NRVLiving - Real Estate. Simplified.

Working Nine To Five

Real estate talk's around the corner, I promise - lots of stuff happening here at NRVLiving these past couple of weeks and I'm just starting to get back on my feet, so I know it's been an oft repeated phrase lately but bear with me!

January 21st 2009 was the first full day of a new administration, and everything I keep hearing is that they've got 100 day grace period before the public starts to keep a tally.  Now, I think the public's starting to keep a Pro and Con checklist sooner than that, but nevertheless one of the items on the administration's agenda has to be the economy and jobs.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has risen to 7.2%.  Job losses are on a lot of people's minds, even here in the New River Valley where the unemployment rate rose to 5.6%.

But there is good news, as well, particularly here in the New River Valley.  Have you seen the latest Fortune  Magazine?  Check it out - Blacksburg's Mailtrust, and it's parent company Rackspace, was named one of the 100 Best Companies To Work For (#43, to be exact).  Congratulations to Pat and all the rest of the crowd over at Mailtrust - they are certainly a trendsetter in our area.

They're not the only ones making a difference, though.  And you can be a part of the action, as well.  Opportunities to improve are available now through the Roanoke Higher Education Center open house on February 5th.  Check out this video for more information ...

Think YOUR Robot's Cool? Look At What This One Can Do.

Dr. Dennis Hong is a friend of the blog, and we are a friend of his, so anytime his RoMeLa group does something noteworthy (which seems to be a LOT) we try to give him some pub. So check this one out ...

Earlier in December, Dr. Hong's RoMeLa humanoid robot DARwin conducted the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" ... that's right, DARwin, a robot, conducted a symphony.  He's told me before how it's done, but I don't understand a word.  It should be noted this isn't a preprogrammed response to the song - this thing is actually conducting and responding.  Freaky.  So enjoy, and congratulations to Dr. Hong and his amazing group of students.  (It takes a couple of minutes to get into the song, but well worth the wait).

Updated 12/19 8:21am And it looks like Hong and his group have won another international award. Underachievers - just imagine what they could do if they actually applied themselves. :)

Stuart Mease On Supporting Local Business in the Roanoke and New River Valleys

Rackspace, and it's webmail division of Mailtrust - which, coincidentally is Blacksburg-grown - IPO'd in August 2008, yet very little was written about it in the local paper.  Stuart's contention is that success stories like Mailtrust, and so many others located throughout our region, need the support and publicity that all of us can provide.

This is important to real estate for a couple of reasons.  First, Stuart mentioned the term "creative-class" jobs when he referred to Mailtrust's initiative to bring 100+ new jobs to the Blacksburg community within the next 18 months.  I'd not heard the term "creative-class jobs" before, but I like it ... creative class jobs are in demand in what has rapidly become a global economy, and the workforce created by these jobs encourages not only new businesses creation in the region, but also the relocation of existing businesses - and therefore their jobs as well - into the region.  These are not positions that are outsourced; they are jobs that are created, maintained and promoted within the region, and Mailtrust is but one example of this local talent.

Thanks to Handshake 2.0 for sharing the video.

NEW! SWVABloggers.com

I JUST found out about a cool new site for Southwest VA that I wanted to make sure to put out there.  It's called SWVABloggers.com, and it's put together by a group of bloggers who want to offer a one stop to get information from all sorts of SWVA blogs.  From their site:

The idea behind the site is to pool the creative writing skills and wide variety of topics from local bloggers into one site. From local sports and business, to parenting and local governments; we’re looking to bring all the local bloggers under one URL. We’re not asking them to move their blogs here, SWVABloggers.com simply offers them another outlet to showcase their passions while at the same time, providing a centralized site with a wide range of topics related to this part of the Commonwealth.

A quick search through the site and I see information on pumpkin pickin', Virginia Tech sports, product reviews ... all kinds of stuff, even real estate (the screen shot above just happened to have a post I wrote yesterday, it was completely coincidental I swear).  Their list of bloggers includes:

• Stuart's Connecting People
• Heather's Desperately Seeking Reviews and Desperately Seeking Sanity
• Anne's Handshake 2.0
• My very own NRVLiving Real Estate Blog
• TechHoops.com
• Gary's TheGaryCope.com
• VTHokieFans.com

It's a great idea, thanks to those of you who took the time to put it together - they've even created a Facebook group and Twitter page!  If you'd like your blog to be a part of SWVABloggers.com (and membership is FREE), email Gary.

