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    <title>Mary's Michigan Real Estate Blog</title>
    <link>http://activerain.com/blogs/kentcountyhome</link>
    <description>All things about and related to  Western Michigan</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/3725288/5-mistakes-first-time-home-buyers-make</guid>
      <title>5 Mistakes First Time Home-Buyers Make</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;Owning a home for the first time can be the happiest time of your life, and the most stressful if you don&amp;rsquo;t know what you are doing. &amp;nbsp;Here are the 5 biggest mistakes first time home buyers make that can also become very costly.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;1.Not knowing how much home you can afford is the biggest mistake most first time buyers make. &amp;nbsp; Before you even begin to search for homes, you should meet with a qualified lender to get pre-approved for a home so you know how much you are qualified for as well as how much your monthly payments will run you. &amp;nbsp;They can also help with budgeting all of your expenses.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;2.Owning a home can be expensive if you don&amp;rsquo;t know what to expect. &amp;nbsp;You are responsible for all of your utilities, upkeep and taxes. &amp;nbsp;In some neighborhoods there is also an annual home owner&amp;rsquo;s association fee. &amp;nbsp;Make sure to receive a list of utility bills from the seller to make your decision easier.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;3.Don&amp;rsquo;t assume your first offer on a home will be accepted. &amp;nbsp;A Lot of times, there is a lot of negotiating to be done in order to gain a common ground for both the seller and buyer. &amp;nbsp;This process can take some time so be patient and don&amp;rsquo;t get your hopes up too fast.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;4.Never let the seller see your true emotions about a house. &amp;nbsp;We all know it is hard not to get excited about a home you love but if you show the seller how much you love it, negotiating can be much tougher.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;5.Last but not least, find a good buyer&amp;rsquo;s agent. &amp;nbsp;A good, reputable buyer&amp;rsquo;s agent knows how to negotiate and make sure that these mistakes are not made. &amp;nbsp;They are a buffer between you and the seller and will get you the best price possible as well as make sure all of your &amp;ldquo;ducks are in a row&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="blog_post_h2" style="font-size: 14px;"&gt;&lt;img src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/8/3/3/7/8/ar13684640987338.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="300"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 09:44:43 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/3725288/5-mistakes-first-time-home-buyers-make</link>
    </item>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2209662/short-sale-route-for-sellers-4-grand-rapids-short-sales</guid>
      <title>Short Sale Route for Sellers 4 Grand Rapids Short Sales</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exploring the Short Sale from Start to Finish.&amp;nbsp;What sellers and buyers need to know&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Your home is now listed and active on the MLS. The agent has created a marketing plan and priced the home aggressively with in market value range. The offer and/or offers are coming&amp;nbsp;in, you sit down with your agent and pick the offer that works the best. From there you submit the package below to start the process the bank. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Offer with all signatures&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Buyer&amp;nbsp;Pre Approval Letter&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Copy of Buyer earnest check&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Buyer signed&amp;nbsp;Short Sale Disclosure&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Seller Short Sale Package (already complete)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Up to date financial Information from the seller&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HUD this is a form with all the numbers as related to the offer submitted&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Off the file goes:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once the lender has received all the information above they assign the file to a negociator. He or she&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;reviews all aspects of the file. All required paperwork must be complete without errors.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Come on...You need what?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the review process it's not uncommon for the negociator to make request for additional information from both the seller and buyer. In most cases we're asked to hurry up and produce the additional documents at lightning speed only to turn around and have the bank move at a snails pace. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the business and it's very important not &amp;nbsp;to&amp;nbsp;get worked up about the requests and just keep moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Broker Price Opinion or BPO:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In most instances, once all the information above has been reviewed by the negociator, they order an opinion of price.&amp;nbsp;They submit the opinion to the lender.&amp;nbsp;From there, typically the process from BPO is 6 weeks to 3 months of waiting while the Loss Mitigation&amp;nbsp;works &amp;nbsp;the file. You might wonder? What takes so long for the approval process to come? Most loss mitigators are working on hundreds, &amp;nbsp;if not more, &amp;nbsp;files at one time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hang on and why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Often buyers become so frustrated with the wait&amp;nbsp;they retreat. In most cases, if they only held on for a while longer the outcome could have been different. The benefit for the buyers to hang on is purchasing a great home at a very competitive price! It's very important for a good buyers agent to coach their buyer clients as to&amp;nbsp;exactly what they can expect in the short sale process. Buyers shouldn't&amp;nbsp;make any plans to move, and it's very important to have a back up plan. Once the short sale approval comes the clock starts for the buyer and his or her financing. Most buyer financing is FHA, this processing can take 45 days to complete.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Next in this series:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Short Sale Approval to Closing&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:39:26 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2209662/short-sale-route-for-sellers-4-grand-rapids-short-sales</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2136824/short-sale-route-for-sellers-3-grand-rapids-short-sales</guid>
