Showing posts with label Featured Resource. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Featured Resource. Show all posts

Featured Resource: Ohio Board of Building Standards

Featured Online Resource

As I’ve noted in prior posts, the State of Ohio has an incredible amount of information available online.  Today’s article covers the Ohio Board of Building Standards (the “BBS"), which is under the purview of the Department of Commerce.  The BBS is comprised of 15 members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Ohio Senate.
 
As stated on its web site, the BBS has three main functions:

  • The formulation, adoption and amendment of building, mechanical, plumbing, elevator, boiler and pressure piping codes;

  • The certification of municipal, county and township building departments to exercise enforcement authority and to accept and approve plans and specifications, and make inspections and to inspect power, refrigerating, hydraulic, heating, oxygen and other gaseous piping, and liquefied petroleum gas piping systems; and

  • Conducting hearings and investigations as deemed necessary or desirable in the discharge of its duties.
 
The BBS web site contains numerous resources, including the following:
 
 
Codes, covering variety of information related to Ohio’s commercial and residential building codes, including online access to Ohio current building codes and rules and amendments.
 
Certifications, such as links to apply for various certifications, renewing certifications submitting assessment reports, obtaining continuing education and accessing certification rules. Also includes a link to Ohio’s current list of certified county, city and township building departments.
 
Resources, such as links to enforcement summaries, testing requirements, checklists, Attorney General opinions and court cases, BBS memos and interpretations, BBS publications, BBS newsletter and proposed rules.
 
Industrialized Units, including links to instructions for the electrical submittal process for IU plans, Ohio listed IU manufacturers, program news and updates, and electronic submittal of IU plans for BBS review.
 
There is a tremendous amount of information available on the BBS web site that would be useful for building departments, others working in the construction industry and anyone conducting research in this area.
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Featured Resource: ODNR--An Overview


As an attorney, I've come to appreciate over the years how our state government in Ohio is quite helpful when it comes to putting resources on the Internet. You just need to know where to look for it. Since this blog is about Ohio real estate law, I wanted to provide an overview of the legal/regulatory or generally helpful information you can access through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), just by selecting the 'Regulation' tab on their web site navigation bar and viewing the pages for the following 4 ODNR divisions:


This division regulates Ohio's oil and gas drilling operations, oil and gas production operations, brine disposal operations, solution mining operations and underground injection operations. Its staff inspects the drilling, restoration, and plugging of all oil and gas wells in the state.
In additional to having access to the various laws, regulations and permitting requirements, this division’s web pages provide searchable databases for well locations, other well data such as information on completion, permitting and production of the wells, and shale activity in the state.


This division oversees the development and restoration of mineral and fossil fuel extraction sites. It operates various programs to address the environmental and safety aspects of the coal and mineral mining industries. The division also restores abandoned mine land, enforces mining safety laws, and ensures the protection of citizens, land and water resources.

Program and support services include permitting, bonding, inspection, enforcement, mine safety rescue support and training, hydrology, soils, blasting, archaeology, engineering, design, information technology and administrative support.

The division's stated purposes include the following:
"The Permitting, Hydrology and Bonding section reviews all permit applications to mine industrial minerals and coal; it verifies all bonding and surety requirements; and manages permit records, databases, and permit related information.
The Field Inspection and Enforcement program enforces the laws regulating active mining activities to ensure the protection of citizens and conservation of environmental resources; and oversees land reclamation requirements to assure operators restore mine lands and waters to productive uses.
The Abandoned Mine Land program eliminates health and safety hazards and cleans up lands and waters damaged by coal mining that occurred prior to today’s stricter reclamation laws; including reclamation of underground mine openings, dangerous highwalls, dangerous mine subsidence, and cleanup of hazardous and/or polluted water impoundments, acid mine drainage, burning coal refuse, and others.
The Mine Safety program promotes safe mining practices for the protection of miners through services that include inspections at surface and underground mines, focused on accident prevention; examination and certification testing; mine rescue support; and safety training."

You can also find on their web page a Mine Locator that provides an interactive map of underground and surface coal and mineral mines in Ohio


The ODNR Division of Geological Survey is the state's oldest natural resources agency, established by the state legislature in 1837 as the Geological Survey of Ohio.

Its mission is to "To provide geologic information and services needed for responsible management of Ohio's natural resources."

