IN THE NEWS: New Home Alert Inc announces launch of website for Ottawa home buyers

Posted by admin | August 5th, 2010
buying a new home ottawa, New Homes Ottawa, Ottawa builders, ottawa home buyers, ottawa real estate, search engine for new homes | No Comments »

OTTAWA, ONTARIO –  New Home Alert Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of its website for Ottawa home buyers.  New Home Alert (www.newhomealert.ca) is Ottawa’s leading free search engine for new homes, filling an important void in the local real estate market that websites such as MLS® and Grapevine do not.  The website offers the largest selection of local builders from Ottawa and Gatineau, with more than 150 new residential developments and 2,500 floor plans to view.

New Home Alert creates a positive and enhanced house hunting experience for home buyers with easy to navigate content via images and videos.  The site also allows users to search for immediate occupancies and energy-efficient homes across the Ottawa-Gatineau region.   With regularly refreshed content, home buyers can also benefit from email alerts on their favorite builders and models.

With more than 85% of home buyers now using the web to start their home buying process, “this tool is a great resource for local home buyers to make an informed decision about the most important purchase of their lives”, says CEO Sébastien Lessard.  He adds that “There are many advantages to buying a new home, and we felt it was time for home buyers to quickly find the full range of options in our local new home market”.

John Corvinelli, President of long-time local builder Corvinelli Homes, confirms that “having my listings on New Home Alert has increased my number of sales”.   He continues by saying that “the search engine is having a positive impact on the new home industry in Ottawa, generating more leads for home builders. Collectively, we are in a much better position to compete with the resale market than individually”.

About New Home Alert Inc.

New Home Alert is a local company established by 3 entrepreneurs to fill an important void in the Ottawa real estate market. Offering thousands of listings, it is the leading search engine for new homes.
New Home Alert’s goal is to be the #1 resource for local home buyers and the most forward thinking form of media for the new home industry.  Proud to create a positive new home hunting experience, New Home Alert provides home buyers engaging content.
With promotional opportunities within its platform, New Home Alert also assists local builders and businesses to promote their products and services to home buyers in a creative and engaging new form of media: videos, video blogs and social media releases.

Contact Information:
Gen Tremblay - President
New Home Alert Inc.
www.newhomealert.ca
613.858.7298
gen@nha.ca

Franchising opportunities available.

Homes - Virtual Tours or Video Tours?

Posted by admin | July 14th, 2010
Home Builders, New Home Alert, New Home Ottawa, New Homes Ottawa, Ottawa Home Builders, Reality Homes, Video Tour, Virtual Tour | 2 Comments »

Hi – Seb here, CEO of  New Home Alert.  Our mission has always been to educate future Ottawa home buyers about the local new home industry by creating a positive and enhanced house hunting experience with easy to navigate content via images and videos of thousands of new home listings.

Most of the listings on our website feature 2D elevations and floor plans. These pictures and images can be very useful to give a general idea of what a home will look like once it is built.  But for many people, trying to visualize the inside of a home with 2D plans is challenging.

When searching for resale homes on http://www.MLS.ca, I always take the time to view the “multimedia” link, which leads me to a virtual tour of the home.  While I appreciate seeing all of those pictures, there’s nothing like seeing a video tour to get a better appreciation of the flow and size of a home.
I’m probably not the only one that appreciates seeing video, since over 1 billion videos are downloaded every day by web users around the world.  That is why we have partnered with RealityHomes.ca, a local company specializing in shooting quality HD video tours of residential properties.

Video tour vs virtual tour?

What’s the difference between a video tour and a virtual tour you will ask? Most of the multimedia used to feature resale listings is virtual tours which consist of “stitching” of photos to produce a 360 degree tour of a room in a house. Video tours on the other hand are produced by a videographer who walks through every room in a home and then edits the footage to produce a video.
Personnaly, I feel that video tours present the most realistic view of a home. New Home Alert would like your opinion on the subject. Check out the following two videos, and determine for yourselves…

Video Tour

Virtual Tour

We appreciate your feedback! It will help us develop the best solutions to help you in your search for your next dream home!

Green Washing in New Homes

Posted by admin | June 1st, 2010
ENERGY STAR certified home, ENERGY STAR certified homes, ENERGY STAR home, ENERGY STAR homes, green homes, Green washing, New Homes Ottawa, new-homes | 1 Comment »

Has your new home really been built to ENERGY STAR standards?

Hi!  Seb Lessard here, (CEO of New Home Alert.ca) writing about an interesting subject that recently caught my attention:  ‘green washing’ in new homes.  The ENERGY STAR certification logo has become one of the most recognized symbols today.  Most of our household appliances like the hot water tank, the furnace and windows have the ENERGY STAR logo and the same can now be said with many new homes built in the greater Ottawa region. Some home builders will offer the ENERGY STAR certified home as a standard feature and others will sell this feature as an upgrade. But what does it really mean to buy an ENERGY STAR certified home and are you always getting what you paid for?

