Kria~Portland's Green Real Estate Broker~ innovator of the green mls system

Friends of trees is having their annual fruit tree give away

2011-04-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Trees are a wonderful thing to plant in your yard. Especially when you consider they shade your yard and you need less water and less AC in the house. At friends of trees you can get up to 3 fruit trees. A frind of mine made a great fence with them! It is his apple fence!!

green MLS in Arkansas

2011-02-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

I am helping another Realtor green an MLS in Arkansas. She is really excited about helping her clients find and sell their greened or green property. We'll do the low hanging fruit first. The energy piece of it is the low hanging fruit. Department of Energy already performance tests and labels the "plug-ins". Looking forward to seeing how it turns out

Green homes tour~ the greenest yet!!!

2010-08-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Green Homes tour

September 25th, 2010, 11am – 5pm, followed by a FREE Info Fair at Ecohaus, 819 SE Taylor, Portland, OR 97214 from 3pm – 7pm. This year the tour and fair are on the fourth Saturday in September.

It's the greenest green building tour yet! The bar is rising! Come see what a passiv haus is! Come see homes built on the tiniest of lots (50x50 feet). See a retrofitted victoian completed with the character intact!

current info for real estate

2010-08-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Good job Fred Meyer!!!

2010-08-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

Fred Meyer's is running a pilot program that I fully support. They are testing out doing without the plastic bag!!! I only found out about it recently because it is not a my Fred Meyer. I think everyone should support this. Stores can supply paper bags which can be composted. They can also supply bags made of recycled content. Those bags should satisfy people that are concerned about bag breakage as well as keeping things dry. There are plenty of locally made cloth bags that people can use. It is also easy enough to carry a small amount of things with no bag... I do that all the time.

Please support the bag test

email~ bagfeedback@fredmeyer.com

Clackamas county has it right!!!

2010-08-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Clackamas county has been awarded money to rehab houses~ green and to assist low income people. Their strategy is well thought out and provides clear information to the consumer that does not over simplify a complex issue of how to green your home.

This is 2005 not 2010! This was actually posted on Realtor.org

2010-08-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

10 Steps to Win Over Sellers
Helping eager buyers get the home of their dreams isn’t so easy in this unsettled market. Here are 10 tips for making sure sellers won’t turn up their nose at an offer:

1. Make sure the buyers are pre-approved for a mortgage (not to be confused with being pre-qualified) so they can close in about 10 days.
2. Study the buyer. Have they made an offer on another home or are they working against any other kind of deadline?
3. Make a clean offer – no requests for help with closing costs or other contingencies.
4. Include an automatic escalation clause – say $500 over the highest competing bid. (Insist that seller show the offers in writing.)
5. Sweeten the offer with a bonus if the deal gets done quickly.
6. Offer 10 percent of the purchase price in earnest money.
7. Waive the appraisal. The buyer will have to be willing to pay any difference between the selling price and what the bank is willing to lend. ((NEVER NEVER HAS THIS BEEN POSSIBLE EXCEPT CASH OFFERS))
8. Consider waiving the inspection.
9. Offer the full list price, preferably in cash.
10. Write a love letter to sellers, telling them all the things your client loves about their home.

Source: MSN Real Estate, Marilyn Lewis (08/03/2010)

2010 fed tax credits

2010-02-03T12:07:00.001-08:00

2010 Extended Energy Tax Credits – Through 12/31/2010
For all qualified upgrades, the credit is 30% of the covered cost up to a $1500 total credit. For instance, if you pay $3000 for insulation (excluding installation costs), your credit would be $900. The house must be your principal residence and the credits don’t apply to new construction. Other, upgrade-specific restrictions apply, so see the site for details.

