by Peter Yost
Appraisers, lenders, and real-estate professionals have some serious catching up on the benifits of ‘green’ energy effiecient homes.
For Real Estate professionals the National Association of Realtors has recently developed the Green MLS Toolkit, and it works! And the new white paper available from Ecobroker, Unlocking the Full Value of Green Homes, also provides excellent guidance.
For appraisers the Appraisal Institute (AI) has a series of green appraisal education tools and recently AI has developed a new appraisal form, Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum (PDF).
For the lenders even in this current very conservative and risk-averse lending environment, there are banks, particularly local and regional ones, who get the green angle on homes and see them as high-quality and sound investments. 