Sellers, if you want to make your home stand out from all of the rest take a look at the photo here.It is a study in possibility. There are numerous FREE, inexpensive, cost effective and eco-friendly improvements that could be made to this home to meet the demand of today's Buyers. What would you do right away?
Would you trim? Would you remove clutter? Would you call in a Feng Shui expert? Would you paint? What kind of paint would you select?
Imagine a landscape, spruced up and enriched with fruit-bearing trees and/or native/edible plantings. Imagine what a sun tunnel or two might do to create light within, save energy via daylighting. If you can imagine these improvements, you will attract the interest of today's eco-friendly Buyers.
Sellers if you want to tap into a market where sales are brisker than average, check out Part 1 of this series about GREENING UP your home. Then please come back to the link list below for excellent resources you can use to attract interested Buyers.
RESOURCES
Home Energy Audit
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_audits
TAX CREDITS
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index|
http://www.dsireusa.org/
EPA's Energy Star for Homes/Home Improvement
http://www.energystar.gov/
Green Design and Building -Certification Programs -
Earth Advantage®
http://www.earthadvantage.com/
EarthCraft® House
http://www.earthcrafthouse.com/
GreenPoint® Rated
http://www.builditgreen.org/about/
NC HealthyBuilt® Homes
http://www.healthybuilthomes.org/
LEED ®for Homes
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=147
NAR GREEN®
http://www.greenresourcecouncil.org/
DOE Energy Information Administration
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
Passive Solar Gain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_solar
US DOE Daylighting
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/lighting_daylighting/index.cfm/mytopic=12290
Solar Tubes
http://www.solatube.com/
Inventory to Improve Indoor Air Quality in the Home
http://keec.ky.gov/homeownerinventory/indoorairquality0609.pdf
US EPA Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/
Non-toxic Cleaning
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/five-basics-for-nontoxic-cleaning.html
Plants for IAQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air-filtering_plants (NOTE: Peace Lily is poisonous to pets)
NO VOC PAINT
http://www.earthpaint.net/
Home Performance with Energy Star
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_hpwes
Non Toxic Flooring
http://www.ecobydesign.com/
Social Network Marketing.
Real Estate Professional's blog (s)
listedgreen.com
where each listing is vetted by the service for authentic green credentials.
http://www.listedgreen.com/
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Asheville NC Real Estate: MOUNTAIN HOMES< >LAND and LOT EXPERTS- Going Green/ Eco-Friendly Properties. Tools for Sellers and Buyers. Mountain Homes, Land Legacies, LOTS and Land For Sale by Owners.
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The photo shows a home ready for some GREEN TLC! What would you do right away?
Thank you for sharing your very informative post.
JaneAnne - I could live it that house - no problem! But I have a love for whimsy:-) I'd get a good termite report and a home inspection before closing escrow however!
I like the idea of fruit bearing trees as a green improvement and of-course some more sunshine.
Your green links are awesome - booking marking this just to browse them.
janeAnne, Do you know they actually fought a home over here because the owner wanted to use Solar panels and they said it "didn't fit with the neighborhood?" I was horrified! In 1996 I took a course in Bio Biology which is the first I'd heard about "Going Green."
We learned about outgassing and electro magnetic currents and chemicals....it was an eye opener especially at that time. When I was assisting on renovating a home, I at least made my clients aware of this. Some of them made their contractors aware of it. There are so many chemically sensitive people that anything they can do to help their environment they should look into it.
Don~ Glad that it was useful.
Myrl~ Whimsy is HOT! and so are home inspections =)
Kathryn~ I am very appreciative of your kind words.
Carole~ ENERGY!!! thanks for the star...especially coming from one ...
Hi janeAnne,
What an excellent post! Thank you so much for sharing all the Green links. It will be very helpful to sellers or homeowners who are getting ready to place their home on the market. Terrific information! Again, thank you!
Rita
Hi janeAnne - So many wonderful suggestion and resources. Thank you
Thank you for the resources. I will definitey go through them.
Aaron
Thank you for the post and all the great info. Have a great day. P.S. I would probaby trim the trees, add some landscaping and paint the exterior.
Rita~
My pleasure. There is much that sellers could do to help sell this home quickly and in an eco-friendly way.
Aaron~ You are most welcome~
Pamela~You have good suggestions with which I agree! THX!
Definitely clear any and all clutter inside and out and paint with a No-VOC paint, again inside and out. The clearing of clutter is an extremely powerful cleansing tool and opens up the space for positive things to happen.
Thanks for the forward thinking article!