As a Realtor, there are amazing lessons to learn, amazing people to meet, and flexibility, but balancing work and family life as a mother AND a Realtor is more of a challenge than many see on th...
https://theamericangenius.com/editorials/why-mothers-rock-as-realtors/
Debating the theory that gas prices cause the housing bubble to burst, pitting Santorum against a seasoned real estate veteran and exploring what is and is not having an impact on housing.
https://theamericangenius.com/editorials/will-gas-prices-delay-the-housing-recovery/
It very well could be Recently the Department of Energy hosted the bi-annual Solar Decathalon in DC and the winning entry is the Water Shed home built by the University of Maryland pictured here...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/is-this-the-home-of-the-future/
In the fall, I gleefully reported that the Appraisal Institute had created a green addendum to accompany the standard appraisal forms so that appraisers had an official way to evaluate and compa...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/who-should-be-using-the-new-green-appraisal-addendum/
The property values? One of the first orders of business this year in Nashville’s quest for sustainability, is the urban hen. Currently they aren’t allowed here but there is a chicken ordina...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/which-came-first-the-chicken-or/
Maybe the First Little Pig wasn’t so dumb after all This fall I have had the privilege of working with some of Nashville’s most exciting visionaries in planning and hosting Nashville’s fir...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/homes-built-with-straw/
Can I get an Amen? I’ll even settle for a WOOT from all you agnostics. Recently, the Appraisal Institute released this statement about the creation of an optional green features evaluation adde...
Leaf-ready homes are on the horizon Nissan and City Ventures, a CA green builder, have announced an interesting partnership this month. City ventures will pre-wire 190 of it’s under construct...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/nissan-partnering-with-ca-builder/
The Green Resources Council featured in their monthly newsletter an interview with Sandy Adomatis of Adomatis Appraisal Service in Punta Gorda, Fla who specializes in green appraisals. I foun...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/great-tips-from-a-green-appraiser-3/
This Site Rocks! I stumbled in to GreenTowns.com thanks to the Green Resources Council and am thrilled to be sharing a fun new toy/tool for us to geek out on. What a fabulous resource. There...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/have-you-visited-greentowns/
I recently watched one of those shows on Animal Planet about horrible critter encounters and one of the stories was about a home infested with garter snakes. The buyers bought the home, moved t...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/snakes-meth-and-trash-oh-my-foreclosure-buyers-beware/
Size Doesn’t Matter when it comes to form and function With the average American home size on the decrease and efficient building technology becoming more mainstream, this is a wonderful exa...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/how-one-architect-made-24-rooms-with-300-sq-feet/
After an all to familiar round of storms jolted us awake early Monday morning with sounds of hail bashing our windows and of trees blowing apart all around us, we turned on our TV sets to see the...
In honor of Earth Day, I loaded a new bundle of apps on to my phone yesterday all geared towards environmental sustainability. Here are a few of the ones that completely blow my little green m...
I read Lani’s fine article last week about Yelp as a reputation management tool and I thought I would throw out some of my insight as a Yelp “sort of” insider. A little background on Yelp.�...
https://theamericangenius.com/business-marketing/more-yelp-yes-please/
I am always on the prowl for unique ways to touch my client base with useful information and thought I would pass along some corporate events happening in conjunction with earth month. First up: ...
Home Energy Score Cards I was recently invited to sit in on lengthy discussion with Tennessee’s energy provider TVA along with their consulting firm out of Washington to discuss the feasibility...
In light of the horror in Japan and the ensuing nuclear emergency that continues plague the country, I think it’s a good time to talk about environmental toxins and how to access data what migh...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/cool-sites-to-access-environmental-data/
They are also gaining market share and national press. I ran in to this article last week about Passive Houses in USA Today and it seems worthy of passing along. A Passive Home is a new to th...
https://theamericangenius.com/style-and-living/passive-homes-they-do-green-aggressively/
The Energy Open House is a virtual model home for homeowners to tour individual rooms to find areas they can make cost effective energy improvements. Some of my favorites parts of this are the ca...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/cool-interactive-tool-from-the-dept-of-energy/
Yes this is Completely Founded in Science and Logic I consulted my handy eight ball in preparation for this article to see what the outlook for green homes is in our rather complicated and wildly...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/my-magic-eight-balls-green-forecasts-for-2011/
I thought I would take a little time to introduce my readers to the growing trend of car sharing. Quite simply, car sharing is buying in to an annual membership with a service such as zip car o...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/car-sharing-why-you-should-know-about-it/
Blimey! Where are you NAR and why aren’t you weighing in? I am probably a little late in my rant but we have been receiving call to actions for extending the mortgage interest deduction and o...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/1500-tax-energy-improvement-tax-credit-expiring/
I’ve seen some pretty sweet lists of holiday gifts and technology doo dads floating around in Realtor blogosphere recently. I thought I would put my spin on it and highlight my “likes” ...
https://theamericangenius.com/tech-news/super-dope-green-stuff-2011/
I’ve written several articles about green homes as well as the steady growth of the green building industry and by far the most common question I get is; are green certified homes actually wo...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/green-homes-are-they-really-worth-more/
I always admire anyone who spots a trend ahead of the curve. I.e. all of you who figured out FaceBook and Twitter could be revolutionary marketing tools before any uf us had profiles and those ...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/smarth-growth-the-key-to-our-future/
Well it’s About Time! After many years of legitimate environmental leaders groaning about the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) lack of oversight on green marketing, at last the FTC has steppe...
In Honor of AG’s Participation in Blog Action Day I thought I would devote an article to water issues here in the US and how they can and do impact our industry. But first a little side bar; ...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/water-a-smoking-gun/
I have been talking about this Legislation since President Obama spoke at a Home Depot last December about creating stronger incentives for Energy Efficient Retrofits. His position, it’s an...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/booyah-energy-tax-incentives-on-the-senate-floor/
Several of my friends and colleagues sent me links of the two part story NPR did a couple of weeks ago on the LEED builder certification. I have to admit I skimmed the first one which was about...
https://theamericangenius.com/housing-news/oh-snap-did-npr-just-poo-poo-the-leed-certification/