How to Feng Shui the Bedroom - Colors and Object Placement

How to Feng Shui the Bedroom - Colors and Object Placement

Holiday Tips for Homeowners & Sellers

Sunday, November 6, 2011 Buyers are buying homes during the holidays! The calendar says November and that the holidays are here again the first snow fall may be blowing in soon you can never tell with our weather here. So if your home is currently on the market and has yet to sell or if you have just gotten orders out of the country what do you do? Rent or List? Here are some friendly tips from your community advisor.....Jamie At first inclination most sellers opt to withdraw their home from the market believing that the preoccupation with the holiday season puts few buyers in the market. While there is a grain of truth to this, sellers can be ignoring another more important situation: Any buyer looking at houses during the holidays will be VERY serious buyers. There are not many tire-kickers running around with a REALTOR® when there are dinners to plan, cookies to bake, and gifts to wrap. November, December and January showings are an opportunity for a traditional seller. Most homes that buyers visit at this time of the year are vacant. A buyer’s choices are down to model homes, empty relocation properties and foreclosures. A welcome home filled with the colorful sights, delightful sounds and wonderful aromas of the season, give a unique opportunity for those wanting to sell. Tips for Showing & Selling During the Holidays: 1.Decorate! Tastefully of course. This might not be the year that you do the Griswold display of lights as in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but a decorated tree, candles and wreaths can add a special touch. 2.Bake and leave out Christmas Cookies. Why should Santa have all of the extra calories? 3.Make sure the fireplace is burning bright, warm and welcoming! 4.Play holiday music. Leave out the barking version of Jingle Bells and go for instrumentals or uniquely Washington D.C. and the surrounding area. 5.Shovel and salt the driveway if necessary. No one wants to spend the holidays in the emergency room with a twisted ankle. 6.Turn the heat up for showings…Let them know the furnace really works. It is such a treat after visiting vacant foreclosed homes! 7.Leave the front light on! Don’t forget it is dark out during those early evening showings. Make certain buyers and their agents are able to see their way to your front door and be able to open the lockbox.

Latching Onto Sure Things

Which trends will shape commercial real estate in the next few years? "Finding Certainty in Uncertain Times," a new collection of essays from the Urban Land Institute, pinpoints several key drivers that will shape demand and development. "We believe that these trends will continue regardless of location, which political party is in power, and how quickly the economy recovers from recession, "writes Maureen McAvey, ULI executive vice president of initiatives. Among the trends to watch:

1. Regional migration, immigration, and population growth will create a new pool of middle-class, metro-area dwelling consumers.
2. Sprawl will continue, with outer suburb areas growing three times as fast worldwide as central cities.
3. Research, high-tech, education, and medical institutions will attract more capital to cities able to leverage the funds and create a positive climate for business and entrepreneurs.
4. Green features will no longer be a "bell and whistle" but rather an essential component for both location and building performance.

What is an Echo Boomer?

What is an echo boomer, you ask or maybe you already know! Yeah, you guessed it the echo of the baby boomers are our children. And their out in force 80 million plus of them. And they are smart and buying homes. 97% are on Social Media sites and they range in age from 18-32 years old. They are falling into the statistics of the 50% of all transactions being first time homebuyers. Of that 50%, 20% are single females, 36% are 25-34 years old and 11% are our senior citizens. Prices are still down and rates are still at record lows. This is a truly great time to buy homes and invest in real estate. So contact your favorite real estate agent and let's get this economy really moving. Rent should not even be an option even so of the Mega Lenders like Wells Fargo is lending money with credit scores as low at 500 with 20% down. There is no excuse!! Buy, buy and buy! The only thing you'll regret is not doing it.

Should Cyclists be ticketed for ignoring signals in Old Towne Alexandria??

I myself love to ride my bike on the Mt. Vernon trail and stroll on into the Old Towne Alexandria area on a regular basis. The city is biker friendly and I believe it to be so. The city has done a great job with bike signage and placards except I think that it could be carried a bit further and with more detail. The bike lanes need repainting and their should be more of them in order to regulate the biking traffic and to keep them self and that of pedestrians and visitors. Our biking experiences are valued and enjoyed by many and it seems to be getting busier and busier. I agree that "we" bikers need to adhere to the rules of the road and to obey them accordingly. It would just be more helpful to take it a step further and give us our proper lanes and our own signals which would keep everyone happier and safer.

When can Realtors® add to a contract?

We are often asked if real estate licensees are permitted to draft contract language. Well, sometimes it depends.
Drafting contracts for others is considered "the practice of law" in Virginia, and it is therefore generally restricted to licensed attorneys. However, real estate licensees may add language to a contract, for example, an addendum if it's incidental to a real estate transaction in which the licensee is involved, and the licensee does not receive a separate fee for it.
Please keep in mind that it is always a good idea to have legal counsel review contract language.
The Letter of the Law
54.1-2101.1 Preparation of real estate contracts by real estate licensees.
Notwithstanding any rule of court to the contrary, any person licensed under this chapter may prepare written contracts for the sale, purchase, option,exchange, or rental of real estate provided the preparation of such contracts is incidental to a real estate transaction in which the licensee (i) is involved and (ii) does not charge a separte fee for preparing the contracts.
Blake Hegeman FormFactor

This is legal stuff we need to be up on and I wanted to share it with my colleagues. www.JamieBoone.com and www.HelloVirginiaHomes.com

You Tube and Why it matters to you, the basics!

You Tube-Definition:
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. The company uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated content, video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos.
Why it matters to you:
YouTube has become an essential component in any successful social marketing arsental. Video is a powerful tool because, when implemented and produced propertly, it provides viewers with a multi-dimensional perspective on a topic. Since video is able to combine moving pictures with sound and media, the viewer can be engaged in a topic and learn in minutes what may take hours to read. The additional benefit of YouTube.com is the ability to share and syndicate your video through the Net in order to gain valuable backlinks to your website or blog, thus potentially increasing our rankings in the search engines. I hope this helps you get your head around social media and why it's important.

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