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Emerald City homebuyers and home-owners are passionate about green—environmentally friendly homes, that is.
Yet, REALTORS® in Seattle report that until recently, it was difficult to find credible and useful sources of information on green building and energy efficiency.
This led the Seattle-King County Association of REALTORS® to create and deliver green information as part of a new member service called GreenHomeAdvisor.org.
“Sustainability and energy efficiency relating to single-family homes has been an area of growing interest among consumers and government policy makers in Seattle,” says David Crowell, the association’s government affairs director. “We sought to develop a Web site tool that members could use with clients that would aggregate sustainability and energy efficiency information in one place.”
The association launched the consumer-facing Web site in October and is gathering feedback from members. The site is filled with information on how homeowners can save money on home energy, reduce energy consumption, and take advantage of tax credits and rebates. It also includes green home features and remodeling ideas. Members of the association are invited to brand the site as their own.
The site is more than simply member marketing and information, notes Crowell. “We’ve positioned ourselves to be proactive on this issue both in terms of public awareness and as a policy direction,” he says. “The site puts our members out in front as providers of information to educate homeowners on how they can reduce their home energy expenses and energy consumption. Moving forward, we hope policy makers will recognize that voluntary measures and an informed public have the potential to be far more effective than the regulatory mandates that have been discussed at federal, state, and local levels.”
Although there are no expansion plans yet, Crowell says the association would be delighted to see the program extended nationally.
For more, visit www.greenhomeadvisor.org.
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