As some of you know I've been a real estate agent in the Boston Mass area for quite some time. But I have decided to move to Vermont and build a new business a bit farther north. So, I figured I'd start doing a series of posts as I progress through the phases of building my online presence in the world of Vermont real estate. From finding a untapped niche to building a new site..I will update you as I complete each step. Step 1: Join a company that supports my goals. So, I have made the decision to join EXP Realty. There are many reason that I felt EXP was the right choice for me but the first and most impoirtant was the low overhead costs and high commission splits. These two factors are important because I want to keep by startup funds for buuilding the business. Especially in the day... 01/16/2021

Thank you to Lake Champlain Chocolates for their free hot chocolate sampling day today between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attendees are treated to two ounce samples of four of their delicious hot chocolate flavors at their 750 Pine Street, Burlington location. As always, there are also many delicious chocolate samples on hand too!  Please join Great American Dream Realty in supporting our local businesses today, Small Business Saturday, and every day and in thanking Lake Champlain Chocolates for their generosity to the Burlington, Vermont community!  11/26/2016

One of my favorite things about living in the greater Burlington Vermont region is the ability to view an absolutely breathtaking sunset almost any evening of the year (except if it is overcast or raining). I am thankful every day for the natural beauty of our area. If you love sunsets as much as me, and would like to enjoy some sunsets of your own, please call Lisa Friedman of Great American Dream Realty and I will find you a Vermont lake home or home near enough to the lake so you can enjoy our sensational Vermont sunsets too! 11/21/2016

Home of the Week | 389 Riverside Avenue, BurlingtonAdorable and affordable Burlington Cape with beautiful hardwood floors and 3 spacious, sunny bedrooms, which is zoned both for commercial and residential use. This would make a great first home, small business or office. Enjoy the updated kitchen with gas stove plus dining area nearby. Two 1st floor bedrooms are ultra convenient or enjoy a little more privacy in the bedroom on the 2nd floor with attached den/storage area that makes the perfect walk-in closet. The basement offers laundry hook-ups and is ready for finishing touches with full size windows overlooking wooded area out back. Step outside to throw the ball for your dog in the fully fenced yard. Convenient location with the bike path out your front door and just a quick trip to... 09/09/2016

OKTOBERFEST VERMONT 2016 on Burlington's beautiful Waterfront Park on the shores of Lake Champlain is gearing up for the 2nd Annual festival on September 22-25. If you love BEER, GAMES, LI VE MUSIC and GERMAN FOOD then you don't want to miss this celebration. This  event will be a Bavarian themed festival and patrons will find many of the traditional aspects of being in Munich, Germany. Not to worry though, a Green Mountain spin will be placed upon it as well with many made in Vermont aspects.  This weekend-long festival will be a celebration of local food, authentic oompah music, tons of games and contests, local business sponsors, and of course beer! Over 40 brewers will be in attendance.  These include a great mix of famous local breweries, regional breweries, and of course many tra... 08/31/2016

The sixth annual GRAND POINT NORTH MUSIC FESTIVAL at Burlington VT's Waterfront Park September 17 & 18, 2016 is right around the corner. With the planned line up this much anticipated event will not disappoint. Grace Potter, Vermont's well known and loved rock musician will play full sets both nights. Grace Potter and The Nocturnals  have been entertaining since first forming their band in Waitsfield, VT in 2002.  They began their career as an indie band, self-producing their albums and touring extensively in the jam bands and music festivals circuit. In 2005 they signed for Hollywood Records; they have published four studio albums, encompassing rock subgenres such as blues rock, folk rock, hard rock, and alternative rock. Their third, self-titled album has been a major commercial succe... 08/23/2016

The Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center will be showing free movies to the public on Tuesday nights in May. While the event is free, they ask for donations to various local charities in lieu of the price of a movie ticket.Main Street Landing has a twenty five foot movie screen with Dolby Surround Sound. The theatre is in pristine like-new condition. The Skinny Pancake is located on the same block and would make a good choice to dine before the movie.The movie selections for this month include:May 3 - Rear Window (1954) - Alfred Hitchcock, James StewartMay 10 - Dog Day Afternoon (1979) - Al PacinoMay 17 - Duck Soup (1933) - Marx BrothersMay 24 - From Russia with Love (1963) - Sean ConneryMay 31 - My Own Private Idaho (1991) - River Phoeniz, Keanu ReevesThe theatre is located on th... 05/01/2016

Thank you to Lake Champlain Chocolates for their free ice cream day at their 750 Pine Street, Burlington location. They had ten flavors available for tasting. Everyone got a free cup or a cone. When I was there at 2:00, the line was thirty people long so I would say that the day was a success.  We would have hoped for a little bit warmer of a day four days before May, but then again we had snow two days ago. It is 'almost' ice cream weather. But is it ever NOT ice cream weather? Please help Great American Dream Realty to thank Lake Champlain Chocolates for their generosity to the Burlington, Vermont community! 04/28/2016

It was fun to watch the UVM Players on Saturday in their production of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' at Main Street Landing in Burlington. My favorite parts were Snoopy singing 'Suppertime' and Our Gang singing 'Happiness Is'. This brought back fond memories of when I was in this play in junior high school as part of Our Gang.Great American Dream Realty enjoys supporting Burlington students and the arts. 04/26/2016

UVM students will be performing in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Saturday April 23, 2016 at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center. Showtimes are 1:00 and 7:00. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for UVM students and children under 12. I am particularly interested in this musical because I played in it as part of 'our gang' when I was in junior high school.Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center is located at 60 Lake Street in Burlington, Vermont. Join Great American Dream Realty in supporting Burlington area arts! 04/20/2016

