Archive for the 'Fun Fridays' Category
A Stroll Along Maryland Ave
June 6th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
Just a Short Walk From the Buzz of City Dock and Main Street, a Quaint and Quiet Stretch of Downtown Annapolis
I wonder how many visitors come to Annapolis for a day trip and miss Maryland Avenue entirely. Most, I’m afraid.
Shame, because it’s less crowded than Main Street and the City Dock area, the shops and galleries are great, and the architecture is some of the most striking that you’ll find in town. In the 18th century, Maryland Ave was the most fashionable residential street in the city, and it’s not hard - as you stroll from one end to the other - to imagine the privileged lives of the residents who built some of the homes here.
Here are a few of the sights you’ll see along this historic street.
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This Is Not Linda Donnelly, Our Home Stager and Designer. It Only Seems That Way, Sometimes, To Our Clients
May 30th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays, Sellers
Getting a Home Ready to Sell is No Piece of Cake. In a Competitive Real Estate Market Like Annapolis, You Had Better Do It Right. Linda D is Our Pro
Much of our work as agents involves telling people things they’d rather not hear: We need to adjust the selling price. Your septic system has issues. The would-be buyers have withdrawn their offer and are moving to Costa Rica instead.
That’s why I don’t mind paying someone else, on occasion, to tell people things I’d rather not tell them and that they’d rather not hear. Just makes my life a little easier.
One such person is our team stager/designer, Linda Donnelly. Not only does Linda have years of interior design experience. Nobody is better than she is at spotting potential buyer objections and offering sound solutions. That’s why she works with our sellers: to eliminate objections to a sale. It works: the homes she has staged for us sell, and beat the average days on market considerably.
Linda is extremely pleasant, but the experience - I must tell you - can be challenging for a seller. Imagine a 3-or 4-hour marathon session in which your home is put under a microscope, shortcomings are served up, and corrective homework is lavishly assigned. I worry how some clients will hold up. Linda knows to call me right away after a consultation and give me an update.
How did it go, I’ll ask.
Fine, she’ll say, until I told them they had to get rid of their dogs.
Linda likes to tease me, but her sense of humor is one of the things that makes her so good at what she does. This, too: she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and do much of the needed work with our clients. I think of her as our personal trainer for home sellers: she’ll push you to make your home look as irresistible as it can be. And in the end you’ll get the results you were hoping for.
Linda’s services, by the way, are included for free when we list a home. Call for more details.
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Our Hat Is Off To The Naval Academy’s Class of 2008
May 23rd, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays, Naval Academy
Those Flying Hats Can Only Mean One Thing: Today Was Graduation Day for 233 New Marine Corps Second Lieutenants and 786 New Ensigns
Today is Fun Friday on this blog and for 919 new graduates of the Naval Academy I imagine this was about the most fun they’ve had in 4 years.
To the graduates and their families…to those of us who live in Annapolis and perhaps served in the Navy…this is a very big day and we all take pride in this annual event. We’ve watched these young men and women mature before our very eyes, seen the sportsmanship they display on the football field and in other athletic events - and we can’t help but feel proud to be part of this community.
Admiral Michael G. Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the graduating class and offered some good advice: learn from your mistakes; be accountable for your actions; and question authority when appropriate. Not a bad code to live by.
The ceremony ended the way it always does, with the hat toss. If you’ve never seen it before, watch this clip - one I just found on YouTube - from this year’s graduation.
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Plebes No More
May 16th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays, Naval Academy
Hundreds of Sweaty Plebes, Buckets of Lard and a 21′ Tall Monument Make for a Slippery Conclusion to One Tough First Year at the Naval Academy
It has to be one of the smelliest, most spirited rites of passage in Annapolis, if not the entire country: first year Naval Academy students converge en masse on the Academy’s Herndon Monument in a rush to the top. There’s just one catch: the monument is generously greased with 100 pounds of lard.
Traditionally, the plebe who makes the final ascent removes the plebe “dixie cup” hat (below) on top and replaces it with the midshipman’s cover (or hat) - a move symbolizing the plebes’ completion of their first grueling year.
This year’s climb on Thursday morning saw the Midshipmen finish the job in just under 2 hours and 36 minutes - not bad, though not nearly a record breaking time: no fewer than six plebe classes have come in at under an hour.
It’s Fun Friday on this blog, as always, and we thought you’d enjoy a firsthand look at the excitement from this year, below.
