From the International Builders’ Show: Reach Out to the ‘Green Goddess’

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

About twice as many single women purchase homes than single men, accounting for 20 percent of all home buyers. So, if you’re serious about selling homes – especially homes with green features – single women are the ones to watch.

To address this very statistic, Sara Lamia, president of Building Coach Inc.,was one of three panelists presenting her take on selling green to women during day one of the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas Tuesday. Fittingly, the session was entitled, “Evolution of the Green Goddess: Green Technologies Women Want and How to Capture Her Buying Power.” Here are a few of her trends and tips to connect women with green:

Think First Date: On a first date, people are conscious of how they look, how they act, and what they say. They want to put their best foot forward, to be impressive without being overwhelming. The same goes for selling to women, Lamia says. “In order to get more sales, you need to have more first dates.” Read more

Making Sense of Green Home Certifications

By Erik Fowler, Green trends expert

This is the fourth article in a series designed to help you make sense of the green landscape as a real estate professional. REALTOR® Magazine’s Styled, Staged & Sold blog and I are excited to be covering green home trends in America. In the previous article, I provided a quick guide to green home trends. Here, we’ll highlight green home ratings and certifications.

As we discussed in the last few articles, when discussing green homes it’s important to avoid generalizations or greenwashing, and stick to specifics. As real estate professionals, we should always insist on third-party sources of reliable and verifiable information wherever possible.

When people make “green” claims, we need to know exactly what they mean.

Below are the most widely recognized national green building and/or energy efficient programs nationwide. Keep in mind there are local and regional green building programs as well.

For instance, the Austin Green Building Program was not only one of the first programs in the country to develop a regional green building standard, but it is still considered to be one of the very best programs and models.

Commonalities Among Green Programs

All green building programs should ideally share some common attributes, namely:

• Third-party verification;
• Performance (points) and/or a prescriptive path designed to set green “targets” in several green categories;
• Documentation;
• A resource center for the builder and the consumer.

The point to note is that a standard is followed, documented, measured, and verified. We all know what happens when standards are “self enforced” with no accountability (think latest mortgage crisis).

Also, notice below the various categories of green, what each certification addresses, and recall that green homes do more than address just energy use. While very important, energy is not the only measure of green or sustainability in a home or building.

Read more

Who are “Green” Buyers and Sellers?

By Erik Fowler

This is the third article in a series designed to help you make sense of the green landscape as a real estate professional. REALTOR® Magazine’s Styled, Staged & Sold blog and I are excited to be covering green home trends in America. In the previous article, I provided an overview of green homes and real estate. Here, we’ll highlight green buyers and sellers, and the listing and marketing of green homes.

When talking about a green home, it’s important to avoid generalizations and stick to specifics. For instance, when working with a buyer and discussing his or her interests and needs, the subject of utility bills or other costs associated with a home purchase will often come up. This is a perfect time to discuss energy efficiency and how utility bills are affected by how well-built and how well-insulated a home is.

It is important to understand that the purchase price is a major, but not the only, cost consideration. Utility bills and home maintenance contribute to monthly bills as well.

Is it an Energy Star Home?

If your client is considering new construction, you may want to search for an Energy Star Qualified home. Energy Star homes must be tested by a third party and are designed to be at least 15 percent more energy efficient than baseline new construction (do not confuse Energy Star appliances with an Energy Star home).

The point here, of course, is that agents should be informed about energy efficiency and green home trends, but should not represent themselves as experts in this area.

Get Proof

When a client mentions specific issues of concern or interest to them, the first reference point should be your state’s disclosure notice from the seller. In the case of energy efficiency, if the seller markets his/her home as “green” or “energy efficient”, then it is our job as real estate professionals to ensure that the buyer has as much specific information as possible from the seller or builder, and from reputable third-party sources. Read more

Is Your Listing Really “Green”?

By Erik Fowler

This is the second article in a series designed to help you make sense of the green landscape as a real estate professional. In the last article, we covered the big picture – defining “green,” concepts of sustainability and what it means to be green (read it here). Here, we examine green homes and real estate.

WHAT IS A “GREEN” HOME?

Essentially, green homes (or buildings) strive to integrate into the environment, use sustainable design and construction concepts, and have a positive impact on occupant health and comfort.

They achieve this by considering the home in two fundamental ways:

1. A system of interconnected parts that all affect each other (much like our natural environment);
2. A lifecycle—the design, building, maintenance/operation and demolition.

For example, consider how home design affects window choices, which affects lighting, which affects the heating/cooling system, which then affects energy consumption, which affects planet resources, pollution and, ultimately, potential climate change. Get the idea?

5 KEY COMPONENTS

Nearly all green homes consider the following key components essential to green building and remodeling:

1. Design and size: Good site design and just large enough, as opposed to larger is better.
2. Community connectivity: Located close to work, school, recreation and other basics.
3. Energy and water efficiency: At least 15 percent or more efficient than others. Read more