Real Estate Investing

I don’t believe 2008 will go down in history as a great year for real estate.  We saw the market continue to struggle, even as interest rates and home values shrank - usually something that would spur more interest in housing.  We’ve seen foreclosures throughout the country sink families - up close and personal.  My friend Mary is still hanging on by a thread, but a look around sees homes that used to be filled with laughter now sitting vacant. 

I started writing here at Banks.com in May of 2008, replacing our friend Hayli Morrison who continued to write on other sites for some time.  Here are some of my favorite posts since I started here.

A laughable sales tactic by one agent - block the door to prevent the buyer from leaving!

Top 10 signs of when a builder goes bad - I’ve seen even more craziness from some builders since this post. One finally put some screens in the windows of a home he sold a year ago when he needed his former buyer to sign off on an easement mistake. She refused to sign until he brought her some screens.  Now the bugs stay out when her windows are open!

Who knows what market lurks in the hearts of real estate?  The DENTIST knows! (The buyer never did buy…) (Oh! And I recently heard that Ed McMahon gets to continue living in his home).

Oops… why Realtors cannot conduct home auctions on eBay (you must have an auctioneer’s license!).

The ups and downs of living in a mobile home.  I’ll sum it up… tornadoes = bad and affordable = good.

Can you find another place to live after foreclosure?

People either love Realtors or they hate them.  Me?  I love them.

Pets are abandoned when homes are foreclosed.  This still makes me really sad.

Look out!  Spy cams and hidden mics can be anywhere!

Outgoing referrals are a good thing - when the client is just not ready to buy/sell! Or if they’re a jerk.

It’s lollipops and gum drops out there, people.

Different types of agents:  Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

A Real Ghost Story … and you do have to disclose ghosts in California.

Unemployed Should Get an Automatic Stay on Mortgage Payments: An Editorial Opinion

I’m still mad about this … mortgage companies won’t sell if they only break even (but I’ll bet they’ll get some bail out money!)

At Thanksgiving, everyone gets thankful.  This post say why I am thankful to be a Realtor.

Safety Tips when Decorating for the Holidays

How One Salesman was a Real Jerk

Building Green

Happy New Year!  Again, may tomorrow’s dawn bring much joy to your life.

Yesterday we started talking about how building a green house begins in the initial planning stages - you shouldn’t just decide all willy-nilly that it’s going to be “green” halfway through the process.  It’s important to actually design a floorplan that will allow a cross flow of air when windows are open, one that will measure out perfectly to prevent cutting floor joists and discarding the unused portion, and preserve trees on the land rather than obliterating them.  Today, let’s talk about some of the additional work that’s done to make a “green” home, according to The Jones Company of Tennessee. 

My favorite effort is placing the occupancy sensors in all secondary walk-in closets, the master bedroom closet, utility room, and walk-in pantry.  The motion detector lights can be set to time in 15 seconds to 45 minutes.  You see these types of lights a lot in the bathrooms of commercial buildings.  What happens when you sit for a few seconds too long and the light goes out, you ask?  You flip open your cell phone and use it as a flashlight!

Water Efficiency

A green home tries to reduce the water used in a home both for the environment and for the pocketbook.  Clearly, the homes use the 1.6 gallon toilets rather than the banned 3 gallon’ers.  There’s a thriving black market for 3 gallon commodes!  In addition, dishwashers must be Energy Star approved.  Showerheads flow at less than 2.5 gallons per minute and sink faucents at less than 2.2 gallons per minute.

Indoor Environmental Quality

A green builder will locate low- or no- VOC paint (volatile organic compound) for indoors.  Porter Paints carries these paints, but a buyer would have to specifically ask to get it.  According to the company’s website, “We further manage potential pollutants generated in the home by sealing fireplaces. Plus, we employ the necessary steps to prevent moisture from entering the home through plumbing or heating and cooling systems in the forms of vapor or rainwater.”

Operation, Education, and Homeowner Education

Once a green home is completed, knowing how to operate the features and the maintenance requirements would be necessary to stay green.  A complete book of directions and training on the green features would educate the buyers in their role as green homeowners. 

However, if a homeowner wants to resell a home as a green home, it would have to be retested to certify it is still green compliant.  The green certification does not transfer.

In addition to building GREEN, all homeowners should consider adding carbon monoxide detectors alongside smoke detectors.  What have you done to make your home green?  If you want to see how well you’re doing, visit the NAHB website that allows you to register and score your home!

To help pull the United States out of the massive depression of the early 1930’s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed and implemented a “New Deal.”  In addition to establishing a “brain trust” to assist with the recovery efforts and according to Wikipedia, their solutions to the economic crisis called for more extensive government regulation of the economy.

It appears that more government regulation of today’s economy may be in our future, as well.  Like FDR, President-Elect Barack Obama is promoting the same type of work performed by the Works Progress Administration - shoring up some of our crumbling infrastructure, building schools, power plants, and energy-efficient homes. According to CNN Money,

Longer term, some argue that creating transportation corridors that bundle together highways, high-speed rail links, pipelines, utility lines and other infrastructure projects would prime the economic pump - not only by creating the jobs during construction, but by speeding up commerce afterwards.

The new Administration will also be looking closely at energy saving ideas (caulking windows, use of insulations) and alternative energy sources as part of the recession recovery.

America … used to lead in designing and building renewable energy systems, but has since lost that manufacturing edge - not to countries with cheap labor costs such as China, but to places such as Germany and Denmark where the government supports these industries.

My thoughts are that perhaps another focus should be on more public transportation.  Cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and New York have it right with their train systems, but there are plenty of other big cities that could benefit from mass transport. 

All of these programs will cost billions, but what price would we pay to do nothing?

Finally, if you’re looking to buy low right now in the stock market, perhaps you should give some thought to “green” investing… solar panels, wind mills, etc.

Photo by Kyle May courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.