Free and Comfortable Rides in Bethesda

Photo courtesy of Gazette.net.

Catching a ride in downtown Bethesda has gotten a little more modern, though some might say a bit less charming. According to Gazette.net, the Bethesda Circulator has traded up from old-fashioned trolleys to new luxury buses for the 2.1 mile, 20-stop route through the city’s downtown area.

While the trolleys were delightful, the new buses also have some nice amenities including cushioned seats, which all will agree are more comfortable than the trolleys’ wooden benches. But the major reason for the change, according to the Bethesda Urban Partnership, was economics. The trolleys had begun to break down more often with replacement parts both expensive and difficult to find, so the new buses will transport the route’s 24,000 daily riders much more efficiently.

Yet the important things have not changed for the Circulator. Just like the trolleys, the buses can carry 29 people and, most importantly, the ride is still free. The major adjustment for locals and tourists will be to recognize the shiny red and yellow bus as their ride, so the BUP is creating a marketing campaign to show off the buses and help increase ridership.

Since 1999, the Circulator program has been getting people around Bethesda for free, and the city is happy to continue this service. Losing the trolleys might make some folks a bit wistful, but this change is a sign that Bethesda is a thriving city that wants to take good care of her citizens.

A free bus system to get you comfortably around Bethesda is just one of the many wonderful services offered. Let me show you all the other reasons why you’ll enjoy living in the Bethesda area. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

More Small Business Loans Possible for Bethesda

The U.S. Treasury Department is helping a Bethesda bank provide more local small business loans. From Gazette.net, EagleBank of Bethesda has received $56.5 million from the Treasury as part of the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act, which is meant to offer capital to community banks with assets of $10 billion or less.

According to the CEO of EagleBank, Ronald D. Paul, the bank is able to obtain the money at an interest rate of only 1 percent because of the large number of loans it has given out in the past twelve months. In actual figures, the bank had an increase in qualified loans of $98 million. The bank has also paid back the $23.2 million it owed the Treasury Department from the banking crisis, and is just the sixth bank in Maryland to do so.

The good news for Bethesda and the Northern Virginia area is that more small business loans will be available to local institutions from a bank that already has increased loans by 26 percent since Q1 2010.  

In addition to potential bank loans, the State Small Business Credit Initiative is distributing $23 million to other local programs including the Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority and the Maryland Venture Fund. The latter invests in high-tech companies that are in early-state development. This money is another offshoot of the Small Business Jobs Act that is funding the bank loans.

All of this should translate to thousands of jobs becoming available for those who need or want them, according to state officials. EagleBank itself has added over 100 employees since last June. The hope is that these Treasury funds will turn into $230 million of loans to the private sector and provide a big shot in the arm for the local economy. So far it appears nothing will prevent that from happening.

Whether it’s job creation, family-friendly events, or walkable neighborhoods, the Bethesda area has so many reasons to make it your home. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

A Special Camp Experience in Silver Spring

Summer is a time for kids to enjoy lots of fun activities. This year, 30 lucky Silver Spring children got to spend a week at the fourth annual Police Adventure Camp at Viers Mill. Run by Montgomery County police officers, this non-profit camp provided services to at-risk children and their families, according to a Gazette.net article.

            

Activities at the camp included sports and crafts as well as some more important life lessons. The children completed the Drug Abuse Resistance Education or D.A.R.E. program to understand the dangers of substance abuse. They also listened to guest speakers and interacted with the officers in various ways.

It was quite an eclectic range of activities from making tie-dyed tee shirts to going inside the S.W.A.T. team van and meeting a bomb-sniffing police dog. There was also a trip to the Montgomery County Circuit Court building for a tour and to learn a bit of how the judicial system works.

The goal was to teach the kids that they’re responsible for their choices and to make them aware of how those choices will affect both them and their families. An additional bonus is that the kids are then more likely to trust and work with police once back in their Silver Spring neighborhoods.

Donations from businesses and grants helped to fund the camp and lunches were donated by local restaurants. There was so much interest in this year’s camp that organizers had to create a waiting list.

When asked, the children had lots of praise for the camp and its activities. One young girl stated that because of her camp experience she’d like to become a police officer. And of course the officers feel great about being able to make a difference in children’s lives.

