"What are your New Years resolutions?"
It’s a big question — and one that can be interpreted in countless ways, from lighthearted resolutions to goals that quietly shape the trajectory of your life. In my family, we’ve always marked time with a simple tradition: 1-, 3-, and 5-year goals. We write them on oversized sheets of paper and hang them up as a gentle, constant reminder of where we are, where we hope to be, and how we think we’ll get there.
There’s something satisfying about crossing goals off the list, but the truth is, five years is a long time. Life happens. Priorities shift. Goals evolve in ways you couldn’t have planned for. When I was a high school senior, my five-year plan was clear: spend the final two years of my undergraduate degree living in France, then land a job outside the United States. Instead, I spent my junior year in Ireland and by graduation, I’d been accepted into a master’s program there too.
Goals and plans evolve to reflect your life, your ambitions, and the impact you want to make. At ABODE, things have been shifting - quietly and confidently. 2025 marked a period of meaningful change, bringing with it a clearer vision for the experience we want to offer moving forward.
Let’s start with the obvious - our new website. It’s the next expression of ABODE: more refined, more intuitive, and designed to reflect how we show up today. Just as New Year’s resolutions tell a personal story, the way a home is marketed does the same. With a renewed focus on visual storytelling, we want to elevate how homes are experienced, not just viewed.
The newsletters and blogs have evolved too. They are equal parts strategy, storytelling, and the reminder that real estate is, at its core, a very human experience. My favorite example is from our Fall Market Report where, after months of helping their parents downsize from a large home to assisted living, our client and her sibling marked the moment in a series of photos — ending with one that captured them fully exhausted, playfully “taken out” by the process.
I thought it would be funny to turn their photo into a New Yorker Magazine style cartoon to add to our newsletter and asked the ever-obliging ChatGPT to come up with funny captions.
So, in the spirit of the New Year and our shift toward a more elevated, informative, and personal approach, with a dash of self-deprecation - I’ll end on a lighter note. Think of this as a small blooper reel: the captions that didn’t quite make the cut, but felt too good not to share.
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At the end of a long move, sometimes the only thing left to pack is your will to live.
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When you’ve finally finished sorting 25 years of belongings… and the house wins.
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After months of decluttering, they finally achieved inner emptiness.
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On the bright side, the house appraised higher once the bodies were included.
Because if we've learned anything this past year, it’s that even the most overwhelming transitions come with stories worth telling - and occasionally, laughing about afterward.
If this made you smile, you’ll feel right at home in the newsletter — informative, engaging, and never dull. We’d love to join you as your 1-, 3-, or 5-year real estate or investment goals take shape. Click here to sign up or chat with us about your resolutions!
Excited to see where the year takes us!
