Author: ARLnow.com Sponsor

WWBG: Richmond Rising

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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Editor’s Note: This biweekly column is sponsored by Dominion Wine and Beer (107 Rowell Court, Falls Church). It is written by Garrett Cruce, a Cicerone Program Certified Beer Server.

After several years of carrying two Richmond breweries — Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery and Hardywood Park Craft Brewery — Dominion Wine and Beer was looking to expand their offerings from Virginia’s capital city. The great news is that they will be carrying beers from Strangeways Brewing and Ardent Craft Ales.

In a city that has seen a renaissance in recent years — it was named among the top 10 places to travel by Travel + Leisure magazine — one can find 13 breweries of varying size. Soon to be added to those ranks is the San Diego behemoth, Stone Brewing Co. Also among that 13 are the two newest breweries to Dominion’s line up: Ardent Craft Ales and Strangeways Brewing.

Ardent Craft Ales

Ardent Craft Ales began in the way many contemporary craft breweries do: as a result of a great deal of homebrewing. Co-owners, Tom Sullivan and Paul Karns, formed a co-op of homebrewers who bought a half-barrel pilot brewing system and set out to learn as much about brewing as possible. The co-op brought them into contact with Kevin O’Leary had recently brewed for Cambridge Brewing Company in Massachusetts. As the three men shared ideas and continued to learn, Ardent Craft Ales was born.

BeerArdent Craft Ales Szechuan Peppercorn Saison (6.7% ABV)

I’m going to cut right to the chase, this saison is a treat! All the smells and flavors are there from the clove in the aroma and the banana in the flavor. What puts this beer ahead of other recent saisons is the bubble gum sweetness that cuts the herbal bitterness that often comes out in the style. Instead of finishing bitter, Ardent’s saison starts out with a shock of herbs and finishes sweet. This is a tasty, drinkable beer that would accompany your weekend BBQ well.

Strangeways Brewing

Down railroad tracks from Ardent is a brewery that RateBeer named the Best Brewery Taproom in Virginia: Strangeways Brewing. Founded by Neil Burton and Mike Hiller in 2013, the original intention was to use an existing brewery in an arrangement called “alternating proprietorship,” but it was against the law. Like other entrepreneurs, Neil Burton worked with the Virginia legislature to put a law in place. His success came right as craft brewing was booming in Richmond, which meant that there wasn’t a brewery that could accommodate another brewer. Burton and Hiller, who met while working on the law, decided to open their own brewery.

BeerStrangeways Brewing Albino Monkey Belgian-style White Ale (5.0% ABV)

This spiced white ale smells good and clove-y. It’s a wonderful aroma, which leads into a powerfully pungent sip where cloves and banana collide. The Belgian yeast, and the spices, make all this possible. Underlying the whole thing is a solid wheat-based malty beer that works in harmony with the yeast to create a flavorful brew. It’s easy to overlook these wheat ales, but this one should be savored.

BeerStrangeways Brewing Überlin Berliner Weisse (4.75% ABV)

True to its lineage, sour wheat beers, this golden beer has an aroma that mixes lemon with vinegar and a hint of baking soda. The vinegar is a clue that this Berliner Weisse leans away from the traditional balance of malt and tartness, and toward the trend of all out sour beers. The flavor exceeds the expected tartness of the style going all the way to full-on pucker. Though not a copy of the Berliner Weisse style, this sour beer should please those in search of another brew to tie your tongue into knots.

BeerStrangeways Brewing Woodbooger Belgian-style Brown Ale (6.0% ABV)

The chocolate and coffee aroma of this dark brown ale are very enticing, but the true delight is in the flavor. Up front is a powerful vanilla that gradually turns into brown sugar and dried figs as the slight effervescence tickles your tongue. This is a fairly simple beer, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. With more character — and sweetness — than your typical dubbel, Woodbooger stands out as a truly American reinvention of a classic. Despite the low alcohol, this flavorful beer encourages sipping. Enjoy one, or two, slowly and get all that it has to offer.

Be sure to come down to Dominion Wine and Beer to get some of these Richmond beers!

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

The hot Spring real estate market in Arlington has continued this week with 79 homes being sold, and of those some 28 sold within seven days of hitting the market.

