Green Building

Traditional homes have been slowing hurting the environment for years.  They have been making such a negative impact on the environment that many people have now decided to try to minimize their environmental footprint by switching over to green building and green materials.  Green building is a much healthier life style with more energy efficient homes, more durable, and sustainable.  Everybody recognizes the expression “going green”.  Changing our daily habits to better impact the environment has been a growing priority for many Americans—to help reduce their carbon footprint.  A huge area that is contributing to being resource-efficient and environmentally friendly is green building.  Green buildings are structures that help with the conservation of material through their building’s maintenance, design, and construction.  The whole idea of these green buildings is the help with what the impact could be on the environment and human health.  The most important goal is to reduce the environmental impact that certain buildings have on the environment.  These include being resourceful while using energy and water.  The protection of health and productivity must be present.  The reduction of waste and other environmental pollutants is also considered.  Here is more information about defining green building.

The need for green building comes from a few different perspectives: the environmental, economic, and also social concerns.  With the current buildings that are not considered green buildings and that are threats to these perspectives, a sustainable approach can be implemented to help with the continued life cycle of the building and to begin a green approach with specific practices.   

There are many factors that influence the overall outcome of green buildings.  There are many different stages that need to be carefully constructed when it comes to planning a new green building.  Using a life cycle assessment can help with these decisions.  The life cycle assessment will help to look at all the factors that play a part in green building and will help to fully implement what aspects are important to look at and towards when it comes to the stages of process.  The process is looked at from the beginning to end of a building and decides what factors play which roll of waste, pollution, and environmental impact.  After concluding the culprits, there is an analysis with what to do the change this type of a building to have it considered green. 

Design efficiency is the design of a physical building that helps with fulfilling the sustainability of the social and economic concerns.  The main goal in this design is to completely eliminate any negative impact on the environment through this skillful design.  Water efficiency has also been a concern for years.  There are many acts to help conserve water that help to reduce water consumption.  Sustainable building has a main objective to reduce water consumption and help to keep the water at good quality.  The strategies to help with the water conservation are reducing water loss ad helping to improve the management of water practices.  There are a few ways water consumption can be kept low.  The big issue lies with the demand for water not being enough.  New sustainable buildings are conserving water by collecting water that is used and purified and then reused.  There is also a design that helps to accomplish dual plumbing that takes toilet water and reuses it after flushing while disposing of the waste water. 

The products used for green building is supposed to grow from $2 billion to $60 billion within the years 2005 to 2010.  Regardless of how the economy will turn in the future, green products will be more evident and be making more of an impact with its growth.  The governments at all levels have been involved in the recent green building.  There have been major effects to start implementing energy efficiency, reducing construction waste, and putting other green building materials into effect. 

As of now, most construction, whether it is to build or remodel, is aware of green building and are working with different levels are techniques and materials.

                For the commercial real estate brokers, the idea and implication of green building hasbeen more difficult than expected.  They are in somewhat of a quandary between their business relationships and clients.  There is the ability to add value to future deals but it can be hard, especially for how much the demand has been for green building.  It is considered a fad that more clients are requesting for future purchases.  These current changes of sustainability and green building have been affecting everyone.  Especially when deals need to made at the start of the building process.  Commercial brokers are finding out that knowing basic factual information about the going green movement isn’t enough.  Even with knowing information about the new trends, it’s still difficult to add value to these deals.  

Green building and sustainable properties are becoming more important in the real estate industry.  The incentive policies that insurance companies are implementing are helping to increase the number of commercial buildings that are going green.  Almost 25% of the new material that is used for construction is green material.  The amount of states that have green building policies, standards, and programs, have increased to 31 states from 13 states—within 3 years!  Going green will make such a positive impact on the environment but could possibly be negative for commercial brokers.

Advice

There is a lot to learn in life.  One of the biggest things we can learn about is how to get into our career.  We go through so much schooling and learn so many subjects, facts and formulas but we don't always learn life lessons like how to interview well or even how to write a resume.  I met a guy once who didn't know what "business casual" meant! Here's a bit of advice.