      <title>Short Sale Route for Sellers 3 Grand Rapids Short Sales</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exploring the Short Sale from Start to Finish.&amp;nbsp;What sellers and buyers need to know&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Completion of the Short Sale Package:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The agent and&amp;nbsp;the seller work close to assemble the proper paper work (short sale package) these documents must be filled out truthfully and complete. If the banks receive anything that's&amp;nbsp;not complete they could ignore or move&amp;nbsp;the file to the bottom of the&amp;nbsp;Short&amp;nbsp;Sale&amp;nbsp;pile.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I cannot stress enough the importance of concise and complete information when filling out the Short Sale package.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Occupying the home:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While your house is listed as a Short Sale your bank will send someone out to check the occupancy of the home. If they find the house is vacant they can&amp;nbsp;Accelerate a foreclosure on the property. I suggest&amp;nbsp;to remain in the home until the sale is complete.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Utilities and HOA Dues&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When selling a home via the Short Sale process it's important keep utilities&amp;nbsp;in place. It's always better to show a home that has heat,&amp;nbsp;electricity and water.&amp;nbsp;The&amp;nbsp;home owners&amp;nbsp;responsibility is&amp;nbsp;to pay all bills associated with the property. As an example, if the water bill&amp;nbsp;or home owner association dues are not paid the home WILL NOT CLOSE. Banks will not pay these bills.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deficienc&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;y Judgments, 1099s, and Short Sales:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If&amp;nbsp;the lender moves forward and forecloses or allows a short sale you&amp;nbsp;only have a few options, they will write off the dept or issue a 1099-C (cancellation of Dept) OR they will choose to pursue a Deficiency Judgement. It's important the seller/s always consult their own attorney and/or accountant to review the possible ramifications of a short sale. Check out the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=179414,00.html" title="IRS"&gt;Mortgage Forgiveness Dept Relief Act aka, HR 3648&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Behind the scenes:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Your agent should set the best price to get the home sold. It's important not to&amp;nbsp;come in to high or low and attempt to hit the sweet spot with the listing price.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Contact your bank and obtain an overview of their processes, correct contact numbers ect. Complete&amp;nbsp;all the paperwork, take photos and implement the marketing plan.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Receive and process all inquiries on the house. Set up showings, communicate with bank and seller&amp;nbsp;all activity with listing. Review the pricing each month and implement a reduction if the home is getting no activity.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:23:41 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2136824/short-sale-route-for-sellers-3-grand-rapids-short-sales</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2072185/short-sale-route-for-sellers-2-grand-rapids-short-sale</guid>
      <title>Short Sale Route for Sellers 2 Grand Rapids Short Sale</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exploring the Short Sale from Start to Finish.&amp;nbsp;What sellers and buyers need to know&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So you've&amp;nbsp;consulted with your&amp;nbsp;lender and possibly a non-profit home counselor and decided you want to proceed with the short sale. Where do you start?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1-Meet with a &lt;a href="http://www.realtorsfr.org/faqs.html" title="SFR"&gt;certified SFR real estate agent&lt;/a&gt;. They can assist with all questions related to the processes of the Short Sale. Ask the agent how many Short Sale transactions they processed last year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. The agent should ask questions to make sure you would qualify for a possible Short Sale on your home. These types of transactions take dedication and patience&amp;nbsp;from both the sellers and real estate agents.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3 All lenders require&amp;nbsp;a short sale package to be assembled that includes current financials, hardship letter, letter of authorization&amp;nbsp;and W2's to name a few. Again, your agent can assist you with this process.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4.&amp;nbsp; The Letter of Authorization gives your&amp;nbsp;agent permission to talk to your bank and see exactly what needs to be done to get the ball rolling. Under the &lt;a href="http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/hafa.html" title="HAFA" target="_self"&gt;HAFA program &lt;/a&gt;some sellers could qualify for assistance with moving expenses ect..all lenders are different, they only way to know for sure &amp;nbsp;is to communicate with the bank.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;5-Depending on your banks processes they could recommend you get the house listed and bring an offer first before anything else can be done or they order and estimate of value and share with the seller and agent what price they might be willing to except for the home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch for my next&amp;nbsp;blog. I'll explore what happens next in the Short Sale Route for Sellers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:24:11 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/2072185/short-sale-route-for-sellers-2-grand-rapids-short-sale</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1984173/short-sale-route-for-sellers-grand-rapids-short-sale</guid>
