Dress for Success empowers women to obtain safer and better futures
Brought to you by – HOME Real Estate, Kloster Group
The Kloster Group and HOME Real Estate are proud to support Dress for Success, a truly inspirational organization and one that - as women in this real estate industry - we are proud to stand behind.
Dress for Success has a mission to offer long-lasting solutions that enable women to break the cycle of poverty. It is a part of a global movement for change, empowering women to obtain safer and better futures. They provide each
client with professional attire to secure employment, but they are about much more than simply a new outfit. Besides physically equipping the client with apparel and accessories, their programs furnish her with a confidence that she carries forever and the knowledge that she can actively define her life, the direction she takes, and what success means to her.
Susan Bonds-McCulloch is the President and Executive Director overseeing any media questions, corporate partnerships, event sponsorship, and financial contributions along with events. Dress for Success believes that
every woman has the right to realize her full potential and achieve financial independence in a more egalitarian world. Poverty often affects women the most, and its effects on them and their families can be long-lasting. Therefore, addressing women’s needs is central to improving the quality of life for not only that woman but also her family, future generations and her community.
Additionally, they believe that by building up a woman’s agency and knowledge, better synergies between gender equality and economic sustainability are realized, enabling her to
generate a long-term impact in both her private and public life.
The organization is an ever-expanding network of affiliates who work together with referral agencies, volunteers and companies across the world to make a big impact in women’s lives. By supporting each other, they can reach a greater number of women and make their vision a reality.
You can follow Dress for Success on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @ dressforsuccessatlanta to stay up to date on what they are doing and how to get involved!
Dress for Success Atlanta is planning their 2024 fall event and are proud to host their very first #MorethanADress. This will be a fun Sip & Shop event offering multiple opportunities to participate!
1. Donate your very gently used or like new items such as handbag’s, shoes, and accessories to worthy cause, Dress for Success Atlanta
2. Spread the word to your friends and family fashionista’s who may wish to donate
3. Come and shop the event
4. Invite others to shop the #MorethanADress
5. Have a boutique or brand that you love and loves you…please consider asking them for a donation
6. Can’t make the event, please see the attached and scan the QR Code to donate
Grab your best gal pals and come out to support them on October 26th at 42 West, Atlanta, Georgia! They will be curating the best of the best to provide the much-needed services and classes that DFSA offers the women in our community.
Current drop-off locations are as follows:
• Range Boutique – 3872 Roswell Road, Suite A6, Atlanta, GA 30342
• Tootsies – 3167 Peachtree Road, NE Atlanta, 30305
• Moosh – 1037 North Highland Avenue, NE Atlanta, GA
• Dress for Success Atlanta – 6255 Barfield Road, Suite 155, Atlanta, GA 30328
You can also call for limited availability pick-up service.
Providing Amish-made custom furniture since 2003
Brought to you by – DutchCrafters
Amish Furniture
DutchCrafters is the leading retailer for Amish-made furniture selling online at www.dutchcrafters. com and in its showrooms. The award-winning DutchCrafters Amish Furniture Showroom in Alpharetta not only showcases heirloom-quality, solid wood furniture but also o¬ffers a unique shopping experience, unlike other furniture stores. The DutchCrafters Showroom displays specially selected Amish-made furniture that demonstrates the expanse of pieces, styles, wood types, finishes and other options DutchCrafters has available for customers to design customized furniture for any room.
Inside the showroom are knowledgeable, friendly furniture specialists ready to help you find the perfect pieces to match your design preference and personal lifestyle. The design center is stocked to open a world of possibilities with woods, stains, upholstery and hardware options. Enjoy free beverages as you peruse the store, and best of all, view the furniture that is ready to become part of your family story for generations. Whether you want to furnish a whole room or just personalize a space with a few finishing touches, the DutchCrafters furniture specialists are available to help you every step of the way. Since 2003, DutchCrafters has
sourced heirloom-quality furniture from the back roads of Amish country in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. They have built trusted relationships with woodshops and craftsmen to connect you to personalized, custom-made furniture built by skilled woodworkers.
