634 Wickhams Fancy Biltmore Lake, NC

This wonderful and rustic home situated on listed by Preferred Properties of Asheville affords the new owners custom crafted features like vaulted ceilings, a huge stone fireplace, covered back porch looking out over a private yard, entertainment spaces, and more. For the price of $745,000 the home also offers:

• 5 Bedrooms, 3 Full Baths, 2 Half Baths
• Stunning Custom Craftsman
• Private Backyard overlooking Greenway
• Master on Main/4 additional bedrooms on 2nd
• Large Entertainment Area in lower level
• Abundant Storage, alarm system, sprinkler system

207 Willard Street, Berlin NH

Listed for $99,900 this 3 bedroom and 2 bath colonial is an architectural gem featuring pellet stove heating to reduce energy costs. Formal dining and living spaces, a huge family room, and bunches of closets plus a mother in law apartment make the home a steal at this price. Below are listed more features by Bean  Group, one of the nation’s top rated real estate companies.

• 2476 sqft
• Built in 1910
• Master BR 17 x 13
• Lot Size: 0.150 acres
• Local schools - Hillside Elementary School, Berlin Junior High

317 Mountain Laurel Walk, Canton, GA

This almost new home listed at $219,900 is situated in the “Great Sky Community” of one of Northwest Georgia’s fastest growing cities. Just renovated, with stainless appliances and granite counter-tops  the house also features a fabulous master suite and other amenities. The community pool, tennis courts, playground and other features add to the value of this super nice home. Below you’ll find more features of this Palmer House Properties listing.

• Bedrooms: 5
• Baths: 3
• Living Area: 3010 Square Ft.
• Lot Size: .21 Acres

Rancho Cucamonga – 10803 Foothill Blvd

A Cal American Homes offering, this home at the end of a quite cul-de-sac boasts a beveled glass entry door leading to a formal living room, kitchen featuring granite counters and recessed lighting, and new fixtures throughout. Listed at $324,900, and only on the market for 45 days, the home has four bedrooms and three full baths. Here are some more home numbers:

• Approx. Sq. Ft. : 1853
• Year Built : 1978
• Acreage : 0.166

303 Bannock St
Fort Collins, CO

303 Bannock St, Fort Collins, CO

This Dry Creek Subdivision model home is featured as an open house by ColoProperty.com. The 5 star energy rated home features 9 foot ceilings, lawn sprinkler system, patio, oversized garage, and walk in closets. The home is listed for $194,000 with Kendra Adams as the listing agent. Other features include:

Image by Art Rock (Hennie)/flickr.com

ERA Real Estate has been around for 40 years, developing consumer-oriented products and services in the real estate industry.  The ERA network includes some 30,000 brokers and sales associates and approximately 2,400 offices throughout the United States and 35 countries and territories.

“As vacations wind down after Labor Day and people become more focused, the desire to be in a new home for the holidays is a historically strong driver of fall home sales,” said Charlie Young, president and CEO of ERA Real Estate.

The ERA survey reveals 40 percent of respondents like fall for homebuying because of the “back to school” and starting fresh mentality that hits when September and October come around. Twenty percent cite wanting to be in their new home in time for the holidays. And 10 percent want to take advantage of the tax benefit of buying and owning a home.

The biggest group of fall homebuyers are first-time homebuyers at 27 percent, according to the report. Twenty percent are move-up buyers. Some 17 percent are retirees or those downsizing. The remaining 36 percent is made up of investors, military relocations, vacation home buyers, and “other.”

Fall is also a good time from a buyer standpoint as many sellers want to try to sell by the end of the year. Also, sellers in colder climates generally want to sell before the cold weather and snow hit.

How the findings will affect what happens this fall remains to be seen.

The National Association of Realtors reports pending home sales in August 2012 declined after reaching a two-year peak. But the August figures are higher than August 2011.

Lawrence Yun , NAR chief economist, said some volatility can be expected in the monthly readings. “The performance in month-to-month contract signings has been uneven with ongoing shortages of lower priced inventory in much of the country, and across most price ranges in the West, but activity has remained at notably higher levels this year,” Yun said.

Michele Dawson is a freelance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona. She spent seven years as a newspaper reporter and has written for various magazines and web sites specializing in real estate and home improvement, including Realty Times, SmartHomeowner, California Builder, and the Sacramento Business Journal.

