Greg McCarvell on London Ontario Real Estate

Have you ever run into an environmentalist who has an 'all or none' attitude? They are obsessed with perfection and often paralyzed by the same thing! I take a different approach - if a 30% improvement can be gained easily, using readily available technology without a huge investment and I can also convince 10 other people to take the same actions I think I'm doing a better service for the planet. We always need idealists, but physical progress in mass numbers is what we actually need to happen for things to move quickly.

Here are some very basic steps you can take to lessen your impact on the environment and probably save yourself a chunk of money on the way!

1) Replace your lightbulbs.Get energy efficient bulbs. It seems to me LED is the trend that's gathering a lot of traction right now. I'm having a hard time recommending anything with Mercury (CFL's in many cases). Should you swap out CFL's for LED? I can't say this is a great idea, the CFL's are going to end up in the landfill either way, so you may as well use them. The other option is to bring all your old Compact Fluorescents to a family member who still has a pile of incandescent bulbs burning.

2) Insulate. An easy, inexpensive way to conserve is to add insulation. Even if you built new chances are the level of insulation in the attic could be improved. Do some reading for your climate in particular and find out what is recommended for maximum efficiency. The other place to consider insulating is the siding of your house. I recently had my house resided with a shelter wrap type product underneath. The cost was about 10% more, but the gain in efficiency is substantial.

3) Fix leaky water sources. Check your outside taps, baths, sinks, utility areas and toilets. A resolved drip can make a huge impact.

4) Get out the caulking! Sealing air leaks around doors, windows and other openings can go a long way toward decreasing the amount of air leakage.

5) Plan your trips. Gas money is not the best way to spend. Limit your trips to the store, plan when you can and attend errands in the same general part of the city while there for other reasons.

6) Open your curtains. If you find yourself leaving lights on during the day, maybe it's because you have too many curtains closed. Natural light is a better and free alternative during the day.

7) Get an electric mower.I know the cord can be a pain, but there are effective ways to manage this concern. You'll be glad you didn't buy a polluting 2 stroke gas mower when you notice you aren't pouring gasoline all over your shoes and waking up the neighbours with the eardrum breaking noise!

8) Avoid lawn sprays.Many municipalities are now banning certain types of lawn sprays. You know when the goverment finally gets around to banning a product that it must be bad! Save your money and enjoy the status of being the 'new cool'... you can only be 'new cool' with imperfect lawn!

9) Exercise for real.I remember clearly one day I was about to get on my treadmill while training for a marathon. I started it rolling as the lights dimmed due to the strain these machines take on the electrical system. Then I looked outside - it was a beautiful sunny day. Why was I running inside? Get outside and exercise! Another thing to do is pair up your exercise with errands - take your bike shopping, ride to your Mom's place to drop off those photos - you get the idea.

10) Adjust the furnace / AC. A couple degrees up or down can reduce the amount of energy used substantially. Get a programmable thermostat - you have different needs when awake and when sleeping - when you're home and when you're not home.

It's a struggle at times. Real Estate sales is a competitive business... quite honestly, the most competitive that I've personally experienced. Some businesses are more price sensitive, some are more prone to shopping around, but none are as competitive on so many fronts. This is the reason it seems that so many Realtors are secretive when it comes to providing meaningful help to co-workers.

I can understand the protectionist mentality. We all work very hard as Realtors to develop a broad offering of services. It seems like you are throwing away your competitive advantage if you share your thoughts on how to operate the business. I think you should ask yourself the real question first though - how many times are you really up against that particular person for a listing or buyer client? Even if you answer "all the time, I'm in small town"... I still don't buy it. You can have 20 people deliver the same information and top performers will still be at the top of the pile. It's a beautful thing called personality.

I am guilty of sharing everything - if someone asks - I'll tell them. I don't care in the least. First - I have a substantial financial investment in my systems, not everyone I talk to has the finances to duplicate what I've done. Secondly, I have a MASSIVE amount of time invested. Just look at my blog as one small indicator. You can't just spend a night and create an extensive collection of first hand real estate writings.

The internet opens up a whole new avenue. Geographics are no longer an issue. There are many venues where you can start to develop mastermind groups where the members have no physical capability of crossing paths. I think this is so powerful because you automatically see the barriers of the protectionist mentality stop.

If you're a new agent, an agent who has been around for awhile but wants some fresh ideas or a top producer in your maketplace and you think I have an answer that you could use - drop me a line, I'd be more than happy to give you my take on it!

Greg

I've seen a drastic increase in the number of listings with Wells Fargo, HomeTrust, TD Canda Trust or some other financial institution in the Seller's description. Obviously someone wasn't able to pay the bills anymore; It comes with the territory in an economic slowdown. This is just a quick entry with some tips on purchasing these properties.

Buying as-is - Frequently you will see the description include all kinds of words and phrases that seem to be the opposite of selling points. Comments like "no guarantees implied", "purchased as is - no warranties", "UFFI cannot be verified". Due diligence is always important - do a home inspection, follow up any possible issues and also have some room in the budget for unknown problems. This is not neccesarily an indicator of a home that has problems. A bank will throw every disclaimer at the buyer possible to relieve as much responsibility from the property as they can.

What if there's a problem - Recently a client made an offer on a bank sale property. On home inspection there was obvious water problems in the basement (sometimes it pays to do inspections on a soggy day!). We took what I feel is a good course of action - had a contractor give us a formal estimate on what it would cost to rectify the problem and made the bank aware of this information. We ended up negotiating a price that included a full subsidy for the basement issue.

How low is too low? Generally I work off common sense - at what point does it make sense for the seller to reduce the price and remarket the property versus accepting your offer? Say you had a house listed at $280,000 - I would say anything under $250,000 probably is out of the question. The reason is that is if the bank reduced the price by $15,000, re-marketed the property and sold for $260,000 after 2 months, they are still ahead of the game. Keep in mind that a bank will almost often want more than your inital offer. I had one circumstance where they specifically said they would not sign back - just accept or reject.

It is quite easy to pull off a list of bank sales. These houses all have a value - maybe the banks aren't doing the best job at pointing out the benefits, but they sometimes are no the bargain most people would think the are. Do your homework and be sure the value is there.