Topics include, to name just a few, an abandoned underground mine map, astrogeology (including a meteorite find map), Ohio seismic information, Lake Erie geology, and..... who knew ̶ Fossil Hunting in Ohio.


The Division of Soil and Water Resources was statutorily created in July 2010 through the merger of the Division of Soil and Water Conservation and the Division of Water. Its mission includes, among other things:
  • Providing administrative guidance, training, program development support and financial to Ohio's SWCDs, their board members and staff;
  • Regulating construction and repair of dams and levees; 
  • Implementing agricultural and non-point source water pollution control programs;  
  • Maintaining and distributing data on all water resources including ground water levels, stream flow, and precipitation;  
  • Supporting and assisting fund local development of watershed management and protection action plans;  
  • Implementing a comprehensive statewide soils information program; and
  • Maintaining standards for sediment control and stormwater management.
The web page for this division contains numerous mapping options including: a groundwater resources map, access to well water logs and technical assistance such as pipeline construction standards.
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How the Right App Can Save the Day


This post is a little off topic for our blog but I wanted to share how one of the apps that I wrote about in January saved the day in a transaction closing. Recently, I attended a closing for a combined asset/commercial real estate transaction. In all acquisitions, whether a business or commercial real estate, certain closing conditions have to be met or waived, then the wires are initiated to fund the purchase. All lenders and title companies have a hard deadline in the afternoon by which the wire has to be initiated or it is postponed into the next business day.

 

In my transaction, we were running up against the wiring deadlines and risked not closing on time. To make matters worse, we were conducting the closing outside of my law office, at the business location being acquired. The scanning and faxing capabilities at the off-site location were inadequate and further complicated our ability to timely provide the lender with the items it needed before the wire transfers could be authorized. In a last ditch effort to meet out deadlines, I pulled out my iPhone and opened up my scanner app called JotNot Pro.  Using this application I was ability to ‘scan’ each document with my phone’s camera, convert the scans into pdf’s, including a multi-page pdf of the lease, and attach them to emails to the lender. We sucessfully funded and closed the acquisition with minutes to spare. Without this application I seriously doubt we would have closed our deal that day.

 
In real estate, I can visualize situations where having a scanner app on a smart phone or tablet would be immensely useful for professionals, such as real estate agents, who would benefit from being able to have purchase agreements and other documents signed and delivered immediately without having to wait until they back it back into their offices. I know that there are more than one such scanning app and highly recommend that people consider downloading one to try.   
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Useful Apps for Commercial Real Estate Practitioners


It’s been awhile since my last post on real estate apps for your smart phones and tablets. My last post focused more on residential real estate. This time, my focus will be on commercial real estate. In a couple of weeks I’ll revisit the residential real estate apps.
Searching for commercial real estate:

LoopNet—The download for this app is free but to access all the features you need to be a paid subscriber. Good app for accessing what is available now. There is an app for the iPhone, iPad and Android and web access geared towards searching from your smartphone.

CoStarGo—The download is also free but like LoopNet, to access all of the features you will need to be a paid subscriber.  This is a good app for historical information needed to determine comps, conduct analysis, or review physical information on the property. This app appears to only be available for the iPad.

CRE investment analysis:
TheAnalyst Real Estate—This app, for iPhone and iPad, provides a whole suite of real estate analysis tools specifically designed for commercial real estate and investment real estate.  You can calculate 5 and 10 year IRR/NPV, access a mortgage calculator or calculate the time value of money for potential investment property, analyze leasing vs owning, run a loan analysis or generate other reports. For a monthly fee you can generate formal reports with your company name, logo and contact information.

Special calculators:
PowerOne—This app is a financial calculator that combines an algebraic and RPN calculator with simple, customizable, spreadsheet-like templates, giving you hundreds to choose from.  You can create your own, keep a history and share with others.  At this time it is only available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
10bii—The app is identical to the HP 10bii financial calculator that many trained on when becoming a Certified Commercial Investment Member. This app is also available on more platforms including iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, Mac OS X and Android.

Other useful tools:
JotNot scanner—This is not a real estate specific app but is very useful if you are in the field a lot. It allows you to scan a multi-page document from your iPhone or iPad.
Dropbox and Google Drive—DropBox allows you to store documents, photos, etc. in the cloud an access from every device on which you’ve installed the Dropbox software. You can upload a document from one device into your “dropbox” and then access it from your other computers, phone or tablets.  Google Drive works the same way.
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More Ohio Real Estate News Sites

A few weeks ago I provided links to web sites that provide real estate news in Ohio.  In that article I focused on the three largest cities in Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.   I don't want to short change our other cities of significant size in Ohio so below are links to real estate news in Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.

