John Stallings

A Dream Takes Root in Waianae

John Stallings — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:30:00 GMT

At Ma’O Farms, Leeward Students Learn To Grow Organic Vegetables, Manage Money And
Work With Others, All While Earning A Degree

A robust Kale plants spreads its thick, curly leaves in the Lulalei Valley, bracing for another hot day on the farm. To be a vegetable at Ma'O Organic Farms is to be king of the crops for sure, but those human caretakers have so many plans, and they never stop talking about them.

Sprouting from an idea, the farm has grown from a small plot of rocky ground to a 16-acre nonprofit farm project with customers and clients islandwide. The Mala ‘Ai ‘Opio ("youth food garden") Community Food Security Initiative is now a model for Hawaii’s sustainability movement, and its time has come.

It starts every morning down in the dirt. At dawn they come, these young farm workers, fresh out of high school; marching in rubber boots or trundling along on a John Deere gator - the rural man’s golf cart. Together teens and adults break the peace as they weed, water, laugh and talk about market deliveries, homework, whatevers.

For the full Mid Week Story, please visit: http://www.midweek.com/content/story/theweekend_coverstory/gary_kukui_maunakea_forth/

Kokua Foundation Hawaii-Check them out!

John Stallings — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:03:00 GMT

If you aren't familiar with this great organization, please visit their website to learn how they are educating the keiki on sustainability and other environmental issues.

www.kokuahawaiifoundation.org

The Kokua Hawai'i Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports environmental education in the schools and communities of Hawai'i. The Kokua Hawai'i Foundation was founder my Kim Johnson, and her husband, Jack Johnson, noted musican and surfer.

Our mission is to provide students with experiences that will enhance their appreciation for and understanding of their environment so they will be lifelong stewards of the earth.

We support hands-on learning activities that engage their senses and make lasting impressions on children’s minds. We believe our keiki are the seeds of change to preserving and protecting our beautiful islands.

If you would like to learn more about the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation mission and programs please peruse our site. You can also view a slideshow featuring our recent projects and the many faces that have made them possible.

FREE Home Warranty

John Stallings — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:32:00 GMT

List your home John Stalings or open escrow by Dec. 31, 2008, and John will gift a basic one year home warranty from American Home Shield. Must mention this offering prior to listing (seller) or prior to opening escrow (buyer).

www.OurKailuaTown.com celebrates 3 year anniversary!!!

John Stallings — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:44:00 GMT

Note that this information is outdated.

If you live on the Windward side of Oahu, and you haven't checked out www.OurKailuaTown.com, you are missing out! Kailua Town News, Green Living & Sustainability, Restaurant Menus, are just of few of the sections found on this great resource. If you are looking for things to do in Kailua, look no further. www.OurKailuaTown.com has the most comprehensive Community calendar available. Advertising on this site is FREE! If you have an upcoming event, public announcement, local business or classified ad, please add your news to the site. Adding news is about as easy as sending an email, just look for the "Add" link found on most every page. This is a community website and content is controlled by the community. With more people using this great resource, this site is NOT TO BE MISSED!

Hawaii's rents highest in U.S.

John Stallings — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:15:00 GMT

9/23/2008
By Andrew Gomes
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

For a third straight year, rental housing costs were higher in Hawai'i than in any other state last year, according to a new census survey that also showed the cost of owning a home in Hawai'i was among the highest in the nation.

Median monthly rent was $1,194 in Hawai'i last year, meaning half of all renters paid more and half paid less, according to the census estimate.

Only three other states had four-figure median rental rates — California at $1,078, New Jersey at $1,026 and Maryland at $1,000. Nevada ranked fifth at $980.

Hawai'i's median rent was up $78 from $1,116 a year earlier, and reflected higher home values passed on to renters as well as new housing inventory that included upscale condominium tower projects Moana Pacific and 909 Kapi'olani in Kaka'ako on O'ahu, the state's largest housing market.

Dorothy Rapoza, a retired typographer on the Big Island planning a move to O'ahu for work, said she was surprised at how high rents are in Honolulu.

Rapoza's husband, a banker, recently found a short-term rental in Waikiki — a studio with no parking for $1,650 a month — to live in until Nov. 1. But Rapoza questions whether she and her husband can find something more reasonable for a longer term.

"We might not stay because of rents," she said. "I really think we'll come back to the Big Island."

Home prices are declining this year, but it remains to be seen whether that will translate into lower rents. Median sale prices of previously owned single-family homes are down statewide this year through August, including a 2.8 percent decline on O'ahu. But median prices for condos statewide are up, including a 1.5 percent rise on O'ahu.

The last time Hawai'i's median rent wasn't the highest in the country was in 2005, when median rent was $871 and third most costly behind California and New Jersey.

