How to Find the Best Mortgage for Your Next Home

By Celeste M. Smucker –  A big concern for home buyers is finding the right mortgage program, one they can live with for many years, and this decision is especially important for those who have limited funds for a down payment. Many move-up buyers have more than enough cash from selling their previous home to […]

What is Your Home Worth?

By Celeste M. Smucker – When home owners are ready to sell their house, they usually have a good idea about what they think it’s worth. Similarly, buyer prospects have a strong opinion about what they are willing to pay for it.  Sometimes these numbers are far apart.  So what determines what a home is worth […]

Landscape Design Adds Home Value

By Marilyn Pribus – It’s always important to plan for the future when landscaping your yard. You want it to be nice for you today and you also want to keep an eye on the resale potential because a well-landscaped yard adds to that all-important curb appeal. How Much Landscaping Should I Have? “It’s very much […]

Up Close and Personal: The 2017 Virginia Festival of The Book

By Ken Wilson –  Up and down Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall on a recent Saturday morning, the literati were looking. At New Dominion Bookshop, the oldest bookstore in town, dating back to 1924, a woman was checking out the Lit Crit section.  At the Blue Whale, where original prints, antiquarian maps, and rare volumes sit alongside […]

Curb Appeal Sets Homes Apart

By Marilyn Pribus –  You’ve probably heard the term “curb appeal” that often hovers over discussions of the marketability of a property, but just what is it? “Curb appeal is an individual preference,” declares REALTOR® David Sloan of Sloan Manis Real Estate in Charlottesville, “but I think of a home that is well-landscaped, with a […]

Entrepreneurs Thrive in Charlottesville

By Marilyn Pribus “Charlottesville is a unique place,” declares Payam Pourtaheri, a co-founder of AgroSpheres, one of the many new businesses born right here where he says the entrepreneurial spirit is very strong. “There’s the feeling we’re all in this together. Everyone is supportive—you reach for help and it’s there. There are so many successful […]

Second Wind: Why Seniors Love Central Virginia

“Growing old,” so the saying goes, “is not for wimps.” Every stage of life brings unique challenges, it’s true, but every stage offers unique opportunities as well. Central Virginia seniors know about the opportunities at their time of life—do they ever. Let’s note just a few of the things they have time to enjoy around […]

Home Offices Are Popular

More and more, these days, people work from home, either full-time or part-time. As a home-based entrepreneur, however, you’ll soon find working with the computer in a corner of the kitchen, with the printer in the family room and your files atop the dryer in the laundry, is a recipe for inefficiency and frustration. It’s […]