Do the Right Thing.

The overall theme of the July 2008 Ecobroker conference (www.greenrealestate2008) seemed to be use it up, make it better and green - o - vate! Remember your grandparents saying "Use it up, make it do or do without?"

Panels:

• Greening the MLS ( 3^rd party verification)
• Green Financing http://activerain.com/blogsview/599271/PITI-LUM
• Building Green Relationships and Resources
• Public Relations Success for the Green Real Estate Practices (be the expert)
• Cutting Edge Technologies

Can the real estate community, with the various resources we have available, make the planet a better place to live?

Before we encourage new construction can we rehabilitate currently available housing, commercial and public buildings? http://activerain.com/blogsview/609052/The-Flipping-Standard

Should there be a basic standard for ALL housing sold in the US? The idea does make for some interesting discussion. Recent conversations have intrigued me enough to write about this.

• Should Section 8 housing be required to meet minium energy standards as well as health and safety? One person at a recent sales meeting suggested that people living in Section 8 housing spend between 20-25% of their income on energy costs.
• Regardless of loan type, should owners who fix and flip be entitled to a profit if an improved property does not at least meet or exceed FHA standards?
• Should fix and flips that need more repair than 30% - 40% - 50% to value be required to make energy efficient changes. IE: new windows, efficient appliances
• Does the current housing crisis suggest that housing standards on the whole should be reevaluated?
• Is there an opportunity in the US to improve housing while the current crisis continues?

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/mps/mhsmpsp.cfm FHA standards

http://www.affordablehousingonline.com/section8housing.asp Colorado Section 8 housing

http://ww.nhi.org/online/issues/133/europe.html European non profit housing vs US non profit housing

http://activerain.com/blogsview/599379/The-utilities-are-the The Unities are the first to go

http://activerain.com/blogsview/599271/PITI-LUM PITI+location, utilities and maintaince

I don't suppose there is any place on the planet where people don't say "wait 10 minutes" and the weather will change. I took these pictures out my back door last night. Fortunately, I had my camera handy. There was a huge storm to the East and the sun setting in the West, this made for a very strange Blood Red sky. If I looked hard I could see a Rainbow against the sky. And in 10 minutes it was indeed gone. (Rockvale, Colorado 7-24-08)

Within just the last few weeks I've been in some REO houses showing buyers around. And in both houses you could not help but notice the black shadows on the walls. One house had the marks in just a few places, near doorways, in the bathroom and kitchen. The other house was covered in the black marks. It took a minute to figure out what the marks were - smoke from oil lamps.

I recently heard someone say "the utilities are the first to go" meaning when people are behind in the bills the utilities are usually turned off. There is no jeanie in the lamp - ask for help!

If you need assistance :  

LEAP:  http://www.cdhs.state.co.us/leap/ Low income energy assistance program

Colorado Foreclosure HOTLINE (877)601-HOPE or (877) 601-4673

http://www.hud.gov/local/co/homeownership/foreclosure.cfmForclosure help

At the recent Green Real Estate 2008 conference (http://www.ecobroker.com/conference/) for Ecobrokers (www.ecobroker.com/) a number of lenders sat on a panel. The lenders from Country Wide, Wells Fargo, My Energy Loan and others spoke about the current and future trends in lending.

One of the main themes running through out the entire conference as using what is already available and making it better. Ideas like "green-o-vation" were used. "The greenest house available is the one you already own." And words used consistently regardless of the subject of the panel were: conservation, audits, tune up, quality, focus, durable, testing, performance and optimize.

For those who are familiar with PITIE or EEM's  (Principle, interest, tax, insurance and energy) this formula has basically disappeared due to lack of use, interest and understanding.

But a new formula may be taking PITIE's place - PITILUM. Lenders: What are your thoughts on this?

• Principle
• Interest
• Tax
• Insurance
• L= location
• U=Utilities
• M=Maintenance

Location being factored in for people who live near public transportation or walking distance to work and school. Take what would be a car payment, car insurance and maintenance as a factor?

