Realtors® Selling Green
By Julie Hawkins
For Realtors® seeking a niche, the “green” home is a great new avenue in a tight market. Even though a lot of buyers say they want a green home, few know what that really means. Bone up on your knowledge of green building so you can advise buyers and sellers alike.
Is It Green?
Most features that can be considered green fall into one or more of these three categories: energy efficiency, resource efficiency, and better indoor air quality.
If a home you’re going to list doesn’t have these features now, the client may want to consider adding them while preparing the home for sale. When renovating, insulate to ENERGY STAR-recommended levels; air seal as needed; add low-flow fixtures; and choose paints, finishes, and carpeting with low or no levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The client doesn’t have to do them all; just a few can make a big difference in efficiency and indoor air quality.
Energy efficiency is first. Take note of ENERGY STAR qualified windows, doors,lighting, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment; solar, geothermal, and wind systems; good insulation and weather-stripping; and even a light-colored roof. If deciduous trees or roof overhangs shade the windows in the summer but let in sunlight during the winter, that’s green.
Resource-efficient products use fewer natural resources, whether they’re harvested (wood), mined (stone, metals, coal), or pumped (water, petroleum). Recycled materials, like recycled content carpet and reclaimed wood, and low-flow fixtures fall into this category. Was the 1950s bathroom tile re-glazed or repaired rather than replaced? If so, that was resource efficient. So are the recycled glass or concrete countertops, refinished wood flooring, and low-flow toilets.
Good indoor air quality (IAQ) is a great selling point because it’s personal. Anyone with an asthmatic child or allergies of their own will appreciate a home with good indoor air. Products that emit fewer pollutants themselves, such as low- or no-VOC paints, furniture, and carpet fall into this category. So do products that remove excess (and mold-inducing) moisture, such as high-performance ventilation systems, media air filters that filter particulates from the air as it passes through your HVAC system, and ENERGY STAR qualified dehumidifiers.
Tricks of the Trade
But don’t make any claims about the “greenness” of a home unless they can be easily proven.
Keep marketing materials simple and, above all, factual. Help the potential buyer
understand the benefits of the green features in the home with messages about greater comfort, lower utility bills, and doing more for the planet. Two great resources to help you craft such messages are the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) and ENERGY STAR. Visit PATH’s homeowner’s section at pathnet.org/homeowners and energystar.gov for ideas.
Be prepared to offer proof for claims made about the property. Receipts, manufacturers’ information for appliances, energy audits, or before/after utility bills will help. If new equipment or appliances have been purchased, ask for the labels and any Energy Guides that came with the product. If the client has lost the information, look to the manufacturer’s Web site.
Include the home’s green features on the MLS, and use photos to draw attention to them. For example, if the home has ENERGY STAR qualified appliances, add a caption like this: “This home features ENERGY STAR qualified appliances, which use less energy and save you money on your utility bill!” A majority of consumers now recognize the ENERGY STAR label and what it means. If you used low-VOC paint when remodeling, indicate that in the photo captions, too.
Use other online marketing sites, such as Greenhomesforsale.com, Listedgreen.com, and Greenbuilder.com to market homes to buyers seeking green features. Use these sites in addition to—not instead of—the MLS.
Once you draw potential buyers in to see your listing, use simple but informative signage on items you wish to highlight, especially if they could not be included in the MLS listing. Be creative.
To assess the home’s efficiency, use ENERGY STAR’s free online tool called the Home Energy Yardstick, which grades home energy performance on a scale from 0 – 10. It could report something like, “Your score is excellent and your energy use is well below average; 83 percent of U.S. homes use more energy than yours.” Visit http://www.energystar.gov and click on Home Improvement.
If you can determine that the home is reasonably efficient, ask the utility company to send copies of the last three to five years of bills so you can share with potential buyers how little the home costs to live in relative to comparable homes in the area.
Don’t ignore the real estate mainstays such as de-cluttering, updating, and staging the home, but recognize that green features can draw more interest in a home than it might otherwise receive.
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What’s Green
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Learn More
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ENERGY STAR qualified anything, including appliances, windows, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, dehumidifiers, and programmable
thermostats
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www.energystar.gov/products
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Good air sealing and insulation
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Click on “Air Seal and Insulate”
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Low-flow fixtures, aerators, and water-conserving dishwashers and clothes washers
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www.epa.gov/watersense
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Passive solar design
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www.pathnet.org
Click on “Tools,” “Tech Sets,”
find Tech Set #6
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Proximity to public transit
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Recycled, efficient, durable, or low-maintenance
construction materials
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www.toolbase.org/TechInventory
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Low- or no-VOC paint, finishes, carpet, cabinetry,
or furnishings
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www.toolbase.org
Click on “Indoor Air Quality”
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Xeriscaping, permeable pavement, rain gardens,
rainwater collection systems
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www.toolbase.org
Click on “Landscaping”
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Solar hot water or PV panels, geothermal, wind
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www.toolbase.org/TechInventory
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Radon-resistant construction techniques
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www.pathnet.org/radon
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Julie P. Hawkins is a licensed real estate agent, a Realtor®, and a LEED® Accredited Professional. She writes about better building practices on behalf of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). PATH is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Learn more at pathnet.org.