Energy Efficient Windows and Doors, including many Storm Doors and Skylights. Cost eligible for the tax credit does not include installation costs. Certain other restrictions (like U-value and IECC qualifications apply).
Water Heaters. Credit includes installation costs; some restrictions for energy efficiency apply.
Metal and Asphalt Roofs. Credit does NOT include installation costs. The roof must be highly energy efficient (asphalt roofs must have cooling granules, for instance).
Insulation, whether spray foam, fiberglass, or blow-in cellulose, they’re all covered so long as they meet IECC requirements. Installation cost is NOT covered.
HVAC Components, including certain Advanced Air Handlers, Air Force Heat Pumps, Central A/C Units, Boilers, Propane, and Gas Furnaces. Tax credits include installation costs.
Biomass Stoves.

Flat stanley joins friends of trees

2010-02-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

What a suprise!!! Flat Stanely joined us for our tree planting

This weekend portland will be reducing it's carbon footprint

2010-01-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend 177 new trees will be planted in Portland. Why is that a big deal? In the summer the streets serve as a heat sink. Asphalt is black not white like my porch. There is in architecture a design concept called passive solar design. It was the rage in the 70's. It is a very old concept though. Thermal massing is used to capture heat during the day and to let off during the cooler times; night.

Streets have a thermal storage capacity that often goes unrecognised. It is the same concept that is used for passive solar. There is a mass that takes the heat in when the sun is on it. It is released at night. Black attracts the most heat, white attracts the least. Our city streets are black and there is often no mitigating factor like trees. They prevent the heat absorption.

Now to my porch experience. I have a big concrete porch that faces west and has southern exposure. Last summer when it was really hot I put curtains out to shade my porch. It cooled my house! There was not a huge heat sink emitting heat. This is very basic. And I think we have lost sight of how important shade is.

energy use

2009-12-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

Just found out that I use so little energy that PGE thought that my house might be vacant! I did that with light bulbs mostly and unpluging things.

Heating our houses My challenge to you

2009-12-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

Why is it that the recommended temperature to keep your house at in the winter has increased since the Carter administration by almost 23 degrees in the wrong direction? It was 55 degrees. Can we all just do that? Do we really need to have our heat up to 78 degrees in the winter? I know that I can do that comfortably and if everyone did it... how much carbon could we be saving? Not to mention the gas or oil that is used to get there.

Personally I think it is ridiculous to have our houses at a temperature that it gets to in the spring or summer depending on where you live.

My challenge to you is to join me and turn your HVAC down to under 60. I have been doing this with ease. I also have my heat at night down at 55.

The balancing act~

2009-11-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

The big question is how do we balance "greening" of our collective lives with our historic buildings. Please look at the link associated with this posting about existing buildings.

Just in my neighborhood in the past month or so 13-15 buildings have been torn down to make way for "green" building. The builder does not reclaim material nor do they reuse material.

Click on this to see a green as you sell!!!

2009-11-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

I am trying something new with this listing. I even have a bet that it will sell green. There is a newly available tool that I intend to use every time I list a house.... The previously illusive energy efficient mortgage. I have been doing this previously and it was not as streamlined.

Tax credit extended and expanded

2009-10-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

The tax credit has been expanded for first time home buyers and expanded to include buyers that have not purchased a home in 5 years. It is an $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers and $6500 for buyers that have not purchased a home in 5 years.

I still think they should have allowed the credit for purchase with half of it going to energy improvements using a holdback. That would have benefited our national agenda of becoming more independent on fossil fuels and would have stimulated more sectors.

learn about improving you energy performance

2009-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Northwest EcoBuilding Guild
Western Columbia Chapter
Home Performance 101
Wednesday, October 28th
Meet and Greet 6 PM * Presentation 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Zion Baptist Church * Community Room * NE 9th and Fremont
NWEBG Members FREE * Non-members $5 donation suggested

45 degree difference with trees!!!!

2009-08-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have always been a tree person. But I never knew the exact numbers or difference it would make to plant trees. Watch this video!!!

green multiple listing systems spreading

2009-08-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

The largest multiple listing system in the country is in process of being greened. Why is this good news? That system covers several east coast states. Now we have greened MLS's on both coasts. Things tend to spread from the coasts to the rest of the country. To the average person that sells a house that will mean improvements made to a house to make it more energy efficient will be given a value. It will also mean buyers can see if the houses have things about it that decrease the energy needs and costs of running the house.