The communities in and around Bethesda are filled with active, caring citizens making this a great place to raise a family. If you’re looking for real estate assistance, contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

Technology and Real Estate in Bethesda: Geek is Chic!

Technology continues to change the way business is done today, and real estate is no exception. Previously I reviewed some of the smartphone apps that are changing both home buying and selling in Bethesda, as outlined on the MSN Real Estate web site. Here are five other technology trends making inroads into real estate.

Single-Property Websites – Buyers are still searching websites, but not the earlier versions with hundreds of listings. Today there are individual sites devoted solely to one home. In addition to high-quality photos and detailed information, these single-home websites also offer links to a home’s Walk Score, a mortgage broker, and the seller’s real estate agent. Some people set these up themselves while others have it done by their broker.

Seller Websites – Many more real estate agencies are offering this along with the single-property site. Included here is a checklist of agent duties and what’s been completed.

High-Tech Bar Codes – Called QR Codes (for Quick Response), these funny-looking bar codes are placed on the back of a business card, a yard sign, or the bottom of a brochure. A mobile device that has a QR code reader scans the bar code and takes you to a pre-set page of information such as a Facebook page, a Twitter profile, or a home’s website.

Video Tours – The Generation X and Y folks have grown up watching a screen of one kind or another and prefer watching to reading. So many real estate agents are creating video home tours and video testimonials. These are uploaded to YouTube or linked to a site by a QR code.

Electronic Lockboxes – No more need to remember a code. These lockboxes can be opened using a smartphone. Whenever someone enters the home this way, the seller gets an email on which agent came to the house and the agent gets a thank-you email.

For Realtors® and their clients, this technology has streamlined the home buying and home selling process. Clients no longer need to look at 25 or 30 Bethesda homes in person. Now they preview electronically and actually step into only those they really like. This saves hours of time—and lots of money on gas. For agents, this technology can streamline their workload and create an almost paperless office.

But should you be worried, Realtors® are not going anywhere. Real Estate remains a business where human interaction makes the difference. The professional support and guidance we provide will always have a value that no technology can match.

I provide my clients with personal interaction to complement the latest technology. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

Chevy Chase Selected to Help the Environment

If you like a pretty yard, hate mowing, and live in Chevy Chase, there’s a solution for both you and the environment. According to Gazette.net, the city will be the first in the area to participate in RainScapes, a pilot program to help reduce storm runoff into local streams and Chesapeake Bay by replacing grass with gardens.

The Montgomery County program is offering homeowners and businesses a rebate for getting their landscapes to absorb more water. The program is currently focusing on the county’s oldest neighborhoods which don’t have modern stormwater drainage systems. As one of the oldest suburbs in the DC area, Chevy Chase was chosen as the starting point.

One local resident, Judith McGuire, received $500 to help cover the cost of turning her front yard from grass to a rainwater garden filled with Christmas ferns, milkweed, goldenrod and other local plant varieties. RainScapes hopes to get at least 30 percent of homeowners in Chevy Chase to participate in their program and reduce drainage system runoff by 30 percent. For most people, it can be as simple as creating a rain garden like Judith’s.

The maximum rebate allowed for a residential project is $1200, and pay-outs are based on individual project costs. The total program budget is about $350,000, with $100,000 set aside for rebates. RainScapes will also be targeting entire neighborhoods, hiring contractors to put in rain gardens, rain barrels, and permeable driveways to reduce runoff. The details and costs to individual homeowners are still under discussion.

Even if RainScapes is not currently working with your city or neighborhood, the county hopes that individual homeowners will consider creating rain gardens or other systems to protect the bay area from runoff issues. The health of the planet really is everyone’s responsibility.

Living where everyone cares for the environment is another reason to call the DC area home. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

Buying or Selling in Bethesda? Pull Out that Smartphone!

By time standards, we’re just barely into the twenty-first century. Real estate, however, has moved “to infinity and beyond!” The MSN Real Estate site notes that the technology explosion of the past three years has totally changed how people buy and sell their homes in the DC Metro Area—and everywhere else.

One small-sized device that’s made a huge impact is the smartphone. Many real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com now offer applications for smartphones and tablets to make a buyer’s life almost care-free. For example, you can drive to a neighborhood you might like, run a search on your phone and see a map with homes for sale right in that area. Then just use your GPS function to start checking them out.

