Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 25, 2014

11HOMES & PROPERTY Mountain Views News Saturday, January 25, 2014 
11HOMES & PROPERTY Mountain Views News Saturday, January 25, 2014 
FROM “LESS” TO “YES” 
The painful truth: Sellers who do not price their property competitively are the most likely targets of 
lowball offers. In soft markets, buyers are more prone to make low offers on listings seen to be priced 
too high. Listings that don’t sell usually require price reductions, which in turn often mean ultimately 
accepting an offer lower than you could have received by pricing aggressively from Day One. 

Since selling your home can be such an emotional and subjective experience, it’s easy to understand 
why you’d be reluctant to counter an offer below your asking price. But rather than feel insulted, try 
to see it as the beginning of a dialogue that could ultimately produce a sale. 

If you feel any of the terms or conditions of the offer are unacceptable, ask your agent to present a 
counter-offer. Sometimes buyers and sellers don’t really know beforehand what price they’ll accept 
until they’ve begun the negotiations. For example, a buyer might agree to a higher price than planned 
if interest rates suddenly drop. 

If you’ve received a lower than expected offer, but the buyers have proven their qualifications and 
commitment by securing loan pre-approval, you have grounds for serious consideration. The process 
of counter-offering can be swiftly settled or carry on ad nauseam. Be prepared to explore all options 
and act quickly before letting your negotiations fail. 

HOMEOWNERS ASKED TO PREPARE EARLIER 
DUE TO INCREASED FIRE ACTIVITY 

Drought conditions lead to early need of Defensible Space around homes

 Sacramento – In just the first three weeks of January, CAL FIRE has already responded to a significant 
increase in wildfires this winter due to the extremely dry conditions. As a result, CAL FIRE officials 
are reminding residents to ensure they are maintaining 100 feet of Defensible Space; a reminder 
that comes several months earlier than normal.

 “We are experiencing conditions right now that we would usually see in August,” said Chief Ken 
Pimlott, CAL FIRE director. “In Southern California we never really transitioned out of fire season 
and in Northern California we are already in the process of hiring additional seasonal firefighters to 
augment our permanent firefighters who have been staffing extra fire equipment this winter. We have 
increased our personnel and now we need the public to make sure they, too, are prepared for early 
fire season conditions.”

 With record low rainfall, the grass and brush across California is tinder dry and ready to burn. 
Already this year CAL FIRE has responded to nearly 300 wildfires that have charred over 700 acres. 
In a normal year the department only responds to about 50 fires that all together would char a little 
over 100 acres. 

 Many of these fires have been sparked by powered equipment like lawn mowers and weed trimmers. 
While maintaining Defensible Space is critical right now, residents are asked not to use powered 
equipment outdoors during the heat of the day when it’s dry and windy, and especially on Red Flag 
Warning Days. Clearance work should be done in the early morning when temperatures are down 
and humidity is up, to avoid sparking a wildfire. One less spark means one less wildfire.

 Here are some tips to creating Defensible Space:

Maintain 100 feet of Defensible Space around all structures.

Clear all needles and leaves from roofs, eaves and rain gutters. 

Trim branches six feet from the ground. 

Landscape with fire resistant / drought tolerant plants, that require little water 

Remove branches away from roofs and 10 feet from the chimney. 

Use trimming, mowing and powered equipment before 10 a.m., and not on hot, windy days. 

Keep wood piles and flammable materials at least 30 feet from the home.

 The increased fire threat has also led officials to suspend outdoor residential landscape debris 
burning in many areas. Homeowners should always check with their local CAL FIRE station or 
fire department before burning outdoors. There are several alternative ways to dispose of trimmed 
branches and yard clippings including chipping, or taking it to a green waste facility. Residents can 
check with their local fire safe council for alternative landscape debris disposal programs.

 For more information on preparing for wildfires and defensible space visit: www.ReadyForWildfire. 
org. 

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ROSETTA WAKES UP FROM DEEP SPACE HIBERNATION 
THE WORLD AROUND US 
January 20, 2014: It was a fairy-tale ending toa tense chapter in the story of the Rosetta spacemission, as the European Space Agency (ESA)
heard from its distant spacecraft for the first time 
in 31 months. 

Launched in 2004, Rosetta is chasing downComet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where itwill become the first space mission to rendezvouswith a comet, the first to attempt a landing on acomet’s surface, and the first to follow a comet asit swings around the Sun. 

Operating on solar energy alone, Rosetta was 
placed into a deep space slumber in June 2011 asit cruised out to a distance of nearly 800 millionkm from the warmth of the Sun, beyond the orbitof Jupiter. Now, as Rosetta’s orbit has broughtit back to within ‘only’ 673 million km from theSun, there is enough solar energy to power thespacecraft fully again. 

ROSETTA CALLS HOME 

Thus on January 20, still about 9 million km from 
the comet, Rosetta’s pre-programmed internal‘alarm clock’ woke up the spacecraft. After 
warming up its key navigation instruments,
coming out of a stabilizing spin, and aiming itsmain radio antenna at Earth, Rosetta sent a signalto let mission operators know it had survived themost distant part of its journey. 

The signal was received by both NASA’sGoldstone and Canberra ground stations 
during the first window of opportunity thespacecraft had to communicate with Earth, and 
the successful wake-up was announced via the 
@ESA_Rosetta twitter account, which tweeted: 
“Hello, World!” 

Comets are considered the primitive building blocks of the Solar System and likely helped to ‘seed’ Earth with water, perhaps even the ingredients for life. 

“All other comet missions have been flybys, capturing fleeting moments in the life of these icy treasure chests,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. “With Rosetta, we will track the evolution ofa comet on a daily basis and for over a year, giving us a unique insight into a comet’s behavior.” 

After rendezvous this August, Rosetta will start with two months of mapping of the comet’s surface, and will also measure the comet’s gravity, mass and shape, and assess its gaseous, dust-laden atmosphere, 
or coma. Using these data, scientists will choose a landing site for the mission’s 100 kg Philae probe. The landing is currently scheduled for 11 November and will be the first time that a landing on a comet 
has ever been attempted. 

In fact, given the almost negligible gravity of the comet’s 4 km-wide nucleus, Philae will have to use ice screws and harpoons to stop it from rebounding back into space after touchdown. 

Among its wide range of scientific measurements, Philae will send back a panorama of its surroundings, as well as very high-resolution pictures of the surface. It will also perform an on-the-spot analysis ofthe composition of the ices and organic material, including drilling down to 23 cm below the surface and feeding samples to Philae’s on-board laboratory for analysis. 

Artist impression of Rosetta's signal being received on Earth after 31 months in silent, deep space hibernation. The signal was received at

18:18 GMT/ 19:18 CET by both NASA’s Goldstone and Canberra ground stations. Courtesy ESA