Pricing guidance for solar panels and more: Meet Pearl Certification
When I bought a house in 2016, the agent who listed it didn't know that it was a passive house. Neither did the seller, who had never lived in the home; they used it as a vacation rental before selling it to us. That's why the price was reduced twice before I snapped it up for $55,000 less than the original list price. What's a passive house, anyway? It's a type of high-performing home that's much more common in Europe than in the United States. Some of the features that indicate a passive house include the insulation envelope, air exchange systems, and the HVAC setup, which are all dead giveaways that the house is highly energy efficient … but what those sellers didn't know ended up working out to my advantage. Many agents are like the listing agent on the home I bought: They don't know what they don't know about high-performing homes, and they're probably leaving a significant amount of commission money on the table if they can't recognize and effectively market an energy-efficient home. Some of them probably don't think there are any such homes available in their area — but if it has the (now pretty standard) Energy Star appliances, then it might have other high-performing features, too. Concerned your agents could make a similar mistake as the listing agent did with the home I bought? The professionals behind Pearl Certification want to teach them how to avoid it. What is Pearl Certification? Imagine a certification program that categorizes homes according to the different energy savings features they possess, documenting all of the little things that add up to a high-performing home and placing each item on a weighted scale. The assessment examines the building shell, heating and cooling systems, baseload equipment, home management features, solar panels, and electric vehicle charging setups. Homes can achieve four different levels of Pearl Certification: Pearl Platinum, Pearl Gold, Pearl Silver, and Pearl Asset. The company also awards "badges" that signify a home's high performance in certain categories, such as a solar badge. The certification report includes details on a home's special performance features, and homeowners who request a report will automatically get enrolled in Greendoor, an app powered by Pearl that helps them understand what upgrades will elevate their property to the next certification level. Pearl Certification includes an official appraisal addendum that's generated in order to provide Green Certification for the home and thoroughly document the extent of any energy upgrades. How does Pearl Certification help agents? Pearl Certification is building an elite network of real estate agents who have been trained on the high-performing home standards. After registering, agents are provided with education and background, then must prove their knowledge before they can fully join the network. Participating agents can request home certifications for their clients, and the network connects homeowners with agents who understand high-performing homes and how to market them. Pearl Certification is not a brokerage and has no plans to become one, so the referrals sent to agents through the network are theirs to work for free. There are no referral fees involved. The company also offers training on navigating MLS Green fields (if your MLS has them) so that any energy-efficient homes listed by your brokerage can be properly marketed to interested buyers. Heather Elias, Vice President of Real Estate at Pearl Certification, notes that the company can help brokerages find existing homeowners already in their databases who have homes that might be good candidates for certification and much more. "We can do things like scrub a database against past scored homes to help brokers with marketing," she explains. Plus, the solar badge can help agents with pricing and marketing around homes that have solar panels. "Solar has been a bit like the Wild West," Elias says, "and the solar badge can go along with a full certification, but it can also stand by itself in helping sellers and their agents calculate the equity of the solar system that's on the house and properly market that information on the listing, as well as walk through conversations around the loan or lease that's on the solar systems." And don't forget: Pearl Certification isn't just for passive homes like mine. "It doesn't have to be a house with rain barrels and solar arrays and all the energy-efficient things you'd expect to see," Elias notes. "We can help with any house."

Redfin Becomes First Real Estate Site to Add Energy Cost Estimates for U.S. Homes
Redfin has added energy cost estimates for more than 85 million homes across the U.S. Through a partnership with energy software company WattBuy, consumers can now use Redfin to better understand the costs of living in a home, including utility bills that can be tricky to predict but meaningfully contribute to a homeowner's total monthly costs. Each eligible Redfin home detail page now displays an estimate for the home's monthly electricity usage, bill, and seasonal changes in electricity usage and cost. It also estimates how much homeowners could save on long-term energy costs by installing solar panels. The feature is located directly below Redfin's existing payment calculator, allowing buyers to better understand and compare financial costs between homes and helping homeowners discover whether investing in solar energy systems could result in long-term savings. "It's important for house hunters to understand how much it's going to cost to live in a given home," said Redfin Chief Growth Officer Christian Taubman. "Our research shows that many movers assume their utility costs will be similar in their new home, but that's sometimes way off-base. By showing this information from WattBuy for every home, we're giving homebuyers the information they need to make better decisions. We're also letting millions of homeowners know how much they can bring down their utility costs by installing solar panels." Redfin now displays energy cost information on both for-sale and off-market homes and the experience is tuned to each different type of user. The feature highlights estimated electricity costs for buyers visiting for-sale homes and solar savings for owners visiting off-market detail pages, helping consumers understand the information that is most relevant to them. The feature is currently available for more than 85 million U.S. homes on Redfin.com. "As forward-thinking businesses like Redfin realize how important energy cost reductions, rooftop solar, and sustainability solutions are to their customers, WattBuy is meeting this new need," said Naman Trivedi, WattBuy CEO. "Our APIs make it simple for consumer-facing companies to help their customers understand current energy usage and take the steps needed to lower their energy costs and their carbon footprint. As the technology-powered real estate company, Redfin was the obvious partner to debut this new feature." Redfin added utility data as part of its continued commitment to providing the most complete and relevant real estate information, as well as its ongoing effort to educate consumers about housing sustainability and the impacts of climate change. In the past year, Redfin has, among other initiatives: Added zoning, down payment assistance, transit and internet service provider data to home detail pages Launched new filters that allow buyers to identify homes that better meet their needs Introduced property-level data for fire, heat, drought and storm risk Continued economic research about how climate change impacts the housing market

