Real Estate Services

By Linda Falorio

Steel Buildings - Green Applications

Gone are the outdated corrugated metal buildings of the past. The new generation of pre engineered steel buildings are finding use in an ever growing variety of Green building projects. Steel buildings are leading the way in the Green building revolution, meeting Green building design goals with innovative building design, engineering and use of materials.

Building Green

Green building design, also known as “sustainable building” is coming of age as we recognize that global resources are limited and that climate change is inevitable - unless we take positive action now.

Green building recognizes the environmental impact of buildings, their construction, life-cycle and ultimate demolition, and works to lessen this impact through

* Energy efficiency * Environmentally sound building materials * Innovative building design * Healthy indoor environment

Environmentally Friendly Pre-engineered Steel Buildings

Pre-engineered steel buildings also known as prefabricated buildings or prefab metal buildings are an innovative building solution featuring solid steel I-beam building construction.

* Pre-engineered buildings are designed and engineered by trained and certified structural metal building engineers to meet all local building codes for snow and wind load and seismic conditions.

* Building components are engineered and fabricated to precise specifications using the highest grade commercial steel available.

* Modern steel manufacturers employ energy efficient methods in steel production that help to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

* When a steel building is demolished to make way for new construction the metal building materials don’t end up in a landfill like asphalt shingles, concrete, brick and wood. The steel is recycled instead.

* Steel can be recycled over and over again without loss of the quality of the steel.

* More steel is recycled than all other recyclable materials combined.

Cool Coatings Get Cool Energy Credit

“Cool” coatings are special siliconized polyester paints with superior reflective qualities. “Cool” coatings applied to metal buildings act as a thermal barrier to keep the insides of metal buildings cool in summer. This means that buildings coated with “cool” coatings use less energy, making steel buildings more energy efficient. The use of “cool” coatings saves money and the environment through reduced energy costs over the life of the building and can even qualify for Federal tax credits.

Urban Heat Islands: Cool Roofs Bring Relief

Savvy builders are taking advantage of the fact that metal building roofs reflect light and heat keeping buildings cooler in hot weather. Plus, metal building roofs don’t store heat and radiate it back at night like other types of roofs. This saves energy in cooling costs and helps save the environment by lessening the urban “heat island” effect. An “urban heat island” happens when urban concrete and asphalt construction absorbs heat during the day then radiates it back at night so that temperatures don’t fall at night as they normally would, and is a powerful contributor to climate change and global warming.

In places like California, Texas and Florida, commercial building construction is taking advantage of the “cool” properties of metal roofs for commercial buildings such as warehouses, industrial manufacturing plants, aircraft hangars, storage buildings, retail outlet stores, auto dealerships, strip malls and more.

Metal building roofs also work to save energy and the environment in cooler climates. A painted metal roof not only reflects heat in summer, but also retains heat inside the building on cool days, saving on heating costs and keeping the indoor environment healthy and comfortable in both summer and winter. New metal building roofs qualify for Federal tax credits.

Steel Buildings: Cost Effective, Energy Efficient and Green

* Don’t require cutting down valuable forests.

* Are manufactured with a high proportion of recycled content.

* Employ sustainable building design and construction and erect in less time than conventional building construction.

* Fire and rust resistant and steel buildings are virtually maintenance free.

* By their very nature steel buildings are durable, cost-effective, energy efficient and Green.

Linda is Director of eMarketing of Olympia Steel Buildings and self-proclaimed steel buildings evangelist. Linda can be reached at Linda@steel-building.us. Reprint rights granted. No alterations to the article are allowed. You must include the author bio and a link to our website: http://www.olympiabuildings.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Falorio

By Keith Gordon

The answer is yes but there are plenty of things a FSBO seller with an MLS listing can do to get their flat fee listing noticed by Realtors® and buyers.

Price is the foremost concern for any flat fee MLS listed seller. Below are my top 5 ways to sell flat fee in the MLS and have more success:

1) Forget about the 2005 bubble spike in prices when setting a listing price in a buyer’s market. Where the market has been has no bearing on where it is today. Unfortunately, many homes bought during 2004-2006 are currently in a negative equity position and you might consider a short sale. For those sellers who are not underwater, price your property to the buyers.

2) Use my cash test to set your price when listing flat fee. The cash test uses the advertising concept called ADMA. Attention, Desire, Memory and Action. If you want to get someone’s attention, advertise a price that creates action. Selling a home flat fee is not any different than selling a car. Once buyers are in your home, maybe one spouse will become attached and convince the other that your home is perfect (desire & memory). My cash test is: advertise your FSBO-MLS home for the price that you would sell to a cash buyer. Of course add in your buyer’s agent commission and closings costs.

3) Don’t leave room for negotiations when listing flat fee in the MLS. In 2 above, I didn’t discuss leaving any room for negotiations because the goal is to get offers. Negotiate possibly 1% off your MLS listed price. This will surprise the buyers and the Realtors® but that’s OK. Let them figure out whether or not your flat fee MLS listing is a good value.

