Caveat Emptor is a word translated from the Latin language which means “Buyer beware”.  In the past, the term Caveat Emptor was used for any product sold or bought where it was the responsibility of the buyer of an item to determine whether it was suitable for his purposes.  Nowadays, it is usually used in Real Estate transactions to mean that buyers must do their homework before buying a home because the seller is not guaranteeing anything about it.

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Have you ever heard the saying “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”? Legend says that in the past, families only bathed once in a while - and every member of the family got to do it inside the same tub of water.

Dad had the first turn, then Mom, then the kids, and lastly - the baby. By then, the water was not exactly clear and it was easy for whomever was throwing the water out not to see the baby in it.

When you are choosing a school, if you aren’t looking at the important points, you might very well be missing them; and throwing out the opportunity to have your kids attend a good school - and buying the dream home for your family.

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Money magazine recently published an article called "Best Places to Live: Money's list of America's best small towns." In it, Oakton, Virginia ranked # 36 of the Top 100.

Oakton, VA is part of Fairfax County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. It has been designated as a "Census Designated Place (CDP)", with its own zip code (22124).

However, if you were to ask a resident of Fairfax County where exactly does Oakton start and end, you'd get differing answers with some including areas in nearby Vienna as well...

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"And the winner is..."

If you have ever witnessed a night at the Academy Awards, you'll hear this phrase over and over.   In order to make justice to all the different aspects of a movie, The Academy has created many categories for which movies get nominated as "the best".   

School Districts, like movies, are complex entities with strengths and weaknesses...

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It's the beginning of the fall season and your favorite apparel store is having a sale. You promptly go in and buy yourself a few key pieces to enhance this season's wardrobe.  But when you get home, there isn't much space in your closet - so you re-organize your closet so that all your clothes fit better.

Each year, school districts find themselves in the predicament of having to re-organize their attendance areas so that their schools' enrollment are evenly distributed...

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Sam and Pam were in the market for buying a house up to $500,000.  They were ecstatic to have found a detached home listed at $475,000. 

Since they found the home themselves, they figured that they didn't need a Buyer Agent and could make an offer directly to the Listing Agent (who represented the seller) for $450,000.

At $450,000, they thought it would be a good deal to buy the house for 5% off what they considered to be market price for it.

But, could they have gotten a better deal if they had hired a Buyer Agent?  Let's find out...

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Ding! Ding! Ding! 


The bell rings and you are suddenly thrown into the boxing ring to fight against an opponent.

Would you want to get boxing "tips" from your opponent's coach, or would you rather have your own coach helping you avoid the punches?

When buying a house,  the Listing Agent is the Seller's coach 

As a home buyer you have the option of making an offer through the Listing Agent - or you can get your own coach to help you avoid any punches during the transaction.  

Your own coach is called a Buyer Agent

 Let's see some of the the differences between a Buyer Agent and a Listing Agent:

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Last year, Alison was moving with her family from Tokyo, Japan to the DC area.   They chose schools for the kids, and even narrowed down their search to a couple of neighborhoods.   Now the only thing left was to figure out how Alison and her husband, James, would get to work.

So, I helped Alison and James by presenting them the following commuting options starting with riding the Metro into Washington, DC:

1. Ride the Metro

Metro is the subway system that connects DC with its suburbs.

• The orange line connects downtown DC with Vienna, Virginia (right around the middle of Fairfax County)...   

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In 1955, Rosa Parks broke the status quo and refused to give up her seat on the bus to make room for a white passenger.  Since then, many laws have been enacted to avoid discrimination of any person in the United States.

The Fair Housing Law

One such law is the Fair Housing Law of 1968 which aims to protect all people from discrimination based on...

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How can one not love a town which has everything - including a couple of Elementary Schools named "Armstrong" and "Aldrin" (after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, two of the most famous astrounauts in the history of mankind)?

About Reston, VA

Reston, VA was conceived in the 1960s by Robert E. Simon (see picture to the right for a bronze statue of him at Reston's Lake Anne).  As a planned community, Reston has been carefully designed to allow office space, housing, schools, shopping and recreational areas to co-exist in harmony. 

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