Catching Up: June at Altos

New Site!

The Altos Research Blog Has Moved!

Click here to see the latest from Altos Research.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, June 19. 2007

So many things happening 'round Altos Research World HQ, that the blog has been getting short shrift lately. Here's a roundup:

Since the silly legal hubub with the Redfin blog, the company has been focusing on helping readers understand market conditions rather individual properties. Kris Newby now has a marvellous series of posts on the Peninsula's local market conditions. It's a style that we've been meaning to do systematically on this blog for years, and she's nailed it. We're glad to help Redfin's blog run wild even as our own child goes shoeless.
A week ago we were selected the top post in the Carnival of Real Estate by Craig Schiller's Home Staging Rants and Ravings blog. Craig did a fantastic job sorting through the great entries. We got lucky with our heat chart post being judged by a man who lives in color.
This weekend I'm off to O'Reilly Media's FOO Camp (Friends of O'Reilly). A conclave of alpha-geeks and digerati where I can (am expected to, in fact) expound on nuances of real time real estate market analytics with less risk of the audience falling into conference-coma and more risk that someone's back-of-envelope math blows away years of insight we've developed here.
And somewhere in there we'll have to read and round up this week's Carnival of Real Estate, which we host on this blog next Monday. As an aside, that Drew Meyers at Zillow, who administers the Canival, has done a remarkable job as that company's web 2.0 community champion -- it seems like he's everywhere.
Finally, our colleagues at TFS are bringing their Real Estate Derivatives Seminar to California in July. As we say all the time, these market have huge potential and are very young, so everyone is learning their way around. If you're interested in housing or commercial real estate risk management, this is 2 hours you should invest, meet the other players, examine the trades. San Francisco July 24, 2007 and Los Angeles July 25, 2007. Conact me for details.

Posted by Mike Simonsen in Altos Research, California real estate, fun, Housing Market, news at 06:41 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Mold in florida, a growing Concern

Florida is one of mold favorite places to live in. Although molds can be found anywhere, mold relies on humid environments, or moisture and a food source such as building materials, dust, wood, paper and organic materials. Most mold types are likely to grow on a porous surface with high moisture content within the first 24-48 hours.

A tremendous percentage of all the properties in the state of Florida face some kind of moisture problem, many of those are a result from hurricane damages causing water intrusion in the property, many of those homes with water damages worsen during the period with no electricity, those thousands of homes with no power for a prolonged period of time are unable to run their air conditioner systems and properly remove humidity.

Proper maintenance and functioning of your A/C system is crucial for a healthy indoor environment, having your A/C unit serviced on regular basis may prevent you from a lot headaches in regards to mold.
When an A/C system is not functioning properly, weather is not cooling enough or no removing the humidity like it should, condensation problems may occur. Air conditioner systems should be one of the most important things to inspect during a mold inspection since this possible contamination is being spread out among the entire property possibly triggering allergic reactions, upper respiratory problems and many health hazards to those occupants susceptible to mold exposure.

Indoor air quality assessments in Florida such as mold testing, mold inspections and even mold remediation or removal have become a multi million dollar industry in the past few years due to all the media hype, newer studies on mold exposure and recent hurricane activity. Because of this dramatic growth in the industry a lot of companies have been taking advantage of this demand, and the fact that no laws, regulations or specific protocols for mold testing and or mold removal have been passed. When choosing a mold testing company this are the things you should look for:

No conflict of interest ( do not use a company that does both remediation and testing)

Look for companies that use the latest in technology such particle counters, infrared thermal cameras, moisture meters…

Make sure they are certified indoor environmentalist or at least certified mold inspectors.

Make sure they inspect the A/C system, attic, exterior, behind pluming fixtures, and moisture detection among entire property. Having a specific area tested with out investigation and environmental testing on the rest of the property is no on your best interest (a lot findings are not visible to the naked eye) that is why top of line equipment must be used.

Pick a company that uses a accredited laboratory

Make sure they provide a comprehensive report and lab results interpretation for a better understanding of the results and findings.

http://www.ecotechus.com

http://www.moldtestingflorida.com

#1 Martin Yerfino (Link) on 2007-06-22 08:22 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry