Assembling Your “A-Team”

Residential Flipping and Leasing

Tonight we will talk about team building.   Building the team to find, buy, renovate and rent or sell the finished products.

As you know, I now live 3,000 miles away from most of the work that GreenEarthEquities has done and is continuing to do. So the only way I could possibly do this is with a great team. Even with my new operation in Virginia, all of the work has been done by the great team I have been blessed to find.

We’ve had a lot of questions like, “How do you find a good contractor that won’t charge an arm and a leg?”  We’ll spend a lot of time answering that and similar questions as well as a few pointers on selecting the other team members…  Realtor, Lender, Escrow-Title Officer, Raters, Inspectors, and all the various subcontractors and vendors.

Click here to watch a streaming version of this webinar.

To download this Webex presentation click here. To watch this audio/video presentation you’ll need to install the FREE Webex .ARF Player for either Windows or Mac.

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13 Cedar Round Hill VA

The plans have changed on our Virginia Test House. Due to budgeting issues the house has been moved over to be a research project of NREL. The 1700 square foot, two story house is finished with a very tight envelope… but has been waiting for a decision about HVAC to move ahead.  NREL will be doing the monitoring of this home, similarly to the Fresno Test House. Their research will primarily focus on humidity, which will be measured in many locations under all types of simulated loads and times of the year. It is a good thing to know in this “mixed humid” climate zone, which has been said to be the most difficult to build in. Humidity becomes even more important when we have a very low load… meaning less HVAC run time for dehumidification.

The great thing about this change is that we will not be using the prescribed unit as in the Fresno Test House … which could not be used at the end of the project without severe modification, moving forward. NREL is asking for our input on the HVAC system that we would like to install. So, we will get to choose what we predict will be the “best” choice for this building.

Tonight we’ll showcase this project including our thoughts on this question and our reasoning.  The two top contenders for the HVAC system on this project are both Mini-Split heat pumps:

Two separate systems, both Fujitsu high SEER, single indoor head units, one on each floor.
A single outdoor unit with a wall mount indoor unit on the first floor with its open floor plan.  Plus a small ducted system to the bedrooms upstairs. (Similar to what we have previously published)
In both cases, air distribution and room to room temps will be a critical part of the research. We will initially include some additional air movement but if the initial data shows that we are not providing adequate “comfort”  we will institute Plan B, C, etc. These decision have not been made yet, so your input will be greatly appreciated.

BTW We plan to make this type of analysis and group input a regular feature of the Tuesday Webinar Series. We have a house in Lake Tahoe and one Fresno to analyze soon. If you have a project you’d like to share with the group, email me.

Click here to watch a streaming version of this webinar.

To download this Webex presentation click here. To watch this audio/video presentation you’ll need to install the FREE Webex .ARF Player for either Windows or Mac.

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National & Sacramento Conferences

Tonight will be all about ACI… Affordable Comfort Institute. We’ll focus on 3 areas:

Summary of the National Conference in Baltimore
Preview of the California Conference in Sacramento   (Including hints on receiving one of the Scholarships being offered).  The published agenda & list of exhibitors.
Preview of next year’s National Conference in the Mile High City… Denver.
Amy Fazio, Executive Director of ACI will bring a “behind the scenes” perspective on this organization that has grown to be the center of our (Home Performance) industry.

Nate Natale,  Program Development Manager for ACI will also join us with his perspective on maximizing the value of the conferences that he puts together.

Both Amy and Nate will answer questions and are always soliciting input about how to continually make the conferences better and more valuable to us, the Home Performance “boots on the ground”

It will be great to see the Sacramento Agenda and I’ll tell you the sessions that I’ll be saddest to miss…The problem is that there is always TOO MUCH great information and I haven’t mastered cloning myself… or time travel… But the CD is always available. Attendance at these conferences is like attending HPU  (Home Performance University) Most of the classes actually offer CEU’s for people who need continuing education in their specialty field.

Click here to watch a streaming version of this webinar.

To download this Webex presentation click here. To watch this audio/video presentation you’ll need to install the FREE Webex .ARF Player for either Windows or Mac.

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Wholesaler Interview on Buy and Hold

Greetings PlanetSavers,

Last week Ron Roberts shared his testimony about putting together enough passive income to enjoy his retirement and doing it all with foreclosure renovation in the last 3 years.  If you missed it, check it out in the archives.  Several people commented that they were inspired to get out there and get going!

Tonight we will follow up with more motivation to “Get in the Game” as I interview Sam Okenyi.   Sam is the wholesaler that we purchased our Norris avenue property through.  He has some clear observations about  the quantity and quality of investors that are in the market today… and how the game has changed over the last year.

We’ll look at various investment strategies and vehicles that are working in today’s market. And talk about why now is the perfect time to begin investing in Real Estate.

