FP&L Net Metering

FP&L Net Metering

Net metering allows FPL customers who connect approved, renewable generation systems such as solar panels to the electric grid to buy and sell electricity to FPL.

When you generate electricity from your solar array for your home or business, it reduces the amount of energy you purchase from FPL. It also lowers your monthly electricity bills. If your system produces more energy than you need, the excess power is sold back to FPL’s grid. That amount of energy is deducted from your monthly bill or credited toward a future bill in the same calendar year.

To be eligible, complete the application process for your Interconnection Tier listed below and FPL will replace your current electric meter with an appropriate meter to correctly measure excess power supplied to the grid. This is needed to calculate the net impact on your bill.

All net metering applications are now available online.

 

Eligible Energy Sources

Several types of renewable energy systems are potentially eligible for net metering:

• Solar energy (photovoltaic)


• Wind energy


• Biomass (landfill gas or methane)


• Hydroelectric power


• Ocean energy (tidal power or ocean currents)


• Hydrogen


• Waste heat


• Geothermal energy

 

Learn See More at: www.fpl.com/clean-energy/net-metering.html

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5 ways to increase the value of your home in one weekend for less than $500

Whether you’re planning to stay in your home for several more years or are looking to move within months, it’s never too early to start thinking about what it will take to get top dollar for your home. Fortunately, there are a few quick and inexpensive things you can do now to boost your home’s value so that once the time comes to go on market, you don’t find yourself with an overwhelming to do list.

Quick kitchen makeover

The kitchen is one room in your home that can easily look dingy and dated. But in one weekend, chipped cabinets can be re-painted or re-stained, old hardware switched out and an updated lighting fixture installed. Clear off countertops and give them, and their backsplashes, a good scrubbing. To help accessorize, consider purchasing fresh towels, oven mitts, rugs or other tapestries on display that have become stained and dirty.

Remove popcorn ceilings

The average cost to have popcorn ceilings removed by a professional is anywhere from $1-3 per square foot. But if you do it yourself, you’ll just be out the cost of some plastic tarps, your preferred device for spraying water and a putty knife. Yes, removal is as simple (and as messy) as getting the popcorn wet and scraping it off. Finish with a fresh coat of paint and call it a weekend. Just remember that if you live in an older home, the ceiling should be tested for asbestos first. Cost for testing is usually minimal and should still fit within your $500 budget.

Add a fresh coat of paint

At around $25 a gallon, this can be a quick and inexpensive home improvement project. Color trends change over the years so if you haven’t painted in a while, chances are your walls could use an update. If selling is in your near future, remember that lighter colors make rooms look larger and neutral tones are more appealing to potential buyers.

Fix up the yard

With 48 hours and $500, you could make a huge improvement on curb appeal. A bag of grass seed to fill in dead spots on the lawn, a tree to provide shade and cut cooling costs, and a few flowers to brighten up dead beds could be the trick. Or go the opposite route with drought resistant plants, lowering your (and a future owner’s) monthly water bill. And by renting a pressure washer, you can clean away years of built up grim from your home’s siding, front walkway, decks and fences in a matter of hours.

Declutter

This is possibly the least expensive, but potentially most time-consuming task on our list. Still, decluttering has proven to add value and should be a top priority if you’re planning to put your home up for sale. Clearing space on walls, shelves, floors and in closets will make your home feel more spacious, organized and inviting to potential buyers. And if you’re not selling for a while, consider it an investment into your sanity as you reap the benefits of living in a calm, decluttered space.

Boosting the value of your home doesn’t always mean expensive and time-consuming remodel projects. Even with a small budget and a bit of sweat equity, you can really make a difference. What home improvement projects will you be taking on this weekend?

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Instead of Selling Her $1.7 Million Home, Woman is Giving It Away to the Winner of a Letter-Writing Contest

If you are looking to live in a magnificent $1.7 million home in the scenic hills of Canada, then this woman is asking you to write her a letter.

Ever since Alla Wagner suffered a back injury last year, she has been unable to manage the stairs of her 5,000-square-foot home in Millarville, Alberta.

Home care nurses suggested that she upgrade the house to accommodate her disability, but she couldn’t bear to change its beloved structure.

“I view this home as a work of art and I don’t want to make changes to it that’s going to compromise it’s look and the value and craftsmanship that’s in this home,” Wagner told CTV News.

She spent several months trying to sell the home, but to no avail. Instead of giving up, however, Wagner got an idea.

Wagner is hosting a letter-writing contest in which she is asking strangers to write about why they want to live in her home.

The “Write a Letter, Win a House” contest will be accepting up to 68,000 submissions. As a means of Wagner recouping the cost of her home, participants are asked to pay $25 for their application.

