Thursday, December 18, 2008

Order Your EcoBroker® Shirts, Totes, Mugs, Stickers and More at EcoBroker's New CafePress Store

Order Your EcoBroker® Shirts, Totes, Mugs and Stickers at EcoBroker's New CafePress Store Just in time for the holidays, EcoBroker has opened its CafePress store. At the EcoBroker Store, you can get all of your custom EcoBroker gear. From shirts and caps to bumper stickers and more, we've got the gear you can proudly display wherever you go!
Please visit the store at http://www.cafepress.com/ecobroker. These items make great closing gifts, tradeshow and event giveaways, and are just a great way to spread the word about EcoBroker and making green choices in real estate.
Not finding what you're looking for? Send us an email at customerservice@ecobroker.com
and chances are we'll be able to find it or add it!

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Brooke Rundle becomes Central America's first EcoBroker®

Brooke Rundle, sales representative with Coldwell Banker Nicaragua, recently became the first accredited EcoBroker® in Central America under the program “Ecobroker International.”

Scoring another first for the region, she's also been working hand-in-hand with developer Tim Kelly on building an Earthship - an innovative green home built almost entirely out of recycled materials.

A green real estate momentum is rapidly building here in Nicaragua. Just last month, the Association of Nicaraguan Investors and Developers (ANID) hosted its first green real estate seminar in Managua. The turnout was huge and the excitement contagious.

Reporter Blake Schmidt was at the event and wrote an article for the Nica Times on what he heard. It was there that he met Brooke Rundle and learned about our green real estate tours showcasing the very best in green investment opportunities in the country.

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

NASHVILLE GREEN HOME: IT IS NOW EASIER TO FIND GREEN HOMES

By Tom Hall, EcoBroker®

In an exciting development for Realtors and home buyers in Middle Tennessee, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which is the tool where Realtors list homes for sale, has now added a "Green Features" section. The new Green Features section of the MLS makes it easier for Realtors to search for homes with, of course, green features. The new feature helps Realtors search specifically for green features such as dual flush toilets, and spray foam insulation for example. The list of features in the new MLS section is quite extensive making it remarkably easier to search for specific items. This is definitely a great step in the right direction for the Nashville real estate community.

Original Post:
NASHVILLE GREEN HOME: IT IS NOW EASIER TO FIND GREEN HOMES

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Monday, December 8, 2008

EcoBroker®, Patrick Canavan, previews a built green home in Huntington Beach, CA

Take a look at the work of Certified EcoBroker®, Patrick Canavan, who is previewing one of the first homes in Huntington Beach, California to be built "green from the ground up." Watch the video to learn about a few of the exciting green features of this home. Check back each week for new video on the progress of construction and the next green features to be incorporated into this cutting-edge home.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

GREEN: A Recession-Proof Industry?

GREEN: A Recession-Proof Industry?
By Ryan Moehring


If you flip through any of the broadcast news channels or publications these days, you undoubtedly will be greeted with a barrage of headlines surrounding the current state of the U.S. economy. (For those of you who haven't been paying attention, it's not good.) Terms like "financial bailout," "recession," "inflation," and "the worst financial crisis since the great depression," do anything but conjure pleasant images in the minds of Americans and, unfortunately, they now dominate our daily news.

Yes, times are tough, and the constant media coverage seems to amplify the uncertainty we all feel, but are things really that bad for us as green real estate professionals? I'm going to propose that there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. Fortunately for EcoBrokers®, the bright spot in this dark time is the enduring stability of green building.

A study released this summer by McGraw-Hill Construction and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) found that over the past three years more than 330,000 "market rate" homes with green features were built, making green building a $36 billion per year industry. Of that number of homes, an estimated 60,000 earned third-party property certifications through LEED or another certification program.

The study also surveyed existing owners of green-certified properties in an effort to gauge their attitudes about their homes. An overwhelming 83 percent of respondents stated that their new green home will lower operating costs. Seventy percent of those surveyed said that they would be "more" or "much more" inclined to buy a green home over a conventional home in a down market like the one we face today. The study also found that 78 percent of lower-income consumers (those who are most affected by a market downturn) would be more inclined to purchase a green home.

While these numbers paint an optimistic picture for green buildings, a cynic might point out that the findings were released before today's economic meltdown had completely matured. Now that we more fully understand the gravity of our economic woes, is green building really as strong as this summer's study reported? Are LEED and other property ratings going to go the way of the Starbucks® Venti Triple Mocha Latte—a luxury consumers might have to have to do without until things improve?

Michelle Moore, senior vice president for policy and public affairs at USGBC, doesn't think so. "So far, we haven't seen any slow down," Moore said. "Our green buildings numbers are really strong, our membership numbers remain strong. In fact, we're at record levels across the board, from registrations and certifications of projects to the number of people taking the LEED AP test. They're all way up."

At the Greenbuild conference in Boston this month, Nancy Floyd, founder of the clean tech venture capital firm Nth Power, echoed Moore's sentiments. "The economic downturn will actually be good for this sector," Floyd said, "because the market meltdown is accelerating innovation. There are opportunities now because builders and decision-makers have more time to consider new ideas. There also is more competition among builders; so some will differentiate by adopting green building products and practices."

So, if more and more green buildings are being built, and consumers are increasingly satisfied with green buildings, the logical conclusion is that green real estate professionals should have more opportunities to help facilitate these transactions. While your EcoBroker® training ideally positions you as the most qualified real estate professional to handle these kinds of deals, you can't possibly expect deals to just fall into your lap. So how can you capitalize on the continued vitality of green building?

Maybe the time has come to revisit some of the concepts you studied in the EcoBroker Green Market Advantage™ course. Perhaps you should take another look at the online marketing materials that became available to you once you earned your designation. If you haven't completed your training, the rapidly approaching holiday season may be the gift of time you need to finish, setting you up to hit the ground running in 2009. Maybe you could get more closely involved with your local USGBC chapter and its builder members. Regardless of which path you take, a variety of opportunities are out there for you to build business and make a difference in your community.

Another piece of the green housing pie that the USGBC believes will be full of opportunities during this recession is green home retrofits. "This is an incredible opportunity for the industry to turn its focus to existing buildings," Moore said. "In any given year, new construction makes up only 10 percent of the overall building stock. But now, there will be fewer people building but just as many people wanting sustainable living or working environments." While helping a client retrofit their home may not result in a commission check, it is yet another way to provide real value to your clients, which will always create loyalty and referrals.

The fact of the matter remains that more green properties are being built every year, and the occupants of those buildings are increasingly satisfied with their purchase. Green building and remodeling is truly hitting critical mass, even in one of the most challenging economic times of our generation. Someone is getting hired to sell these properties and it might as well be you. Certainly no one is more qualified and more deserving than an EcoBroker®.


Sources:

http://www.fypower.org/res/news/green-homes.html
http://energypriorities.com/entries/2008/11/nancy_floyd_greenbuild.php
http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/Green%20Homes%20Affordable%20and%20In%20Demand%20-%20Press%20Release%20for%207-24%20am.pdf
http://greensource.construction.com/news/080725GreenHousing.asp

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Entering the Great Blogg O Sphere

While up to this point we have let our members lead the way in the blogging world, we have now decided that the time has come to start our own blog. This blog will eventually be housed on our website (http://www.ecobroker.com/), but for now, we'll call blogger.com our home away from home.

Thanks for stopping by, and stay tuned: lots of great things are going to happen here.

The EcoBroker Team

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