In the past houses were given value based on location and how fixed up they were. Now there will be a new factor, what has been done to it to make it more cost effective to run. Appraisers will have to come up with what the value is for the stand alone items. That is good news!

It could eventually lead to national loans that are available everywhere that take into account the energy efficiency of the house....

Support the new codes to allow us to move in the right direction

2009-07-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

There is a group of building code proposals that would allow us to green up Portland more effectively. They all make sense to me. My favorite change is the building overhang change. That is such a huge thing. My how has 2'6" overhangs and I have ceiling insulation and when it gets hot, my house does not. It's the overhangs!

The zoning changes include "such as making it easier to install wind and solar systems on commercial buildings, develop green power alternatives, improve bike parking in multifamily projects, and allow rainwater cisterns and wider roof overhangs within setbacks. Below is a summary of the green items included in the package." (Mike Obrien)

The low tech ways of keeping your house cool

2009-07-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of buzz these days about all of the technical methods of keeping a house cool. The low tech ways are pretty easy to do. Buy cellular blinds for the east south and west facing windows. Cellular blinds act like insulation if you keep them closed during the hot parts of the day, your house is kept cooler. If you don't like the look of the blinds, buy light colored curtains the light color does not absorb the heat.

If you have a basement and a forced air heating system, run the fan on that to get the cool air from the basement circulating in your house.

Ceiling fans are another inexpensive investment to make you feel cool.

For future cooling, plant deciduous trees to the south of your house. That will shade your house during the hot parts of the year and allow solar gain during the cool parts of the year.

Green Washing

2009-06-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

I went to a class that was supposed to be a class on green washing. It ended up being a class on LEED. I just want to share with you what I think green washing is: for new construction it is not getting it certified to a minimum standard of energy star. From a real estate perspective this is the piece that translates all the way through, at least potentially.

From a building science perspective building to energy star is not very green at all. There are a lot of green build programs and ideas out there. Some have very high expectations of what the built environment can do. The living building challenge that the AIA has put out there is one of the places that the market is getting a push. Passive haus out of Germany is way ahead of anything we are doing in the US.

In my opinion, existing construction should be compared to other homes of the same era for it's green-ness. That way you are comparing an apple to an apple. There is plenty that can be done with an older home, like insulating. There are tax incentives to do a lot of what makes a building perform better.

It is not green to tear down a perfectly good home to put a new certified green home on it. Especially if you are scrapping it and putting the remains in the landfill.

Portland's green market over the 400K (there was nothing over 680 to compare)

2009-06-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is the housing market under 400 green v new construction

2009-06-16T11:34:00.001-07:00

Greening the market

2009-06-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am going to post two studies I did on the green housing market. I did this at the request of a real estate instructor. But the information is good for anyone interested in development or just buying or selling a house. I looked just at new construction for trends. What I found was (and I already knew) that greened housing especially in the lower ends sells more quickly at more per sq ft. I broke it out into housing type because there is a huge variation. I will post the two studies so that you can see!

I certainly see a trend in building green. It has not yet occured to the luxury market to do this. So I will blog about it when they catch up to the times.

Just saw the coolest house with a cobb structure on it

2009-06-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have to blog about this house I just saw. It is on a small lot 50x100 and there are three structures on it. The old farm house has been renovated... the reclaimed materials way. For example the bathroom has walls made of old cabinet doors and old wood parts from other things. The shower suround is made from recyled tiles and plates and things. I loved this place.

The cobb building wasn't available to view but it is like most cobb homes, small and very cute. They remind me a little bit of knomes and are perfectly suited to a moss filled climate like ours.

There was also an outdoor/ indoor shower made of the recyled tile and the like. ( you would heve to see it to really appreciate the in and outside part of the home.

This is a piece of the green movement that is bottom up change rather than the top down method. What I love about it is there is so much room for ART!

By the way it is on the market under 250... want to see it?