Soil – The soil on a beach front property is usually predominantly sand. Typically soil is made of three main ingredients, clay, silt, and sand. These 3 components are what are needed to help certain plants grow. The soil around a beachfront property is typically very sandy. making it more difficult to maintain a lawn or most types of plants. The sandy soil can be supplemented with organic matter to allow for plants and shrubbery to be planted however it’s best to work with sand, stone, or rock instead of a traditional grass front yard.

Hardscaping is one way to work with the sandy soil, placing rocks, gravel, and paths in ways that are attractive and convenient around the property.

Plants – The type of plants that thrive in this kind of environment are typically long dry grasses. But there are some flowers you can use as well. Blanket flowers, California Poppies, Cosmos and Crepe Myrtle are a few. And especially yarrow which attracts hummingbirds and lavender which smells really nice. Also your property will most likely get a lot of sun exposure. Choose plant that can hold up.

Trees – Keep in mind that the environment in which the property is located is very salty. So you want trees that can stand up to that kind of salt exposure. Trees like the willow oak and Japanese black pine tree are sturdy trees that don’t mind a little salt.

Good Luck!

1. Set up a cleaning schedule that won’t interfere with your work. Share it with your coworkers or family members so that they can join in on the fun.
2. Put things into “To Keep” and “To Toss” piles. This works great especially for paperwork. If you don’t need it anymore dispose of it responsibly and recycle it if you can. Then put the paperwork you need into a separate filing cabinet so you know where it is when you need it.

   

3. Rearrange your desk for maximum efficiency. Put your computer at a 90 degree angle on your desk. Keep things that you may need to use quickly on your dominant side i.e., put pens and post-its to the right if you are right handed or to the left if you are left handed. This will make it easier to quickly jot down notes or a to-do list.
4. Sort through old electronics and office supplies and categorize them as “Unusable” (things you need to get rid of), “Recyclable” and “Usable” (things that you can donate).

   

5. Be CREATIVE. You can bring things from home to help organize the office. I.e. A cutlery holder can be used to store pens, pins, paperclips and other small office supplies if you have a drawer in your desk.
6. Set up zones for a more efficient work space. You can divide your space into areas such as computer zone, storage zone for your supplies, filing zones for your documents and archive. You’ll also be able to locate what you need more easily. Keep what you need the most at arm’s length.

   

7. Organize your computer. Delete documents or files that are outdated and put the remaining documents into labeled folders, Install system and program updates to make sure you’re running the latest versions, and clear your browsers internet cache.

Have a favorite spring cleaning tip or trick? We would love to hear from you, share your tips with us on Facebook or on twitter @NorthReal and we will retweet the best tips. Good Luck and Happy Spring!!!

1. Green cleaning products. Most cleaning products are made with harsh chemicals that can cause you and your family irritation as well as the environment. Try finding green and organic cleaning products (most of them smell really good) or make your own using vinegar or lemon juice. You can even create your own recipe that is best suited for your household.

2. Keep a close eye on the temperature of your home. Keep your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer, change your filter monthly and consider using ceiling fans instead of air conditioners. Also consider investing in a new thermostat and energy efficient windows.

3. Consider decorating with bamboo instead of wood. Bamboo grows much faster than trees and make very good hardwood floors as well!

4. Four words: Compact Florescent Light Bulbs. Not only do they last longer than regular light bulbs they use less energy as well!

5. Plant trees outside close to your home. This will help regulate the temperature of your home by blocking the sun, preventing it from beating down on your house.

6. Install a water filter in your home. This way you don’t have to keep buying and throwing out water bottles. You will always have clean, fresh tasting water to drink.

7. Plug leaks. With some easy weather-stripping and caulk you can prevent air from leaking out of your home when you have the heating and air-conditioning on.

Hopefully these tips will help make your household a little more earth- friendly. Good luck and Happy Greening!

Real Estate BarCamp provided the perfect scene to network, learn, share, and enjoy the company of a diverse group of attendees. A huge thank you to Patrick Healy, Nicole Beauchamp, Stephanie L Davis, Marilyn Katz, The Lucky Strikers Social Media Club, all the other great sponsors, and most importantly the attendees for making this a wonderful event that we were proud to be a part of. Can hardly wait for next year!

-Team NorthReal

BeachBeyond quickly enables travelers to find their perfect dream vacation destination. The property information is provided exclusively by licensed real estate brokerages, property management companies & private holdings who are intimately familiar with each listing and the surrounding community. Each listing is qualified by the BeachBeyond staff before being submitted to BeachBeyond.

A recent 2012 Forrester Research report stated that 87% of vacation travelers used the internet for the bulk of their travel planning in 2012. The vacation rental market represents a sizeable chunk of real estate transactions that surprisingly only a third of U.S.-based travelers feel vacation rental portals do a decent job representing travel choices. Travelers are increasingly expressing frustration with the online travel experience.

