It's not just which energy efficiency projects you implement at home that will make a dent in your bills -- it's how many.

This is the second part of the Q&A with Suzanne Shelton, president and CEO of Shelton Group, a marketing agency specializing in sustainability and energy efficiency. Shelton Group's annual Energy Pulse research report tracks consumer attitudes toward energy-related topics. Read Part 1, "Looking for Energy Savings in All the Wrong Places (http://www.houselogic.com/blog/whats-really-green/energy-savings-at-home/)."

HouseLogic: A few days ago you told us why we're so disconnected from our home's energy use. Today, tell us what we should be doing differently to make our homes more energy efficient.

Suzanne Shelton: First, I want to mention that it matters how many energy-efficient things you do. Half of the population say they've done two to three things to make their homes more energy efficient - replaced incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs (http://www.houselogic.com/blog/lighting/cfls-light-bulbs/), bought an Energy Star appliance (http://www.houselogic.com/maintenance-repair/preventative-home-maintenance/appliances/), added insulation (http://www.houselogic.com/maintenance-repair/preventative-home-maintenance/insulation/) - but most people report that their bills have gone up.

HL: So more projects equal more results?

SS: Right. Once you get up to the level of making four or five energy-efficiency home improvements, you generally start seeing savings on your utility bill.

Depending on the activities you choose and the point you're starting out at, you can probably expect a four- or five-year time frame for return of your investment. Which means now is a great time to do it. How many of us are stuck in our homes now because of the market?

If you're potentially four or five years from selling, why not go ahead and make those improvements? You'll get yourself paid back and live more comfortably and frugally right now, and you can brag about your improvements when you sell your house.

HL: The economy is weighing on everyone. If a home owner has just $1,000 to spend on energy-efficient home improvements, what would you recommend he or she do first?

SS: 5 things:

1.Caulk and seal all penetrations into the home. I'll tell you, I had a home energy audit done three years ago, and even though I do this for a living, I was astonished. When the guy walked me down into my basement and showed me all the penetrations from plumbing lines and electricity wires, I couldn't believe all the gaping holes in my house. Buy a few cans of Great Stuff and take a weekend to go around and seal everything, filling around windows, too. It takes time and it's a pain, but it works.

2. Hire an HVAC contractor to take a hard look at all your ductwork - are there any ducts leaking that need to be re-sealed (http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/home-thoughts/houselogic-new-years-resolutions-home/2/)? - and give you an HVAC tune-up (http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/heating-cooling/hvac-maintenance/). You might spend a couple hundred bucks, but you can save significantly depending on how old or out of shape your HVAC system is.

3. Replace all your lighting (http://www.houselogic.com/home-improvement/lighting/) with CFLs (http://www.houselogic.com/blog/lighting/cfls-light-bulbs/) or LEDs. Most people tell us they've replaced all their incandescents, but it just isn't true. The DOE says that only about 13% of sockets are filled with CFLs right now.

4. Program your thermostat. Most people who buy programmable thermostats don't program them. If we actually programmed them not to heat the furniture while we're away, that would be smart.

5. Reduce the temperature on your water heater. The Department of Energy recommends 120 degrees (http://www.energysavers.gov/tips/water_heating.cfm). If you have a tank water heater, it keeps a certain amount of water hot and ready to go all day, so lowering the temperature reduces the energy you use to heat the water.

If, after you've done all those relatively low-cost things, you want to make a little bit more of an investment, consider adding insulation (http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/insulation/save-money-with-insulation-upgrade/) to your house.

No one wants to do these things because they're not sexy, and they're kind of a pain, and windows seem more appealing. But I'd do all these activities before I replaced my windows.

HL: If you could spearhead an ad campaign to motivate home owners to make more energy-efficient improvements, what would it say?

SS: You have to do five things to see the savings you want. That's actually something we're working on right now, so stay tuned.

Which energy-efficient projects have you implemented? Have you seen a reduction in your bill or an increase?

442 tips to keep your house in tip-top shape

Book Review: 'What's a Homeowner to Do?'

