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What are ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes? : ENERGY STAR What is ENERGY STAR? | Newsroom Search What are ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes Features of ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes Benefits of ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes Homebuyer Resources New Homes Partner Locator For Residential Building Professionals PRODUCTS HOME IMPROVEMENT NEW HOMES BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT PARTNER RESOURCES -- Home > New Homes > What are ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes? -- -- What are ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes? ENERGY STAR qualified homes are independently verified to be at least 30% more energy efficient than homes built to the 1993 national Model Energy Code or 15% more efficient than state energy code, whichever is more rigorous. These savings are based on heating, cooling, and hot water energy use and are typically achieved through a combination of: building envelope upgrades, high performance windows, controlled air infiltration, upgraded heating and air conditioning systems, tight duct systems and upgraded water-heating equipment. These features contribute to improved home quality and homeowner comfort, and to lower energy demand and reduced air pollution. ENERGY STAR also encourages the use of energy-efficient lighting and appliances, as well as features designed to improve indoor air quality. Here are some questions commonly asked about ENERGY STAR qualified homes: Look for this label when buying your next home. How does a home earn the ENERGY STAR label? The ENERGY STAR label is earned only after the home's energy efficiency is verified, either by an independent third-party such as an accredited home energy rater or Builder Option Package (BOP) verifier , or by adhering to the quality control procedures established for HUD-code manufactured homes . What types of homes can earn the ENERGY STAR label? Any single-family or multi-family residential home that is three stories or less in height can qualify to receive the ENERGY STAR label. This includes traditional site-constructed homes as well as modular, systems-built (e.g., insulated concrete forms, structurally insulated panels), and HUD-code manufactured homes. Can existing homes earn the ENERGY STAR? Yes. Existing homes can be qualified for the ENERGY STAR label if they meet ENERGY STAR's performance guidelines. However, it is not always practical or cost-effective to bring an existing home to this level of efficiency. Nevertheless, the energy efficiency of existing homes can often be greatly improved using cost-effective retrofit techniques. Visit Home Improvement to learn how. Do energy-efficient homes look different? No, builders and developers constructing ENERGY STAR qualified new homes do not have to alter their architectural designs. An ENERGY STAR qualified new home can be built in whatever style the consumer prefers or is most popular in a particular geographic region. Does an energy-efficient home cost more? No. An ENERGY STAR qualified new home actually costs less because you will spend less on your new home's utility bill each month. These energy savings can more than offset any increase in mortgage payments needed for the improved energy features and can result in a positive monthly cash flow. Further, ENERGY STAR financing partners offer special mortgage packages for buyers of ENERGY STAR qualified new homes. How will I know if a home is labeled ENERGY STAR? Look for the ENERGY STAR label, which should be prominently displayed on the circuit breaker box. You can also ask your builder for the home's ENERGY STAR certificate. This optional certificate indicates that the home has been verified to meet EPA's ENERGY STAR qualified new homes performance guidelines. How can I participate in ENERGY STAR as a home industry professional? ENERGY STAR currently partners with four main types of home industryprofessionals: homebuilders, home energy raters, utilities and other sponsoring organizations, and home lenders . After completing and signing a partnership agreement, partners can take advantage of the widely recognized ENERGY STAR name, logos, and a variety of other marketing resources. Other home industry professionals can promote ENERGY STAR as well. Features of ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes > Products | Home Improvement | New Homes | Business Improvement | Partner Resources Newsroom | Privacy | Contact Us | Site Index EPA Home EPA Search DOE Home DOE Search
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Virginia Real Estate: Charlottesville, Richmond, Northern Va Virginia Real Estate, Homes, Farms and Land, Charlottesville, Richmond, Northern VA WELCOME to the leading online Virginia real estate site for property listings and some of the finest luxury homes, land and farms for sale in the state, including equestrian acreage, beautiful country estates, condominiums and residential properties. The glorious landscape, radiant skyline and rolling hills that cascade along the country side of stately manor homes and luxurious estates that comprise our Northern Va, Richmond and Charlottesville real estate listings offer a peaceful and enlightening backdrop for raising a family and living life to its fullest. When you are ready to search for and/or sell your home and need an experienced Virginia real estate agent , consider the realtors that who strive to provide the best personalized and professional service for each and every client. We feature some of the finest