An exclusive EcoSalon playlist to keep your patience on the streets. 

Because no one likes an angry driver.

Road Age by BehindTheWalk-In

Catch this and all of our playlists on 8tracks.

10 Songs to Walk You Back From the Precipice of Total Road Rage from EcoSalon on 8tracks.

Family Portrait – Interlude I // Never Should’ve Been There from Behind the Walk-in on Vimeo.

1. Interlude – Never Should’ve Been There – Family Portrait

2.It’s Real – Real Estate

3. Car – Built to Spill

4. Spit On A Stranger – Pavement

5. Happy Place – The Jesus and Mary Chain

6. Slide – Luna

7. Invisibility: Nonexistent – Kurt Vile

8. As We Go Up, We Go Down – Guided By Voices

9. Long, Long, Long – The Beatles

10. I Feel Like Going Home (alternate version) – Yo La Tengo

Like what you hear? Check out our entire 10 Songs series. 

Image: Kyknoord

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An exclusive EcoSalon playlist for travelers of all kinds. 

Whether you’re road-tripping, jettsetting or backpacking, you’ll love this playlist.

Check out the music videos for some of the songs below, or go even further and listen to all of them nonstop on our 10 Songs to Inspire Travel playlist on 8tracks.

1. Call me the breeze – JJ Cale

2. That’s That – Cass McCombs

Real Estate “Green Aisles” from Daniel Arthur on Vimeo.

3. Green Aisles – Real Estate

4. Pacific Theme – Broken Social Scene

5. Train Song – Feist & Ben Gibbard

6. Tunnelvision – Here We Go Magic

7. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car – Iron & Wine

8. Sausalito – Conor Oberst

9. Blackberry Song – Kurt Vile

10. WHALE – Yellow Ostrich

Image: Justin Ornellas

The post 10 Songs to Inspire Travel appeared first on EcoSalon.

The digs in these towns make Manhattan real estate look like bargain basement specials.

While New York real estate continues to be the most expensive in the United States, eclipsing cities like San Francisco and Honolulu, money management company Credit Sesame says when globally comparing cities, Manhattan is in fact laughably cheap.

At $1,068 per square foot, life in Gotham is an unattainable lifestyle for middle-income families, certainly in comparison to Phoenix ($79), Atlanta ($132) or even San Francisco ($520) and Honolulu ($614).

But when we talk about housing inflation in the United States, some perspective is in order.

Per Credit Sesame, which gathered data over the course of three years via 14 sources (including Factiva, Trulia, the New York Times and Iraq Daily Times), cities that way more expensive than The Big Apple are:

Hong Kong, $1,118

Copenhagen, $1,317

Helsinki, $1,366

Madrid, $1,395

Beirut, $1,448

Singapore, $1,561

Luxembourg, $1,563

Stockholm, $1,516

London, $1,590

Oslo, $2,099

Paris, $3,287

If any of these cities are out of your price range, there’s always Houston where a square foot will cost you just $54. Good news considering everything’s bigger in Texas.

Images: ArtJoy4Ever; Pondspider; Archangeli; _luara_; anna_t; ramseynasser; Kirk Siang: iiclutchii; Let Ideas Compete; Ewan-M; catseatsocks; Giant Gingko

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“I will sell this house today!” affirmed a manically confident Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty. Donning rubber gloves, the anal agent spruced up the Formica and tile, trying to get the hopeless dud she was saddled with to sparkle.

These days, agents still mired in the recession also contemplate how to simply get buyers in the door, and curb appeal is everything when it comes to this lure. These five fixes can make a big difference:

1. Leaner and Cleaner Landscape

If the entrance has a patch of grass, make sure it is manicured. Too many agents and homeowners simply let the grass grow under their feet while waiting for a home to sell and the once landscaped lawn becomes a major turn off to potential buyers, unless of course they are hippies who like overgrown grass. It also helps to replace some of the water sucking plants with drought resistance cactus, and other xeriscape choices that show off your conservation commitment.  It also spells low maintenance!

