Going Green in Montgomery County Maryland
April 22nd, 2009 categories: Movin Consumers, Movin Green Lifestyle
Seems I have been green longer than I care to admit. Ever since I was a kid, like 40, there I said it, years ago. My mom is from Germany and they have always recycled and reused as part of their culture for years before we showed up.
We never wasted anything, brown grocery bags, they were our trash bag, when they changed to the plastic kind, ditto. If we ever got food in those plastic containers, we reused them to save leftovers. We always found at least a second use for everything. Thanks Mom, who knew you were so cool??
We had those grocery bags that you took to the grocery store way back when. However, when I went to the grocery store we would never use them back then, they weren’t so cool. None of my friends did it , you know what I am talking about. Now it is the THE thing.
Fast forward to today, I am the recycle police in my office. Actually, I am pretty obnoxious about it and making sure others follow the green rules as well. Living in Montgomery County Maryland, it is pretty easy to recycle. They provide residents with recycle bins for paper and plastic and we have free pick up once a week.
I was showing a condo in a high rise in Bethesda and there was a representative from the county speaking to the building manager. He was telling, actually insisting, the manager that they need to have the paper recycle bin next to the mailbox area in the lobby so the residence could automatically throw away their junk mail/paper right there in the lobby.
If you are a business in Montgomery County, MD it is mandatory that you have recycle bins for paper and plastic. I swear I will pull regular paper I find in the trash can and put it in the bin. My assistant thinks I am a nut. Too bad, I have my convictions.
I was looking for a marketing idea for a “Pop by”. If you are a Buffini student you will know what a pop by is. For those of you who are not, a pop by is when you have an item of value to drop off to your past client. One day I had an “Aha Moment” for a great pop by idea and it was a very green one that I thought I would share with you.
I was in Whole Foodsand they had the reusable grocery bags. You know the ones I wouldn’t be caught dead with when I was younger? Well there they were, .99cents each. I bought 150 of them for my pop bys.
So what I did was group the bags in twos and made a postcard that said the bags were from me. I tied them together with a ribbon with the note that said they were a way to pay it forward to our Mother Earth. Then drove around to my past clients homes and dropped them off. Some of my folks were home and it was fun to see them too.
I will tell you that I got the most calls and emails from those bags. I still need to do another run to more of my clients and will because I had such a great response from the bags.
The good news is that you spend some green and everyone is happy to help Mother Earth breath a little easier.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Energy Audits Required With Home Sales Montgomery County Maryland January 1, 2009
November 14th, 2008 categories: Movin Consumers, Movin Green Lifestyle, Movin Real Estate News
This January 1, 2009 a home energy audit will be required to be conducted in conjunction with a home inspection when selling a home in Montgomery county Maryland. Bill 31-07 was passed in April 2008 by the Montgomery County Council.
The Bill states;
“If a home inspection is completed in Connection with the sale of a single family home, the home inspection must include a home energy audit conducted by a qualified home energy performance rater”.
A home energy audit means that someone certified in the home energy field will test the home with the appropriate equipment to test the home’s efficiency and determine the steps, if any, that need to be taken to improve the home’s energy rating.
I have searched through the State of Maryland’s website and Montgomery County Website for more information. I found where they estimate that a home energy audit would run from about $350 to $700. This will include Town homes, I am not clear if condos will be included in this legislation or not.
It is also not clear to me if the purchaser is going to pay for this like a home inspection or if the seller is going to be responsible for the inspection prior to contract? The other issue that is unclear to me is if the seller will have to re-mediate the items the home energy rater finds deficient with the home?
In addition the seller will be required to provide the purchaser with the home’s energy bills for the 12 previous months – prior to signing the contract of sale – and any energy improvements that the seller has done to the property. If the seller did not occupy the property for the 12 months prior to the contract of sale, Pepco will give the average electric bill for the previous 12 months.
We are awaiting new forms and updates on how this legislation will be enforced at the beginning of the year. I will keep everyone abreast as I receive the information.
