Managing Home Maintenance Costs

Would you invest in something that purports to be green energy? What if the cost is higher than the regular price for current technology? How much of your own money are you willing to spend to support the green energy approach? This is the question that many people are asking themselves and many are saying, no, I will only purchase an item or invest in something as long as it is a short term good deal and makes sense in the short term for them. They may be giving up savings in the long term and als not contributing to Green Energy

Green Energy – The Simple Light Bulb

Many customers would rather spend sixty cents on an incandescent light bulb vs. a fluorescent light bulb which may cost several dollars. LED’s are even more expensive and the initial cost is a huge deterrent to going green. Never mind the fact that from a pure economic perspective the LED bulb because of it’s long life and low electrical usage is far superior than the incandescent bulb. Somehow we have to get over the initial cost shock for things that are green energy.

Hybrid Cars

Hybrid cars and all electric cars have the same problem. The sticker price shock is too much for many car buyers when you can purchase the same non hybrid car for much less. This increase in price for these cars makes the economic argument to go green much more difficult to deal with when you have to pay several thousand dollars more for the same car.

Would You Invest in a Green Energy Company?

It turns out that a company who is investing in green energy technology is much more difficult to get off the ground. A software company that starts up in a garage just needs a couple of computers and some smart guys who have a great idea and understand how to program the software.

Green energy technology companies on the other hand are working on technology that costs a lot of money just to get started and develop. In some cases you need millions of dollars to demonstrate how you can save or reduce energy consumption. Venture capital firms are very careful not to sink a great deal of money into these companies, because you can quickly lose a great deal on a technology that does not produce the savings that they are looking for.

Long Term Energy Trends

There definitely is a long term trend to create devices that use less electricity, that generate electricity for consumers and reduce the overall consumption. The same applies to the use of fuel whether it is gasoline, propane or natural gas.

Every time a consumer purchases something that consumes energy, we believe that they should do the quick math to evaluate how long it will take to pay for the item based on savings that they should derive from using this device. If it pays for itself in less time than the expected life of the item then you are ahead of the game. Light bulbs clearly fall into this category as well as high efficiency furnaces and water heaters.

Make an informed decision every time you purchase something. Ensure that you are saving yourself money over the long term when you take into account the purchase cost and the operating cost of several alternatives. That’s our view of investing in green energy in 2013.

You have probably heard all kinds of figures quoted and bandied around about the new electric cars. The Volt is one of these cars that is now out on the market. We were wondering what it really does cost to drive one of these cars. How does the electric car operating costs compare to traditional gasoline cars? We have always been able to depend on EPA fuel standards to tell us how cars compared in using gasoline. But what about electric vehicles. There are three kinds of vehicles now. The standard gasoline or diesel driven vehicle. There are the hybrids that have both gasoline and electric driven power trains. Then there are the pure electric cars that need to b charged every night.

Electric Car Operating Costs

Miles Per Gallon Equivalent

The Volt is supposed to get 99 miles per gallon equivalent, while the Nissan Leaf gets 93 MPGe. These figures come from recognized government agencies who look at this kind of thing and provide a way for us consumers to compare one type of car with another that has a totally different power source.

Combined Efficiency Numbers

When a car like the Volt is running on electricity it is supposed to be able to get 99MPGe, however, it can only do this for an estimated 35 miles on a full charge. After that, the gasoline engine takes over and provides power to the batteries which take the cost up and the MPGe down to approximately 37 MPG. Depending on the mix of driving you do on average this combined number will vary a great deal. Again the government people suggest on average a driver should expect 60MPGe. This number will vary greatly depending on your driving habits.

How Does the Consumer Really Know What the Efficiency Is

For me, it all comes down to dollars. We can figure out what the cost per mile is for a regular car simply by taking the total cost to fill up a tank full of gas and dividing that by how far we can drive on that tank of gas. Some people will go further than others based on their own driving habits. Consumers can figure their own personal numbers out on their own.

The same applies to hybrid and pure electric vehicles. Monitor your electrical usage and the associated cost. Next, divide the cost by the number of miles you can drive or have driven and you will have a valid comparison of the cost per mile.

Fortunately, the experts have done this for us and we do not have to track all of these numbers. It appears that a Nissan Leaf would cost about $561 a year if driven 15,000 miles. A  Nissan Versa which is a similar sized car power by gasoline is going to cost approximately $1444 per year if it is also driven 15000 miles. This is a savings of almost $900 per year! The Chevrolet Volt is calculated to cost about $600 a year and the Chevrolet Cruze about $1600 a year or a savings of about a $1000 a year.

