This is your first step in creating an energy efficient house. It will not only conserve energy but lower the cost of air cooling or heating. Home energy efficiency tips are upgrading insulation, sealing duct leaks, securing your attic door, sealing gaps between baseboard and floor and weather stripping doors.

Upgrading insulation is removing worn out or damaged insulation material. Insulation efficiency is graded by the R-factor, the recommended insulation for a home by building codes is R-38 for houses with attics. Remove worn-out or damaged insulation or if possible replace the whole lot to be sure or if you think your insulation has maxed out on its service.

Find leaks on the attic insulation. These leaks are easy to find because these are marked with gray, brown or black smudges or stain on the insulation. These are air holes where the warm air from the ducts escape and letting cool air in. The smudges or stains are the dirt from the air leaking from below. Seal these leaks with spray foam or fire-safe caulk.

If you have an attic, you have an attic door. Pull-down attic stairways are often the biggest energy draining holes in a house. Seal the inner edges of the pull-down staircase with latex door sealers is one of the home energy efficiency tips that you shouldn’t miss doing. Because air can easily come out from the gap and your heating system would need to consume more energy to keep the temperature at the desired levels.

Gaps in between baseboard and hard floors like tiles, cement, hardwood or laminated flooring leak air in. Fill these gaps with a latex gap sealer preventing foot level outer air leaking inside the house. One of the easiest home energy efficiency tips for cool or hot air coming inside is weather stripping your doors.

Weather stripping on top and sides of doors will help keep drafts out. The effective door weather stripping materials are vinyl bulb weatherstrip or packed strip set. These are durable in keeping the draft out. Take care on installing the weather stripping material to make it last longer since doors are prone to wear and tear the most.

These are just a few of the many home energy efficiency tips that will help you conserve energy, save on heating or cooling fuel bills and make your system last longer.

Resources For Energy Efficient Homes

ENERGY STAR
www.energystar.gov/

Energy Savers
www.energysavers.gov/

Efficient Tucson Air Conditioning
Cool Breeze Air Solutions, LLC
5141 N Casa Grande Hwy Tucson, AZ 85743
(520) 495-2227

Technicians For Sustainability
612 North 7th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85705-8337
(520) 740-0736 ‎

I’ve been chomping at the bit to get a chance to get on the blog and tell you guys the good news!  Okay, so it may sound corny too some of you, but we have been prayin’  like crazy that we w0uld get another couple of weeks or so out of  the furnished vacation rental.  It wasn’t looking good, but out of the blue, just when we thought we had exhausted the vacation rental season on the house, literally-the next day, we received a phone call letting us know we had an interested potential tenant! We rushed to the house to get spit polished and shined ready to show the next day.  As I was driving with the future tenant to show the house, I received ANOTHER call of interest for the property!  WOOOHOOO!  So, long story short, we have managed to get it rented for another month and a week for now, with potential for the tenant to go month to month for a few months after that!  Yippy!  So, prayers definitely answered and we are thrilled!

Also,  a big Thank You to all of my supporters!

As always, have a lovely day and don’t forget to call me with any and all of your real estate needs!  Even if its just a question, I am priviliged to help you!

~Bondi

Onsite Realty

520-954-4362 direct

www.bondisellshomes.com

     My mother, sister, and I are all pretty excited because we like to garden. Ma’s thumb is far greener than mine and my baby sister jokes that her thumb is just plain black! That doesn’t stop us, though! We’ve been reading and researching cool, not so new (but new to us) gardening techniques with high hopes of reaping some eye-appealing and mouth watering rewards.
At the present moment we have tomatos, peppers, zuchinni, and cilantro planted as little seedlings on the back porch of mom’s house. My sister has geraniums planted in her back yard and I have taken little starters from those geraniums and placed them in water-filled glass jars  (no worries, recycle and washed jelly jars) with hopes of another geranium generation!
     We three have been  researching composting, water harvesting and best desert flowers, fruits and veggies.   So far we are still primarily in the research stage of that process, but hopefully in the next year or so we can begin to gain some experience!

Shocker, I know, but despite the amount we’ve had as of late, this rain won’t last long!  In researching, I ran across this cool little video on smart homes.  Maybe not totally garden relevant, but definitely green!

  The video below has some really cool “green” tips on water conservation as well as some other “green” ideas. This video takes you on a guided tour of the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry eco-friendly, high-tech smart home. Check it out and let me know what you think!

~Bondi

And, as always, have an awesome day!