      <title>Short Sale Route for Sellers Grand Rapids Short Sale</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exploring the Short Sale from Start to Finish.&amp;nbsp;What sellers and buyers need to know&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Considering a short sale and not sure where to start? &lt;/strong&gt;You should speak to a &lt;a href="http://www.homerepairservices.org/financialcounseling" title="Home Repair Service Grand Rapids MI" target="_blank"&gt;non profit home counselor&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;or a trusted real estate professional that has&amp;nbsp;earned the National Association&amp;nbsp;of&lt;a href="http://www.realtorsfr.org/aboutsfr.html" title="Short Sale and Foreclosure Certification" target="_blank"&gt; REALTORS SFR Certification&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Look&amp;nbsp;out for the following:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Beware of any person or organization that asks you to pay a fee in exchange for housing counseling services or modification of a delinquent loan. &lt;em&gt;Do not pay - walk away!&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Beware of anyone who says they can "save" your home if you sign or transfer over the deed to your house. Do not sign over the deed to your property to any organization or individual unless you are working directly with your mortgage company to forgive your debt.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Never submit your mortgage payments to anyone other than your mortgage company without their approval&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You would only want to consider a short sale if you know for certain you cannot afford your home and you see that foreclosure could happen if you don't do something. It's much better to have a short sale on your&amp;nbsp;credit than a full blown foreclosure. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Short Sale and Foreclosure" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/3/3/6/7/2/ar129048761727633.jpg" height="255" alt="Short Sale Logo" width="300" style="vertical-align: bottom;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:43:41 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1984173/short-sale-route-for-sellers-grand-rapids-short-sale</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1978200/abestos-in-the-home</guid>
      <title>Abestos in The Home</title>
      <description>&lt;a href="http://www.asbestos.com/images/asbestos_house_diagram.gif"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.asbestos.com/images/asbestos_house_diagram.gif" border="0" alt="" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 428px; height: 470px;"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
Purchasing a home can be filled with excitement and anticipation for homeowners. It can also be a time where additional responsibilities are acquired. Having the assistance of a reliable and honest agent will make all the difference in when buying a home. One of the many things that can go unnoticed is taking precautions against obsolete and toxic building materials which may still be present in homes.
Citizens of Grand Rapids are pushing for continued use of new green, eco-friendly technologies. Green construction brings together many techniques which aim to reduce or eliminate the impacts in which physical structures have on the environment and health, especially when remodeling or re mediating older homes.
&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Asbestos&lt;/span&gt;
Used throughout the 20th century to insulate pipes, boilers and in roofing, asbestos gained recognition due to its resistance to heat and electrical conductivity. Homes built before 1980 should be aware that older homes may still harbor asbestos materials. In most situations, asbestos appears in roof shingles, dry wall, attic insulation, popcorn ceilings, joint compounds and electrical wires.
If asbestos is located, it must be left un-touched until a professional can provide a course of action. In many situations, the best action is no action. Asbestos that is disturbed or damaged due to age is known as &amp;ldquo;friable&amp;rdquo; asbestos. This is a concern because its toxic fibers can easily circulate and become inhaled. If asbestos removal is recommended, it should be performed by a licensed abatement contractor who is trained in handling asbestos materials. They must wear protective equipment such as masks and gloves to avoid any exposure.
Asbestos fibers are thin and strong, and when inhaled frequently, an individual can develop  &lt;a href="http://www.asbestos.com/"&gt;mesothelioma&lt;/a&gt;, a rare but severe lung ailment caused by asbestos exposure.  Symptoms may not show up from 20 to 50 years after exposure. Manufacturers of asbestos obtained medical evidence of its corrosive qualities but continued shipping the substance anyways, leaving workers and homeowners exposed on a frequent basis. Thousands have fought this by attempting to receive &lt;a href="http://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma-lawyer/compensation.php"&gt;mesothelioma compensation&lt;/a&gt; for their wrongful illness.
Green building is the consequence of a design that will increase energy efficiency, water and have a direct impact on your health and the environment. Implementing green methods of building can have positive environmental, health and economic benefits. These include: Conservation of natural resources, enhancement of air quality, energy sustainability, increase property value, improve quality of life, improvement of pulmonary/cardiac health and reduction of waste.