Utilities being factored in for houses with passive solar design, 95% efficient furnaces, solar water heaters and other improvements. If the owner has a house that uses much less energy could the difference be factored into a loan?

Maintenance being because the home owner doesn't have to pay to maintain a house with sustainable features such as a 50 year roof, zero scaled yard, and low maintained exterior. Could the lack of maintenance be factored into the payment and insurance costs?

Just wanted to jump into the Rain and tell everyone that I'm in Denver at the Ecobroker conference. I'll write about it all when it's done and when I've collected all my notes. But so far I'd say it's a success!

There are approx 300 Realtor / agents here and numerous vendors. People are here from all over the country and one for sure from Canada. I have pages and pages of notes to share and have gotten many, many blogging ideas.

Stay tuned!

7-17-08  4:30 PM: I'm just back to the office after 2 days of very informative time spent with the Ecobrokers. My head is spinning! But I've got lots to share and lots to blog about - tomorrow  & this weekend :)

The Colorado Chieftain is where the Pueblo foreclosure list is published once a week. I usually glance at it. It's very tiny print and today it's 47 pages long, lately it's been many more pages. And it's so hard even at a glance, not to see pain written in that newsprint. You know you are seeing peoples dreams go up in smoke.

Pueblo is a pretty small community, despite it's 125,000 people. My favorite joke about Pueblo is that every one is related to one another and every one knows each other and they all deny it. But it is heart breaking to go page by page and see names you recognize. Even today I saw one lenders name I know and a couple of Realtor names. OK, these were investment houses, not personal homes. But nobody buys a house thinking they are going to loose it some day.

The lender whose name I saw today also does rentals. When I get a contact for a rental I usually call him. But as of last week he is out of the business, no more rentals, no more lending on mortgages, now he works at a local furniture store. He said he couldn't rent anymore when he knew the landlord was in trouble. To many people he placed into rentals with one leases were being evicted because the landlords weren't paying on the mortgages.

When are we going to recover from this disaster?

Not long ago I was invited to go to a sales meeting / class at a local title company. There were no continuing education credits, but I figured it might be worth my time. Most of the meeting and information was a review for me, nothing new. But I was sitting next to a heavy hitter here in town who was taking notes like he had never heard this information before, and maybe he hadn't. I really felt fortunate because all of the information was a review for me. Thanks to all to the shared knowledge here in the RAIN - I had a clue what was going on. A little polish to my bank of knowledge is a good thing; after all I don't claim to know it all.

One of the points from the instructor : when sitting with a seller and discussing various points and issues ask the question "Do you want to sell or do you want to stay?"  It does put a fine point on the seller's price and motivation doesn't?

As real estate professionals we should all be familiar with :

Civil Rights Act of 1866

I lhave many listings that are in outlaying areas around Southern Colorado. These properties can't be found on available maps, not on mapquest, and you need to have so idea of where the property is to use GPS. They don't have addresses' they have lot, block, unit numbers if I'm lucky. Often I have to rely on the seller (if they know) to tell me how to get to the property or I have to go to the county and use public records. And not all counties have online services available. I have to go to the court house and dig threw records, old maps and rely on county employees for help. Yesterday was one of those days - Thank you Nelson at Huffano County.

When I've done my research and drive out to find these "far out" properties I do several things.

• 1) Stop and get something to eat before I leave, it may be hours before I see a place to stop again.
• 2) Grab my sun screen, hat, bug repellant, long pants and sturdy shoes
• 3) track mileage from landmarks and intersections 

The one thing I don't do and can't do is use religious land marks. You will never see directions on my property listings that say "turn left at the church" or "across from the dream catcher." But boy life would be easier if I could.

Today, I was telling a perspective buyer about a new listing he might be interested in. As I was telling him how to get to the area, he asked me if it was by the "very old church." Now what? All I could tell him was yes - continue down the road another 2 miles.