OnlineConversion.com can do 8,000 calculations with the click of your mouse.
If you don't know that 1 hectare is equal to 2.47 acres and you need to find out quickly, go to OnlineConversion.com
The globalization of real estate and the instantaneous nature of e-mail and information sharing makes it all the more important to know where to quickly find the data to be proficient when working with international clients. Online Conversion can tell you quickly that 1500 square feet is equal to 139.35 square meters.
The history of the United States system for measurement dates back to the U. S. Constitution, which gave Congress the power to "fix the standard of weights and measures" for the nation. The First Congress, meeting in 1789, adopted the proposal of Thomas Jefferson, serving as the first Secretary of State, which was based on the traditional English weights and measures.
The metric system originated in France in the 1790s and became the standard in Europe. The U.S. recognized the metric system in 1866 through a Congressional act and over time but no changes were made. The latest in a series of attempts to convince American consumers to convert was in 1975 when Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. This attempt failed and in 1988, Congress passed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act designating the metric system of measurement as the preferred system for commerce.
The U.S. is considered a "soft metric" country in that equivalents are tagged onto the traditional measurements and the globalization of commerce may eventually convince American consumers that the time has actually come to make the change. Maybe we will see REALTOR.com add metric measurements for international buyers using the "Find A Home" function.
Real estate agents who want to do business internationally cannot afford to be ignorant of the metrics system. Take the time to learn the basic equivalents in square meters of the square footage listed for gross living area, how many acres in a hectare, temperatures in Celsius, and how fast automobiles travel. Once you have that under your globalization belt, you can start singing "Green Hectares Is The Place For Me".
Here are some quick tricks to learn meter, centimeter and millimeter measurements:
- One meter is a little longer than 1 yard or 3 feet. It is about half the height of a very tall adult - envision a two-meter tall basketball player!
- A centimeter is nearly the diameter of a dime, a little less than half an inch.
- A millimeter is about the thickness of a dime.
Online Conversion will also do conversions for Angles, Area, Astronomical, Cooking, Density, Energy, Force, Length, Numbers/Bases, Power, Pressure, Temperature, Time, Velocity/Speed, Volume, and Weight.
There is even a "Fun Stuff" link with oddities in the conversion world, such as calculators to determine how old you are in minutes and seconds, to figure what day of the week you were born and learn how old you are in "dog years."
Pat Rioux