“We’ve done a complete reboot for the online travel industry.” says Justin Buonamano, VP of Sales for NorthReal. “We’re introducing streamlined tools that give vacation-goers instant access to available homes for rent in trending destinations right at their fingertips.”

“BeachBeyond goes ‘beyond’ just the property listing & offers user reviews, pictures, and destination information that mean something for each property.” says Jameson Mortimer, Director of Engineering for NorthReal’s Smartphone Division.“Both the online version & our smartphone app were carefully designed to be fast, simple, and fun to use for both real estate professionals and beach goers.”

BeachBeyond is kick starting their launch in the Florida market with plans to expand the eastern seaboard Spring 2013 with a national roll-out later in the year. BeachBeyond is free-to-use and includes special money-saving offers at select destinations with participating airlines, restaurants and more. From surfer bungalows to hilltop villas, you’re destined to get lost on your next tropical getaway with BeachBeyond.

About NorthReal

NorthReal is an information technology company building cross-platform Internet-based software applications for real estate consumers and professionals. We create value by reducing transaction time, enhancing user experience and aiding in the discovery of real property. NorthReal is headquartered in Rochelle Park, NJ and operates BeachBeyond, FetchSparky, Kanubee, PropClip, and Real.io digital real estate holdings.

Real.io carefully gathers user-rich content from major platforms including Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Agents can engage with their audience in targeted markets and create new business opportunities in real-time right from their desktop and soon to release smartphone devices.

Included in the latest build is a convenient heads-up display where users can generate one-click snapshot reports of social campaigns and easily schedule posts to the big three social platforms. Real.io provides features like online marketing of property listings, open house information or even giving your audience the latest inside scoop on neighborhood trends or market conditions.

A new location-based add-on lets Agents find customers right in their own backyard. With Real.io Maps you can engage with your local audience, track relationships, grow your business pipeline and close more deals in less time.

“Social property search is taking center stage for real estate consumers. The online networking space is very dense and with tools like real.io it gives Realtors® an early edge in targeting new customers,” describes Ronald Bovino, CEO & Co-founder of NorthReal.

“The ability to create and track business relationships as it happens gives real.io big potential in the online real estate space.” says Scott McBride, operator of Top Agent Resource a leading technology portal for real estate professionals. “It’s exciting to see new marketing opportunities for the real estate community.”

Real.io aims to give real estate professionals a better understanding of what social content is most effective and why. With Real.io Connect agents have the option to plug real.io directly into their business website and get expanded real-time social reporting and enhanced analytics.

Sign-up today for a free account at real.io or visit NorthReal.com to learn more about our upcoming real estate products and services.

About NorthReal

NorthReal is an information technology company building cross-platform Internet-based software applications for real estate consumers and professionals. We create value by reducing transaction time, enhancing user experience and aiding in the discovery of real property. NorthReal is headquartered in Rochelle Park, NJ and operates BeachBeyond, FetchSparky, Kanubee, PropClip, and Real.io digital real estate holdings.

It was a very exciting, crazy, chaotic, and productive summer. Over 11 weeks Dave, Eric, Raph, Zach, Brandon, and Jennica became part of the NorthReal family working on among other projects, PropClip and FetchSparky for Android, rebuilt Real.io app, and NorthReal’s cloud computing network for agile app deployment. Every afternoon a different food delivery guy provided fuel to the troops as ideas were conceptualized, white boards filled, apps programmed and brought to life. The interns got to work hands-on developing an application from idea to finish product. “It was great seeing Stevens students actually doing some work for a change!” quipped Jameson Mortimer (NorthReal Engineer and Stevens ’12 alum).

With summer over and class back in session, NorthReal HQ is left with empty workstations waiting for the next crop of promising young talent to fill in. We wish the best of luck to Dave, Eric, Raph, Zach, Brandon, and Jennica in their future endeavors. It was a sincere pleasure sharing our real estate technology dreams and watching them take shape with everyone’s help. Hope to have you all back soon!

-Team NorthReal

Rochelle Park, NJ, July 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NorthReal, Inc., is proud to announce the launch of PropClip for Android. The free mobile app was designed to give consumers the ability to easily access and edit their PropClip Portfolio while on-the-go. PropClip allows users to save their favorite real estate listings to their portfolio, share them, make notes, view them on a map, and receive price updates.

The new app enables consumers and real estate professionals to take their PropClip Portfolio with them everywhere. Easy-to-use and built on user feedback, the app syncs with the user’s online PropClip account to access and display listings, shared listings, maps, profiles, and notes. Now users can make, edit, and share notes on the fly and have them instantly synced to their online PropClip Portfolio.