More bidding wars and multiple contracts were reported in all parts of Arlington. The average price of homes sold this week hit $622,000.  The average sale price for the entire USA is $222,000. Homes sold this week in Arlington ranged in price from $140,000 to $2.2 million. Year over year for first quarter, the median sales price in Arlington inched up only 2.64% from 2015, while the national average sold price increased 5.7%.

This week 85 new listings came on the market. That’s the good news for buyers. The bad news is mortgage interest rates ticked up eight basis points to 3.8% for a 30-yr fixed rate.

Click to see all the fresh new inventory in MRIS and call Team Cathell (703-975-2500) when you find a home you like.

Rental Trends: How to Comply with Fair Housing Rules in D.C.

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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This biweekly sponsored column is written by the experts at Gordon James Realty, a local property management firm that specializes in residential real estate, commercial real estate and home owner associations. Please submit any questions in the comments section or via email.

The Fair Housing Act is a federal law that protects tenants and prospective tenants from illegal housing discrimination. However, many states — and the District of Columbia — have their own fair housing rules. These tend to expand on the federal law, guaranteeing additional rights to current and potential renters or homeowners.

The Fair Housing Act covers a few broad categories. For example, you can’t not rent a property to someone simply because they have a disability. It seems obvious, but problems can arise when the potential tenant has a service animal. Is it discrimination to not allow that person to rent if you have a no-pets policy? It is.

Other basic categories include:

  • Race
  • Religion
  • Color
  • National origin
  • Disability
  • Sex (gender or sexual harassment)
  • Family status

D.C.’s rules build upon the seven. To comply with the District’s fair housing rules, remember these 11 areas:

  • Age
  • Marital status
  • Family responsibilities
  • Victim of an intra-family offense (domestic violence)
  • Personal appearance
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity or expression
  • Matriculation
  • Political affiliation
  • Source of income
  • Place of residence or business of any individual

In addition to outright discrimination, be aware that “steering” and “blockbusting” are equally illegal. That means you can’t “nudge” people toward another property or neighborhood because of a personal preference, or advertise in order to attract tenants from a particular demographic.

Blockbusting isn’t as common these days, but you can still find pockets of it here and there. It’s the practice of introducing minority homeowners into previously all-white neighborhoods in order to profit from prejudice-driven market instability.

It may be easy to avoid most of those areas, but you eventually will run into a tenant who causes a pause. We suggest developing a qualifying checklist or working with a property management company that uses one. It puts all your tenants on equal footing. More importantly, it’ll keep you in compliance with fair housing rules in Washington, D.C.

If you would like property management help, contact us here.

Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by licensed broker Aaron Seekford of Arlington Realty, Inc. GET MORE out of your real estate investment with Aaron and his team by visiting www.MrArlington.com or calling 703-836-6116 today!

Please note: While Aaron Seekford provides this information for the community, he is not the listing agent of these homes.

There is a lot more to getting a good deal in real estate than a seemingly low list price. And as the old adage goes (which certainly applies to real estate transactions), you can’t simply judge a book by its cover.

Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases most folks will make, so it’s incredibly important to be meticulous when it comes to your future home. In order to get a truly good deal – and not a headache – you’ll want to look beyond the staging, in to the nitty-gritty of a contract, through the walls and into a home’s systems… and much, much more.

Having worked with buyers for 20 years, my goal is always to help them GET MORE out of their transaction and never settle for anything less than the best. And, that requires diving deep in to every aspect of a transaction.

These reduced properties are only the beginning of a successful transaction if you do everything else right along the way as well!

This week, as of April 24, there are 231 detached homes, 46 townhouses and 332 apartments for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 59 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week.

Here is this week’s selection of Just Reduced properties:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Aaron Seekford.

Ask Eli: Ballston – Top 5 Hottest Neighborhood in the D.C. Area (Or Is It?)

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Rosslyn resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: I saw last week’s Washingtonian article that Ballston is a top 5 hottest neighborhood in the D.C. metro area with median price growth of 10%. Is the Ballston market really that hot?