Green options such as cotton fiber, cellulose and lcynene should be given consideration as replacements to asbestos. Cotton fiber is quickly becoming a favorite for home builders and renovators. Made from recycled batted material, it is also treated to be fireproof.  Research has demonstrated that the use of Eco-friendly insulation alternatives can reduce annual energy costs by 25 percent. &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:07:11 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1978200/abestos-in-the-home</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1977089/grand-rapids-neighborhood-s-heritage-hill</guid>
      <title>Grand Rapids Neighborhood's | Heritage Hill</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Heritage Hill is one of the largest urban historic districts in the country. It was the first "neighborhood" of Grand Rapids and is adjacent to downtown.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Its 1,300 homes date from 1848 and represent over 60 architectural styles. These were the homes of lumber barons, teachers, judges, and legislators who shaped our city's future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Today, the population is equally diverse. Professionals, trades people, artisans and students; singles, couples and families, renters and homeowners; people of all colors, backgrounds and incomes make Heritage Hill home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.marykenthomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Map-HH.jpg"&gt;&lt;img title="Map-HH" src="http://www.marykenthomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Map-HH-300x300.jpg" height="300" alt="" width="300"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:29:26 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1977089/grand-rapids-neighborhood-s-heritage-hill</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1118961/lake-michigan-summer-2009</guid>
      <title>Lake Michigan Summer 2009</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Rosy Mound" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/3/5/8/2/1/ar12452875412853.jpg" height="600" alt="Rosy Mound" width="800"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This photo is the property of &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent, Five Star Real Estate 1545 68th Street Suite 201, Grand Rapids MI 49508 &lt;/strong&gt;and can not be duplicated without permission.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:31:28 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1118961/lake-michigan-summer-2009</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1078999/what-s-your-favorite-place-</guid>
      <title>What's your favorite place? </title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I find myself glancing at the cities you all are from and thinking... uhhmmm... what's your neck of the woods like? (sorry Mr. Al Roker!)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So hey...I'll go first!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My favorite place....drum roll.....&lt;a href="http://grandhaven.org/" title="Grand Haven Official City Website" target="_blank"&gt;GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN&lt;/a&gt; is a&amp;nbsp;wonderfully inviting beach town known as &lt;em&gt;Coast Guard City, USA.&lt;/em&gt; It includes a host of beautiful classic cottages up the winding hills with majestic views of Lake Michigan. My Mom tells story's about the fun she had at party's on the hill in the mid 1950's.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You will find tranquil&amp;nbsp;beaches, trolleys, shops, restaurants, boardwalk, boats and fun galore!&amp;nbsp;So come visit and enjoy the history and sites&amp;nbsp;of my Grand Haven!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Grand Haven" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/4/2/0/5/8/ar124250706285024.jpg" height="375" alt="Grand Haven" width="500" style="vertical-align: text-bottom;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 16 May 2009 16:08:04 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1078999/what-s-your-favorite-place-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1065853/wordless-wednesday-harrison-is-my-name-and-being-a-pup-is-my-game-</guid>
      <title>Wordless Wednesday~Harrison is my name and being a pup is my game~</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Harrison" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/5/8/6/3/ar124164854036855.jpg" height="600" alt="Harrison" width="800"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 06 May 2009 17:31:17 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1065853/wordless-wednesday-harrison-is-my-name-and-being-a-pup-is-my-game-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1065470/spring-and-summer-in-grand-haven-michigan</guid>
      <title>Spring and Summer in Grand Haven Michigan</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If your like me you're wondering how to keep your school age children busy this summer&lt;/strong&gt;! My family and I love the &lt;a href="http://www.visitgrandhaven.com/" title="Grand Haven" target="_blank"&gt;Grand Haven&lt;/a&gt; area and spend a good part of our spring and summer in our own little piece of paradise! &lt;em&gt;In the upcoming months I'll be blogging about all things Grand Haven!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Mary's May&amp;nbsp;pick for family fun~&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Visit Grand Haven State Park for the &lt;a href="http://www.visitgrandhaven.com/" title="Kite Festival" target="_blank"&gt;GREAT LAKES KITE FESTIVAL&lt;/a&gt; the weekend of &lt;strong&gt;May 15th-17th 2009&lt;/strong&gt;. This is a &lt;img title="Kite" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/7/0/9/2/6/ar124164333862907.jpg" height="300" alt="Kite " width="400" style="float: right;"&gt;spectacular cause&amp;nbsp;to benefit the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan. This event is also sponsored by &lt;a href="http://mackite.com/" title="mackite" target="_blank"&gt;Mackinaw Kite and Toys in Grand Haven, Michigan. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Check out the &lt;a href="http://www.mackite.com/glskc.htm" title="Schedule of events" target="_blank"&gt;SCHEDULE OF EVENTS&lt;/a&gt; for the Kite Festival, it's full of fun for the whole family! For walkers out there&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.leukemiamichigan.org/HowToHelp_SpecialEvents_051609.asp" title="Leukema Foundation" target="_blank"&gt;The Children's Leukemia Foundation&lt;/a&gt; has a walk scheduled for May 15 that will&amp;nbsp; wind its way from Grand Haven State Park through the downtown business district and back to the park for lunch and the Great Lakes Kite Festival. &lt;a href="http://www.leukemiamichigan.org/HowToHelp_SpecialEvents_051609.asp" title="Leukema Foundation Walk" target="_blank"&gt;SIGN UP FOR THE WALK HERE&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Grand Haven or Ottawa County call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt; agent with &lt;em&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://ottawacountyhome.com/"&gt;http://ottawacountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 06 May 2009 16:21:38 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1065470/spring-and-summer-in-grand-haven-michigan</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1008671/wise-sustainability-and-networking-in-grand-rapids-michigan</guid>
