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False Claims and Efficient Home Opportunities

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Select Realty - REALTOR and Green Homes Specialist RS310271

Homeowners Listen Up   Email

NAR sent out a Mythbuster bulletin recently to clear up several untrue facts that are circulating.

One of the false claims circulating is that homeowners would be required to have an energy audit or make energy retrofits to their home before they can sell. This is a false claim. The real information as explained by NAR is as follows...

FACTS: Here are the two REAL provisions in the bill:

Section 202 (Building Retrofit Program) would offer matching grants for home improvements. State government would administer the program, which is voluntary and available to all property owners.

Section 204 (Building Energy Performance Labeling Program) would apply to new construction only and prohibit time-of-sale labeling. The original energy audit and MLS listing provisions were deleted as the result of NAR insistence; existing real estate was excluded from the bill’s requirements. NAR will work to ensure that these provisions are retained in the Senate version. We were also instrumental in eliminating time-of-sale energy efficiency requirements from the bill. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are pursuing bipartisan support for an alternative to the House bill, and NAR will monitor that progress to ensure residential and commercial real estate are not adversely impacted.

I look at this as an opportunity.

First, Section 202 clearly offers matching $$$ to homeowners to make energy improvements and in Section 204, the time-of-sale labeling only prohibits a state government from using the bill's funding to require labeling.

Nothing prevents the state, an agent, MLS or homeowner from voluntary labeling or marketing energy improvements and energy performance.

That means that homeowners that have made energy retrofits to their homes and have achieved outstanding energy performance can label and market their homes using energy performance as a positive feature. It's a chance to differentiate a home and rise above the crowd using energy performance as the ace-in-the-hole.

For more information on this bill you can go to www.realtor.org/government_affairs.

Find an energy efficient home in the Pittsburgh area! Call Christa Ross from RE/MAX Select Realty, at 724-933-6300 x214 (office) or 724-779-1437 (direct) or visit my website at www.greenhomespgh.com.

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Buying or Selling a home in Pittsburgh? Call Christa Ross from RE/MAX Select Realty, at 724-933-6300 x214 (office) or 724-309-1758 (direct) or visit my website at www.bestpittsburghhomes.com.

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Comments (2)

Julia Odom
Select Realty Professionals - Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga Homes for Sale

Thanks for posting this. It's hard to combat all of the alarmists who blindly pass on 4th hand information that they got from some forum.

May 10, 2010 04:16 AM
Kristen Wheatley
Better Homes & Gardens | The Masiello Group - Brunswick, ME
Supporting Success - Best Job in the World!

Great info.  -Reblogging it now.  We see so much of this today - people reacting to misrepresentations and blindly passing it on just like Julia mentioned above.

May 12, 2010 04:38 AM