Image/freedigitalphotos.net

A completed short sale will not show up on your credit report as a foreclosure action.  Instead it will most likely appear as a debt settled for less than was owed. This is a much less drastic effect on your credit rating.  Yes it will impact your credit score and will hurt you but it is a short term hit and you will recover from it relatively quickly.  Normally within 24-36 months your credit rating will have rebounded to the point where obtaining loans and financing will no longer be an issue, assuming you have made all of your payments and kept your credit clean since the completion of your short sale.

But there is even more incentive now to do a short sale rather than a foreclosure.  In December of 2009, FHA (Federal Housing Administration) announced if you sold your home as a short sale you could immediately qualify to buy another home with a 3.5% down FHA loan so long as:

1. The home you short sold was financed with a non-recourse loan.  A non-recourse loan is one where the lender cannot come after you for a deficiency judgment if they foreclose on the property.  Their only recourse is to take the property back.
2. The home you short sold was your primary residence and you can show that the hardship you were under in trying to keep that loan either no longer exists or the payment on this new loan will be significantly less and therefore more affordable.
3. You were not late on your mortgage payments at the time of the short sale.
4. You did not short sale your house as part of a strategic default just to take advantage of market conditions.  (You didn’t walk away from the house even though you could have kept it but it didn’t make sense to keep paying on it because its value had dropped so much.)

Now number three is normally the one that can keep people from qualifying for this program.  After all, the reason you short sale your home is because you can no longer afford the payments.  But, here is a little known trick if you are worried about getting a loan after a short sale.

If you approach your lender for a loan modification before you go into default and they agree to lower your payments for a period of time, then so long as you continue to make those agreed upon lower payments you are not in default as far as FHA is concerned.  You are still abiding by the new, modified terms of your loan given to you by your lender.  Then you can still decide to short sale your home down the road and be able to get a loan with no waiting period from FHA under this program.

But even if this new FHA program doesn’t work for you, the benefits of a short sale over a foreclosure when it comes time to buy a new home are significant.  You normally have to wait up to three years to qualify for a new loan.  But HUD regulations allow lenders to make exceptions to this three year waiting period.  For instance if your default was due to illness or death of a spouse which impacted your income.

Having to make the decision to give up your home is never easy.  There are always going to be certain consequences to deal with.  But using a short sale minimizes those consequences and gives you the best chance to get back on your feet and rebuild your life immediately.

Daniel Doran is a 20+ year veteran in the real estate industry. He is a previous owner of a law firm, mortgage and title company. Daniel has also written several books on mortgage modification, short sales and real estate investing. He currently specializes in Commercial Finance and Real Estate Development and is a graduate of Manhattanville College and Brooklyn Law School. You can contact Dan at Buildings By Owner.

Image by cackhanded/flickr

On September 20^th 2012, the Austin Board of Realtors released an MLS (Multiple Listings Service) report that had great news for those engaging in Austin real estate.  For starters, Austin had its 15^th straight month of sales volume growth. Homes are selling at a fantastic rate with the average time on the market ranging in the low 60s, a significant drop from August 2011 when homes were selling after an average of 79 days on the market.

Homes are selling particularly well in Austin because demand is very high and the inventory continues to decrease. The decrease in inventory does not mean that new homes aren’t surging onto the market. In fact, there was a 15% increase in new homes from August 2011, while at the same time there are 17% fewer active listings and 23% more pending sales. The demand is simply so high that even with the addition of new homes, the total inventory has continued to decrease.

Perhaps the most staggering of statistics can be found in the number of homes sold. In a comparison of August 2011 and August 2012, the Austin market saw an incredible jump of 21% compared to a year prior with a total of 2,400 single-family homes selling this August. Another example of the improving market can be seen in the market’s months of inventory, which as of August 2012 was at a solid 4.0.

So why all the hype about Austin homes? For starters, Austin is constantly being awarded as one of the best cities to live in across the nation. The attraction to the city starts with its low unemployment rate and low cost of living and ends with its abundance of culture and things to do. Austin boasts a favorable climate for those who can sweat it out in July and August. And the economy is more stable than most other large cities thanks to a combination of state jobs at the Texas State Capitol, the growing technology industry and, of course, plenty of annual revenue from the University of Texas, which is located in the heart of the city.

