Tag Archives: Chappaqua Homes for Sale

Chappaqua Homes for Sale

Health Department Issues Heat Advisory In Chappaqua | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. — With temperatures soaring towards 90 degrees on Monday, the Westchester County Health Department has issued a county-wide heat advisory.

Residents are advised to avoid strenuous activity, drink plenty of non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverages, and take precautions to prevent heat-related illness.

The Health Department also stated to residents to be alert for symptoms of heat stroke.

Symptoms include hot, red, dry skin; shallow breathing; a rapid, weak pulse; and confusion. Anyone suffering from heat stroke needs to receive emergency medical treatment immediately. Call 911 if you suspect heat stroke and immediately cool the overheated person while waiting for emergency help to arrive.

“Heat stroke and dehydration can take you by surprise,” Westchester County commissioner of health Dr. Sherlita Amler said in a statement. “The elderly, young children and those with high blood pressure, heart disease, or lung conditions need to be especially careful to avoid heat-related illnesses. High humidity and some medications can also increase a person’s risk for heat stroke.”

While less dangerous than heat stroke, heat exhaustion also poses concerns. Seniors, children up to age four, people who are overweight or who have high blood pressure and those who work in hot environments are most at risk. Signs include headache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness and exhaustion, as well as cool, moist, pale or flushed skin. People suffering from heat exhaustion should be moved out of the sun and have cool, wet cloths applied to their skin.

For more information, visit the Westchester County Health Department Website.

Making Social Marketing Make Sense For Small Business | Chappaqua Realtor

Leave a reply

When author and small business expert Steve Strauss was commissioned to write the third edition of the best-selling Small Business Bible, his publisher asked if enough had changed in the business world since the 2009 second edition debuted to warrant a new installment.

Short answer? Hell yes. “The only social network around when I wrote the last installment was Myspace,” he laughed when he stopped by FORBES this week to discuss the release and a new survey revealing new insights into the ways small businesses should (and are and in many cases aren’t) using social media in their marketing efforts.

“Hands down, the biggest mistake small businesses are making on social media is not using social media,” he says, pointing to a stat from the recent STAPLES study that found that while most small business owners want to use social (in fact, on a wish-list of small biz marketing entrepreneurs rank amassing Facebook FB +1.4% friends above a Super Bowl commercial) and know they should be using social, more than a quarter haven’t considered how it can help their businesses and an equal number consider themselves novices.

To quote Seth Godin, “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of one of the greatest shifts of our generation,” Strauss writes in his book on the imperative for small business owners to embrace social. To that end, he shared with FORBES three clear

 

Making Social Marketing Make Sense For Small Business – Forbes.

Chappaqua Realtor | Responsive Marketing

Leave a reply

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 1.01.19 PM
In the beginning, there were products and services, and some were good. Fewer became trusted brands, but those that did enjoyed unquestioned loyalty supported by a simple yet effective marketing engines built to reach people in mass quantity. The formula worked for decades. An empire was built on the shoulders of Madison Avenue and expanded globally. It is an empire, which still exists today, though arguably it’s a diminished version of its former self.

More recently, technology has had it’s own evolutionary process which it’s still going through. Well over a decade ago, when large organizations developed and updated their complex Web properties, the most popular and rigorous process one could follow in development was referred to as “Waterfall”.  Think of this as a descending, linear staircase where one step of the process was completed in full before moving on the next. The methodology was rigorous, but also left little room for tweaking, testing, adapting and improving along the way.

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 1.41.52 PM

Responsive Design
Today, digital design and development is often done leveraging the “agile” method of development, which favors smaller, cyclical bursts of development and rapid testing. Start-ups favor this approach as well building not only their tech products but also their business models in a way, which resembles more of an agile philosophy vs. a rigid, sequential approach. Even “large” start-ups like Facebook demonstrate this in how they roll out enhancements to their global platform, often making the changes incrementally, rolling them out with select users and then adjusting based off the data they analyze. Google often works this was as well. If you were to undertake designing and building a digital property today—you would also have to ensure that it would perform across multiple platforms (desktop, tablet, mobile). A popular methodology for developing this way is called “responsive design”—a technique, which leverages code that results in a shape shifting design which auto-magically fits the medium it, is being interacted with in.

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 1.19.43 PM
Most Marketing Remains Linear And Unresponsive
Despite the pervasive nature of all manifestations of digital, including social and mobile, much of the marketing emphasis remains dedicated to reaching people in mass, following a tried and true formula for advertising designed to build off consumer insights and craft compelling messages which could be distributed across a myriad of channels (including digital). The approach is designed for the broadcast industrial machine including print, radio and television, which, despite rumors of its demise is likely to stay with us for some time. The problem it poses however is that it is an approach that much like its counterpart in tech development, (Waterfall) is neither nimble nor flexible and isn’t built for rapid change nor does it adapt well beyond the dominant media it was designed for.

