Green Tips for Homeowners

This video walks you through a “green” kitchen featuring some of the most recent innovations designed to save energy and use materials in an eco-responsible way.

Get More Green Ideas and Energy Saving Tips

Green Tips for Homeowners is a free series of short articles available to AgentMapIt members.  These articles can be used for publishing in newsletters, blogs and other promotional materials. This gives AgentMapIt members a way to promote themselves to contacts and prospects with an absolute minimum of work. 

Green Tips are interesting, useful, and very much in demand. Members can use GTFH to provide useful information to customers and contacts while building their profile and growing their list.

You can use Green Tips in many different ways. To get the most out of GTFH you will need a a customer/contact/prospect list – either email or traditional postal mail (snailmail). If you don’t have a list, this will give you some incentive to get one going.

List building is changing. To some degree social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, LinkedIn and many others have made list building both easier and less efficient.  Some marketers claim using social media is the best way to build a list.  I will discuss this further in future posts.

Remember, your list does not have to be large. Even a list of 5 names can be productive if you have something useful to say. So don’t let your lack of a large, organized list get in your way. You can create a list right now by beginning with your most recent clients and contacts, and then adding in a few family members and friends. If you have something relevant and useful to say 99% of your contacts will appreciate hearing from you.

Second, it is not necessary, but it is useful if you have a blog where you can post these tips. Blogs are trendy, but the truth is most blogs are under-utilized and are pretty much a waste of time. There are two reasons for this: first most blogs don’t get enough traffic to justify the work involved, and second, most bloggers run out of interesting things to say after about two or three posts.

We recommend the “Blog and Mail” system for creating a dynamic blog that gets traffic from the precise target market you are after. It is a very simple system. First you create a blog post, and then send a message to your list telling them about your post. In other words, your blog and email list work hand in hand in the Blog and Mail system.

Make sure when you send your email that you include a short summary of the post, and a link to post as it appears in your blog. If the post has an interesting title people will look at it. This will not only provide your people with useful information, but it will help shape your image as a knowledgeable, concerned agent. And it will keep you in front of your people on a monthly basis.

You can also use Green Tips as content for twitter (stuff you tweet about). There’s no doubt that one of the best ways to build a following on Twitter is to have lots of good content, and Green Tips gives you some very relevant, high demand stuff.

Green Tips for Homeowners provides you with the perfect type of information to publish in your blog. But even if you don’t have a blog, you can use GTFH by simply reproducing each article in the email message or newsletter itself. Either way this gives you something of substance to say in your communications, and helps you create regular, useful promotional messages that go beyond the usual “I am here to help you” type of message real estate agents usually send out.

One of the most obvious areas where a homeowner can go “green” is in the use of energy in the home. The biggest energy hogs are heating, air conditioning, electrical appliances, lighting, and water usage. Here are some practical tips for saving energy and money at the same time.

1. Do an “energy audit” – A good place to start is with an informal energy “audit” to reveal where you are using the most energy and where you are wasting it. The average US home uses 31% of its energy consumption on heating, 12% on cooling, 12% on water heating, and 29% on appliances, lighting, and electronics such as TVs and computers. So these are obvious places you can cut back.

2. Insulate, insulate, insulate – If 43% of the energy used in our homes goes for heating and cooling this is the place to start. Insulation in your attic, outside walls and basement walls is critical. New products such as blown in insulation have made it easier to insulate previously difficult areas. But be careful to get professional advice before tackling a project like this yourself.

3. Seal doors and windows – Usually the worst areas of heat loss are windows and doors. Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets. All of these can leak air into or out of your home. Have a professional take a look at your home and make some recommendations.

4. Turn the heat down – Wear warmer clothes and shoes in the winter so your house feels warmer. Then turn your thermostat down a few degrees. Set it to automatically lower the temperature at night. You’ll save a lot of energy and you’ll probably get fewer colds too.

5. Use less hot water – Be sure to have a highly efficient hot water heater. In some climates a tankless water heater may save energy, but research it thoroughly. Then study your hot water usage carefully. You may want to turn the temperature of your hot water heater down a bit. Consider replacing some appliances with more efficient ones. Use warm rather than hot water for washing clothes. Don’t use the dishwasher for partial loads, shower for shorter periods of time, and don’t let the hot water run when washing or shaving.

4. Turn off appliances and lights – When appliances are not being used they should be turned off or even unplugged (because many appliances use electricity even when they are not on). Set the energy saving features of your computer to shut down monitors and hard drives when not in use. Or turn your computers right off if not being used for an extended period of time.

5. Control your lighting – About 11% of the average home’s energy usage goes to lighting, so this is an obvious area for significant savings. Replacing old incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) will save between 50 and 75% per bulb. And turning lights off when they are not required will (obviously) save even more.

by Rick Hendershot

We spend lots of time, energy and money making our lawns beautiful and user-friendly. Here are some tips for making them environmentally friendly as well.
 
1. Mulch Your Grass Clippings when possible – Grass clippings contain valuable nutrients taken right out of your soil. So isn’t it odd that we gather our grass clippings in bags and ship them off to a land fill somewhere on the other side of the county?
 
Did you know that mulching your grass and leaves can save you as many as two fertilizer applications every year? Most lawn mowers come with a mulching blade that chops grass and leaves into small pieces and deposits them right back into the lawn.
 
Mulched leaves – especially sugar and red maple leaves – provide a degree of natural weed control when mulched into the lawn. Sometimes it is not practical to mulch your leaves because you have too many of them. But often it is – and it helps your lawn too!
 
2. Plant trees, shrubs and flowers – You know that trees are good for the environment. They help clean the air, return moisture to the air and provide shade from the hot sun. Shrubs, flowers and bushes also have many benefits other than just adding beauty. They help stimulate the soil, add bio-diversity to your yard, and attract birds and other wildlife.
 
3. Use Fertilizer Wisely – Synthetic fertilizers almost always contain nitrogen and phosphorous. Nitrogen is what your grass needs for healthy growth. Much of your lawn’s nitrogen requirements can be supplied by mulching your grass each time you mow it.
 
Phosophorous (the second number) is usually unnecessary for healthy lawns, and it has some negative effects on the environment. Phosphorous that ends up in our rivers, lakes and ponds stimulates plant growth which disrupts the habitat of fish and other water life. Look for a fertilizer than has “0″ phosphorous.
 
Organic fertilizers may actually contain more phosphorus than synthetic ones, so read the label carefully.

Green Tips for Homeowners – free from AgentMapIt.com