Daily Archives: November 26, 2012

Choosing the right light bulb | Waccabuc NY Realtor

In the world of home improvement products, it used to be that one of the things you could count on for consistency year after year was the light bulb. Little changed since its invention, so it was a product that you didn’t really have to give much thought to.

No longer. Today, there’s a lot of confusion surrounding this simple staple of the American household. Are 100-watt bulbs banned? Are those twisty bulbs dangerous? Can you use these new bulbs with a dimmer? Aren’t the new bulbs really expensive? There are lots of questions and lots of confusing answers, so let’s try to clear up what we can.

Incandescent bulbs

Incandescent bulbs are the traditional household light bulb. They consume electricity, which is measured in watts, and give off light, which is measured in lumens. However, most of the electricity they consume is actually given off as heat, so these bulbs have never been particularly energy efficient.

Incandescent bulbs haven’t technically been “banned.” What’s happened is that new energy efficiency standards have been put into place, which simply means that the bulbs now need to consume less electricity for same amount of lumens produced.

So the traditional 100-watt light bulb is, in essence, a thing of the past. It’s being replaced by a bulb that produces the same amount of light, but uses about 72 watts. Since that translates to money in your pocket in the form of energy savings, it’s not a bad thing. Similar wattage-to-lumen reductions are set to phase in for other bulbs over time, but given the ongoing mess in Washington, those dates are a congressional moving target.

Halogen bulbs

Halogen bulbs, also called energy-saving bulbs, are incandescent light bulbs that have a capsule inside that holds halogen gas around the filament, which increases the efficiency of the bulb. Halogen bulbs are a little more expensive to buy initially, but their energy efficiency increases by about 25 percent over a standard incandescent bulb, and they can last up to three times as long.

Another advantage to halogen bulbs is their color rendition, which is the ability of a light source to render the colors of an object similar to the way sunlight does. This makes them a great choice for many desk and task light applications. Halogen bulbs can also be used with dimmers.

Compact fluorescent bulbs

Compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs, are the increasingly familiar “curly tube” light bulb. Once again, they’re more expensive to purchase initially than a standard incandescent bulb, but their increasing popularity and availability is bringing prices down.

CFL bulbs uses about a quarter of the energy that a standard bulb uses to produce the same number of lumens, so that’s a pretty good savings. They’re estimated to last about 10 times as long, so that offsets the somewhat higher initial cost; in fact, the Department of Energy estimates that a typical CFL will pay for itself in less than nine months.

As CFLs have become more popular, they’ve become available in a range of colors that weren’t available when they were first introduced. You can now get CFLs with warm, yellow tones, as well as bulbs that are encased in an outer cover that help diffuse the light better — and which, coincidentally, also makes them look much more like a traditional light bulb. Some CFLs can also be used with a dimmer switch, but be sure that you verify that on the package when you buy it.

CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury, as do all fluorescent bulbs. When they burn out, they shouldn’t be disposed of with the regular trash. Instead, they need to be properly recycled, which is something that a growing number of retailers are doing at no charge.

LED bulbs

The final type of bulb you want to be aware of is the light-emitting diode, or LED. These bulbs are semiconductors that convert electricity into light. They’re actually in the early stages of development at this point, so they’re still pretty expensive. However, many people think that these bulbs have a tremendous amount of potential, and represent the wave of the future in residential and commercial lighting. As such, their prices should begin coming down.

LED bulbs use only about 25 percent of the energy that a conventional bulb does, but their real advantage is in their life span. An LED bulb is estimated to last about 25 times longer than a conventional bulb, so even with the high initial cost, their use may still make good economic sense for applications where bulbs are difficult to access for replacement.

via inman.com

Are You Defining Your Niche Properly? | Cross River Realtor

When I started my blog, I made the mistake of not defining my niche well enough.

In fact, I defined it with one word: “coding.”

Defining the niche my blog targeted with one word was never going to be enough. Perhaps for the pioneers of the internet it was okay, but in this day and age, with millions of websites in the competition, you need more than a one-word topic name for a niche.

I can’t emphasize how important it is to define your niche. You need to be able to know the focus of your blog inside out, what makes it so great and how it’s different from every other blog. A one word simply isn’t enough.

I didn’t know this when starting my blog. But when it did dawn on me, I knew I needed to change. I overhauled my About page, I changed my tagline, and I generally wasted a lot of time deciding on what the heck my site was about.

Luckily for me, the site was still new and unknown, and I doubt a single person noticed my change of focus, but this was time I could have spent building great content and promoting my blog.

I hope that you can learn from my mistakes. So here are the main things you need to think about when defining your niche.

Choose an audience, not a topic

This was the first mistake I made. When you decided what your blog was going to be about, did you choose a topic like business, blogging, or photography? Or in my case, coding?

I did. And it wasn’t long before I realized it wasn’t going to work. Coding is a hugely broad topic, and I had no idea who I was writing for. Beginners? Experienced coders? What kind of coding were they interested in? What needs did they have that I could address?

I didn’t even know my own blog! My blog posts were lacking purpose. They weren’t targeting anyone, they weren’t addressing any needs. No wonder no one was reading them!

Think of all the successful blogs you know. ProBlogger, Digital Photography School, Zen Habits. They don’t just blog about a topic, they’re aimed at a specific audience.

Coding was a weak topic. But those who are learning to write code and want to apply their skills to real projects—now that’s a very clearly defined audience.

Lessons

  • Don’t write about something, write for someone.
  • Know the focus of your blog, inside out.
  • With every blog post you write, ask yourself: what’s the purpose of this blog post and how does it address my audience’s needs?

Differentiate your blog from every other

When I was deciding on my clearly defined audience, there was one big thing I had in mind. How was my blog going to be different from all the rest?