DutchCrafters is your one source of Amish furniture created to be passed down to the next generation. Come visit the DutchCrafters Showroom at 160 North Main Street in Alpharetta for one-of-a-kind furniture built just for you.
Important features pro stagers showcase for maximum appeal
Brought to you by – Bill Rawlings and Sherri Conrad, Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International
Realty
Pro stagers understand that making a lasting impression on potential buyers is crucial. Their expertise in highlighting key features can make or break a sale. From crafting an inviting first impression to selecting the color palette, here are a few strategies designed to captivate interest, along with tips on how to showcase them for maximum impact:
1. The first impression.
The importance of first impressions makes curb appeal and the entryway top areas of emphasis for pro stagers. A well-lit front door—spruced with a fresh coat of paint—with flawlessly functioning hardware, smooth-turning keys and spotless steps creates an immediate sense of care and attention. Ensure the entryway invites by focusing on key details: declutter, repaint and add decor, artwork or flowers for a striking focal point.
2. The potential space.
To help buyers see potential instead of obstacles, the pros skillfully create functional zones and demonstrate how different areas can be used for specific purposes. Examples include setting a dining room table for entertaining or arranging a stylish home office. They are also masters of illustrating versatility— how rooms can serve multiple purposes
and lifestyle needs.
3. The flow.
Stagers focus on creating a smooth and intuitive layout. They strategically position furniture to ensure unobstructed pathways, employ cohesive design elements—such as matching color schemes and complementary décor—and balance the proportions of furniture to avoid overcrowding.
4. The light.
Pro stagers never waste natural light. Windows must be clean; furniture must be strategically placed around them and the treatments must allow maximum daylight to flow into the space. They also layer light sources and update fixtures, using high-quality options with appropriate color temperatures that complement the home’s style.
5. The palette.
Finally, the color palette is all about creating a unified scheme that flows seamlessly from room to room. Most often, this is achieved by creating a neutral base for walls and floors, which appeals to a broad range of buyers. Then, they introduce pops of accent color through decor, artwork or accessories to infuse personality and warmth.
These carefully considered techniques can lead to quicker sales and potentially higher offers, making them invaluable tools. If you need assistance renovating your home or have any other real estate needs, please contact Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty at 770.442.7300. We would be happy to assist you!
Compiled and edited by Angela
Valente, Marketing Copywriter/ Copyeditor
Bill Rawlings and Sherri Conrad
PEXELS
LAKE
Soleil Belmont Park
A premier 55+ community is now 50% sold out
Brought to you by – Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties New Homes Division
Nestled between Milton and Canton, Soleil Belmont Park stands as a beacon of luxury for active adults, offering a premier 55+ living experience. Developed by the acclaimed Patrick Malloy Communities, this award-winning gated community seamlessly blends elegance with an active lifestyle, promising homeowners an unparalleled living experience.
Designed with the active adult in mind, Soleil Belmont Park showcases a range of luxurious features tailored to enhance daily living. The impressive resort style amenities are currently well under way and include a stunning 9,800-square-foot clubhouse which is the hub for social and recreational activities. Here, you can
unwind at the coffee and cocktail bar, stay fit in the state-of-the-art health and fitness center, or indulge in creative pursuits at the arts and crafts studio. The clubhouse also houses a catering kitchen, a club/card room, and a community post office.
The resort-style amenities extend beyond the clubhouse, offering a country club-style pool perfect for relaxation and socializing. For those who enjoy sports, there are tennis and pickleball courts, dog park and a community garden for gardening enthusiasts. Nature lovers will appreciate the scenic walking trails that meander through the community, providing a tranquil escape into nature.
One of the standout features of Soleil Belmont Park is its model home park, which showcases five beautifully designed model homes all situated on maintenance-free homesites. With
several move-in ready homes and additional homes under construction, there are numerous options available for those looking to live in this vibrant neighborhood which is now 50% sold out.
