Save Money with CFL's and LED's

Have you ever wondered how much money you could actually save by using those CFL's or LED lights in your home? I mean can the slightly extra cost really pay for its self in the long run and how long do you really have to wait before you start to see the savings?

Well I am going to do a little bit of math for you to show you that CFL's and some LED lights are worth the switch and even the extra upfront cost in the long run but even in the short run they can be worth it. At the end I will explain my experience since switching from incandescent bulbs to LED's and CFL's.

First the math:

Lets say you have 15 light bulbs in you home that get used on average 6 hours per day. Lets also say that the current bulb uses 60 watts of electricity

15x60=900     900x6=5400

So in this example those 15 bulbs are using an average of 5400 watts of electricity per day or 5.4 kilowatt hours of electricity per day.

Now lets look at those same bulbs if they were CFL's most 60 watt equivalent CFL's use only 13watts

15x13=195     195x6=1170

So these new bulbs are using an average of 1170 watts of electricity per day or only 1.2 kilowatt hours of electricity per day.

Although the savings may not seem significant enough to be worth your trouble in switching lets look at how much that savings adds up to during a normal month. we will base it on a 30 day month.

5.4x30=162     1.2x30=36

Now you can start to see the savings in one month the incandescent bulbs are using 162 kilowatt hours of electricity, where as the CFL bulbs are only using 36 kilowatt hours of electricity. So you can see that regular bulbs use about 4.5 times as much electricity as CFL's

Now lets look at those same bulbs if they were LED's the newest and most energy efficient bulbs that are on the market today. LED's that are equivalent to a 60 watt bulb only use about 7 watts of electricity.

15x7=105     105x6=630     .6x30=18

So an LED bulb will only use about .6 kilowatt hours of electricity per day and for a month only use about 18 kilowatt hours of electricity which is about 10 times less than a standard bulb uses.

Now my experience:

I made the switch to all CFL's and LED's about a year and a half ago in my house I have a total of 45 light bulbs (I don't necessarily use all 45 in any given day but I switched them out all the same.) Since the switch I have managed to cut my electric bill down to an average of around 450 kilowatt hours/month during the the last 12 months. Before the switch I was averaging around 800 kilowatt hours per month during the same 12 month span. So just switching out light bulbs really can save you about 50% on your electric bill.

iDeal Realty & Management

9051 W Kelton Lane, Suite 10

Peoria, Arizona 85382

(623) 201-3544

Phoenix Property Management

Housing Investors Buying Up Florida Real Estate

Florida is the next stop for investors that are looking to buy homes on the cheap, fix them up and rent them for some short term cash flow and hopefully net a pretty penny on resale in the next 5-7 years.

Created last year by private equity titan Blackstone Group, Invitation Homes has spent about $3.5 billion buying 20,000 houses in nine U.S. markets, including Southern California. It's a new business model emerging from the misery of the mortgage meltdown.

Blackstone and a handful of other firms believe prices fell too far in the hardest-hit markets. So they're racing to buy up the bargains, rent them for short-term profit and hold them for long-term price appreciation. These firms say they've invented a new investment strategy that also serves the public good by fueling the housing recovery and sprucing up homes.

The investors have played a major role in recent home-price surges in markets that are recovering. Southern California's median home price has jumped 21% over the last year, and Arizona's Phoenix Market has jumped up about 30%. In the process, financial firms — including Oaktree Capital Management, Colony Capital and the Alaska Permanent Fund (which manages that state's investments) — are rapidly staking claims as the new landlords of the suburbs.

On paper, the buy-and-hold calculus makes sense. The foreclosure crisis destroyed home values — but drove up rents, as repossessions created a new wave of rental demand from would-be owners with ruined credit. Fresh demand from young workers, a short supply of newly built rental units, and stricter mortgage requirements have also made the rental market competitive.

iDeal Realty & Management

9051 W Kelton Lane, Suite 10

Peoria, Arizona 85382

(623) 201-3544

Phoenix Property Management

Home Builder Confidence Drops

Home builder confidence unexpectedly fell for a second month in March. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence dropped 2 points to 44 this month. In a Bloomberg survey, the median forecast called for a gain to 47. Anything below 50 means many of the respondents said the conditions were poor. According to the report by the NAHB, the drop is due a decrease in the measure of current sales.

“In addition to tight credit and below-price appraisals, home building is beginning to suffer growth pains as the infrastructure that supports it tries to re-establish itself,” David Crowe, chief economist at the builders association, said in a statement.

The builders’ index compares with a reading of 28 in March 2012.

iDeal Realty & Management

9051 W Kelton Lane, Suite 10

Peoria, Arizona 85382

(623) 201-3544

Phoenix Property Management

2013 List of the Most Expensive Rentals

The real estate website Trulia recently compiled a list of the most expensive rental properties currently available on the market. Surprisingly, only one property has enough square footage to qualify as a mansion. One of the biggest factors determining a few of the astronomical rents was simply location.

Top 10 Most Expensive Rental Properties

iDeal Realty & Management

9051 W Kelton Lane, Suite 10

Peoria, Arizona 85382

(623) 201-3544

Phoenix Property Management