the aesthetics of the home. It caused me to reflect, "are people still concerned about the style of the home or have they shifted at least a bit to the performance of the home." Energy bills are getting noticed perhaps more then what a home looks like or is it still to soon for that tipping point?

Now I realise there will always be people that don't care what their bills are..they live in that life style. But there are some that are concerned about the carbon footprint of their home and the stress on the grid I believe.

I am not sure what to think exactly!

What do you think about this? I went to Central Oregon last summer and participated a judge in the Central Oregon Builders Association Tour of Homes for Energy Star and EarthAdvantage newly constructed Homes...amazingly beautiful homes. Our group consisted of Energy Star and Earth Advantage Builders and my self a Certified EcoBroker® and an EarthAdvantage Graduate....

We crossed paths with the judges inspecting for the "aesthetics" of the homes value. I overheard them speaking to each other on the nice tile and moulding and various aesthetic features of the home and my judging team was busy determining things such as; efficiency, healthfulness for living, water savings, lighting and HVAC system.

It caused me to wonder are these two areas-homes performance vs. beautiful features- equal in value with todays world for people in general? What do you think?

The news paper called me on Monday...in preparing an article about our Multi Listing Service adding 3 green certifications to our listing paper work. True story! A serious and eventful mile stone in our communities' history of going green. The certifications will be Energy Star, Earth Advantage and LEED-H and for commercial. It is a beginning and adds credibility to the effort to get the information out about the incentives for building green and sustainable homes.

 During the interview the writer asked about the certification programs and as I explained them he suggested they were to confusing and there were to many for a builder to choose from. He wouldn't know what to do! 

 That is when it all came together for me.

My adrenaline perked up a bit and I fired back, "what does a contractor do when they choose a truck? When we wade into the arena of the innumerable, countless numbers of vehicles to choose from it can be overwhelming. If one is analytical the least bit there is more frustration ahead as the choices are mulled over. What kind of gas mileage does it get? Is it safe? Will it handle a load? Does it corner well? What does Consumer Reports have to say about this model over that model? There are cars and trucks for nearly every personality it seems. Do we all get confused? Some folks do their due diligence when buying a vehicle others might only go on referral. I like Chevy Trucks because my Grandpa and Dad drove Chevy's and I believe they are a better choice. Now choices are mounting for alternative fuel vehicles."                                          

So, to drive the point home (a pun)When a Builder comes into the good fortune of building a green, high performance home for a client he had better do his due diligence and become an expert in the various choices of the certification programs. He should be well versed in the options from Energy Star, Earth Advantage, LEED-H or our State of Oregons' new High Performance Home program and the NAHB's new program as well. How else to serve his customer?

There are various certification programs across the country and more coming I am sure. Well over 80 the last I read up on them. But they are some what regional. One certification is "Build Green Colorado" for example.

Over time some will emerge as the leaders with credibility due to their incentives and features. It will all work out and prove to be less confusing then choosing a car to drive.

Today was a special class on SIPS It was well attended with 45 people. Builders, architects, and myself. I was the only Realtor® An engineer presented the class in Power Point presentation...in an engineer sort of way. The interest level is high and the learning curve is growing shorter.

I helped bridge some of the communication from engineer language to builder language and point out the necessity of third party verification to certify these homes for the tax incentives and rebate opportunities.

Being well versed in this green language is an important and strategic opportunity for where the future of building is headed. I intend to be on the leading edge. How about you?

 If you are interested you can see Actual application of this SIP panel can be seen on a short youtube video at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyoL1II9E3Q

Also a chance to see several types of green building techniques on this site below:

I have had people attempt to argue with me (a year ago) that they are not convinced that green is the way to build and it costs too much. I simply explained they were only arguing against better built homes that are healthier, more durable, more energy efficient, last longer and are a better return on investment. Today, if you asked them, those same folks invented green.

I had an agent in my office the other day noting the articles and references to green building on my walls say, "I suppose this will catch on someday, it is probably a little to early for it yet." I mentioned, "It probably isn't to early for our heating bills this winter."

There are "early adopters" such as most of us on this Eco-All Stars Agent post and then there are the "well when it catches on I'll  believe it and get involved then," types. So, the saying is true once more...there are people that make things happen, there are those that watch things happen and then there are those that wonder what in the world happened!"

