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What's new with New construction?

7/29/2020

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Do you ever wonder about what has changed about houses over the last few years? What are the new cutting edge things happening with new construction? When I started working with new construction I was amazed at some of the new features! If you work in the industry some of this will be things you have already seen for awhile but many have not. Here is your inside look at the what's new with new construction! First we will start with taking a look at Philadelphia's newest home: The Ironworks!
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The Ironworks In Northern Liberties

Click play above to see The Ironworks Slideshow!
The Ironworks is Northern Liberties newest home! With studio, 1 bedrooms, and 2 bedrooms. So what is new with the newest home in Philly?
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​Latch Systems Bluetooth Locks

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https://www.latch.com/m-series
This is something I have never seen before until working on The Ironworks Project. Bluetooth locks.....THE FUTURE..... The locks connect to your phone so you can unlock your door from your phone, no more fumbling with keys. That's great right? I think the real benefit to this is you can give someone a temporary code! So if you have a dog walker they can go into your place for the hour and then the code expires. Or if you get groceries delivered you can give the driver a code and get them put away for you while you're out! Never lose another package again!
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The mirror

The Future of fitness ... As gyms have shut down in America I see this becoming a huge new shift in the way we work out, and THE IRONWORKS have it! The Mirror is a one stop shop for fitness. It looks like a normal mirror but once you touch it The Mirror turns on. It has a ton of interactive online fitness classes and takes up minimal space. 
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Dog wash

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https://nextluxury.com/home-design/home-dog-wash-station-ideas/
Our generation is increasingly bringing their four legged friends with them to where they live! The How Group (the company building The Ironworks) says bring them along! They are installing a dogwash room in the new Ironworks building. Instead of going to take your dog to the pet shop in the winter why not go to the first floor of your building. At the Ironworks you can bring 2 pets with no breed restrictions! Did I mention the Ironworks is across the street from a dog park too!
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Shared Rooftop Deck In the works

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In the pre and post war eras people in Philadelphia hung out on stoops and porches. This is how people got to know their neighbors and create the community we love! Now we have shared roof top decks! What I love about all of our roof top decks is they all face Center City and get decked out with beautiful patio furniture! 
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What's new in the industry?
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Pex Systems

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Picture belongs to https://www.finelinehomes.com/pex-plumbing/
If you work with new construction you have probably seen this for awhile but many have not. This is one of my favorite features of new construction builds especially because I do most of the work on my house myself! Pex plumbing is basically plastic plumbing. The Pex system is basically an electrical panel for you water lines. Anything that uses water leads back to this panel and has an individual shutoff! My house was built in 1940 and when I went to redo my kitchen I may have spent 30 minutes trying to shut off the right water line. I NEED THIS!
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More Efficient Ac Systems

So again some of this stuff is 10 years old but many people still don't know about it. 

Bypass/Damper Systems

So a damper system works so that one AC can cool a large house. It cools one zone at a time. Thus if it's day time and you're having people over cool the downstairs then upstairs at night. I'm not an HVAC guy though so I will kick it over to this YouTube video that describes it better. 

Mini Split Air Conditioners

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Picture from https://www.homedepot.com/p/MRCOOL-DIY-Gen-3-18-000-BTU-20-SEER-ENERGY-STAR-Ductless-Mini-Split-Air-Conditioner-Heat-Pump-w-25-ft-Install-Kit-230-Volt-DIY18-HP-230B25/311900321
Mini split air conditioners are great because they can be installed without duct work! This is a great solution and very efficient. They work off remote control or by your phone and are the most efficient system. There is generally one in each living space or bedroom. So if you are in that room turn it on if not turn it off and save electricity! There are DIY friendly kits but this deals with water and electric something I would pay someone to do for sure!
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Working in new construction and seeing the innovations has been eye opening to me. I'm so excited to see what they will come out with next!
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Minding our own business!

7/22/2020

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So many times we put ourselves second. We don't have time to read, exercise, do financial planning, focus on my goals. Most of the time we are minding other people's business instead of our own.... Working 10-12 hours at a job, saying yes to everyones requests, watching 20-40 hours of the new cycle a week. 

Minding Our Companies Business:
A lot of people get caught up in the daily grind of life. 