      <title>WISE Sustainability and Networking in Grand Rapids Michigan</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;img title="Wise" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/6/9/4/9/4/ar123859387449496.gif" height="51" alt="Wise" width="120" style="float: left;"&gt;Last&amp;nbsp;week I had the pleasure of attending an event on sustainability&lt;/strong&gt; through &lt;a href="http://wiseconnections.org/" title="Wise" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;WISE (Women In Successful Enterprises).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; This more than green presentation, was&amp;nbsp;graciously hosted by &lt;em&gt;Kelley Losey&lt;/em&gt; at &lt;a href="http://www.cascadeng.com/quest/index.htm" title="Cascade Engineering Quest Sustainablilty " target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cascade Engineering's, Quest Sustainable Solutions Division.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All attendees watched and listened with interest as Kelley navigated us through sustainability and it's &lt;img title="Cascade" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/2/5/5/6/5/ar123859394956552.jpg" height="62" alt="Cascade" width="180" style="float: right;"&gt;importance from a business and personal standpoint.&lt;/strong&gt; We were asked to participate as a group and define&amp;nbsp; sustainability and&amp;nbsp;take our carbon footprint. We also viewed a short video called &lt;a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+world+population&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;emb=0&amp;amp;aq=f#" title="World Population" target="_blank"&gt;THE WORLD POPULATION&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;this&amp;nbsp;was eye opening to say the&amp;nbsp;least!&amp;nbsp;I personally walked away with a better understanding of how my personal choices will affect our future generations. Our family&amp;nbsp;has made some changes over the years with fluorescent light bulbs, turning off lights and recycling. After the presentation I realized we&amp;nbsp; need to do more!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="schmohz" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/9/9/5/0/1/ar123837888010599.jpg" height="102" alt="schmohz" width="180" style="float: left;"&gt;We continued onto the &lt;a href="http://www.schmohz.com/beer.html" title="schmohz" target="_blank"&gt;SCHMOHZ BREWERY&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;after the workshop&amp;nbsp;to taste&amp;nbsp;the offerings in micro brewed&amp;nbsp;beer&amp;nbsp;and root beer. The tour was very interesting! I selected the Valley City Cream Ale, it was so good that I'm temped to go back soon! Schmohz&amp;nbsp;was a&amp;nbsp;relaxing no fuss kind of place with a staff that made us feel very welcome!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WISE unites the skills, knowledge and resources of established women-owned companies&lt;/strong&gt;. Find out more about future WISE events, including the upcoming &lt;a href="http://wiseconnections.org/events.php" title="Leadership Conference" target="_blank"&gt;Leadership Institute for Women on May 21, 2009. Held at the Davenport University, Grand Rapids Campus.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:26:31 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1008671/wise-sustainability-and-networking-in-grand-rapids-michigan</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1005421/relocating-to-hudsonville-michigan-check-out-my-top-picks-</guid>
      <title>Relocating to Hudsonville Michigan? Check out my top picks!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Relocating to the Hudsonville MI area&lt;/strong&gt;? Would you like to&amp;nbsp;know more about&amp;nbsp;this wonderful community? Take it from a "local" we have awesome schools with great&amp;nbsp;parent involvement! Several flourishing businesses&amp;nbsp;and parks, parks and more parks! All located&amp;nbsp;with in 20 to 25 minute drive to the&amp;nbsp;&lt;img src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/6/6/7/0/5/ar123817873950766.jpg" height="190" alt="" width="270" style="float: right;"&gt;lake-shore to the west, and downtown Grand Rapids to&amp;nbsp;the east,&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;just a hop, skip, jump away from &lt;a href="http://www.rivertowncrossings.com/html/index2.asp" title="Rivertown" target="_blank"&gt;Rivertown Crossings Mall. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did I mention our community has&amp;nbsp;plenty of &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.michigantrails.us/ottawa-county-michigan/ottawa-county-michigan-trails.html" title="Ottawa County Parks" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;PARKS AND BIKE TRAILS&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;? (Oh yeah, I guess I did)&amp;nbsp;Check out Holland/Zeeland, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.miottawa.org/ParksVI/Parks/images/KP3.JPG&amp;amp;imgrefurl=http://www.miottawa.org/ParksVI/Parks/kirk.htm&amp;amp;usg=__pJtDDAoKStrEbYvDN03Dy5ArESo=&amp;amp;h=238&amp;amp;w=340&amp;amp;sz=24&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;start=12&amp;amp;tbnid=UsAT8taMbNb6aM:&amp;amp;tbnh=83&amp;amp;tbnw=119&amp;amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkirk%2Bpark%2Bin%2Bottawa%2Bcounty%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG" title="Kirk Park" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;KIRK PARK&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and Pigeon Creek&lt;/em&gt; all about 25 minute drive from Hudsonville. My family loves Kirk Park, we often take the bike trail with our back packs and after our ride we head to the beach. So nice not transporting all the beach stuff!