 

The New River Trail

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I took the bikes down to the New River Trail, where we picked it up in the Draper area.

The New River Trail is an abandoned railroad right-of-way, part of the Rails to Trails Program, and parallels the New River and Claytor Lake for 39 miles.  The entire park is actually 57 continuous miles long, and heads through Grayson, Carroll, Wythe and Pulaski counties.  Here's a map.

If you're looking for a new bike ride that's just gorgeous, I'd encourage you to check this one out.

Here are some pictures we took ...

Chris Pund Explores Why Small Towns Are Great For Big Business

The picture has nothing to do with the post - I just liked it.  Photo credit here.

Chris Pund talks about his reasons why small towns and cities are great for starting a business.  Chris isn't new to the small business scene - he's a serial entrepreneur, and received high praise from Stuart Mease for his role in Radford's student-run entrepreneurship seminar.

I think Chris is on track here.  Items #2, 6 and 9 in particular are truly benefits to living and working in a small town; there seems to be more flexibility and a spirit of collaboration among many of these smaller firms.  If you're thinking about starting a business in the New River Valley, let's talk about how to get you started - I'd bet there might be some folks at VT Knowledgeworks that might be interested in helping, as well.

H/t to Stuart Mease for this ...

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Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Congratulations to the Christiansburg Dixie All-Stars, headed to the Dixie League World Series in Mississippi.

I liked Seth Willis' quote:  "We're ... just happy to be here."  Proof you can start the athlete cliches early. :)

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Hey Radford - How's The Water?

Earlier in the week, I posted the Christiansburg 2007 Water Quality Report.  Following up on that today is Radford's 2007 Water Quality Report.  For the third consecutive year, Radford's Water Treatment Plant has received Virginia's Excellence in Waterworks Performance Award from the VA Department of Health.  Looks like the water's fine - there were no violations among the water samples tested.  You can download the entire report here:

Download annual_drinking_water_quality_report.pdf

Coming up next week ... Blacksburg's 2007 Water Quality Report. 

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Blacksburg High School Among Top High Schools In The Country

Just announced by Newsweek Magazine:

Blacksburg High School is one of the Top 5% of high schools in the country.

Let me repeat that.

Little 'ole Blacksburg High School has been ranked as one of the top high schools in the country.  From the County's press release:

"Montgomery County Public Schools has steadily increased its offering of Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment courses over the last few years. These offerings have provided students with more opportunities to take challenging courses throughout their secondary education."

There's been a steady improvement in the Blacksburg's ranking over the last few years ... in 2006, they were ranked 335th, and last year they improved to 330th.  I'm sure that's due in no small part to the teachers of Blacksburg High School, as well as to Principal Michael Hurst and his staff.  Congratulations to all!

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New River Community Action Cares ...

Thursday night, I had the honor of attending a dinner hosted by New River Community Action, honoring the many volunteers and community partners that provide valuable services to those in need around the area.  NRCA serves more than 12000 individuals around the New River Valley each year, dealing with a range of issues.  Poverty and hunger are not acceptable conditions in ANY community, and NRCA is working hard to address those issues.

That's what this dinner was about.

I was amazed at the completely selfless works that these volunteers were committing to the mission of New River Community Action.  Story after story was told of the tireless efforts of these folks - in one case, a woman (and I WISH I could remember her name to honor her) had committed more than 3400 volunteer hours in 2007.  Almost 40% of her year was spent volunteering.  We honored with a scholarship a young mother who had recently graduated from Floyd High School, and was going on to work in natural science and biology.  We honored Americorps volunteers ... grandmothers ... grandfathers ... individuals just like you and me, who were doing amazing work.

Did you know ...

• in 2007, 1.6 million Virginians donated more than 286 million volunteer hours?
• those 286 million volunteer hours equate to a $4 billion benefit to Virginia's economy?
• there's a service called 2-1-1 that you can call to get answers to all kinds of questions?