The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage--at least it seems that way. If you've been thinking you need to know more about it, here's your opportunity. 

If you've ever bought one of those little gift books that has a year's worth of daily inspirational messages, this book will remind you of one of those. It's a small-format book filled with 442 tips, diagrams, and easy-to-use, bite-sized tutorials for do-it-yourself home improvement, maintenance and safety projects.

Fanuka, the star of the show "Million Dollar Contractor," teams up with Edward Lewine (who writes a couple of home improvement columns for The New York Times Magazine) to comprehensively catalog and address precisely the sorts of items that keep buyers and homeowners awake at night, offering their insomnia-soothing home improvement knowledge in a highly digestible format.

Throughout, they flag items that homeowners need to maintain on a regular basis to avoid disasters, parse out which items owners can do themselves (and which they should refer to the pros), empower them to ask the right questions and have the right conversations with those pros, and walk them through simple instructions for doing it themselves, where applicable. The book starts out with a "green manifesto" that briefs readers on all the ways in which their homes impact the environment by offering them a long bullet point list of choices they can make to green their homes. It then moves on to cover the down-and-dirty, do-it-yourself tutorials with a chapter on how to assemble and use a basic toolkit. Then, the book proceeds to offer hundreds of mini-lessons categorized by area of a home, from the exterior, to windows, plumbing, electrical,  and such subjects as carpentry, doors and locks, walls, basements, garages, yards, and safety and security issues.

Often, these sorts of tips books can be tough to use for readers who have a high need for information -- those who want to know why they should do things a particular way, or why they should trust the proffered advice. But interspersed throughout the book's tips on what to do to your home are highly interesting briefings on "how" things in your home work. In short-and-sweet plain English, Fanuka and Lewine answer questions like "What's so important about rain gutters?" and "How are wooden stairs constructed?"

If you own a home and feel at loose ends when it comes to knowing what you should be doing to keep it in tip-top shape, "What's a Homeowner to Do" is an accessible, yet smart, primer and reference guide you'll turn to time and time again. If you're still in house hunt mode, definitely put it on your housewarming registry -- it'll save you some sleepless nights, and maybe even some money! 

It still looks to be a buyer's market rather than a rental one, according to the latest data released by HotPads.com. The rental price for 2-bedroom units jumped 3.75% in 2011, compared to a 1.83% fall in sale prices across the top-20 most populated metros in the U.S.  For many consumers, the decision to purchase a home or continue paying rent has come under closer scrutiny. It's not because home ownership is no longer attractive.

According to "National Association of Realtors magazine", eighty-eight percent of homeowners indicated that owning a home has been a positive experience, whereas only half of renters (51 percent_ say the same about their experience. Most homeowners (95 percent) and renters (72 percent) believe that over a period of several years, it makes more sense to own a home than to rent.

But the current economic climate has shaken consumer confidence. And when people are nervous about the future, it's more difficult to sort through the facts and decide to proceed on a major decision like buying a home. 

Here's an interesting statistics reported by the U.S Censuus Bureau that in 2010 Census shows second highest home ownership rate on record despite largest decreasesince 1940.

Every Dec. 15th, the City & County of Honolulu mails out to Homeowner's their new property tax assessed values for the next year, which they use to base the Homeowner's property tax on. If they over assess your Home's value by more than 10%, you can appeal through the mail.

We wanted to drop a line to offer assistance:  If you feel you can successfully appeal based on your new assessed value being too high, we can assist and provide the low comparable sold data to include in your appeal.

Don't let the word "appeal" sound daunting, the appeal process is pretty easy and takes about 15mins.

Quick Summary:

-there is a $25 appeal fee, though refundable if you win your case, and appeals are due by January 15th

-if you are able to reduce your assessed value by $100k, that will save you $350 in 2012 on propertytax

-the City bases your Home's tax assessed value on comparable sales in your neighborhood mainly considering a) interior home sq. ft. and b) lot sq. ft.

