Green Real Estate

Green Real Estate
By Joanna Kanow
Executive Director, EcoSpaces LLC

You are shopping around for a new house to call home for your family. You are about to take out the hugest loan of your life and invest the biggest chunk of change into a piece of real estate that you will be paying off for the majority of your adult life.

Your real estate agent presents you with one house where you would never have a utility bill, you rarely would need to run the heater or air conditioner, the air quality would be pure due to the care put into building the home with non-toxic and sustainable materials. Furthermore, many of the recycled materials used for decking, flooring, roofing etc. need not be replaced during the lifetime of the house because of their outstanding durability. You would actually be saving money due to the efficiency of the home, and could qualify for more on the purchasing price for a Green Home like this. The other house is conventionally constructed, and cannot guarantee these things. Which would you choose?

Green Real Estate is another niche market that is popping up during this green revolution where certain brokerages are dedicated to showing clients the health benefits and financial rewards of a green built home. Green brokers focus on selling houses that have cared to include eco-friendly features and efficient technologies, are certified as Energy Star Rated or LEED Certified, and that are designed to be healthy for the home owner and the environment. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Eco Homes are the hot sell right now even when the real estate market is slow. Christian Thomas, owner of Green Door Living Green Real Estate Firm based out of Denver, Colorado reflects that in this market, homes that integrate green features are more of a premium, have creative marketing points, and seem to move faster in this sluggish real estate economy. Jill Masters is Telluride’s only certified Eco Broker, which entails taking a course and a test to earn this title. Although she admits that there has only been one LEED certified home for sale thus far in Telluride, she hopes that future building begins to trend towards the green and has put her self in position. She notes that the town of Telluride has already started building Green Affordable Housing units that cost local owners merely nothing to heat in the winter. The Telluride Association of Realtors has also just recently added a line to their MLS listings that gives buyers the option to state if their property is Eco Friendly.

Although there are not yet any stringent certifications or regulated criteria that validates that a home is truly green, beyond the U.S. Green Building Council’s stringent and voluntary LEED certification, there are some characteristics of a home that do help the value and the sale of a Green Home. If you are shopping for a home ask if the home was built using non-toxic, recycled content and/or renewable resources. Inquire if it is Energy efficient, built with a tight envelope, includes energy efficient appliances and windows. Homes that derive most of their space and water heating from the sun using Solar Power are very desirable as well, as these features diminish utility bills altogether. Also note which way the home is oriented to understand what kind of passive gain the house may have in each season. You may also ask if the home includes HVAC, ventilation and filtration systems that are designed for optimum indoor air quality. Inquire about the insulation and ask for past heating bills. Homes that incorporate some of these features can drastically reduce operational costs as well as possibly qualify you for a special Eco Mortgage.

Energy-efficient mortgages are one of the most beneficial and under-utilized programs the consumer can find and capitalize upon in today's real estate market. An energy-efficient mortgage can add an additional 15% of a home's appraised value to the principal of a new loan or a refinance, often at no additional cost, no compromise in the loan-to-value ratio for the borrower, and sometimes at a better rate. The first steps to qualifying for an energy efficient mortgage is to have a certified energy rater come and conduct the analysis of your property. Energy raters, such as Lotus Energy Solutions based out of Telluride, can also run a blow door test to find areas that need to be resealed and a they use an infrared camera to take pictures that show heat loss in hard-to-detect areas. Taking these steps not only alerts the home owner of how energy efficient their house is overall, but also could afford the buyer more purchasing power on a loan, as well as savings in the future.

Once again, being Green can save you some green, and help save the planet at the same time. Buying green in finally economically advantageous, as well as healthy for you, your home, and the environment.