“A large part of finding the perfect apartment or home happens away from your computer. We wanted our users to have PropClip with them every step of the way to help make the process easier. PropClip mobile allows you to directly make notes on-site while touring a property,” explained Jameson Mortimer, Lead Engineer for PropClip Mobile. NorthReal will next endeavor to develop PropClip for iPhone and iPad users.

Starting today consumers and real estate professionals can download PropClip Android app free from Google Play.

About NorthReal

NorthReal is an information technology company building cross-platform Internet-based software applications for real estate consumers and professionals. We create value by reducing transaction time, enhancing user experience and aiding in the discovery of real property. NorthReal is headquartered in Rochelle Park, NJ and operates PropClip, Kanubee, FetchSparky and BeachBeyond digital real estate holdings.

Have you heard of NorthReal? If not, the company hopes to quickly remedy that situation. This week’s press release, certainly reveals some ambitious goals (read: raising $280 Million in venture capital). So, who is NorthReal and what do they have to offer to real estate professionals?

NorthReal is one of those rare companies that understand the importance of branding individual products. That may explain why the names we’re about to mention may ring a bell, even if “NorthReal” itself doesn’t.

•  Kanubee: Kanubee is a free, Web-based photo editing software for agents and brokers to manually touch-up listing photos. The tool can be used to re-size, reduce glare and photo brightness, enhance colors and contrast and brand listing photos with a personal stamp.

•  PropClip: Buyers searching for a home can organize their property, apartment, and home searches under one roof with PropClip, a “virtual paperclip” for property listings. If they find a property they like, they can “clip it” and save it in their PropClip Notebook. They can then access them wherever they like. If the price or status of the listing changes, PropClip will send an update.

• FetchSparky: FetchSparky is a free online forum where users can create, edit, and vote on each question and answer. As a real estate agent, you can use FetchSparky to connect with potential customers by answering their questions, demonstrating your knowledge and market expertise.

Additional apps (such as BeachBeyond, Pinlets, and real.io) are in various stages of development or growth, but those I mentioned above seem to be today’s major players for the company.

Ronald Bovino and Robert Berberian, veterans of the real estate and technology industries, founded the company in 2009. Since that time, they’ve focused on creating solutions to improve real estate transactions for consumers and real estate professionals. What’s next? This week’s press release may provide some insight.

Original article from retechnology

Rochelle Park, NJ, June 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NorthReal, Inc., a NY Metro area real estate tech startup, today announced its initial capital offering to early-stage technology investors in the U.S and abroad. Positioned to be the largest real estate technology start-up to date, NorthReal is focused on raising $280 Million combined venture capital to aggressively rethink and reshape the way residential real estate is transacted. The initial $4 Million investment round will fuel the company’s accelerated product development and market expansion at a time when the industry is on the edge of a technology revolution.

“These are exciting times for the industry and we’re thrilled to be providing exciting new ways for consumers and Realtors® to experience the real estate transaction.” Says Ronald Bovino, Co-founder & CEO of NorthReal, which recently launched in January 2011 at Inman Connect NYC.

“We’re developing easy to use applications that enrich the online property shopping experience while delivering new ways to market properties for brokers.” Says Michael Haddad, Director of Digital Media, who recently lead NorthReal’s advance as a top finalist in Forbes America’s Most Promising Companies of 2011.

The residential real estate industry dominates the global economy. Over $1.2 trillion in homes sales were generated in the U.S. alone, according to data published in April 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Association of Realtors®. In a 2011 Borrell Associates report, real estate agents and brokers spent an estimated $6.2 billion on residential advertising with mortgage providers, rental property managers and landlords leading the way spending approximately $9.5 billion on consumer marketing in 2010.

“Real estate tech is big play. It’s where you’ll find the next generation of real estate tycoons.” Says Dr. Robert Berberian, NorthReal’s Co-founder & COO. “Onshore veteran investors like Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway along with overseas investors like Yuri Milner, are your big deal makers in highly fragmented and disruptive industries like real estate. The first wave of real estate tech pioneers like Zillow® and Trulia® have showed phenomenal growth over the last five years. It’s great for NorthReal to be a part of it.”

About NorthReal

NorthReal is an information technology company building cross-platform Internet-based software applications for real estate consumers and professionals. We create value by reducing transaction time, enhancing user experience and aiding in the discovery of real property. NorthReal is headquartered in Rochelle Park, NJ and operates PropClip, Kanubee, FetchSparky and BeachBeyond digital real estate holdings.

NorthReal Media Relations Contact:
John Buonamano, VP Marketing
Office: 201.326.3384 ext. 105
Mobile: 201.564.0223
e-mail: jbuonamano@northreal.com

NorthReal Investor Relations:
e-mail: invest@northreal.com