FOR MANAGERS: Sales Meeting Tool Kit

Selling energy savings

BY PATRICIA W. GLENN

Green housing. You’ve heard the term and you probably suspect it’s a good thing. But did you know that selling green-friendly housing can help your sales associates boost their business while you boost your company’s image?

Your associates can add value to deals by acquainting buyers with the financing benefits available to borrowers who buy an energy-efficient house or one that can be retrofitted with energy-efficient upgrades.

Knowing about green mortgages and the benefits of energy-efficient upgrades can help your associates save deals at risk of collapse. In addition, they can help their clients buy more house than they otherwise could afford.

Your company image gains, too, as consumers see you as the green-housing choice.

Here are some benefits your associates can market as they tap into the growing green revolution in housing.

Buy more house. All of the key players in the mortgage industry—Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, and VA—permit borrowers to qualify for larger mortgages using projected energy savings. New and existing homes with retrofitted energy-efficient features are eligible. Green mortgage products may also include low or no downpayments and cash-back features, increasing borrowers’ buying power. Energy standards differ, but many of the mortgage products are based on the Energy Star ratings of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For more info: At the U.S. EPA Energy Star Web site, www.energystar.gov. Click on “For Your Home” and scroll to “How can I buy a new Energy Star–labeled home?” Site features include a tool for locating participating Energy Star lenders around the country.
Other good sites: The Residential Energy Services Network site, www.natresnet.org, details home energy-rating system accreditation standards; www.energyraters.org, the National Energy Rater’s Association site, includes a library on federally recognized energy-efficient building materials and upgrade procedures.

Salvage an iffy fixer-upper sale. Is a deal at risk of going sour because the old house that the buyers love needs a new roof or mechanical system? Your associates can turn this negative into a positive by showing buyers the favorable financing they can acquire to cover both the purchase and rehab costs. Borrowers can qualify for the financing at reduced interest rates and stretched-debt ratios because the retrofits reduce their monthly utility costs. Details vary, but generally lenders require an energy-rating professional to certify the energy efficiency of improvements for buyers to qualify for mortgage breaks.

For more info: Energy Rated Homes of America, www.erha.com, offers links to studies showing the amount of increase in home resale value for each dollar spent in energy-efficient upgrades.

Identify urban redevelopment projects that others miss. Rehabbing a project to meet green standards enables investors to qualify for more favorable financing, making it easier for borderline projects to pencil out. Plus, once a project is renovated to be energy-efficient, the project’s resale value increases significantly, giving investors more potential return on the back-end.
To secure your place as a key advisor to investors, work with professional energy raters. They can help you and your clients identify the right upgrades for meeting the standards that qualify the housing for green financing.

For more info: The U.S. EPA Energy Star program site, www.energystar.gov, details ways to benchmark commercial building energy performance and includes a resource for finding Energy Star–labeled buildings. The News section lists several successful retrofits.

Glenn is president and CEO of GreenSmart, a green housing, marketing, and sales consulting firm, and a broker with RE/MAX Professionals in Gainesville, Fla. You can reach her at 352/375-1002.

realtormag online

To access a field guide on green home mortgage financing developed by NAR’s Information Central, visit the Current Links
at REALTOR.org/realtormag .