UPDATE TO THIS POST!! This was legislation that was on the books to be passed for 2009. Homeowners are not required to have home energy audits. However, the new legislation requires that home owners provide potential purchasers an list of the kilowatts or energy cosumption that is used for each month and the amount in dollars of that usage.
This is for all utilities except water consumption.
| Discussion: 12 Comments »
Habitat for Humanity Partners With Montgomery County Maryland
November 7th, 2008 categories: Movin Community Help, Movin Consumers, Movin Real Estate News
The Montgomery County Maryland Branch of Habitat for Humanity has had a Memorandum signed by County Executive, Isiah Leggett to purchase foreclosed properties in the County. The plan is to purchase up to 10 homes in the county and refurbish the homes for Habitat families.
Leggett has increased the Housing Initiative Fund from $20 million a few years ago to $53 million dollars in the current fiscal budget.
The county will budget up to $350,000 per property to be purchased and refurbished. The benefit is two fold; The first benefit is to clean up vacant properties in County neighborhoods. The second is to help families find affordable home ownership in Montgomery County Maryland.
Click here to read the official press release from Montgomery County, Maryland.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS® Summit and Economic Report
September 27th, 2008 categories: Movin Consumers, Movin Real Estate News
Friday, September 26, 2008 and GCCAR Summit was held at the North Bethesda Marriot in Rockville, near White Flint. It was a meeting of agents from all companies and our board leaders to listen to reports on the economy , take continuing education classes for our licenses and discuss the impending use of the Sentrilock Keyboxes. It is also fun to see folks you have not seen in a long time.
I was most interested in what in what Ken Fears, Manager, Regional Economics, who speaks to NAR on housing trends had to say. Listening to an economist speak is not the most exciting thing in the world, but in today’s climate it does get my attention. This is what I took away from the lecture;
I was pleasantly surprised to hear what Mr Fears had to say. He talked about the obvious. Foreclosures, excessive inventory, and the negative climate we hear about everyday. One subject I was glad he touched on was the low use of FHA loans for first time homebuyers or buyers with lower credit scores during the housing boom is one of the problems we are now experiencing. This is because FHA, which is backed buy HUD, had guidelines for buyers that protected them and the bank in the event of foreclosure. There is mortgage insurance with an FHA loan. What mortgage insurance will do for the bank is insure them in case the buyer goes into foreclosure. The bank can collect their losses from this fund. This would have protected some of the banks from the troubles they are facing today.
He touched on the government backing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He thought this was a good thing for them to be in receivership, it protects them from a corporate takeover.
One of the other things that Mr Fears talked about was that we, in the Washington DC metro area have relatively low unemployment compared to other areas of the country, so this may keep our market moving better than most. They feel we are through the biggest bulk of foreclosures to come on the market.
The reduction of new construction should help stablize our market conditions. It is predicted that the housing starts – new home construction – should be around 750,000 new home to be built in 2009. That will help the supply and demand of our real estate industry. Currently we have had too much supply. This with the Household formation trend on the upswing as a trend indicator should help stablize the real estate market in the next couple of years.
I found it interesting to listen to some of his reports. Actually, in spite of all you are hearing and reading these days, it was very positive for the most part. He felt that the key ingredient to getting the market back in shape was some consumer confidence, keeping the interest rates fairly steady because the core prices are staying steady. The rates are low and the inventory is high. It is a buyer’s market for sure.
As for the Bailout, it was not discussed. I am sure there are too many what ifs to have discussed it in a 30 minute lecture. As for me and my business, it is steady and it is good. I have been fortunate to build a large referral base and it has kept me steady in this market. Also, I don’t get so bogged down by what the television has to say. For me, I think bad news sells better for the media and they are going to make it as bad as they can. I have chosen not to make their reality mine, you should not either.
I always know the market will go up and down, that is why it is called a market. I always think it is so interesting how balanced we become when the market is down. We make sound, cautious decisions and watch our money. I wonder how far ahead of the game we all would be if we could take that good caution and use it during the upswing of a market?
| Discussion: No Comments »
Stumble it!
