Before you start buying Moon Land, read my article: Alternative Investments: 5 good reasons NOT to buy Land on the Moon

They don't sell it. Point made.

Before you prosecute me, read the other side of the story: Alternative Investments: 5 good reasons to buy land on the Moon

What can you as a seller do? Well there are some easy and economical things you can do to give your house an edge against the competition. Here are just a few ideas:

1. First Impressions Count

   Remember the old saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. First impressions are crucial! The outside of your home is the first thing your buyer will see, so make sure his impression is a good one! Mow the lawn. A neat and tidy lawn is very appealing. Pick up clutter, toys, hoses, etc. and put them away! Make sure your porch and entrance is clean and neat. Add a nice plant by the door and a chair or bench to convey a feeling of relaxation and ease. If needed, paint the door. A shiny, freshly painted door is to a house what make-up is to a face. It gives the entire façade a look of elegance and neatness.

2. Start Packing!

   Clear out small appliances, books, and other unnecessary items and put them in storage. This will help your home look clean and neat. It will make the rooms look larger and roomier which is a big plus when selling. Pick up litter boxes, pet bowls, pet toys, children's toys and items. Messiness is a big no-no!

3. Play Up Particular Features

   Many buyers love particular features like a fireplace or pool. If you have them, flaunt them! A nice patio area by the pool or a woolly throw rug in front of a fireplace looks cozy and inviting.

4. Replace Missing Items

   Missing light bulbs, switch plates, etc. give the impression that the home is neglected and run-down. Make sure these items are taken care of.

5. Minor Improvements

    Other minor improvements can help boost the value of your property. If you can afford to, paint the walls! Earth tones work best to inspire warmth and relaxation. Change the bath rugs, and shower curtain. New hardware for kitchen cabinets adds eye appeal.

These small steps will help your home look its best and give a good lasting impression which your buyers will take with them. Happy Selling!

Start by getting a copy of your local landlord-tenant laws. These vary, sometimes greatly, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Read it carefully and know what your rights are as a landlord should things go wrong down the road.

When a prospective tenant shows up you need to have them fill out an application to rent. This is not a lease or a rental agreement. Always make sure you get references as well as employment history and contact information for their current and former landlord. You also need to get written permission to do a credit check. If a prospective tenant is unwilling to give any of this information then move on to the next prospective tenant.

Take the time to call the references and previous landlords. A professional tenant will often get a friend to pose as their current landlord. To verify this use a reverse look-up of the phone number and see if the name and address match the information given. You can also go and see the previous landlord in person to make sure the information is legitimate. Spend the money on a credit report, it will be money well spent.

Once you've settled on who you're going to rent to you need to get all your paper work in order. You need an iron-clad lease in case you need to evict. You need a pre-occupancy inspection report signed by both you and the tenant before they move in. This is important if you need to sue for damages at a later date. You should also get the vehicle information of the cars your tenants will be parking at the rental unit, including the VIN number. This is useful if you get a court awarded settlement because you can then put a lien on the vehicle for some or all of the money owed. In some jurisdictions you can also force the sale of the vehicle to cover the awarded costs.

If they pay by check keep a record of their banking information including account number. You may be able to garnishee their bank account should it become an option to recover damages.

The costs involved with protecting your property and investment from unsavory and professional tenants can be quite expensive. You have the lawyer's fees for doing up all the paper work to make sure it will stand up in court. The time you spend verifying the references and costs of a credit check.

My former employer owns several rental properties on top of his other businesses. When I first took over there were no written leases or rental agreements on any of these properties. It took well over six months to get rid of a professional tenant as well as over $3,000.00 in court costs and Sheriffs fees to have them removed. This doesn't include the lost rent, unpaid utility bills and damages. The last professional tenant I evicted was quick and reasonably painless. It only took 10 days to get a hearing and the adjudicator ordered the tenants be out in 10 days. It's amazing how much time, aggravation and money proper paperwork can save you.

A few design firms are taking the lead in this area of design research, designing buildings in which the design's success or failure is determined by its relationship to the environment.

