[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Mike Klein from TheBuildingMonitor.com. To listen to, or download the radio show archive MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/TheBuildingMonitor.]
Mosca: Please tell us how thebuildingmonitor.com allows investors and property owners to save significant dollars on their energy bills?
Klein: The Building Monitor is a custom electronics system installed in a building with a central boiler where all of the units are fed from that single source. The problem for owners is that they have to pay a gas bill via a single meter and they have no idea who used the heat. Our system is very intelligent.
It monitors and controls the heat for all the units in the building and it is connected to the Internet. As an owner, you can log into your account at thebuildingmonitor.com and you can get a snapshot of the overall performance of all the units in your building. It spots an individual user that is out of bounds and you can investigate that. The billing module generates bills that charge the tenants for what they have actually used.
Mosca: How are you able to monitor each unit individually?
Klein: I developed a device that goes inside an ordinary looking thermostat and it samples the temperature of each apartment unit. In addition to the request for heat, it sends that information down the existing thermostat wires where it arrives at a control board in the boiler room. At that point, the board perceives the command to make heat and actuates an electric valve. It also passes the temperature information along to the controller cabinet where that information is processed and stored.
Mosca: Has is an owner able to stay on top of this data?
Klein: Periodically, the system calls the operator if it has any new instructions and data reports for up to 95 apartments. The data consists of an hourly audit trail. The audit trail consists of the temperature in the apartment, the number of seconds during an hour they requested heat, and the temperature of the pipe in the boiler room. Basically, you have a triangular shaped audit trail or what we call the "fault logic triangle."
Mosca: If a unit has a leaking shower, by using your product, will an owner know this in advance because of that fault logic triangle?
Klein: Yes, we have actually experienced that in our test building. We had a tenant who decided to trick the system into giving him 80° even though the limit was set to 72° by putting a wet washcloth over the thermostat. It appeared in the system as an open window alarm but a little investigation showed that it was indeed tampering. In fact, when we added the temperature limit feature, that was very powerful. Gas bills dropped by 50 percent two months in a row over the same period a year ago despite more degree-days that year.
Mosca: How can a property owner individualize the temperature for each unit?
Klein: The user would log into his account and scroll down through the list of all the apartment units and enter a temperature. For maximum heat temperature, a valid number ranges from say 65° to 80°. There is also a special number that you could put in, 55°, for a vacant apartment. The owner can now turn down a vacant apartment from anywhere in the world.
Mosca: Any last golden nugget?
Klein: The system can control heating and cooling. If you have a building with a chiller system and a boiler where there is a hard change over at the seasons, simply go to your personalized Web site, tell the system you're in heating mode right now and to move to cooling mode, and it sends the commands to the controller in the field and switches automatically. Lastly, go to www.incomepropertyinvestmenttalk.com/thebuildingmonitor, and sign up and we will give you 10 percent off.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=780461999
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If two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers can be indicted and arrested in the first criminal prosecution stemming from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, should the media be held to the same level of accountability? If prosecutors later revealed hundreds of indictments linked to the nation’s housing crisis, do sensational headlines and scrolling messages of doom across TV screens equate to deceitful practices and warrant similar condemnations? Is there a difference between two men allegedly inflating numbers for personal profit and entire news corporations deflating real estate values for revenue-generating purposes?
As the saying goes, “If it bleeds, it leads, and when there is nothing bleeding, this news media finds something to ‘shoot’ and today’s target is Freddie and Fannie. It’s all about an agenda. The financial news media represent, and rightfully so, the interests of ‘Wall Street.’ The problem is ‘wall street’ media lacks full disclosure and the ones who get hurt most are Americans with the bulk of their wealth in real estate and their homes -- ‘Main Street USA.’