If the letter application fees don’t help Wagner to break even within the next few months, she will refund all of the $25 admissions to the entrants. Additionally, if the contest succeeds, she plans on giving away 5% of its proceeds to the Calgary Women’s Shelter.

Wagner has already started reviewing letters for the contest, and she says she has been heartened by the submissions.

“Just that one family that will end up in this home, in this house and make it into a home for themselves and be happy here, as happy as I have been, I know it’s going to be a beautiful story in the end.”

“It would be a beautiful way for someone not giving up hope,” said Wagner. “I’m not going to give up hope. I believe that when this contest works, I know it’s going to be well worthwhile.”

By McKinley Corbley -Jan 21, 2019 – https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-is-giving-away-multi-million-dollar-alberta-house-in-letter-writing-contest/

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Rents Expected to Rise Faster Than Inflation in 2019

Rents are likely to rise faster for older, class-B apartments in 2019 than for any other class of apartment property.

“We expect Class-B to continue to have the strongest average rent growth, as it has through recent history,” says Andrew Rybczynski, senior consultant at research firm the CoStar Group.

Rents continue to rise for new class-A luxury apartments as well. Strong demand is quickly filling new units as they open and, as a result, rents are rising faster than inflation. At the same time, rent growth is finally slowing down for class-C and class-D apartments—simply because many of those renters are already paying as much as they can afford.

“While occupancy is sky high in class-C product, rent growth in that sector is beginning to slow a little,” says Ron Willett, chief economist for MPF Research, a RealPage company.

 

Less competition for luxury renters

In many parts of the country, developers cannot find enough construction workers to finish their apartment projects on schedule. They are likely to open fewer new class-A apartments in 2019 than they have in prior years, according to Rybczynski. In 2018, developers also faced construction delays, which allowed a return in rent growth at the top of the market.

“Until those delays work themselves out, class-A rent growth will perform better than the relative lows at the end of 2016 and through 2017,” says Rybczynski. He predicts rents will grow 2.9 percent in 2019 for class-A apartments, compared to 2.7 percent last year.

“Class-A units gained a bit of momentum in pricing power during 2018, reflecting that lease-up of new supply progressed so well, especially in the last half of the year,” says Willett. He says rents grew by 3.2 percent on average in 2018. He anticipates slower rent growth in 2019, in the middle to high 2 percent range.

“Another year of sizable deliveries when job production is expected to slow should result in some cooling of class-A rent growth in 2019,” says Willett.

 

Class-B apartments in the lead

Class-B apartments have generally stayed fully occupied, even in markets where developers have built thousands of more expensive, class-A units. So, rents at class-B communities have moved steadily higher, while many landlords at class-A buildings have had to offer steep discounts.

That’s because class-B apartments are usually priced several hundred dollars lower than new class-A properties. “Class-B benefits from being cheap relative to class-A, while experiencing relatively little supply risk,” says Rybczynski. He predicts rents will rise in the high-2-percent range for class-B apartments in 2019. That similar to the 3.1 percent average growth in 2018.

According to Willett, “Class-B properties should experience the strongest rent growth in 2019, with the expected performance level holding near 2018’s growth rate of 3.5 percent.”

Slowdown for class-C apartments

Rents will probably not grow as quickly for class-C apartments in 2019, compared to the year before.

“That reflects affordability constraints for the renters who live in that lower-end product,” says Willett. Many of the people who live in class-C apartments are already paying a large share of their income in rent. Rents climbed 2.9 percent for class-C apartments in 2018. “The 2019 result likely will slip a little more to around 2.5 percent.”

CoStar predicts rents will rise 2.6 percent for class-C units in 2019, on averages. That’s up slightly from 2.6 percent the year before.

Top neighborhoods and markets

Across the U.S., rents are likely to rise the fastest in neighborhoods with a large number of older, class-B apartment units renting at relatively low prices and little new construction.

Often these neighborhoods can be found in smaller cities or suburban areas, far from the overbuilt downtown areas of larger cities.

“On average the strongest rent growth is in the suburbs,” says Rybczynski. “This is more a supply story than demand. Over the past cycle an outsized share of supply has flowed to urban environs, and that continues to be the case.”

www.mortgagemastersgroup.com

Original Article:  https://www.nreionline.com/multifamily/apartment-rents-expected-rise-faster-inflation-2019

Make it a Day ON, Not a Day Off!

Make it a Day ON, Not a Day Off! There are many ways you can participate in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. You can join a project already planned in your community; you can develop your own project with family, friends, and neighbors; or if you work for an organization that mobilizes volunteers, you can make King Day the day you train new volunteers to be deployed throughout the year.

