Author Archives: trevorspear

Fly Ash Forever

Fly Ash Forever  The use of fly ash as an ingredient in concrete steadily increased for many years, mostly due to the benefits fly ash imparts to the qualities of hardened concrete—higher strength, reduced permeability, lower heat of hydration, and … Continue reading

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TOP FIVE MOST TROUBLESOME CALLBACKS

TOP FIVE MOST TROUBLESOME CALLBACKS Zero in on recurring issues that haunt the service department. By: Jennifer Goodman Our step-by-step illustrations show how to prevent issues that lead to customer dissatisfaction. A significant reduction in callbacks can save money and … Continue reading

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Compete Where it Counts

Thinking about the competition is enough to keep a small business owner tossing and turning all night. And based on what you know, this seems understandable. After all, how are you supposed to go up against larger, well-established competitors? What … Continue reading

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More 2015 Housing Forecasts

Towards the end of each year I collect some housing forecasts for the following year, and it looks like most analysts are optimistic for 2015. Here is a summary of forecasts for 2014. In 2014, new home sales will be … Continue reading

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DREES OPTS IN ON EKOTROPE SUSTAINABLE DESIGN TOOL

“When you look at a house as a complete system, you make better cost/energy performance trade-offs that you just can’t make when looking at a single component in isolation,” says Ekotrope founder and CEO Ziv Rozenblum, “We give builders a … Continue reading

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LATEST NUMBERS FOR RALEIGH SHOW NEW HOME CLOSINGS AND PRICES RISE

LATEST NUMBERS FOR RALEIGH SHOW NEW HOME CLOSINGS AND PRICES RISE In the Raleigh, NC market, closings of new homes gained year-over-year in July, and the market seemed to be signaling strengthening with a percentage lift more robust than June … Continue reading

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Home Warranty Complaints Top Popular Online Resource

Most people know Angie’s List as a straight-up and popular resource for getting the scoop on service providers: which ones are good, and those you may want to avoid based on member reviews and other criteria. And members have a … Continue reading

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50 Ways You Can Use Evernote To Manage Your Real Estate Business

Because Evernote can search within PDF files, and uses OCR to search text in images, just about anything you can get into Evernote from your computer, cell phone as text, or cell camera is searchable later. It’s a really efficient … Continue reading

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WHERE ARE THE HOME BUYERS

Single-family home sales fell dramatically from almost 7 million at the peak in 2005, to 4 million in 2010. Since the trough, sales have risen to 4.9 million in 2013. Assuming the late 1990s and early 2000s exhibited a more … Continue reading

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GREEN BUILDERS MUST BATTLE FOR FAIR MARKET VALUATION

Across the country appraisal companies and lenders have been slow to acknowledge builders, buyers, and owners of high-performance homes. Many builders are fed up with a financing system that doesn’t put enough value on sustainable features and the savings they … Continue reading

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