The likelihood that media reports on Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae could become a self-fullfilling prophecy and result in the conservatorship of the nation’s two largest mortgage finance lenders is a concern to IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com and other real estate experts looking out for our nation’s homeowners, real estate investors and the economy as a whole. The Federal National Mortgage Association, nicknamed Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation, nicknamed Freddie Mac, have operated since 1968 as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
Do journalists simply not understand real estate complexities or do they have an agenda of their own? www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com will examine, with a focus on real estate investing, the role of the media in the 21st Century as a gatekeeper and instrument to disseminate information, to report the truth, and its increasing charge to influence and shape public opinion.
“The overzealous, hyped news by reporters who may or may not understand the power they have to influence the American public is nerveless irresponsible and is conjecture at best,” said Michael Anderson, CCIM President of RealSource, helping entrepreneurial real estate investors find investment opportunities in emerging markets throughout the U.S., led his firm to transactional volume that surpassed $1 billion in client transactions, debt financing, and equity in TIC (Tenancy in Common) activity. “It’s scary that an MSNBC ‘journalist’ can get on TV and state that the value of Fannie and Freddie may be zero (0) by day’s end. Why, if not for profit generating reasons, would this outlet and other media corporations have ‘experts’ promulgate this kind of terrible speculation.”?
What are your thoughts? We’d like to know.
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NetGain goes Web 2.0
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Guest blog from radio show guests from RealSource Retirement Services, Jeremy Hanks and Mike Madsen
Recent concerns from the stock and bond markets have caused many IRA holders to ask what alternatives are available to help them reach their IRA goals. How’s your IRA investment doing? Are you satisfied with its performance? Would you be interested in expanding your IRA investment opportunities?
Because IRAs may not borrow and thus take advantage of the higher return potential available in leveraged real estate, RealSource is pleased to provide to you an alternative through its IRA Builder program. This new product gives you the opportunity to self direct a portion of your IRA into leveraged high quality multi-family tenant-in-common properties. With the RealSource IRA Builder, RealSource has designed a way that allows you to enjoy the higher earnings potential of leveraged real estate. Here is how it works:
Program Description
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· Because IRAs may not borrow and the tenant-in-common (TIC) properties available through RealSource Equity Services (RSES) are each leveraged so as to improve potential returns, an LLC is placed in between the IRA and the RSES TIC. The LLC is often a Delaware LLC that is registered in the state where the property is located.
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· A one year renewable note is given from the LLC to the IRA to pass through the earnings from the TIC through the LLC to the IRA in the form of interest payments. The interest rate is set lower than anticipated earnings for the year from the TIC property. Points are charged by the IRA to the LLC when the note is renewed each year to pass through any remaining earnings.
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· The IRA holder may not manage the LLC due to being a disqualified person (party-in-interest) with respect to the IRA. Therefore Nate Hanks as the LLC manager signs on the loan.
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· Fees charged by RealSource Retirement Services for this service are minimal with the LLC manager charging one point from interest paid plus any costs, for example annual LLC renewal/registration fees charged by the state.
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· This program is also available for similar RealSource projects such as development projects through RealSource Development Services, LLC
Features and Benefits
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· Better investment alternative for your IRA. Investing in a TIC gives a higher and easily diversifiable return potential with low minimum investments for your IRA.
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· Class A & B multi-family properties. These large properties are professionally managed and due to their size they are often beyond the reach of individual clients.
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· Economies of Scale. Typically several of these larger apartment communities managed by a single property management firm gives TIC client owner groups significant leverage with property managers and competitive property management rates. Similar savings are made with other venders such as insurance.
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· Quarterly client income distributions. Financial reports and note interest payments are made on a quarterly schedule.
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· Simplified client involvement while giving clients informed control. RSES minimizes client involvement by consulting with TIC owners and the property manager, coordinating day-to-day administration while assuring TIC owners are kept informed and in control through:
Bi-weekly property updates on occupancy and improvements.
Quarterly client conference calls (or more often as needed) with each TIC owner group to discuss property activities and to hold owner votes on items such as budgets, distributions, and improvements.
For Additional Information
Please contact Jeremy Hanks or Mike Madsen, RRS@realsource.net or (800) 929-2150 or go to www.RealSource.net