So, Update on the Vacation Rental?  Well, it has definitely been an interesting journey!  We purged our personal belongings, scrubbed and scoured, and moved out with high hopes of securing a tenant.  Approximately, one week after we finished preparing, we had success!  This first tenant was a 3 week rental.  We were very pleased!  That being said, we have had no further bookings.  We have had a couple of interested candidates that we are crossing our fingers on, though!

From this we have learned a valuable lesson.  Although Tucson is a hot spot for winter visitors, many have their plans in place long before the season begins…I am thinking we may have started our marketing a little late in the season.    

Either way, it has been a really  great experience and we are strongly considering making it an annual “peak season”  occurrance.  Above are some pix of the house, check ‘em out!  As always, I’ll keep you posted!

Have a great day!

~Bondi

Last week we talked about the vacation rentals and let me tell you what, It has been quite the job getting it prepped! I’m a “do-it-your-self” kinda gal when it comes to most things. You know-blood, sweat and tears…well, mostly sweat and tears, a little blood…

Either way, I have to say, it is really starting to come around. Some fun tidbits I’ve learned from this experience:
-Oxyclean (the laundry soap assistant) cleans the bathroom scuzz from shower tiles and grout in such a way that it puts all actual bathroom cleaners to instant shame.
-Children eat in their bedrooms even if  you’ve threatened their very lives if they do so. (Especially those sleeping on the top bunk)
-AND…After all of this time, it has been determined, that despite popular opinion, I am NOT the pack rat…in fact, that would be the hubby. Mr. Tidy himself.  Sorry dude, had to out you!

We have had a few hiccups that have set us back a little. My dear little granny passed away on Monday morning which of course has created a time of sadness and celebration combines as she lived a long, full, and happy life.   We took time out to make arrangements and just be a little sad.  There will still be plenty of moments of sadness and memories to reflect upon,  but we are back hard at it and looking to finish the project soon.

Furnished vacation rentals have been quite the topic of conversation lately as these are the months (Jan-May) that draw the snow-escapees to our beautiful mountainous little Tucson.

I know, I know, we generally hear the cliche’ “turning a house into a home”, right? Right. With that in mind, my husband and I have decided to turn our cozy little single fam residence into just that, a furnished vacation rental…FUN! Definitely an experience and a lot of work to prep, but really cleansing and hopefully profitable! But, what needs to happen to make it “happen”? What I can tell you so far is that we have been digging through years of garage pile-up and I now am BFF’s with the guys that run the goodwill truck on Thornydale/Magee. Know what else I can tell you? It feels really good to get rid of “stuff”. We have way to much stuff…ALL four of us!

Room by room, the cleansing is continuing. So far, My son’s room is completely ready to go…closet empty, nooks and crannies dust-free, walls washed…ahhhh. My room is almost finished, my daughter’s room is getting close and the rest? The rest of the house is in shambles, but that’s the way these things go. They always get worse before they get better!

Well, we are not VRBO (vacation rentals by owner)  categorically because as I hope you have surmised by now, I am a realtor and in addition to site-sales and residential resale, I deal heavily with property management also. Year after year I see the high profit that furnished vacation rentals bring in during the high season when they are managed well.

About two years ago, we invested in our first rental property. A really cute little 2bd condo with great views at the top of Skyline/Campbell.  Side note:  As a teenager, I had always told myself I would someday buy a home at the top of Campbell. It was an amazing deal, we’ve been really pleased with the results, and though it may not have been quite what I had envisioned as teen; one could say that I’ve successfully managed to achieve one of my earliest financial goals.  Thats kinda cool, isn’t it?

Even still, my poor husband has been forced to endure me jabbering on about vacation rentals.  Despite his attempts to tune me out, he must have absorbed something  because 2 weeks ago he got the bright idea that we should give the vacation rental concept a shot…in our home!    I’m always up for an adventure and hey, why not? What a great way to jump-start spring cleaning for the year and make a few bucks while we’re at it!   We will of course be utilizing the service that the company I hang my license with runs. We do an awesome job and are the largest property management company in Tucson which increases the likelihood that my property will be rented at top dollar during the peak of the season.  I’m totally stoked, but really exhausted.

Like I said before, prepping a home to become a furnished vacation rental really is turning a home into a house.  It means depersonalizing it, yet keeping it warm and inviting.  This is actually trickier than one would think.  Fortunately my husband has the gift for staging, because I don’t.  We’ve never been very good at adhering to stereo-typical gender roles and I’m kinda proud of that. He’s a bit more artistic than I am and he has a great eye for color and balance in a room.  I am better at popping the hood of the car open and  checking the fluids…it works for us, what can I say?  Either way, we are really excited for the up and coming adventure and I will definitely keep you posted on the experience.

