asheville green real estate: New Homes— the Good, the Bad and the Ecosystem
- 06/18/08 06:00 PM
WHAT BELONGS HERE? YOU can enter your "Land Design and Development Sketch" in the ECO-All-Stars June Challenge Contest!
Following consumer demand, or just because they are smart eco-friendly developers and building contractors who've contacted me through Active Rain, have let it be known that they're seriously considering the value of healthy-built homes. So, in this fifth post in a series that looks at sustainability and the undeniable trend toward consumer demand for attractive, green-built homes, I want to say a word or two about New Homes- the "Good", the "Bad" and how this might all come back to an ancient notion … (53 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Consumer Demand: Climbing the Stairs to Quality, Longevity & Healthy Living Spaces in Asheville
- 06/16/08 02:53 PM
Here is the fourth post in a series that looks at sustainability and the undeniable trend toward consumer demand for attractive, green-built homes. This series was inspired by the questions of a number of developers who have contacted me just this past couple of months. I heard from them via Active Rain. Active Rain, thanks for the introduction!.
So this series is all about climbing the stairs to Quality, Longevity & Healthy Living Spaces (see photo to right taken in a green built home with details to follow, the green shoes are mine)
It seems that this exercise of "climbing … (8 comments)
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asheville green real estate: The City of Tomorrow: Energy and Resource Efficiency in Asheville GREEN Home
- 06/13/08 12:46 AM
Here is the third post in a series that looks at sustainability and the city of tomorrow. A number of developers have contacted me through Active Rain. They are thinking about the future-the value of an eco-community, the way this comes together. They are asking about what this means in terms of energy and resource efficiency.
Energy and Resource Efficiency
Recently, we visited a new green-built home that represents the spirit of energy and resource efficiency. This home, on a city lot subdivided in the early 1900's, is part of a sustainable community here in Asheville, NC. Mature trees … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: LID Construction and Development, An Asheville Green-Built Speaks
- 06/12/08 01:06 AM
I could write a long, long essay on development impact. According to Wikipedia, low impact development, which is of particular interest to our eco-friendly clients, involves a land planning and engineering design approach to managing stormwater runoff. LID emphasizes conservation and use of on-site natural features to protect water quality. This approach implements engineered small-scale hydrologic controls to replicate the pre-development hydrologic regime of watersheds through infiltrating, filtering, storing, evaporating, and detaining runoff close to its source.[1]
And that would leave out another long, long essay on "lean construction"...but, hold the phone...this post is part of a series on eco- communities … (8 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Planned Residential Communities
- 06/10/08 12:31 AM
This past week another developer contacted me through Active Rain. More and more it seems, developers are focusing on the advantages of green/sustainable design and development. These could-be-green developers want to know more than the statistics. They ask about items that are important to their home and land-buying clients -
Development Impact Construction Impact Ecosystem and Context Energy and Resource Efficiency Sustainability Healthy-built Features Non-toxic materials Attractiveness and Curb Appeal LEED and/or Other Green Certification (such as the Greater Asheville Area's WNC HealthyBuilt Certification.)
So today, I'm starting a series on eco design and development. I'll will take a look at LEEDS® and/or HealthyBuilt® Certified residential eco-communities from … (2 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Cluster Housing Asheville and Beyond
- 06/08/08 01:20 AM
I'm excited about Green-built Cluster Subdivisions. (SEE STATS on Asheville area communities below.) I am attracted to the idea of siting WNC HealthyBuilt® Homes on smaller parcels of land, and setting aside additional LAND that could have been allocated to individual lots to common shared open space for eco-friendly residents. I know our eco-developer clients are, too. So, when I saw Randall Arendt's book, Conservation Design for Subdivisions, A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks. I just had to pick it up.
Randall Arendt has me fascinated. REALTORS® --if your clients really appreciate simple explanations of how subdivisions around open space and how cluster housing can … (9 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Welcome to the Future Fellow REALTORS®- It's GREEN and It's EXCITING
- 06/06/08 05:03 AM
"Green" Sustainable Real Estate! It's exciting.
Things HAPPEN when people start getting together and talking. And the talk here in the Greater Asheville area, where "THINGS" already are happening is about making wise choices in terms of GREEN.