There’s no doubt that Ballston has become a much more desirable place to live over the last few years and will continue that trend with the upcoming Ballston Quarter redevelopment of the Ballston Common (Mall), but the Washingtonian article is a good example of why it’s so difficult to produce really good data analysis on a local level, without being intimately familiar with the area. Some quick notes on the data they used:

  • They consider Ballston the 22203 zip code, which covers a lot of area most people wouldn’t consider Ballston and does not include areas north of the metro that are in Ballston, including many condo buildings like the Eastview, Westview, and The Berkeley.
  • They include sales from The Jefferson at 900 Taylor St, which is an anomaly in market research because it’s a senior living community, with a much different cost structure (sold prices are significantly lower). As a matter of fact, when I removed The Jefferson sales, the YoY median price growth in 22203 increased from the reported 10% to 18.4%.

So is this real growth? Are buyers that excited about the Mike Isabella restaurants and upcoming Ballston Quarter? Should owners in 22203 cash in immediately? Here’s where the growth came from:

  • Ballston Row Townhomes: Ballston Row is a community of new, high-end townhomes that sell from the high 700s to just over $1M. In 2014, these homes represented only 2.5% of recorded sales (7 of 281) versus 8% (23 of 289) in 2015, with an average sold price nearly $45k higher in 2015 to boot. This flood of high-end sales, averaging over $300,000 more than the rest of the 22203 market, had a significant impact on YoY median price growth.
  • Single Family/Detached Homes: Another area of growth was for single family/detached homes. Within the SFH sub-market there was YoY growth of 5.7%, which I believe is driven in large part from older homes being bought by developers for renovations or re-builds to meet the high demand for high-end homes in North Arlington.
  • (Not) Condos: As I mentioned earlier, the 22203 zip code leaves out a large number of key Ballston condo buildings, so this isn’t a good time to measure the YoY growth of Ballston condos, but within 22203, there was only .1% YoY growth within the condo market. I believe that a newer building like the Residences at Liberty Center will do quite well once Ballston Quarter is complete.

The answer to the question is “yes” Ballston is a hot market and there’s high demand in the luxury, high-end pricing market that has pushed the median sold price up, but the majority of home owners in 22203 shouldn’t expect to see double digit increases in their property value like the Washingtonian article suggests.

For buyers, this is a good reason to consider Ballston because most property values haven’t jumped too much and there’s large-scale development on the horizon that promises to boost the entire market once it’s established.

Do you think Ballston is the hottest market in Arlington? What about other neighborhoods like the eastern section of Columbia Pike, Rosslyn, and Crystal City?

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at http://www.RealtyDCMetro.com.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with Real Living At Home, 2420 Wilson Blvd #101 Arlington, VA 22201, (202) 518-8781.

Open House at Our Savior Lutheran School

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Looking for a small, affordable, private, Christian day school with a small town community feel? Can you appreciate a school which begins each day with the students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing My Country ‘Tis of Thee? Then please come visit the open house at Our Savior Lutheran School, which will be held Thursday, April 28th from 9:00-11:00 a.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Come see a hidden gem of a school which has been in the heart of Arlington providing education and service since 1952. The school is conveniently located close to the Pentagon and Route 50 in Arlington.

Grades Pre-K (age 4 by September 30) through 8th grade are offered with very small class sizes (only 20 students per class). The elementary school grades have self-contained classrooms, while the middle school is departmentalized. The school also has one of the lowest tuition rates in Northern Virginia. The dedicated, caring teachers work hand-in-hand with an active community of families which make this school thrive.

Students are encouraged to start a life of service through various opportunities:

  • Weekly Chapel offerings are designated to various groups in need for our neighbors in Arlington and around the world
  • Walk for the Homeless and preparing bag meals for ASPAN
  • Letters to pen pals (elderly members of the church congregation)
  • Stop Hunger Now — the entire school helped prepare dry meals to send overseas
  • Pairing middle schoolers and kindergarteners as chapel buddies
  • Sixth graders begin and start the day by raising the American flag and assisting with the Kiss-N-Ride line
  • Our Savior also offers many extracurricular activities including a music and a choral program, After school clubs that include foreign language (Spanish and French), and a baking club.

If you are interested in what Our Savior has to offer and why this school shines, please come by the Open House on Thursday, April 28th from 9:00-11:00 a.m. and  6:00-8:00 p.m. or call to schedule a tour any other day.

The school is located at 825 S. Taylor St., Arlington, VA 22204 Phone: (703) 892-4846, osva.org.

The preceding post was written and sponsored by Our Savior Lutheran School.

Local Woof: Puppy Challenge #1 – House Training

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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The Local Woof is a column that’s sponsored and written by the staff of Woofs! Dog Training Center. Woofs! has full-service dog training, boarding, and daycare facilities, near Shirlington and Ballston.

