Real Estate Brokers Learn Green

Green Building is a success story. It has passed the hurdle of acceptance and is now spreading throughout the supply chain. Example: Last year, CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), which publishes the largest for-lease and for-sale commercial real estate database, began highlighting LEED-certified commercial properties in its 2 million –plus listings database so that realtors and other professionals could pinpoint high-performance green buildings. There are about 200 LEED-certified properties in the database so far; now they’re adding Energy Star ratings. In February, green home listings were added to the Regional Multiple Listing Service for the Pacific Northwest. This enables real estate agents and appraisers to compare properties with and without efficiency and green features to see how they affect sales prices. It may eventually encourage lenders to offer larger loans to borrowers with resource efficient houses because of lower utility costs. As more green buildings come on the market and as more tenants and homeowners demand them, the realtor community has taken notice. Now viewed as the next big trend in the industry, green building was the theme at this year’s Northeast Real Estate Conference & Expo. 200 realtors attended an introductory seminar on green real estate and clearly wanted […]

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