Green Properties Save Money

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via Vancouver Sun

An environmental program started by employees in 2006 has reduced energy consumption, water use and waste sent to the landfill at Cadillac Fairview’s Vancouver properties, the property management firm said Monday.

Cadillac Fairview’s Green At Work program began in 2006 at the company’s Waterfront Properties in downtown Vancouver. The program measures the company’s environmental impact and sets benchmarks to improve performance. Today it operates nationally, including at all of the Vancouver office properties managed by Cadillac Fairview (The Vancouver Sun is a tenant in Cadillac-Fairview-managed 200 Granville Street).

“At Cadillac Fairview we recognize that designing and operating our properties sustainably is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do,” said Ultan Kampff, general manager, Pacific Centre and HSBC Building, Cadillac Fairview. The program works to reduce energy consumption and waste, improve environmental protection and encourage sustainable procurement.

Kampff said the program’s benefits include decreased operating costs, greater tenant loyalty and a healthier workspace.

“Employees today want to know they are working for a company that believes in sustainability,” Kampff said. “Tenants who occupy space in our buildings want to be able to tell staff that they are working in a building that’s operated by a landlord that cares about the environment.”

Financial rewards are given to facilities and employees when targets are met. For example, an operations manager in a building would be given a target to reduce the use of electricity, Kampff said. The manager might use strategies ranging from reminding staff or tenants to turn off appliances when they are not in the office, to suggesting using more efficient light bulbs or purchasing more efficient heating or air conditioning machines. If the manager meets or exceeds their targets, they would get a bonus, Kampff said.

Maury Dubuque, senior vice-president of office leasing at Colliers International, said virtually every client Colliers deals with considers green initiatives in the office a priority. There are two reasons for this, he said.

“Virtually every tenant of scale that we deal with has a corporate social responsibility platform, for one,” Dubuque said. “The second thing is that the younger generation — the millennials — demand it.”

He said the younger generation demands that their employer take sustainability seriously and that they have at least some environmental initiatives, such as paper recycling, composting or providing electric vehicle charging stations.

Nationally, Cadillac Fairview decreased energy consumption by 12 per cent and diverted 70 per cent of all waste away from landfills, Kampff said.

This month, the HSBC Building at 885 West Georgia St was certified LEED Gold in the Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance category. At that building, energy use was reduced 12 per cent from 2008 to 2012, while water use was reduced 27 per cent. The recycling rate was 65 per cent and 98.5 per cent of all waste was diverted from landfills in 2012, the company said. The 24-storey HSBC Building, built in 1986, contains both office and retail space and a large atrium entrance.

Cadillac Fairview owns and manages more than $21 billion of commercial real estate, including nearly 46 million square feet of leasable space in 79 properties across North America. The company plans to have all of its buildings within the Pacific Centre complex LEED certified by 2015.

tsherlock@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/tracysherlock

image courtesy of stevecadman

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Personalized Professionalism

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During our recent sessions of crawling the internet, we seem to encounter more and more ‘lifechanging’ pieces of advice being thrown around to try and help agents and real estate stay on top of their game and innovate the industry…but what happened to just keeping it simple?

It seems that anybody spending too much time in front of a computer or on their smartphone now feels the need to share their ideas on a large scale to pollute the minds of those around them with their fixated ideas. We’re here to tell you to stop listening and start thinking. For instance, if you encounter a headline that resembles the following: 4 reasons Google+ beats out Facebook for real estate, you should probably put your noodle to work a bit before devouring this information like it’s your last meal.

‘Why? What’s wrong with that?’ You’re asking. Now think harder…

There it is! The size of Facebook and Google+’s user base is NOT EVEN COMPARABLE. So just because one self-declared tech expert decides to share their shallowly produced ‘innovative marketing techniques’ just take a step back and question them. Everybody nowadays is a marketing expert, so take what you read with a grain of salt. If it doesn’t sound like something that will work for you, then don’t do it.

It doesn’t take much for a good idea staring you in the face to make a lasting impression, so stick with what seems genuine and thought through rather than adopting a million-and-one different ideas, downloading hordes of productivity apps, and getting roped into the ‘social/e-marketing tips’ newsletter trend.