Should Consumers Purchase An Electric Vehicle

The other factors that need to be considered are the original cost to purchase these vehicles after government subsidies are include must also be compared. The electric and hybrid car costs more than the traditional gasoline-powered cars due to the economies of scale. There are hundreds of thousands of them being manufactured every year. It will be several years before you break even on the cost of the car with the decreased operating costs.

The other two important factors to consider is how well they hold their value when it comes time to trade or sell them and what the long term maintenance costs will be when you take into account the batteries which must be replaced at some point. The jury is still out on these numbers.

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What training does your building manager need? How much past experience does your property manager have? Does he have experience with the systems that you use? For example, maybe you’re using a new computer system to keep track of all work activities. As well as reporting of expenses. You may want to train him on these items. There may also be training required on specialist pieces of equipment.

In addition a building manager is interfacing with your customers all of the time. They represent the owner of the building in all things. Items such as customer relationship management. If you are getting lots of complaints from tenants, you may want to find out what the fundamental issues are. Consequently you may want to initiate some sort of training to deal with it. The building manager really represents you to your customers. As a result as a property owner, it makes sense to hire the best!

Building Manager Training – What is Needed

Every buildings needs are different. High rise vs. townhouse condo. Residential vs. commercial buildings.  All have different kinds of equipment that are used to maintain the property outside. As well as to maintain the indoor common elements of property. This could be as simple as making sure that they’ve read all of the instruction booklets and maintenance booklets. Have they developed and adhere to a maintenance program.

Local by laws as well as State or provincial laws change from time to time. It could be as simple as making sure that they read all of the notices. Or for a particularly complex piece of legislation, there may be a one-day seminar training session.

Accounting software updates occur all of the time.

Building Manager Training – CRM Systems

CRM systems or customer relationship management systems are also upgraded on a regular basis. Anytime there is a change property managers who enter information into the CRM system should be re-trained. It could be as short as a one hour seminar. Or you may need a more in-depth session for more complex updates and changes.

Equipment training is also valuable to ensure that the equipment is handled properly. Focus on safety  for the operator as well as individuals that may be in close contact with the equipment.

Communication skills on the job are extremely important in dealing with prospective clients, clients and owners. Can your property manager use better communication skills in terms of verbal and written activities? There are one-day training seminars available.

There are always special needs of the job that require training from time to time. Hence you have a choice of either letting the property manager or the person operating equipment etc. experiment. Also you can train them properly so that they will operate it in a safe manner. In addition avoid accidents that could damage the property. Train the operator.

For more information about building management and property management services, click here.

No one wants to refinish hardwood flooring by themselves. It is a lot of work if you do it yourself and there’s usually dust that just permeates the entire house. This makes for a big cleaning job after the job of installing or refinishing a hardwood floor is completed. Also most people do not have the time to do the job quickly due to work situations and other commitments. As a result a couple days worth of work can stretch into weeks or longer.

At some point it needs to be done if you want your home to look fantastic and be presentable. There is a proper way to refinish hardwood floors that can save you or at least reduce the amount of work that needs to be done. Here’s our suggested step-by-step approach.

Refinishing Hardwood Flooring – Steps

Remove all furniture, window coverings etc from the room

Seal doors and vents to try and reduce the amount of dust that will travel throughout the house. If you have a furnace, central air furnace or central air-conditioning turn this off so that dust is not sucked from the room and blown throughout the rest of the house.

Open windows in the room that the floor is being refinished

Start sanding only in the direction of the grain. If you sand across the grain, there will be scratch marks all over your floor that will be amplified when you apply the stain and/or verathane at the end of the job.

Use a sander that comes with a vacuum to trap as much dust as you possibly can. The vacuum should either exit outside the house through the window or terminate in a bag which you need to empty often.

Use an inline sander, never an orbital sander to avoid leaving marks across the grain

Vacuum up all saw dust once you’re finished sanding to get as much dust as possible out of the room.

Wipe up all dust with a tack cloth to remove all dust and avoid leaving marks on your refinished hardwood floor.

Apply several coats of finish. Sand in between each coat. Use your tack cloth to capture all dust that is left by from sanding the floor. Once these steps are completed, you should have a really great looking floor that adds value to your home

Refinishing Hardwood Flooring – Summary

The last point that we wanted to offer readers is to suggest that if you are unsure about something, speak to experts at the hardware store where you purchase you materials. They will often offer classes to help people learn how to refinish floors and other home renovation projects. These can be quite helpful and are usually free to people who sign up.

