While several luxury homes listed on LuxuryPortfolio.com could be considered works of art in their own right, there is a singularly special property that was home to an icon of American painting.  This home located in the historic village of Galisteo, New Mexico served as the studio and retreat of famed artist Agnes Martin .  Ms. Martin studied art at Columbia University in New York and later at University of New Mexico.  Her work emphasizes subtle color, lines and grids that often show the touch of the artist’s hand with intended imperfections.  She created the adobe studio and rammed-earth home in the 1980s and lived and worked there for a decade.  The home has been updated and renovated, yet it still retains the original aesthetic and remains a representation of Agnes Martin’s unique artistic style. The property is listed by Santa Fe Realty Partners ; more details and photos can be found  here .

Continued here:
Famed Artist’s Former Home and Studio

Interest rates have dropped significantly today by .375%! The 30 Year fixed Conforming rate is now 5.875% so if you or your client missed it before, now may be the time. Act quickly since the usual trend of a large move like this can bounce back fairly quickly.

Recently, Rubloff’s Kate Santo hosted a seminar at the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Fall Workshop in Chicago on Sept 30-Oct. 1. Discussing topics from referral management to real trends in the real estate market today. Please click on the link for more information.

http://chicagoagentmagazine.com/news/index.asp?id=2160

by Mark Pullinger

In today’s New York Times, Adam Nagourney points out how the internet has changed political campaigns forever. The candidates have very effectively used the Internet like never before to win over voters, especially Barack Obama. Here is an excerpt:

“I think we’ll be analyzing this election for years as a seminal, transformative race,” said Mark McKinnon, a senior adviser to President Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004. “The year campaigns leveraged the Internet in ways never imagined. The year we went to warp speed. The year the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up instead of top down.”

To a considerable extent, Republicans and Democrats say, this is a result of the way that the Obama campaign sought to understand and harness the Internet (and other forms of so-called new media) to organize supporters and to reach voters who no longer rely primarily on information from newspapers and television. The platforms included YouTube, which did not exist in 2004, and the cellphone text messages that the campaign was sending out to supporters on Monday to remind them to vote.

“We did some very innovative things on the data side, and we did some Internet,” said Sara Taylor, who was the White House political director during Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign. “But only 40 percent of the country had broadband back then. You now have people who don’t have home telephones anymore. And Obama has done a tremendous job of waging a campaign through the new media challenge.

“I don’t know about you, but I see an Obama Internet ad every day. And I have for six months.”

As marketers we need to take a close look at the techniques used by the campaigns because it is the way of the future for reaching all kinds of demographic groups. The way that the candidates used social networking was very effective. As we move forward into the economic uncertainties of 2009, using Internet tools to differentiate ourselves will be the key to survival.

For the full article, go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04memo.html?th&emc=th

www.rubloff.com