-the City's website offers an online appeal option, though I suggest sending it via mail, that way you can include comparable sales with your initial request and hopefully get an approval quickly

Learn more at: http://www.realpropertyhonolulu.com/portal/rpadcms?parent=HOME

Plans for a marina have been replaced with a lagoon in Ewa Beach.

The recreational lagoon in Ewa Beach is planned to be completed by 2015 and will feature many activities.

Plans to convert its 54-acre Ocean Pointe/Hoakalei marina site between White Plains Beach and Oneula Beach Park into a recreational lagoon with no surface connection to the ocean.

Tesha Malama, a 41-year Ewa Beach resident, said some boaters will be disappointed along with fishers who looked forward to slips and a public boat launch ramp that were planned along with the marina, but that the conversion to a lagoon is beneficial to the broader community.

“Intention to provide extensive public access to its lagoon, promenade, cultural and archaeological sites and to integrate its shoreline reaches with a continuum of beachfront park and recreational opportunity stretching from Oneula Beach Park in Ewa Beach to White Sands Beach in Kalaeloa is uniquely an attempt to privately produce a public good, for the benefit of the community and for the enhancement of the resort’s commercial and activity-oriented businesses,” Brewbaker wrote in the report.

The lagoon’s brackish water circulates naturally through porous rock below but would be enhanced by pumping ground water into the lagoon from a new well to refresh the lagoon four times a day, Saito Tam said.

Read the full article online at Star Advertisement

  If you watch the news or read the newspaper, it can be difficult to keep up with the state of the economy. Over the last century, the real estate market has had its share of ups and downs, none as dramatic as the highs and lows experienced during the past decade. However, the pendulum is on its way back, signaling the recovery of the housing market. Although the housing slowdown has fostered anxiety among investors and homebuyers alike, real estate has been, and will continue to be, a good long-term investment. Feel free to share this information with your family or friends who are looking to buy a home.

Expert Home Solutions Inc. says “Be Concerned.” Here’s how the 2007 Act works. If your lender forgives any of your loan, it is reported to the IRS as ordinary income. That income could add over $100,000 to your taxable income. The 2007 Act forgives that tax.

Read the rest of the article here!

In an effort to help the dream of home-ownership come true, please share this with anyone you know who may be eligible.

In addition, here are all the details below from the PentagonFoundation site!

Applying for a Dream Makers Grant

The Dream Makers Program offers grants for down payments to first-time homebuyers of modest means who valiantly work to protect our country’s national security.

You don't have to be a Pentagon Federal Credit Union member to benefit from Dream Makers, and you can apply the grant to a mortgage from any financial institution.

How Do I Qualify?

You're eligible for a Dream Makers grant if:

1. You're Military (Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard or Veteran), a Department of Defense employee or a Department of Homeland Security employee.
2. You're a first-time home buyer, or you have not owned a home for the last three years, or you have lost your home through divorce or disaster.
3. The gross household income, including allowances, that you use to qualify for your mortgage loan is:
   • A maximum of $55,000 per year, or
   • A maximum of 80% of your community’s median income based on your family size

Click here to determine your community's median income based on family size.

What Steps Do I Take?

	Decide the amount of money you will contribute to your mortgage financing.   $500 is the minimum amount for you to contribute. Dream Makers will match that three-to-one, up to our maximum of $5000. Estimate the size of your mortgage loan. Decide if the money you contribute, plus the Dream Makers grant, will be at least 3% of mortgage amount. You must put 3% down to qualify for the grant.
	Fill out Dream Makers application. The fastest way to complete it is online. You may apply when you start to think about purchasing a home: you don't have to select a home and/or a mortgage company before you submit your application. To fax or email, download this form.
	We will respond to your application with instructions on the process. When you select your mortgage company, you will share the contact information with the Foundation who will coordinate the grant paperwork process with your lender.
	Attend a home-buying educational seminar in your area. See upcoming seminars and locations

RE/MAX has provided the highest overall consumer satisfaction for both home buyers and home sellers. "It all comes down to professionalism and a commitment to a premier level of customer service", said RE/MAX Chairman and Co-Founder Dave Linder. For the home buying experience, three factors were considered: Agent/Salesperson, office and variety of additional services. Four factors were examined for the home-selling experience: agent/salesperson, marketing, office, and a variety of additional services.