Virginia MLS properties and offer experienced relocation services for Charlottesvi l le real estate , Albemarle County, Scottsville, Va., Madison, Greene, Scottsville, Augusta County, Richmond MLS, Central Va., Northern Va. and beyond... See our Statewide Exceptional Properties See our Middleburg Exceptional Properties FEATURED VIRGINIA HOMES FOR SALE Virginia Real Estate in Charlottesville, Scottsville, Augusta County, Staunton, Northern VA We maintain strategic partnerships in order to provide additional Virginia realtor and home buying , sales, services and resources in Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William County, Middleburg and Rappahannock, including homes, estates, farms and land for sale. Listing some of the most beautiful estates properties and residential real estate in Virginiahomes in the Old Dominion , o ur professional realtors, agents and luxury realty brokers are ready to find the right home for you. If you are searching for a home neighboring the nicest folk in the country, look no further than the Old Dominion, where peace of mind comes naturally. We are the Virginia realtors with residential homes for sale and luxury real estate from in and around town and across the state, not only Central Va and Richmond , but also Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Wintergreen, Staunton VA real estate , Nelson County, Greene County, Madison County, Scottsville , Augusta County, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William County. Among our Virginia real estate listings and properties, you will find a balanced climate, and a venerable tradition of social and economic stability that have combined to create what Thomas Jefferson called "the Eden of the United States." Perhaps that is why Jefferson chose the Charlottesville country side, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, to build his home, Monticello, and to found the University of Va. Charlottesville is a cultural hub permeating with a laid-back, enjoy-life attitude, and one of the best places to experience this first-hand is on the Historic Downtown Mall. Closed to vehicles, the Downtown Mall is a brick-paved, pedestrian-friendly row of lively restaurants, cafés, and bars—most with outdoor seating under the tall, shady oak tress, and many amplified in the evening with live local jazz, rock, funk, and more. If you decide to choose a life amidst the beauty, peace, serenity and security of the Blue Ridge Mountains, you will find that at any one time, the market offers a broad selection of properties and Va homes for sale, from Colonial farm houses to Jefferson-type estates in a wide range of prices. In addition, the market for attractive and luxurious Virginia homes for sale extends up and down the valley, from Northern to Central Va. stretching beyond the mountains to the eastern shore beaches. Take a tour in whatever location you choose with one of our qualified relocation agents or find your perfect luxury home within our pages and pages of featured property listings drawn from area association MLS multiple listing services. We offer a wide range of properties, land, houses, luxury real estate and homes for sale by owner - whether it is a country cottage or an elegant estate with farm land in Albemarle County, Va., or a condominium in Northern Virginia, we specialize in representing your interests in all aspects of the contractual process and promise to find the best available property at the best price. Our Virginia realtors and agents list some the most beautiful properties and homes and land for sale in the Charlottesville MLS/IDX, Richmond area real estate, the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Va, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, and Middleburg. Our selected luxury estates, residential homes, Virginia horse farms, land and equestrian real estate property range from any where around $250,000 to well over $1 million. With a plethora of beautiful estates, manor homes, luxury real estate, Virginia farms and down-home country estates, the great countryside of Virginia is a sanctuary for those looking to escape "the big-city life". Please make sure that you look through all of our estates, land and farm listings from Charlottesville, Richmond and Northern Virginia. Quick Site Map Welcome to Virginia | Virginia Home | Our Realtors & Agents | State Photo Tour | Va Realtor Services | Real Estate Services Statewide Exceptional Homes | Charlottesville, Albemarle Co. Homes | Charlottesville MLS Search | Richmond Va Real Estate Scottsville Homes for Sale in Albemarle Co. | Lynchburg, Va, Amherst County Homes | Staunton Va, Augusta Co. Real Estate Nelson County, Va, Wintergreen Properties | Madison. 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MSN Money - 6 reasons your home isn't selling MSN Home Hotmail My MSN Sign In Money S earch MSN Money: Help Home News Banking Investing Planning Taxes My Money Portfolio Loans Insurance Banking Home My Accounts Bill Pay Mortgages/Loans Services Credit Reports Financial Tools Track your bills Resources Decision Centers Home Buying Guide Home Financing Your Credit Rating Financial Privacy Better Banking Credit Card Smarts Bankruptcy Guide Commentary Index Related Links Manage Debt More on Budgeting Print-friendly version Send this to a friend Tap your home for extra cash Mortgage rates in your area Your credit score in seconds Home mortgage FAQs Find It! Article Index Finance Q&A Tools Index Site Map Recent articles by Bankrate.com: Will I lose my frequent-flier miles? , 10/6/2005 Should you insure your airline tickets? , 9/26/2005 10 after-the-disaster do's