Convenience is a key aspect of life at Soleil Belmont Park. Residents have easy access to shopping, dining, and entertainment in nearby Alpharetta, Milton, and Canton. For healthcare needs, Northside Hospital-Cherokee is just a short drive away. The community’s strategic location also ensures a quick trip to downtown Atlanta or the picturesque North Georgia Mountains via major interstates.
Patrick Malloy Communities, established in 1994, brings a wealth of experience and excellence to Soleil Belmont Park. Having developed over 11,000 homesites and sold more than 7,000 homes, Patrick
Malloy Communities has earned numerous accolades, including several Community of the Year awards.
Priced from the $500s to the $800s, Soleil Belmont Park offers an exceptional blend of luxury, comfort, and convenience. New friends, new beginnings, and new memories await in this vibrant community. For more information or to explore available homes, visit www.SoleilBelmontPark. com or call 770.635.4080.
Don’t miss the opportunity to also explore Soleil Summit Chase in Snellville, with homes priced from the $400s to the $700s. Visit www.pmcommunities.com for more information. Patrick Malloy Communities and Soleil is represented by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties New Homes Division. An equal housing opportunity.
Understanding unclaimed property
Escheatment refers to the legal process by which unclaimed property reverts to the state when the rightful owner cannot be located or fails to claim the property within a specified period of time. The concept of escheatment ensures that abandoned assets do not remain indefinitely with businesses or financial institutions and instead are held by the state for safekeeping until claimed by the rightful owner or their heirs.
Unclaimed Property Laws in the United States regulate the handling of financial assets that have been abandoned or forgotten by their rightful owners. These laws require businesses and financial institutions to report and transfer such assets to state governments after a specified period of dormancy, typically ranging from one to five years. States then maintain databases and actively work to reunite owners with their property through outreach efforts. If owners do not claim their property within a certain timeframe, it "escheats" or reverts to the state, where the funds are
used for public benefit. These laws vary slightly by state in terms of dormancy periods, exemptions, and reporting requirements, but they universally aim to protect consumer rights and ensure transparency in financial transactions. Understanding these laws is crucial for both individuals and businesses to manage and reclaim unclaimed assets appropriately. Stay ahead of escheatment! Keep your contact info updated, monitor accounts regularly, and respond promptly to notifications. Don't let your unclaimed assets fall into state hands. The best way to avoid this is to consult with an Expert attorney to prevent the State from inheriting your assets due to your failure to prepare your Will and Trust.
• Does my Will protect my “stuff”? (It does not.)
• Should I upgrade my Will to a Trust?
• What do I need to know about Revocable Living Trusts?
• Medicaid. What’s true and what’s not?
• How do I protect my assets for my family and legacy?
• How do I remain in control?
• How do Irrevocable Trusts work? Attend our FREE Educational Workshops. Reserve your Spot and Get a FREE Consultation for attending the Workshop (a $500 Value) CODE: herald2023
• How do I avoid losing everything to nursing home costs?
• How can my family avoid probate?
Brought to you by - Estates Law Center USA
Confessions of a realtor
Brought to you by – Lara Dolan - Craft Dolan Team at Ansley Real Estate | Christie’s International
It’s all champagne, caviar and fancy cars, right? On television maybe, but as with most things, television is not real life. Real life real estate is rewarding, challenging and like many small businesses, has a 90% failure rate. If you’ve ever been blessed worked with a really good Realtor you know there is more than meets the eye… or maybe you don’t because much of what we do is behind the scenes to keep stress to a minimum for our clients. But let’s have a little fun today with what our team considers “concierge service”. Without hesitation I can recall many entertaining experiences. We have climbed an 8’ ladder to remove elderly clients’ draperies that had not been cleaned in 30+ years, spread pine straw, power washed driveways and watered newly planted trees for out-of-
town clients.