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If your looking to move into the &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudsonville,_Michigan" title="Hudsonville" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hudsonville&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; area check out my top picks&amp;nbsp;in the price range of &amp;nbsp;150's to 180's. &lt;/strong&gt;Some of these are located in the "forest" with plenty of trees and large lots. On any given day you can see people out&amp;nbsp;walking with kids, dogs or both.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hudsonville Top Picks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3255 Meadow Glenn Drive $154,900 (TFLA 2,350) 4 Bed 2 1/2 Bath &lt;em&gt;Listed by Towne Square Real Estate &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4117 Blair St $159,900 (TFLA 2,467) 5 Bed 2 1/2 Bath &lt;em&gt;Listed by Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;6624 Crown Point Drive $160,000 (TFLA 2,212) 3 Bed 2 1/2 Bath &lt;em&gt;Listed by Towne Squarte Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;6847 Gettysburg Drive $174,900 (TFLA 2,222) 4 Bed 2&amp;nbsp;Bath&lt;em&gt; Listed by Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4393 Chateau West Drive 189,900&amp;nbsp;(TFLA 2,391) 3 Bed 3 Bath &lt;em&gt;Listed by Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To find out more about these listings or Hudsonville, Michigan &lt;strong&gt;contact me anytime @616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; ask&amp;nbsp;about the $8,000 home buyer incentive!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:39:21 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/1005421/relocating-to-hudsonville-michigan-check-out-my-top-picks-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/997340/do-we-have-enough-time-my-short-sale-saga-</guid>
      <title>Do we have enough time? My Short Sale Saga~</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I ask myself? Could it be? On Saturday the sellers agent on a SS where I represent the buyer called me and said she just received a call from Countrywide&lt;/strong&gt; (they work on Sat hmmm?) go figure! We've been waiting for something, anything since the offer was written on Dec 8th, 2008. They are NOW escalating the file. &lt;em&gt;I'm so tempted&amp;nbsp;to break out in&amp;nbsp;my "happy dance" but&amp;nbsp;I know&amp;nbsp;better, and will choose to wait until we get to close! Oh...wait..maybe I'll just do a toned down version of my happy dance in honor of the word ESCALATING!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The redemption period is up on May 7th. My client has been a trouper and since we've come this far why bail now. &lt;strong&gt;I'm interested to know, how many agents here have closed SS that involved Countrywide? Also, do you see any improvement lately? &lt;img title="Time" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/0/4/4/5/ar123781408454405.jpg" height="277" alt="Time" width="267" style="float: right;"&gt;Do we have enough time?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Greater Grand Rapids, MI including&amp;nbsp;Kent and Ottawa counties, call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt; agent with &lt;em&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://ottawacountyhome.com/"&gt;http://kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:43:22 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/997340/do-we-have-enough-time-my-short-sale-saga-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/948546/face-to-face-connections-</guid>
      <title>Face to Face Connections~</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I'm a firm believer in face to face networking&lt;/strong&gt;. Back in November I stumbled onto this website called &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/" title="Meet up" target="_blank"&gt;Meet up.com.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;This site allows for groups in local areas to meet&amp;nbsp;up and make face to face connections&lt;/em&gt;. I had an idea several months back&amp;nbsp;that would&lt;em&gt; incorporate networking, exercise and giving back to the community&lt;/em&gt;. So imagine my surprise to find meetup!&amp;nbsp;So, I went with my idea and gave it a go!&lt;img title="Tennis" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/9/1/1/7/2/ar123708487427119.jpg" height="234" alt="Tennis" width="350" style="float: right;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;I have and still am&amp;nbsp;involved in some awesome networking opportunities&amp;nbsp;that are held in restaurants and other locations but really felt the need get away from food and&amp;nbsp;feel the fresh air hitting my face.&amp;nbsp;The &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Western-Michigan-Walk-N-Talk-Networking-Group/" title="WM Walk N Talk" target="_blank"&gt;WEST MICHIGAN WALK N TALK NETWORKING GROUP&lt;/a&gt; was born in December, while we've been growing at a slow pace, I am&amp;nbsp;hopeful with the brutal MI weather behind us, we will attract more members!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;West Michigan Walk N&amp;nbsp;Talk Networking Group meets once a month and our next walk will be&amp;nbsp;held April 14Th from 12-1pm around &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Grand_Rapids" title="Reeds Lake" target="_blank"&gt;Reeds Lake&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;To find&amp;nbsp;out more&amp;nbsp;or to join, check us out at &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Western-Michigan-Walk-N-Talk-Networking-Group/" title="WM Walk N Talk" target="_blank"&gt;West MI Walk N Talk!&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I believe if we can somehow find a balance of both face to face and online connections&amp;nbsp;our business can only flourish! So, hat's off to all that are trying to achieve that balance with all the other balancing we have to do!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Greater Grand Rapids, MI including&amp;nbsp;Kent and Ottawa counties, call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt; agent with &lt;em&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://ottawacountyhome.com/"&gt;http://kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:56:01 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/948546/face-to-face-connections-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/953076/brrrrrrrrrrrrsnow-</guid>
