Great question. The days when Realtors could sit back and wait for traffic to knock down the door is gone.
Example of my point. In 2005, I attended the High School graduation ceremony for CAM High School in Battle Ground WA. This is a small school with a graduating class of about 40 students. During commencement, each student gets a statement read about what their goals and plans are. That year, 6 of the students mentioned that their primary goal was to go into the Real Estate Industry. Move ahead to 2010, not a single student mentioned Real Estate. No surprise in hindsight, but a personal glimpse at the change the industry has seen.
Realtors and Home Sellers need to differentiate themselves, their listings, and their services from others in the market place. Energy Savings and Efficiency can be proven to be that edge. It will be a goal of this group and provide convincing evidence to support this.
An energy efficient home offers several key benefits that can be clearly stated in terms understood by all. This saves money, Lots of Money!
More to come, but I’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation.
Energy Auditing for Real Estate 
Our experience with realtors and energy audits has been a response of “thanks but no thanks” as they feel another inspection can slow down or kill their real estate deal. I agree that a truly customer-service oriented real estate agent would benefit long term from thoroughly examining the (likely) biggest future asset that client will own. Energy-wise…good house or bad house…Isn’t it best to know so that the client is best served? When we talk to homeowners or potential homeowners about determining efficiciency, they are all for it. It’s their asset!!! Looking forward to see this blog develop!
Hi Robert,
Great comment. Welcome to the blog and hope to see you hear often. I really liked much of the material you have on your web site at: http://www.energymacro.com/
We should be able to share some ideas. I’d encourage you to review the work we’ve put together at http://swiftsureenergy.com/realestate/ which is focusing on the Energy Efficient Mortgages which can target the Realtors.
This is great. I truly believe that this will help clients obtain a better overall property, help realtors sell more properties and assist in stablizing our real estate market. Way to go Garen!
Pingback: Why would Realtors want to know about energy efficiency? Part 2 | Energy Auditing for Real Estate