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Hold On To Your Real Estate: The Blue Angels are Coming to Annapolis for Commissioning Week 2008
May 9th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
Buildings Will Shake, Necks Crane, and We’ll All Gather Below the Thundering Skies For One of the Most Awesome Events of the Year
Well, it’s Friday, and you know that Fridays are for fun on this blog. And I can think of very little that’s more fun than watching the Blue Angels every year when they fly into town for Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy.
Commissioning Week runs this year from May 16th through the 23rd and the Blue Angels perform on the 20th and 21st - you can find the schedule by clicking here.
I whoop and holler at only a very few select events, namely Navy football games and the Blue Angels show. Apparently, I get a lot more excited than the guys flying these gorgeous F/A-18 Hornets. Check out the video below. It’s got some great cockpit shots and the pilot looks about as excited as a guy driving his pickup a block down the street on Sunday morning to buy a quart of milk. I love it.
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One More Reason You Want To Live in Annapolis: The Maryland Maritime Heritage Festival is Here This Weekend
May 2nd, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
Searching For a Home in Annapolis This Weekend? Take Time Out To Attend This Festive Celebration of Maryland’s Maritime History
Back in the days before Starbucks and souvenir shops dotted the streets of our fair city, Annapolis harbor was a hub of maritime enterprise. English settlers arrived by boat in 1649, noticed that locals were thriving on crab cakes, oysters and the like and decided - not unlike many of our clients - that this would be a very good place indeed to stay for a spell.
When they weren’t fishing, the settlers grew crops, including tobacco, which they shipped off to England. The vessels returned with an enormous selection of goods for sale, including slaves - one of whom, Kunta Kinte, is immortalized by author Alex Haley in his book Roots.
If this sort of thing fascinates you - or you’re just looking for a good excuse to get out this weekend - by all means come to Annapolis for this celebration of Maryland maritime history. Kudos to Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer for creating this event back in 2001.
The festival runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You can check out the events schedule at the festival’s official website, but highlights include Watermark Cruises’ Pet Parade, the Phillips Crab Cake Eating Contest, the blessing of the fleet and lots of music, fun and frivolity.
One event we definitely won’t miss is the North American Town Crier Competition, to be held at 1:00PM on Sunday. Apparently, the best of the best town criers from across North America will be competing, in full period dress. We had a sneak preview this morning at a Chamber of Commerce meeting and it was rousing, to say the least. These guys can really belt.
This being Fun Friday on our blog, I couldn’t help digging around to see what I could find in the town crier section of YouTube. Here’s a really stupid one that I loved.
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Confessions of an Un-Geeky Annapolis Real Estate Blogger
April 25th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
If you’re a regular reader of this blog - and finally, I think there are a couple of you - then you know that Fridays are for fun. I didn’t invent the idea of fun blog Fridays; I stole it from fellow blogger Teresa Boardman. She hasn’t sent her lawyers after me yet, so for now I guess I’m okay.
People like confessions so I thought it would be fun today to tell you one of mine: I’m not a geek. That may come as a surprise to some of you, since I do have a blog, but my computer literacy is probably on par with that of your average Golden Retriever.
What knowledge I do have of blogging can be attributed directly to a neat group of actual geeks called The Real Estate Tomato. See that tomato icon in the upper left margin over there? It has the word “graduate” it in, but I can assure you that in my case the designation is applied ever so loosely. I was one of those students they graduated just to prevent a mutiny. I think I was the reason some of the staff left and opened bagel shops in Vermont.
The ”tomato guys” have a specialty: taking non-geek Realtors like myself and teaching us how to become bloggers. The training consisted of many once-weekly sessions where I would put on my headset and listen to someone half my age and twice as smart explain why Google would like me if I created something called back links, posted profiles of myself on social networking sites, and didn’t stuff by blog articles with too many key words, in which case Google would smite me and banish my blog to the equivalent of blog purgatory. Much remedial training ensued.
The most amazing thing about blogs and all this internet stuff is the way it all talks to one another - or is supposed to, if you’re doing it right. What you see here on the finished page, so to speak, is only a gazillioneth of what’s really going on. You may think you’re just reading an article about buying or selling a home, but the cyber world is positively abuzz about it. It’s like one of those ads you see on TV where they show you your kitchen counter-top, then zoom in and you see billions of germs crawling around just under the surface.
Zoom in, and you’d see Google is somehow calculating how much you like this blog, where you came from, what you’re reading, and what you ate for breakfast. They do this by means of a mathematical formula called an algorithm, invented by guys with brains the size of cantaloupes who haven’t seen the light of day for years. It’s one big online popularity contest, the results of which somehow infiltrate the entire cyber universe.
