TIPS FOR GOING 'GREEN' AND WHY!

Why Green Homes? Added value, cost reduction in utilities and environmentally friendly. There are many simple ways to update your home and step into a greener environment. Click here to see my January 26, 2010 post for great, money saving ideas!

Green homes grow in popularity
Environment, homeowners reap rewards of energy-efficient houses
BY BILL LEWIS • FOR THE TENNESSEAN • SEPTEMBER 26, 2010


Home buyers have a new hot-button question. They still want to know the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the age and condition of the roof, but these days they want one more piece of information before they make an offer.

Is it environmentally friendly? Better yet, is it green-certified?
Increasingly the answer is yes, for newly built homes and existing homes that have been retrofitted. From a seller's point of view, investing in green features such as tight insulation and efficient appliances increases the sales value of a home. For a buyer, those features make a house cheaper to live in over the years. On either side, the environment reaps the rewards.
"When I look at the transformation, it's been amazing. The economy we're living in has people being more cost-conscious and doing better for the environment," said Lucy Smith, a Realtor with Fridrich & Clark and president of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors (GNAR).
Some home buyers won't even consider a property unless it is certified as green, Smith said. Nashville's Multiple Listing Service (www.realtracs.com), which lists homes for sale throughout the region, can simplify the search. The Nashville MLS is one of the first in the country to give buyers the power to select only green homes.
In all of 2008, 104 green-certified newly constructed houses were sold in Nashville. In just the first half of this year, 105 were sold, said Anna Altic, a Realtor with Village Real Estate Services. During that period, 353 non-green-certified new homes were sold, giving green homes a large share of the market.
"(Nashville has) become a model for how to implement a green MLS," said Altic, who holds the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Green Designation, which requires specialized training and testing. Of the 157 Realtors in Tennessee who have earned that title, 57 did so through the GNAR, which offers the NAR's classes. Altic also holds an additional green certification offered by EcoBroker, based in Evergreen, Colo.