Asheville, N.C.'s creative citizenry including a growing number (of ECO Certified® Real Estate Consultants has set its heart on finding "Smart" ways to approach the practice of real estate and to provide healthy choices in land design and use that enhance a sense of community.
While the environmental and social benefits of green buildings to a community are clear, until recently, some real … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Dream Acreage and the Land Specialist - A True Story
- 06/05/08 02:50 AM
They were, they admitted, "no spring-chicks"...I wondered...could they be the infamous Baby Boomers who are arriving here in the mountains? Were they looking for LAND to help keep them flexible and strong, or just to build on top of a mountain and look around?
They told me they wanted to "grow things...organic vegetables...maybe plant some fruit trees in sunny spots"...and they wanted to continue to work the acreage.
I said, " Are you sure you want to work that hard? Possibly you might want just to practice YOGA!"
They laughed in unison...They'd discovered yoga long ago...and had found out that … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: It's BIG. And it Influences the Practice of Real Estate. L A N D !
- 06/04/08 01:55 AM
The heart of a Land Specialist may be soft and determined all at once. If you spend enough time with the Land, there seems to be an ever-unfolding awareness of connections, or should I say the "interconnectedness" of what you find on the Land. Here in Asheville, at least, it seems that the interconnectedness puts things in perspective in a flash.
The sense of belonging within the larger community of living things that arrives as you set foot on The LAND, impacts you, and everything else in sight. The entire experience has an effect. It's BIG. And it trickles into your … (11 comments)
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asheville green real estate: 2008 Markets Stats. Good News Trends...But Where? Green Glasses.
- 05/31/08 09:47 AM
2008 Markets Stats. Good News Trends...you will find this when you look (through green glasses?) at Green-built homes, Eco-communities, Sustainable Neighborhoods.
I'm known for looking at the world of real estate through "green glasses". If you saw how sturdy the trend toward sustainable housing, the "Green Market" is, and how it's kicking up interest on the part of REALTORS® and clients alike...I imagine you'd be finding your own green glasses ASAP.
Some look at this eco-friendly trend as THE connection not only to healthy income, but to "a common good"... a place where dollar opportunity in the form of a growth industry … (10 comments)
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asheville green real estate: One Old-timer's Tale: Native American Traditions and the New Sustainability
- 05/29/08 06:54 AM
He was standing at the door when I arrived. His smile was disarming. His eyes twinkled when he spoke. He was in town to teach an RLI Class. I'd heard about him and had chatted before, but I really hadn't had a chance to "sit down" for a talk with this Old-timer. A REALTOR® from " way back" when "Sustainable or Eco- Community (in which our Firm specializes) didn't have a name yet, he came to Asheville to teach REALTORS® about The Land.
We covered a few questions, then I asked him what he thought about the Native American traditions … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Thumbs Up! Green Value Adds Up in Independent Research Study .
- 05/26/08 01:03 AM
Green Value, An Independent Research StudySays "Thumbs Up" to Green-builts...
If you read my BLOG, you probably already guessed that. Nevertheless, this is exciting news of interest to REALTORS® and our clients.
The research corroborates ...independently... Green Value , taking a good solid look at what makes green buildings commendable, and does so in a large, international study in Canada, the USA and the UK.
The study concludes:
There is clear link between the market value of a building and its green features Not only are green buildings good for the environment but they do provide healthier places to live Green buildings are more … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Cohousing, A Trend-in-the-Making?
- 05/17/08 12:40 AM
I ‘m wondering if, like me, you are seeing a growing interest in cohousing ? Is this an idea whose day has come? Possibly even a trend-in-the-making? I'm heading out this morning to do some "hands-on" research.
I'm going to look at one eco-developer's concept for an ecovillage with cohousing potentials,not far from Asheville. Here's what I know so far: An ecovillage may be in an urban or rural area and is not defined by its location, but rather by concept.
I've been told that this one (still in progress) will be defined by another standard: the very caring eco-developer's love of … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Utter FENESTRATION!
- 05/13/08 05:55 AM
Fenestration.
Are you experiencing fenestration in your daily life? You may not know it, but I bet you are, that is unless you live in a yurt above the meadows in Asheville. Or simply have your head in the clouds.
Have a clue? Go on, take a guess! WHAT is "fenestration"?
I asked my friend the green builder that question.He just grinned. He likes words like riparian and fenestration. He likes the way they roll off his tongue. He's into the curious spark in people's eyes.