2. Fresh Coat of Exterior Paint

Paint is the one fix that goes the distance since buyers really do judge a listing by its cover.  Go with an eco brand like Benjamin Moore and select a popular neutral, cream, white, beige or taupe with pretty trims (greens, browns, reds, blacks).

3. Eliminate all Debris and Encourage Neighbors to do the Same

I fell in love with a charming Mediterranean cottage in a desirable hood of San Francisco and probably would have made an offer if it were not for the butt-ugly neighboring homes spilling over with car and lawn equipment and other debris. It was shocking how one side of the street was pretty well maintained and the opposite site was a blight. Make cookies to bribe your neighbors into helping you with the cause by cleaning up their acts. In the end it will boost the value and saleability of  their homes, as well.

4. Patch broken Concrete, Bricks and Tiles

Unless you are marketing a diamond in the rough, it pays to invest in repairing broken chimney bricks, cracked concrete drive ways and flagstone steps. It makes a statement about how you have maintained the inside of the home, just as a well groomed physical appearance often spells a healthy internal system.

5. Clean Windows

You can do this yourself with a sizeable ladder and the right materials or hire a neighborhood service to come out (they usually charge per window) right before you put the house on the market. Weather will dirty them again, but the cleaning should last a couple of months and add also make a statement about the condition of the home. Filmy windows are a deterrent for getting curious lookers inside, unless it is Halloween.

Photo credits: Main image of “Painted Ladies” opposite Alamo Square in San Francisco, licensed for commercial use under Creative Commons by Marit and Toomas Hinnosaar on Flickr.

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It was supposed to be “a monument to unparalleled success”, but what this absurd 90,000-square-foot Florida mansion says to me is “ultimate penis extension.” Forgive me for emitting perhaps the most evil laugh of my life when I saw that the unfinished palace started by time-share tycoon David Siegel is on the market because time shares just aren’t selling like they used to.

Siegel was clearly pretty confident when he started building this totally bonkers “look how rich I am” abode, which features thirteen bedrooms, ten kitchens, a 20-car garage (with extra space for two limos, natch), three pools, a bowling alley, an indoor roller rink, a two-story movie theater, etc. etc.

And for $75 million, guess what you get: a concrete shell. That’s right, this place – located down the street from Tiger Wood’s comparatively primitive residence – sits empty, sadly bereft of ornate wood carvings or details like the planned rotating beds. A virtual tour on the Century 21 website takes you through a creepy naked foyer with a blood-red branching staircase that looks like something straight out of The Shining.

Since Siegel ran out of money, the hypothetical buyer would have to pony up an extra $25 million to have it finished. It’s unlikely to sell anytime soon, considering that property taxes alone will run almost two million a year and there just aren’t that many billionaires in the world.

I have to agree with real estate analyst Jack McCabe, who was quoted by the AP in a write-up on the newly listed property: “This mansion is a great anecdote of the overconsumption that led to the housing bust, and it might be the poster child of such overindulgence.”

36 times bigger than the already bloated average American home, this mansion is – to me – a prime example of the mindset that is damaging our planet beyond belief and causing climate change to loom over us like an apocalyptic storm cloud. Our culture idolizes this sort of sickening display of wealth, so that millions of people believe that they have to own 20 cars and two limos to be considered truly successful.

Really though – 23 bathrooms? What does one do with 23 bathrooms? Delicately wipe one’s aristocratic ass with 23 different species of disposable fur toilet paper rolls? I’m dying to know.

Image: Century 21

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My parents moved from Nebraska to Hollywood in the fifties, having heard the land game was booming in the San Fernando Valley. My developer father built us a home on a cul-de-sac in the suburb of Woodland Hills. The valley was still rife with small farms, ranches, undisturbed orange groves and only a handful of strip malls. We even played in a bog – a gated open forest located right across the street from my low-slung Mediterranean manse.

