By: MJ
When you make up your mind on moving out, you should take to mind the adjustments waiting for you. Aside from the new house you’ll live in, you’ll be meeting different types of people that you’re not used to. There would also be quite a shock on your part on the trends and culture of the ones in the city.
Even your principles would be questioned by the people around you. It is, then, more advisable for you to set your own principles and stands before going out to the crowd. Or else, you’ll be swallowed whole by the waves that will topple your integrity.
By Robert | September 10, 2009
If you easily get bored or befuddled when you read a long paragraph, then you may be in trouble when it comes to signing contracts or documents. It’s very important that you read the fine detail of a document before signing it or you will regret it.
Although to some, reading it may be a chore, especially if you’re uber excited in owning the unit. For example, if you see “no pets” or “no one under the age of 18”, but you have a pet Python and a month-old child, then the condo unit is just not for you.
If the document has a lot of legal stuff in it, please consult your lawyer, or (better still) a condominium consultant. He or she knows a lot of how these bylaws can be translated to layman English.
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Cheap condos these days are extremely rare, if not non-existent. However, you may notice that the prices go up every year. According to a condominium-specialist realtor, a good benchmark for operating costs or “housing fees” should be 30 cents a month per square foot of private property.
So where does those fees go to? The landowner’s pockets? No, they go to a lot of things: building maintenance, landscaping, waste removal, legal fees incurred by a condo board—in short it’s for the betterment of the condo and its owners.
“There are certain responsibilities a corporation has to maintain — whether it’s the exterior of the building, amenity rooms and, in some cases, betterment to the property and (condo fees) can also include paying a management company looking after things.”
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Mainly because of the loss of so many jobs that is rendering more and more people unable to pay their rent. The economy is a general indicator of the health of the real estates business and with rising jobless people comes a rise in vacancies and people are scrambling to get their empty properties occupied. The craftier the solution the better for people need places to live but not much money to pay for them. From changing larger units into smaller chunks or converting them to room sharing areas, they also offer weekly rent for transients, even for daily rates. Most city centers are already filled up with most of them quite expensive but without renters, they serve no purpose for their owners hence the solutions.
There are a lot of new laws that will be set for implementation next year that would have buildings and commercial properties declare their energy efficiency ratings with commensurate penalization rates for those who fail. Buildings are known to be some of the most polluting and least energy efficient structures man has made but greening them is indeed becoming easier with more and more technologies for retro-fitting becoming available making them more efficient than they currently are. From water management, heating and smart lighting technologies, they are slowly creeping into mainstream use as building owners strive to meet guidelines for efficiency that have been laid out.
In terms of the real estates industry that is, for not much movement in the positive side is almost void. That is except for some areas where local banks have been disposing of properties they have acquired due to foreclosure and bad loans. They might be sales but with a very unpleasant aftertaste, they are selling at a fraction of their actual values and that’s good only for the buyers and not the sellers.
Less profits means more housing units have to be sold to make profits acceptable enough to put back in manufacturing new homes. With homes selling, there is still quite a lot of homes waiting to be sold off so developers can call it quits with their development projects. The government cannot do much in terms of the economy as a whole and their band-aid methods have proven to be a bit short of failure for money alone cannot solve the problems created within the industry that bore the hole into which it fell into. Read More »
By Marie | April 20, 2009
The recent oil crisis has shaken our oil dependent society so much that people have been clamoring for every conceivable way to generate electricity and fuel for our future. In cities, where land is a premium, most space is already maximized leaning the roof which can be quite large if you’re talking about commercial spaces such as malls and shopping centers. Solar power has become more and more accessible to most people and can be installed easily onto existing roofs, anywhere there is wasted space that isn’t used for any other purpose. Some even install them on their wide open walls where there are no windows, adding power generation capacity. Read More »
By Marie | March 20, 2009
The greening of the urban jungle is taking many cities by storm even with the economic recession. Buildings with green roofs that turns them into islands of fresh air amidst the soaring buildings are slowly taking shape. Vacant spaces turned into green oasis for tired and stressed souls to take a rest. The greening of the world is indeed very much needed for our cities generate their own micro-climate being warmer than the surrounding farmlands setting them apart in many ways than one. They are warmer than the surrounding environment and they are quite polluted with micro-climate keeping all heat and pollutants in. Read More »
1. Pick something everything else will revolve on.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be something big – even something as small as a throw pillow can serve to be a centerpiece, as long as you really like it and foresee that you won’t be getting tired of it anytime soon.
2. Variety is good.
While too much colors can make your head hurt, so will a monochrome room (especially with designs). Take a step back and see where you can inject other colors that will compliment your main color scheme.
3. Don’t be afraid of color themes.
Be adventurous and fun, and see what kind of color theme will fit what you want the most.
4. Don’t make hasty decisions.
You may like a certain look at the onset, but try other designs and themes first before you make a final decision.
By Marie | January 30, 2009
Revolution is once again here, with more and more people preferring buildings and office spaces that are LEEDs compliant. The title goes to buildings and other structures that have been built with sustainable technology that are non-polluting and contain innovative technology such as solar lighting and other green technologies. These technologies are not cheap and renting a property that has been built to such specifications may cost you extra, but that would be well worth the extra cash as you are after all helping mother earth.
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