For now, I thought I would leave a few thoughts regarding the Green Real Estate/Construction and sustainability in general.

• Builders – They need desperate help with their marketing.  Green has become an extremely vague term and becomes more so everyday.  Using the term green will not make you sell.  An email I received recently from a builder had “Extra Bling for the Holidays” as the subject.  Really?  Bling?  *sigh*  No further Comments
• Industry in General – The term green is just, well, it needs to go away.  Green Construction is going to see some legal issues most likely.  If you don’t believe me, just check out the Houston Chronicle article from Christmas Day 2010 with the Attorney doing a Q&A with borderline very wrong information.  It was pretty sad actually.  Most builders that do LEED Homes have very well outlined contracts to help with this.  The side that needs the most help would be the Real Estate side of it.  Perhaps adendums from the Texas Real Estate Commission to help the Realtor community out with this?  I’ve suggested this before as well.
• Consumers -  Well, let’s just say maybe a buyer beware.  Ask a ton of questions.  Information on this blog will forever stay here.  Use it to help you if you want.  Find out what truly makes the home ‘green’.  Ask about offgassing of products,  Energy Efficiency, Insulation and of course certification.  Without the performance testing you truly do not know what you are getting.  For resale purposes the reports help as well.

From a marketing, not real estate standpoint, if you or your company need advice – I’m happy to help.  However, I’m not inclined to work for free so be prepared for a consultation fee.

Cheers to a New Year and New Beginnings.  Posts you may see in the future may be very random regarding things that interest me.  Including something I bought and am waiting to get delivered.  It’s a window weatherization product put out by the Duck company that comes with shrink wrap.  I figured for 8 bucks who could pass it up, right?  But regardless, posts will be no holds barred and fully opinionated.

Some are infill near Downtown are others are in the Burbs.  I mention this because looking at the reports that I do every month, it gives us the impression that there is not a whole lot going on – when in reality, its appears that it will start to pop up everywhere. 

I am currently in the process of creating a site where I can add floorplans and price sheets for Green-er Communities and Projects around town.  If you know of some amazing green secrets, we would love to hear about them!

Now, historically speaking October is a rather quiet month for Real Estate -  November and December may pick up a little bit – but overall not a whole lot of change until the next year.  Here are the October statistics that we have been following – And a quick question posed to you..Would you like to hear an overall Real Estate Report each month? 

Next month will be month #4 – I’ll start tracking with graphs so that it is easier to follow the change from each month.

• New construction – 125
• Resale – 111

• New Construction – 10
• Resale – 5

• New construction – 12
• Resale -5

• New construction -2
• Resale – 2

•  Active on the market – 905
• Sold in October – 131

• Active on the market – 671
• Sold in October – 95

• Active on the Market – 266
• Sold in October – 50