Daily Archives: June 15, 2011

Katonah real estate learns about “Living Off the Grid: Rebuilding Their Own Reality After a Wildfire” | Katonah real estate for sale

Robyn Griggs Lawrence thumbnailThe wildfire raging in Arizona right now has me thinking about Rolland and Betty, an amazing couple whose home we covered in Natural Home more than a decade ago. Betty and Rolland lost nearly everything when a massive wildfire swept through Sugarloaf Mountain outside of Boulder, Colorado, in 1989. But when the Red Cross came around and asked what they needed after the fire, they requested only compost. Dirty Face, the tree squirrel who had lived in the cabin’s front wall, had been badly burned and kept returning to the site where the compost pile once stood, looking for food. A few days later, he died.

The loss of the animals and the trees were more devastating to Rolland and Betty than the loss of their cabin and outbuildings. “The tree swallows were all looking around, saying, ‘Hey, man, what happened?’” Rolland says. “Those birds are our spirits. They’re very much a part of what we are.”

Rolland bought his property in 1975 because it was, in his opinion, “the most magical place I had ever seen.” The shock, for him, was to realize “just how much of that ambience was in the trees.”

As soon as ground was cool enough that it wouldn’t melt their sleeping bags, Betty and Rolland were back on their land, considering how to rebuild. They were able to live comfortably, relying on food stored in stone cellars and electricity from their damaged but workable solar panels. “We felt like the land had to show us what it wanted us to do, how we should be here,” Rolland says. “This is what we had. It was done this way, we had to find the wisdom in it.”

The couple spent thousands of dollars on grass seed that they broadcast widely to fight the noxious weeds that took root after the fire. “It really paid off, because all of the deer and animals hang around here—we have some of the best flavors in town,” Rolland says.

The animals and birds have returned, and Betty and Rolland have rebuilt their off-the-grid compound, which includes a two-room cabin, a rolfing studio, a shower house, an outhouse and a machine shop. They say it’s better than it was before, living out Betty’s belief that “every supposed tragedy is a gift.”

“When something bad like that happens, it’s all about how you make it into a positive influence,” Rolland says. “It was a force that was good for us. As much as we didn’t like it, we could replay this thing, only this time we could do it better. We considered the period before the fire our research. The fire was a way to take what we learned from that research and put it back into action. A lot of things we did exactly the same, but some things we really improved.”

The couple had no insurance and eschewed loans offered by the Small Business Administration to fire victims because they didn’t want the paperwork or the debt. “We didn’t want someone else rebuilding our reality,” Rolland says.

The fire deteriorated the couple’s solar panels to the point that they are able to collect only about 100 watts of power, but that’s enough to serve their 24-volt DC system and to run their photovoltaic well pump. Rolland, a former research engineer with the Laboratory of Atmosphere and Space Physics, made all the electrical connections and boxes and wired all the buildings himself. “I don’t want my electricity to be scary,” he says. “This is petting electricity. You can touch it.”

Three battery packs in the underground cellar collect and store up to three months worth of electricity. When Betty or Rolland hear gurgling from a battery, they know it is fully charged and move a wire to fill the next one. The system supplies more than enough power to meet the couple’s needs, although Rolland admits that not everyone could live with the available current at his place. “A lot of times people are just not making good choices about the appliances they buy,” he says. “Sometimes they have an addiction to a computer or a TV.”

Rolland and Betty’s washing machine is a 1930s ringer with a 24-volt motor, and they use water left over after baths to wash clothes. “I’m always shopping the beginning of the century” for appliances,” Rolland says, but he does make AC available for Betty’s typewriter, blender and vacuum cleaner.

While Rolland does happen to be a rocket scientist, he says it doesn’t take one to invent your own technology. “It’s buried inside all of us,” he says. “All you have to do is leave yourself room to find it. I think most of us don’t realize it because we’re barricaded from it by regulation and fear.”

His personal building code—no plywood, no plastic, and nothing that smells bad when it burns—is the only creed Rolland adheres to. The new cabin is built from trees charred in the fire, milled at a local sawmill that opened its doors to fire victims without insurance. The trim and the windows are made from old barrels used to treat ore during the gold-mining era and barrels from a New Jersey brewery. The roof is made of clay tiles that Rolland found at a yard sale; the handmade scalloping on the peak took two years to finish.

