Real Estate and Reston, VA: Holly Kirby Weatherwax--Your Realtor® in Reston,VA (Momentum Realty,LLC)

Thursday afternoon (9/2/10) , Veterans Green Jobs (VGJ) announced a partnership with LiUna, Sierra Club, weatherize DC and Ardent 360, to create green jobs for local veterans.

As part of this program, 9 veterans will be trained and employed to provide energy audit and weatherization services to 50 Northern Virginia military households. These services will be at no cost to the military families.

By teaming up, these organizations are creating new jobs while simultaneously improving the living and economic conditions of local military families. These improvements will reduce their monthly costs and make their homes more comfortable.

Unemployment rates for military veterans between the ages of 18 and 24 can reach as high as 21.6%.  This is significantly higher than non-veterans or the employment rate as a whole. This partnership will help prepare these vets for a career outside of the military and help to reduce that unemployment statistic. They will complete the training program, receive on-the-job training and experience and be prepared to work in the home perfomance industry.
 
My husband, Bob, is the President and CEO of Ardent 360 and I am very proud of the work they have done toward forming this alliance and creating these jobs.

For more information and the full press release, to to Local Veterans to Weatherize 50+ Military Homes Through Veterans Green Jobsinitiative.

You can become a fan of Veterans Green Jobs on Facebook, too!

In case you missed this the first time around, I thought I would share it again.  There have been an number of questions about what to do if a community name is wrong or mis-spelled; there is now a way to get this fixed.

I always like to read what Margaret is writing, but this post and the one that it links to Memorial Day Tribute to Unsung Heroes are really special (read the link first and the one below). 

These posts brought tears to my eyes and are a great reminder of how heroes live among us.

We are blessed to own a vacation home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We bought the property, lovingly updated and then rented it out. Our renters have been loyal and  extremely respectful of our home. We have had the occasional, "Oh my gosh," moment, but for the most part it has been a great experience.

Hurricane season makes the whole thing a tad more stressful. Our home is located in Corolla (Currituck County) which was one of the areas evacuated yesterday, ahead of Hurricane Earl. I just spent a couple of minutes on-line  trying to get a handle on what kind of damage we might expect.  Our house is  ocean front, but set back from the water a reasonable distance with  a wonderful, protective dune. We have a private walkway and staircase that gets blown away every couple of years. Yesterday, I told my husband we should dig out the phone number of our walk-way guy--just to be ready.  Although we replaced it last fall, there is no walkway strong enough to withstand the might of a hurricane if the hurricane (or Nor'easter) hits just right.

I received calls and emails all day from friends asking if we were nervous and wishing us luck.

Surprisingly, we just don't get nervous any more. What will be, will be. When we bought the house, we decided that we did not want it to be a source of stress, only joy. To that end, we made sure that we could handle the costs, employed the wonderful Carolina Designs company to manage the property for us, decided that there was very little damage that we couldn't fix and decided that we would not worry too much about things that we can't control (STORMS!!).

So here I sit, more curious than nervous.  I do wish I could find out what, if any damage, our property sustained. Within the next couple of days, we will get a report from Carolina Designs and start the process of putting the house back together, if we must.

Even with this uncertainty, I am still so thrilled that we have this property.  I wouldn't trade it for the world...but I do wish I had a spy camera to let me know what is going on!

Views from the (hopefully still-in-tact) walkway:

On this real estate roller coaster, we can all use some focus and motivation. This real estate rap video made me smile and has a great message! Take a couple of minutes to watch it...I am sure you will enjoy it!

Here in Fairfax County, Virginia, school hasn't yet started, but school year planning has begun.

As you put together your school year calendar, be sure you get your back-to-school night on there!

Cluster 1 (Herndon Pyramid)

Aldrin Elementary            ESOL Parents, Thursday, 9/16 at 6:00 pm
                                      K-6 Parents, Thursday, 9/16 at 6:00 pm
Armstrong Elementary    K-3 Parent,s Tuesday, 9/28 at 7:00 pm
                                      4-6 Parents, Monday, 9/27 at 7:00 pm

Herndon Middle               7-8 Parents , Thursday, 9/23 at 6:30 pm

Herndon High                  9-12 Parents, Thursday, 9/23 at 6:30 pm


Cluster 8 (South Lakes Pyramid)

Dogwood Elemenary      K-6 Parents, Monday, 9/20 at 6:30 pm
Forest Edge                   PS, K-3 Parents, Monday, 9/20 at 7:30 pm
                                     4-6 Parents, Tuesday, 9/21 at 7:30 pm
Hunters Woods              K-3 Parents, Tuesday, 9/28 at 7:00 pm
                                     4-6 Parents, Wednesday, 9/29 at 7:00 pm
Lake Anne                     K,2,4,6, SPED Parents, Monday, 9/27 at 6:30 pm
                                    1,3,5, Art, Music, PE, Tuesday, 9/28 at 6:30 pm
Sunrise Valley                K-6 Parents, Thursday, 9/23 at 7:00 pm
Terraset                        K-6 Parents, Wednesday, 9/15 at 7:00pm

Hughes Middle                7-8 Parents, Thursday, 9/16 at 6:30 pm

South Lakes  High          9-12 Parents, Thursday, 9/30 at 6:30 pm



If you need more information about back-to-school nights in Fairfax County go to the Back to School Night Schedule on the Fairfax County Public School Website.

Last night we happened to catch, 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,' on CNBC.

If you haven't had a chance to watch this movie, I would highly recommend it. I read the book several years back, but something about seeing the people involved really brought the emotion and the tragedy of the situation home for me.

This movie should be required viewing for all business students (and anyone who works in business), because I think it does a fantastic job of highlighting how, as things go wrong or become difficult, group think can take over common sense and ethical decision making.