With people flocking to the “Live Music Capitol of the World,” now is a great time to participate in Austin real estate. Austin homes are hot commodities and if the current market is any indication, then now is the time to get involved.

Andrew Hill is a content developer for Reilly Realtors located in Austin Texas. He can be contact at Andrew@reillyrealtors.com

© wrangler – Fotolia.com

Many other factors go into determining your basis.  For example any long-term maintenance you did or permanent additions or other structures you made to the property.  Regardless, the end result is a tax of some amount when you sell.  However, while this tax cannot be totally avoided, it can be deferred almost indefinitely using a vehicle from the IRS known as a 1031Exchange.

What is a 1031 Exchange?

In a real estate transaction, the property owner is taxed on any capital gain realized from the sale. However, using a Section 1031 Exchange, the tax on the gain is deferred until some future date. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that “no gain or loss shall be recognized on the exchange of property held for productive use in a trade or business, or for investment.” A 1031 tax-deferred exchange allows a property owner to trade one or more of their recently sold properties for one or more replacement properties of “like-kind”.  The capital gains tax on the sale of these properties is deferred until either the seller liquidates his investments or dies.

The legal reasoning behind the Section 1031 exchange deferment is when a property owner has reinvested the sale proceeds of one property into another, the economic gain of the seller has not been realized in a way that gives the seller actual money to pay a tax. So the taxpayer’s overall investment is the same, it has just changed form.  The seller has not at this time received any cash benefit from the sale.  The IRS determined it would not be fair to tax the investor on just a paper gain so they created the 1031 exchange.

What are the requirements for a 1031 Exchange?

• Proper Purpose – Both the sold property and the newly purchased property must be held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment. Property bought for immediate resale such as a flip doesn’t qualify for this tax exemption.
• Like Kind – The replacement property acquired in an exchange must be “like-kind” to the property being relinquished. As an example, all qualifying real property located in the United States is like-kind to all other property located in the United States.  Property located outside the United States would not be considered like-kind to property located in the United States. However you can do a 1031 Exchange for property outside the United States to another property that is also outside the United States.
• Exchange Requirement – The relinquished property must be exchanged for other property, and cannot be liquidated and then the cash used to buy the new property.  This means the 1031 Exchange requires an intermediary to facilitate the transaction.

Who is involved in a 1031 Exchange?

• Investor/Taxpayer/Exchanger As the person selling your property, you can be referred to by any of these names.
• Buyer. The person buying your property. This person pays money to the intermediary and then receives the deed.
• Intermediary. This is any qualified neutral third party not related to the transaction such as a title company or attorney.  The intermediary ensures that all of the regulations are followed and places the funds in an escrow account until the exchange is completed.
• Seller. The person selling their property to you. This might not be the same person who is purchasing your property in the exchange.  In other words you can sell your property to one party and buy a property from a different party and still qualify for a 1031 Exchange.

What are the specific timing rules for an exchange?

The investor has a maximum of 180 days from the closing of the relinquished property or the due date of that year’s tax return, whichever occurs first, to acquire the replacement property. This is called the Acquisition Period. The first 45 days of that period is called the Identification Period. During the 45 days, the investor must identify the property that will be used for replacement. This identification must be in writing, signed by the investor, and received by the intermediary within the time period allotted.  If this does not occur then the 1031 Exchange will be considered null and void and all capital gains owed on the sale will be immediately due…

So long as you keep rolling over your investments into new, like-kind properties, you can defer the capital gains taxes owed indefinitely and still reap the benefits from your new properties.

I have a real estate investor client who buys, fixes and resells single family homes.  He has been regularly buying twenty to thirty foreclosure auctions every month for the past two years.  However, over the past three months he has averaged closer to ten properties every month and has been continuously outbid on many desirable properties.  He also has had to pay more for the properties he has bought. It’s forced him to look at other avenues for buying and reselling distressed homes.

The reason is the buy and hold investor is not concerned with making a quick profit on a property so he is willing to pay closer to current market values for these properties.  His goal is to buy the property at a price he can rent it out for and develop a positive cash flow.  With rental prices continuing to rise across the county this allows these investors to pay more for properties and still maintain a solid rate of return.  Their goal is to generate cash slowly and are betting on an overall real estate market recovery over the next three to five years.  When that occurs they will be able to sell these assets at a significant gain and cash out then.