Last year's rise in rent resulted in more Hawai'i renters paying a higher percentage of their income for housing. The census report said 39.1 percent of renters last year paid 35 percent or more of their household income on rent, up from 37.9 percent of renters a year earlier.

For homeowners, the cost of housing was still high compared with other states, but owner-occupants usually paid a smaller percentage of their income for housing compared with renters.

The census report said 25.1 percent of people who live in their house and make mortgage payments pay 35 percent or more of their household income for their home. Some 18.7 percent of homeowners pay less than 20 percent of their income for their home, in part because many have owned their property for decades and have relatively small mortgage payments.

According to the report, about 7 percent of homeowners pay less than $1,000 a month to own their home. Another 36 percent pay $2,000 or more.

The median monthly cost to own a home in Hawai'i for owner-occupants with a mortgage was $2,099 last year, up $140 from $1,959 a year earlier.

Only two states had higher ownership costs — California at $2,314 and New Jersey at $2,278. In 2006, Hawai'i ranked fourth most expensive behind the same two states and Massachusetts.

According to the survey, the median value of owner-occupied homes was $555,400 last year, the highest in the nation and up from $529,700 a year earlier. Home values are estimates reported by occupants, and include single-family homes and condos.

Because the census housing data are based on survey results, all figures are estimates. The margin of error is typically under 2 percent.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Seeing Green

John Stallings — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:25:00 GMT

From the California Association of Realtors:

By Amy Westervelt

LEED®, GreenPoint Rated, USGBC, FSC-Certified, ENERGY STAR. You've likely heard these terms pop up in conversations or news stories recently as green building surges into the mainstream. Knowing what they mean, both in general and to your clients, will become increasingly necessary in the years to come, and may even be a helpful marketing tool in a tight housing market.

Green building refers to an approach to building that reduces energy usage through efficient heating, cooling, and lighting systems; reduces water needs through the use of efficient plumbing systems; and uses renewable, non-toxic building materials, which include everything from wood certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to finishes, such as recycled glass countertops. The practice has gained popularity in California's commercial real estate sector over the past two decades as developers, contractors, and facilities managers have benefited both financially and reputation-wise from the decision to build green.

Now, with energy prices at an all-time high, the federal government set to renew and possibly increase incentives for improvements such as energy efficiency and renewable energy systems in homes, and climate change on consumers' minds more than ever before, green building is infiltrating the residential market. While the focus on oil prices and energy costs is reminiscent of the 1970s boom in renewable energy, even critics of the "green" movement believe this time it's here to stay. You only have to look at one of the thousands of "green" issues put out by consumer magazines last year or tune in to one of the hundreds of green-themed television shows to see why: This time around, mainstream consumers are riding the green wave.

Although hard data on the marketability of residential green building don't exist, Tom Cody, a principal with green building-focused developer Gerding Edlen, is optimistic. "Consumers are beginning to really vote with their feet and wallets in terms of green," he says. "In the coming years, I think a lot of data will support the value of residential green building."

Two recent news stories back up Cody's optimism. First, "ABC News" reported record sales of three "eco" housing developments in San Jose (an apartment building and two single-family housing developments that included solar panels standard on the roofs of all homes). "The green technology has allowed us to surpass anything that we could have imagined," Mark Rowson with Warmington Homes told ABC's reporters. Rowson added that demand has been so great for eco-friendly homes that prices have bucked market trends and increased several times in the last year.

Meanwhile, Meg Collins, project manager of Intracorp's Arterra Building, San Francisco's first certified green condo complex, told Sustainable Industries magazine in May 2008 that units in the building are selling better than those in the company's conventional complex across town.

Green Homes=Healthy Homes

At its most fundamental level, green building is linked to the overall livability of a home. Livability can be broken down into two areas: the neighborhood, and the home itself. Gerding Edlen's South Park residential development in downtown L.A. is a good example. Cody says many of the same features that are helping the development's buildings (there will be four, total, when the project is complete) to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) are also amenities that prospective home buyers appreciate.

"We get points from the USGBC toward certification for being located close to transit, having bike facilities with locker rooms in the building, providing parking spaces for ride-sharing vehicles (like Zipcar), including ground-floor retail units, and being part of a walkable, dense urban neighborhood," Cody says, "and all of those things are also attractive to home buyers."

For more information on enhancements that count toward certification, see "Is It Green?" in this issue.

However, the topic most often associated with green building is energy savings. While the details of mechanical and plumbing systems may get a tad too technical for the average home buyer, the ongoing savings provided by efficient systems are both tangible and attractive. And even without federal incentives, California provides state and local financial incentives that make it financially feasible and even desirable to link homes to renewable energy sources and/or make them more energy efficient to begin with.