RPR Integrates with ClimateCheck to Offer Property Risk Ratings
RPR (Realtors Property Resource) announced a new data set for its users. This resource is made available to REALTORS in RPR via an integration with ClimateCheck. ClimateCheck is a climate risk data provider that combines real estate, science and technology experience. Its goal is to empower all commercial and residential stakeholders -- buyers, owners, brokers, investors and lenders by exposing and quantifying the risks related to the climate crisis. This information is designed to help property owners make a more informed decision about how to manage, sell and buy real estate. "Climate change can have an impact on your cost of ownership – insurance and utility costs and your quality of life," says Cal Inman, CEO of ClimateCheck. "Access to this information and a risk assessment is a smart first step for current property owners and potential buyers." RPR has added ClimateCheck to the "Additional Resources" section of the Property Details page. Here's what users can expect when they click on this new feature: ClimateCheck rates a property's future risk of climate change-related hazards and assigns a rating from 1 to 100, with 100 representing the highest risk. The future date is the year 2050 — a period within the lifespan of a 30-year mortgage signed today. Ratings are displayed in a "climate change risk snapshot" for each of the five hazards rated: drought, fire, storm, heat, and flood. Ratings are available for on and off-market residential and commercial properties REALTORS® can click through to the ClimateCheck website to get a climate rating focused property report, which can then be emailed or printed to share with clients. "Pairing with the ClimateCheck resource adds another layer of information for REALTORS® to identify climate risks and be able to suggest simple ways to adapt properties so they are more resilient to extreme weather hazards. Understanding each risk—heat, fire, storm, drought, and flood—has become a crucial part of home ownership, and now REALTORS® can share this information with their clients", said Jeff Young, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of RPR. "Additionally, commercial practitioners are considering climate related factors in their allocations, investment strategies, risk analysis and site selection." ClimateCheck in RPR went live on Tuesday, April 26. See for yourself by visiting RPR today.

Sustainable Gains: On the Future of Green Buildings
Developers, policymakers and investors are coming round to the idea that green development makes economic sense, says LeadingRE's Jojo Romarx Salas. "The floor area of the global buildings sector is expected to double by 2060," according to the report "Green Buildings: A Finance and Policy Blueprint" by the International Finance Corporation, a sister organization of the World Bank and the largest global development institution focused on the private sector.

What's the Difference Between Transaction Management and Going Paperless?
Just about any business owner can tell you the benefits of having a paper trail. Most consumers could, too. But having a paper trail doesn't mean having paper. In recent years, there's been a huge shift in the real estate industry from the overflowing file cabinets of the past to digital file storage. It's all about going paperless—leaving out the paper, but still keeping that proverbial paper trail. Here's the thing, though: Going paperless doesn't necessarily translate to a smoother workflow. It's a good foundation, but nowadays, there's so much more we can do thanks to things like transaction management. So what's the big difference between a paperless office, and one that uses transaction management? Let's start by looking at what "paperless" means—and where it came from.

3 Brokerages Leading the Way Through Social Responsibility
We were at Inman Connect last month. The conference opened with a discussion on 15 changes that will occur in real estate over the next five years. One of the 15 changes discussed was that socially responsible brands will become more popular with consumers. What does leadership in social responsibility look like in real estate—today? Let's take a look three brokerages that are leading the way:

RPR Data Strengthens Smart Growth Initiative
Real estate professionals are investing in their communities well beyond helping consumers achieve the American dream of homeownership. They know that healthy neighborhoods, towns and cities prosper in ways that attract families, businesses and investors to the area. That is why REALTORS® across the country are becoming increasingly more interested in sustainable community development, also known as Smart Growth. REALTORS® are uniquely positioned to create added value within our communities," said Nate Johnson, President of Real Estate Solutions and Chair of NAR's Smart Growth Advisory Board. "They are responsible for making sure our neighborhoods are developing in ways that we want by working alongside elected officials, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, transportation and urban planning professionals, governors, and leaders in Washington, D.C., to improve everyday life for people across the country."

A Great Way to Cut Small Business Costs
You already know the importance of being financially smart. Handling finances the "right way" is a skill that many of us struggle to master. What a lot of people fail to realize is that there are so many easy tricks to saving money. Here's a tip on how every small business owner can cut costs. Cut Costs By Going Green Aside from the environmental benefits, making eco-friendly adjustments to your everyday life can, and will have significantly positive outcomes—especially for those running small businesses. The first move that most entrepreneurs often make is to go paperless. Operating electronically means less energy consumption, faster turnaround when communicating with clients, vendors, and employees, and much more data security. Businesses can lean on digital technology to handle things like tracking sales, analyze data, automate billing and more. Cutting out paper consumption saves money and associated costs while simultaneously directing your business on a more efficient path that you can capitalize on.

5 Tips for a Greener Real Estate Business
Have you started thinking about having less of an impact on the environment? Do you want to increase the efficiency of your real estate business? We are constantly looking for ways to make an extra dollar, but a penny saved is a penny earned and creating an environmentally friendly business might cost you in the short term, but in the long run it pays. Here are five tips that will get you started in your mission to become a more environmentally conscious and paperless real estate business! Manage Your Paper Waste: This is one aspect most businesses are trying to get a handle on. It's doing things like printing on both sides, realizing that a sheet in your notepad can be used for more than one meeting, and looking at one of the many great paperless real estate solutions available to you, like an Electronic Deal Sheet. loadingDOCS is a huge step for real estate businesses because it is a fully integrated solution that makes the move towards an efficient paperless solution even easier. Electronics Can Sleep, Too: You can save a lot of money by making sure your office is set up for energy conservation. Computers don't need to be on all day, every day. Put them to sleep or turn them off when you are finished using them. Switch your office lighting to a more efficient bulb like CFL or LED. And don't forget to turn off the lights when you head home for the day.

Going Green: Real Estate’s Paperless Movement
Chris Drayer of RealSatisfied says: Emerging trends in Real Estate that deserve our attention are often not very related. However today, there is a strong correlation between harvesting data and going green. Green is in. Todays consumers desire green products and services. 20% will pay more for recycled products and opt to work with companies that are careful with resources and care about the earth. Green is a growing market segment. "Twenty-five percent of consumers will buy a green product," says Kathy Crosett, "if it makes them feel like they are contributing to saving the environment." REALTORS® can appeal to those with an eco sense by selecting green products to work with. Consumers are voting for environmental sustainability – thus paperless is in.

Choosing the Best Cloud Drive for Your Real Estate Business
When news first started circulating about the mysterious "cloud" and how it would change our personal computing way of life, the actual benefits might not have been exactly clear to the average user. Then, the first time you lost some important files and then were able to recover them because they had automatically been saving themselves somewhere, it was truly exciting. I myself lost a few song files recently when my iPod crashed and found them a few days later hanging out on Google Music, where they'd been uploaded six months before. Now that news of Google Drive has been leaked and finally announced, real estate agents have a lot of choices of which cloud-based storage services to use. Not only do these programs save your important files, they enable you to send and share files that had once been too large for email. Ideal when it comes to sending photo galleries and home-tour videos to clients. So, why is Google Drive getting all the buzz right now? It's offering 5 GB of free storage and allows you to manage and share all your Google files.

12 Tips to Sell Your Home Faster – Go Green!
These days, it seems as if everyone is growing more concerned with protecting the environment and going green; especially home buyers. Because of all the great benefits of owning a green home, there is an increasing demand for eco-friendly, green friendly homes in the housing market. According to a recent survey constructed by McGraw-Hill, “70 percent of buyers are either more or much more inclined to purchase a green home over a conventional home in down housing market.” The benefits of owning a green home are innumerable: green homes are safer for your health, much cheaper and easier to maintain, and better for the environment. Buyers are looking to make that switch to gain peace of mind, and to drastically cut utility expenses. How can a green home benefit the home seller? Being able to state your home is eco-friendly is a huge draw for buyers, giving your home a leading edge in the tough housing market competition. Buyers are also willing to pay more for a home with energy saving additions; the Earth Advantage Institute has determined that homes with third-party environmental certifications (such as a LEED certification) sell for 30 percent more than conventional homes without such ratings.

How Realistic is the Idea of a Paperless Office?
Guest contributor, GoPaperless Solutions, says: For some, the paperless office is all about conservation and environmental protection. For many reasons conservation and protection are good ideas; therefore, so are paperless offices and paperless document management. For those not-so-tree-huggerish folks out there, for whom the paperless office has had no draw at all, it's definitely time to take a fresh look at this idea. A paperless office can benefit the bottom line as much as it does lakes and streams. Sometimes a good idea is just, well, a good idea.

Why Your Real Estate Operation Should Go Green
There has been a lot of emphasis on teaching REALTORS® how to work with clients and their green homes. Not as much emphasis has been placed on how real estate organizations themselves can deploy tools to reduce their costs and environmental impact. WAV Group recently published a paper to help real estate organizations understand the positive impact they can make by reducing their own carbon footprints, while attracting green customers and employees. Want to help save 1.5 billion gallons of gas? How about 2,000,000 trees? Real estate organizations can do the right thing for the environment while strengthening their own bottom-line. They can save money while creating the potential to attract new customers and increasing the loyalty of their current customer base.