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Real Estate Apps For Your Phone

There are a lot of useful apps out there for our iPhone and Android phones.  I’m an iPhone user and my personal favorite iPhone real estate app is Sawbuck’s HomeSnap. The free iPhone app was designed to tell you about any home you snap, from price to sale history, to the home's size and even the school district.   According to the company, its database has over 90 million homes available to ‘snap.’ The app seamlessly integrates live data from the multiple listing service (MLS).  If the home you snapped is for sale, you can access the complete listing details and photos.  If the home has sold, the final sale price and listing history will be offered.

Other useful real estate apps are:
  • Trulia’s Android and iPhone apps for rentals (including push notifications of new rentals meeting the user’s search criteria) – free;
  • Realtor.com’s real estate app (listings updated every 15 minutes) – free;
  • Real Estate by Smarter Agent app – free; and
  • The Property Fixer app (a real estate investment calculator designed for real estate agents, investors, lenders and other providers in the field) – $0.99.
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Featured Environmental Resources

To continue our theme of reviewing resources that are available to you on the Internet, below are links to some websites that are useful starting points on environmental issues in Ohio:

1.  Chemical and Environmental Dictionary -- Not certain what certain terms mean? look them up in this online dictionary for chemical and environmental dictionary.

2.  OEPA -- The web site for the Ohio EPA has many FAQs by topic, permit and compliance assistance, etc.  Your tax dollars paid for this, so put it to use.

3.  RCRA Online -- Hosted by the US EPA, the RCRA Online site is an electronic database that indexes thousands of letters, memoranda, publications, and questions and answers issues by the EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery (ORCR).


4. EPA Superfund -- Lastly, the US EPA has a tremendous amount of information online regarding CERCLA aka Superfund.
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Featured Resources: Census Data and Mortgage Glossery


There's a lot of resources available today on the Internet and when it comes to real estate, we like to link to as many of them as possible to help our readers in their search for information. Our "Useful Resources" link list can be found in the right column below the real estate/mortgage news headlines.

One recent addition to our link list is a fabulous 2010 census map provided by The New York Times. Hover your cursor over the map and access interactive census data by county. Click here to check out the census map.
Another recent addition is a glossary of mortgage terms provided by Total Mortgages Services. The glossary is pretty extensive. Curious about the meaning of  "abstract of title," "chattel mortgage," "acceleration clause" or "per diem interest"? The mortgage glossary will tell you. Click here to access the glossary.
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Oil and Gas Leasing--Part Deux

A couple of weeks ago I posted information regarding information sessions held to help landowners understand the issues surrounding leasing their land for oil and/or gas drilling. Understandably, many people who are interesting in this information cannot attend the meetings in person.

There is plenty of help online for those who own land, or mineral rights under land, and want more information about leasing it for oil and gas exploration, or just want to better understand the oil and gas exploration going on around us.

The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation has published information titled "What landowners should look for in oil, natural gas leases."

For more information, check out the web site for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources--Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.  This site provides access to all sorts of useful information, including, just to name a few:
Consider also--

This last web site is a joint project between the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission that provides a chemical disclosure registry and all sorts of educational information.  It allows you to search for information about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracking.

In addition to publishing useful reports, databases and other resources, many of the web sites above also contain links to even more sites that will help in your search for information. Happy hunting!
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Finding A LEED Accredited Professional

Interested in locating a LEED Accredited Professional ("AP") in your area? Do you even know what a LEED AP is?

The
Green Building Certification Institute ("GBCI")was established in January 2008 to provide third-party project certification and professional credentials for the purpose of recognizing excellence in green building performance and practice. The GBCI assumed credentialing for LEED professionals in January 2009.

While the
U.S. Green Building Council handles the development of the LEED Rating System, it was determined that the LEED professional credentialing program should be independently administered under the GBCI to better ensure a balanced, objective management of the credentialing program including exam development, application, registration, and delivery.

Click here for the GBCI's FAQs regarding professional credentialing.

If you are interested in locating an accredited professional in your area, the GBCI maintains an online directory at its web site. The directory's search engine enables you to search by name, organization, city and state, country. You can search for LEED Green Associates or LEED AP's with our without a specialty.

