Benefits of Green Home

The benefits to a green home are twofold—first they are better for the environment, yourself, and your family and, second, they save you money over the life of the home.

Green homes can offer significant financial benefits such as:
* Proper insulation and air sealing will keep your heating and cooling costs lower, while efficient windows, appliances, lighting, and other household equipment will lower your electricity bills.
* Green homes are built with high-quality building materials so they are more durable and require fewer repairs.
* As the market demand continues to rise for green homes, investing in a green home now can mean increased value in the future.

Green homes often include the following additional benefits
* Health benefits: Green homes use toxin-free building materials, utilize natural ventilation, and have fewer problems with mold and mildew, just to name a few.
* Environmentally friendly: Green homes use less energy than comparable standard homes. Often, green homes use alternative energy sources, reducing dependence on conventional energy sources.
* Use fewer natural resources: Green building uses fewer natural resources, and many of the materials used have recycled contents, keeping with the “resource conservation” green principle.
Did You Know? Green homes use 40 percent less energy than comparable standard homes.

Common Misconceptions:
Where's the Green?: As the first community in Southern California to participate in the state Energy Commission’s new solar homes partnership, O Bel Sole! Estates will feature 41 energy-efficient, solar-powered homes in Lancaster. This home's solar panels are barely visible in the roof. The community’s solar features will enable owners to reduce their monthly electric bills and also benefit from a $2,000 federal tax credit.
Photo courtesy: Jennie Stabile, broker-owner of Tarzana-based J. Stabile, REALTOR®
Here are some of the most common misconceptions about green homes--as well as current information.

1) Green homes are more expensive. Although some green remodels and buildings can be expensive, buying a new green home doesn’t have to be more expensive than a traditional home. When builders construct a new home to “green” certification standards, they often pass the cost along to the buyer, which can make the initial price of a new green home higher than that of a traditional one. However, as energy costs continue to rise, many buyers are finding the long-term savings they will accrue from an energy-efficient house outweigh the higher price tag. Also, as the practice of green construction increases, the cost of green building will continue to decrease.

2) Anything that claims to be green, is. Many companies are jumping on the green bandwagon; however, there are many products that claim to be green, but in fact aren’t. Your green-credentialed REALTOR® or EcoBroker® should be able to help you discern what is truly “green” and what is not. Make sure you—and your REALTOR®—know the difference and can cut through the greenwashing.

3) A new home is always a green home. Just because a home is newly built doesn’t necessarily make it environmentally friendly or energy efficient (a key component to having an eco-conscious home). In fact, most new homes are NOT environmentally friendly, as typical materials utilized include VOCs, etc. Having a professional energy audit conducted is the best way to find out how energy efficient a new home is.

4) Green homes look unconventional. As the above photo demonstrates, green homes can look the same as traditional homes; they just have different features that make them more environmentally friendly.

5) Green homes are uncomfortable. Green homes can have the same features as a typical home; they just function in a different, more eco-conscious way. Additionally, although some green products, like low-flow toilets, often get a bad rap for not working properly, typically, green products function at the same, if not higher, levels than your standard products.

Did You Know?: Building a standard 2,500-square foot-home creates approximately two tons of construction waste. Construction of a green home usually generates 50 to 90 percent less waste.
Victoria Wells
Broker Associate Bradley Real Estate
415-710-4090
www.marinbesthomes.com

What's New in the World of Money?

Last week President Obama signed (sealed) the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173) and delivered it into law. This bill is focused on tightening regulations across the financial industry in an effort to avoid a repeat of the recent economic crisis. This legislation establishes government oversight in an attempt avoid future “Too Big to Fail” bailouts. A council of regulators will be charged with constraining and even dismantling troubled companies and will reduce the possibility that taxpayers will be responsible for the burden of bailing out financial firms that threaten the economy.

While there are many components of this law, below are a few of the changes that are relevant to the financial services industry:

Improving Protection

· The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun tightening requirements on investment advisory firms to protect investment clients from unwittingly becoming victims of fraud or Ponzi schemes. Financial advisors are now required to disclose all fees, any disciplinary actions and potential conflicts of interest (e.g., commissions). Additionally, the SEC has the authority to impose a fiduciary duty on those who give investment advice.

Opes fundamental belief is that it’s important to be an informed consumer of financial advice. Since our firm’s inception our investment advisors have worked on our clients’ behalf, not for transaction-based commissions. We disclose our fees and make sure that our prescribed strategies are clearly understood and support our clients’ goals. We issue clear and concise monthly statements, a quarterly economic outlook, and quarterly performance and asset allocation summaries. Our investment managers are all Chartered Financial Analysts^® (CFA^®) or Certified Financial Planners™ (CFP^®), which means they are well educated in the details of financial planning and analysis and are held to a fiduciary standard of care and diligence that exceeds industry norms.

While we already operate under the newly requested standards, there are other firms that may dramatically change the way they run their businesses. We applaud the SEC’s expanding involvement.

Mortgage Updates

· Under the new rules, mortgage lenders must verify a borrower’s credit history, income, and employment status. This is an immaterial change for Opes, as we have always followed this process.

Other changes include eliminating pre-payment penalties for homeowners with Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) and prohibiting loan officers from earning bonuses based on the type of loan they sell. Opes believes that borrowers are best served by securing financing for a home in a way that is most effective in taking care of other long term financial concerns - retirement, children’s education and care for aging parents.

$1 billion has been allocated to Emergency Mortgage Relief to provide bridge loans to qualified unemployed homeowners to help cover mortgage payments until they are reemployed.

The goals of this bill are honorable: to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to protect American taxpayers by ending bailouts and to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices.

You can read a summary of the 2,200 page bill as included on the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs website.