A building that I manage is potentially going “green” after everything is finalized, which to the benefit of all the unit owners, will assuredly earn their condo hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of years and will eliminate the electricity bill for all their common areas, boiler, surveillance cameras, alarms and anything else that is contributing to wasting their “hard-earned dollars” that can be saved and now deposited to our reserve “rainy day” fund.
We will also be able to have several major tenants buying their electricity at slightly below market cost and paying the condominium instead of PSEG. This additional
and substantial revenue will also be deposited into our reserve fund too! We have predicted that assessments will possibly be much lower and if we are in an excellent financial position, possibly eliminated, all together!
Fortunately, since I have taken over the managing aspect, we haven’t had an increase in common charges going on 12 years, due to watching and cutting expenses the best way and to the benefit of our building. Also, I believe we were the only building in our area that had no reductions in sale prices from the “calamity and horrendous crashing of our real estate market in 2008!
Now we will be in an even more secure, stable and very strong financial position for years to come, all things being equal and no one blows the earth out into space! Otherwise, we will all be playing cards together upstairs and nothing will matter anyway, right?
Some, however, will be going down below in the opposite direction and need I say who? There will be many if the end is near, who will be going down without many good memories to take with them; just memories of their possessions, that’s all, because there won’t be any U-Hauls behind their hearses! No way, Ray!
Back to business!
So what do you think will be the value of a condo, co-op, home or even a commercial building if and when the owners decide to go really “green.”
Most important that I failed to mention, is that we all need to think environmentally, so we will not have to take SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space enterprise or Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Space ships to cultivate another planet called “MARS” or any other intergalactic space journeys to existing or new planets to be discovered.
So everyone should gain knowledge and become informed by integrating new cutting edge information and being open to new ideas.
By seeking out estimates for any renewable energy technologies to not only reduce and conserve our priceless resources (Solar panels, energy cells, combined heat and power, tri-generation, thermal or any other green technology or future technologies that are coming down the pike).
There is no doubt in my “professional mind” that values of all properties with the usage of these various forms of technologies will be much more valuable going forward; as we save energy, reduce our carbon footprint and emissions, save our environment and our planet, especially our “one of a kind” ozone layer that is hurting all of us on our “one and only” earth!
Greta Thunberg, the youngest environmental activist in history at 16 years old, who has single-handedly with assistance, spear-headed this incredible awareness about our polluting the globe, in all sorts of ways, surely has deserved her alternative Nobel prize for climate change activism!
She has made everyone who cares, aware of what the heck is going on by succeeding in making millions of people turn anxieties about our planet into a worldwide massive movement towards global change!
Moreover, the commercial real estate sector needs to become much more aware and cognizant of recycling and conserving their enormous usage of our world’s energy supplies! Local towns need to consider having all their commercial tenants and unit owners to begin recycling and consider installing and using renewable energy technologies in whatever fashion enables them to save and increase their profitability.
Also, keep in mind there are trillions of plastic materials that have been continually dumped in all our oceans, that you can be sure and know that all our fish are consuming and so are we.
By changing our inconsiderate and selfish ways and behaviors, this, in turn, will result in a healthier eco-system, for all of us as well as for everyone’s future generations. In addition, this will bode well for greater increases in our property values now and going forward and a greater opportunity for our properties whether residential or commercial to decrease our energy use. We will all be in a more beneficial position in being more progressive in thoughts and actions in saving our wonderful and miraculous planet!
Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 Great Neck. He has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute and a Certified International Property Specialist. If you have any questions or concerns or ideas for his column, he can be reached by email, at:Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com, or by cell: (516) 647-4289.