Below are some of the high points of interest that were reported courtesy of Dan Santa Maria, 2010 Tucson MLS President.

In comparison to December 2008 statistics, December 2009 held:
Home Sales Units (+10.47%)
Home Sales Volume (+11.34%)
Pending Contracts (+38.56%)
Average Sales Price (+0.78)
New Listings (-9.86%)
Active Listings (-19.63%) continue to decline to manageable levels.

The Multiple Listing Service is in the process of preparing the detailed
Year End Review for 2009 which should be released in the next few
weeks. Some highlights of this report include Home Unit Sales at
9.49% over Home Sales in 2008 and Home Sales Volume just under
10% of the volume done in 2008.

So Cheers to that everyone! Happy first week of 2010!

~Bondi

Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone! So much to be thankful for- even during a time of economic struggle! Clearly a recession is in full force at this point, we would all agree, I’m sure. The real estate market is a conundrum.  With house prices at a low and foreclosures at a high, what is one to do?
I say, keep your chin up! I believe that from every negative a positive is derived and that every day we make a choice. We can either fall prey to the gloom and doom attitude or choose to see the positives that lie beneath the surface.  So today, I share with you my Top Ten Turkey day positives!

10. It’s a buyer’s market! If you don’t have to sell and you are in the market to buy a home, then you’re in luck because we are in a buyer’s market which means real estate prices are at a low and you can find your dream home at an affordable price!

9. Interest rates are at a record low! This is unusual because general rule of thumb is that when prices are down rates are up, but currently the average rate for 15-year mortgages dipped to 4.40% this past week and 30 year mortgage rates were as low as 4.78% this past week! Woo HOO!

8. First Time Home-buyer up to $8000 tax credit was extended from Nov. 30, 2009 to April 30, 2010. This is great news for buyers and sellers!

7. The legislation that extends the First Time Home-buyer tax credit also expands the credit to grant current home owners purchasing a new or existing home between Nov. 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010 an up to $6500 tax credit!

6. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun estimates that homes sales in 2010 to increase by 15% due to the credit and home price stabilization.

5. Nationally, existing-home sales jumped 10% this past October. These sales include single-family residences, town homes, condos, and co-ops.

4. Total housing inventory fell nationally by 3.7% at the end of October.

3. In October, 41% of Tucson homes on the market sold in under 30 days!

2. In the past 24 hours, 72 single family residences under contract closed escrow in Tucson, AZ!

1. Take the time to really enjoy family, friends, football and food! Then call me, BONDI, with all of your real estate needs and you’ll be sure to have  an ethical, pleasant, and successful buying/selling experience.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
~Bondi

statistical sources include Tucson Association of Realtors October 2009 market statistics and National Association of Realtors-Realtor Magazine at Realtor.org.

The current trend and wave of the future is greener living! I hear arguments daily that we will never be alive to see the fruits of our labor in saving the planet so it really doesn’t matter. Well, my goodness, it matters to me! My descendants will feel the effects of a healthy planet. Hopefully, yours will too! Most of us get a lump in our throats if asked to envision our children in a life-threatening situation. When I mentally place my children’s children there, I feel the same way. What kind of an environment do we want to leave the future? On whom does the owe-ness fall? The Baby Boomers? Gen X? Our children? It has to start somewhere, why not us and why not now?

I look around my house and I feel pretty good about my efforts. I have a container in the kitchen for recyclables. We use cute and trendy reusable shopping bags for grocery shopping. We use dish-washer safe water bottles 90% of the time rather than buying bottled water. We use paper and plastic products that were made from recycled materials, and we all turn off the bathroom water faucet when brushing our teeth! Well hunky dory, good job us! Right? I used to think so, but lately it doesn’t quite seem like enough.

As I drive around in my SUV and toss my baby’s disposable diapers in the landfill, with the assurance that it will take at least 100 years for decomposition…something feels amiss. Hmmm…

AS IF! I’ll admit I do have an SUV, but it gets 18/22 miles per gallon, so a far as SUV’s go, it’s not SO bad. And I exaggerate the diapers; at least 60% of the time we use diapers that are cloth with flushable/bio-degradable inserts called “G” diapers which only take a year to decompose in a landfill. Never-the-less, I think there is more we can do.