The success of RE/MAX agent is the results of its comprehensive educational platform, RE/MAX University, which offers over1,100 educational programs on-demand, and available online, on television, on smart phones and in classrooms around the world.

Q: What are QR Codes? I see them everywhere!

A: QR is short for Quick Response. They have this name because a cell phone can read the code quickly. QR codes are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it into your cell phone. Once it is in your cell phone, it may give you details about that business which allows users to search for nearby locations. It can even give you a coupon that you can use in a local store.

How to use QR codes:
First you need to make sure you have a QR code application downloaded on your smart phone. Then you take a picture of the QR code with your smart phone. Next, you will be redirected to a website using your cell phone’s web browser.

Why are they useful?
QR codes are more useful than a standard barcode because they can store and digitally present much more data, including URL links, geo coordinates and text. Another feature of QR codes are that they do not require a bulky hand-held scanner. You only need a smart phone that is able to scan the code.

On Sunday, September 11 2011, an American flag should be everyone should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office and store in the Unites States. Every individual should make it their duty to display an American flag on this tenth anniversary of one of our country's worst tragedies. We do this to honor those who lost their lives on 9/11, their families, friends and loved ones who continue to endure the pain, and those who today are fighting at home and abroad to preserve our cherished freedoms. 

In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, our country was bathed in American flags as citizens mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. Sadly, those flags have all but
disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us through some tough times and it shouldn't take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity. Our American flag is the fabric of our country and together we can prevail over terrorism of all kinds. 

Thank you for your participation... God Bless You and God Bless America!

An REO closing is one in which a lender or bank is reselling property following foreclosure. The property is usually one of many, perhaps even thousands, in a bank's asset  portfolio, and the asset manager's chief objective is to get the property off the bank's books as quickly and cheaply as possible without subjecting the bank to lingering liability.

Buyer's, when contemplate about purchasing a REO please remember the following:

1. You will be negotiations with an institution, not a warm-blooded seller. Banks DO NOT have an emotional state, so they're unlikely to enter into complicated negotiations or be swayed by a buyer's hardship.
2. A bank's asset manager is usually someone who has no knowledge of the property's history and is in no position to give assurances about the property's condition.
3. Lastly, It's unwise to assume that title to the REO property will be clean. It's smart for anyone purchasing an REO property to buy a policy of owner's title insurance at closing.

When REO property have been purchased, consider adding the following items to your checklist:

1. Make new keys, ASAP. It's safe for buyer's whom purchased a REO to re-keyed after closing and to reprograms the garage door opener and security gate.
2. Buy a home warranty. Realtor's will suggest you to purchase a one-year third party warranty.
3. Check the title early on. Request a clean title report early enough to give time to react to problems, if any before closing. Purchase a owner's title insurance policy, if it's not provided for you already.

Be patient. Allow time between contract execution and the closing date for the sellers to get documents to the closing agent. Be Flexible if the closing date should need to be postponed a day or two. REO's provide a great opportunity for buyers, but the process can be frustrating.

Jeff Howard & his amazing team at Bank of America HomeLoans
Julie Deguair & Kelly Veniegas from Old Republic Title & Escrows
Rayna Man , State Farm Insurance
Jason, Tiffany's Nails (Located in Kapolei)
Apple Store in Ala Moana
Eric Schwager, Global Wealth Management (Financial Planning)
Arthur Stout, Twisted illusions (Balloon Entertainment)
Tom, Aloha Beauty Supply (Hair Salon)
Rick Bergstrom & Aric Saunders from Revolusun
Shawn Dohmen, Isle Discount (ID cards)
Billy Yockman, Terminix
Alana Jo Dela Cruz, Ka'amaiana Property Mgmt
William Curtis, Ohana Plumbing & Contracting

Without you all we couldn't have made this possible!

~Team Lally

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability. Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows. Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life. It's important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial "comfort zone." To that end, it may be more important to lock in today's relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today's market.