So you have a cute new puppy? Congratulations! But now what?

Puppies naturally bite, cry, poop and pee. Then we get them in the house and immediately want them NOT to bite, cry, poop or pee. It’s a pretty tall order for an 8 week old.

So here are a few tips on how to gently mold your tiny new best friend into the awesome dog you know she can be.

House Training: You need to immediately start to teach your puppy that you would seriously prefer that they eliminate outside and not in the house. This is actually pretty straight forward (most of the time) but it is super labor intensive, and that is where most people have trouble.

They just aren’t taking the puppy out often enough.

So how often, is enough? If you are crate training, your 8 to 10 week old puppy needs to be let out of their crate every 2 hours. If you work outside the home you will need a cadre of neighbors, friends and dog walkers to meet these needs. If the crate is the right size and they aren’t expected to hold it longer than they are physically capable, the pup will naturally try not to soil their sleeping area.

At night, your puppy should be sleeping in his crate, but you should expect to be woken up once or twice each night for the fist week or so. 2 and 4 am trips to the yard are going to be the norm for a while.

When you are home and the puppy is out of the crate that’s where the real commitment comes into play. To start, you need to take your puppy out for a bathroom break at least once an hour. If the puppy is still having accidents go to every half hour. In addition to every hour, add on after they wake from a nap and after they are done playing. So, like I said, labor intensive. But, if you do it, you can have a fully house trained puppy in three weeks or less.

The reason this works is because young puppies are very impressionable and will develop a substrate preference for where they eliminate. If you take them out often enough and they are constantly eliminating outside, then that will be where they prefer to go. Add in copious opportunities to do the right thing and a few treats for a job well done and it’s easy to convince the pup that it’s better to go outside than inside.

Inevitably, the pup will have an accident. Don’t stress about it. Doing the right thing 90% of the time will make an accident here or there irrelevant. There is no need to reprimand the puppy. The practice of rubbing their noses in their urine is outdated, cruel and ineffective. Simply clean up the mess, provide more opportunities to eliminate outside and move forward.

Next up? Puppy mouthing.

Orange Line Living Hosting Home Seller Seminar

The following promoted post was written and sponsored by Orange Line Living.

Orange Line Living logoYour home sold guaranteed, or we sell it for free! If you have a home to sell, buy a home with us and we guarantee the sale of your home or we’ll buy it! *exclusive to event attendees only*

The Orange Line Living and Keri Shull team are hosting a Home Seller Seminar event on April 25th at our Rosslyn office located at 1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 101, in Arlington. We will have specialists on hand (including lenders and listing agents) to give you an overview of the home selling process.

We will be providing a few additional benefits to all seminar attendees:

  • Contractor Credit to get your home ready for the market. ($250 value)
  • Free Home Valuation

The Orange Line Living and Keri Shull Team together have helped over 360 families buy and sell homes in 2015. Together, they are the #1 real estate team in Arlington and #1 real estate team in Virginia by volume. Also, not forgetting to mention top 5 in the D.C. metro area as well. Their aim is to help even more families find their dream home in 2016 and you have the opportunity to be one of those people.

We will be providing drinks and appetizers. Space is limited to sign up now so you do not miss out. For information, click here, email [email protected] or give us a call at 571-969-7653.

Details:

When: April 25, 2016 from 6pm-8pm

Where: Optime Realty, 1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 101, Arlington, VA 22209

Cost: Free

Parking: Validated Parking or Street Parking

Food: Appetizers and Drinks

Contact: [email protected] or call 571-969-7653

Space is limited so you don’t miss out. To register, go to www.vipsellerseminar.com or email [email protected].

*terms and conditions apply

Rethink Energy: NEW Energy Lending Library and FREE LED Bulbs

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy team (AIRE). This county program helps you make smart energy decisions that save you money and leaves a lighter footprint on the environment. Got a question? Email us at [email protected]!

It’s Earth Day and being energy-efficient just got a whole lot easier. Arlington residents can now plug into the first Energy Lending Library in the country to help identify energy waste in homes and provide energy efficiency solutions.

Now available with the swipe of your library card (and for free) are:

Thermal imaging cameras that indicate where insulation is missing and where air leaks occur in homes.