If you’re having trouble recognizing a new idea, let’s give this one a shot and see if you can see the difference between ‘those guys’ and our guys. Check out our new Deal Manager paperless office solution for agents and brokers. Simplify your business, shrink your briefcase, and save on paper. It’s that simple.

image courtesy of Victor 1558

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House Prices To Remain Flat Over 10 Years

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According to predictions made by TD Bank, as outlined in the original article included below, house prices in Canada are estimated to remain constant (and flat as a pancake) for the next 10 years. How is this possible? Well, the market IS expected to see some increases, but these will only be as small as a couple % per year, max, which doesn’t leave much room for profit yields when you take inflation into account. So, yes, the market will, despite minor improvements, sustain its essentially flat state throughout the duration of the next decade. Here’s a snippet of the original article with a link for those who wish to learn more.

OTTAWA – Canada’s real estate bonanza of the past decade has come to end and the long-term trend as one of the most profitable places to invest is also not encouraging, a new research paper from the TD Bank argues.

The “special report” from one of Canada’s largest banks makes the case that gains in housing prices have been exceptionally strong over the last 10 years, even when accounting for a sharp drop during the 2008-09 recession. But now is the time for a bit of a payback.

The report does not predict a collapse in house prices as some analysts have suggested. In fact, it sees prices rebounding after a few years of a correction to as high as eight per cent.

However, the longer term trend is for home price gains to average about two per cent over the next 10 years — flat once inflation is taken into account, says TD chief economist Craig Alexander.

“I do not think we have a housing bubble in Canada,” said Alexander. “We have had abnormal strength in the market during a period of low interest rates and when rates go up over the next three years, you will get a cooling and weaker prices, but not a permanent shock and not a sharp correction.”

The bank said tighter rules for borrowers and lenders are only part of the reason to expect prices to moderate. Other contributing factors include the aging population, modest growth in both the population and the economy and, eventually, higher interest rates.

The bank thinks the market could correct by as much as eight per cent over the next three years, but Alexander said it is possible that prices won’t fall as much as that.

Some forecasters, including Capital Economists, have predicted a bigger correction is in the offing, arguing that houses in Canada may be overpriced by as much as 25 per cent.

But Alexander says that exaggerates the problem, believing the overvaluation is closer to 10 per cent.

The problem with the housing collapse scenario, says Alexander, is that typically a sharp price correction needs a trigger in terms of a steep increase in interest rates or unemployment, both of which appear unlikely at this point…

READ MORE: http://money.ca.msn.com/savings-debt/yourmoney/house-prices-to-remain-flat-over-10-years-td

Original Article By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press, thecanadianpress.com

image courtesy of rob_rob2001

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Will Housing Become A Luxury?

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Everybody right now is complaining that there’s too many houses on the market; which is true. There is certainly a bit of a general market flood occurring in most areas of the country. However we might be too quick to complain because the future or real estate might take a different turn than expected once the market recovers.

At the current rate of market activity, new developments are being executed at a sufficiently sustainable rate. There’s a good availability of workers, costs are relatively low, the listing prices of new properties, due to the nature of the market, are also low, and the rate of new developments is manageable due to low market activity. However we may be getting ahead of ourselves to be pushing for a quick market recovery.

Once the market’s demand and activity stabilizes, new developments will predictably increase, but it’s not looking like enough craftsmen will be available to sustain this potentially increasing demand. And if there’s anything we can say for sure, it’s that once the market recovers, there will certainly be an increase of new development proposals. Now the issue is finding people to build them.

Within the next 10 years, Canada will see an estimated shortage of 800,000 skilled workers due to the lacking emphasis on the social importance and demands for tradesmen. This situation could play out negatively or positively depending on which side of the fence you’re on.

If you were hoping on building a house in ten years, you’d better start saving your pennies (still getting used to that one) nickels, because the price tag is going to look a whole lot different than the one you were expecting. However, for property owners, this may not be such a bad thing.

Due to the labour shortage, house prices will predictably rise due to the squeezed rate of supply and demand, single-handedly increasing market value. Now, this also goes hand in hand with a smaller index of available properties due to the foreseeable housing shortage. That being said, the increases in value may be bittersweet to those looking to eventually sell and settle down in ‘the perfect place’, because that ‘perfect place’ will look like a ham to a herd of wolves when the time comes around.