The National Association of Home builders has unveiled their new Green Building Program on THursday. Valentines Day. The National Convention was abuzz with over 200 green exhibitors dedicated to Green Building. Green Day activities include the launch of NAHB's new green building initiatives, and a full day's worth of green educational seminars.

Energy, water and resource efficiency; lot and site development; indoor environmental quality and homeowner education are all included in the guidelines. To read the entire 1 page article and stay with the times click on the Logo Link below.

On an interesting note I was in China in the Fall of '05. I headed up a trade delegation from the State of Oregon with some Environmental Business folks and an aspiring politician running for State Legislature. The EPA of sorts catered to our group as we were there to team up with an environmental company being run by my father. His connections allowed us to be pampered by the Chinese Government and we were there to help them solve some of their environmental challenges.

Those challenges make ours in the US look like a mole mound next to a volcano. Speaking of volcanoes, while we were visiting with Mayors and Vice Mayors and Governors at an international Trade Show in Xiamen, Fugian in South Eastern China we took an excursion a few hours north to the capitol city Fuzhou. This city had a population that equaled the entire State of Oregon. The EPA put us up in a billion dollar hotel with lavish everything, spent the night and the next morning we all jumped in vans and went to visit the local dump. Quite the contrast. It was about 40 minutes out of town and around 7000 feet above the city on top of a volcano. It seems some years prior an engineer came up with a seemingly brilliant idea to turn the vast volcano into a dump for this massive city's garbage. He even won some kind of award for this wonderful idea.

Well, the days of reckoning finally arrived. Not only had  the river below been completely polluted for years and unusable from the leaching of the garbage from the rains draining into the river far below, but the silly thing was nearly full. Our job was to figure out what to do and let them think it was their idea. So we did. Simply shut it down while building a transfer station with a complete recycling facility to handle the waste. Generate electricity for the city from some of the refuse...some one else must have won that award we sure didn't...let alone get paid. But now and again I stop and reflect.. "what if that thing ever erupted? Eeeuuu!"

if you have had any experience with short sales....when you finally had a successful closing, what was the final result in sales price?

A. Was the final price at the market..?

B. Just under the market..?

C. Way under the market..?

 I have seen some incredible deals on national news that we are not seeing in our area of the country. We are seeing the banks take a very tough stand, playing their hand within a few thousand of the comps. They do seem to be relying strongly on the Agent Opinions during the short sale process in our area.

I just had a deal go belly up when the bank would not come off of their price within $5k of my clients highest and best per their Lender.

I think it would be interesting  for everyone if you would take just a minute and share your insight on the banks dealings in your area.

I absolutely exhausted myself this weekend while running a Home Show Booth that was geared toward Green Building. From Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon I sang the praises of energy efficient, healthy, low maintenance and better built, high performance homes.

The local television media paid their annual visit and went through the motions only this time they found new energy and vitality in reporting the "Green Side"of the show. Everyone they interviewed spoke of the eco-friendly aspects of their business...from window suppliers to landscapers they all had a shade of green to report.

While running a booth that shared the varying benefits and differences of green homes I visited with people casually interested to voraciously intense about their awareness of green. Solar was a hot topic. Retrofitting solar panels was high on the list of "things I have to do" they said. Also, comments such as; "I just built a house and my heating bills are over $500 per month, what can I do"? The most gratifying communication commenced when they said, "I am going to build and I want to build green!"

One on One and High Touch I created 15 solid "wanna build green", leads,  27 "I need to sell some real estate", and several "I know someone who wants to buy".

I sold a dozen Oregon Green Homes documentaries, (a 60 minute show I developed for TV and DVD)

The most satisfying development of all was the local Home Builders Association finally waking up to the fact it isn't politically correct to hold back the emerging green market.

Mercury in Compact Flourescent Ligtbulbs...but not much. 

 CFL's contain a very small amount of mercury in the tubing which is about 5 milligrams. This is reported to cover the tip of a ball point pen. A regular thermometer contains about 500 milligrams which means it would take about 100 broken CFL light bulbs to equal the older thermometer.

Try this on for size!

Also, If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light over 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in yearly energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of over 800,000 cars.