Archive for April, 2010
How About Some “Green” on the MLS?
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
If a buyer asks for homes with green, eco-friendly features, you might sometimes find it a time-consuming search to find that perfect “green” match. But a new online tool kit is offering guidance to local multiple listing services on how to create searchable fields so that those “green” homes can be found in just a few clicks.
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, along with a team of other associations and groups with green expertise, recently created the Green MLS Tool Kit (www.GreentheMLS.org) aimed at showing local MLSs how to add a green initiative to their MLS.
The request from buyers for “green” features in a home is growing. More buyers are looking to not only curtail high utility bills but also save the planet. Bringing a home’s green assets to the forefront can be an attractive selling point in today’s market, and many real estate professionals are even getting specialized training through the GREEN designation on green real estate issues.
The tool kit provides guidance to MLSs on creating searchable fields for environmentally-friendly home features as well as places to indicate any green certifications a home might have. This not only helps buyers more easily find homes with green attributes, but it also can help appraisers better understand the value green brings to a property, according to the tool kit.
The tool kit shows by example too. It also provides insight into how other MLSs have completed a green initiative and the sample forms they’ve used.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StyledStagedSold/~3/nwdDtateh6o/
Honor Earth Day By Passing On These Quick Facts
By Erica Christoffer, Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
Happy Birthday, Earth Day!
On April 22, Earth Day celebrates its 40th anniversary of bringing eco-friendly education to the world. And what better segue to start talking with your clients about energy efficiency and sustainable living?
Here are some quick facts that are good for the home and often for the pocketbook:
Energy Use & ENERGY STAR
- Upgrading single-pane windows to ENERGY STAR windows can save a home owner between $126 and $465 in energy costs per year.
- If just one 60-watt incandescent light bulb were replaced with an ENERGY STAR CFL bulb in every American home, it would save 6 billion kWh per year. That’s enough energy to light almost 3 million homes (and save $600 million in annual energy costs for home owners).
- An ENERGY STAR washing machine can help save 6,700 gallons of water per year.
- Remember to turn off power strips and unplug electronics (TVs, computers, printers, and charging devices) because stand-by power can account for as much as 5 to 10 percent of a home’s energy use.
- Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2009 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 30 million cars — all while saving nearly $17 billion on their utility bills.
Building with Brick
- The materials in brick – clay and shale – are among the most abundant minerals on Earth. And virtually all brick used for construction in the U.S. is manufactured in the U.S.
- Homes with brick veneer use 2 to 7 percent less energy than those with fiber cement siding.
- Brick has a 100-year lifespan, or longer.
- Clay bricks are recyclable. They can be reused in other structures or broken down to make new brick.
Consumer Waste
- Every year, nearly 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.
- In the U.S., about 28 billion bottles and jars are thrown away every year.
- It takes a 15-year-old tree to produce 700 grocery bags.
- Each year, Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups — 500 years from now, they’ll still be sitting in a landfill.
- The Container Recycling Institute estimates that the 36 billion aluminum cans thrown in the trash and added to landfills last year have a scrap value of more than $600 million. Over the past 20 years, a total of more than $12 billion in aluminum cans have been added to landfills (in today’s market).
— U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
**Good news! Glossy paper does not contaminate paper recycling – so when you’re finished reading the latest issue of REALTOR® Magazine, be sure to recycle it!
Want to do more? Check out NAR’s Green Designation and live Earth Day everyday in your business.
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HouseLogic: Tax Refund Investment Ideas
By Erica Christoffer, Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
Tomorrow is Tax Day. For procrastinators who are scrambling to meet the filing deadline — good luck. For those who have long since finished their taxes and are expecting a refund, now is a good time to consider the best use of those dollars.
HouseLogic, the National Association of REALTORS’® consumer Web site, has posted some great tips for investing tax refunds in a home. Their articles outline maintenance, upgrades, and investments at different price points – and how those projects will pay off in the long-run. Here are a few examples:
Projects under $500: Upgrade the bathroom with low-flow showerheads to improve efficiency and save on the water bill.
Projects under $1,000: Replace the front exterior door to cut down on energy costs and improve curb appeal.
Projects under $2,500: Beef-up the attic insulation to lower the heating bill (can also be claimed on 2010 taxes for an energy tax credit up to $1,500).
Consider sharing these timely ideas with your sellers. Just a few low-cost improvements can give a home a leg-up in the market. And be sure to check out the REALTOR® Content Resource, where NAR members can download HouseLogic content for use on Web sites and blogs or in e-newsletters to clients.
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The Dream Gets Smaller on ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover’
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Fancy, upscale home projects are getting scaled back on TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the hit show on ABC that transforms modest homes into dream homes for struggling families.
The downsize in the dream has come after several recipients of the show’s homes have struggled to afford the house post-makeover, due to higher utility bills and tax assessments, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. Some home owners also are finding it difficult to sell the top-notched homes, since the homes tend to be in working-class and rural neighborhoods.
If you’re not familiar with the TV show, each week a struggling family–generally with a heart-wrenching story–is selected to get a custom-designed home. A team of builders, designers, and volunteers overhaul their home in slightly more than 100 hours transform the house into a McMansion, complete with every upgrade imaginable–from bowling lanes to carousels to even a 5,300-square-foot castle home with five bedrooms, five fireplaces, and seven bathrooms (it is called “Extreme” Makeover, after all).
The average size of the “Makeover” homes is 2,800 to 3,000 square feet.
But these dream homes come at a costly price–higher utility bills and bigger tax assessments, which have left some of the recipients of the homes in foreclosure.
So in a sign of economic realities, producers have decided to downsize the dream.
No more over-the-top amenities. Swimming pools aren’t even a given, unless needed for therapy reasons. And the producers will be concentrating more on finding ways to incorporate energy efficient savings, such as low water-flow toilets and solar panels.
Hopefully, the show will be able to show that dream homes can also come in smaller, more energy-efficient, practical — and let’s not forget, affordable — packages.
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Subdued Bathroom Colors Reign in 2010
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Colors in bathrooms this year are taking a neutral stance. Beiges and bone colors are the most popular choices when it comes to bathroom color choices, followed by whites and off-whites, according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s trends report for 2010.
Here are other popular options for bathrooms in 2010, according to NKBA.
Design style: Traditional styles dominate, followed by contemporary (a distant second).
Flooring materials: Ceramic and porcelain tile are the most popular selections.
Vanity tops: Granite, followed by quartz and marble, top the vanity options.
Faucet finishes: Brushed nickel is the most popular choice, followed by bronze and stainless steel.
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