June is National Home Ownership Month

Bonnie Erickson is a fabulous blogger, so reading her blog is always a treat. I wanted to feature her latest post because she talks about June being National Home Ownership Month. The National goal is to increase minority home ownership. It's a good read! While you are there you just might want to check out her other informative and well-written posts.

June is also a good time to do some of those pesky chores like cleaning gutters, washing windows, repairing screens. I'm still working on weeding all my flower beds but that is another story! Peace Out - 3C

New Approach to Community Activism: Blogging

Many of already know this, but there is an interesting article in the Washington Post about how you can advocate for your community by establishing a blog. There are already community blogs per se, where organizations can all join on one blog and residents can go there and find out information. But this gets to the heart of grassroots efforts which a lot of us are well, advocating! Christian Antoniades is the author. Remember my post about reporting pot holes to the City in Lorain? Well she brings up a good point! You can set up a blog that basically allows you to do that about potholes, or any other issue of importance on your street or block or neighborhood.

She interviewed bloggers who have set up community blogs in Maryland neighborhoods and they had some tips.

1. Take a camera! (absolutely!) if there is a recently vandalized home on your street, take a photo, blog about it, and email the blog to your Council person I say).

2. Get other bloggers involved. (Or get other neighbors involved, in my opinion. Have them come to you and tell you what they are concerned about. It's rare to have a lot of activists in one spot. It does happen. For example there is a Yahoo! Group for Ohio City that pretty much acts as a neighborhood watch group and it does an excellent job. But in reality one or more bloggers can get the job done for a small area.

3. Get a few people to have different areas of interest. (For example, the Business people on the Euclid Avenue Corridor could have used a blog to get help before that one poor woman wound up arrested because patrons could not get out of her establishment.)

We have fine bloggers in NE Ohio but I'm not aware of a series of neighborhood blogs. Could be I am just not seeing them it's a big blog world out there!

And by the way, it doesn't have to be a 'complaint' blog! Maybe you want to get the neighborhood teens involved in a project for the summer. Maybe an elderly resident needs help with home repairs. Teens working to help neighbors could get started on a blog. You get my drift.

Anyway, the more people who get involved in each of our neighborhoods, the better off we are and just maybe we can make a difference? Peace Out - 3C

A Day In the Life of a Realtor®

Normally I don't blog about my daily experiences but something happened Thursday evening that has stayed on my mind. I wrote a post a few days ago without having personal experience with it but now it hit home. Well, it happened when I trekked out to show a home.

My client had gotten really excited about this one home. New enough to still have tax abatement. Very affordable. And the on line photos gave it great curb appeal and interior updates. I made the appointment with the listing agent, and set out to show it. Arriving a few minutes before the scheduled time, I decided to go ahead and open the door. That should have been my first clue. It was jammed. My clients arrived and with the help of one of them, we got the back door open, although that was not easy either. Once inside, the home looked nothing, anymore, like the on line photos. Dry wall smashed out of every room, particles all over the floor. Every piece of wiring was gone. The copper pipes were gone.

This home featured an updated bath with jetted tub and really nice fixtures. Well the bath was no longer nice, believe me. It was surreal. The three of us kept wandering around. My clients were a young married couple and the gentleman wandered into the basement first. He announced a flood. I checked it out, half of the basement had standing water because even though the vacant home had been winterized (which means water turned off so pipes don't burst in below freezing weather), the pipes had water in them and as they were ripped out a flood appeared. Now the home is not only vandalized but in this weather, in danger of becoming a festering haven of mold before you know it.

I of course called and left a message for the listing agent (who oddly has never called me back nor responded to my emails) to make sure she knew what was going on. My clients and I secured the windows and doors and left.

So you have a home, built in a neighborhood in need of revitalization. And less than five years after it is built, it's now trashed. There is something very sad about that. Peace Out - 3C

Manufactured Homes Go Green and Upscale?

Housingzone.com did an interesting piece on pre-fab housing. For those of us who take a snooty approach to pre-fab (and yes, I like the old historic homes better aesthetically), the article points out some reasons why the market for pre-fab is increasing.

1. Fresh designs. To me that means more than just the look of the exterior. Think about how people use extra bedrooms for offices, dens, game rooms. Think about how a Great Room or Family Room off the kitchen has turned into a practical and desirable floor plan for families or those who love to entertain. The small parlour/living room combination has been transplanted with this style. Pre-fab homes are offering ways to meet these new needs and apparently the public is buying it.

2. Designs that appeal to more upscale consumers. The old standard of a manufactured home only being a low to moderate income home design of lower quality does not hold true anymore. As one builder said in this article "....[perceptions] that are rooted in past decades when the industry kept costs low at the expense of good design...." are gone.

3. Environmental and energy concerns. Environmentally friendly construction materials and green housing standards are being met now with many pre-fab builders. As a side note, you can look at homes made of steel instead of wood framing, which is a big plus in areas that experience a lot of nature's wrath. Steel also gives you more square footage to play with inside the home since there are less 'interior room' structural supports needed.

They claim their biggest market is baby boomers, not that this is surprising since there are so many of us lol. Anyway, to read the entire article, go here. Peace Out - 3C

Cleveland's New Tax Abatement Policy

I'm going to direct you to the City Council Press Release on this, but wanted to quote or highlight a few items here.

First: "....Council is in agreement with Mayor Frank G. Jackson regarding the classification of downtown as a neighborhood. As a result, the new policy contains no distinction between downtown and the neighborhoods, which eliminates tiered abatement downtown...."

Second: ".... Understanding the need for energy efficiency and its impact on the future of the City and the environment, Council convened a green building working group, which determined it would be reasonable to expect the development community to prepare for a higher standard for development by 2010. Therefore, on January 1, 2010, new construction will be required to meet energy star standards...."

Would have loved for a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) component to be recognized in a new abatement policy. Revisiting it again in 2010 is much smarter however than the 20 year plan first put into effect. Just my two cents. Anyway, here is the entire press release. Peace Out - 3C

First Energy Corp Wants To Help Us Go Green

This from Cleveland.com. Apparently First Energy filed a plan that would allow them to choose green energy suppliers. The only catch is, the prices would fluctuate and that means we could be paying more than we are currently if we chose this plan. Would we be willing to do that?

I ask another question: can we get tax credit (State?) for the difference in the amount we would pay for solar or wind energy suppliers? Or even a flat $100 off every year. Just curious. Peace Out - 3C

Cleveland Magazine's 'Rate The Suburbs' Out for 2007

They examined 76 suburbs and you can read about in on the Cleveland Magazine web pages. This year, Solon was number one. They examine city services too - also on these pages. It's a good read, check it out. PS: I don't think you can read about all 76 of them unless you subscribe.

I couldn't help but check out some of the other articles. There is one written by Erick Trickey who laments the lack of neighborhood kids who will mow for you these days. I have to say I love mowing the lawn but there were two neighbor kids who came by a few times this year to see if I needed help shoveling snow! So the young ones haven't completely disappeared from every neighborhood...at least they are alive and well in mine! Thanks guys! Peace Out - 3C