The same is happening in the short sale market.  The combination of lenders demanding more money for their inventory combined with investors willing to pay more for that same inventory has caused the profit margins for fix and flip investors who have made their living over the past several years buying and reselling short sales to significantly decreasbe, almost to the point of actually costing the investor more than the property is worth after repaired value.

There is also no shortage of real estate guru’s who have switched their course materials available to new investors from fix and flip to fix and hold.

Recently BiggerPockets.com,  one of the larger real estate investor sites and forums on the web, held a REI Summit in Denver Colorado.  Sponsors from Phoenix to Indianapolis to Atlanta were there offering turn-key investment properties for sale with excellent returns. Also, the New York Times published an article this month about large investors buying homes by the thousands and renting them out because the returns are higher than treasury securities or stock dividends.

So what does all this mean to the fix and flip investor?  The short answer is much more work and networking to find deals.  Direct mail marketing, phone calls, email campaigns and even door knocking on For Sale By Owner homes are going to come back in fashion.  The problem is many investors are new to the fix and flip market and have been spoiled by the easy access to properties.  They don’t have the experience in buying and selling when a market is moving up or peaking so these techniques seem like way too much work in their eyes.

In order to survive, investors are going to need to get out of their comfort zones and start using some of the older tried and true methods of finding deals.  You may also need to start investing in properties that are selling at a different price point than they’ve been using or possibly even look at other markets where the fix and hold investors are not as abundant.

Daniel Doran is a 20+ year veteran in the real estate industry. He is a previous owner of a law firm, mortgage and title company. Daniel has also written several books on mortgage modification, short sales and real estate investing. He currently specializes in Commercial Finance and Real Estate Development and is a graduate of Manhattanville College and Brooklyn Law School. You can contact Dan at Buildings By Owner.

Below you will find some of the online players in the International real estate market. These are the good, bad, and even ugly of world property portals. Part I of the series will be European sites ranked high in the various search engine rankings.

Europe Real Estate finders

World Properties EU

If you search for international property online chances are one of the first real estate portals you’ll come across will be World Properties. And if you look for Europe homes etc. the EU contingent will certainly appear.

Not the pretties website ever launced, World Properties is however complete and loaded with listings. Five language versions, a lot of decent video and images, and property search powered by Proxio that is adequate, we found some good listings right here in Rhineland Pfalz in Germany where are offices are located. The company has some social media engagement, fair at best, but better than most US local agents. Ease of use and no frills, we rate this site 5 of 10.

There’s room for improvement.

A World Properties listing in Germany.

PlanetPads.com

The name kind of says it all, even if the design says Web 1.0. Planet Pads is an International property portal. Sort of. A visitor can actually find a place to buy here, but as to the accuracy of the listings, or the quality of the data, this aspect is anyone’s guess. This is the problem with really bad websites, the credibility of the information is suspect no matter how accurate the info is. Planet Pads offers two listings with 3 beds and 2 baths in Germany. One, it so happens, is in Crete.

For the record Elounda is a town on the extreme Eastern coast of this Mediterranean Island. No social media effort at all, not optimized for the most recent browsers (Chrome in my case), a slow server (site loads like molassis), and just down home ugliness equals… This portal scored 2 of 10.

This domain deserves a complete site revamp.

Planet Pads property search is all but worthless.

Immobilmente.com

Only in Italian, and only for Italians we guess, this real estate portal is none the less superb compared to many competitors. Not cutting edge, so to speak, the site does allow for easy search and discover of a vast number of properties. We elected to look for some Rome villas and homes. A meta-search portal in reality, house hunts end up at places like www.idealista.it and etc. The point is though, users can get what they are looking for, and pretty fast and accurately too.

Despite numerous flaws, the Italian Immobilmente portal works nicely. No social buttons or engagement is apparent on the search aspect, but a visit to the news segment reveals connectivity. I suggest those looking for property here hit the city tag cloud and go. As for their rating, it is taken down by not being multilingual and for a sluggish UI. Rating is 6 of 10.

A bit of refinement and this would be Europe’s best property site.