      <title>BrrrrrrrrrrrrSNOW!!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Snow" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/6/1/3/4/4/ar123558867944316.jpg" height="582" alt="Snow" width="800"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Greater Grand Rapids, MI including&amp;nbsp;Kent and Ottawa counties, call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt; agent with &lt;em&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://ottawacountyhome.com"&gt;http://ottawacountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:14:32 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/953076/brrrrrrrrrrrrsnow-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/942768/affordable-winter-things-to-do-in-the-greater-grand-rapids-michigan</guid>
      <title>Affordable Winter things to do in the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The greater Grand Rapids area always has something happening&lt;/strong&gt;. During the spring and summer you will find all sorts of people taking advantage of one of the finest county owned golf courses, "&lt;em&gt;Palmer" (as the local golf folks call it)&lt;/em&gt; attracts all sorts of people because of its perfectly manicured links and friendly professional staff. (It's one of my husband's favorite places to play)I often over hear him talking to one of his golf buddies about what course they plan on playing that given week.&lt;a href="http://www.accesskent.com/CultureLeisureAndTransit/Parks/golf.htm" title="Link to Kaufman" target="_blank"&gt; L.E. KAUFMAN, AKA&amp;nbsp;"PALMER"&lt;/a&gt; is in&amp;nbsp;constant rotation of 4 courses played regularly by him and his friends.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img title="Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/3/9/8/6/1/ar123514939616893.jpg" height="225" alt="Sign" width="300" style="float: right;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;During the winter months L.E. Kauffman turns the&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;golf course into a winter wonderland of well groomed&amp;nbsp;cross country ski trails&lt;/strong&gt;. They rent equipment for $8.oo, that allows you access to all trails or bring your own ski's and pay only $1.00. So much beauty to explore and great exercise too!&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="padding-left: 90px;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;My friend and I recently visited "Palmer". &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;It had been several years since doing the cross country ski &lt;img title="Glade" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/4/6/2/8/ar12351502882645.jpg" height="225" alt="Glade" width="300" style="float: right;"&gt;thing. &lt;em&gt;(I am a down hill skier of limited and cautious ability&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;) &lt;/strong&gt;My brother often&amp;nbsp;refers to me, when on the top of a ski slope, as the&lt;a href="http://www.nps.gov/stli/" title="Statue of Liberty" target="_blank"&gt; Statue of Liberty&lt;/a&gt; because I stand frozen forever just trying to muster the courage to make my way down the hill.&amp;nbsp;What he doesn't know, is that I'm making sure everyone is out of my way!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On this day, the sun was as bright as can be&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/glistening-snow-arlene-babad.html" title="Glistening show" target="_blank"&gt;snow glistened&lt;/a&gt;. Making our way through the trails was peaceful and strenuous at the same time.&lt;em&gt; I was able to visit with a dear friend and catch up after several years of losing touch.&lt;/em&gt; All and all it was a wonderful day of exploring a beautiful winter day in &lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/" title="Wedsite" target="_blank"&gt;Western Michigan&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;img title="Palmer" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/8/2/4/8/8/ar123515110388428.jpg" height="225" alt="Palmer" width="300" style="float: right;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Greater Grand Rapids, MI, including&amp;nbsp;Kent and Ottawa counties, call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:42:26 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/942768/affordable-winter-things-to-do-in-the-greater-grand-rapids-michigan</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/941599/wordless-wednesday-silence</guid>
      <title>Wordless Wednesday~Silence</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img title="Ford Funeral Missing Man " src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/6/4/0/7/5/ar123501410457046.jpg" height="600" alt="Ford Funeral Missing Man" width="800"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;If you're looking for a dedicated professional real estate agent in Greater Grand Rapids, MI including&amp;nbsp;Kent and Ottawa counties, call &lt;strong&gt;Mary Kent,&lt;/strong&gt; agent with &lt;em&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;@ &lt;strong&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/strong&gt; or visit &lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:42:38 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/941599/wordless-wednesday-silence</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/936744/pending-sales-in-hudsonville-and-jenison-mi-2009</guid>
      <title>Pending Sales in Hudsonville and Jenison MI 2009</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sale Pending" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/3/7/0/3/3/ar123462546233073.png" height="36" alt="Sale Pending" width="300"&gt;&lt;img title="Mega phone guy" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/2/8/1/9/ar123462554891825.gif" height="53" alt="Mega phone guy" width="82"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Have you heard the NEWS? Sales are happening! &lt;/strong&gt;Western Michigan has a renewed hope for a very successful spring market. So start &lt;a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1473030n" title="CBS Sprucing" target="_blank"&gt;SPRUCING&lt;/a&gt; your home today and don't miss the boat on making your next move!