An all-time favorite is the time I climbed into the attic of a vacant house, flipped on the light and was face-to-face with a 6-foot tall, blackand-white, stuffed, Sylvester the Cat - my scream eliciting panic from our clients below. In fact, the listing agent said he was there when her client bought it and perhaps it would be bad karma to move him. When our client sold 8 years later, we left him in his place. We’ve walked dogs, cleaned cat boxes, changed a car battery, rolled countless trash cans in and out and spent 30 minutes catching a tiny frog that jumped out of a watering can used to water a clients’ indoor plants while they were on vacation during showings.
The frog situation reminds me of not one, but two birds that have gotten into two separate houses: one little finch during an open house in Cumming, and more recently a young woodpecker in Milton. I’ve shown a warehouse convinced the buyer was bringing in his toolbox to unleash some form of torture (okay, that’s not funny and we now take precautions to ensure
we’re safe with unrepresented buyers). He only wanted his tape measurer, but I stayed close to the door wishing I’d worn running shoes.
We’ve had buyers and sellers get so upset over little things they can’t sit at the closing table together. I’ve held a client’s hand while selling her mom’s house because mom has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t understand why she must leave home. We’ve helped good friends empty, stage, and sell a parent’s home after a death. Once a client called just months after moving into them into their dream house because his wife had become very ill, and they moved to a different state for treatment. Sadly, for every excited, newlywed, first-time buyer there are clients selling a home because of divorce.
We’ve babysat, met contractors from every trade, changed lightbulbs, air filters and linens. Years ago, when a client’s new puppy left a “present” in the middle of the living floor while she was at work the ‘Roomba’ decided to roll... let’s just say we had to take that house off the market for a week to replace the carpet. My husband has
carried our personal living room chairs down the block to stage a client’s home and our youngest daughter’s old bedroom is now a “staging closet” full of towels, blankets, pillows, pieces of decor and other items to make someone else’s home stunning.
We want to be always available for our clients and grab time off when we anticipate activity might be slow. A day with not much on the calendar, I will head to the golf course and as a result I’ve written contracts from my hotspot seated on the passenger side of the cart.
These stories are just a part of the business we love. Being a professional, full-time Realtor offers many ways to serve our clients and get deeply involved with our communities. We get to know our neighbors and have clients from across the country and across the globe who become friends and neighbors. We get to show off our very special towns (shout out to Milton, Crabapple and downtown Alpharetta), and it awfully rewarding to help a firsttime homebuyer get into the new house just weeks before the first baby is due.
DOLAN
Route Openings with Appen Media Group
We are looking for one person or couple interested in delivering weekly newspapers in South Forsyth, Alpharetta and the Johns Creek areas.
Requirements: Must have a perfect driving record and background check, reliable transportation, honest, hard-working and positive attitude.
For more information or to apply, email heidi@appenmedia.com and include a paragraph or two about who you are and any relevant background/experience. In the subject line of the email please put “Delivery Route Application.”
Are you afraid that you will lose your homestead exemption if you move your home into a trust? Good news! You can have a trust and the homestead exemption too. As long as the owner/ occupier of the property reserves the right to live in the home or is a beneficiary or trustee, then the owner/occupier of the home can keep their homestead exemption after the home is transferred to the trust.
Forsyth County does a decent job of automatically applying the homestead exemption to property that is transferred into a trust. If you live in counties other than Forsyth County, the best practice is
to file a new homestead exemption form with the county tax assessor’s office after the property is transferred to your trust. With asset protection trusts (regardless of your county), you definitely want to re-file your homestead exemption form. When do you file for homestead exemption? Your homestead exemption form is due between January 1 and April 1 of the year after the transfer to the trust occurs.
When a trust owns a home, the probate process can be avoided. Skip the hassle of probate by using a trust without paying more in property taxes. If that sounds great to you, call us at 770-2057861 and schedule a meeting with our team.
