In Alexandria north of Arrowwood Resort and big Lake Darling is Lake Louise which was named after the daughter of Charlie Cook who had settled in Alexandria in 1858. He had been a fur merchant in London and a member of the Hudson Bay Company. Mr. Cook was the first postmaster of Alexandria and after a few years moved to ...
Read More

This is a listing of one of my partners, Tom Wegner, and the following is how he has described this property: Lake Ida custom home built with elegance & quality craftsmanship! This home will impress you at first sight! Designed with 4 bedrooms and could easily be made into 6 bedrooms with a bonus room loft and a walk-out lower ...
Read More

Lucky. That is what I was when my parents decided to buy their first home in Alexandria at Lake Brophy back in the early 70's. A few years later they bought a home on the west side of downtown Alexandria and a cottage at Lake Le Homme Dieu. Next was a cottage at the south end of Lake Carlos. The ...
Read More

Remodeling Magazine each of the last thirty years has published a report called Cost vs. Value. Their objective is to pass on to the public uninfluenced information about what it will cost to have a professional complete a remodeling project and, based on opinions of real estate professionals, how much it will raise the home's value if it were to ...
Read More

Steps will get you more for your hard earned dollars at the lake. Yesterday I returned from a visit to Paris and the apartment I rented in the Marais district reminded me of this fact of lakefront life. The apartment I rented in the 4th arrondissement overlooked a square where there used to be a convent in the 13th century ...
Read More

Below are videos I recorded this past Wednesday. Straight from a memory card used in my drone, they are unedited and quite imperfect but they will give anyone interested in Alexandria, and specifically Lake Victoria and Lake Burgen, a look at the status of the ice at both lakes (as of Wednesday afternoon). I've been busy and hadn't gotten to ...
Read More

Each May when I move to the lake a heavy dose of nostalgia moves over me. And it persists throughout the summer as well as each time I visit a lake cottage or cabin throughout the year. This year when I move from my primary residence in Alexandria to the lake cottage will be no different. I will think of the past summer as ...
Read More

Have you viewed an episode of HGTV's popular program, Beachfront Bargain Hunt? If you haven't, here is the premise. People that are dreaming of living at the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico (correct me if I am wrong but I haven't seen an episode yet at another body of water) search for a waterfront home. The trouble is that ...
Read More

This video was recorded in the morning on December 3rd, 2016. It was a crisp, quiet morning in Alexandria and I made the mistake of not wearing gloves. It was getting painful so I had to cut my aerial visit short but did capture some decent video of the building and the north end of Broadway. When my quadcopter heads ...
Read More

Less than 48 hours before everyone in Alexandria, Minnesota was jarred back into reality with snow and ice I recorded a short trip around Little Darling. It is a counter clockwise trip beginning facing the properties along Casa Marina Road. If you look closely you can see Lake Alvin behind it. Big Darling is in the rear as the tour ...
Read More

Latoka Highlands is a fairly new development in Alexandria that is nearby Latoka Beach. Nice for everyone that lives there but especially for active kids as it can be reached by foot. It also is a short drive to downtown Alexandria and there is a bike lane all the way to downtown as well. Other benefits to the location besides ...
Read More

It has been a busy year in Alexandria's real estate market. Not crazy busy but similar to 2015. Quietly strong. This morning I was scrolling through my memory and recalling sales of homes, cabins and cottages at The Chain. In September, my age hit 48 and my memory took another hit. Continually, I am saved by Google or one of ...
Read More

Lakes in and around Alexandria are the obvious attraction to most people. Myself included. The area is chock full of really, really nice lakes. While they are equally beautiful in the winter, I spend the winter in town at my home on the west side of Alexandria. I grew up on the west side and have always appreciated its neatly ...
Read More

Lake Minnewashta in Carver County has some unwanted visitors. Zebra Mussels. But, there is some good news coming from Minnewashta and a joint partnership of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, Carver County and the Lake Minnewashta Preservation Association. They worked in coordination with Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources. A treatment that was applied to Minnewashta's Little Minnie Bay. The treatment ...
Read More

This is a question I and other REALTORS hear every year many times. The answer is "you don't know until you try". People that have listed real estate for sale shouldn't be underestimated, they are savvy than often is perceived. It is uncommon that a seller or their representation will be imprudent enough to answer the question. Most often, the ...
Read More

GIS is short for geographic information system. From Wikipedia: "In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.[2][3] Geographic information science ...
Read More

The Legacy of the Lakes Museum (formerly named Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum) in Alexandria has many exhibits that are enjoyable to visit again and again. One of them exhibits the Grand Hotels and Resorts that were in Alexandria. I took this photo of a brochure from Bedman's Beach Resort at Lake Ida. Ah, the days of $20 - 22 a ...
Read More

Iona Way is a street in Alexandria that has more than one nice feature. First off, the people that live in homes on Iona Way have frontage on one if the cleanest lakes in Douglas County, Lake Latoka (tip: keep an eye on homes for sale at Lake Latoka by visiting latoka.com). The homeowners also enjoy peace and quiet with ...
Read More