Equifax Finance Blog writer Mechel Glass shares some tips in her article Need Extra Cash? Host a Yard Sale.

First, you need to pick a date for the yard sale. Some last for the entire weekend while others are a one-day affair. Once you select the date, make sure and get any necessary approval from your homeowner’s association or local government. Also, some neighborhoods designate a specific weekend or two each year for yard sales and do not allow yard sales at any other time.

Second, try and recruit neighbors to help. Turning your yard sale into a multi-family yard sale can increase traffic and allow for greater advertising.

Third, be sure and promote your yard sale heavily. You can check your local newspaper for yard-sale specific ads. Online sites like Craigslist.org or garagesalesource.com have resources to help with advertising. Be sure to be descriptive about some of the key items you have – baby items, collectibles, furniture, etc. If there are many families taking part in the sale, use terms like “multi-family” or “neighborhood sale” to help let buyers know.

To ensure that your yard sale is a success, be sure and read Glass’ full article.

Moving Planet is a day in which the entire world is asked to make a call for climate action and move beyond fossil fuels.

On that day, people are urged to bike, skate, march, run or walk to send out the message that our climate needs help.

There will be groups moving around national capitals, state houses and city halls, and others hosting their own Moving Planet Day events.

One such organization will be taking participants on a bike tour of metro Chicago real estate that promotes sustainability to the neighborhoods of suburban Oak Park.

You might know that Oak Park, Illinois, was the city in which the greatest architect of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright, spent the first 20 years of his career.

But did you know that the term “organic architecture” — the practice of building a structure to unite seamlessly with the nature around it — is a term that was coined by Wright? The practice is widely used in green building today.

While Wright’s Oak Park home and studio are not on Saturday’s tour, the event is sure to inspire all homeowners to add green initiatives to their own abodes.

To learn more about the Oak Park bike tour or Moving Planet Day, please check out our story at ChicagolandRealEstateForum.com.

Happy moving!

HomeAid will work alongside Decatur Cooperative Ministry and WellHome in the project.

The project also has national significance. This particular retrofit is the first undertaking of HomeAid America’s national Environmental Sustainability Program. Funded by a $600,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation, the program aims to benefit existing facilities for the homeless by retrofitting and installing energy-efficient upgrades.

Decatur Cooperative Ministry, a nonprofit organization serving homeless families in the Decatur and DeKalb area, operates the home that will undergo the retrofit. DCM and HomeAid’s partnership is a longstanding one as the two are united in their efforts to provide for the temporarily homeless.

To-do items include air sealing, insulating the attic and crawl space, adding a radiant barrier to the roof rafters, tightening ducts, installing energy-efficient lighting and repairing the roof.

General Electric has donated energy-efficient home appliances and lighting that will be installed to make the house greener.

When the retrofit is finished, the home’s energy efficiency will be increase, cutting down on operating costs and utility bills. The modifications from the retrofit are estimated to reduce the home’s energy usage by about 40 percent.

For more information about HomeAid Atlanta or The Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, visit the organizations online.

“We worked with our suppliers to identify affordable energy-efficient products that will provide a good return on investment over the life of the home,” said Mitch Block, marketing director for The Orchards Group.

Thus the Eco-Comfort home was born! Ground has been broken on this home at its popular Forsyth County community The Orchards of Brannon Oak Farm.

Usually a $10,900 upgrade on the Winston, the smart buyer who purchases this demonstration home at Brannon Oak Farm will pay only $7,900.  Specific upgraded features are available individually or as a package.

The Eco-Comfort Home package includes:

• A tankless hot water system with a re-circulating pump providing instant hot water.
• A high-efficiency heating and air conditioning system.
• A radiant barrier between the roof shingles and the attic which keeps the attic (and house) 20% cooler.
• Increased insulation for greater hot and cold protection.
• Water saving Dual flush commodes.

The home features the Winston plan. This floor plan features two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a room that can be a parlor or a third bedroom.  The model has a living and dining room open to the kitchen, a sunroom, a screened porch, a large master bedroom with walk-in closet and true walk-up attic storage. Eco-Comfort features, availability and pricing may vary in other floor plans.

For more information on the Eco-Comfort home, visit The Orchards Group’s website.

Several important topics and courses that will be offered include:

• Advanced Green Building: Building Science (two-day session)
• Advanced Green Building: Project Management (two-day session)
• Business Management for Building Professionals
• Green Building for Building Professionals (two-day session)
• Power Hour Breakout Sessions with product demos

People who attend the Advanced Green Building sessions will be happy to know that they count towards receiving the new Master Certified Green Professional designation. In addition to these sessions, there are networking opportunities, breakout sessions and over 100 exhibits for people to meet other green building professionals and learn about the latest trends. Attendees will also be taken on a Home Tour where they will see real-world examples of green principles. And for those who want to see who’s been making a splash in the industry, the NAHB Green Building Awards Dinner will be held at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center.

Whether you’re a builder, remodeler, developer, product manufacturer or home inspector, the National Green Building Conference & Expo can benefit you. The conference takes place at the Salt Palace Convention Center  from May 1 through 3 with pre-conference courses on April 27 through 30.

For more information and to register, visit the NAHB website.

On the surface, social media may not seem like an integral or even necessary piece of green building marketing. However, more and more, consumers are turning to the internet to find out about the latest in energy efficiency and green building practices. Those in the green building industry who use tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and Twitter to promote their products and services will find that they can drive more traffic to their sites and set themselves apart from their competition.