Conde Nast Building (Fox and Fowle, New York, 1999)

Built as part of the renaissance of Times Square, the Conde Nast building is also the first ecologically designed North American skyscraper. AT the time of its construction, high-rise buildings rarely addressed environmental issues. Today, many of its innovations are considered standard for office buildings.

A monumental catalyst for the ear, this is the first office building to be developed by the 42nd Street Development Corporation, a public/private consortium established to promote the redevelopment of Times Square. Located on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, the Conde Nast building straddles the glitzy Times Square entertainment area to the west and the corporate Midtown area to the east.

Designed with two distinct faces, the west and north facades respond to Times Square with the glitter and technology of metal and glass, while the east and south facades respond to the corporate context with a historical stone façade, creating, according to the architect's description, a “marriage of pop culture and corporate dignity.”

At street level, the tower's lobby, with its dramatically curved ceiling, connects 42nd and 43rd streets, drawing visitors through the building. Responding to the Times Square zoning ordinance, the building's base is covered with billboards and neon sign age.

This building sets new standards in energy conservation, indoor environmental quality, recycling systems, and the use of sustainable materials. The large glazed-glass areas of curtain wall maximize daylight penetration. The curtain-wall glazing incorporates a low-E coating to filter out unwanted ultraviolet light while minimizing heat gain and loss. Photovoltaic panels are integrated in the spandrel areas on the upper floors of the east and south faces, generating a meager but symbolic amount of electricity by day.

Sophisticated mechanical systems ensure high indoor air quality by introducing filtered fresh air to the office environment. Tenant guidelines produced by the architects established environmental standards for lighting, power usage, furniture systems, carpet, fabrics, finishes, and maintenance materials to ensure indoor air quality, and also to serve as a comprehensive strategy to maintain environmental sustainability for the life of the building.

This pastiche of environmentalism, historicism, futurism, and commercialism creates a complex architectural organism. Indeed, the arguments for energy conservation seem out of place in a neighborhood like Times Square, which is predicated on a spectacular excess of energy-consuming visual pyrotechnics. A difficult first in the realm of ecological skyscraper design, it anticipates the next generation of ecologically sensitive North American skyscrapers.

Deutsche Post AG (Murphy/Jahn, Bonn, 2001)

This sleek tower housing the new headquarters for the Deutsche Post is exemplary of a kind of sustainable design practice that achieves the goal of environmentally sensitive architecture without sacrificing aesthetics or occupant comfort. The tower rethinks the skyscraper as a building type by focusing on the integration of function, technology, and user comfort to create an architecture of “high technology and low energy.”

The tower is made up of two curved semicircular masses connected by glass bridges. The connecting floors, at nine-story intervals, form atrium sky gardens which are naturally ventilated and serve as interior communal spaces. A skylight annex houses additional public spaces at the base of the tower, and is clad in a “smart skin” of glass and integrated photovoltaic panels.

The façade design consists of a twin shell glass curtain wall. The clear glass outer shell allows for natural ventilation, and protects from rain, wind, and noise. The operable inner shell allows occupants to control the local interior climate. Floor to ceiling glazing optimizes daylight penetration and reduces energy consumption through the reduction of interior lighting, while integrated sun shades in the façade cavity control heat gain during periods of direct solar exposure. As the architects point out, the building's roof and façade are no longer surfaces with constant properties, but rather a highly specific system of interchangeable parts that allows the building to adapt to changes in temperature, humidity, light intensity, or acoustics. The architects describe the multi cell roof as “the technical equivalent of the biological skin.”

The building employs an integrated heating and cooling radiant-slab system, taking advantage of the thermal storage capacity of concrete. Additional heating and cooling systems assist with interior climate-control during summer and winter months.

Utilizing a computerized building management system, the building monitors its climate and controls all of the components to optimize its “operational mode.” The intelligent building creates its own equilibrium with the exterior environment through constant feedback. Careful monitoring reduces redundant lighting and conditioning, providing these only as required, and significantly reducing operating costs.

The collaboration between Jahn and Sobeek produces what they call “archi-neering,” a seamless integration of architecture and engineering design. The design for the Deutsche Post building achieves new levels of design integration with technology, in order to create smarter and more responsible architecture. Jahn describes this environmental optimization by stating, “Nothing must bed added, and nothing can be taken away.”