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Homes are selling! See the statistics below for homes&amp;nbsp;recorded as &lt;strong&gt;PENDING&amp;nbsp;between 1-1-09 through 2-13-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Broken down by school districts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://michigan.hometownlocator.com/mi/ottawa/hudsonville.cfm" title="Hudsonville MI info" target="_blank"&gt;Hudsonville&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 69,900-299,900 (35) total PENDING sales&amp;nbsp;year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jenison.com/index.html" title="Jenison Chamber" target="_blank"&gt;Jenison&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 64,900-185,000 (20) total PENDING sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If your interested in the sales activity in your area or ideas&amp;nbsp;on how to spruce your home to get it ready to sell&amp;nbsp;call or email me anytime for all things "Real Estate" related in Kent and Ottawa counties!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:mkent@kentcountyhome.com"&gt;mkent@kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ottawacountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.ottawacountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:32:40 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/936744/pending-sales-in-hudsonville-and-jenison-mi-2009</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928736/sold-east-grand-rapids-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold East Grand Rapids MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;East Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 42,000-975,000 (10) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Forest Hills&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 76,000-900,000 (32) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/7/5/1/5/9/ar123438681495157.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:17:08 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928736/sold-east-grand-rapids-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928712/sold-forest-hills-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold Forest Hills MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Forest Hills&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 76,000-900,000 (32) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;East Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 42,000-975,000 (10) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/9/5/3/4/3/ar123438590634359.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:03:27 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928712/sold-forest-hills-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928638/sold-byron-center-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold Byron Center MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Byron Center&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 25,000-312,000 (8) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wyoming&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 24,500-175,000 (28) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kentwood&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 15,000-171,000 (35) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/2/1/8/5/2/ar123438370225812.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:26:32 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928638/sold-byron-center-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928619/sold-wyoming-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold Wyoming MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wyoming~&lt;/strong&gt;Priced from 24,500-175,000 (28) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kentwood&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 15,000-171,000 (35) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Byron Center&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 25,000-312,000 (8) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/8/1/4/6/5/ar123438308856418.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:15:41 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928619/sold-wyoming-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928604/sold-kentwood-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold Kentwood MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kentwood&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 15,000-171,000 (35) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wyoming&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 24,500-175,000 (28) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Byron Center&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 25,000-312,000 (8) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com/"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/7/5/3/1/ar123438255513575.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:06:43 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928604/sold-kentwood-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928587/sold-grand-rapids-mi-homes-year-to-date</guid>
      <title>Sold Grand Rapids MI Homes Year to Date</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homes are selling!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See the statistics below for homes sold and closed between 1-1-09 through 2-11-09.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Broken down by school districts:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grand Rapids&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 4,000-375,000 (146) total sales year to date&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kentwood&lt;/strong&gt;~&amp;nbsp;Priced from 15,000-171,000 (35) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wyoming&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 24,500-175,000 (28) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Byron Center&lt;/strong&gt;~Priced from 25,000-312,000 (8) total sales year to date&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call or email me anytime to see how you can get your very own&amp;nbsp;SOLD sign!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mary Kent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;616-915-3987&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kentcountyhome.com"&gt;http://www.kentcountyhome.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img title="Sold Sign" src="http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/4/5/7/1/ar123438180917545.jpg" height="235" alt="Sold Sign" width="300"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;div class="agent_signature"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mary Kent&lt;br&gt;Five Star Real Estate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Mary Kent | Grand Rapids to the Lake Shore (Five Star Real Estate )</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:54:40 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/928587/sold-grand-rapids-mi-homes-year-to-date</link>
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