It was so wonderful to see 'Mary Poppins' at the Flynn Theare in Burlington yesterday.Lyric Theatre put on a such a lively production. My favorite part was when the chimney sweeps did 'Step in Time'. It was just bursting with energy! Of course, who can resist 'Let's Go Fly a Kite'. 'Chim Chim Cher-ee' and 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' are such classics. The play was so enjoyable. Great American Dream Realty enjoys supporting the local arts.  04/11/2016

Last night, I had the most wonderful time seeing the play, Dancing Lessons, at the Flynn Space. The play was directed by one of my former real estate clients, Cristina Alicea, and starred local actors Cael Barkman and Andrew Butterfield. I could not have enjoyed it more. Dancing Lessons has only two characters, a passionate professional dancer who suffered a career ending injury and her autistic neighbor with Aspbergers. The neighbor, who does not like to be touched, wanted to learn how to dance for an awards dinner he was being honored at, so he asked his depressed neighbor for lessons. The two became best friends and fell in love. It is a very sweet, heartwarming story and was full of comedy. I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud. They really did a wonderful job with the... 03/25/2016

I had the best seat in the house tonight as I weaseled my way onto the press table as the UVM Catamounts clipped the University of New Hampshire Wildcats in a 63-56 victory at the semifinals of the America East Playoffs. The Cats advance to the finals against Stonybrook in New York on Saturday. If they win, they will advance to the NCAA Championship Tournament which would be super exciting! Only 68 college teams get to participate in the tournament. Congratulations Catamounts! Go Cats Go!  03/07/2016

On Wednesday night, February 24th, Art's Riot will be holding an auction of Bernie Sanders art, memorabilia and related items with all proceeds going towards Bernie's campaign.      As for me, I may bid on this fun shirt.So Come one, Come all to Arts Riot this Wednesday at 7:00 to be part of the fun! Arts Riot is located at 400 Pine Street in Burlington, Vermont.  02/21/2016

On Saturday, February 6th Burlington, Vermont will participate in the 21st annual Penguin Plunge to support Special Olympics of Vermont. This Burlington event has become well known from its start in 1995 with only 15 participants to approximately 1,200 today. Jump into the icy waters of Lake Champlain to help support the 850+ Special Olympics athletes in Vermont. Donations will go towards providing the athletes with opportunities to participate in sports training and athletic competitions.  If you would like to participate in the Penguin Plunge, fundraising expectations are a $25 registration fee and a $150 fundraising minimum per participant.  This year, Special Olympics of Vermont already has $158,000 of pledges for this event with some individuals raising as much as $5,000 per person... 01/31/2016

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, yesterday I attended a speech by Malcolm X's daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz. She was the keynote speaker at the remembrance ceremony at the Unitarian Church in Burlington. Her speech was riveting. She spoke about how, as a community, to raise our children in a tone of love and acceptance to help create a better world. She also spoke about getting children involved early in some form of community service and how all children should have goals and be encouraged to be the best they can be. She spoke out strongly against hate crimes and reminded us that children are born with love in their hearts. They learn hate and hate is not natural.Ilyasah's father, Malcolm X, was murdered when she was a young child. Her mother raised her and her five sisters on her own. ... 01/18/2016

Tonight, I attended a wonderful Ethiopian and Enitrean dinner at North End Studios. The event was catered by Alganesh Michael and Mulu Tewelde who are from Eritrea, a small country next to Ethiopia. This dinner was part of the pop up dinner series which North End Studios is hosting in their dance studio monthly. This sold out event included an authentic dinner as well as a slide show teaching us about Ethiopian and Enitrean cuisine and culture.Our meal consisted of injera which is a sourdough flatbread which is used as a base layer underneath spicy stewed meats and vegetables to soak up the flavors. Diners tear off small pieces and use them to pick up the food. Other menu items (which I cannot define) were esiga watt, yemesser alicha, yemesser watt, gomen, and the berbere spice.We learn... 01/17/2016

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing the Joe Bonamassa band in concert at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington. The nine piece band put on a fantastic show! The cellist was outstanding. They had a dueling cello-guitar riff that lasted for two minutes that had the crowd in a standing ovation. There was another standing ovation when they played the Bette Midler song, The Rose, as their finale.Check out the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts web site for upcoming shows at The Flynn.Here are some photos from last night:Great American Dream Realty supports the arts and our community. If you would like to purchase a home in the greater Burlington area so that you can see more shows at The Flynn, contact Lisa Friedman at Great American Dream Realty. I would be happy to help! 01/16/2016

I would like to introduce the Burlington Word Press Meet Up group. This group was founded in June 2014 and has monthly meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 6:00-7:30 at Main Street Landing. Some longer more technical hands on weekend sessions are also planned.  If you would like to discuss/brainstorm/troubleshoot your web site with very intelligent people who can offer ideas/advice/solutions, this is the group to join. This nice group of people is generous with sharing their knowledge. Several interesting topics are planned as well as informal question and answer sessions. The meetings are sponsored by tech companies and are free to members with pizza and socializing afterwards. Newbies are welcome and encouraged.  01/13/2016

This is my entry into the Pay it Forward contest. On November 22, 2015 I participated in 'Cranksgiving' which was a bicycle scavenger hunt to purchase items for the Burlington food pantry. Sixty four of us collected 1,209 pounds of food, including 37 turkeys. This is a large increase compared to the inaugural event in 2008 which yielded 227 pounds and 2 turkeys. We averaged a donation of 18 pounds of food per person.At the beginning of the ride, we were all given a list of items to purchase at the nine locations on the route. The ride was a total of approximately twenty miles with stops at specific stores en route. At the end of the ride, we needed to show our receipts to prove that we hit all of the locations in the proper order.We carried food in backpacks, bike rack packs, paniers, b... 12/26/2015