Adia Headquarters (Kohn Pederson Fox International, Abu Dhabi, 2004)

The curvilinear headquarters building for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) combines a sensuous formal vocabulary with a low energy design strategy appropriate to the Middle Easter climate. The building mass is draped in a glass curtain wall that folds in and out of the tower, transforming from the taut skin of the exterior envelope to the inner liner of the internal atrium.

The building is sited in a green fringe of the city, close to the sea. Its curved form gestures to the waterfront on the west, with elevators and other services concentrated on the east. The tower consists of two wings connected by an elevator core and a setback atrium. The building mass is camouflaged by the undulating ribbon like surface that projects above the tower, culminating in a sail like projection on the north façade.

The curtain wall consists of a double façade of clear glass that admits natural light and air while cutting down on the amount of solar heat gain. The taut glass skin transforms on the west façade with the introduction of horizontal sun-shading devices. The interior atrium is conceived as a series of stacked sky-gardens that act as passive means to regulate humidity and temperature, as well as contributing to a sense of community.

The architects describe the form of the tower as a “rethinking of the tall office building in a changing cultural, social, and environmental context.” The organic form of the tower seems to be derived from a concern with the fluid forces in the context, rather than a rigorous internal logic. Indeed the curvilinear geometry of the floor departs from conventional space-planning modularity. The combination of bold sculptural form a sensitive environmental systems makes the tower a benchmark in the ecological design of the skyscraper.

RWE Headquarters (Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner, Essen, 1996)

The glassy RWE Tower in the predominantly low-rise city of Essen, Germany, stands out due to its slender proportions and light materials, as well as its role as a pioneering work of sustainable design. Designed by the firm of Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner, the tower utilizes sophisticated building systems, allowing it to consume less energy while still providing a comfortable, naturally lit and ventilated interior environment.

The cylindrical tower is sited in the middle of a landscaped park, surrounded by a lightweight pergola structure that defines the street edge. The tower itself consists of two volumes, the cylinder housing the office spaces and an adjacent elevator tower. The cylindrical plan allows all the offices to be located at the perimeter, guaranteeing access to natural light and air, while a service core and conference rooms occupy the center.

A “breathing double façade” system allows the occupants to benefit from natural light and air, without adding to the cooling and heating loads of the mechanical systems. The curtain wall is made up of a compartmentalized double layer of floor-to-ceiling glass. The outer layer is formed by a taut skin of low-iron glass with an innovative horizontal mullion, which acts as an airflow valve and ventilates to the exterior. The compartments are accessible from the inside via sliding-glass doors, allowing occupants to control the amount of fresh air let in.

The building-management system monitors exterior climate data in relation to the interior temperature, and makes adjustments accordingly. Mechanized sun shades are integrated into the façade cavity and automatically raise or lower to control heat gain on the façade. Exterior sensors warn occupants to close their windows when it rains, or if it is particularly windy. Other systems allow for harvesting energy from roof-mounted photovoltaic panels.

Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner describe their design criteria as “efficiency, ecological consciousness, economy of resource usage, and build ability.” The RWE Headquarters is an example of an integrated-systems building that pioneered new technologies in façade design, energy efficiency, and sustainable materials. Its “smart-façade” system addresses the apparent conflict between thermal conservation and daylight illumination through the use of clear glass and integrated mechanical systems.

110 Bishopsgate (Kohn Pedersen Fox International, London, 2005)

110 Bishopsgate is part of a new generation of high-rise buildings approved for construction in the City of London. The environmentally sensitive and structurally articulated tower is expressive of the technologies that enable it.

The project is located on the eastern edge of the old city, on a prominent site at the junction of Bishopsgate and Chamomile Street, and across the street from the Georgian church of St. Botolph. It forms part of a cluster of office buildings that includes the NatWest Tower and the 30 St. Mary Axe. The recent crop of office buildings in London corresponds to a demand for large floor plates to provide flexible office space in the center city. It also responds to the evolution in expectations of what a contemporary office building should be with regard to the working environment that it creates and the approach to energy consumption and sustainability.