Looking after a car is actually pretty easy if you follow the manufacturer’s instructions for car maintenance and are a little bit observant as well as you approach your car and while you are driving your car. Consumers can avoid major expense if they follow some of these important car maintenance tips and checks. If you can do some of this work yourself you will save money. Today’s cars are better than they were even 10 years ago and aside from oil changes, brake jobs and muffler replacement they do not need a lot of maintenance if you look after them. The trick is to react quickly to any unusual noise or change in the operation of your car and have it looked after before it becomes a major problem.

Observe Your Car

Before you even get into your car take a quick look at the tires to make sure that the tires are fully and properly inflated. A low pressure tire will cause your car to be unstable at high speeds, will heat the tire up and could cause it to blow while you are driving. Also a low pressure tire will lower your gas mileage as well.

Observe the tire tread to make sure it is wearing evenly. Signs of uneven tire wear indicate that your tires are not properly balanced or that your car needs a front end alignment. Premature tire wear usually means a new set of tires earlier than normally expected which is very expensive.

Last check for any fluids under the engine. You may see water from the air conditioner and that is about all. If you see engine oil, brake fluid or antifreeze, have your car checked immediately.

Before you move the car always make sure that there are no obstacles to hit behind it before you back out of the driveway or the parking spot that you are in.

Listen While Driving

Get to know your car’s sounds when everything is working perfectly. Unusual sounds may mean something is going on that you need to address. For example squealing brakes can mean new brake pads are needed. Vibration in the steering wheel and loud road noise might mean a front end alignment is needed.

A screeching sound each time you accelerate can mean a lot of things including loose belts, low fluid in the transmission and so on. Take it in to get it checked before permanent damage is done to the car.

When you first drive off in the morning, turn off the radio. Just listen to the car for a few minutes as you drive off. This is the time to learn if there are any issues you need to be aware of. Loud tapping noise from the engine can mean anything. Including a cold engine, to low oil in the engine, to the wrong gasoline being used in your car. The engine is an expensive component. You need to get this checked before something catastrophic occurs.

Important Car Maintenance

These are the basics of what you need to focus on for important car maintenance. If you are comfortable checking fluid levels, the following should be checked at least once a month or more often depending on how much you drive:

• Engine oil
• Transmission oil
• Antifreeze
• Brake fluid
• Power steering fluid
• Windshield fluid

Make sure these are all at the proper level as instructed by your car’s manual and you should be good.

A text message system operated by the telco is the most common text message system that most people are familiar with. For a fixed monthly price you can usually find text message system services that are unlimited. In other words you can send as many text messages every month as you want perfect smoke price.

Increasingly there are Online text message systems that are being offered by online Internet companies. These companies include Skype, WhatsApp and iMessage are three examples. Skype and WhatsApp will operate across any platform. Including android and Apple smart phones. For example iMessage will only operate on Apple system and they are free to all Apple smart phone users. Hence the bottom line is that you must have a smart phone to be able to run these particular applications.

Text Message System – Manage from Your Desktop

Some text message systems can be Managed from your desk top. Skype for example can be used on your desktop as well as your smartphone providing significant flexibility and capability.

Set up tracking and reports if you need to keep track of the messages that are sent by text to your customers acquaintances or friends. There are applications available to run text message campaigns for marketing and sales activities. As well as sending alerts to customers. Also to general populations who carry smart phones and phones that are capable of receiving text messages.

Text Message System – Use Your Smart Phone

Another neat feature about using Apple iPhones and iPads when sending text messages is that if you have an iPhone and iPad linked on the same account. Copies of your text messages will be on both devices.

This is particularly useful if you use a combination of an iPhone while on the road and an iPad in the office or in your hotel room at night. Having the flexibility of these text messages on both systems provide you with a great deal more information and control. The convenience alone is worth having both of these devices. At times you may want to use the larger iPad. When you are at a meeting, going for a coffee, etc, you may want to only carry the iPhone. With either device you will always have the confidence of knowing that you are on top of your text messages at all times.

These apps are being upgraded all of the time. Recently, they have enabled voice recordings, pictures and videos to be attached to these message systems. They are no longer just text messages system, they have evolved into something much more powerful.

For more information about text messaging, click here.

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