"For every 1,000 watts of power in a home that's coming from PV (photovoltaic panels), it can add $20,000 to the resale value of your home," says Mike Hall, president and CEO of Berkeley-based solar company Borrego Solar.

"Sometimes we're able to cut someone's heating or cooling bill in half, and their water bill too-that's a major savings," adds Cody.

Your Place in Green Building

So, what role can real estate agents play in California's green housing boom? A crucial one, according to San Francisco-based agent Chris Bartle. "The best time to get people interested in green building is right after they buy, before they move in, and REALTORS® have such an opportunity to influence those decisions," he says.

When customers come to a REALTOR® looking for a "green" home, as more and more Californians are beginning to do, according to a report released last year by McGraw-Hill Construction, Bartle says it is sometimes difficult to find a home that is already green. Like a handful of other like-minded brokers, Bartle's firm, Green Key Real Estate, focuses on greening buildings as much as possible and promoting green remodels. To that end, he recently helped to connect two of his customers with local green building professionals who are helping them with "green" remodels. Providing this sort of service can help green-minded REALTORS® to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and endear themselves to customers, who will likely list their higher value green homes with the same broker if and when they decide to sell.

Cutting through Greenspeak

To help clients interested in green homes, real estate agents need to be well versed in more than just jargon. "There are some misperceptions out there about green building, starting with the fact that it's more expensive," says Bartle.

"If you're comparing it to a super-cheap Home Depot remodel, then yeah, it's more expensive," he explains. "But if you're comparing it to a high-end remodel with granite countertops and things like that, then a lot of times it's actually cheaper."

Rampant greenwashing is something else agents need to be aware of. As all things green grow in popularity, the number of companies touting the environmental features of various green products is increasing daily, and agents need to be able to help clients navigate through a flood of marketing claims. Bartle cites bamboo as a prime example. "Bamboo is really hot right now and it's overhyped," he says. "A lot of it comes from China, and it's questionable how green something is that's shipped halfway around the world when it's compared with local, FSC-certified wood."

Bartle says quality issues also come up with companies jumping on the green bandwagon, and companies putting out low-quality products that donÕt last could tarnish the reputation of green home products.

Certified Green

What will eventually help REALTORS® and their customers cut through the green hype are verifiable third-party rating and certification systems. Such systems exist for commercial buildings and for newly built residential structures in the form of LEED® certification and the GreenPoint Rated system, a California-specific system developed by Build It Green, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the residential green building market. In July, Build It Green released GreenPoint Rated Existing Home rating system, a new system for evaluating existing residential structures. Build It Green is currently training certifiers, who will need to be instructed on the system before they begin certifying homes. It's a long process, but according to Bartle, it will eventually lead to the inclusion of green features on the MLS, which will help buyers search more easily for green homes.

In the meantime, agents need to be on the lookout for hidden green gems. "I just visited a new development the other day-a gorgeous brick building, with beautiful old timber beams-and they had retained a lot of the original structure, then reused anything they had torn down, plus outfitted the homes with radiant floor heating, double-pane windows, all sorts of green building bells and whistles, but they don't even market it as green," says Bartle. "There are a lot of green buildings out there that you would never even know about if you don't tour them."

Amy Westervelt writes about various shades of green for a number of publications, including Budget Travel, Plenty, and Sustainable Industries.

GREEN SPEAK

ENERGY STAR: Created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the ENERGY STAR program certifies everything from household appliances to entire homes as being energy efficient. The program's Web site (www.energystar.gov) also hosts a wealth of information on various energy-saving methods and products and a number of educational resources.

Carbon Footprint: Carbon footprint refers to the overall carbon emissions created by a building, including both its construction (what materials were used, how they were produced, and their sources of origin) and its operation (how much energy does the building use on average).

Carbon Neutral: A claim made by some companies and developers to describe a building or product whose net carbon emissions are zero. This is very difficult to achieve and truly possible only if something doesn't emit any carbon at all or soaks up as much as it emits. However, there is an increasing number of carbon neutral claims out there, so much so that the Federal Trade Commission recently launched an investigation of such claims and is currently revising its Green Marketing Guidelines to limit the use of the term.

Carbon Offsets: Carbon offsets allow people to pay money to fund a forestry project, renewable energy project, or research into renewable energy technology in order to offset their carbon emissions. Although sometimes positive, carbon offsets have come under fire for allowing people to essentially pay their way out of environmental responsibility.

Greenwashing: Selling something as green when it's not, i.e.,"Come check out our eco-friendly gas station!"

Photovoltaic (PV) Panels: Panels that can be fitted to a roof or a post in the ground, which convert visible light into direct current (DC). Once connected to the power grid, they can provide no-cost solar energy for decades. While the up-front costs of PV systems are still high, federal, state, and local incentives and rebates, as well as drastically reduced energy prices, help the systems pay for themselves more quickly.