·         Keep your resume updated!

You never know when a job opportunity is going to present itself.   Having a fully updated resume will help you when that time comes.   If you go a long period of time without updated it, there may be some vital thing you will forget to update!  If you don’t have a resume at all, don’t worry. There are many great websites to refer to such as http://www.resumetemplates.com/.  Also, a lot of word documents have templates to help you. 

·         Take any opportunity, especially to move up in a position.

A lot of people let opportunities pass them by for many different reasons.  It’s important that you continue move up in a position even if it means more hours or more responsible.  Those are good things!!  You can move up in any job and it is important to strive for it to show diligence and interest in the company.  Mangers and bosses like overachievers.  If they see your effort, chances are you’ll be rewarded. 

·         Network. Be likeable!

Networking can happen anywhere and anytime.  Jobs these days are hard to get but knowing someone in the business can really help your chances of getting hired.  I had a friend that worked at a coffee shop who served a woman every day.  The woman really enjoyed his attitude and offered him an internship.  You meet people every day that have connections.  Most people will be gracious with helping you out if you are pleasant.  There are also websites that can help you network such as http://www.linkedin.com/.  

Persistence and enthusiasm help with trying to get a job.  Here's a website that has more advice. It's not always about what you know, but sometimes about who you know.  As long as you keep trying and never give up, you'll succeed.

 

Rock Bottom

               A common trend that has been occurring with the real estate market is that prices go up in the spring and the summer time and then drop back down towards the end of the year.  The demand of buying homes goes up in the spring and summer seasons.  But why is this happening?  Is it the warmer weather outside that is making people want to get out from their cozy winter blankets and start something new?  Or it might be that the Christmas season is over and people get the itch for another pricy purchase.  Either way, this year home prices have risen almost 10% since February according to the article Here's More Evidence That Home Prices Have Hit Bottom.  This article is saying that this year the common trend won't hold true.  If fact we've already hit our lowest housing price for the year!  The anticipation is that our lowest price has already occurred and prices won't drop that low again this year.  The jump this year is too incredible.  At a 9.6% growth in price there is a slim chance that the pricing will fall by this much.  History does tend to repeat itself and there have been a lot of incidents in the last 20 years that were never anticipated.  There may be a short fall in the winter but in the past three or so years there hasn't been a fall as much as 9.6% which makes us certain that we have already met our low price for the year.  There is a basic idea behind why so many are choosing to buy homes.  Mortgage rates have been recently low.  This could be the main factor behind the sudden spring for home buying.  If mortgage rate start to rise again then the demand for purchasing homes may slowly go down.  It will be very interesting to see what happens to the prices and demands of homes over the next few years. Here is a website that has further information about mortgage rate.

For Sale

               Buying or Renting?  It’s the age old question among many young adults and couples seeking a new home.  Buying a house can seem very intimidating and nerve-racking because of the permanent connotation attached to it.  Especially when you are living in a city where house prices seem high, renting is usually the option that many turn to.  However, the housing market in San Francisco (as well as other cities) is on a downward spiral.  Many prices right now are lower than normal because we have been coming out of a recession.  

               This graph shows the nominal and inflation-adjusted housing prices from 1987 until now.  The nominal price is the unadjusted price value.  The inflation-adjusted price is the new price or the real price that is adjusted to fit the economy due to different variables.  Housing prices have been on the rise from 1996 to 2006.  Since then, there has been a major decline due to changes in the economy at the time.  

               Many different factors play a part in the housing market.  Since we are in a recession, housing prices are lower than they could be.  This is actually considered a good time to buy homes because of the relatively low pricing.  Coming out of past recessions, housing prices have increased up to 20%.  The recession we have been in has been greater than recession periods in the past.  Since this recession is so extreme, when the economy finally fully recovers housing prices are projected to increase more than 20%.  There are many other reasons why right now is a perfect time to buy houses. Right now, renting houses is virtually more expensive than compared to buying houses.  Both renting and buying prices have increased since we have begun to see the light at the end of this recession tunnel, but renting prices have increased more.  Here is an article from the LA Times that explain how buying homes can pay after after an average of three years.  Mortgage rates are at an all-time low right now, which helps with the purchase of housing, including tax benefits.  Current mortgage rates can drastically affect the decision to purchase a house.

