Non-profit organization Build It Green (BIG) partnered with the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) to deliver its Green Designation trainings free to Southern California real estate professionals to educate them on sustainability issues and they relate to real estate. Since 2014, BIG has certified 745 real estate professionals under the NAR Green Designation.

The Better Buildings Home Energy Information Accelerator is designed to expand the availability and use of reliable home energy information at relevant points in residential real estate transactions.

Energy efficiency data can inform real estate transactions – including underwriting and appraisal, but each sector relies on its own sets of tools, data and specifications.

The Home Energy Information Better Buildings Accelerator aims to make energy data more accessible to home buyers, realtors and others.

Learn about how the Better Buildings Home Energy Information Accelerator has expanded access to verified energy information through standardized data procedures and educational materials to help you pave your own path to green real estate.

Learn how Home Performance with ENERGY STAR and Home Energy Score partners are communicating the value of their programs in the real estate market.

This report provides examples of programs across the U.S. that are successfully engaging the real estate community and overcoming barriers to valuing energy efficiency in the home resale process. Based on research and interviews with efficiency program staff and real estate professionals, the paper recommends actions that efficiency real estate professionals can take to facilitate the availability and use of reliable energy information at point of sale.

Appraising a high performance home is a complex task that requires an understanding of the unique features these homes offer. In order to help appraisers face this challenge, the Appraisal Foundation’s Appraisal Practices Board adopted a Valuation Advisory that identifies areas where high-performance building features and market conditions impact the valuation assignment process, including scope of work, information gathering and analysis techniques.

Consumer demand for energy efficient homes that feature lower energy costs, greater comfort, and other benefits has been growing steadily during the past decade. The success of energy efficiency programs in markets across the country has contributed to a growing inventory of improved existing homes. Yet, a disconnect currently exists between the energy efficiency program implementers, the real estate community, and the homebuyer and seller. The Blueprint outlines steps energy efficiency programs can take to collaborate with the real estate community and help homebuyers and sellers understand the fair value of energy efficiency improvements.

The guide assists real estate professionals in understanding how to provide home energy information and multiple listing services in how to deliver verified data. It was created to meet the public’s growing demand for home energy information while observing industry compliance standards.

Data standards and IT solutions are crucial for fair and consistent valuation of high performance homes. National data standards like HPXML, should be used whenever possible, both to reduce the costs of developing data transfer systems and to facilitate collection and aggregation of comparable data from multiple sources. This type of standardization improves the reliability of the information and allows quicker and more automated transfer of home energy data to the real estate community.  A movement toward standardization lays the groundwork for moving standard energy related data into the real estate transaction in a uniform and seamless way. The Home Performance Coalition, a Home Energy Information Accelerator partner, launched the HPXML website  - a resource that explains the how’s and why’s for using HPXML.

A tool for energy efficiency programs to convey the value of energy information to real estate professionals, and information on resources real estate professionals can use for further learning. This presentation is meant to be customized for particular audiences. If you want to use this resource, please contact Madeline.Salzman@ee.doe.gov.

The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) published a resource to educate MLS organizations about the growing number of Automated Energy Models (AEM’s). These models predict a home’s energy usage by using public data such as square footage, location, and heating and cooling systems. CMLS’s Green Sheet on AEM’s answers questions that MLSs likely have about these tools.

This brochure educates home-buyers, homeowners, and energy efficiency contractors on the importance of documenting a home’s energy efficient features in a standard format so that they are taken into account during an appraisal. The brochure also provides contractors and homeowners with links to tools that can be used to verify a home energy efficiency upgrade has been performed.

Created by the Appraisal Institute, the Addendum allows appraisers to more consistently document and value home energy information. The document’s updated design responds to the evolving high performance housing market and provides new sections that correspond to the latest Real Estate Standards Organization’s fields for verified energy information.

This webinar features the CEO of the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) discussing recent developments in the intersection of home energy data, standards, and MLSs.