New Site For Green Earth Equities

Can This House Be Saved? Part 3

Can This House Be Saved? Part 3: Windows and Ductless HVAC Greetings PlanetSavers, Join us we'll conitnue our "Can This House Be Saved?" series. Our thanks to Evan Hurd for sharing his green renovation project with us (click here if you have a project to submit for review). Going over the plans has given us all good food for thought.  Given the mild Pacific Palisades CA climate and two story floor plan, I've been thinking a single point heat source downstairs would be me choice. Love to hear your suggestions. Of course, this will only work after the radical shell improvements we've been discussing. There are two...Continue Reading!

Can This House Be Saved? Part 2

Can This House Be Saved? Part 2 Pacific Palisades CA Property Greetings PlanetSavers, Last Tuesday we had a great webinar interview with Evan Hurd regarding his plans for energy renovation and expansion of a residential property in Pacific Palisades CA. Evan provided so much information we decided to take our time sorting through various choices focusing around shell sealing the current and coming rooms and additions. This Tuesday night we'll pick up with detail discussion of roofing and HVAC options.  We'll also be taking an in depth look at window concerns including energy wise product selection, placement and possible window elimination to reduce expense and...Continue Reading!

Long Distance Buying & Tax Deeds

Open Forum Long Distance Buying & Tax Deeds Tonight at 6PM Pacific, 9 Eastern, we'll hold an "Open Forum." It will be on the same Webex site but I will have no prepared slides or agenda.    Instead, this is an opportunity for you to bring whatever Home Performance or Real Estate issues that are on your mind. A picture is worth a thousand words... You can use photos or diagrams to better communicate your issue. Just have them in a folder on your desktop and you can show us what we are talking about. If you don't have photos or aren't at a computer,...Continue Reading!

What’s the Magic Rental Investment Numbers?

Magic Numbers? Layout: Buy and Remodel, Sale or Lease Tonight we'll discuss the wisdom of diversifying our real estate strategy given the current Buy and Hold market opportunities. It's been our experience that 3 Bedroom 2 Baths offer some of the best profit margins when energy-wise house renovating and flipping.  The question is, when the return on investment (ROI) rate is higher through long term leasing strategies, does the magic number of beds and baths change? It's been said, "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break."  With inventory low, we're finding most the obvious bargains have multiple offers, many over list price....Continue Reading!

Jim Canter Interview: HERS Rater, Shell and Insulation Contractor

Jim Canter Interview HERS Rater & Insulation Contractor Tonight we'll interview special guest, Jim Canter. Jim is the HERS Rater who did the tests requested by DOE on the 13 Cedar St house. I was excited to learn that Jim is also a contractor who is specializing in doing the Shell Sealing work as well as other renovation work. It was good to meet a kindred spirit!  It seems to me to be a good combination of skills and services to offer to begin building a Home Performance Business. You can ask Jim how it's going and what he would recommend based on...Continue Reading!

What Does Going The Extra (Green) Mile Cost?

Going The Extra (Green) Mile What Does It Cost? Greetings PlanetSavers, Tonight we will look at Green Renovation Costs.  We will be using my project at 13 Cedar and go through all the work that has been done to date. I need to be done in 3 more days as the NREL team will be here next week to install all the data loggers etc) We'll look at some of the costs on a Good, Better, Best basis. For us this usually means differing levels of energy efficiency. These are important numbers to get right as this is the arena where we compete with the...Continue Reading!

Mini-Split Heat Pump Install 13 Cedar Round Hill VA

Mini-Split Heat Pump Install 13 Cedar Round Hill VA Greetings PlanetSavers, It is good to be "Back in the USA" getting back to Fixing Houses feels really good! I guess I'm just addicted to fixing houses.  Always looking for the best ways to pack in as much Home Performance as I can without breaking the budget. That's the eternal tension of the Energy Wise Renovator. We are right in the middle of finishing up my favorite HVAC system.  A "hybrid"  Fujitsu Mini-Split heat pump.  Hybrid because half of it is ducted and the other half goes on the wall in the main room.  Tonight...Continue Reading!

Home Performance? Lessons: Istanbul to Vienna

Home Performance? Lessons: Istanbul to Vienna Greetings PlanetSavers, OK maybe not "Home" performance... But at least it was a "Performance." Belly Dancing is a Turkish specialty, left over from the days of entertaining the Sultans of the Empire. It was interesting to see who was there and who seemed to be enjoying the performance the most. Tonight I'll share my observations from our recent trip from Istanbul to Bucharest and then along the Danube River upstream to Vienna and then a quick stop in Amsterdam. Some of it will be related to Home Performance.  But some of it will be observations about how blessed...Continue Reading!

Creating Flyers with Word or Pages

Creating Flyers Microsoft Word & Mac Pages By request tonight we'll take a look at how to create a professional flyer using simple programs like Microsoft Word and Mac Pages.  We'll answer any questions you may have and examine how to: Customize Templates: Select and edit templates provided with Word and Pages... Add Photos and Graphics: Adding and editing size, color and effects for photos and graphics... Find and Add Information: Using the internet to add additional content. Effects: Color, text boxes and shading. Printing and Email: Optimize print and email options... If you have a flyer you're working on in either Word or Pages I'll be happy...Continue Reading!

Property Evaluation Schedule

Property Evaluation Schedule Purchase, Remodel and ROI Spreadsheet By request we'll be continuing our Back Office Series. The last couple of weeks we've reviewed some time-task management tools, filing, backups and spreadsheets. Tuesday let's take an in depth look at GEE's Property Evaluation Schedule (PES). Frustrated at trying to remember to evaluate dozens of aspects that could impact the remodel budget and therefore the bottom line, I created the PES spreadsheet to track the following: Property Details: List price, days on market, beds/baths, size, amenities, average comps & rents... Remodeling Requirements: Everything from the condition of the front and back yard, fences, sprinklers and pools...Continue Reading!