Frankly, if I had to worry about all this and how it works, I wouldn’t have a blog. I wouldn’t have the time: we’re in the business of helping people buy and sell homes, and that keeps us nice and busy, thank you. Writing a blog is fun, for someone who likes to write. But it’s primarily a tool, a way to deliver useful information to our constituency, get feedback from you, and build an online community that’s accessible to almost everyone.
Just don’t ask me how it all works. I haven’t a clue.
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Meet The Moss Haedrich Team: The Raining Realtors of Keller Williams, Annapolis
April 18th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
On The Surface, This Photo Would Appear to be Nothing More Than Six Foolish Keller Williams Real Estate Agents Standing in an Annapolis Rain. But There’s More Here Than Meets the Eye.
Fridays - you may know - are for fun on our blog, and this photo qualified nicely.
A little back story: For a couple of months now we’ve been talking about the idea of an official team photo for this, our new blog, something we can park permanently on our “About” page. Much discussion has ensued. Should we do this in a studio? Or outside, in front of our sign, for a more “natural” look? Do we color coordinate, or sort of do our own thing, dresswise? Ties or no ties?
These are not easy choices, especially when you are a business and you want to project a certain image. Image is important, as you know. Just look at what the presidential candidates are going through at the moment. Hillary Clinton is trying her darnedest to look like a regular Jane, knocking back whiskey with the boys. Obama has taken to bowling and cracking jokes on late night television, doing his best to show voters he’s non-elitist. It’s all about image.
Which is why I’m posting this photo without the consent of my team, knowing full well that the ladies on our team would not approve. To be sure, it is starting to rain; look at Jeremiah’s jacket, to the far right. We did not, by the way, wait for the rain to shoot this; it simply followed us to the appointed hour. Anyway, there we are seconds away from bolting for the door of our office, and doing our best not to look like it.
The ladies - Kathy, Bev, Carol and Nikki - would tell me the rain has ruined their
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This Is Not a Video From The Closing We Had Yesterday, But It Almost Could Be
April 11th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays
Sometimes, Everything Just Goes Right on the Way to the Settlement Table. Yesterday Was One of Those Days Here in Annapolis
Fridays are for fun on our blog, and nothing is more fun in this business than a home sale that goes smoothly from start to finish. This was one of those times.
Our sellers had a ratified contract in 39 days - that was lots of fun for them, because protracted showings are decidedly NOT FUN. The home inspection went well, too. The buyers’ agents - whom we’ve worked with before - were a dream. It was just one big textbook example of the pefect closing. No meltdowns, no funds lost in cyberspace or suprises during the final walk-through, either.
We try not to call them closings, by the way. We like the word “celebration” because there’s a lot to celebrate and, if everyone has done their job well, this isn’t a closing so much as an opening, the starting point for what could be a lifelong relationship between a Realtor and a client.
Anyway, we have the best clients in the world. They’re so appreciative of the work we do on their behalf and this video sort of reminded me of some of the warm and fuzzy settlements we’ve had over the years, some of them unexpectedly so. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.
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Bad News for Annapolis Area Home Sellers: 5,000 People Won’t Be at Your Open House on Sunday
April 4th, 2008 Categories: Fun Fridays, Sellers
They’ll Be Hanging Out with Us at the 34th Annual Running of The Marlborough Hunt Races at Roedown, in Davidsonville. Maybe You Should Just Join Us.
It’s one of our favorite rites of spring: put on the boots, pack up the tailgate party, and head out to the rolling meadows of historic Roedown Farm for a spirited afternoon of steeple-chasing. (The name goes back some 300 years, the story goes, to when a couple of Irishmen set up a race between two church steeples.)
The big draw may be the races, but it’s the tailgate parties that set the festive tone for the day. Groups large and small fill the hillside flanking the race field, the aroma of barbecue and beans hanging over the assembled like a cloud. It’s awesome.
We - Bev and I - have the good fortune to belong to a select group of locals who judge the tailgate party food and award ribbons for the best in several categories. It’s a tough assignment, especially when the entrants stoop to bribery with double-strength mint juleps and choice wines when we show up. Rest assured, we are beyond reproach. Usually.
So try to make it if you can. The festivities don’t wind down until late in the afternoon, so tell your Realtor she can do an extra-long open house if she likes.
Meanwhile, here’s a classic clip from the annals of horse racing that I thought you’d enjoy. I look at this from time to time to get in touch with my inner 13-year old.
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