Beginning today, the business section of the Bangor Daily News will feature a new weekly real estate column by nationally syndicated writer Tom Kelly.

The column, “Gimme Shelter,” targets the living needs of both retired home-buyers and baby boomers moving up to a second home or investment property. It typically focuses on residential mortgage and tax options, providing consumer tips and helpful hints as well as explaining concepts and terms in a friendly, understandable style.

Kelly has been a professional journalist for 29 years, including 20 as real estate editor for The Seattle Times.

In the past few years, the 52-year-old has turned his focus to the home and loan needs of senior citizens and aging baby boomers, chronicling the sale of his parents’ home, his mother’s move to a condominium, and the trials and tribulations of owning a second home. That tiny getaway has helped with rental income, college tuitions, medical expenses and needed vacations.

Kelly also is host of an award-winning radio show, “Real Estate Today,” which recently began its seventh year on 710 KIRO-AM, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. The show now is aired in about 44 markets and is syndicated by Business Talk Radio. The program, which provides on-air advice to callers, can be heard from 11 a.m. to noon EST on Sundays live and on the Internet, and is tape-delayed by Armed Forces Radio to 450 stations in 149 countries around the world.

Kelly was president of the Santa Clara University Class of 1972, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English composition and was a three-year letterman in rugby. He and his wife, Jodi, an associate dean and professor at Seattle University, have four children and live on Bainbridge Island, Wash.