Rolland admits that having several small buildings rather than one large structure creates a bigger footprint on the land. “But you’re not seeing the whole footprint of any residence because you don’t see off-site impacts,” he says. “We’re not sending any garbage to Central America; we’re not buying power generated in California. All our impact is right here on this site.”

betty and rolland exterior cabin 

Neighbors helped Rolland and Betty’s rebuild their two-room cabin from trees killed in the fire. It has a living area downstairs and a sleeping area upstairs. Rolland spent two years perfecting the metal scalloping on the roof, which is made from salvaged tiles. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison 

betty and rolland fire damage buildings 

Rolland’s stone stucco watch-repair shop (right) was the only building to survive the fire. The new cabin stands beside it on the left. The couple believes that building smaller buildings for different functions encourages wildlife to interact with them. “If the places are small enough and we have enough windows so wildlife can relate to the fact that we’re temporarily inhabiting these units and we move from place to place, they can understand us,” Rolland says. “They become real curious, look in windows and doors, see how our day is progressing in relationship to their day.” Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison 

betty and rolland studio

Betty’s rolfing studio was the first building to be rebuilt. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison 

betty and rolland table 

Simple and serene, Betty and Rolland’s cabin has just enough space. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison  

betty and rolland watches 

Miraculously, Rolland’s stone and stucco watch repair shop–and the watches inside–survived the fire. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison 

Bedford Hills NY realtor asks “Should real estate agents get first dibs on new listings?” | Inman News for Bedford Hills real estate

Should real estate agents get first dibs on new listings?

First-time buyers can lose out on distressed real estate

First-time homebuyers are critical to the housing industry. Once they get in the door, this enables the former first-timer to move up, etc. In a nutshell, first-time buyers help to keep the housing ladder moving.

What has skewed this traditional ladder is the number of distressed homes on the market. There are more homes than buyers. So, I wasn’t concerned when I read the latest statistics that some investors had beaten out first-time homebuyers to a purchase. The market needs investors, too.

What made the topic a bit more interesting was a call from an investor friend who conducts rather thorough research in his goal to obtain one rental property each year.

Historically, his key variables have been location, condition of the property, and the ability to rent it out to pay the mortgage — or the money borrowed/invested to purchase and maintain the home. Recently, he’s looked for attractive financing terms, especially situations where the seller (or foreclosing lender) is willing to carry all or part of the financing for a few years.

“I lost the place to another investor,” my friend said. “The buyer was a Realtor.”

This should not come as any big surprise. In fact, on May 17, statistics from the National Association of Realtors revealed that 22 percent of all existing-home transactions were to investors.

“A good portion of the investors are likely to be Realtor members based on the fact that Realtor population historically has had a notably higher percentage of second-home and investment-home ownership compared to the general population,” wrote Jessica Lautz, NAR research economist.

“The most recent data suggest 43 percent of Realtor members had at least one investment property.”

NAR has approximately 1.1 million members and is the nation’s largest trade organization. However, not all real estate salespersons are members. Some analysts estimate the number of real estate agents in the U.S. is close to 2 million.

The question becomes: Should a person who serves homebuyers and sellers for a living be held to different guidelines if they are competing to purchase a home? For example, should the listing be exposed to the market for a certain amount of time (perhaps 48 hours) before a licensed agent can buy a home that somebody else is ready, willing and able to buy? Especially if that party is a first-time home buyer?

In this market, the seller probably does not care. While multiple offers are starting to surface in some neighborhoods, many sellers simply want out and will take the first solid deal that is presented. Rarely are new listings snapped up in the first few days on the market by an investor in competition with a first-time homebuyer. However, it has happened and will continue to occur as the attractive investor market continues.

“It is the agent’s obligation to get the highest possible price for the home,” said Alan Tonnon, real estate attorney, author and a charter member of the Washington Real Estate Commission. “That price may even be higher than the listing price. It is typically in the seller’s best interest that no restrictions be set on offers so that the seller can consider all offers.”

Many real estate brokerages are members of multiple listing services. These “multiples” are large listings of all the properties available for sale in a specific area. When a seller signs a listing agreement to sell a home, the agent accepting the listing typically has until 5 p.m. of the next business day (formerly two business days) to enter the property in the multiple listing service. So, if the property is listed on Friday, the agent has until 5 p.m. Monday to enter it in the MLS.

When homes are moving quickly and certain areas become extremely desirable, it’s common for a property to be sold to a client represented by an agent in the listing office within this “next business day” time period. Sales associates share the wants and needs of their potential buyers, despite the separation of information required by new agency laws.

