Sencon

Topic of the Week—Green Homes Sell

In a buyer’s market as sluggish as what we continue to experience, homeowners need every advantage they can find in selling their home. One bright spot that seems to continue drawing attention from potential buyers and excitement and promise for sellers continues to be “green” homes—those properties with energy efficient features and upgrades that improve comfort, reduce energy bills and minimize impacts on the environment.

This point was underscored immediately following the Spring Homearama held at Founders Pointe in Isle of Wight County, Va., in May. Three of the eight homes built for the event were Energy Star certified by SENCON. They were the only green homes of the event, and were built by Sadler Building Corp., Hohman Custom Builders and Sasser Construction, the latter whose home was also National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green certified. But what should be of particular interest among those in the home construction and sales industries is that within a week of the event, two of those three green homes were under contract.

“SENCON’s assistance was invaluable in the certification process, and we were very pleased with their professionalism and knowledge from the inception of the project to the final designation of Sasser Construction’s Homearama home at Founders Pointe,” says Brennan J. O’Conner, CPA, with Sasser Construction.

Companies in the business of building new homes, such as Sasser, Sadler and Hohman, have been wise to incorporate Energy Star and other sustainable features into the construction of their houses. In fact, the NAHB says more than 97,000 homes have been built and certified by voluntary green building programs around the country since the mid-1990s, representing a 50 percent increase from a 2004 survey, and more than half of the group’s 235,000 members report they intend to utilize some level of green building practices in their inventory of homes.

And why not, when a recent NAHB/McGraw-Hill Construction survey revealed that owners of green homes tend to be happier with their purchase than when they lived in more conventional residences. Happier customers lead to more referrals in every business.

If you are a current homeowner looking to improve the efficiency, comfort and value of your home by capitalizing on the availability of green products and services, you have an abundance of options available to you. You also aren’t alone. Surveys show that nearly 40 percent of American property owners who recently renovated their houses did so with some green products. The opportunity to protect your hard-earned money against rising energy costs is reason alone. New windows and more efficient modern HVAC systems, weatherstripping, caulking gaps around windows and plumbing, installing adequate insulation, duct sealing, switching light bulbs and a host of other easy-to-install improvements all work together to make an old home “green.”

When it comes time to sell that house, these features will appeal to a growing number of consumers according to the National Association of Realtors. A spokesperson for the trade group told thedailygreen.com that green features may help homeowners stand out from the competition and realtors around the United States are reporting increased requests for green homes from potential buyers. The demand is so obvious in the northwestern part of the country that the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) there recently announced that it is updating its database to allow for property searches based on a variety of green features, a move that is being urged across the country by other real estate companies and green businesses such as SENCON.

For more information on how to make your home greener and more energy efficient or if you are a builder interested in learning how to ensure your projects can attain Energy Star or other green certifications, contact SENCON at 757-498-0100 or visit our website at www.senconinfo.com.

(Photo Caption: Ed Sadler, (right) of Sadler Construction Corp., presents the buyer of one of his new green homes with his Energy Star certificate, certified by SENCON, earlier this year.)