To help RESNET attendees navigate through the world of social media, Mitch Levinson, mRELEVANCE, LLC managing partner, is presenting a seminar today. During his discussion, Mitch will teach participates how to use social media and key words to promote their businesses and develop relationships with consumers.

The session will teach:

• How to increase exposure through the use of social media tools
• What social media tool are out there and what works best based on individual needs
• Real-life examples of social media and their influence on the marketplace

For more information about RESNET, visit the website. If you’re unable to attend the conference, but still want to incorporate these tools in your marketing plan, contact Mitch at mRELEVANCE.

About the Project:
Project Location: 3310 Shoshone St in NW Denver

Owner / GC: Urban Green Development

Project Goal: A fundraising project to showcase and network sustainable building contractors and green suppliers.

Background: Being built in one of Denver’s “hot spot” building neighborhoods, NW Denver’s historic Highland area, “The Green Cube” will be the city’s first LEED Platinum single family home, the highest sustainable/built green rating possible. When complete the home is expected use just 40% of the energy of a code built home.
The home is scheduled to open in late fall off 2011 as a Green Built Show Home in conjunction with U.S. Built Green Council, and will be featured on the DIY Network throughout the process. The home will bring together area contractors, suppliers using sustainable and reusable products as well as serve as a fundraising project to support an annual scholarship fund enabling North High students to pursue careers in the Green Building Industry. When complete the Show Home will host tours, open houses, seminars and special events all raising money for North High career scholarships.

The Show Home will host 3,000-5,000 trade professionals and consumers during the month of July 2011 The project offers the opportunity to partner and network with the nearly 100 green trades, suppliers and services required to build the home from start to finish. Please contact Brett Robben at 303-433-6212 or email brettrobben@comcast.net

The 2010 WasteWise award winners were:

Better World Books, Georgia — This company collects and sells new and used books online. They also donate a portion of each sale to help literacy initiatives worldwide.  In 2009 alone, the company recycled 7,090 tons of materials, which is equivalent to removing 2,900 passenger vehicles from the road for one year in terms of carbon dioxide output.

Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp (FCCC), South Carolina — Freightliner is the nation’s largest producer of diesel-powered chassis for the RV and walk-in van industry.  By taking a ‘green’ initiative, the company has gone from dumping 125 tons of solid waste per month in January 2008 to zero landfilling in September 2009. Not only is this great news for the environment, but it has also saved FCCC $157,598 in 2009 alone.

Fetter Group, Kentucky – Fetter Group, a printing company out of Louisville, has switched to reusable plastic shipping boxes and no longer uses “proof approval stickers,” eliminating the production of more than 10,000 proof stickers per year.  In 2009, Fetter Group was able to add $250,000 to its bottom line through its efforts to reduce waste.

Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Legal Services –The Division has implemented several environmentally friendly practices. Its paper reduction efforts saved Florida taxpayers more than $1 million in 2009.  TBy switching to electronic processing tools, paper use was reduced by 1.5 million pages per year, saving  more than $85,000.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division, Tradeport Complex – In 2009, employees recycled 100 tons of traditional recyclables and diverted one ton of used coffee grounds for use in home compost bins. These efforts saved taxpayers almost $6,500 and eliminated greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to nearly 37,000 gallons of gasoline.

The WasteWise program is a free, voluntary partnership that helps businesses reduce their environmental impact and find cost savings through innovative waste reduction and recycling activities. Currently, over 2,700 participants and endorsers are involved in the program.

For more information on the WasteWise program and the award winners, visit http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/events/2010awardees.htm.

“The key is value for every stakeholder in the process,” from the manufacturer to the builder and the home buyer, said Richard Davenport, director of sustainable construction for BASF.

The good news, said Kohler’s Rob Zimmerman, is that product manufacturers have been able to focus on the creation of new technology during the current building downturn “that will make green building more affordable.”

“Our commitment is to use our resources wisely,” said Christine Marvin of Marvin Windows and Doors.

The speakers at the event were sponsoring the NAHB’s fourth annual Green Day, an event that commemorates growth in green, energy-efficient and sustainable homebuilding and remodeling practices.

The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 160,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, design, housing finance, other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. NAHB is affiliated with 800 state and local home builders associations around the country.

For more information, visit the NAHB website.

The builder, S & A Homes based out of Penn. and West Va., along with IBACOS, the Department of Energy, and other home builders were ecstatic to introduce what could become standard for homes as technology progresses.

This zero net energy home will be a continuous research project for S & A Homes and especially IBACOS, of Pittsburgh,  Penn., a think-tank leading builders in quality and energy efficiency. The project goal is to see how the average family can conserve energy living in a home that is made for energy efficiency entirely.

The only home of its kind so far, pricing and design options haven’t been discussed at length yet, because the home’s still being carefully analyzed for effectiveness, and judged on how its design will fit into the home market in general.

Innovative new technologies and designs have been worked into every aspect of the zero net energy home, with “green” features like:

• A looping horizontal heat pump system, a few feet beneath the home, using geothermal energy (the home is additionally installed with a traditional well system also, to compare the efficiency of each)
• R-40 insulation, installed within 2×8 exterior walls with staggered 2×4 construction, to keep more heat inside in the cold months, and outside in the hot months
• All LED and CFL lighting, on image sensors to minimize electricity usage

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony this month, a lucky family of four will move into the model home, for analysis of their energy usage and home habits. Over the next two years, IBACOS will be able to see how things are used, how energy efficient the home can be, and what works best or needs to be improved with the design of the home.

This way when zero net energy homes become more common, they can determine cost compared to value of these homes, to make them as affordable and  beneficial as possible. To see more information about the first zero net energy home, visit the S & A Homes website.