Category Archives: green

buying, commitment, Communication, education, green, Inspiration, organizing, planning, recycle, selling, Team work, tips

Is a Condo for me, or not?

July 1, 2014 Settles Team Leave a comment

Urban renewal is becoming more and more popular. Most of the people moving back in to the urban areas are baby boomers and executives with some free time on their hands. For this reason most of them are choosing to live in a condo. The trend of turning former apartments or an old factory in to condos has helped to turn around some of the urban areas. You can find great homes for reasonable pricing or a top notch location for a higher end price.

Before you buy a condo you should do some research into the condo rules and regulations? Each community will have their own fees and rules. You should familiarize yourself with each of these to understand what rights and responsibilities you as the condo owner will have.

Find out who is enforcing the Condo rules and regulations? Is it a homeowner association? A management company?

Most of the time condo owners are responsible for everything on the interior and the association is taking care of everything on the outside of the building. In some cases you may have an assigned parking space in an underground parking garage. When the condo is on a lake you may have a boat dock you can lease.

Some of the condominium associations might charge you an additional fee that helps them to offset any exterior repairs they might encounter and that fee is most of the time part of the condominium fee you have to pay, in addition to your mortgage and insurance payment.

Some other things to consider is that when your condo is on the 38^th floor, are you willing to run down 38 flight of stairs in emergency? You may also have other restrictions due to the building or condo associations rulings.

The nice part with a condo is that you are only responsible for the interior of your condo and the condo association is responsible for the exterior of the condo. You don’t have to worry about cutting the grass, fixing a roof leak or making any other exterior repair. The downfall is that the exterior maintenance upkeep is only as good as the condo community management company.

Either way, like with everything, there are positive and negative things you need to consider when choosing a condo to purchase. When you have any additional questions about condos feel free to contact the Settles Team.

buying, commitment, Communication, education, green, Inspiration, organizing, planning, recycle, Team work, tips

Remodelers and Lead base Paint

March 20, 2014 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

On April 22^nd 2010 a EPA ruling went into effect that has not only affected the homeowner but also the contractor who is remodeling or entering into remolding contract with a homeowner for a home that is build before 1978.

http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm

Each Remodeler has to hand the new EPA pamphlet called “Renovate Right” to their clients.

http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovaterightbrochure.pdf

When the rule took affect each firm that planned on working on homes built prior to 1978 must be certified and need to follow the EPA outlined work practices to prevent the lead contamination. All work completed on a home build before 1978 needs to be recorded and the contractor needs to test the area after clean up. The test has to match 100% to the EPA test card. When the test appears darker or dirtier than the card, the clean up must be repeated. In the new ruling, a contractor must use only equipment with a HEPA filter (example: grinder/sander). Also, a remodeler should not use a high-heat gun that exceeds 1100F.

Last but not the least a contractor needs to post warning signs for occupants and visitors and establish a containment area using disposable plastic drop cloths and clean the work area with HEPA vacuuming and wet washing.

Just keep this in mind when you buy your investment properties and you perform any restorations.

commitment, Communication, education, green, Inspiration, planning, recycle, tips

When it rains it pour’s and where does all the water go?

January 10, 2014 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Now that we have several inches of snow on the ground and faced head on the freezing cold temperatures and now we are looking at chances of rain this weekend in Indy. With temperatures this week that are above freezing during the day the snow is bound to melt.

While you unburied the fire hydrant have you thought of clearing off the street drain that is located right in front of your property so that the water can run off? When you have not done so, take a minute to clear out an area right around your downspout and made sure the water has a way to move away from your house and when you safely can check your gutters you might take a look at them too.

Also don’t forget to check on your sump-pump to make sure it is working properly and when you have a back-up pump make sure it operates as well. Nothing worse than finding out that your sump pump is not working while you step into an inch of water in your basement.

education, green, Inspiration, recycle, tips

Keeping you from slipping in your drive in this cold weather

January 8, 2014 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

With the super cold weather we have been having in the below average temperatures some of the products to help us make our drive and walkways safe might not working properly and many of the drive and walkways are still icy and potential hazardous to our and others health.

Even when the deicing products work they in some cases could be doing harm to your walk and driveway. In some cases you might not be able to see the damage for several years.

An alternative to a deicer could be as simple as a bag of fine sand, like play sand or during harsher weather very small rocks. Sure you would have to sweep the drive after the thaw but it beats to have a cracked driveway fixed.

commitment, Communication, education, green, Inspiration, planning, recycle, Team work, tips

Reducing your construction trash when remodeling

November 14, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

When buying a new custom build home or an existing home sooner or later we all contemplating making changes or renovating the home.

Due to this many of us are watching the remodel shows that are playing on TV or online for inspiration and we are fascinated by the transformation a room makes during a 30 minute show. Most of us do enjoy the sledge hammer wielding contractor or homeowner who destroy the old kitchen cabinets, bust a sink or bathtub in halve or sling the hammer thought a wall or glass door or window.

When we remodel we create in many cases building waste that ends up in a local landfill.

Per the EPA information found on their website, nationwide we created an estimate of about 170 million tons of building construction, renovation, and demolition-derived waste.

At this time not many of us building a new home form the ground up, most of us remodeling their current home or the older home we just bought. During the planning storage of the remodel we have many options we can use to reduce the remodel trash we could create by identifying the material that can be recycled, salvaged or donated. During the demolition you just need to make sure that you separate the items and carefully remove any structurally piece that can be reused by local non for profits or other outlets.

Some good examples could be a sink, faucets, tubs, cabinets, refrigerators, or stoves but don’t forget doors, windows, extra paint, wood trim or flooring, bricks, piping, copper lines…..and many more I could list.

The WBDG has a user friendly and interactive Construction Waste Management Database

http://www.wbdg.org/tools/cwm.php that contains information on companies that haul, collect and process recyclable debris from construction projects.