Enjoy..

How To Reduce Your Home Heating Costs on Howcast

So, where you put your programmable thermostat, apparently is key to cut down your utility bills. Thermostat is the low hanging fruit in energy efficiency. However, where you put thermostat, is important in helping you meeting the goals of keeping your energy bills down, via New York Times.

“If you have the right thermostat in place but the temperature sensor is in the wrong place, that can have a huge impact on energy performance,” said Jeffrey Perlman, the president of Bright Power, an energy consulting group.

Thermostat is so efficient that it gives you the fastest payback to savings energy and the environment, in comparison to other gadgets, when in comes to green tune-up your home. It's 'right' on the money. For a small investment of around $115, you can get money back for the return on investment (ROI) in the neighborhood of 0.6 year or 7.2 months, at an annual savings of approximately $180 in energy costs. According to GreenandSave, your payback or ROI would be 1.5 times (156.5%) of cost.

It's like real estate. Location, location, location. Where you put it, gives you the most bang! Via GreenandSave:

The height on the wall (optimal between chest and eye level) and the location in a room near exterior doors or windows can impact the readings. As well, proximity to supply and return ducts can impact the reading and cause inefficient cycling. (emphasis mine)

Consult your HVAC contractor and ask to give you a couple zone locations around the house, so you can get the most bang for your buck.

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For the purpose of full disclosure: I am a Realtor Outreach for GreenandSave, a company that has 20 year legacy in the 'Green' energy saving market. The National Association of Realtors (NAR), uses the GreenandSave data for their green education curriculum. Click here and enter promo "Realtor2," and GreenandSave will donate $10 of proceed to a local realtor association. 

Free shuttle buses start next Monday, November 23. It runs every 10 mins between 10am to 2:30pm. The kick-off event is 11:00am this coming Monday at Tysons Corner Center's main stop near Nordstrom entrance. They're giving away restaurants' gift certificates (they said while supplies last) to bus riders.

Check out map, here.

Some of the traffic changes coming in the next couple of weeks, via Dulles Metro:

• The service roads along the edges of the east and west bound lanes of Route 7 will be closed so that the edges of Route 7 itself can be pushed out to the edges of the service roads and beyond to make room for construction of the rail line and stations in the median of the road bed.
• Near the two stations to be built along Route 7-Tysons Central 7 (near SAIC and Marshalls) and Tysons West (between Spring Hill and Tyco Roads), the eastbound lanes will balloon out into the parking areas of some businesses.
• Also, along the eastbound lanes, crews will be building retention walls to support the new road bed as crews must build up many existing service roads to the levels of Route 7.
• Mid-block left turns will be eliminated. Drivers will be encouraged to make U-turns at the existing signalized intersections: Westwood/Tyco, Spring Hill and Gosnell/Westpark.
• A major lane shift has already taken place on Route 7, beginning at the Route 123 overpass.
• The traffic signal at Route 7 from the Route 123 exit to Winchester and Reston has been removed.
• The ramp from Route 7 to southbound Route 123 has been relocated.

Construction Maps

You can read more, here and here.

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About a month ago, I attended a forum hosted by the Switzerland Embassy on "Green Building Policy and Design: Best Practices from Switzerland," in DC. This forum was geared towards promoting Made in Switzerland green building certification, which takes a different approach than the widely recognized LEED certification over here. Their approach is a bit simpler than LEED. LEED has a more complicated scoring tools before coming up to the platinum, gold, and standard certification systems.

The point that I want to make is this: why is it residential Realtors, being in the forefront of green revolution, not jumping the bandwagon in droves? I don't get it. Whatever you call it, be it green, sustainable, eco-friendly, trends - is real. It's here for us to seize the opportunities. Yeah, foreclosure and short-sale, may be the 'subject of interest' for the moment. The trend won't last forever. Foreclosures and short-sale supplies will disappear before you know it. On the other hand, green home, is here to stay.

There are many shades of green. This is a topic, which deserves a post on its own. For now, let's just talk about the trend in the new homes market from NAHB (National Association of Home Builders). Okay, NAHB may be in new homes, they're different, you say. However, we should see their efforts on pushing green as the 'best indicator' of what's coming in the pipeline for residential market.

Here's the latest survey from NAHB and MetLife Mature Market Institute done in September of 2009:

• 37% of consumers want an 'environment-friendly' home
• 94% of builders says that their buyers want more energy-efficient new homes
• 55% said buyers specifically want Energy Star-rated homes
• 25% of builders said buyers want homes with more recycled materials and less materials overall.

What's more, Kevin Morrow, NAHB Sr. Program Manager for Green Building Standard, said the bright spot of this recession is "builders building green homes are doing okay.." Hmm, wonder why not too many builders jumped the bandwagon sooner?

