Advertising is moving to the web. (and this is news?)
It's no wonder that internet startups are poised to blow the doors off traditional real estate business models. This story is a perfect example.Gaining big business' approval to make a shift like this must be quite an ordeal. More nimble competitors have already seen that…
Treehugger’s Ball, etc.
This weekend has a host of real-estate related activities - The Blue Ridge Home Builder's Home Show The Treehugger's Ball (text courtesy of Dave Norris' site) We are excited to announce that the Living Education Center for Ecology and the Arts (LEC) and Alliance for…
Hybrid Home Completely Off the Grid
Awesome. Via Gizmodo. Hybrid Home Completely Off the Grid: Hybrid Technologies is almost finished building what it calls the Hybrid Living Home, a concept house that shows off hundreds of energy-saving and smart-home features. Using wind turbines, solar energy, earth tubes and high-tech electrical storage,…
“Green” bills in VA House
At least somebody is looking for ways to encourage sustainable housing. Directing the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission to study the feasibility of enabling legislation to authorize localities to provide real property tax incentives to encourage buildings to be constructed using "green building" or "sustainable"…
Green building
Making "green" choices - Thankfully, there is an upward trend in the number of environmentally sound and sustainable products on the market. Green building's move to the mainstream is picking up speed. These products tend to cost a bit more right now, mainly because going…
“The Greenest School in America”
Right here in Charlottesville. This is so cool. I wrote a bit more about the green movement when I was finishing up my Eco-Broker certification. I'm just glad to see C'Ville leading the way. The "best place to live in America" is on its way…
Green gasbags?
The gist of this fine editorial seems to be, "Oh, Come on!." Regarding massive, "green" houses: These houses aren't just ridiculous; they're monuments to sanctimony. If architecture is frozen music, these places are congealed piety, demonstrating with embarrassing concreteness the glaring hypocrisy of upper-class environmentalism.…
Morning Reading (a bit of green)
Interest Rates, not home prices have the greatest impact on "affordability" Simple things to do to prepare your house for the market. Homebuilders' incentives - this is going to be a more common theme in 2006 Perhaps most interesting, "Ready for Everything under the Solar…
Energy-effficient mortgages
Via Inman News: A relatively unknown financing option called the "energy efficient mortgage" might help consumers keep their homes cozy as well as keep the bills down. And after the first of the year, Uncle Sam will even kick in incentives, in the form of…
Wind energy right in our backyard
Following up on my new study for my Eco-Broker certification, I see this article about a Charlottesville company, Greenlight Energy: In the next two years, a Virginia company hopes to pump upward of $400 million into what could be Colorado's largest wind farm on private…