Full Circle Real Estate Group: Athens Real Estate, Sustainable Real Estate

When looking back over all of the properties Full Circle sold last year, I discovered an interesting statistic. We sold 48 properties worth more than $9 million and a whopping 70% of those homes were located within 3 miles of downtown.

The majority of our clients come to us wanting to find homes in walkable neighborhoods near downtown and campus that allow them to use their cars less and their feet more. The desire to live a more sustainable and energy-efficient lifestyle is starting to become the norm and a recent study shows that housing located near public transportation uses less energy than even Energy Star-rated ones in the ‘burbs.

The study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency says that location is vital because buildings and transportation together account for about 70% of U.S. energy use and 62% of its greenhouse gas emissions.

"People can do many things to reduce their energy use: install energy-efficient light bulbs, carpool or walk or buy Energy Star appliances, among other things. But the way in which we plan and build our communities also has a significant role to play in creating a more environmentally and economically sustainable future," EPA said in announcing the results.

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the Athens Farmers Market this year. The Market is an organization of local farmers, craftspeople and volunteers working to make local naturally grown food, crafts and works of art available for the good of all.

Make sure you visit the Market, located at Bishop Park, Saturday mornings from 8am to Noon. Click HERE for more information, including a list of what will be available each week. You'll also see a link to the Market website at the bottom of our homepage.

Go get your veggies and support our local farmers!

Full Circle and J.W. York Homes collaborated with a UGA LEED-Certified Professor and her design students last Fall to design a spec home for The Cottages at Hilltop, a sustainable-concept community.

Jared York was so impressed with one of the group's designs that he decided to build the very efficient, 4BR/3BA house plan the students created. The four UGA students, their Professor Megan Lee and Dean Laura Jolly of UGA's Family and Consumer Sciences School toured the completed home today.

The students were very excited to see their plans come to life! The 1,655 sq foot Energy Star home is a great use of space and includes a room downstairs with a pocket door entry that could be used as an office/den/4th BR. There are three bedrooms upstairs, including a master bedroom and two gorgeously tiled bathrooms.

Click HERE to see photos of this great example of sustainable design.

Full Circle Agent Briggs Carney participated in the 2010 Tour de Farm over the weekend.

Tour de Farm is a three-day, approximately 100-mile bike ride to many small local farms in and around Athens-Clarke County. This year's Tour de Farm was a huge success, as both riders and volunteers alike connected to and formed relationships with the agricultural landscapes of Northeast Georgia, the food grown locally and seasonally in our region, and the people working hard to produce this food sustainably.

"It was a really cool experience and one I would definitely do again," Briggs said. He said guest chefs prepared dinner each night using food grown on the farms and riders camped at stops along the way.

The group of riders were followed by a camera crew from CNN, so we'll post those videos when they are available. To check out photos from the event, click HERE.

The Red and Black newspaper just published an article on Full Circle's collaboration with J.W. York Homes and UGA LEED-Certifified Professor Megan Lee and her design students. The class has been working for the last month to design a spec home for The Cottages at Hilltop, a sustainable-concept community.

Full Circle Broker Patrick O'Brien is quoted in the article as saying The Cottages at Hilltop project is important for those involved in real estate and housing because it will increase their focus on building at a sustainable level.

The students "are essentially leading the way for design and development with an eye on sustainability," he said. "It's a vital experience for them."

The students are expected to complete the project this month.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE RED AND BLACK

As we mentioned earlier this month, Full Circle and J.W. York Homes are collaborating with a UGA LEED-Certifified Professor and her design students to design a spec home for The Cottages at Hilltop, a sustainable-concept community.

The class will design a 1,400 to 1,800 sq ft, 3BR/2BA spec home for the development this fall that incorporates sustainable principles and follows LEED for Homes guidelines. The project is designed to help students learn about the benefits of building sustainable, energy-efficient homes.

The students have completed Phase One, which included gathering site information and research and coming up with three possible floor plans, and Phase Two, which focuses on selecting exterior and interior finishes and equipment.

Assistant Professor Megan Lee said final presentations will be given October 8th. To read more about this project and other sustainable design news, check out Dr. Lee's blog HERE. To see homes for sale in The Cottages at Hilltop, click on our Residential Listings or click HERE.

     Full Circle Real Estate Group and J.W. York Homes are collaborating with a UGA LEED-Certified Instructor to help the next generation of designers appreciate sustainability.

     Broker Patrick O'Brien and Agent Michael Littleton, along with builder Jared York, recently introduced The Cottages at Hilltop, Athens' only sustainable-concept community, to UGA Assistant Professor Megan Lee and her interior design class.

     The class will design a 1,400 to 1,800 sq ft, 3BR/2BA spec home for the development this fall that incorporates sustainable principles and follows LEED for Homes guidelines.

     The project is designed to help students learn about the benefits of building sustainable, energy-efficient homes.

     "This project gives talented design students a valuable opportunity to take the sustainability principles they have learned in the classroom and apply them in a real world development scenario," said Mr. O'Brien. "From a marketing perspective, it is important that a home be sustainable and efficient in ways that can be seen and touched by the home owner, as well as those that can’t. Interior Designers of the future will play a key role in that presentation."

     Stay tuned for updates on this project over the next couple of months. For more information on The Cottages at Hilltop, CLICK HERE.

Nature's Harmony, a sustainable farm in Elberton, continues to create a buzz with their unconventional and "beyond organic" farming techniques. Besides selling locally-grown fruits and veggies, they have recently expanded to meat. Back in June, CNN visited the farm three times for a story that came out today. (Read it HERE).

Nature's Harmony is a member of a growing local-food movement, often referred to as Community-Supported Agriculture. The CSAs, as they're called, are a model in which consumers pay for their food in advance and receive it directly from the farmer. Working much like a magazine subscription, customers pay for a period of usually at least six months and receive packages either at the farm or at established delivery locations.

Although thousands of farms have sprung up over the past two decades selling fruits and vegetables using the system, experts say there are probably only a few dozen that, like the Georgia farm, offer meat.

Farmers Tim and Liz Young raise cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys and lambs on their 76-acre farm in northeast Georgia, near the South Carolina state line.

Check out this great concept and unique farm at www.naturesharmonyfarm.com.

Since 2001, the web-based Athens Locally Grown farmers’ market has gone from a few growers to a collaboration of more than 100 area small farmers serving over 1,800 members. Despite its success, it provides limited avenues for education and social interaction. Prior to the establishment last year of the Athens Farmers’ Market, there were few meeting places outside of Locally Grown’s weekly pick-up for members. So, Locally Grown created the “Farmer for a Day” tour: guided by growers, guests visit local farms and experience the work, the food and the culture of sustainable agriculture. This year’s series of tours runs once a month through October. The first tour is this Sunday, May 17 at Roots Farm in Winterville, where many spring veggies and herbs are being harvested now.

Make sure you go down to Bishop Park this Saturday between 8am and Noon to check out a wide variety of locally grown produce, food vendors, free-range and  local poultry, live music and a much larger crafts section. This year's selection is supposed to be much larger, so bring a lot of reusable bags to carry your loot home.

For more info, click HERE.