I found it amazing that last year, 2-1-1 fielded 24000 calls related to mental health issues.  TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND calls! 

We are blessed in the New River Valley to have organizations like New River Community Action.  These folks are working selflessly to give back ... how will YOU give back?  Will you pledge to donate not just your money in 2008 to programs like New River Community Action, but also your time?  Can Virginia provide more than 300 million volunteer hours in 2008?

Anything's possible.  Call New River Community Action at 540-633-5133 to find out where your talents might be best used.  Give back ... I bet you'll receive so much more in return.

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Start A Business In Blacksburg

I know I'm a few days late on this, but Blacksburg has just been named one of the Top 100 Places In The Country to live and start a business by Forbes.  I'm sure that's just one of the reasons we see companies like Mailtrust and Portaqua doing so well here (and by mentioning those two, I'm leaving out 100 others).  Check out the article ...      

See? Affordable Housing IS Cool!

Blacksburg's Lee-Roanoke Street development has one it's THIRD national award, it was just announced.  The project provided 14 homes to individuals and families living within Town limits.

Very COOL ...

The Roanoke Times Is Reporting New River Valley Sales Figures!

Home sales fell nationwide ~ 20%.

Home sales fell statewide 14%.

Home sales in the New River Valley INCREASED 10%.

That's the recap from today's article in The Roanoke Times.  So nice to see them reporting this.

The 10% figure is higher than what I found in talking with Sarah Cox for last Sunday's article (I've attached the grid for sales figures from 2005-2007 below), but nevertheless it's positive news.  We are certainly blessed, that's for sure.   If you'd like to talk further about today's market, email me, Twitter me, IM me or call me at 540-998-4731.  Yep!  We give you options.

NRVLive - National Syndication Next?

Congratulations should go out to John Harper of NRVLive, who yesterday announced that his show, NRVLive on 810AM, will be picked up by another station beginning in January of 2008.  NRVLive will begin covering goings-on not only here in the New River Valley, but also Central VA, South Virginia (where IS that, exactly?) and Winston-Salem NC. 

I can tell you that John has been working hard to revamp NRVLive and it's really picking up steam.  You can even call in and get involved yourself - just dial 866-961-1430 or 540-961-1430.  The show runs every weekday from  7am-9am on 810AM WPIN.  Great news John, congratulations!

What's Your Carbon Footprint?

Blacksburg recently announced it produces 780 kilotons of greenhouse gases each year.  Been pondering how much a kiloton weighs?  I thought so.  Try 2 million pounds.  So Blacksburg - little 'ole Blacksburg - produces 1.560 billion pounds of greenhouse gases a year.  Now, more than a billion of those pounds come from AEP-generated electricity, but it still seems to me like someone needs to shed a little weight. 

Going green saves the green, if you know what I mean.  Sorry, couldn't help myself.

With Blacksburg's focus on being a Cool-City, and with energy-efficiency being one of the hot button topics of the day, there are some easy ways to save money while making your property more efficient.  Consider programmable thermostats or motion-activated light switches, low-flow shower heads, or a new HVAC system.  Jim Duncan lists ten other ways on RealCentralVA.com, and he's right when he says that buyers are "taking utility bills into consideration when making offers."  Just last week, I wrote one contingent upon seeing a utility bill.  Something to consider.

Discover your carbon footprint here.

Robots Are Taking Over The World

** Disclaimer - This has nothing to do with real estate but I GUARANTEE you'll be impressed once you've watched the video.

I've mentioned Dr. Dennis Hong here on the blog before - you might remember that he was the professor at Virginia Tech who won the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award for his work with Whole Skin Locomotion.  Right ... who hasn't won that award?  I kid.  His RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Lab) at Virginia Tech is literally on the cutting edge of Robotics and locomotion. 

I ran into Dr. Hong and his wife yesterday at lunch, and he was telling me about what he and his team at RoMeLa are working on.  He said something along the lines of "we're working on a three-legged walking machine that exploits the concept of actuated passive dynamic locomotion to walk with high energy efficiency and minimal control.  At the same time, we're increasingly adding more complex movements to our dynamic anthropomorphic robot with intelligence (DARwin).  At the same time, our Whole Skin Locomotion project is growing leaps and bounds by mimicking the motion of the cytoplasmic streaming ectoplasmic tube in amoebae ... It's really COOL!"  That last part was what I understood. 