Paradise was not yet lost. It was still lush and green and hopeful. It had a culture, distinguished by great pockets of open space in the rapidly built-up jungle. Somehow, Ahmanson Ranch was spared from a sub-division fate when Washington Mutual gave up the fight to develop the refuge in 2003 and it was sold to the state of California, preserving its undeveloped status as a natural park. It’s located near my brother’s home in the Hidden Hills, and he often explores it on horseback, encountering a rattler or coyote now and then.

But that kind of wilderness isn’t the norm. Uncorked commercial development and urban sprawl greatly changed the rural childhood picture as I knew it with grid-locked, smog-producing freeways linking inhabitants to three car garage homes with massive gas barbecues and pools, and mostly, endless monstrous retail centers in Tarzana, Reseda, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Canoga Park and North Hollywood. Sure, there are canyons and mountains and open terrain, but usually it is visual experience with very little access.

Meantime, most cultural centers (museums, theater, concert halls) are located downtown in “the city” and you have to subject yourself to the stress of traveling there to show your children there is more to Los Angeles than markets, fast food joints, gas stations, nail salons, car washes and dry cleaners. The strip malls and shopping center are now the culture of the valley. And they beckon us to buy and use more than we need.

I think of this because my youngest daughter is housed up in the valley for a week, initiating her summer vacation and celebrating a well-deserved break from the strains of 5th grade. She is spending “quality time” with my family members who all still reside in the valley.

My mother, sister and brother are hard pressed to keep Lauren entertained. I guess their ages and the fact they are childless must be factored in. But I also believe it is the culture of the outdoors being dramatically outstaged by retail blight.

The other day, my mother dragged the kid with her on her errands to the market, the cleaners, the car wash, the gas station. I was dragged on errands too, but also driven to the beach on summer days when it took a mere 20 minutes to traverse the canyon in her station wagon to Zuma. It also took 20 minutes to get to Westwood or Century City or Beverly Hills, but cars have ruined it and now the hour commute is too much for my mom to handle most days. Mom also spent a few hours with Lauren at the local 20,000 sq-foot strip mall, The Commons, where they saw The Karate Kid and had a bite.

The Commons has become a common destination for my daughters when visiting grandma. Hey, you can keep up with the Kardashians who have a shop called Dash across the street. Ain’t that culture?

My brother took my daughter with him to look at properties and to the office. She likes to color, so being indoors for a few hours isn’t all that boring. After, he took her to lunch and to Nordstrom, where they bumped into my mother at the jewelry counter. It was a funny coincidence that I’m sure added some interest to the week. My sister, who is the most innovative in the group, did arrange a swim day for Lauren with a friend and her child at a pool with some kind of crazy water features.

Swimming has always filled the summer days of valley kids, but it was never enough for me and my cronies. We also spent countless hours exploring those open orange groves and various fields which were interspersed between the developments. We hopped on our bikes or cruised around on foot, never fearing some lunatic would snatch us up if we dared venture into the green without grown ups. At times, the destination was the only strip mall (Corbin Village) but along the way we picked oranges and pomegranates and stopped to climb trees.

Boredom is an okay thing for kids during the summer break. It stirs the imagination and makes them resourceful. Build a playhouse out of an old cardboard box. Play beauty shop in the pool. Build castles in the sand. Sew clothes for those Barbies out of rags.

Sometimes the down time from camps, vacations, Disneyland, parties and parades can be the most memorable time of your childhood. Only, when you are completely surrounded by commercialism during that down time – block after block after block of  stores and businesses, it can be hugely oppressive. It helps to have a little green. And I wish more remained.

I suppose the only upside, which is also a downside, is the recession’s effect on the strip mall – forcing many tenants to abandon their leases and close their businesses. As a builder’s daughter, I empathize with the loss of income from the vacancies. Everyone is hurting. But it makes me wonder if the behemoths could be replaced with absolutely nothing.

Raze the properties. Return the land. Leave it alone. This could restore the valley to a hopeful green place, again. Mom and dad believed development of the valley was the future. Lauren’s mom and dad believe it is now about creating more undeveloped space – the kind a kid on a bike can explore on a boring, summer day.