               Here is a cyber calculator to help calculate if buying or rent is better for you.  A great website to help you find available homes to buy OR rent is www.zillow.com.  For the most part, during this time period buying a home is more beneficial than renting.  There are many things to consider such as tax benefits and future values of home prices.  However, many people consider renting due to drastic changes in the economy that have already occurred by surprise.  It can be riskier to buy, but the bigger the risk--the bigger the reward. 

Twenty-Two Years of Classes

As I approach my final year in school, I have been reflecting on all my classes that I have taken.  Some of my classes were very interesting but had nothing to do with my major.  Other classes that were pertinent to my major have been completely useless to me and torturous to get through.  Now I know all subjects serve a purpose to help you branch out and learn more about the world.  Certain classes stick out in my head that have been favorites of mine.  Oddly enough, those classes had my favorite teachers.  If the teacher is passionate about the subject, he or she can make the most uninteresting subject amazing. 

Over the summer I took an investment class.  My professor was truly one of a kind.  Being a finance major some of the classes aren't the most lively because there is a lot of background you must learn in order to understand the subjects.  I thought investments would be one of these classes.  My professor, Professor Roth, truly loved his field of teacher.  He would come into class, start right on time, and speak with such enthusiasm.  He thought us important background details but we always touched on a lot of real world issues.  We would go over the movement of stocks by looking at The Wall Street Journal, and comparing them daily, monthly, and yearly.  He taught of class so many important things that he actually helped me get onto the track I’m on today.  Had I not taken his class, I would maybe have never found my interest in real estate.

One class that I don’t think I learned anything in was international business.  I know this is a very important topic and it can be quite an interesting subject, but my teacher was not engaging.  It was only offered as an online class, which I try to avoid because of the way I learn.  The material was in such a text book form.  Reading the material over and over again did not help me learn.  There were so many different things in the book that I couldn't understand on my own.  The online tests that we took were very long and covered so much material that I don’t know how anybody could have passed with an A.  If I had been an international business student, I would have switched my major.  Each subject has its own way of being interesting, but I truly believe that the teacher has the ability to turn it into something more.  

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Lisa has a lot of reading and writing for her job.  She is required to use the computer quite a bit.  Most communication is done online these days.  Lisa’s job has a range from reading emails to writing leases that involve the computer.  When she started at RentSFNow she had to learn quickly what was appropriate and what wasn't for writing emails.  Emails are a huge part of current jobs today.  Emails have a tendency to be informal since they are just a quick and easy way to communicate.  However, you must be careful with exactly how communication sounds because what could seem  perfectly fine may offend someone.  Here is some basic etiquette skills for emails.  Lisa must change the way she writes depending on who it’s to.  She would address a coworker differently than her boss or prospective tenants.  

Since emails are the easiest way to communicate, many people find themselves writing emails with incorrect punctuation and grammar.  A good way to learn the appropriate etiquette of an email is to look it up on the internet.  Here is a good site for email etiquette.  A lot of people that blog for personal reasons can get caught up on typing quickly and creating typos.  This also happens with personal emails.  It’s good to keep up a habit of always typing correctly. 

Lisa gets a lot of emails from people responding to her blog posts about certain apartment units.  She told me that she has seem some very weird emails that may discourage her from considering them as an applicant.  Lisa also always has to make sure that she is typing carefully and professionally when it comes to updating her blogs about buildings and units.  I wouldn’t take an ad seriously if it had numerous amounts of typos!  

 

The internet is evolving all of our lifestyles and it is simple to get caught up in common mistakes that can take place through email and blogging.  Just make sure you check up on yourself so it doesn’t become a habit!