Two industry organizations are teaming up to give buyers of single- and multi-family homes a better understanding of a building’s projected energy bills, according to a release from both organizations.
The program from RESNET and the Appraisal Institute would include Home Energy Rating System (HERS) scores on appraisal forms in some states to make energy efficiency more transparent to buyers of high-performance homes where it is often found that traditional appraisals fail to give enough credit for energy-saving features, the report says.
“The move also could help convince skeptical builders that there's a return on constructing high-performance buildings,” Green Building Advisor’s Scott Gibson said.
“One of the largest barriers to the building and selling of high energy performance homes is that the value of energy upgrades is too often not reflected in the real estate appraisal of a home,” RESNET Executive Director Steve Baden told the Insulation Institute. “Many of the features that make a home energy-efficient are hidden behind drywall and aren’t obvious. Our goal is to make information, such as the HERS score, visible in the appraisal so that consumers have more facts available to make their decisions.”
The HERS score will be added to an existing green-building addendum for appraisers, which lists such things as certification under the LEED program, or the National Green Building Standard. The Appraisal Institute will get access to RESNET’s database of HERS-rated homes.