For us, Realtor magazine has an online exclusive talking about consumers interest on being green and the eco-friendly speak, published sometime in 2007. So, where are we today? Sadly, we're not there yet. We're kinda late in the game. Seriously.

The thing is, resale homes, is a huge and "untapped" market! For all purposes, i.e. remodeling, retrofitting, and more, which sometime in the future the same homes after 'green remodeling' will be bought and sold with green home label. Consider this:Energy Star plans to enter the resale market. Now, if we look at the alternative energy companies (selling solar, solar water heater, geothermal systems, etc.), they have targeted the residential market - long before any other clean, green industries enter the market! - because they see the 'upside' potential.

So, where do you see want to see yourself fit in this green revolution?

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For the purpose of Full Disclosure: I am currently in transition from being an agent to be a Realtor Outreach for GreenandSave.com, because I want to make a difference. GreenandSave, has a 20 year legacy in the 'Green' Energy saving market. NAR uses G&S data for their education curriculum. GreenandSave provides information on green home trends, tools, and marketing program for Realtors. Visit GreenandSave for more details. Enter promo code "REALTOR2, " and we will donate $10 to your local real estate association.

I've been to the two big winners Whitlow's on Wilson and Lost Dog Cafe. We had meetups scheduled at Whitlow's a few years back. They've got this big room on the side of the restaurant that you can use for events. It's separate from the restaurant for privacy. The other place, Lost Dog Cafe, I used to go there with my former co-workers. Their sandwiches are out of this world! So I'm not surprised that these two places received the most votes for venues and businesses from residents.

And the winners are.. (h/t Shop Arlington)

1. Arlington’s Best “Bargain” Restaurant
   Lost Dog Cafe
2. Arlington’s Best Boutique
   ShoeFly
3. Arlington’s Best Brunch
   Carlyle
4. Arlington’s Best Customer Service
   Pacers Running Stores
5. Arlington’s Best Dessert
   Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe
6. Arlington’s Best Family Friendly Restaurant
   Lost Dog Cafe
7. Arlington’s Best Happy Hour
   Whitlow's on Wilson Bar & Grill
8. Arlington’s Best Late Night Spot
   Bob and Edith's Diner
9. Arlington’s Best Place to Learn Something New
   Arlington Public Library
10. Arlington’s Best Neighborhood Bar
    Whitlow's on Wilson Bar & Grill
11. Arlington’s Best New Business
    Lost Dog Cafe, South Arlington location
12. Arlington’s Best Community-Based Nonprofit
    Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC)
13. Arlington’s Best Performing Arts Organization
    Signature Theatre
14. Arlington’s Best Place to Care for Your Pet
    Ballston Animal Hospital
15. Arlington’s Best Place to Dance the Night Away
    Clarendon Ballroom

So, I asked Arlington County's BRAC Transition Center team to talk about the transition. And they agreed to be my guest in an online chat. They'll answer questions dealing with economic, workforce, transportation, local Arlington issues, and BRAC impact for the greater DC Metro. 

Here is the panelists line up:

• Adam Beebe, Manager of Business Development
• Andrea Morris, Arlington County BRAC Coordinator
• Sandra Smith, Director of the BRAC Transition Center

This is such a rare opportunity to have three members of the Arlington County transition team to participate in a live chat. This chat is open to the public. FREE. And you can sign up below.

This is where the segment of the residential market got hit the hardest: single family home (that includes rowhouse). Average home sales off -34.84% from $1,020,059 to $664,710. Ouch! The townhouse/ rowhouse segment, also see the average sales price down -14.35% from $545,562 to $467,279.

On a month to month trend from '08 to '09, the number of homes under contracts is the highest over a year span. The number of homes went under contract is a little bit above the 450 units mark. The trend is encouraging, but looking at the data (listings and under contracts), DC still have more than a year of homes supply. Home inventory for single home and rowhouse stands at a bit over 14 months! A *strong* buyers' market. Motivated sellers are willing to talk to you.

 
image: GCAAR

Condo sales last month is better than in '08. October sales up 25.9% from 189 units to 238 units with average sales around $412,983. The median price (usually use in comparison) is at $355,000 down from $360,000. The number of active listings also decline -18% from 1,459 units to 1,197 units. Condo inventory shows that it is still a buyers' market. It stands at 6.52 months.

Seventy-eight percent of condo sales is under $499,999! First-time home buyers? This trend corresponds to the type of financing use to purchase homes. One-third of purchases were financed with either FHA or VA loans.

Here's the breakdown:

Conventional     268

FHA                  173

VA                     12

Assumption        32

Cash                  85

On all types (single home, rowhouse, townhouse, condo, co-op), we are seeing a trend that inventory is down. Maybe sellers are decided to stay put. They are not selling their homes at this market, unless they're forced to make some life changing decision..