An effective property search mechanism

It’s Funda

In the absence of any real European niche competitor to Zillow etc. Netherlands property portal Funda is a sure bet to help peeps looking for houses in Holland and there about. If simple and minimalism is your bag, for only €289,000 euro you too can own a bit of Amsterdam lushness. Search is quick, painless, and meaningful here. Funda, run by the biggest Dutch broker organization NVM, is on a par with almost any US organization portal.

Hook up with Funda’s Twitter feed here, Facebook too, map search, all the simplicity and function you need, Funda has it. As for depth and advise? Well, the site is not multilingual that we can tell, so. Rating is 6.5 of 10.

Expand to France and Germany, French and German, and make more friends.

Dutch real estate portal Funda home search Amsterdam.

The Move Channel

This is the best European property portal we have found thus far. Big images, quick and slick UI, and best of all properties to get all fuzzy about, The Move Channel does a good job where others fail miserably. Sharing of properties via vitrually any sane social network shows the company knows its business. So do a lot of other features too. While the design could be prettier, to each his own is a good way to look at that aspect.

I particularly like the use of Pinterest and video via their own channel on YouTube. Embedding of the property videos could be made easier, but in total these guys make property hunting Italy or anywhere in Europe a breeze. Easy filtering produces just what any looker is looking for. The image below shows most elements plus a nice penthouse we might even afford. These guys would be a 9.5 but their social presence is hidden. Their rating is 8 of 10, for obvious reasons.

Catch these guys if you can world.

The Move Channel Italy property.

Next up we’ll bring you online property portals of Latin America, but for now if you can think of any European ones we missed, please let us know.

Image credit: Europe real estate via © samott – Fotolia.com

Most of us are guilty of having a cluttered home © Joseph Helfenberger – Fotolia.com

The first step is to assess your items. What is needed for day-to-day living, what can be thrown or given away or sold, and what can be stored? It’s a good idea to have someone with you who can be objective when making these judgements – especially if you find it hard to get rid of things. Once you’ve decided what will be left to store, evaluate your storage capacity.

Remember, potential buyers will want to check storage too, so it might not be the best decision to stuff every cupboard with items. Attics or basements are usually a better place to store things, as they’ll be viewed less extensively (and buyers don’t mind as much if they’re full of boxes or furniture). However, consider access (is it viable to keep heavy items in attic storage?), and potential dampness that could ruin delicate items like books, even in a short amount of time.

Offsite storage can be great for decluttering a house during a sale. Self storage units are especially flexible – take the space you need, only for the time you need it. Do your research and find the closest facility to your home, and stack any items you might need to access closest to the door. Even in the temperature controlled environment of a self storage unit, there are several ways we can look to protect items to keep them in the best condition.

Books

Stack smaller books over larger books and make sure that they’re arranged horizontally (never vertically) because it can damage the spine.

Mattresses

Wrap your mattresses in the special bags available at self storage facilities and DIY stores. These not only prevent them from losing shape but protect them from absorbing moisture as well.

Wooden Furniture

Before placing any kind of wooden furniture into storage, wax well with wood varnish. This prevents moisture from affecting the wood.

Electronic Equipment

Wrap electronic equipment as if you were wrapping glass or crystal (with extra layers of foam and then placed into a larger box). Never wrap computers or electronic devices in plastic for long term self storage as it traps moisture in and fosters mildew growth.

Avoiding Rust

If you are planning on storing metal objects like lawnmowers or filing cabinets, it is a good idea to treat them with rust protector first, or at least wipe them down with an oily rag.

Kitchen Ware

All glass items should be individually wrapped and stacked, whereas cups and bowls should be nested on top of each others. Stand plates, saucers, and platters on their edges.

Sofas

Generally, it’s better to store vertically on a flat sided arm. Leather handles the pressure very well, as does micro-fibre. Silky high end fabrics are better to kept on their feet as they don’t have the structural integrity to withstand the additional pressure.

Drew Davies writes for Big Yellow Self Storage and is based in London. For more information on how to use storage to sell a home check out their blog or the downloadable packing guide on their homepage

Welcome to Phoenix, or Mediocrity?