Images: front door, Calabasas Real Estate, ebay

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A Bay Area family talks of moving to Portland, Oregon where they have friends and family and can secure a nice-size house and even land (what a concept!) for what it might cost to buy a two bedroom condo in San Francisco. But it just doesn’t seem to be the right time to sell the 40’s era family home Gary Hauser grew up in, and now shares with his wife and daughter. It also doesn’t seem to be the right time to invest in something new. The answer? Rent with no repent.

“We’re thinking of renting out our house while renting something either in Portland or an apartment in a sunnier location in San Francisco until the market picks up,” Hauser says. He may be onto something as renting could very possibly be replacing buying as the new American dream.

Rental Savings

There are strong arguments for renting instead of buying including the steady climb of mortgage interest rates along with the difficulty in securing in loan.

Rising Rates

An average 30-year-fixed went up 12 basis points to 5.23 percent April 1, while a 15-year fixed climbed to 4.53 percent and a jumbo 30-year fixed loan jumped to 5.92 percent. And while housing prices might be lower, renting costs have dipped as well, making it easier to get a better deal on a nice house in an upscale hood.

“It’s just a chain reaction since properties are going down in value, the property owners will eventually lower their rent to keep up with the market,” says Stop Stupid Stuff, a mortgage tutorial site.

While more people may be able to afford buying right now, the mortgage sites argues you can actually save a great deal by renting in certain locations.

“Some would argue that the difference in mortgage and rent is not that much that makes renting a bad idea but if you are living in a posh location where the mortgage could reach $5,000 a month, you will be able to rent a property within the same location with less than $4,000 a month,” it tells us. ” The $1,000 difference per month is just too large to be ignored.”

According to James L. Harrison of the Real Estate Blog, if you can afford not to sell your home, you can benefit from a steady cash flow that you can apply to your expenses and taxes while retaining ownership and making a profit. If you are relocating, you avoid the risk of selling and losing money, and can simply enjoy the income until you come back. He argues you also unload a lot of headaches assumed by the renter.

“You shall no longer have to pay the mortgage interest payments, insurance payments, property taxes, maintenance, repair and cleaning services,” he says. “You might be surprised to know that all costs of collecting your rent like traveling, local transportation, maintaining, and repairing your rented property can be deducted form the tax. Moreover, the depreciation expense is also taken care of my the amount of rent that you are getting. Hence, you have a good tax shelter, and save a lot of money.”

Disadvantages to Renting

Playing Landlord

The biggest disadvantage is having to play landlord, according to Alla Gershberg, MBA and a principal with the Paragon Real Estate Group in San Francisco. “Managing a rental house and tenants can be a hassle and cost a lot if you choose to hire a professional property manager,” she finds.

She adds that once you decide to sell, it can be tricky. “If you decide to sell because of rent control laws, evicting tenants to sell the home later may be problematic, prohibitively expensive or even impossible. If it’s impossible to evict the tenants, then you have to show it while it is tenant occupied, which can bring up multiple issues pertaining to appearance, showings and open houses. It makes it virtually impossible to perform any staging of the home to make sure it shows in its best possible light.”

She adds that rental properties rarely show as well as owner-occupied properties and renters often neglect basic upkeep and maintenance. Agents also find most buyers don’t want to buy tenant occupied homes and those buyers willing to deal with the issue expect a significant discount on the price.

“Renting for an extended period may affect the $250,000-$500,000 exclusion from capital gains for ownership occupied properties upon sale.”

Like most agents, Gershberg discourages clients from putting off selling homes  because it can be difficult to predict when the market will actually pick up, and meantime, the rental market also can weaken at the same time. She figures in terms of making an investment, you will probably fare better in the end from selling.

“It depends on the property,” she shares. “Rents in good neighborhoods are doing well but unlike multi-unit rental properties, single family home rents typically don’t generate income commensurate with current values. In other words, you could invest the proceeds of a current sale more profitably than the return one gets from rental income on a single family home.”

