What is your bacground and expertise as it relates to Montana retreats?

Growing up in Montana, it's the mid-1970s I had the opportunity to sell real estate and to be involved in big hunting ranches, and cattle ranches with my dad. And my dad's business as builder was very unique in that you got to see all kinds of different ranches and build log homes on these different ranches. And I got to see all of these ranches. So a very special opportunity for me in that, it lead to a unique understanding of the entire state of Montana.

The area is so diverse from one side of the state to the next: you've got high rocky mountains on the west and plains over in the east side of Montana. And I've lived and hunted in all of those areas. I have known ranchers; I've sold ranches and land throughout the entire state of Montana. And there are beautiful rivers, streams, lakes, world-renowned trout streams that run throughout Montana, and I know where those are at.

So that's the uniqueness of what I bring to the table as a real estate broker in Montana.

What's the most popular or highly recommended area?

It depends on what their preference is. If they're looking for big huge rocky mountains, I'm going to take them up into the Northwest corner of Montana, which is Kalispell, Whitefish. Kalispell is spelled with a K-A-L-I-S-P-E-L-L, and Whitefish is just like it sounds. It is one word.

The West Glacier area is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, is in that area. It's called Flathead Lake, and it's about 30 miles long and about 15 miles wide. And it's just absolute, beautiful, beautiful part of the country, world-renowned actually. Some of the biggest actors and movie stars live on the lake: Tom Cruise, etc. You know, Oprah Winfrey has a place there. I mean, just a very unique place.

If they're looking for more of kind of a low, rolling hills with some big mountains surrounding them, I'd take them kind of in the Missoula area. And that's spelled M-I-S-S-O-U-L-A. That's central Montana. You have the Blackfoot River which is a world-renowned blue ribbon trout stream. And you've got these various lakes around the area that are great fishing, and there's excellent hunting.

That's where the University of Montana is. And the next location, I would take similar to that is around in between Great Falls and Helena, the Missouri river runs between those two cities. And again, great fishing, beautiful country sides, built with custom homes, there's cattle ranches all over down in there. And then as we get further to the east, we run into Bozeman, Montana.

And that is where the Montana State University is and home to a lot of small breweries, big ranches. Ted Turner has a ranch over there, about 500, 000 acres, where "A River Runs Through It" was filmed over in Bozeman. And just again, great hunting country, you're very close to Yellowstone National Park over there. You have got Glacier National Park which is back up by Kalispell. And so there's a real diverse breath of landscape from one side of the state to the next, just really depends on what that person wants.

Summary

So the unique thing about Montana is that you've got a real diverse landscape from one side of the state to the next. And just by talking with an individual who's looking for a retreat in Montana, for just a couple minutes, I'll be able to tell them exactly where they should go and show them probably the place they've been looking for.