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 1.31.31 PM

“Content Marketing” Is Disrupting Modern Day Brand Building
CMOs, chief digital officers and brand managers across many organizations are currently grappling with the notion of content used in the context of marketing—inherently they understand that their customers value content, consume it, create it, and share it—and they want in on the action. They also understand that this type of content isn’t often the traditional campaigns they execute for broadcast so they face a dilemma:

What content do consumers value most?

How do they find it?

What gets individuals sharing content with peers?

How does content scale, reaching the right audience at the right time?

How do brands insert themselves into the content ecosystem in ways that bring value back to the brand?

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 3.25.25 PM

Responsive Marketing
The solution to the content question lies somewhere between acknowledging that a brand must support both a traditional, linear marketing model in addition to a newer, cyclical construct which is constantly in tune with the current environment and operates in consolidated time frames. Responsive marketing sits at the core of the content evolution that many companies find themselves trying to navigate as they pull together newsrooms,command centers and media operations which are designed to help brands act more like publishers. All of these can be effective in treating the symptoms a brand may exhibit if they possess only competencies in linear forms of marketing, but they do not address the root issue—deconstructing a marketing machine which places the majority of resources on mass marketing will ensure it never gains proficiency in alternate forms of content and media.

A more holistic approach is needed.

 

Logic+Emotion: Responsive Marketing.

Bernanke Says Premature Tightening Would Endanger Recover | Chappaqua NY Homes

Leave a reply

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said raising interest rates or reducing asset purchases too soon would endanger the recovery as the economy remains hampered by high unemployment and government spending cuts.

“A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further,” Bernanke said today in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress in Washington.

Bernanke lamented the human and economic costs of anunemployment rate at 7.5 percent nearly four years into the recovery from the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and he said the Fed’s record easing is providing “significant benefits.” His comments echoed remarks by William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who said in an interview that it would take three to four months before policy makers will know whether a sustainable recovery is in place.

Fed officials “need to see inflation expectations remain in a desired range, they need to see that the peak home-buying season goes as well as it can, and they need to see that we have absorbed the bulk of the huge fiscal consolidation” before they reduce the pace of purchases from $85 billion a month, said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC inJersey City, New Jersey.

Stocks erased an early rally and Treasuries fell after Bernanke said the Fed could “take a step down in our pace of purchases” in the “next few meetings.”

Brady Question

“We’re trying to make an assessment of whether or not we have seen real and sustainable progress in the labor market outlook,” Bernanke said in response to a question from Representative Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee. “If we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that is going to be sustained, then we could in — in the next few meetings, we could take a step down in our pace of purchases.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.6 percent to 1,659.54 at 2:54 p.m. in New York. Yields on the U.S. 10-year note rose above 2 percent for the first time since March.

“The market reacts pretty wildly to any hint of exit,” said Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “It’s a small exit and a lot of people are trying to get out of it — like a rock concert.”

“The Fed is not looking to very quickly get out of this,” said Hanson, a former Fed economist. “There’s obviously a few members who want to wrap this up sooner than later, but Bernanke doesn’t seem eager to pull back on QE very soon. He wants to see more evidence that the economy really is moving on a forward path.”

More Progress

Many Fed officials said more progress in the labor market is needed before deciding to slow the pace of asset purchases, according to minutes of their last meeting released after Bernanke’s testimony.

“Most observed that the outlook for the labor market had shown progress” since the bond-buying program began in September, according to the record of the April 30-May 1 gathering released today in Washington. “But many of these participants indicated that continued progress, more confidence in the outlook, or diminished downside risks would be required before slowing the pace of purchases would become appropriate.”

 

Bernanke Says Premature Tightening Would Endanger Recover – Bloomberg.

15 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

It has been another busy week as summer approaches, and everyone gets restless for the warm weather. If you’ve been too preoccupied soaking up some rays to check out the news, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered.

We at Mashable have rounded up the most important updates in tech and social media to keep you informed. So read below for tons of digital media resources, including everything you need to know about the Google I/O keynote and a great roundup of apps to help you get around your city.

 

 

15 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed.

Polo-Playing Prince Harry Takes Greenwich By Storm | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply
Prince Harry and his teammates hold up the trophy after winning the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup at the Greenwich Polo Club. Photo Credit: Synergy

GREENWICH, Conn. — Prince Harry saved the best for last by scoring the winning goal Wednesday in his charity polo match in Greenwich and celebrating a successful whirlwind weeklong visit to the United States.

Harry played on the winning side of the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup at the Greenwich Polo Club and raised more than $1 million for his charity, Sentebale.

“It is wonderful to be here at Greenwich Polo Club in Connecticut for the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup 2013,” Prince Harry said. “The success of our three previous polo events has helped Sentebale make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children in Lesotho, the Mountain Kingdom of southern Africa.”