Real estate comes at a price – that prices varies in many degrees including long-term investment. At this point there’s a large availability of affordable properties on the market, so get ’em while they’re hot, because ten years from now things might be taking a strange turn.

image courtesy of Dave Stokes

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Haunted Houses…Literally

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In the event of foreclosures or long-standing ‘For Sale’ properties, things aren’t always going to sail as smooth as they seem. Due to the peculiar nature of human beings, there’s never a set in stone safety measure that can be taken to avoid the property owners suffering beyond the scope of their house being foreclosed, or sitting on a property for months waiting for it to. That’s painful enough.

Unfortunately when you add people, poverty and/or curiosity to the mix, there’s an off-chance your property awaiting a buyer may in fact sprout an under the radar resident, or two, or three… It’s not an uncommon scenario for massive homes to host visitors without the owners being aware of it, but it gets even stranger when these squatters are able to stick around through legal loopholes. Apparently squatters have rights? More on that here–> http://www.managementtrust.com/blog/bid/94855/SQUATTER-S-RIGHTS

Another weird thing that can happen as the victim of a foreclosure is somehow getting stuck with the bill for the house you got forced out of. Yes, your foreclosure can somehow come back to haunt you…or at least your wallet. See, the way this works is that during the foreclosure process if the ownership isn’t transferred then the original owner despite their non-residency is responsible for paying property taxes and fees. Just what you need after having your house foreclosed! This is actually so common that there are nearly 2 million homes in the US that started the foreclosure process and never ended up concluding it.

Doesn’t it seem like these situations would easily be prevented with a few policy changes? You’d think there’d be a bit more care given to assuring the well-being of such large investments, no?!

Would you like to see these policies revisited to avoid potential problems down the road? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter @enviromint.

 

image courtesy of Sean MacEntee

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We’re Experiencing Some Turbulence

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Though the United States are reporting their Q4 as having the strongest quarterly growth in over seven years, it seems that we aren’t so lucky.

Canadian home sales are in fact taking a slight dive, as we predicted in our blog post, Here We Go Again. Despite our neighbours to the south prospering, our real estate market is not comparable to theirs for a number of reasons, however one would think that with both markets making a slight recovery that they should be following the same streamline.

However, The Vancouver Sun reports that this January we saw a near-23% decline in housing starts, leading is to believe that buyers aren’t in the mood for it yet this year; and sellers are clearly white-knuckle gripping the deeds to their beloved yet not-so-valuable homes. (Buyers and sellers failing to see the ‘give and take’ in the market. We aren’t going to go off on that tangent…because we already did here: Stop Forcing It!)

So now that we’re left with slipping market enthusiasm, not to mention our now lacking new developments, what can be done to inject some life back into real estate?

A NAR survey result posted by Chicago Agent Magazine revealed that agents in 2012 were statistically less experienced (measured in their number of years in the real estate industry) than those in 2011. What does this tell us? Well, if we look at the public’s lacking market participation, shorthanded developments, and the United States’ doing well while we aren’t, one could easily draw the conclusion that the entire real estate experience has become stagnant and stale.

Rather than blaming the public’s lacking participation with the market/industry, maybe it’s time the market participated with them instead by offering services and experiences that entertain and excite your clients about the wonderment and limitless possibilities to be discovered in real estate investment. The typical opinion of real estate agents is declining, so it’s time to take control, tighten up your business, man the hatches, and execute an expedition to the frontiers of scared sellers and new buyers. Agents need to step it up!

The only way we can expect the market to recover is by encouraging participation within; so why not be the draw instead of complaining that there isn’t one?

For more real estate and environmental news, visit us on Twitter @enviromint

 

image courtesy of Luke,Ma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is That A…House?

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Last week we posted a compilation of creatively sustainable properties; more specifically, a series of old water-towers that were renovated into living spaces rather than destroyed and built upon.

This week we stumbled across a brilliant compilation of images of some of the most remote ‘establishments’ in the world. Some are underwater, others in mountains, and others in remote desert and arctic areas. Below are a few of our favourites from the full series, courtesy of Gizmodo.

