote beach. I can see the locals in the dress of the time, and hear FDR on the radio giving a fireside chat. I can hear Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra singing “I’ll never smile again” on the scratchy wooden radio. Thats the way it is here for me. I think that it’s the same for a great many people who come here. The coast is virtually loaded with gallerys of wonderful art, significant writers live here, and the music is primarily classical.  In many ways, it is similar to our “big” town Traverse City but times ten.

This has been a superb retreat, probably the best we have had. So I am sad to leave.  I know though, that when I am back home, back on the Cedar River in the northern Michgan woods, it will be just as special as here.

It is quiet. The summer people have fled to the south,  and the tourists-the people from away- are home and busy planning for the upcoming holidays…so we have out town back for a little while. We breath a long sigh of relief when the leaves have fallen and the color tours have finished. There is a special feeling about this time. It is almost a lonely, yet content and warm feeling, but also a feeling that something big is looming…something impending. And of course there is. Winter is hovering close and it will flurry soon.

But for now, in this mid November of mild weather and sunny days, I will wrap myself around the the quiet times , get some more reading done, write abit, and just maybe…get over to the AuSable river Holy Waters to wet my line. I have no idea what trout feed on at this time of year or if they feed at all. Doesn’t matter. If they bite it’s gravy.

That being said, there is real estate being sold. Most of these sales are in the $50,000 to $150,000 range and many are cash sales. These are also primary residences for people who live and work here. Of these sales, most are distressed properties i.e. bank owned, short sales, and sellers who have there property paid off and therefore are taking whatever offer is reasonable…just to get out from paying taxes and insurance on a home they no longer occupy!

I can’t give away golf course properties, resort condos, or higher end homes. Vacant land is a tough seel as well given you can buy an existing home or cabin for what vacant land is listed for. Most of the buyers who want a nice second home are not willing to go over $300,000, and they expect to get lakefront with sandy bottom for this amount. That just isn’t going to happen-at least not now.

Bellaire and the surrounding area is a great place to live, work, and play and we get many people here year-round. I suspect people will start buying soon enough and I sincerely hope that they won’t wait until the election in 2012. That would be a serious mistake for buyers as I think much of the affordable inventory will be long gone!

I know all about the biology of trees in autumn…chlorophyl that makes the leaves green and so on. But I like to think that God gives us these days as a kind of reward for what is to follow.

 What a great place we live in. We have marveled at least a hundred times at how blue the sky has been, how stunning the colors, how the October warmth embraced us. The rivers & streams are swollen with spawning salmon, orchards are overflowing with sweet apples and people are coming north in record numbers. This past weekend, there were no rooms available in the Grand Traverse region. We went to Traverse City on Saturday, walked the bay, went to the Farmers market, then drove to Leland. We had packed a picnic so we went to Vans beach and were surprised to see so many people laying on the sand and walking the vast shoreline of Sleeping Bear. It must have been 80 degrees. We kicked off our shoes and walked the shore looking for the elusive Leland “Bluestone” and actually found a few. After, we went to one of the 20 or so superb winery/vineyards that dot the Leelanau Peninsula. Shady Lane is just beautiful and they produce an excellent product. Altogether, a spectacular day in Northern Michigan.

Cider mills are not a big thing in northern Michigan, but they are huge downstate. I guess it must be because we have so many apple orchards up here that maybe we take the whole thing for granted. I miss Franklin Cider Mill in Franklin Michigan…an upscale village northwest of Detroit. There cider was always the best…pure, thick, and sweet. And I loved watching to donuts being made. The workers dropped the dough into huge vats of boiling oil and the dough would bubble & pop until a doney was born about a minute or so later. Those donuts were then, and still are, my very favorite. Some mills would have huge bonfires on the weekends along with hayrides and haunted houses later in October. Then there was game day…college football Saturdays. I miss those days as well. Huge pots of homemade chili, brats on the grille, a multitude of snacks and deserts at the tailgate parties on the golf course at U of M. And yet, despite not having these things, it is still better living up north.

Trout season came and went and I confess that – dumb me – took time off to wet a line only ONE time! Indian Summer is supposed to last for at least another week, so I need to get off of my ass and take advantage of this blessing and head to the Holy Waters where the fishing is open year-round.

Indian Summer will soon give way to Eskimo Winter.

So, beginning today, I am making a shift in my life and what I do. This will be the third career shift in my short 62 years. Although I am not getting out of the business or the brokerage, I am no longer going to take listings that are hopeless. I have in fact, begun to fire some of my listings. Listings for 2012 will be (a.) unique and therefore desirable, and (b.) affordable & priced right. My emphasis going forward will be as a buyer representative who does selective listing. By doing so, I can also give my listings much better attention and service than I can currently…simply because there will be fewer. List less – service more. I plan to spend less time with real estate by working a whole lot smarter. It has taken me 10 years to learn how to do this and 2012 is the year to start.

It’s also time to shift away from community participation. I am resigning from the Chamber of Commerce and Destination Bellaire.

There are simply too many rivers to fish, too many books to read, & too many stories to tell. And time is closing in on me quickly, and mercilessly, while taking no prisoners. I am looking for book ideas. Not to read but to write. has anyone got an idea for a book? What would you like to read about? I don’t even care if it gets published…I just want to write one for the shear accomplishment of doing so.

So, that is the shift of the next several months. And a good time to do so what with snow on the way!