Click here to watch a streaming version of this webinar.

To download this Webex presentation click here. To watch this audio/video presentation you’ll need to install the FREE Webex .ARF Player for either Windows or Mac.

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HomePath Financing

Tonight we’ll have two guests sharing about one of the most exciting financing & investment combinations on the market today. Jennifer Martin, our Real Estate Broker and Gene O’Brien, our Loan Broker will be talking about Leveraged Investment in Foreclosures using the Fannie Mae program called HomePath.

Check it out at HomePath.com to get a head start on the Webinar.

Requiring only 10% down, The HomePath mortgage allows investors to get in the game with less capital than with conventional financing.

Tune in to hear why investors are flocking to this program. What are its limitations and where does it shine?

And how we can use it for our own purposes… Saving the planet, One house at a time.

Click here to watch a streaming version of this webinar.

To download this Webex presentation click here. To watch this audio/video presentation you’ll need to install the FREE Webex .ARF Player for either Windows or Mac.

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That’s what I had when accepting the Tony Woods Award at the recent Affordable Comfort Conference in Baltimore.   Actually there was no time scheduled but Larry Zarcher’s a nice guy, so he bent the schedule … “OK, but no more than 30 seconds.”

Larry Zarcher presenting Tony Woods award to Dave Robinson ... and giving Dave 30 seconds to say whatever he wanted.

The audience was a thousand of the most influential folks in the Home Performance Industry. Having an opinion or two, and since spontaneity is not a problem for me, I was happy to have the opportunity.

So I said, “Just imagine that everyone in here were to go out and buy a foreclosed home this year and do all the home performance they want to do and recorded the results.   When we all get together next year, Imagine the stories we’d hear and the party we’d have!  I’ll see you in Denver,  I love this industry, Thank you.”

I was humbled and honored to receive the Tony Woods award and I think my 30 second challenge merits further consideration.   I have so enjoyed working on foreclosed homes.   Because I own them, they are “tabula rasa” I can make quick decisions, change my mind, and turn on a dime.  This has allowed me to innovate and try new things, some of which have been published, and some are still brewing.   It is a Home Performance Skunk Works of sorts.    Imagine if a thousand of the best minds in our industry had their own private Skunk Works laboratory!

That’s my vision.   What about you?   If you had 30 seconds to address the Home Performance Industry, What would you say?

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2012 BPI Tony Woods Award Winner

Dave Robinson of GreenEarthEquities Receives BPI’s 2012 Tony Woods Award for Excellence in Advancing the Home Performance Industry.  The award recognizes the individual who has most advanced the home performance industry over the past year.

Baltimore, Maryland, March 29, 2012 -The Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI), the nation’s premier standards development and contractor credentialing organization for residential energy efficiency retrofit work, yesterday honored Dave Robinson of GreenEarthEquities by naming him the 2012 recipient of the Tony Woods Award for Excellence in Advancing the Home Performance Industry in the Opening Plenary ceremony of the ACI National Home Performance Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Robinson was nominated by industry peers and selected by an independent panel of impartial judges for his passionate commitment to performing deep energy retrofits on foreclosed homes, and for training others to do the same. His innovative approach has brought much needed home performance services to an often neglected corner of the residential housing market.

Robinson performed energy efficiency renovations for 30 years and served the industry as president of the California Building Performance Contractors Association (CBPCA) before founding GreenEarthEquitiesin 2008.

GreenEarthEquities buys foreclosed homes and performs deep energy retrofits on them before selling them again. His vision of finding like-minded investors and teaching them to replicate his proven strategies demonstrates his commitment to training “Energy-Wise House Flippers.”

“Dave Robinson is determined to save the Earth and improve the planet one house at a time,” said Larry Zarker, BPI CEO. “Robinson’s background as a contractor, real estate broker, energy auditor and teacher, combined with his creative thinking has allowed him to flourish in this challenging economy.”

Robinson’s business model has been so successful that the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded two contracts to GreenEarthEquities for the development of demonstration homes in California and Virginia, to measure specially designed HVAC and duct system configurations featuring Robinson’s energy efficient home performance improvements.

The Tony Woods Award for Excellence in Advancing the Home Performance Industry is an initiative from BPI in honor of Tony Woods, former president of Canam Building Envelope Specialists Inc. and ZERODRAFT®, and a pioneer of the home performance industry. During his career, he served tirelessly in the industry as a volunteer board member with BPI, Affordable Comfort Inc (ACI), as president of the Ontario Building Envelope Council and on more than ten standards committees dealing with air leakage control, air barriers, ventilation and more. He has presented on building envelope retrofit and home performance topics throughout North America and around the world. Woods passed away after a battle with leukemia on May 8, 2009, just over two weeks after the inaugural award in his name was presented by BPI.

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