The National Association of Realtors® at its recent Conference & Expo in Orlando Florida held a session titled “Making Green Building Work for You and Your Clients.” It was designed to show how to help buyers and sellers bring green into their homes.
I noticed that one of North Carolina's own, Victoria Schomer from Green Built Environments in
Asheville, was a panelist at the session. Sure, Victoria is originally from California, but she's well established in our state now and making a great difference here.
North Carolina may not have quite the degree of green momentum that we see on the West Coast, but we're making great strides. And this is a place that green building can have a major impact on the health and wallets of home owners. Our hot humid summers mean that green building practices can save you a lot of energy on air conditioning. And the humidity can wreak havoc on your health because it breeds mold and mildew so readily. Mold can lead to serious respiratory issues so it's probably the number one enemy of healthy homes in this climate.(See my post on the Key Behaviors to Maintaining a Healthy Home)
It's always great to see national recognition of green building, but it's especially good that the realtors are taking note since they have the face to face interaction with home buyers. And it's particularly important for home buyers to be educated about the benefits to them of better building practices.
The NAR has is also just launched a Green Designation course to help Realtors® provide green expertise and service. The first Green Designation core course was completed
in Orlando just before the conference and over 230 Realtors® earned the designation. It will be interesting to see how this affects the Eco Broker designation that several brokers in North Carolina have already earned.