Winter 2023 Newsletter - Arlington Edition

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSLETTER

WINTER 2023

BUYING A HOME: HERE ARE 5 TIPS FOR NEGOTIATING Before negotiating the purchase of a home, you must look closely at the seller’s motivation and the current market conditions. Whether it’s a seller’s or buyer’s market, these tips should help you successfully negotiate a deal on a home.

ASK THE AGENT:

1. Begin by knowing what you want in a home. Decide on what kind of property you want and create a detailed list of what amenities need to be part of your new home. This will narrow your search and help you negotiate to get what you want.

2. Get preapproved for a loan so you know your budget and can negotiate within your financial limits.

Account for your cash funds so you can factor in projected closing costs, needed renovations and other fees.

3. So you can make a reasonable offer on any properties of choice, first check out the real estate market to see what may fulfill your wants and stay within your budget. Get to know the sales history of comparable properties and the active competing inventory so you can substantiate any reasonable offer.

4. Find out the seller’s motivation for selling and how long the property has been on the market. The price will be easier to negotiate with this information.

5. Think of your negotiating as trying to close on a business deal. Refrain from letting your emotions get in the way of your decision-making so you can get the best result.

Please contact me at 571-336-0088 so I can help prepare you to successfully negotiate on the purchase of your next home.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Staging a Home for Sale?

When deciding if staging your home is the right move for you, you need to evaluate the pros and cons before you make the budget and time commitment to do so.

Statistics show that staging a home enables it to sell faster and for a higher price. The return on the investment in staging can be fourfold.

Your home will have better visual appeal without the influence of your personal lifestyle. Marketing photos of a staged home will increase buyer interest. Buyers are more motivated to buy because they can better visualize themselves living in the home.

Cost will be the biggest disadvantage of staging a home. This is especially so if you have a large home and need to include some outdoor living spaces. A conservative cost to stage is $300 to $600, but expect to pay as much as $3,000 per month for a 2,000squarefoot or larger home if furniture must be rented. If you need to declutter and store your belongings during the marketing period, there is the additional cost of storage.

WORTH READING A Remote Experience Generator—Double Take Labs Double Take Labs are known for creating immersive or interactive experiences, usually in public spaces such as museums.

Lockdown, however, helped them realize that remote experiences are important for the soul as in person ones. Thus, their fantastic “remote experience generator” was born. Answer a number of questions about what you feel like doing right now, and you’ll get hundreds of incredibly specific ideas for creating your own fun. https://tinyurl.com/worth0223a

Imaginary Numbers Are Real

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan Aeon

TIPS FOR GETTING RID OF EXCESS “THINGS” 1

2

Toss duplicate items: If you have more sets of work clothes or measuring cups than you need, consider giving away what is extra.

Sort items into four piles: One for things to keep, one for things to donate, one for things to throw away, and one for valuables to appraise and/or sell.

3 Pass on belongings: If there are items you no longer need, or keepsakes you would like to go to a certain person, gift them personally now.

To learn more about SRES® and access consumer resources, please visit seniorsresource.realtor.

The more we humans discover about quantum physics and the nature of existence, the less it seems our tiny minds are able to comprehend what we know, with so many new discoveries flipping our entire understanding on its head. This long read from Aeon’s Karmela Padavic-Callaghan delves into one such discovery. So called “imaginary numbers” are helping scientists to make sense of the real world. https://tinyurl.com/worth0223b

The Medieval Craftspeople Restoring Iconic Piece of History

HOW NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS CAN BE LIKE NURTURING PLANTS Life is better with friends and loved ones, whether it’s a social circle of close pals or that special someone. But it can be overwhelming keeping up all the different friendships you have with different types of people. If this sounds like you, consider treating your social circle like a beautiful plant you’re cultivating, focusing your attention at different times on the friends with the attributes you need in that moment.

The leaves: friends who let you be you. On days when you want to express yourself without fear of judgment, these are the friends you need.

They know where you’re coming from, celebrate your uniqueness and let you openly be the person you are, even if others question you.

The roots: friends who heal and bring you strength. These friends pick you up when you’re down, give you a shoulder to cry on when life gets too much and come to your aid when you’re in need. They’ll help you find joy in dark places and hold you steady when you’re weathering a storm.

The flowers: friends who excite you and bring out your personality. We can all do with friends who bring playfulness to our lives, people who fill our worlds with laughter, silliness and adventure. Friends like these will help to show you just how much life is worth living and ensure you make each day count.

The fruits: friends who bring out your creativity. No friendship group is complete without the people who help you to be creative and realize your potential. These are the pals who help you cultivate your ideas, achieve goals and contribute actively to bettering the world around you.

In April 2019, the world looked on in horror as pictures were broadcast around the globe of the 800-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, one of the most iconic structures in European history, as it burned in a raging fire.

It was devastating for the country of France; parts of this jewel in the crown of their cultural heritage was destroyed in a matter of minutes right in front of their eyes.

Parisians doubted whether their talismanic cathedral could ever be restored. The sophisticated architecture would require complex building techniques specific to medieval engineering; the special type of wood needed would supposedly take years to properly treat, and even just the knowledge of how to produce medieval ceiling beams had been lost to the sands of time.

And yet hope has emerged. The Guédelon project, based in France’s Burgundy region, has been training craftspeople in ancient building techniques for over 25 years. The project started as an “experimental archeology” pursuit, aiming to build a 13thcentury castle from the ground up using the exact techniques, tools and even clothes that would have been used in those ancient times.

Master carpenters have perfected hewing beams by hand and delicately and meticulously building structures with perfect authenticity.

In a welcome turn for the nation of France, Guédelon’s craftspeople and educators are being enlisted for the Notre Dame restoration project. Not only will they work on the rebuild, but they will also be training other craftsmen and developing the tools required to faithfully restore Notre Dame to its grand former glory.

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Associate Broker CRS, GRI, MIRM, SRES, PSA, E-Pro 24 hr phone/vm 703-229-5030 Cell/Text 571-336-0088 Main Office 378-8810 Elizabeth@ElizabethBouchard.com Website: ElizabethBouchard.com

Taking up a new hobby is an excellent New Year’s resolution, and with everyone having a camera at their fingertips these days, you might have an itch to try properly taking up photography. Becoming a good photographer is more than just point-and-shoot, though. It’s all about composition, framing and understanding space. Here are three top tips for getting stared.

Get to grips with the rule of thirds.

This rule is a staple of good photography in which you split the image up into nine imaginary boxes using two horizontal and two vertical lines, all equally spaced across the frame. Placing the subjects of the photo in the cross sections with background elements such as sky or sea aligned with the lines helps to create the best possible framing for your picture.

Make use of empty space.

If the subject of your photo is in an interesting or awe-inspiring environment, the background is going to be important in drawing the viewer to your photograph. Zooming out and allowing your subject to take up a smaller space in the picture can bring focus to the beauty of the image and help create a story as well as taking the pressure off the subject to draw focus.

The frame can be within the picture itself.

While a slightly tricky technique to pull off, sometimes the environment itself will provide you with a stunning extra frame for your subject within the frame of the photo. This could be an obvious one like a car window or a doorway, or it could be beautifully created by objects in the shot, such as gaps in trees in the foreground or fortuitously placed shapes in the background.