Energy meters to understand how much electricity appliances and electronics use. Understanding energy use in the home is the first step toward a “greener” home.

A curated booklist offering energy saving tips to complete “do-it-yourself” energy efficiency projects that save energy and money. Books are for adults and kids with a few in Spanish, too.

How to Get a Free LED from AIREThe Energy Lending Library was created by the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy (AIRE) in partnership with Arlington Public Library.

Also, don’t miss out on the LED bulb swaps happening this Saturday and Sunday at Central Library. Bring in one old incandescent light bulb and exchange it for an energy efficient LED bulb, at no cost!

One LED per household, while supplies last!

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

There’s more good news for buyers this week in Arlington. Fresh supply of new listings outpaced ratified contracts. Some 93 new listings came on the market this week, while buyers ratified 78 contracts on homes ranging in price from $100,000 to $2.7 million. Of those homes sold, 26 sold within seven days on market.

Agents reported numerous bidding wars this week. The most outrageous was in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C. where a tear down property received 52 contracts.

Interest rates remained steady this week with virtually no changes. The 30-yr fixed rate is at 3.72%. Mortgage lenders are introducing some new very cool products lately with low down payments of 0%-10% and loan amounts up to $2 million. If you are currently shopping for a loan, do some research and ask about new products.

Click to see all the fresh new inventory in MRIS and call Team Cathell (703-975-2500) when you find a home you like.

Healthy Paws: Pet First Aid & Emergencies, Part II – When to Worry?

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Healthy Paws

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Last time, we talked about getting comfortable with the at-home exam so that you are comfortable knowing what is normal for your pet.  This week, we’ll focus on what constitutes an emergency and give you some guidelines for when to seek immediate care.

Things that warrant immediate veterinary attention include:

  • Any severe difficulty in breathing – increased abdominal effort to breathing, bluish-discoloration to the gums, open-mouth breathing in cats
  • Anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) – typically manifested as collapse or extreme lethargy, severe vomiting or diarrhea that is acute in nature, or severe facial swelling**
    • **Mild facial swelling may sometimes be treated on an outpatient basis or even at home with the advice of your veterinarian and is rarely life-threatening; however, in severe cases the swelling can be so significant as to partially occlude the airway, making immediate treatment vitally important
  • Ongoing bleeding that is not responding to applied pressure
  • Dragging limbs, ataxia (“drunk” walking), or inability to walk
  • Extreme lethargy/depression
  • Temperature greater than 105 degrees F
  • Prolonged seizures or more than 2 seizures in 24 hours
    • A single seizure does not always warrant immediate veterinary attention if the patient is alert and “back to normal” quickly thereafter; however, we always recommend contacting your veterinarian if your pet has a seizure and has no previous history of them
  • Bite wounds — with penetrating bite wounds, what we see from the surface is often “only the tip of the iceberg” — thus, it’s usually best to seek veterinary attention for all but the most superficial of bite wounds
  • Protracted vomiting and/or diarrhea – in many cases, a single episode of vomiting or diarrhea does not need immediate attention; however, if it is accompanied by lethargy or other symptoms we recommend at least consulting with your veterinarian.
  • Fractured limbs or penetrating wounds
  • Injuries to the eye — in general, our rule of thumb with any acute issue affecting the eye is that it should be seen as quickly as possible to ensure treatment is started in a timely manner
  • Known or high suspicion of ingestion of a toxin/poison or foreign object
  • Last but not least, you know your pet best of all, so even if there is not an obvious or clear-cut problem but you just feel that something is “off” we recommend consulting with your veterinarian.

What can I do while getting veterinary help?

  • Stay calm
  • Contact your veterinary hospital, or the emergency hospital if after-hours, to get advice and to let them know you are coming in so they can be fully prepared
  • If known trauma, keep your pet warm and keep movement to a minimum
  • Drive carefully on your way in!

We are fortunate to have many great emergency hospitals in the area, which serve as an excellent resource for you and your pets during hours when your primary veterinarian may not be available.

The American Veterinary Medical Association recently released a video on pet CPR, which we encourage everyone to watch at least once.

And, as we mentioned in the last installment, there are some really great online resources available:

Check out Clarendon Animal Care’s Calendar of Upcoming Events, including the AWLA Walk for the Animals on 5/7, Taste of Arlington on 5/15, and a Yappy Hour to benefit AWLA on 5/26!

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