Wake up at 6:00am 
Get to job 6:30am
Leave Job 4:30-5pm
Get Home 6:00pm
Dinner 
News 
Bed 
Rinse Repeat

This was my schedule for a couple years. Overtime, focusing my free time on how I could improve my companies business, and the news. Does it sound familiar? I remember the one day I was the first one in the office at 6am and stayed until 5pm when I was the last one. I went to get up and my boss said "wait can you help me stuff envelopes?" I was there until 7pm. That was the American thing to do work 13 hour days! ... The promotion never came. Well maybe I could get my online masters degree then I can make an extra 10-15k per year. 

I will write another post on the cost benefit of a masters degree later but for now. 

Average time spent to obtain masters 1.5 to 2 years
Average cost 30,000 - 120,000 ( will go with 30,000)
Most likely 2 hours per day spent 5 days per week.
That is 10 hrs a week  
520 a year 
780 hours over 1.5 years. 

So if our time is worth 25/hr that's 19,500 in lost income and 30,000 for the degree. 
49,500 to make an extra 10-15,000 a year. 

We are in jobs to make money not to go into debt for a new title or slight pay increase! We should be asking ourselves what is the highest and best use of our time! 

Here is the path of minding your own business! Mike has the option to work 12 hour days everyday, but instead realizes he wants to learn about financial freedom and decides to work 9 hour days. Leaving that extra hourly pay on the table and possibly looking like the guy who isn't committed. Mike picks up a real estate book and learns that if he house hacks he can save his rent money. But where can he get the down payment? Mike creates a budget and begins to learn financial planning, a side effect of trying to reach his goal.

A year later Mike is in the same job BUT has bought his first house hack and is living rent free! He is now saving the $1300 a month he was paying in rent. THAT'S A 15,600 RAISE he just gave himself!!! In the first scenario that would have costed 49,500 and 1.5 years of our free time.

Mike has $500 worth of student debt every month and wants to pay it off. Instead of pouring all of his money into his student debt Mike learns he should buy another asset to pay this liability off! So Mike, saving the rent money he wasn't paying buys another house hack! His first house now cash flows $500/mo paying his student debt (except when maintenance issues arise) and still doesn't pay rent at his new house. 

Mike now has 2 assets that will appreciate, gain equity, create passive income, and can have tax benefits!!! This is the point of minding your own business. To many times we get caught up in if "I do well for my W2 company I'll make more money". The point is not to make more money, buy bigger shinier crap and retire in 30 years. The point is to use the money they are giving you as a tool to create freedom for yourself IE: have assets pay your bills, save for rainy days, take stress of money out of your life.

Minding your own business starts with:

Creating time to learn
Educating yourself on your finances (not just paying a financial advisor)
Implementing what you have learned

Minding Other People's Business

I have found that there are two types of people who need help in the world. There are anchors and there are mentees. Anchors are people who you can't help. You have exhausted every option. You have taken the horse to water and the horse won't drink.

There were always people I knew who needed jobs until you told them you had one then it wasn't the right time. Or on the other hand there are addicts, people with mental health issues, and others that you can't help. Not that they are not worth helping but medically or professionally you don't have the resources. These are the people that if you keep thinking you can save will bring you down with them. You have to identify the anchors and let go of their issues and focus on yourself. It is not selfish it's just valuing your time towards people who want to be helped!

Mentees are people who want to be helped! These are the people who just need to be pointed in the right direction and will run there then when they get stuck come back. Take your time back from the people who you can't help, stop saying yes to everything, and invest in yourself and others who you can help!

Minding The Worlds Business!

 I used to spend hours a day watching the news so I could stay "Informed". I usually felt depressed after watching the news. I did not read books and did not use this time to volunteer... I watched a show of peoples opinions. The average American spends 35.5 hours watching tv a week!

35.5 x 52 = 1846 hours / year. 

What if we all volunteered that time or read books. The world would be a much better place than us all watching people scream at each other on the news. Now I'm not saying to bury your head in the sand. If you still want the highlights I suggest NPR's 5 minute daily podcast News Now. It gives you the big stuff you need to know and most of that I don't need to know. 

The point of all of this taking your time back from things that don't matter and investing in yourself and others. Once you take your time back, you invest in yourself! Then once you get to a place of happiness you invest it back into others and the cycle continues! 

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    Author

    Matt Tallent is a Realtor with The How Group. His passions include rental property investing and helping others achieve their real estate goals.

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All photos courtesy of Anna Gupton @ https://at-a-glimpse.weebly.com​

Real Estate License Held in Pennsylvania with the how group @ compass Re Pennsylvania LLC.

Matt Tallent is a real estate licensee affiliated with Compass RE. Compass RE is a licensed real estate broker and abides by equal housing opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.

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