For the reader, our methodology here is no nonsense and simplified. Just like any home buyer or seller looking for info on the web, the most logical place will always be Google. Searching for keywords or phrases such as “homes in Phoenix” or “Phoenix real estate” mimics what your everyday buyer or seller might do. These searches, modified to exclude huge aggregator sites like Trulia and others, can really show what the local professionals are up to, at least online. So, without further explanation, let’s look at Phoenix’s top real estate gurus.

Phoenix Real Estate (by Phoenixhomes.com)

Just under the paid positioning of Trulia, Phoenix Real Estate sits at the top position for the search “Phoenix homes for sale.” About the best that can be said for Matt Pellerin’s website is that it is “adequate” for finding some houses in the area. As before, we tend to put some emphasis on social media engagement, site design and navigation, and whether or not the key Realtor shows an effort toward interacting and informing people. As you can see by the screen shot below, even searching for a home results in the visitor being asked to “opt in” for the lead.

For those unfamiliar, opting in means you give permission to be SPAMMED to pieces generally, even called via phone. So far, so bad, for Phoenix home search. (Note: no SM buttons of any kind, let along a prevalent pic of the Broker) RBiz rating of Phoenix Real Estate: 3 on a scale of 10.

Dorathey Duffield

Wow. If Phoenix Real Estate up there is woefully Web 1.0, this Realtor’s big move to take over the Internet for clients and is tantamount to Stone Age marketing madness. In cases like this, I hate to say my I am torn asunder between feeling bad for the agent, and wanting to get glossy photos up of the inconsistency.

This top ten Google SERP wanna be offers not only hard sales techniques like opt in cues, but less than admirable functionality. One thing is clear to this writer, Dorathey Duffield wants you to email or call her, it’s prompted at every turn. The image below of a property search says it all for me. Excuse the lack of SM presence, a one way conversation, even hard sell tactics, the hazy images of a house worth nearly a third of a million dollars? Rating: 2 of 10.

Stone House Realty

Justin A. Lombard should not have chosen a domain name like trust-in-justin.com, but other than this he has his two competitors up there beat hands down where online credibility is concerned. His website is nothing to write to Time Magazine over, it won’t make any web covers, but the Realtor has done some SEO, SM, and marketing classes somewhere. Or else is smart enough (not so cheap as to) to hire somebody who does have a clue. Sorry Justin, I can’t give a glowing review here, but you honestly did what was necessary.

Okay, Stone House does not have a massive engagement quotient, but what is displayed openly is the Broker’s email, picture, phone, and a little tiny “g +” at page top, indicating someone there understands SEO and the social trend. Stone House does venture into the “opt in” space where it seems appropriate, such as the testimonial pages as the company’s competitors do. The difference in this case being there are actual reviews of the services offered next to one call to action to get mail from the Realtor. No Twitter and Facbook, no valid link to the g + profile, an ugly site, and some other missing elements take Stone House’s ratings down tho. Rating: 5 of 10.

Historic Phoenix Dot Com?

If ever there were a smart move (I think) calling your real estate entity by a dual purpose name might be (or might have been) one of the slickest I’ve seen. The owners of Historic Phoenix, Don Mertes and Maureen Rooney, got themselves into the top ten search listings with a lot of content, and what looks like some SEO and linking juice. The site seems very new, Alexa only shows a brief history dating back to three months.

The nicest of the Phoenix real estate sites we visited today, and replete with pics of the principals, some decent tools, and a ton of resources. However, beyond a snappy and effective internal and external linking build (study link building and SEO), and some cool facts and figures about the surrounding Arizona architecture etc, “slick” is about what the online home searcher gets via this portal. Bottom line is, are the agents doing their best to sell and show? No social engagement for their clients, some info loosely scattered about the site, and a Yelp connection of little relevance (save some visibility), none of this spells “BROKER” for me. Of course, the agents are free to argue. Rating: 5 of 10.

Is this enough to sell? Or to make you want to buy or call?

The Drummond Group

Interestingly, or sadly perhaps, Phoenix’s real estate presence online is so poor as to have driven this writer to Zillow to find our next entry. The Drummond Group appears not in our Google SERPs, but at the top of the list of Phoenix Realtors on the Zillow Real Estate Agent Reviews & REALTORS®. Okay, after spitting and coughing like Daffy Duck over this dispicable happenstance, it matters not. Evaluating Ed Drummond’s digital presence for his constituents will do. Oh, but wait? Ed Drummond is all about commercial offerings. Or is he? The Zillow listing shows homes and review about buying homes, yet the company site offers industrial, land, office, and so on?

