Lisa Barton

In July of 2009 the Florida Legislature passed a landmark bill called the Florida-Friendly Landscaping bill. This act requires local governments and homeowners associations to participate in water conservation. The bill also encourages the use of indigineous plants, reducing the use of fertilizer and pesticides, and providing food and shelter for native animals.

The University of Florida has a wonderful website that offers suggests for Florida-Friendly Landscaping programs. Some of their suggestions include:

* RIght plant, right place
* Water efficiently
* Attract wildlife
* Stop the spread of invasive exotic plants
* Increase ground water recharge
* Minimize disturbance of existing native plants

Continue Reading “Florida Friendly Landscaping”

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just launched a super cool new website for homeowners. HouseLogic is designed to be a source of information on all aspects of homeownership including: maintenance, improvement, and how-to’s. This site will also be a good reference tool for general questions about important topics such as home finances, insurance, green improvements, etc. HouseLogic is designed to be user-friendly and you can set up your own account to help you plan and keep track of home projects. Makes me proud to be a member of the National Association of Realtors. Check it out!

Continue Reading “Great New Website for Homeowners”

A new poll of nearly 1,000 Realtors offers a glimpse at the top “green” improvements recommended by real estate professionals to help move a sale property off the market.

The upgrades are all fairly inexpensive and include:
* planting native greenery
* replacing air filters
* staging the home with recycled or reusable props
* weather-stripping doors and windows
* installing programmable thermostats
* installing low-flow showerheads
* using turn-off power strips
* replacing standard lighting with CFL or LED bulbs
* choosing low-VOC paint

And while three of those nine options get back at least twice as much in sale price gains as they cost, none have a bigger return on investment (ROI) than the top five traditional upgrades suggested by realty practitioners in a November survey. Cleaning and de-cluttering a home before it goes on the market, for instance, will cost the owner less than $200 to complete but bumps up the property’s sale price by almost $1,700 – for a staggering ROI of 872 percent.

Other high-ROI traditional improvements recommended by the real estate community include home staging, lightening/brightening, landscaping and plumbing repairs.

Although they do not offer a great ROI, HomeGain says eco-improvements are becoming more popular; and with their energy savings and low cost of investment, they probably should be considered by all homeowners – not just those preparing their unit for sale.

Source: USA Today (01/14/10)
Nine Steps to Make Your Home More Green

Continue Reading “Selling your home? Realtors pick nine green improvements to help close the deal”

There was an interesting article by Leslie Kaufman this week sent by floridarealtors.org that discussed one of the positive aspects of the current real estate market crisis. Land trusts as well as state and local governments have been able to boost conservation efforts as property values decline.

Continue Reading “The Upside to a Down Market – Conservation”

As promised in the Homes of the Future blog, here’s the follow-up on energy rebates from Heather, your favorite guest blogger. 

Continue Reading “Tax Incentives on Energy Saving Products and Home Improvements”