Featured Resource: "Green Shoots" -- a commercial real estate's green building blog


One blog worth visiting is Green Shoots, a commercial real estate blog on green building. It is operated through the National Real Estate Investor web site.


The site focuses on the latest news, data and analysis of the real estate green building industry as it evolves. Readers will find useful information regarding green leases, valuations, financing, and government regulations and incentives for new and existing buildings.


Click here to access the blog.



New Features On Our Blog

In an effort to provide useful content for readers of our blog, we have added a few new sections.


These sections are on the right hand side, and contain headlines for news articles on various real estate related topics. Click on the headline and the link takes you to the full article. The three news sections are Commercial Property News for the Midwest, headlines from the Wall Street Journal's Real Estate Development page, and news headlines related to mortgage loans.


County Auditor Offices in Ohio

Featured Resource
In our periodic review of useful resources on the Internet, one site we wanted to bring to everyone’s attention is the web site for the County Auditors’ Association of Ohio (CAAO). The CAAO represents the interests of Ohio’s 88 County Auditors. From their web site you can access a directory of the County Auditor offices for all 88 counties. Select the link for the county you need, and you will find the address, and other contact information, including an email address and web site address, if available. When you need to contact an auditor's office in a county you have never dealt with before then this web site is the perfect starting point to obtain the information you need.

Most of us are familiar with the real estate transfer and tax functions of the Auditor’s Office, but there are many other functions and responsibilities of a County Auditor’s office, some of which you may not realize are handled through it. The CAAO web site takes you on a tour of all the various duties of a County Auditor’s office, such as those involving personal property, real estate, licensing and inspection responsibilities as well as other duties of that office. Also found on this site is an explanation of the fiscal responsibilities handled through County Auditors’ offices, an overview of the Weights and Measures Division, and County Geographical Information Systems (GIS) maps in Ohio.

The CAAO web site is worth checking out and bookmarking for future reference.

USA.gov - The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal

Featured Resource
USA.gov is a web site designed for citizen access to governmental information on the Internet. It provides links to all branch’s of the federal government, government agencies, and to state, local and tribal government. Through this web site you can:
  • access an an A-Z agency index
  • search for government information by topic
  • access mortgage calculators or conversion calculators for any type of measurement
  • search for homes and other real estate for sale by the government
  • shop government auctions
  • search and apply for government jobs
  • find federal forms
  • contact elected officials
  • access the FAA’s Flight Delay Information - Air Traffic Control System Command Center
  • check out the beachgoer’s water quality map

The site provides a link to state governments in all 50 states and in the U.S. territories, and to the web sites of towns, cities and county governments. You can even access links to the various tribal governments. Best of all, if you find all the information on this web site to be overwhelming, USA.gov provides online tutorials on finding government information.

An Overview of Our Feature Columns

In our efforts to provide you with consistently useful content, we have designed several feature columns that will be published periodically on the Ohio Real Estate blog. These columns are: “CLE Update,” “Featured Resource,” “Hot Off the Press,” “Real Estate Law 101,” “Vendor Spotlight” and “Watch Your Language.”

The columns may be easily recognized by unique headline images that will precede each of the posts. Each special headline and a description of the corresponding column follows.



In our CLE Updates we will provide information on upcoming continuing legal education seminars in Ohio that address real estate issues. The title of the seminar, dates, times and location will be included, along with contact information and a web site line so you can obtain further information if you are interested.


There are many useful and informative web sites on the Internet. It’s just a matter of knowing which sites those are and what information can be found on each site. In the “Featured Resource” site we will review those sites and summarize for you what information and useful resources can be found on each of them.


In our “Hot Off the Press” column we will update you on recent federal and state court decisions and statutes on real estate matters.


“Real Estate Law 101” is devoted to the fundamentals in real estate law, where we will provide an overview of basic real estate documents and issues.

Our “Watch Your Language” feature columns will cover two aspects of drafting real estate documents. First, on the macro level, we will address general language issues in various real estate forms and documents. Second, on a micro level, we will get into specific wording and grammar issues and can change the meaning of a document, frequently contrary to what one party intended, and often with costly consequences.


Finally, in our “Vendor Spotlight” we will feature vendors that provide services in the real estate arena, including descriptions of the companies and of the various services they provide.