Margaret Bzdewka

When looking to sell a home it is important to know what types of listing agreements are available. The three most common listing agreement choices are shown below. The best choice for you will depend on your willingness and ability to tackle some of the home selling duties and the local real estate market climate.

• Open Listing
  An open listing lets an owner sell her home by herself. It is a non-exclusive agreement, meaning the owner may execute open listings with more than one real estate broker and pay only the broker who brings an able buyer whose offer the owner accepts.
• Exclusive Agency Listing
  An exclusive agency listing is similar to an open listing except the major difference is the agent will represent the owner. The owner still reserves the right to sell the property herself and not pay a commission. The broker is free to cooperate with another brokerage, meaning the second brokerage could bring an able buyer whose offer the owner accepts. Typically, the broker is paid a listing commission that is shared with the selling broker, so the owner pays both fees.
• Exclusive Right-to-Sell Listing
  An exclusive right-to-sell listing is the most commonly utilized instrument. It gives the broker the exclusive right to earn a commission by representing the owner and bringing a buyer, either through another brokerage or directly. The owner pays both the listing and selling broker fees. The owner cannot sell the property herself without paying a commission, unless an exception is noted in the contract.

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Most showerheads use twice the water needed for a thorough, enjoyable shower. Every day, three billion gallons of water flow through showerheads in the United States - half of it unnecessarily. The toll this excess takes on one of our most precious resources, clean water, is a blow to both the environment and your pocketbook.

What can you do? Take this very easy step—convert your showerheads to low-flow models. This takes a few minutes and costs a few dollars. For an investment of $10 or less you can save $50 to $75 per year on water bills and $20 to $50 or more per year on energy bills (depending on your current showerhead and utility rates). Every new showerhead should pay for itself the first year.

Early low-flow showerheads simply blocked some of the water flow. This solution was okay for saving water but took the joy out of showering beneath a robust blast of water. Newer heads are different, able to both conserve and offer a satisfying shower by engineering the movement of water, sending it through special orifices that control droplet size, focus the stream, and - in some cases - increase the blast by mixing in air, creating turbulence or pulsing.

The amount of water that moves through a showerhead (the "flow rate:) is measured in gallons per minute (gpm). A standard showerhead uses approximately 4.5 gpm, look for low flow showerheads using 2.5 gpm or less.

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