He wouldn't tell me. Sent me to Wikipedia... OK... I'm game... According to Wikipedia, … (17 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Lot 1 Hickory Nut Forest Gerton, N.C. 28735
- 05/13/08 01:25 AM
Lot 1 Hickory Nut Forest Gerton, N.C. 28735 is a Special Find!
YOU could have been searching for a long time. Then, lucky person that you are, and with just a llittle help from your ECO Certified ® Real Estate Consultant one fine day you discover the perfect place destined to become your UNIQUE BUILDING SITE in the mountains....Lot 1 in the Hickory Nut Forest Eco-community not far from Asheville, NC.
The Asheville, N.C.-based eco-developers dubbed Site # 1 , "Virginia Pine". Softly rising land runs into the hardwood forest, this bodes well for building. Decked out with flowers, this is one building site … (10 comments)
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asheville green real estate: HOW Do You Design A Sustainable Neighborhood? Asheville Eco-Developer Team Tells All
- 05/10/08 01:47 AM
As I threaded my way over the rocky path to one of the many waterfalls at the eco development our Firm is representing, I wondered...
how did these amazing folks (see the developers in photo I took to your left) come up with a sustainable design?
How can one create a conservation development in such a way that genuinely honors the land and protects the environment?
Always curious, I set out on a Q&A session by the waterfall. I wanted to know about the whole process involved in creating a sustainable design.
Q. "How did you make this happen?"
A. "We … (12 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Their "UGLY" GREEN ROOF -- or is it?
- 05/08/08 02:45 AM
You may have guessed by now that besides being a REALTOR® here in Asheville, NC, . . .I'm also an old schoolteacher. So when I got this request to help out a neighborhood elementary school, (see graphic to the left) it set me off on a journey to find out more about living roofs or green roofs and what I/we as REALTORS ®and you might do to help out. . ..
First....a definition:
According to Living Roof Systems, a living roof building is above ground, "with increased opportunity for omni-directional natural daylighting, ventilation, views, and access. " Now on to 5 important … (24 comments)
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asheville green real estate: 22 BIG QUESTIONS about Conservation Easements Asked by a Waterfall
- 05/05/08 12:29 AM
SO...having spent this weekend by a waterfall (see photo JT took ) on "forever wild" land adjacent to a conservation neighborhood our Asheville, N.C. real estate firm is getting to know...
a number of questions about conservation easements popped up in my mind. . .22 to be exact...and there are probably some I haven't even thought of yet! But here, as a REALTOR® (and as an interested party) is what I want review . . .
What is a conservation easement? What is a land trust or land conservancy? Why do landowners donate conservation easements? What are the financial incentives … (15 comments)
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asheville green real estate: Riff on the Eye-Opener Forestry Report- RIPARIAN AREAS in An Eco-community
- 05/04/08 12:34 AM
RIPARIAN AREAS in An Eco-community--a real eye-opener!
This week I've been reading the Forestry Report RIFF on a Forestry Report-SOILS : Asheville Eco-Community (series) as part of the research we do before listing an Asheville area eco-development. It's been quite an eye-opener. For me, it reiterated how important it is for real estate professionals to know more about environmentally-sensitive properties. Today, I'm giving serious thought to environmental factors in terms of riparian areas. I understand that we will need to be able to point out
where the riparian areas areif any building sites are in a flood plainhow close to these areas builders can construct … (13 comments)
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asheville green real estate: LOT 16 Hickory Nut Forest Gerton, N.C. 28735
- 05/03/08 01:14 AM
WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE-
Building a HealthyBuilt home adjacent to over 1,000 Acres of Conservation Land Participating at some level in a sustainable community or Ecovillage, Selecting a building site for the future you must know that THIS Asheville, NC eco-community is amazing! Right from the start, the eco-innovators who designed and planned this conservation neighborhood have "done it right"! Right from the start, they thought about renewable energy sources and organic gardens.NOTE: ARTISTS and ARTISANS ...for these reasons and more, you are going to love Building Site 16, so here's a heads-up for you...read on....
(photo of artist enjoying stream on Site 16 property)
Welcome … (14 comments)
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WHAT BELONGS HERE? YOU can enter your "Land Design and Development Sketch" in the ECO-All-Stars June Challenge Contest!
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