Sustainable Forestry Products: Wood products certified according to standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council (www.fscus.org) or the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program (www.rainforest-alliance.org) come from responsibly managed forests, where biodiversity is conserved and local communities are supported.

Sustainability: The dictionary definition of sustainability is "A state or process that can be maintained indefinitely." In reference to building or business, it's an approach that evaluates environmental, social, and financial factors equally.

GREEN TEAMMATES

Build It Green
(www.builditgreen.org)

A professional, non-profit membership organization whose stated mission is to promote healthy, energy- and resource-efficient buildings in California, Build It Green developed the GreenPoint Rated system to evaluate and certify green homes in California. Its Web site is one-stop shopping for extensive information on its own and other certification systems, incentives for green building, case studies and marketing reports on residential green building, and information on an assortment of green building products. The Web site also hosts a database of green building professionals, which includes everything from architects to green home stagers.

U.S. Green Building Council
(www.usgbc.org)

The USGBC is the non-profit organization that created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System^TM. While LEED® currently exists only for new, large residential buildings, it's useful for any real estate professional to have a working knowledge of LEED® criteria.

Green Globes
(www.greenglobes.com)

Green Globes provides a green building assessment tool similar to LEED®. In the early days of green building, Green Globes and LEED® were neck and neck, competing to become "the" green building standard. LEED® appears to have won out, but Green Globes is still attractive due to its lower price-point and long-time inclusion of existing buildings. It's beneficial to know what Green Globes is and how it relates to green building.

EcoBroker®
(www.ecobroker.com)

EcoBroker® provides educational training focused on green building for real estate agents nationwide. Its Web site also lists green properties and hosts a searchable database of green brokers.

The ReUse People
(www.thereusepeople.org)

A non-profit organization serving all of California, The ReUse People provides environmentally responsible demolition services, and sells reusable building materials to homeowners and contractors.

Build A Green Roof

John Stallings — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:14:00 GMT

From www.wired.com

Now that even Wal-Mart has started putting solar panels on its roof, shouldn't you take a look at what's on your own? Consider installing a living or green roof. Plants on your roof can reduce your heating and cooling bills and protect your house's waterproofing. That's /in addition/ to all the other good things, like cleaning air, filtering water and providing a feast for your senses.

Get a structural engineering report for the live load of the structure. A standard roof is built to take about ten to twenty pounds of pressure per square foot. A three-foot-square garden won't add a significant amount of weight; however, a twenty-foot-square garden, complete with wet soil and plants, can weigh thousands of pounds. After investing time and effort on a beautiful garden, the last thing you want is for it to come crashing down.
Shore it up. Reinforcing your intended structure entails more than putting supports under the roof; likely, your structure will require lateral supports as well. Imagine holding a kite string: The wind exerts pressure not only on the kite itself, but your body. Any wind and rain will exert the same force on your rooftop plants.
Lay down the liner. You may want to consult a roofer to install a commercial seamless roof. If you're building on top of an uninhabited structure, lay down a standard pond liner. The liner will keep the water from seeping into the building; it will also keep the plant roots from eating into the building structure.
Set up the lattice. Skip this step if your roof is flat. Roofs with a slope will need a grid set up over the liner to keep the dirt from sliding off.
Consult a look book. How much effort are you willing to invest? Obviously, more ornate plants are going to require more work than minimalist moss. Wildflowers and their seeds will attract birds and butterflies; scattered items like logs will attract small rodents (and give you a place to sit down). Grasses will need to be mowed occasionally, and moss, while low-maintenance, is...moss. Now might also be a good time to consult your engineering report and decide how heavy your plant load can be.
Mix and lay down your potting soil. Depending on your choice of plant life, the soil will probably have to be custom-mixed. The separate components usually consist of mineral content, such as sand or dirt; organic matter, such as coconut husk or peat moss; and a water-hoarding material like SoilMoist. The organic matter will decompose, fertilizing your garden; SoilMoist absorbs water and releases it as the soil dries out.
Plant your plants! Seedlings, or plugs, are slightly less frustrating than seeds.
Enjoy!

Single Story For Sale in Maili

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:00:00 GMT

4 Bedroom on the water!

• 1,436 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm single story - MLS® $275,000 - PRICED TO SELL!

Maili, O'ahu - PRICE TO SELL! Great opportunity to live in a cul-de-sac with rear yard ON THE WATER! Mostly original but well maintained, and ready to move-in. 5 kinds of fruit trees in a great yard for entertaining. Covered lanai opens to grassy rear yard. Please check out additional photos, and drive-by first. Tenant occupied

Property information