Thus, I begin to research ways to improve our greener living and wouldn’t you know, there are so many things that I didn’t even have a clue about?! To share some of what I learned, below is a link to Realtor.org that gives some great ideas.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect everyone to run out and completely remodel their homes, but bamboo cabinets? Who knew? If you are in the market to remodel, bamboo actually is a great material to use because it is strong, grows quickly without the use of fertilizers or pesticides, and needs no replanting. It can be used for cabinets, flooring, or furniture (even clothing if your interested). Unlike a tree that can easily take 30+ years to grow back, bamboo is a grass that has a reproduction cycle of just a few years (4-5). Cool, right? Definitely green!

The video also talked about LED lighting. Seems easy enough; what is it though, really? Well, in technical terms, A Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a semiconductor device which converts electricity into light. What’s the advantage? They are more damage-resistant than both fluorescent bulbs and incandescent bulbs and they don’t flicker. They work well for reading lamps, linear strip lighting (similar to what the video shows), niche lights, porch and landscape lighting…well, you get the idea. That’s great, right? So, why are they green? They are green because they have lower energy consumption, longer service life, no infrared or ultraviolet radiation, contain no mercury and remain cool to the touch. The disadvantages are that they are a little more expensive and they don’t do well in excessive heat.

So there you go, a few extra ideas on how to be a little more green in your household and daily living. There are definitely more areas to research, such as how to take Tucson’s amazing 300+ days/year of sunshine and turn it into solar power, home gardening and composting, the list goes on and on! While I do intend to go there, I think I’ll reserve that for another post!

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! TGIF!!

-Bondi

Not so long ago anything North of First St. was dirt. Lots of dirt! As a kid, I regularly became car sick during the “dirt road” trip (Tangerine Rd) to Breakers water park. In high school (Go Dorados!), some of the kids would bonfire (no, no, not me, of course!) on the very street that I currently live on in Rancho Vistoso! Wild, huh?

After my husband and I first moved in, a friend came to visit and she actually pointed opposite direction from which we were turning and said:
“Hey, isn’t that where we used to party?”
Ha! Me? Party? No…but you? Perhaps!
Yes, my dear friend, that’s the exact venue…now dressed beautifully with 1/2 million to million dollar homes…is where we “partied”.
I was no saint, but I didn’t turn loose on the city til well after high school! Now, I am not only a Dorado, but a Wildcat and Wildcats do NOT have the same reputation as those crazy Devils from Pheonix…okay, now I’m just being silly.

Never fear dear reader, my parents raised me well and pulled in the reigns faster than I could get out a WOOP WOOP and for the record, tangent I know, but “party” to us was definitely not what “party” to the high school kids is now. That’s for certain!

Back on track. There are so many neat things Oro Valley has to offer. We now have a beautiful movie theater, some wonderful locally owned restraunts, childrens boutiques, and really fun shopping venues like World Market-(Cost Plus), Ulta (coolest beauty products store EVER!), and DSW shoes.

For the guys (I know, I’ve been a little heavy on the girls stuff…although, my daughter says that some of the boys at school wear “guy-liner”…hmmm. Anyhoo, all with in a 4 minute radius (is there such a thing as a radius for minutes? Probably not.) Dicks, Sports Authority, Big 5 and…drum roll…HOME DEPOT AND CHILES…WOOOOH! BTW, On any given Friday night I am sure I have seen at least 50% of Oro Valley at Chile’s and while I am not a huge fan of chain restaraunts, I have become a huge fan of Chile’s restaraunt over the past year and a half! Why you ask? Because…thanks to the growth and thriving progress of Oro Valley, Oro Valley is now home to several highly competitive Youth Club Sports teams as well as a few really strong recreational youth sports leagues. My 11 year old is on one of these teams and we, as a team, frequent Chile’s on a regular basis. What I love most is the variety of the menu. Lets face it, kids are picky, thus large menus rock!

So, that’s just the tip of the iceburg as far as growth and venues go. In addition, the community is beautiful. It’s like a big “small town”. Lots of community functions such as farmers market every weekend, fourth of July processions at the big River front park every year, library book sales, holiday parades, 1/2 marathons, mountian bike trails and of course the Tour de Tucson speeds right through for all to see!

So, where should one live in Oro Valley? That, my friends, will be covered in my next post on Oro Valley, but I can say that where you hang your hat is really going to depend on what your life-style comfort zone is and what your price point is. With that, I say farewell and do promise to cover some of my favorite Oro Valley spots soon!