The quick and dirty goes as follows:  your new home is built with materials and standards to minimize the loss/infiltration of hot or cold air in the house and use products that consume less energy to heat and cool the home.  The major differences between a home built to the Ontario Building Code Standards (OBCS) and the ENERGY STAR Building Code Standards are:

·         Exterior wall insulation has an R-22 factor vs. the standard R-19 factor

·         Basement wall insulation is full height vs. the standard 2’ below grade

·         Installed furnace has a 90% AFUE vs. the 88% AFUE standard requirement

·         The duct work joints are all sealed vs. not being mandatory in the OBCS

·         All windows need to be ENERGY STAR certified vs. not being mandatory in the OBCS

·         Fully ducted HRV vs. the standard 50 CFM bath fan

The one thing in common for all home builders is that it costs them more to build ENERGY STAR certified homes, which is why some choose to offer this feature as an upgrade, leaving the buyer to determine if they want their home certified or not.

So what is ‘green washing’?

Here is where the problem lies.  Some builders are ENERGY STAR Certified (i.e. have taken the course), but are not delivering each new home owner an individually ENERGY STAR certified home. This is called “green washing”, and you could be a victim of it!

A lot of the features that must be included in the build are hidden behind the closed walls and ceiling. It’s almost impossible for the average new home owner to know if the proper materials or techniques were used to build an ENERGY STAR certified home. To check that your new home was in fact inspected, you need to look on your electrical panel to see the ENERGY STAR registration number for your home.  Some builders will even hand you a Natural Resources Canada Certificate confirming that your home was inspected and that it met the ENERGY STAR Building Code Standards.

If you haven’t received this certificate or you can’t find the ENERGY STAR registration number on your electrical panel, give your builder a call to make sure your home was inspected and registered with Natural Resources Canada.  After all, kudos to you for having made a conscious effort to become more energy efficient, and shame on your builder for ‘green washing’ your home.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for video blog on the ENERGY STAR certification in new homes. We’re meeting a nationally recognized ENERGY STAR builder with multiple awards under his belt, and he’ll actually show us the components that go into building to ENERGY STAR certified home.

Russell, Ontario – Home of the beautiful Milan

Posted by admin | May 6th, 2010
Corvinelli Homes, John Corvinelli, Milan model Home, New Homes Ottawa, Ottawa Home Builder, Russell ON, Solidex Place | No Comments »

As I (Gen Tremblay), sit down with long-time home builder John Corvinelli and his sales representative Tanya at a local diner in Russell, Ontario, I realize how very familiar everyone and everything seems around me. Why do I feel so at home in this place? Why do all of these smiley faces look familiar? As I listen to John and Tanya describe their daily lives in this very quaint village, I realize that the people of Russell, including John and Tanya, have everything to do with that ‘homey’ feeling.

Driving just 30 minutes east of Ottawa to get to Russell, I appreciate this time to unwind and relax before meeting with Corvinelli Homes. So what takes me there? The beautiful Milan home model in the residential community of Solidex Place. Chris Dunn of Reality Homes and I are there to shoot a video tour of this beautiful 1,700 sqft bungalow. John gives us a personal tour of the home, and describes his home with such pride, as if he had nailed every single nail himself. And then just like a magician pulls a trick from his hat, he starts to talk passionately about the energy-efficient features in all of his homes and the awards he has won for building green homes. Now he’s talkin’, so much so that this deserves its own blog posting. Stay tuned…

I’ve always been attracted to bungalows, but The Milan is a winner for me. I’ll let you see for yourself. Enjoy the video!

Mission: Get to know Ottawa Home Builders

Posted by admin | May 6th, 2010
New Home Alert, New Home Builders, New Homes Ottawa, Ottawa Home Builders, Ottawa New Home Builders, President New Home Alert | No Comments »

My first blog posting…ever! I’m a bit nervous, but I’ll get over it! I’m Gen Tremblay, President of NewHomeAlert.ca, and my goal with this blog is to share with you the experiences that I have with our local home builders as I develop relationships with them. What I’m learning is that there is a face behind each builder, and each one of them has a story. But most importantly, somewhere in Ottawa, I think there is a builder that is building the perfect house for you, in your ideal neighbourhood. So my mission is to give you insight on these builders and hopefully help you in your home purchasing decisions.

When I first started out with New Home Alert, I didn’t know the size of the Ottawa new home industry. I could only name five home builders in Ottawa (who shall remain nameless). I’m pretty sure if we compared lists, we would have the same names. So now I’m learning, and my personal commitment is to bring you a series of insightful blog postings, short and sweet. And the first one follows.