Check out this great article in the New York Times about Sunday River! 

 A terrific photo of our very own Julia Young with her daughter Charlotte on a Sunday River chairlift during Fall Festival weekend.  The photo was taken by Julia’s husband, Nick Lambert. 

RE/MAX In The Mountains recently had a Client Appreciation Raffle.  We randomly picked the following winners.  Congratulations!

Dirk MacKnight Framed Photograph to Patty VanBoskirk

$50 Gift Certificate to Rooster’s Roadhouse to Allie Burke and Jeremy Nellis

South Ridge Preferred Parking Pass to Rick and Tammy James

While the word “remax” has long ranked as the No. 2 search term for consumers seeking real estate information online, another phrase - “remax.com homes for sale” has given the network a second spot in the Top 10.

According to the September rankings by Internet traffic analysts Hitwise, “remax” trails only “realtor.com” in usage.  The phrase “remax.com homes for sale” finished at No. 10, just .01 percent from being No. 8.

In a separate Hitwise study, remax.com continues to rank among the industry’s Top 10 Web sites in terms of traffic.

The federal government created a $7,500 home ownership tax credit earlier this year as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 3221).  When you combine this credit with today’s low interest rates and the wide selection of competitively priced homes on the market, it really is a great time to buy a home!  Tax credits can be confusing; here are some facts to help you understand this one in particular.

1.  You have until July 2009 to make a purchase that qualifies. If you buy, or have bought, a home after April 9, 2008 you can take the credit on your 2008 tax return.  If you buy a home in the first half of 2009, you can take your credit on your 2009 return.

2.  You don’t really have to be “first-timers.” The tax credit is actually available to any individual or household that hasn’t owned a home for at least three years. 

3.  Even if you exceed the income limit, they can benefit from the credit.  The actual credit amount is set as a percentage of the home purchase amount.  That percentage amount is 10 percent up to a maximum $7,500.  If you make more than the income limit of $75,000 but don’t make more than $95,000 you can still take the credit but on a reduced basis.

4.  Think of it as an interest-free loan.  The federal government requires the tax credit to be paid back in small, 6.67 increments over 15 years, although repayment will be no more than $500 yearly and payments will not start until 2011.  For that reason, some analysts have likened the credit to a 15-year, interest-free loan to help make home buying affordable.

5.  You don’t have to be authorized before making a home purchase. 

6.  New-home construction qualifies.

Take time to research this tax credit or speak to your accountant for additional information.

Halloween is opening day!

For the second year running Sunday River will open for skiing and riding on Halloween, Friday, October 31, with free lift tickets for anyone in costume.

The Locke Mountain Triple will open at 10am with terrain open above the mid-station including Upper Sunday Punch and T2.   Lift tickets for anyone not in costume will be $25, and services will be out of Barker Mountain Lodge.  Sunday River will remain open through the weekend for skiing on Saturday and Sunday, then will be closed for the midweek period. 

If you’d like more information about Sunday River visit their website at www.sundayriver.com .

What is twitter you may be asking??  You may have heard about it on the nightly news and thought….why?  It’s fun! It’s informative! (sometimes)  It’s addictive! And it’s the newest and wildly popular social media on the internet!

Twitter is a way of sending short bits of information to your “followers”.  The messages are limited to 140 characters at a time, called a Tweet. You could call it a mini-blog.  In order to see someone’s tweets as they write them, you must join twitter.  It easy, free, and did I mention, addictive?  Once you’ve joined, you can search for contacts in your email accounts who may already be twittering or you can search by town, name or even interests.  To find RE/MAX In The Mountains, our address is www.twitter.com/remaxinthemtns .  Once you’ve found us, send us a message!  In order to tweet to one particular “person” you start your tweet with and @ followed by their name…for example….  @remaxinthemtns whats new on the market today?  When we log on to twitter we can click on the button “@replies” to see what people have said to us.

Once you’ve signed up and found some folks you’d like to follow, you then must answer the question….What are you doing?

 RITM plans to use twitter as a way to keep our followers informed of new listings, reduced prices and local events.  Plus we don’t want to be left out of this new craze!  You’re going to be surprised who you’ll find on Twitter!!  Check it out!

It was the most perfect weekend for Fall Festival and the crowds came out in full force.  The energy was positive as everyone looked forward to the upcoming winter season. Brokers were busy showing property and hosting open houses. 

This picture is taken during the North American Wife Carrying Championship at South Ridge Base Lodge.  The towers in the photo are for the new Chondola and you can see the beginning of the loading area on the right of the photo.

The Chondola at Sunday River is becoming closer to reality!  Check out this youtube video produced by Dave Pecunies at RSN. Incredible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsZX40UWjVo

Grab your wife and hurry to Sunday River to enter the Wife Carrying Competition on October 11th!  For more information on this event and the other fun activities happening throughout the weekend click on www.sundayriver.com .

RE/MAX has some terrific listings heading into the winter season. Click through our website to see what’s on the market.  It is also the perfect time to check out the waterfront listings still available. 

Stop in to say hello if you’re in the area.  Our office is located in the Norway Savings Bank building on the second floor. Look for Maxine, our snow woman, and she’ll point you in the right direction!