City Offers Grants to Landlords for Lead Removal

The City of Rochester is offering a lead grant for rental properties that will assist with 90% of the lead remediation related project cost up to $18,000 per unit for porch repair/ replacement, window/door repair/replacement, painting and bare soil treatment. In extreme cases, funding may be used for exterior siding. Landlords are required to contribute 10% of the total project cost.


There are only 75 of these grants available so act fast. To receive an application simply e-mail your: 1) full name, 2) telephone number, 3) address of business, and 4) email address to RocLandlord@TheHousingCouncil.org with "City LEAD Grant Application" as the subject line.

Happy Earth Day

Every where you look these days there is a green message! And rightfully so. In my 50 plus years on Planet Earth, I've seen such changes to our environment. So last year when I was looking for a new real estate office to call home, I was impressed by the efforts at ReMax First to both be a progressive thinking real estate office but also have a social conscious, especially with environmental issues.

One of our offices are powered solely by wind power. At both offices, bins are set up and recycling is taken serious. And this year, our broker owner offered bonus bucks to any agent that purchases an environmentally friendly new car this year. "Green living" is not just a buzz word at our office, it is a way of life.

And so, in honor of Arbor Day, I'm pleased to announce that RE/MAX First will again donate a variety of trees to customers who purchased a home in the past year. Our goal is to see one tree planted for every house sold last year.

Trees cam be picked up Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27 at Gro-Moore Farms, 2811 East Henrietta Road, Rochester, NY 14467 or by special arrangement. Many of my clients have moved out of the area or have not responded to our post card mailing, so I'm opening up the offer to blog readers. To register for a tree, go to http://www.homesforrochester.com/trees/ . (Be sure to choose me as the agent so they know who to send the bill to!) For those who don’t have adequate space to plant a tree, REMAX First will donate those trees back to the community to local parks, town and village halls, nursing homes and schools. You better hurry, though, as there are only a few varieties of trees left.

Mary Shelsby

Congratulations Al Gore

Last weekend the local newspapers reported that leaf pick up service was starting this week. The problem is, there aren't many leaves available for pick up. Today's real estate travels took me through Monroe, Livingston, Wyoming and Genesee Counties. For the most part, things are still pretty green around here with the exception of the Warsaw and Wyoming, NY areas and even there, I didn't see very many leaves on the ground. In fact, today, October 17th, I took this photo of a shrub in my front yard with new flowers. Tell me again, that there is no such thing as global warming!

I got thinking about global warming a few weeks ago when Rochester Gas and Electric offered us an opportunity to send them a few extra dollars a month to support wind power. We decided to do that although it wasn't an easy decision. On one hand, there is no doubt that traditional power sources have contributed significantly to a very polluted environment. On the other hand, wind mills are not very pretty to look at. Almost ten years ago when my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer we took one last family vacation together. It was a car trip and somewhere between Seattle and Yellowstone National Park we made a stop at some national monument. I don't remember what it was called or even what state it was in but I will always remember the view. From this one point, there was not a single building, road, telephone pole or any other sign of man-kind. And it was quiet! No radios or DVD players, no traffic, not even airplanes overhead. The only sites and sounds were those of nature and I'm quite certain that that was the only instant of my entire life when I wasn't surrounded by all the luxury afforded by man-made civilization.

Is this year's weather truly a sign of global warming? Gosh, even the experts can't agree but there is no doubt that we must stop trashing the Earth. I like to think of myself as an environmentalist but if the truth be known, I like my creature comforts and gadgets too much to honestly call myself a good environmentalist. But I do try to try to make good green decisions. And I applaud the decision to give Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize for all his efforts and work on behalf of a better understanding of climate change.

Stinkin' Radon

Of course radon is an odorless gas, but when you are trying to sell a house and the inspector finds radon, well, that stinks! And that is what happened today. The house is in Livingston County and after studying the Radon Maps of New York (http://www.wadsworth.org/radon/data.htm) published by New York State Department of Health, I guess I should not have been shocked. In recent tests, 41% of the basements tested in Livingston County had unsafe levels of radon. In certain towns, like Caledonia, 83% of the basements were deemed unsafe!



Radon is a gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water. It occurs naturally in the earth, but can become a problem when it builds up indoors. It is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste and is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America and claims more than 20,000 lives annually. For a whole lot more information, go to http://www.epa.gov/radon/index.html .



Fortunately, there are solutions to to radon problem. The EPA has put together a great publication called "Consumer's Guide To Radon Reduction" and it's a click away: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/pubs/consguid.html . According to the EPA, the average cost of a mitigation system is $1200, but repairs can go as high as $3000.

Today, we contracted with a local company to install a system. They have an excellent reputation in the Rochester area and a web site that has a lot of good links and details on radon. I spent a good 30 minutes on the phone this morning with Nick of Mitigation Tech who answered lots of my questions and helped prepare me for discussing options with my clients. More information on Mitigation Tech is here: http://www.mitigationtech.com/ Check back in a few weeks to hear how we made out.