4) Consider offering a higher buyer’s agent commission. Normally, flat fee sellers and full-service agents co-broke (share commissions) with buyer’s agents® at 3%. Be different and offer 4%. Your flat fee listing will stand out. To advertise this higher than normal buyer’s agent commission, consider using a flat fee MLS Realtor® eblast program.

5) Lastly, negotiate well. Flat fee sellers typically represent themselves. This is good and bad. The good part is you keep control and save about 3% in commissions. The bad part reminds me of the adage “a lawyer that represents himself has a fool for a client” and can also be applied to for sale by owner sellers. Most flat fee MLS listed sellers are not qualified to negotiate a sales contract, deal with contract repair limits and other contract matters. Often, unrepresented sellers leave money on the table by either negotiating too much or by being too generous when negotiating issues found on an inspection report. A skilled broker or agent would likely do better for the seller. Find a flat fee MLS program that addresses this concern.

Flat fee MLS works if you pay attention to details. The flat fee listing service that you list with can greatly affect your success. Self represented FSBO sellers often leave too much money on the table when negotiating. Pricing your home as if you’re negotiating with a cash buyer can be a key in getting more showings and more offers.

Keith R. Gordon, broker for ADDvantage (http://getmoreoffers.com), the leader in Florida flat fee real estate brokerage, offers flat rate MLS listings in 40 counties including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee, Collier, Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Duval, St. Johns, Orange, Polk, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Volusia, Leon and Escambia.

ADDvantage gives flat fee sellers a variety of options for listing in the MLS including full contract representation and agent eblast marketing programs. View our 4 flat fee MLS listing programs (http://www.getmoreoffers.com/MLS-Program-Lineup.asp)

Sellers receive unprecedented buyer lead protection with live phone support from 8am to 8pm SEVEN days per week because real estate doesn’t stop on the weekends. All leads-whether agents or prospective buyers-are documented and emailed to clients in real time.

ADDvantage sets the bar for other companies who advertise flat fee MLS listings by educating the public about practices that are not in the seller’s best interest. ADDvantage’s business practices are completely transparent and we are advocates of our clients. There are NO HIDDEN FEES, NO LONG TERM CONTRACTS, NO GIMMICKS. Just straightforward services tailored for FSBO sellers.

Read our flat fee listed sellers’ testimonials (http://www.getmoreoffers.com/testimonials.asp?network=ARES) and you’ll see why so many trust ADDvantage with their flat rate MLS listings.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Gordon

By Josh Sloan

Golf course fronting estates became popular in the 1980s, and have since become a common feature of suburban America. Golf-front living can offer some excellent benefits such as outstanding views, having access to your favorite hobby in an instant, a quality home in a safe neighborhood of other quality homes, and, most often, like-minded neighbors. However, there are also some draw-backs. Deciding what is right for you means getting informed and analyzing your priorities.

There is a difference between golfing communities. Some are focused around the course, while others are residential neighborhoods foremost, with the course as a side benefit. Further, a surprising number of golf-front residents don’t even play golf. While the idea of the typical golf-front real estate owners is retirees and golf-fiends, many younger families choose these neighborhoods for their safety, beauty and quality. They are buying a lifestyle, and a home with excellent appreciation value.

However, depending on where your home is situated, there is the obvious risk of stray balls ending up in your yard, or worse, through your window. Some golf community residents have even been known to be bothered by golfers coming onto their property to retrieve balls. But in general, these risks are worth the benefit of living in such an amazing and valuable location.

Of course (pun intended), not all homes are right on the green. There will be lovely homes across the street and within a few blocks of the actual course which still offer the convenience of the close proximity to the course and the great neighborhood, but without the risk of stray balls and trespassing golfers. Although there’s always a trade-off , as the views aren’t likely to be as lush in these homes.

If you do purchase golf-front property, look for insurance policies that give a good rate for unlimited window replacement. In general, knowing the risks of an area makes you responsible for any damage done, however, some clubs have been forced to pay for damages, or erect safety fences or nets in extreme circumstances. A responsible course developer should take the risks into account, and minimize them throughout the design of the course. If specific course features make your home consistently a dangerous area, or if the course was redesigned after your home was built, putting it more at risk, consider requesting help from the course owners to minimize your risk. However, if the stray balls are purely accidental, accept the risk and pay for good insurance. Buying a home behind a green, or right next to a tee box, as opposed to a few yards up from it, may allow you to avoid the highest risk of having your home visited by stray balls. Further, there is some evidence that homes on the right side of the fairway are more often hit by erroneously sliced balls.

When weighing the pros and cons of a golf community, consider association fees, and also rules and regulations associated with living there. Also, assuming you’re a golf-lover, be sure you love the course-otherwise you miss out on the advantage of living so close.