Wait, Ed has his Drummond Group at Capstone Realty identity on Facebook! But somehow all these presences rebuke the Google search, even the Zillow one? Confused? So am I. There’s a Capstone Realty site, an Ed Drummond one that is exactly the same with Ed’s domain, and at least one domain that no longer exits. While Ed Drummond does sure seem to get around, and his agency(s) show the earmarks of being successful (lots of employees) Ed himself is a bit hard to track down. I did manage to find one pic of him on the company Facebook, with Santa Claus no less. (Evidently he only shows up for Christmas?). Anyhow, Ed and his team will have to excuse me for A – having to hunt them down, and B – being very confused about their offerings for web searching real estate peeps. Rating (just cuz Ed is so tall) 4 of 10.

Summary Judgement: Pitiful

No doubt the reader (and some Phoenix Realtors) are suffering at this point. In all honesty it is no fun revealing such mediocrity, particularly for an area of the US one would think might recover sooner, rather than later. One thing is cemented with this latest review of digital Realty, not many agents spend even a thought considering how people on the web might engage with them.

Maybe all you iPhone toting people out there, you Facebook fans, had better get in your cars and drive to Arizona? Just look for the big ass sign that says; “Home For Sale” by the lazy agent too busy and important to do more than take your money.

Sorry, but this search is getting ridiculous. Next up Dallas.

Photo credit: Mediocrity image courtesy Andy Dean – Fotolia.com

© ponsulak - Fotolia.com

One option that is both kinder to Mother Nature and your wallet is to improve the energy efficiency of your home. The following are some green home improvements that are cost-effective and energy efficient.

Beefing Up Insulation:

Especially for those living in an older home beefing up your property’s insulation can lead to big energy savings in the long run. The insulation options available to today’s homeowner offer not only superior efficiency as compared to the insulation used in building in the past but also the ability to insulate an existing dwelling without need for major demolition or reconstruction. If you feel that your handy-man skills might be up to the task this is a job that can be completed DIY in a weekend. See the National Assocation of REALTORS® article on DIY insulation at http://www.realtor.com/home-garden/do-it-yourself/heating-air-conditioning/insulating-existing-walls.aspx.

New Appliances:

By now chances are that you’ve heard of Energy Star appliances. These appliances provide a higher degree of energy efficiency than their outdated counterparts, and depending on the frequency with which you use the appliance can decrease your utility bills by hundreds of dollars per year. Replacing your refrigerator alone can have a large impact on energy efficiency and savings.

Change Your Bulbs:

Replacing your home’s incandescent bulbs with more energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs might not net you huge savings, but it does increase your home’s efficiency. A compact fluorescent bulb uses about 1/3 the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs and lasts up to 10 times longer, meaning not only less bulb changes in hard to reach fixtures but also savings over the life of the bulb. Don’t be fooled by the price tag: these bulbs will easily pay for themselves over time.

Embrace the Double Pane: Installing double pane windows in your home can yield great energy savings while also keeping your home more comfortable. Not only will the outside elements be kept out and the inside heating/cooling be kept in, you can also enjoy more quiet in high traffic areas by installing these more efficient windows.

Underfloor Heating:

This improvement is admittedly on the more costly side of going green but the potential savings are worth the initial investment. Underfloor heating has been popular in Europe and the U.K. for decades. The concept might sound highly scientific when in fact it’s not all that complicated: underfloor heating radiates heat from the floor upward, keeping with the scientific fact that heat rises. These floors offer a much more even and efficient heat source than traditional heating options, not to mention no more cold hardwoods in the morning. Due to the invasive nature of this project you might consider installing underfloor heating at the same time as a new flooring project.

Upgrading your home’s energy efficiency will not only save you money in the long run but also decrease your carbon footprint. Most of these improvements also go along way in improving the comfort level inside your home, so you have nothing more than the initial investment to lose. For more information on the many ways to make your home a greener one visit http://www.realtor.com/home-garden/Green-Your-Home/Simple-Household-Products-to-Green-Your-Home.aspx.