A perimeter service core on the south organizes the building, allowing open plan offices to benefit from exposure to the west, north and east. The service core acts as a buffer against solar exposure to the south, while allowing for continuous and unobstructed working spaces on the north side. Responding to the technical and social demands of the modern workplace, the building is organized as a vertical armature of flexible spaces.

Office spaces are clustered around multistory atria that the architects call “villages,” allowing tenants flexibility in renting either a single floor or multiple floors connected by internal stairs. Other amenities include retail and restaurant spaces at grade and a public restaurant at roof level.

The east and west facades, clad in clear glass, allow occupants to control the amount of fresh air ventilation, while reducing the amount of solar heat gain in through the glass. The building's structural skeleton is expressed on its north façade, framing the atria.

Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox International, the firm's London office, 110 Bishopsgate represents the translation and adaptability of the high-rise office building type to central London and the implementation of demands for flexible space as well as environmental sensitivity.

Honorable Mention:

The Hearst Tower, New York City

Hearst Tower is the first building to receive a Gold LEED certified rating for "core and shell and interiors" in New York City. The structural steel in the construction contains over 90% recycled material and 50% of the tower's water usage - for the cooling system - comes from a 14,000 gallon rainwater tank.

Hong Kong Shangai Back Headquarters (Foster & Partners, Hong Kong, 1985)

The de facto cathedral to Hong Kong's Commerce. Hong Kong Shangai Bank Headquarters plays a critical symbolic role in the image of the city. Foster's striking steel and glass tower stands in sharp contrast to the bank's former headquarters, a monumental structure symbolic to the community's financial stability.

The building was conceived as a modular system, consisting of megatruss armatures and suspended infill modules. The suspension structure allows for column-free banking walls, while building services, elevator banks, and fire stairs are located on the perimeter.

The building occupies a site of almost spiritual significance in the geomantic atlas determining Hong Kong's fortunes. According to Feng Shui principles, the flow of energy from the peak of the harbor is critical to the financial well-being of the city.

The Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building epitomizes the high-tech strategy of design through its celebration of building technology, assembly, and methods of construction.

Century Tower (Foster and Partners, Tokyo, 1991)

This tower is often criticized as generic and placeless, the high-rise office building suffers from programmatic banality - office space is homogeneous, repetitive and largely generic. Century Tower proves a rich exception to the norms of the speculative office building type. Within the Tower's articulated shaft are house a mix of uses and amenities, including a museum, tea house, health club, restaurant, and office space. The expression of the building's diverse parts becomes the central theme of the building.

Century Tower extends concepts first explored in the Hong Kong Shangai Bank. Its façade is articulated as a series of eccentrically braced frames that span across the site to allow for a column-free office space, but also respond to Tokyo's stringent seismic engineered requirements. The tower is broken into two layered blocks joined by an open internal atrium. Each block consists of stacked double-height office floors bridging between structural frames. The atrium connects all the office spaces and creates a sense of community.

At the foot of the atrium a staircase leads to a museum for the client's collection of oriental antiquities at basement level. A health club and a pool are housed under curved galls sky-light that slips in under the tower's braced frames. Century Tower celebrates the skyscraper as an assembly of different parts, both structural and programmatic. The various building components are clearly visible from the outside, articulating the building as an architecture of inventory of coexisting programs.

Debis Headquarters (Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Berlin, 1999)

The Debis Headquarters forms the centerpiece of the 1990's redevelopment of Berlin's Potzdamer Platz. Master-planned by Renzo Piano and Christoph Kohlbecker, the urban-renewal projects have transformed an area left desolate by the Cold War back into the vibrant cultural and commercial center that it was prior to the Second World War

Piano conceived of the Tower as a hybrid building with a horizontal slab, vertical tower, and open court-yard, carefully combining object and void. The mass of the building is broken up into a composition of discrete blocks, organized as bundles of parallel slabs rising to different heights and culminating 350 feet (106 meters) skyscraper on the southern end of the site. The atrium is a semi-public central void that invites people into the building and brings natural light into its center.

The facades are made up of layers of delicate screens and operable glass panels filtering out the sun while allowing for natural light and ventilation. The “opaque” facades are made up of prefabricated terracotta screens that are held in front of an operable insulated-glass curtain wall.