He founded the charity with Prince Seeiso from the Lesotho Royal family in response to the plight of the neediest and most vulnerable of Lesotho’s people, many of whom are victims of extreme poverty and Lesotho’s HIV/AIDs epidemic. Sentebale — which means “forget me not” in the African language of Sesotho — was started in 2006 in memory of the two men’s mothers.

 

 

Polo-Playing Prince Harry Takes Greenwich By Storm | The Bedford Daily Voice.

Drought Tolerant Perennials | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

In my neck of the woods precipitation comes one of two ways; either all at once or not at all. Spring sees ample showers, but as soon as the calendar turns to June the rain dries up. Unless there is an unusual weather pattern in play I can count on Arkansas’ summers to be hot and dry.

Rather than rely 100 percent on irrigation to carry the garden through, I choose drought tolerant plants that I know will survive extended periods without rain. By selecting the right plants for my dry climate I use less water and I don’t have to work as hard to keep the garden looking good during the dog days of summer.

To make things even easier I use a lot of drought tolerant perennials. Perennials will come back year after year without replanting and most are pretty low maintenance. Throw in drought tolerance and you’ve got something you can pretty much plant and forget.

Unlike annuals, many perennials bloom for a specific amount of time. Gardeners can create season-long interest by selecting spring, summer and fall flowering perennials and showy foliage plants.

Here’s a short list of drought tolerant perennials categorized by season.

Spring Flowering Drought Tolerant Perennials

Alyssum (Alyssum montanum)

Alyssum will form a dense mat of attractive foliage and spring blooms. Try River of Gold™ for its bright yellow flowers.

Zones 4 – 8; full sun; 6 to 8 inches tall with a 10-inch spread.

Proven Winners River of Gold Alyssum

Dead Nettle (Lamium maculatum)

Lamium is a low growing groundcover for either sun or shade. The variety Pink Chablis® has charming pale pink flower and frosty green and white variegated leaves.

 

Zones 4 – 8; full sun or shade; 8 – 12 inches tall with a 24-inch spread.

Proven Winners Pink Chablis Lamium

False Indigo (Baptisia hybrid)

Baptisia is a North American native plant that produces sweetpea-like blooms. Try one of the hybrids in theDecadence™ series for compact plant form and saturated color. Available cultivars include ‘Cherries Jubilee’ (maroon and yellow), ‘Blueberry Sundae’ (vibrant blue), ‘Dutch Chocolate’ (dark plum), and ‘Lemon Meringue’ (yellow).

Zones 4 – 9; full sun to partial shade; 30 – 26 inches tall.

Proven Winners Decadence Baptisia

Summer Flowering Drought Tolerant Perennials

Evening Primrose (Oenothera)

Oenothera has a loose, wildflower appearance that makes it right at home in cottage-style gardens. The cultivar Lemon Drop® produces fragrant, yellow blooms all summer. It is both drought tolerant and adaptable to poor soils. Because Lemon Drop® does not set seeds like some of its freewheeling cousins, it will stay put rather than pop up around the garden.

Zones 5 – 11, full sun; 8 – 12 inches tall.

Proven Winners Lemon Drop Oenothera

Perennial Sunflower (Heliopsis)

The bright yellow, daisy-like flowers of this North American native plant brighten the garden. The improved cultivar ‘Tuscan Sun’ boasts an extended blooming season and stays a manageable size.

Zones 3 – 9; full sun to partial shade; 12 – 20 inches tall.

Proven Winners Tuscan Sun Heliopsis

Butterfly Flower (Gaura lindheimeri)

This is one of my favorite “see through” plants. I like to position Gaura in the middle of a flower border so that the loose stems create a veil through which the background plants are seen. This creates a little mystery and added dimension. Stratosphere™ Pink Picotee and Stratosphere™ White will bloom May through September.

Zones 6 – 11; full sun; 12 – 24 inches tall.

Proven Winners Stratosphere Gaura

Fall Flowering Drought Tolerant Perennials

Sedum sp.

Sedums are a classic choice for low water gardens. There are both spreading and upright forms. The upright cultivar ‘Maestro’ puts on a spectacular autumn show with abundant bright purple bloom stalks and pink flowers.

Zones 3 – 9; full sun; 24 – 30 inches tall.

Proven Winners Maestro Sedum

Aster sp.

What would the fall garden be without asters? I’m particularly fond of the blue and purple varieties because the colors complement the red, orange and yellow of the season. ‘Sapphire Mist’ produces an abundance of large, lilac blooms on compact plants from late summer through fall.

Zones 4 – 8; full sun; 12 – 16 inches tall.

Proven Winners Sapphire Mist Aster

Bluebeard (Caryopteris sp.)

Caryopteris blooms are a splash of cool blue at the end of summer. Sunshine Blue® Caryopteris incana is one I grow. I love the color combination of the neon yellow foliage and periwinkle flowers.