I stayed about 45 minutes. That is the sum total of time that I have had a rod in hand since the last day of April. I am ashamed and dismayed at myself and have resolved to a change of lifestyle. I work to much. My shift is taking place as I write this. I am going to list fewer properties and only those that are unique, one-of-a-kind, and…priced right. Too many sellers still cling to the delusion that their home or parcel is worth considerably more than it is. And of course they will say that they are in no rush to sell, that they have no imminent need to sell, and that they can afford to wait and get “their” price. Nevah hoppin. A month or so into the listing, I start getting calls, emails, and urgent texts wondering what is happening. “Any activity?” “We need to get more aggressive”.

But enough of real estate. That’s what got me into this mess I’m in now…no river time. It is September 15 and the temp was in the 30′s last night. Fifteen days left for me. I don’t fish for Steelhead or Salmon, and at 62 I am not inclined to fish the holy waters in cold weather. I don’t tie my own flies in winter either because I stay pretty busy and anyway, it’s easier on my stress level to lose a dollar fly from Thailand than some work of art that took me a half an hour to create.

Enough whining. It’s been a darn good summer overall despite the economy. The weather was and has been stunning, I spent some time on the Downeast Maine ocean where we had fresh Lobster every day for $4.50 per pound, and, I managed to lose 30 pounds by going to Weight Watchers.  All good stuff.

That was summer at the bluTrout and I can’t complain about the onset of Autumn. It has been one of those Septembers of the memory of my youth with mild days, cool nights, and that hazy autumn sun that seems different than other times of year. I’ve mentioned this to other people and they don’t see the same thing I do. Maybe I imagine it but this September light is like a magic twilight.

Is it just me?

It was a good show and  I bought a couple of really cool prints of trout from an artist named Becca Schlaff out of East Lansing. Her work is colorful but subtle, and she was doing quite well thank you. She is doing primarily trout art that she describes as abstract but that I call “superb”.

 Take a look at her work…

Opening day is only 38 days away, it is the third day of Spring, and we are under a 6″ to 10″ snow advisory…love Northern Michigan!!

 February 25, 2011

 Dear Governor Snyder

I am a business owner in Northwest Michigan as well as an advocate of the environment. I tend to be politically conservative but with a Liberal bent. I hug trees, but also look at them as a renewable source of superb building material and, Biomass energy. I say this because I have no ulterior motive or hidden agenda, nor am I a lobbyist in any way for the energy industry.

I am writing to you about a simmering issue that brews larger every day, and one which if you haven’t already…will hear much more about in the near future.

The issue is “Hydraulic Fracturing” or more commonly referred to as “Fracking”. With the abundant known deposits of shale in this region, natural gas exploration is rapidly becoming a major economic force in our area, our state, and indeed within much of the continental United Sates. And rightly so. We all know that this energy source is vast, clean (and therefore good for the environment), economically smart, and most important…frees our dependence on foreign oil imports.

I have recently learned a great deal about the “fracking” process used to release gas deposits from shale. I have watched the documentaries on 60 Minutes, read the articles in the New York Times, and talked to individuals within the industry, as well as those who advocate for the environment. Neither side appears to be to far apart on the subject of safely injecting enormous amounts of water to levels between 7,500 and 10,000 feet deep, to extract natural gas.

Yesterday however, I was informed of radical fringe groups that have recently met and are in the process of forming coalitions to pressure lawmakers and ultimately, you Governor, to place a moratorium on further permits for use of this extraction method. They cite the recent motion by Governor Patterson of New York to impose a moratorium on this process in that state. What they do not cite are the sound and advanced regulations that are currently in place in Michigan, and that far exceed most other states, including New York. 

I commend the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council who have wisely declined to participate in this effort to impose a moratorium. I have sat at the same table with many of these coalition members who have opposed business and industrial efforts in the past, some that were just and others that were not. From these meetings, I have formed an opinion that these individuals have lost touch with the people of this region, a region that has suffered from significant job loss with the decline of the big two automakers. Antrim County unemployment hovers near 20%, homes are empty and in disrepair, and many citizens are in a state of economic despondence. Unlike my fellow environmental colleagues, many of whom have very comfortable incomes and retirement pension plans, I meet people every day in my business as a Real Estate Broker who are at the end of the economic road and are losing their homes and, in some cases, their very existence as a family.   

I am weary then, of those who advocate for the environment, but really mean “Not in my Back Yard”, at the expense of good, clean, and honest jobs that can be realized within the energy industry.

 I, along with many others in Northwest Michigan and indeed…the entire state, therefore ask that you seek sound council on this looming issue, and that you oppose this thoughtless move toward a Hydraulic Fracturing moratorium.

This weeks featured property is WHAT EVERYONE WANTS!! A full log Hiawatha home on 80 acres of rolling hills with hardwoods and evergreens. 3 bedrooms (1 non-conform), 2.5 baths, ceiling high fireplace, all T&G finish inside, hot-tub room off master, and wrap decking. Two pole bldgs., one has 4 drive thru doors with openers, and garden shed. Looks over stocked pond with hills behind. The Blue Ribbon Cedar river bisects part of property. Walkout lower level is newly finished. Kolbe Windows & doors. Minutes to Bellaire and Chain of Lakes, 8 golf courses, Shanty Creek! The home is about ten minutes to the Jordan River, 20 minutes to the Upper Manistee, 20 to the Rapid River, and approximately 25 minutes to the Upper Boardman! $449,900.