5 absolute must-haves in the bathroom
the shower is the mold solution.
Throughout America major changes are happening in the bathroom, especially in the shower. North Atlanta expanded rapidly from 1980 to 2005, and this is the era of jetted tubs dominating the bathroom, claustrophobic gold framed showers, poor lighting and the use of materials that promoted mold and mildew (grout).
“We see this every day”, says John Hogan, owner of Bath and Kitchen Galleria in Alpharetta, “Homeowners are tired of recurring grout issues, and they want their bathrooms to be a soothing pleasant experience.” Bath and Kitchen Galleria just completed their 1000th project and bathrooms are their primary type of project. “We have a formula that works for homeowners that balances bathroom aesthetics, function and price.”
In the bathroom, America has realigned its preferences, and the bathroom has taken a new shape in terms of products and appearance. At the center of “America’s New Bathroom” is a larger, open shower. We take more showers than baths, so the emphasis has shifted to the shower. Larger showers are more inviting and in most cases the shower does not have a ceiling. The openness of
In concert with the openness is the abundant use of shower glass. Not just any glass but specially coated glass that makes cleaning far less frequent. “We remodel just about every shower to be a maximum of 2 tiled walls: the remaining walls are always glass,” Mr. Hogan continued, “abundant glass and strategically located lighting, promotes that spa feeling.” Bathrooms are now engineered to be cleaner, both in design and materials; grout no longer promotes mold, nonporous tile remains clean, and humidity sensing fans automatically exhaust unwanted humidity.
Americans are taking shorter showers, but an abundance of water is also desired, so multiple shower heads especially incorporating a handheld wand is preferred. Especially when a bench is included, the water needs to be accessible from a seated position.
The 5 Absolute Must-Haves in a Bathroom: Bigger Showers, Brighter Bathrooms, Designs that Promote Cleanliness, Abundant Water experiences and Soothing Colors. For more information visit Bath and Kitchen Galleria’s showroom at 10591 Old Alabama Rd Connector in Alpharetta (no appointment needed) or call them at 678-4592292.
Brought to you by - Bath and Kitchen Galleria
PROVIDED
Transform Your Floor With Gladiator Concrete Coatings
Contact
The unbeatable strength of concrete coating
Brought to you by – Gladiator Concrete Coating
Your garage floor withstands a lot, which is why we’re here with premium concrete coating services tailored specifically for garage floors. Our coatings act as a shield against stains, scratches, and various types of damage, ensuring your floor remains in top condition for the long haul.
We understand the desire for a floor that not only withstands daily use but also adds a touch of sophistication to your space. That’s why we proudly offer custom metallic flooring services. Our expertly crafted metallic coatings not only protect your floor but also enhance its aesthetic appeal with mesmerizing swirls, patterns, and depth.
Explore our extensive selection of decorative concrete coating solutions suitable for both residential and
commercial settings. Whether it’s a poolside oasis, a welcoming patio, a durable driveway, or a functional garage floor, our versatile coatings can infuse any surface with a distinctive decorative flair. Elevate your space with personalized touches that enhance both aesthetics and durability, transforming ordinary surfaces into extraordinary showcases of style and resilience. Trust us to transform your outdoor space into a haven of beauty and resilience, ready to withstand the elements while impressing for years to come. Give us a call today at 678-215-7284 or visit www.GladiatorConcreteCoating.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
While covering Milton election operations, Appen Media analyzed historical voter data and identified possible disenfranchisement.
This reporting caused a statewide watchdog to get involved and, eventually, the city moved to add a polling place to the area. Later in the year, Appen discovered that the feasibility report the City Council used when voting to run their own elections was not the original document. Two residents on a working committee had altered it after city staff had completed it and before its presentation to council. Appen Media reporters identified all of the differences between the two documents and then created an interactive digital document. Readers and officials were able to scroll through the materials and read notes from the newsroom explaining the differences. You can find this document at appenmedia.com/electionsreport.
