Today’s meeting had refreshments provided by the always generous Jean Peterson of Five Star Bank. The meeting was led by Jackie Patrick of Shasta Homes Realty-Premiere Properties, who usually keeps a lower profile. Did you know she’s been in real estate for more than 30 years, and in the mid-1990’s, was President of the Northern California Chapter of the CRS (Council of Residential Specialists)? Always much to learn at these meetings. Our mortgage minute mostly revolved around the gloriously low interest rates currently available. There was an announcement that the Wacky Golf Tournament had been called off. Bummer.

Jean Hall stepped up to the podium with news about Point of Sale initiatives that could affect you. State Senator Jim Nielson’s bill to kill the POS Septic requirements died, leaving possible new septic system regulations for you to contend with on every rural transaction. Also in the news are Water Conservation measures that must be implemented at Point of Sale. That will be another thing for you to be responsible for overseeing, along with smoke detectors, and water heater straps, and whatever else they can think up. She also brought alarming news that there is an initiative being formed to replace the DRE with oversight from a Finance Board.  Stay tuned for more from Jean.  Also bear in mind that when the membership asks you to contact your representative for a Legislative Red Alert, only a small percentage of you do so. That remains one of the most powerful (and inexpensive) ways for our member’s voices to be heard. Don’t ignore the Alert requests! The average transaction is complicated enough already, and your livelihood may depend on your representatives hearing your voice.

Today’s main topic was renewable energy systems for homes, farms and businesses. We heard descriptions of renewable energy from Ken Mackie who teaches at Shasta College and is a partner at Eco-Technology Solutions, along with Richard Mackie. They placed a lot of emphasis on Solar, but mostly Wind energy as a way to cut costs and carbon for local citizens. Wind energy is tough to harness inside the Redding City Limits due to restrictive zoning and geophysical wind patterns, but Wind Power may be the most effective renewable generation method in the county. Also, Richard thinks our many small streams may represent an untapped Micro-Hydro source of green energy production for small landowners, as these systems are starting to become cost effective. With energy costs expected to keep rising, and the calls to reduce greenhouse gasses becomes ever more urgent, these systems continue to become more practical.  

A topic of interest to members was valuation of homes equipped with renewable energy systems. Not only is the investment value high, but the systems also reduce future energy costs. All of that needs to be factored in to produce a value. Many of these systems have high up-front costs before they pay off. Richard mentioned a program implemented in the Bay Area under Assembly Bill 811 that puts the investment costs of the systems into the property tax. Thus, if the house is sold before the system is paid off, the costs go with the home to the new owner.

“Assembly Bill 811 stipulates that homeowners and small businesses wishing to participate in the program would only be required to repay the cost of their project plus a small fee to administer the program. Under the bill, a city could provide funding for projects from a bond or a loan that would be repaid through voluntary fees on participating owners´ annual property tax bills.”

Richard had gone before the Shasta County Board of Supervisors to present this idea to them as a way of increasing local renewable energy sources.

I stayed afterward to talk with both gentlemen. There wasn’t much time in the meeting to get too deep into this very deep subject. I mentioned that perhaps as much should be said about conservation as generation, and they agreed. Ken had the interesting comment that “a Watt saved is the cheapest power of all.” Ken said he would e-mail me his PowerPoint presentation, and here it is posted as a PDF. Note that some graphics are missing. If you need the original (12mb) Power Point file, let me know and I'll happily send it along (Thanks Ken).

Renewable Energy.pdf (2.82 mb)

The Shasta Board of Directors has approved the formation of a Green Housing Committee. All members are invited to join, and help the Shasta Board of Realtors contribute and have a say in the direction of local Green Housing initiatives. I was reminded that every day is Earth Day for Realtors. In fact, the the Preamble to our code of Ethics states our position very well:

Preamble . . .

Under all is the land. Upon its wise utilization and widely allocated ownership depend the survival and growth of free institutions and of our civilization. REALTORS® should recognize that the interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing, the building of functioning cities, the development of productive industries and farms, and the preservation of a healthful environment.

Works for me!

It was another enlightening and thought provoking meeting. Next week, Alex Creel from C.A.R. Be there!