Energy Star tax creditsHousing
Some of my right-wing friends and neighbors think that Occupy Wall Street is part of a left wing conspiracy. They believe the idiot cable pundits who say that OWS wants to get something for nothing. They think that OWS is driven by hatred of free markets because they chose to focus on Wall Street first. [...]
Continue reading about Free Markets are the best kind of market!
FranklyMLS.com is a superb web site that I use for searching and analyzing residential properties in this, the DC/Maryland/Virginia region. It’s my favorite tool because it is fast, easy and returns latest MLS data in a format I can analyze in Microsoft Excel, text and numericals. No gobble-dee-gook. Other web sites that use this MLS [...]
Here is an exciting example of green design filled with good ideas. This LEED certified home in Arlington is also an beautiful example of how a lower carbon footprint looks and how utility bills can be lowered to almost nothing. Is it ironic that the house is listed for $1.175 million but the utilities are [...]
Homes and small commercial buildings may benefit from the application of ductless mini splits. What the heck is that? I was watching one of those TV programs on renovating homes the other day when a discussion came up about air conditioning an attic room with low ceilings and small windows. Someone suggested a window air [...]
Continue reading about Small is beautiful: Ductless mini splits
Lately, we ( my partner and my team) have been looking daily and diligently for rehab properties, and making offers (or trying to ) on the ones we like. However, a peculiar thing is happening with bank-owned (REO ) home in northern VA. There have been rumors of dishonesty and unscrupulous operators. And we are [...]
Continue reading about Dysfunctional Multiple Listing Service
I have been seeing more and more use of a dramatically different but simple solution to the age old problem of how to best construct a crawl space. Years ago, I decided that they were evil, but I seem to end up with them in so many buildings that I work on. There are better [...]
Continue reading about Crawl Spaces and Moisture – lets get them separated
An interesting web site Denver Home Values made this 2007 commentary. Its a bit dated, but it discloses the lack of widespread standardization of the data. “The difficulty of dealing with the many legal and technical issues has not prevented a few national real estate conglomerates from attempting to build a national database of listings [...]
Continue reading about Aha! A national MLS database does NOT exist
Am I imagining this? Is this ridiculous or what? New homes?! During the week of April 26th, Texas-based Guaranty Bank demolished about a dozen new houses in California. I don’t understand how or why they could not find a buyer for these frame structures who would move them and save all this hard work and [...]
HVAC DATA model from LBNL
BetterBricks.com
Database of Energy and $ Incentives
From Horsepower to Hearpower, Part 1: The Foundations of Power and Energy
Oil Industry started (Drake's well in PA)
The Energy Collective
Architecture 2030
Jerry Yudelson