Zones 5 – 11; full sun; 36 – 48 inches tall.

Proven Winners Sunshine Blue Caryopteris

Drought Tolerant Perennials Prized for their Foliage

Ornamental Grasses

Pair ornamental grasses with bold blooms or fleshy leaves to create an interesting texture combination. ‘Cheyenne Sky’ Red Switch Grass (Panicum) is part of my Proven Winners® Platinum Collection. It’s a chameleon that changes from blue-green to wine red over the course of the summer.

Zones 4 – 9; full sun; 30 – 36 inches tall.

Proven Winners Cheyenne Sky Switch Grass

Heuchera sp.

You’ll be amazed at the variety of color and pattern available with such an easy care plant. I’m a huge fan of the varieties in the Proven Winners® Dolce® Series, which range in color from chartreuse to almost black.

 

Zones 4 – 9; full sun to partial shade; 8 – 16 inches tall.

Proven Winners Dolce Heuchera

Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaliodes)

This plant blooms in spring, but the foliage is its greatest asset. The cultivar ‘Helena’s Blush’ has variegated green and white leaves that develop bright pink highlights as the temperatures cool in autumn.

Zones 6 – 9; full sun; 16 – 20 inches tall and 20 inches wide.

Proven Winners Helena's Blush Euphorbia

Good to Know

Even drought tolerant plants need water just after planting, water your newly planted drought tolerant perennials weekly the first growing season.

 

 

http://www.pallensmith.com/articles

Sure, you can have a pay rise – just get a company logo tattoo | Chappaqua Realtor

Leave a reply

Sure, you can have a pay rise – just get a company logo tattoo – Americas – World – The Independent.

 

Some employees of a real estate company in New York are really pushing the meaning of ‘company loyalty’, by voluntarily being inked with the company’s logo.

 

It’s not entirely without an incentive though. According to CBS, the quick-thinking CEO of Rapid Realty, Anthony Lolli, offered a pay rise of 15 per cent to employees who get tattoos of the Rapid Realty logo.

Lolli told CBS that he got the idea from an employee who voluntarily got the logo tattooed on his body, and apparently the novel move has proved popular with staff. Around forty willing members of staff have gotten inked with the green and black logo or said they would take their boss up on the offer.

The tattoo costs $300 (around £192), and can be placed anywhere on the body. Lolli himself has yet to get inked, but says he plans to eventually.

Staff member Robert Trezza told CBS: “I think it’s a good opportunity to show commitment to a company that makes going to work fun every day,” while another added: “My wife was a little concerned, but I said, you know what, it was the best commitment I could think of.”

April Fools’ Day real estate roundup | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

On the first day of April each year, communities, businesses and news outlets come up with stories intended to fool, amuse, and, sometimes, satirize. Here’s a roundup of the posts Inman News came across in the residential real estate space today.

National Association of Realtors shutters Realtors Property Resource: If you’re a member of the National Association of Realtors, as of today, you no longer have access to, or are paying for, the funds-draining national property database Realtors Property Resource, according to Greg Robertson on his blog at Vendor Alley.

“Our long national nightmare is over,” said NAR CEO Dale Stinton, via a “quote” in a purported NAR press release shown on the blog.

Never fear, Realtors, the post says that NAR has decided to invest in another industry important to agents — cars. “Today’s cars aren’t designed for the average Realtor, so we thought we needed to do something about it,” said NAR President Gary Thomas in a “statement.”

Seattle broker launches homebuying tournament platform for listings: For those home sellers in Seattle who know that a playoff system is the best way to determine a winner (see college football), Seattle brokerage Findwell has launched a new “March Madness”-like bracket system that will help them find the best buyers.

Eight buyers –- six chosen based solely on ranking of initial offer price and two at-large bids — will be pitted against each other in three single-elimination rounds, Findwell explained in a blog post.

via inman.com

Home prices rise 17.9% in March In The Desert Sun | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

Realtor John Gonnello can attest to the fact that rising demand for low and moderately priced single-family homes and condos, coupled with falling supply, continue to push prices higher in the Coachella Valley.

Of the 22 Sun City Palm Desert homes he had listed featuring everything from vaulted ceilings and great rooms to open floor plans and golf course and mountain views, all but six have sold.

“There was a surge for about three weeks where it was just crazy,” said Gonnello, an agent with Windermere Real Estate. “It’s quieted down a bit, but now we’re starting to see activity build again.”

Gonnello’s experience is in line with two new real estate reports that show the valley’s median price rose by double-digits last month, the ninth straight month with such robust increases.

The valley’s median home price — half sold for more, half for less — jumped 17.9 percent year-over-year to $247,500 in March, following a 15.9 percent increase to $226,000 in February, San Diego-based real estate information provider DataQuick reported.

via mydesert.com