The sheer self-interest exhibited by these criminals who claimed to be steering Enron is painful to watch.

I think only by keeping this story alive and having new generations of students and business leaders learn from it, can we avoid this kind of tragic company demise in the future.

My heart still breaks for all of those people who watched their entire retirement dissolve in front of them. This is especially heartbreaking when you see how much the criminals were able to walk away with--despite their convictions. 

If you haven't seen this film, or even if it has been awhile, I encourage you to pick it up and watch it. I am sure it will shock you. In this particular case, I think a bit of shocking is good for all of us!

I recently volunteered to become an Ethics trainer for my Association. As a Realtor, I am proud of the work that we do to facilitate the purchase and sale of property and I TRULY believe that we provide a critical service to our clients and the community. By becoming a certified Ethics trainer, I will help the Virginia Association of Realtors and the Dulles Area Association of Realtors spread the message to our new agents.

By teaching Ethics, I hope to share my conviction with fellow Realtors that we must always do the right thing, and that by doing the right thing, we will achieve great success. As a representative of the association, I hope to teach the material in a way that it becomes more than just a boring class, but something that new members live and believe every day.

There is a culture in our society, and I believe that it exists in Real Estate, too, that there are short-cuts to success. I just heard from a friend of mine of her son's disgust that fellow students at his junior college regularly cheat, and do so brazenly.  One method of this cheating is to put all the answers on an iPhone, and read from it during testing. This type of shortcut might work for that particular quiz, but in the long run that student will not know the material. And there will be time when that lack of knowledge will be evident.

I have been disgusted by our litigious society for this same reason; there are legitimate reasons for law suits, but many law suits are created with hopes of getting some fast money without a legitimate claim. When I hear about a law suit where the damages sought seem to exceed the damage from the situation, I question the ethics of the parties involved in bringing suit. 

Before you assume that I am making a statement about colleagues, let me say that I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most professional and ethical people that I have had the opportunity to know.  I have rarely run into situation that I questioned the judgment of another Realtor.  Almost without exception, the Realtors on the other side of my transactions have been a pleasure to work with and I have never questioned their ethics.

And yet, we still suffer with a bad reputation, despite the hard work, commitment to our clients and strong work ethic that I witness from most Realtors.

We as individuals need to do our best to improve the retputation in our industry by keeping our own personal moral and ethical compass straight and strong.

As a community of professionals, we all have a responsibility to one another to conduct ourselves in a way that is above reproach. By respecting our fiduciary duty to our client and without losing sight of the ethical responsibilities to all parties involved, we as practitioners can be party to improving our reputation.

As Brokers, we need to make sure that the Realtors  we supervise understand that this is a business that requires hard work, long hours, commitment to the rule of law and to our clients. By training them to understand that this is much more than a quick and easy way to make money (because we all know that for every easy deal there are 10 hard ones) and making them understand the importance of developing a cooperative and respectful relationship with other Realtors, we can all help to improve the reputation of Realtors-- one Realtor and one transaction at a time.

If you are sending a freshman to Herndon High School next year, Tuesday (8/31/2010)  is  Orientation Day. The Orientation runs from 9-11 and gives the kids a chance to pick up their schedules, find classrooms and meet teachers.

Bus pickup will be centralized at local elementary schools.

Here are the pickup times for freshman who will be attending Herndon High and the Tuesday Orientation:

Aldrin Elementary School               pick up 8:35 a.m.
Armstrong Elementary School      pick up 8:35 a.m.
Clearview Elementary School       pick up 8:45 a.m. 
Dranesville Elementary School    pick up 8:45 a.m. 
Herndon Elementary School         pick up 8:45 a.m. 
Herndon Middle School                  pick up 8:45 a.m. 
Hutchison Elementary School       pick up 8:35 a.m. 
 
Proper dress and behavior is expected when attending Orientation. Buses will leave Herndon High School at 11:10 and drop students off at the elementary schools for parent pickup. 

 Good luck to all the new Hornets!!!

Most of my clients have bought and sold several homes. They have obviously done this successfully as it has brought them to the point where they have yet another home to sell.

They often tell me that they are very comfortable preparing their homes for sale and that they have always done very well selling their homes. I let them know that I am glad to hear this. It  will make the process easier for everyone as we identify those things that will need to be done. Because there WILL be things that need to be done.

Decorating your house and being on top of the maintenance is NOT the same thing as preparing your house for sale. I have seen some very pretty homes languish on the market. 

I am getting ready to head out to one of my 'not yet on the market' listings.  I have permission to go through the house with my comprehensive checklist and compile a  list of those items that should be done to prepare the home for sale.  Once this list is complete, I will review it with my clients and we will begin the process of preparing the home for market.

In this competitive market place, no detail is too small when it comes to preparing your home. Getting a third party to preview and help you to prepare a list is a great way to make sure that you don't over look those things that will be obvious to everyone else.  Perhaps your rear door sticks a little when you try to open it; it may have been doing this so long that you TRULY do not even notice.  Someone who doesn't know the 'trick' to open it easily will be able to remind you that it needs to be fixed.  Home owners often overlook little things like wiping down the light switch plates or cleaning the inside of the front door (I am not above grabbing some cleaning supplies and doing a quick wipe-down before meeting a potential purchaser--in fact, I keep emergency cleaning supplies in my car for just such a scenario).

Homes are selling. In a competitive market, attention to detail is every bit as important as proper pricing and marketing.  Remember, when it comes to hiring someone to manage the sale of your home, you can 'do it on the cheap' but you will get what you pay for.  Hire  a real estate professional that has demonstrated an understanding of what it takes to get your home sold and who will be a partner in the process.

I guarantee that you will be happy that you did!