Legislation signed in 1983 marked the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a federal holiday. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that leads service and volunteering, with leading this effort. Each year, on the third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is observed as a “day on, not a day off.” MLK Day of Service is intended to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, create solutions to social problems, and move us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community.”

Dr. King once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” The AmeriCorps and Senior Corps national service programs provide opportunities to serve your community and your country in deep and meaningful ways. You can serve somewhere locally or far from home; fight poverty, build homes for those in need, mentor kids, or support disaster victims, just to name a few. But no matter where or how you choose to serve, you’ll be assured of an unforgetable experience for you and the ones you help.

Is your schedule already booked on MLK Day? That’s okay! Thousands of organizations around the country are looking for help year round. Search today for volunteer opportunities and get connected to an organization near you.   Find out more at: https://www.nationalservice.gov/serve-your-community/mlk-day-service

 

7 Safest, Most Affordable Cities in America

Port St. Lucie Ranks #3 in the 7 safest, most affordable cities in America.

Though you’re bound by the Code of Ethics not to prognosticate about the safety of any particular location, it’s an issue at the forefront of your buyers’ minds. “When homeowners think about the biggest investment of their life, top of mind is how safe an area would be to live in and raise a family,” Rick Palacios Jr., director of research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, told realtor.com®.

You can, instead, send your clients to information resources and crime data to help them arrive at an informed purchase decision. Realtor.com® has helped to cull such information, analyzing the 150 largest metro areas to and which cities have the lowest crime rates. All the areas on realtor.com®’s list also are affordable, with home prices below the $300,000 national median. But one thing is for sure: Buyers can expect to pay more in locations with lower rates of violent crime, according to a study from Auburn University.

Violent crime, such as homicides, assaults, and robberies, have plunged 49 percent nationwide from 1993 to 2017, according to FBI data. Some of the safest areas on realtor.com®’s list weren’t always known for being low-crime but have rebounded in the past few years. “The places that made our affordable safe harbor ranking are a mix of smaller metros that never really struggled with high crime and cities once riddled with problems that have successfully pulled off a turnaround,” realtor.com® notes. “No Western metros were included because home prices are simply too high.”  Realtor.com® ranked the following seven cities as the safest, most affordable areas in the country.

1. Grand Rapids, Mich.

• Median home list price: $280,000


•  Total crime rate: 18.38%

2. Pittsburgh

• Median home list price: $173,000


• Total crime rate: 18.44%

3. Port St. Lucie, Fla.

• Median home list price: $285,100


• Total crime rate: 19.16%

4. El Paso, Texas

• Median home list price: $175,800


• Total crime rate: 20.48%

5. Syracuse, N.Y.

• Median home list price: $160,000


• Total crime rate: 21.4%

6. Hartford, Conn.

• Median home list price: $260,000


• Total crime rate: 21.97%

7. Fayetteville, Ark.

• Median home list price: $272,600


• Total crime rate: 23.21%

Source: “America’s Safest Affordable Cities … That Won’t Put You to Sleep,” realtor.com® (Jan. 14, 2019)

Mortgage Relief May Give Housing a Winter Boost

Mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest averages in eight months, and as word gets out, more potential home buyers may come off the sidelines, real estate pros say.

 

“The problem is that volatility is the obstacle,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, told The Wall Street Journal about expectations of fluctuations in mortgage rates over the next few months.

 

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to a 4.51 percent average last week, which matches the lowest average since last spring, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey. Mortgage rates are still higher than a year ago—when they were 3.95 percent—but rates have steadily fallen from nearly 5 percent this fall.

 

Higher mortgage rates in 2018 were blamed on dampening home sales and prompting affordability concerns among would-be buyers. Stock market swings and higher home prices also took the blame.

 

But as mortgage rates fall, some real estate professionals say they’re seeing buyers step back into the housing market to take advantage of the savings. Tami Pardee, founder of Halton Pardee & Partners in Los Angeles, told WSJ that her firm had seven homes go into escrow just one week before Christmas, which is typically one of the slowest times of year. “I think people are worried that rates are going to go really high,” she says.

 

Brian Benjamin, president of Two River Mortgage in Red Bank, N.J., told WSJ that after his buyers, who had been sitting on the sidelines, saw how much they could save with the lower mortgage rates, they actively resumed their search.

 

“Hopefully as the news gets out that mortgage rates have fallen, it will get those on the fence to accelerate their looking,” Benjamin says.

 

It’s the perfect time to call Mortgage Masters and see how much we can save you on your next mortgage loan. For more information call 772.340.4003 👍