October is such a fascinating month to watch and savor the harvest of so many locally grown crops. As I drive toward the sea down the winding roads leading to my office in Falmouth, MA where I list and sell Real Estate (www.peterhawley.com), round every corner I come upon fields littered with bright orange pumpkins, and I look specifically for the flooded bogs that let me know cranberry harvesting is soon to begin.

Cranberry production is a very large crop, grown successfully here on the Cape, it was once uniquely a Cape crop although now the fruit is also grown in New Jersey and Wisconsin and even in Oregon The first sign that the harvest will soon begin is when a bog (an area of soft marshy ground, where water is pumped in and out to keep it very wet), is flooded during the September and October harvesting season. When I see this I know that within days, I will see strange looking machines driving through the bog, with what appears to be "egg-beaters" in the front, that dislodge the berries from the vines, and let the fruit float to the surface.

The sight of millions of red ripe cranberries floating on the water, against the deep blue sky is a sight to behold and cherish. The cranberries are corralled by a boom and moved towards a huge vacuum hose through which they are pumped to waiting trucks, herded by people in bright yellow waders, making sure every berry is captured.

There is a sense of order and purpose when watching the harvest, which is not always the case with the real estate market, as the chaos in the financial markets, congressional wrangling, and fears of total economic collapse seem to be the leading headline, one sometimes does not know what they should do with their present and future investments.

But like the fall harvest, those seeds that were planted in the spring, and nurtured through the growing season, produce more successes than failures. Good sound investment in real estate will also produce more success than failures, if it is nurtured.  With the continued high inventory of property, and moderating prices, it is a good time to buy, and if you keep your property in good repair, you are attentive to the landscape; you also will harvest a profit when the time comes to sell.