That’s just the overview. If you spot a house you like in Bethesda, the Zillow app can tell you how long it’s been on the market and how often the price has been reduced. You can also learn that another house nearby recently sold for $50,000 less, so your house of interest might be overpriced. The upshot is that you can choose to walk away and check out the next property with no time wasted.

On the Realtor.com app, you can draw a line with your finger around a particular section of a map and see any homes that are for sale in that area. This lets potential buyers “search” only the neighborhoods that fit their criteria and skip places with, say, more retirees than young families.

Smart Realtors® are catching onto this trend and are letting technology help their bottom line. Because many buyers search by school district, one agency now uses Twitter to feed out home listings in each school district. There are also apps to let homebuyers rate and review their Realtor®, which other buyers can then read.

Sellers are also benefiting from these new electronic tools and ditching newspaper ads in favor of the newer web- or mobile-based technologies. Tech-savvy sellers know that the Gen X and Y buyers will use their phone or iPad when house hunting, not the classifieds.

The arrival of mobile apps, social media and GPS has shaken up real estate in a big way, and the change is sure to continue. In my next blog I’ll share some additional technologies affecting today’s real estate market.

Whether you’re a smartphone fanatic or technologically challenged, I will walk with you through every step of the buying or selling process. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

Brand New Historic District in Bethesda

An area full of historic places now has one more.  As reported by Gazette.net, the Greenwich Forest neighborhood in Bethesda has just been designated a historic district in a unanimous vote.  This will add the neighborhood’s 71 homes to the county’s Master Plan for Historic Preservation. 

The decision to create this new historic area sprang from petitions by neighborhood residents who wanted to stop the older homes from being demolished and replaced by new properties. Most of the neighborhood’s homes were built between 1929 and 1941, making Greenwich Forest the youngest historic district in the county.

Homeowners living in a historic area must adhere to stricter guidelines for renovations and build-outs so the homes retain their historic charm. This was a point of contention for some neighborhood residents who delayed the initial vote last October.  In the interim agreements were reached and some of the stricter rules relaxed, giving homeowners more leeway in renovations not visible from the road.  Some of these would include porches, new windows or doors, solar panels and skylights.

It’s almost inevitable to have clashes of the modern and the historic in places like Bethesda. However, as the Greenwich Forest community illustrates, compromises can be reached to keep everyone satisfied while still preserving the rich history of our area.

Whether the home is historic or modern, I can help with all of your special buying and selling needs . Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.

Chevy Chase Curb Appeal in Listing Photos

There are two words that every Chevy Chase home seller should know: curb appeal. The better this is, the higher your chance of reeling in a buyer the minute they park in front of your house. But according to Realtor Magazine Online, the curb appeal also needs to show up in your on-line listing photos, since most buyers will see this before they view the actual property. 

To put that pizazz in your photos, try these three simple, no cost options.

·         Take Down Window Screens – Most home exteriors can look pretty dull, and screens generally make windows look dark. You can shine up door knobs and lighting fixtures, but those don’t show up in your external photo. To spice up your photos and add some dimension, take down window screens on the front windows before shooting—but remember to keep and reinstall them after the home sells. Buyers likely won’t miss the screens during a showing, but they sure will once they’ve moved in!

·         Water Your Bark Mulch – When mulch is first put down, it looks great and creates a nice clean look outside your home. Old mulch looks brown and not so appealing.  Watering the mulch makes it take on a darker tone that contrasts with your greenery and makes it seem more vibrant. So pull out the hose and wet down your mulch before taking the picture and before an actual showing.

·         Make the Walkway Stand Out – Turn your front walkway into your home’s “runway.”  Make sure it’s clean and free from clutter and then dress it up with potted plants or even paint. Then make sure it shows up in your photos by standing on a small ladder to take the picture looking down on the property. Or shoot from an angle rather than straight on.

The goal is to have your home call to potential buyers whether they see it on the Internet or drive by in a car. Look around for anything you can do that will make your home stand out among the myriads of other listings so that a buyer’s very first impression will be, “Oh, how beautiful! I’d love to call that my home.”

Along with great curb appeal, you need an agent who’ll bring a steady stream of buyers to your door. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.