and don'ts , 9/21/2005 More... Related Articles Speed your home sale with these fast fix-ups The hidden financial truth about remodeling Smart -- and stupid -- ways to pay for your remodel The Basics 6 reasons your home isn't selling advertisement So, you're in agony because your home has languished on the market week after week. Here are some culprits that may be keeping buyers away in droves. By Bankrate.com Has your lawn grown up around that "For Sale" sign? Have the wasps moved into the lock box on your front door? Did you just receive an invitation to your real estate agent's retirement party? If so, chances are your home sale fizzled. Here are the six most-common reasons why homes don't sell and what you can do about it. Your home is overpriced Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, "There's a buyer for every home." But they often leave off the qualifier: "at the buyer's price." Find a loan that's right for you at the Loan Center The fact is that buyers, not sellers, ultimately determine the market value of a home. You can ask for the moon and set your listing price well above comparable properties in your neighborhood, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller, to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth. Overpricing is the most common reason homes don't sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a process that often works against you. Here's why: Most real estate agents, and hence most qualified buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced by as little as 5%, it will be duly noted and interest in your property will wane, especially if you show no intention of coming off your asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you manage to find a buyer at your inflated asking price, the property may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart. Your real estate agent may have approved or even suggested the inflated asking price to secure your listing. Conversely, other agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help sell their own listings. ("Here's what they are asking. Now would you like to take a second look at that first house I showed you?") "If you have a house that really should be priced at $200,000 and you've got it listed at $260,000, you are trying to compete against homes that really are worth close to $300,000 and all of a sudden your home really is not competing well," says Jeri Fisher of Jeri Fisher Real Estate in Missoula, Mont. "You want to compete with what is available out there among homes similar to yours." If your home remains on the market for too long, agents and buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, perhaps more serious reasons why it isn't selling. "It becomes shopworn, the same as a jacket hanging in the store week after week," says Fisher. "People are aware that it has been on the market a long time and agents stop showing it." Your home doesn't 'show' well Your home is competing against shiny new houses in those pristine subdivisions out in the suburbs with their attractive prices, incentives and community amenities. Face it: Even the best old house needs a little makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer. The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a few attractive window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila! The place may look good enough to reconsider. A good real estate agent can advise you on where your time and money are best spent. "Price and condition are two things that the seller can do something about," says Fisher. "I always give people my 'honey-do' list. I think paint is probably a seller's best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh. If it's time to paint, it's time to paint. It's the best return on investment." You're in a bad location Nothing has a greater effect on your home's value than its location. Your humble abode might be worth a king's ransom were it located in Palm Beach, Aspen or San Francisco. It might even jump thousands in value just two streets over in the next (and far superior) school district. "If you're in one of the higher-ranked schools around here, you're going to add $50,000 to $100,000 to the price of the same house," says Lenn Harley, a broker with Homefinders.com Inc. in Maryland and Virginia. The point is, location rules in real estate. If your home's location is less than desirable, your options are somewhat limited. A good real estate agent will do his best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise. The best way to compensate for a poor location is to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such as seller financing or a lease option with rent credit. You have a lousy listing agent Yep, they exist: Real estate agents who mislead, misfire and misbehave. Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time, money and the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7. The agent from hell will allow you to overprice your home ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with me!"), not market it properly, fail to screen for qualified buyers, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell their own listing, they don't have to split the commission) and keep you totally in the dark throughout the process. What's more, if your agent is abrasive, arrogant or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers. You are battling competition or market conditions We've all heard the terms "buyer's market" and "seller's market." In real estate, market conditions are affected by any number of external forces, some of them predictable (the weather, sort of), some of them unpredictable (the local economy, interest rates, public optimism or pessimism). In a "hot" or seller's market, homes go fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered more than your listing price. But in a "flat," "cold" or buyer's market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated (i.e., paying on two mortgages). If you're trying to sell in a flat market, you're not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for less than top dollar, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings once again in your favor. You have ineffective marketing Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing with the local multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer. Today's top performers launch a multilevel marketing plan that includes listing tours for area agents, newspaper and even TV ads, weekend open houses, listing fliers and placements in local real estate publications. Computers and the Internet also have changed the face of real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, today more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for house hunting. The best real estate agents are computer-savvy. They have your listing in color on their laptops to show clients and communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working with out-of-town buyers. Suffice it to say that if your real estate agent isn't listing your home online through the company Web site as well as with the local MLS, you may not be getting the exposure necessary to find a buyer. "There are those who just put the listing in the multiple and pray it will sell and those that put a lot of effort into marketing their listings," says Fisher. "Unfortunately, with this weird system of compensation we have, they all get paid the same, whether they know nothing or have many years of experience." 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WorldProperties.com - where you find Distinctive International Real Estate Brought to you by REALTOR.COM® -- Over 3 million properties around the world WORLDPROPERTIES.com, the place to find International Properties. Member Login Username: Password: Forgot your password? New User? Click here. ICREA Countries Select a Country Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Greece India Ireland Italy Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Russia Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States Venezuela Resources International Properties -- Find a Professional Find a Transnational Referral Certified (TRC) Professional Events Calendar National Association Data ICREA Member Center Global News ICREA News International News Abstracts Asia/Pacific Rim North/South/Central America & Caribbean Europe Africa/Middle East About ICREA Who is ICREA? International Principles of Conduct Value to the Real Estate Practitioner Value to the Consumer Value to Real Estate Associations ICREA Structure Joining ICREA Search Distinctive Properties : View all Properties: REGION Select a Region Andean Balkan States British Isles Caribbean Central & Eastern Europe Central America Central Asia Mediterranean North America Northern Europe Oceania Patagonia Riviera Scandinavia South America South East Asia/pacific/pacific Rim Western Europe COUNTRY CITY Select a Country Argentina Australia Bahamas Belize Brazil Canada Costa Rica Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Finland France Germany Greece Honduras India Ireland Italy Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Poland Portugal Russia Spain Sweden United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Venezuela CURRENCY PRICE MAX AUD - Australian Dollar VEB - Bolivar BRL - Brazilian Real CAD - Canadian Dollar CZK - Czech Koruna DKK - Danish Krone EUR - Euro HKD - Hong Kong Dollar INR - Indian Rupee MXN - Mexican Peso NZD - New Zealand Dollar NOK - Norwegian Krone GBP - Pound Sterling RUB - Russian Ruble SGD - Singapore Dollar SEK - Swedish Krona USD - US Dollar KRW - Won PLN - Zloty No maximum 100,000 300,000 500,000 700,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 5,000,000 7,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000 50,000,000 More Search Options | Maps RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES Select a Country Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Greece India Ireland Italy Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Poland Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States Venezuela COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES Select a Country Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Czech Republic Finland France India Ireland Italy Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Spain United Kingdom United States Venezuela WorldProperties.com is the official web site of the The International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA) , a Consortium of the world’s leading real estate associations committed to the right to own and transfer real property. ICREA sets standards for international real estate practice and facilitates worldwide real estate transactions through its website, WorldProperties.com. Contact ICREA at consortium@realtors.org . Learn More About ICREA Who is ICREA? International Principles of Conduct Value to the Consumer Value to the Real Estate Practitioner Value to Real Estate Associations Joining ICREA Site Map |-- Find a Home | Find a Professional | ICREA Member Center | Country Information Contact ICREA | Email Technical Questions | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy . © 2002-2005 International Consortium of Real Estate Associations All rights reserved. *