Finally, when considering a golf-front home, don’t buy sight unseen. Considering the risks, and benefits, of certain areas, it is best to know exactly where your home is situated before committing your hard earned money to it.

Joshua Sloan is your San Diego real estate agent at http://www.SanDiegoRealEstateBuzz.com If you’re looking for Rancho Santa Fe real estate for sale, Joshua can help.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Sloan

By Jron C. Magcale

Real Estate marketing has gone from papers to cyberspace, as the internet gives the real estate market a significant boost to its surroundings. It is a rather common thing that the internet becomes a tool on marketing, given the power that it offers to the market, internet reaches everywhere, not just locally but worldwide. It serves as a great source of information for anything that goes around the web, real estate like everyone else relies on the internet as well. Believe it or not it is the best source nowadays. Right now real estate websites have point their guns to the internet market. As they try everything from blogging to advertising and now the growing popularity of SEO or Search Engine Optimization have draw some real estate market attention.

SEO now has become a reliable partner for real estate marketing that is making an entrance in the internet marketing craze. As they try to be a big help to gain search engine visibility and website popularity. The basic thought of a search engine optimization company is that they exchange links from other website to gain traffic and gain a spot at the top page of search engines such as Google and Yahoo! This paves way to the advertising and marketing front of real estate that is now become a popular and in-demand trend. The SEO techniques are now being utilized to be some kind of a useful tool for internet marketing.

A number of big time real estate companies have teamed up with SEO companies to gain the advantage in the real estate market. They are gaining the edge that the technology is offering us. Now, the demand to it has been big and the people who invest in the market prove otherwise. The SEO companies give a strong impression on giving the real estate companies the added plus for internet marketing, thus giving them an overall edge on their market. A great deal of help in information has been the root on this tandem as they both help each other in their line of business. With the growing trend of internet marketing it is a more of a demand than anything else because it provides big help.

The big dogs of real estate and SEO have been trying to create a bigger trend that in time will be more productive and useful for both markets. The reason behind its success is the related help that it gives and contributes to their respective economies, Real Estate for its market and SEO for its business, they both need each other to succeed in the tech biz because they are both gunning for the consumer’s attraction.

Jron Magcale

http://jump2top.com

Jron c. Magcale from Jump2Top - SEO Company

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jron_C._Magcale

By Julie Gelfand

As in politics, all real estate is local. Few issues can inspire (or provoke) the passions of a community as quickly or as deeply. Land use is a particularly heated topic on Long Island, where the preservation of open space, the development of affordable housing, the rezoning of commercial property, the siting of power plants and the planning of city-sized projects bump up against the competing needs and sensibilities of homeowners, local businesses and government officials.

Real estate developers are increasingly relying on public relations to help manage these challenges. Whether marketing a new property or “putting out a fire,” public relations is uniquely suited to the real estate setting because real estate projects come with built-in stakeholders. There is no such thing as a development without supporters and/or naysayers. Neighbors, zoning and planning boards, taxing authorities, preservationists, community activists and editorial boards all have opinions about land use in their towns. In all cases, the solution requires engaging stakeholders in constructive dialog. And that’s what public relations does best.

This puts real estate public relations in stark contrast to, say, consumer products or even business services, where the target market may not initially have an intrinsic stake in the product or service being offered. There, the challenge is creating a stake or interest among prospective customers, stockholders or other market segments. But in real estate, the motivated interest of the market pre-exists, so the communications needs are well defined from the outset. What this means for the savvy developer or property manager is that the opportunity to influence public reception to a project is there at the outset, well before ground is broken.

Tactically, a strategic public relations program in the real estate world has the same core components as a program designed for any other industry. These components may include media relations, community engagement, government liaison, tenant (customer) communications, crisis management or others. Publicity, direct marketing, advertising, interactive communications, social media networking, public presentation, special events and or other executions may be encompassed as appropriate.

The key to a successful outreach, as with any well conceived public relations program, is to design communications strategies that establish the project’s benefits to the community and ensure a credible, reliable, accurate portrayal of the facts, while minimizing the impact of the rumor mill and/or the influence of any self-interests.

After all, to quote Will Rogers, “Rumor travels faster, but it don’t stay put as long as truth. ”

Julie Gross Gelfand,
Harrison Leifer DiMarco,
Executive Vice President & Director of Public Relations,
http://www.hldpr.com

Julie has 25 years of strategic public relations experience ranging from Wall Street to the national non-profit sector. An articulate and impassioned communicator, Julie’s strength is in assessing the public relations opportunity for a client’s product or service and devising a communications program that establishes or sustains strategic brand awareness in targeted market segments. Her client portfolio has included companies and organizations in varied sectors of the economy, from health care to commodity futures, real estate development to pillow manufacturing, energy production to generic pharmaceuticals, and many others. Julie supervises account strategy, serves as senior counselor and oversees both long-range and day-to-day services to all public relations accounts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Gelfand