So when an attractive home becomes available, associates in the listing office typically have the first shot at selling it.

What is your opinion? Should agents be able to compete to purchase a home the first day it hits the market? If not, when? Should first-time buyers be given priority over investors? Agents? We will print your answers in a future column.

Tom Kelly’s book “Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America: How to Buy, Rent and Profit in the World’s Bargain Zone” was written with Mitch Creekmore,  senior vice president of Stewart International, and Jeff Hornberger, the National Association of Realtors’ international market development manager. The book is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com.

    Bedford Corners Real Estate agrees “U.S. Finally Declares Formaldehyde–Ubiquitous in Household Products–a Carcinogen” | Bedford Corners NY homes for sale

    Robyn Griggs Lawrence thumbnailAfter years of delays because of pressure from the chemical industry, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has added eight substances—including formaldehyde, which is common in household products—to its Report on Carcinogens, a science-based document that identifies chemicals and biological agents that may increase people’s risk for cancer.

    Formaldehyde and a botanical known as aristolochic acids are listed as known human carcinogens. Six other substances—captafol, cobalt-tungsten carbide (in powder or hard metal form), certain inhalable glass wool fibers, o-nitrotoluene, riddelliine and styrene—are added as substances that are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens. With these additions, the 12th Report on Carcinogens now includes 240 listings. It is available at http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/roc12.

    “This report underscores the critical connection between our nation’s health and what’s in our environment,” says John Bucher, Ph.D., associate director of the National Toxicology Program.

    The Report on Carcinogens identifies agents, substances, mixtures or exposures in two categories: known to be a human carcinogen and reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. Many factors, including the amount and duration of exposure and an individual’s susceptibility to a substance, affect whether a person will develop cancer.

    Formaldehyde–a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is widely used to make resins for household items such as composite wood products, paper product coatings, plastics, synthetic fibers, and textile finishes—was first listed in the second Report on Carcinogens as a substance that was reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, after laboratory studies showed it caused nasal cancer in rats. Human studies have now shown that individuals with higher measures of exposure to formaldehyde are at increased risk for certain types of rare cancers, including nasopharyngeal (the nasopharnyx is the upper part of the throat behind the nose), sinonasal, as well as a white blood cell cancer known as myeloid leukemia.

    Certain inhalable glass wool fibers made the list based on experimental animal studies. Not all glass wool or man-made fibers were found to be carcinogenic. The report cites only those fibers that can enter the respiratory tract, are highly durable and remain in the lungs for long periods of time. Low-cost, general purpose glass fibers used in home and building insulation appear to be less likely to cause cancer in humans.

    Styrene—a synthetic chemical used to make rubber, plastic, insulation, fiberglass, pipes, automobile parts, food containers and carpet backing—is on the list based on human cancer studies, laboratory animal studies and mechanistic scientific information. The limited evidence of cancer from studies in humans shows lymphohematopoietic cancer and genetic damage in the white blood cells, or lymphocytes, of workers exposed to styrene. People may be exposed to styrene by breathing indoor air that has styrene vapors from building materials, tobacco smoke and other products.

    Intense lobbying by the chemical industry delayed the release of the Report on Carcinogens for years, Gardiner Harris reports in The New York Times. Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, told the Times that formaldehyde is worrisome and pervasive. “It’s the smell in new houses, and it’s in cosmetics like nail polish,” he said. “All a reasonable person can do is manage their exposure and decrease it to as little as possible. It’s everywhere.”

    President Obama signed a law establishing the first national standards for formaldehyde in composite wood products last year. The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Act establishes emission standards for hardwood plywood, medium density fiberboard and particleboard sold in the United States. The glue that holds together household composite wood products such as furniture, cabinets and flooring contains formaldehyde. By January 1, 2013, all products sold in the United States will have formaldehyde emissions of 0.09 parts per million or less—the most stringent standard for formaldehyde emissions in the world.

    Until then new, be a conscious consumer when it comes to particleboard purchases. Use the PureBond Fabricator network to find formaldehyde-free products, and buy third-party certified furnishings and flooring. Look for the Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified Products seal (and check out its searchable database of low-emitting products) and the Green Seal Certified Products seal. The Pharos Project also rates and selects healthy building materials, and Scientific Certification Systems Certified Products offers Sustainable Choice and Environmentally Preferable Products programs.