If you’re blogging about blogging, you’re competing with ProBlogger. If you’re blogging about photography, you’re competing with Digital Photography School. If you’re blogging about coding like I am, you’re competing with Tuts+ and SitePoint.

How do you expect to stand out from the pack? You simply don’t stand a chance. Unless you differentiate your blog.

Here’s a little exercise Derek Halpern taught me. Identify the top ten blogs in your niche and for each one, explain how it is unique from all the others. Now decide how your blog can fit in amongst that top ten, with its own unique spin.

In my case, I decided that my blog was going to be focused on coding in the “real world”—guiding people along their learn to code journey, while also helping them apply their skills to real projects.

Lessons

  • Identify how your blog is different from all the others in your niche and how it can compete.
  • Ideally, choose a unique spin that no other blog shares.

Where do you want your blog to be in a year?

Knowing how you want your blog to grow is something that’s extremely helpful for defining your niche. It’s not as important as the previous two points, but it really does help.

Think about what kind of things you’ll be selling, what components there will be on your website, even how you want your site to look and be designed.

For me, I decided that in a year’s time I wanted to be selling WordPress themes and plugins on my website. So, to prepare for this, I now have a WordPress category in my blog which I add to regularly.

I also know that I want my website to be known as a supportive community for coders. Just knowing this gives me a better idea of what kind of content to add to my blog today.

Lessons

  • Have an idea in your head of what your blog will be when it’s fully mature.
  • Think about how it will make money, what it will be known for, and how it will look.
  • Use this insight to gain a better idea of what to focus your blog on today.

Strengthen your blog’s foundation

It doesn’t matter whether your blog is already established or not. Websites are dynamic—you can change them at any time. So take this advice: laser define your niche and strengthen your blog’s foundation.

What niche does your blog focus on? Tell us in the comments—and no one-word answers please!

Atlanta Fed graphs show regional housing demand outstrips mortgage financing | South Salem Realtor

Even though mortgage brokers and homebuilders report stronger home sales in the Southeast, mortgage financing remains short of demand in the region for October, according to senior analyst Whitney Mancuso of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

With the housing market in Southeast bumping along the bottom for a long time, the increase in sale gains and new home sales on a year-over-year basis indicates the market is turning positive. The lack of financing, however, does remain a headwind.

Click on the graph for October homes sales for builders and brokers compared to the previous year.

The availability of mortgage finance for homebuyers in the market was more than 50% short of demand, according to builders and brokers in the region.

Click on the graph to view accessibility of mortgage finance in the market.

Available credit also fell short of demand in regards to accessing finance for construction development. More than 80% of homebuilders perceived construction development challenging as a result of credit shortfall.

Click on the graph to view the construction development finance in the market.

Home inventories continue to decline from a year-over-year basis, with home prices increasing in October. This also indicates that home prices improved from last year.  As a result, homebuyer traffic is ahead of last year levels and is expected to rise throughout the rest of the year.

Click on the graph to view homebuyer traffic levels compared to a year ago.

The results posted are based on responses from 58 residential brokers and 25 homebuilders throughout the region, according to the Atlanta Fed’s SouthPoint blog.

via housingwire.com

First-time Buyers Continue to Fade | Katonah NY Realtor

The first-time homebuyer share of home purchases fell to 34.7 percent in October, down from the 37.1 percent share in June and the lowest first-time homebuyer share ever recorded in the three-year history of the HousingPulse survey.

The decline in first-time homebuyers participating in the housing market comes at the same time that purchases of non-distressed properties have risen significantly this year. In fact, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulseTracking Survey, the non-distressed property share of home purchases climbed to 64.7 percent in October, up from only 55.7 percent back in February and the highest non-distressed property share recorded by HousingPulse in its history. (See Where Did the First-time Buyers Go?)

First-time homebuyers are the only group of buyers tracked by HousingPulse that have not seen their share of non-distressed property home purchases rise over the past five months. Current homeowners have seen the biggest jump in purchases of non-distressed properties with their share rising from 50.0% in June to 54.2 percent in October. Even investors saw their share of non-distressed property purchases inch higher from 11.3 percent to 12.2 percent over the past five months.

But first-time homebuyers have seen their share of non-distressed property home purchases fall from 38.7 percent in June to 33.6 percent in October, the HousingPulse survey results show.

One factor depressing first-time purchases of non-distressed properties is the higher – and rising – prices associated with these homes. But another key factor is the availability of financing for first-time homebuyers. HousingPulse survey respondents identify FHA, with its low 3.5 percent minimum downpayment requirement and slightly looser underwriting requirements, as the primary financing vehicle for first-time homebuyers.

“Financing of first-time homebuyers with low downpayments threatens to become a significant problem in the U.S. housing market,” commented Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “Fifty percent of first-time homebuyers use FHA financing, but FHA insurance premiums are increasing and underwriting is becoming more strict. Private mortgage insurance has started to fill the gap, but the long-term status of private mortgage insurance is in question pending the publication of the Qualified Residential Mortgage regulation resulting from Dodd-Frank.”

Responding to a special “bonus” question in the October HousingPulse survey, real estate agent respondents reported that this year’s hike in FHA mortgage insurance premiums has taken its toll on first-time homebuyers shopping for a home. Respondents also reported that some home sellers are refusing to accept offers from purchasers using FHA financing.

In a further blow to first-time homebuyers, the FHA announced late last week that it planned to raise mortgage insurance premiums by an additional 10 basis points in early 2013 as part of an effort to improve the financial condition of the cash-strapped FHA mortgage insurance fund.

The Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey involves approximately 2,500 real estate agents nationwide each month and provides up-to-date intelligence on home sales and mortgage usage patter