But then he sent me this video last night.  Dr. Hong has been on any number of national shows over the years, demonstrating his lab's extraordinary work.  The most recent show was from Discovery Channel - check this out.  I love the video about the four-minute mark ... the fact that a robot can recognize a win or a loss in dice is fascinating to me!

Webmail.us To Merge With Rackspace

Perhaps you've heard the noise, but Webmail.us has entered a deal with Rackspace to merge the two companies, who provide email and rackspace hosting, respectively.  If you've lived in the area for a while you've likely heard of Webmail.us.  They're headquartered here in Blacksburg, they host email for more than 70,000 companies, and were recently named #217 on Inc.com's 2007 list of the top 500 private companies in America.  If they could ever get their act straight, they might actually do something impressive!  (I'm kidding, Pat). 

I don't know their CEO, Pat Matthews, personally, although I do stalk his blog every once in a while.  And it becomes readily apparent that Pat and his crew at Webmail.us like to do things a little bit differently.  Need proof?  Check out this job posting ...

Congratulations to Pat and everyone at Webmail.us for their hard work ... they're just one more example of why the New River Valley is a great place to live and work.  I hope they'll find this merger with Rackspace provides them even greater opportunities for success!

http://www.rackspace.com/information/mediacenter/release.php?id=173

http://www.webmail.us/blog/a/2007/10/we_are_merging_with_rackspace

Bad Fashion & Child Care - You Had No Idea They Were Related???

Fashions come and go (well, hopefully we don't see ALL of them come back), but there's one that's sweeping the New River Valley you just don't want to miss.  It's one of a kind ... I guarantee there's nothing like it.  And you don't want to miss it.

It's the NRVLiving Store, and it's now open.  And from now until October 31st, all proceeds will go to benefit the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center.  That's 100% of all monies earned!  VICCC is a charity that we here at NRVLiving support on a regular basis, and we want to make sure you can too. 

Did you know?

• Every day in Virginia, 30% of our youth are living in poverty (<$16090), and 12% live in extreme poverty (<$8045).
• 31% of 4th graders are scoring BELOW basic reading levels.
• Children who enter kindergarten ready to learn are more likely to read at grade level by the 3rd grade.
• By age 5, a child’s brain will reach 90% of its adult size, yet public investment lags in these critical years.  That investment can be as low as $232.
• One child in our juvenile detention centers will cost taxpayers $79,355 a year. 
  

We're not supporting VICCC because it looks good, we support VICCC because it's the right thing to do.  And we want you to support them as well.  Read this document (Download early_childhood_facts.doc) and if you feel it's the right thing to do, then we hope you'll visit the Store and join the cause.  There are plenty of  organizations out there you can support - this is one you can't afford to miss. 

So put away the parachute pants, lock up your NASA-inspired hair spray, and turn off the Go White Boy Go music.  Maddi says go shopping instead ...

High Quality of Life, Good Job Opportunities & Low-cost of living ... sound familiar?

Blacksburg/Christiansburg/Radford - A low-cost place to be.  From MSN comes this article showing the "tri-city" area of Blacksburg/Christiansburg/Radford to be one of the Top 10 Low-Cost Locales in the country, with a high quality of life and good job prospects.  We're called a Flyover city, which is just fine by me.

"Blacksburg is the largest of the three communities and combines a small-town feel and college amenities with a beautiful setting in the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains. A pleasant climate and proximity to nearby Roanoke, with its excellent arts, commerce and health care, are perks. The wooded area lacks some big-city hustle and amenities, and is isolated from air service. But it has a low cost of living, with a median home price of only $197,800 and great outdoor recreation opportunities to boot."

High Performing Title I Schools in Montgomery County

I often have clients moving to the New RIver Valley from elsewhere and invariably the school system ranks as one of the top three criteria they'll base their home buying decision on.  Well, Montgomery County has just been recognized as having two schools who qualified for the Virginia Department of Education's "Title I Distinguished Schools".  Congrats to Margaret Beeks Elementary and Price's Fork Elementary, both part of the Montgomery County school district.  You can read the entire press release here.