Porer Lighthouse – Eastern Adriatic Sea

 

Buddhist Shrine – Chang La Pass, 5360m elevation

 

NASA Radome – McMurdo Station, Antarctica

 

Concordia Research Station – Antarctica, 3200m elevation

 

Tekite I Habitat – Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands

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Sizzling Marketing

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An article released by the National Post this morning is bringing a particular amount of attention to the world of real estate marketing.

A Calgary, AB, based real estate agent recently released a billboard advertisement that’s been drawing a lot of attention; whether that attention’s a good or bad thing we’re still unsure. The billboard featured a photo of the young female agent Diana Arvatescu with the caption ‘Let Me Take You Home, It’s Gorgeous Inside’ as the message of the ad.

What started out as a clever innuendo campaign has now developed into a critique of the appropriateness of this style of advertising, and it’s place in real estate, as critics believe it to be too sexually implying and could put the agent in danger as a result.

Though critics may be overly assumptive in predicting that harm would come to the young Diana, the larger issue now is where the boundaries are to be drawn regarding appropriate advertising in a relatively conservative industry such as real estate.

What are your thoughts on this campaign? Is Diana going too far, or simply adding some spice to a bland industry? Comment below or let us know your thoughts on Twitter @enviromint.

 

image courtesy of huffingtonpost.ca

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Non-Disposable Housing

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It’s typical of our culture to replace rather than reuse; this applies in all areas, such as clothing, vehicles, food, housing, and more. We live in an essentially ‘disposable society’ where the norm is to replace or be rid of items that are arguably dated or ‘useless’ rather than exploring their potential for renewed usage. Another example is buyers who purchase properties simply to demolish and rebuild on the same land rather than building on the existing residence’s foundation or making renovations and improvements to it instead of executing an entire rebuild.

Developments such as water towers, which were a social necessity once-upon-a-time, tend to fall through the cracks of time, awaiting their impending demolition days to make way for new developments, homes, businesses, etc. However, it would appear that the concept of re-vamping older buildings rather than destroying them seems to be catching in some circles; and though these may not be the most practical lodgings, they regardless set a positive precedent for prospective investors and developers alike in terms of sustainable consciousness and development.

Instead of destroying these old structures, investors and developers have transformed each of the following water towers into appealing lodgings, while avoiding the costly and ineffective process of deconstruction and reconstruction. To learn more about each of these modernized water towers, just click the links below the photo to go to their original articles.

all images and articles courtesy of TreeHugger.com


http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/water-tower-converted-superluxe-london-home.html


http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/water-tower-house-by-jo-crepain.html


http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/water-tower-repurposed-into-house-with-lots-of-stairs.html


http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/tom-dixons-water-tank-house.html

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Stop Forcing It

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One of the main issues with the market right now (besides it’s obviously ‘flattened’ state) is that people can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that their property isn’t worth as much as they think it should be. Startling, but true. This mentality unfortunately appears to be budding because, for some reason or another, sellers seem to think that by selling for less than what their property was worth when the market peaked (or less than their own made-up magical number), that they’re going to be out on the street once they sell, unable to afford a suitable home…Newsflash: The whole market’s doing bad, not just your property.

When the market takes a dive the only way to build it back up is for the inventory to keep moving…otherwise we just end up with a bunch of broke angry people who’ll die of old age in the properties they never sold. It’s a very rugged reality, and we’re compassionate for you, but by sitting there and trying to force a high market price for your property, you: a) aren’t going to sell your place, because (surprise!) the comparable market value of similar properties will obviously be set lower, leaving no buyer in their right mind with a reason to spend another $30k-$50k on your property, and b) contributing to what’s turning into a serious housing traffic jam.

Whether you like it or not, as a seller, you can make a choice. You can choose to sell your place, deal with the loss, get a new one, wait for the market to recover and cash in then; OR, you can stick it out, stay grumpy, and hope that you’re still around when your property value finally ‘comes back’.

So, this goes out to all sellers who are giving buyers headaches with this issue: Please keep in mind that it’s not just your listing price that’s low. It’s everybody’s. Just by taking a bit of a dive from your ‘magical number’ doesn’t mean you’re going to be homeless. It means you’re going through the market recovery motions. You’ll still be able to find a new place at a reasonable price, so don’t sweat it and bite the bullet already! After all, they call it a competitive market for a reason.

 

image courtesy of skidkid

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