Renting a Room, Good Compromise

Until you decide about renting or selling, it might pay to simply rent a room in your house to eke out some extra income, just as our grandparents did during war time and the Great Depression. It will also give you a sampling of what it is like to play landlord, including collecting monthly rent and asking your tenant to do his or her part to keep up the room and shared grounds. Just follow the m.o. of best landlords, and do a good background check!  Remember, you can also take something in trade for that great green gardener, organic chef or babysitter that happens to need a room. It could be a great win-win situation.

Images: The Truth About…, All starplr, TV Rage

The post Rent Now, Sell Later? The Benefits In a Still Shaky Market appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you hoping to sell your house, you’re probably well aware that it’s not going to be easy in today’s buyer’s market. But top real estate agents and home stagers will tell you that a little curb appeal and a few renovations will improve your chances of selling your house faster. Don’t worry, you don’t have to drain your bank accounts gutting your kitchen and master bath because even a few little touch-ups, which do double duty by being eco-friendly, can have a big impact. John Wilcox, a Southern California based realtor and certified EcoBroker helped us nail down five budget-friendly refreshers.

1. Declutter

Ask any real estate agent – a messy house is difficult to sell. Clean out as much of the clutter as you can. Go through your house and closets weeding out unnecessary stuff. If you can, start packing and take the boxes out of the house to a storage space or your new place. The fewer things in your home, the bigger it and your closets will appear. Instead of tossing old stuff, make sure to donate or sell and trade to give your discarded possessions a new life outside of the landfill.

2. Paint

Wilcox says there’s no better bang for your buck than a fresh coat of paint for the interior and exterior of your home. Go for a low or zero-VOC paint, of course, and stick to neutral colors that will be universally appealing.

3. Add Green

Both inside and out, extra greenery can make your home look fresh and more livable. A few new plants, a layer of mulch and a couple of pots on the porch will improve your curb appeal. If you’ve already moved out, choose drought tolerant plants that can last without regular watering and care.

4. Rip Up Carpets

Wall-to-wall carpeting is not only out-of-style, it’s usually synthetic and a trap for pollutants, toxins and dirt. Many buyers don’t want their kids crawling on someone else’s carpet. If you take it out you can replace it with eco-friendly flooring made of FSC-certified wood, cork or bamboo.

5. Check Your Bulbs

A bright home is an appealing home and there are simply no excuses for showing a house with any burned-out bulbs. Before you have your first walk through check all your fixtures and lamps to make sure they’re as bright as they can be. If you need to change bulbs, replace them with LEDs or CFLs.

Image: TheTruthAbout…

The post 5 Eco-Friendly Tips to Get Your House to Sell Faster appeared first on EcoSalon.

Lawn painting on foreclosed homes has become big business for Californian David Milligan’s company Alliance Environmental & Compliance.

Tired of seeing foreclosed homes’ lawns turning shades of brown, Milligan took the paint by the can and spray-painted his neighbor’s plot.

The result? Not only a feng shui moment for Milligan, but a thumbs-up from the real estate agent trying to sell the property.

Milligan has since started a lawn-dyeing division at his company that can’t help but thrive with an economy favoring foreclosure rates.

In an April article from Inc., Rene Avila, a director of development services for Perris, California and an Alliance customer says, “From an aesthetic standpoint, this is the worst part of the foreclosure crisis.”

More than 1,000 homes in Perris, population 53,000, are in foreclosure. “We’re trying to maintain properties so they stay at a decent value,” Avila says. “It’s money well spent.”

West Coasters, unlike their East Coast counterparts, are probably aware that lawn painting has actually been around for years.

There are significant benefits. Lawn-painting companies are giving homes instant curb appeal, with vacant homes more apt to get a second look from potential buyers who favor the green.

But is having a green lawn worth investing in spraying gallons of paint all over your yard? Are we just perpetuating a look that needs to be phased out?

Though all the lawn greening companies I found listed say the dye is non-toxic, (including a call from Milligan himself who swears it is safe) I couldn’t find a single site that clarifies what the paint is actually made of.

Is all this lawn greening really greenwashing? I hope I’m wrong.

Images: Treehugger, Lawns Gone Green

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