The “transparent” or “ventilating” façade consists of a layer adjustable glass louver that can be closed to trap an insulating layer of warmed air, or partially opened to remove warm air through convection. In addition to the energy-saving approach to the design of the facades, the juxtaposition of the terracotta and glass screens gives the building a visually rich texture.

With a building of innovative composition and careful detailing, the Debis Headquarters project anchors one and of a redevelopment project celebrated for being regenerative and reconciliatory, and for healing the wounds on the city and the psyche.

New York Times Headquarters (Renzo Piano, Building Workshop, New York, 2000)

The decision to build a new headquarters for The New York Times west of Times Square marks a decisive return by the company that gave Times Square its name. Times Square has been the site of large-scale urban renewal since the mid-1990's, when new legislation and private funds were used to drive out the peep shows and strip club area, making way for family entertainment.

The selection of Renzo Piano as the architect for the 52 story, 748 feet (228 meters) The New York Times headquarters was the outcome of an international design competition. Piano's design for the tower as a rectangular volume with a layered façade systems stands out for its deceptively simple massing and elegant exterior. The curtain wall is designed to use clear glass behind veil-like layers of thin ceramic cylinders captured in steel frames, and held two feet off the glass. Piano's design celebrates the detail while maintaining a disciplined design vocabulary.

Behind the screens, the activities within will be visible through the façade. Glass-enclosed stairs located on the perimeter will animate the facades with the movement of people. On the ground floor, a large internal garden will open the building up to the public, drawing the city into the lobby and providing amenities such as an auditorium, restaurants and shops.

Bank of China (J.M. Pei & Partners, Hong Kong, 1989)

The abstract sculptural form of the Bank of China stands out from the thick forest of skyscrapers that made up Hong Kong's eclectic skyline.

The building's sculptural form is derived from the correspondence between the tower's volumetric expression and its structural system, a triangulated perimeter tube truss. The tower's volume fills out the triangulated frame in a stepped bundle of prismatic volume that culminates in a 1,209 foot (369 meters) peak and twin masts. The legibility of the system of support is the source of its dramatic visual strength.

The frame systematically distributes the building's loads and transfers them to four composite corner columns. A fifth column extending through the center of the tower transmits its loads from the top of the apex down the prow and transfers them out diagonally, leaving the interior of the base of the tower column-free.

The glass-and-metal tower rests on a three-story granite base, which house the banking hall. A multistory glass atrium connects the banking hall to a skylight at the first setback. The site for the tower is sloped and extremely tight, resulting in access from two different levels. The tower is integrated into a network of abstracted Chinese gardens, which include cascading pools of water and distinctly formed Chinese stones.

The originally intended X-bracing on the facades was perceived as an aggressive and negative gesture. Although bank officials ignored the warnings of local Feng Shui masters, Pei chose to conceal the horizontal member, transforming the X into auspicious diamond shapes. The tower is still regarded with reservation by many locals, who claim that its sharp corners direct negative energy towards its neighbors.

1. New Canaan, Connecticut

   
   
   An author owns this house. It is a very relaxing and inspiring home to live in especially for a writer like Philip Johnson. Splendid and exceptional. This house is one of the best glass houses in the whole world. It is located in New Canaan, Connecticut.

2. London, England

   
   
   It is actually an apartment located in London. The home is in glass, timber and stone. All three elements put together to build this amazing glass home.

3. Stuttgart, Germany

   
   
   Regarded as an architectural icon. Werner Sobek's glass house is located in Stuttgart, Germany. This glass home is residential technology taken to the highest possible level of sophistication. There are no walls and no closed rooms.

4. Toronto, Canada

   
   
   This glass house is located in Toronto, Canada. The house includes six bedrooms, a library, a room that can serve as either a basketball court or a home theater and an indoor pool. And the price is just about a whopping $15 million U.S Dollars.

5. Plano, Illinois

   
   
   It is called “The Farnsworth House”. It was built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951 and located near Plano, Illinois, is one of the most famous examples of modernist domestic architecture in its day. The view of the house says it's all. Simply amazing!

6. Palm Springs

   
   
   Stunning isn't it? A very modern house made of steel and glass. The opportunity of buying a house like this one is only for the rich people.