To explore a greener way to buy, sell or lease property please get in touch with us via the contact information above. As green realty experts we can assist you in assessing, improving or marketing the greener aspects of homes and properties. Our green team’s qualifications include green building development, home energy advising (with Natural Resources Canada), co-op development, green business development, and decades of realty experience.

Our specialized team walks our green talk in many ways starting with how we choose to get around – bike, car co-ops, bus passes, etc – to donating up to 25% of our commissions to non profit organizations of our client’s choice.

 

1.    Visit www.greentoolkit.ca - a free online resource for real estate professionals interested in exploring the greener side of realty.

 

2.    Contact the Greener Realty Association to learn more about green realty training, tools and support offered across North America.

 

Email james(at)greenerhomes.ca for information regarding his soon-to-be-published book and North American speaking tour.

Effective Immediately - GreenerHomes.ca is offering their Clients a $500 incentive to Green the homes they are buying or selling. When coupled with the other financial incentives ($5000+) that GreenerHomes.ca Realtors can help their Clients access such as the recently announced federal ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative, GreenerHomes.ca Clients can:

1. Increase the value of their home.

2. Save money year after year.

3. Reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that affect our environment and health.


“Realtors can, should, and now are, playing a significant role in addressing the health, energy-efficiency, and environmental impact of our homes.” remarks GreenerHomes.ca Realtor James Rodgers, “We are the ones sitting down at the kitchen table exploring people’s housing needs and choices. More and more those needs require finding a home that is Green - energy efficient and therefore affordable to operate (heat or cool), healthy to live in and built with environmentally sustainable materials.”

The $500 Rodgers and his fellow Green Realtors are giving their clients will result in ongoing monthly energy and cost savings in the homes they buy and sell. As well, the GreenerHomes.ca Realtors will help clients maximize the federal ecoENERGY program to help their clients access thousands of dollars in various energy-related financial incentives.

“We believe the energy rating systems for homes, systems like the new ecoENERGY Initiative that will rate a homes energy efficiency, is as important to homes as the labeling of ingredients and nutrients is to foods” says Rodgers.

When asked how a handful of green realtors in a sea of 16,000+ licensed BC Realtors can make a difference Rodgers comments, “By pioneering and modeling a new, green paradigm of real estate practice we hope to inspire industry-wide changes in the way resources and property are valued. As an industry we must change as consumer values change. An increasing number of Home Buyers are looking past the stainless steel exterior of appliances and are concerned with their energy efficiency.”

"I welcome this approach from the real estate industry. If this was embraced widely, it could become common practice for people to upgrade their homes before they sell them, or as soon as they buy them," said Guy Dauncey, President of the BC Sustainable Energy Association. "This is a great move forward."

Beyond the immediate financial incentives that translate into energy savings and the related reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, GreenerHomes.ca Realtors offer clients across BC a full Green Realty service. This includes being able to offer guidance and resources related to the the environmental aspects of a home, property, or community.

Green Realtor training and certification is currently being developed by the Greener Realty of BC Association and its partners. The curriculum consists of six primary fields of study: Energy Efficiency; Green Building Design, Construction, Renovation, and Materials; Housing Affordability and Green Finance; Green Market Awareness and Trends; Healthy Homes including immediate environmental issues such as pollution, contamination, etc.; and Site and Community Planning (including protective covenants, etc).

Although qualified Green Realtors are currently in limited supply in Canada, the number of green-minded consumers is rapidly increasing. Generally speaking these consumers are motivated by the cost savings related to greener homes as well as the associated moral and ethical benefits. Quite often these green consumers can be profiled by their appreciation for quality goods and the value of buying organic, fair-trade and locally grown or produced products.

The goal of the GreenerHomes.ca $500 Energy Incentive Program is:

1. To increase the value of the homes that GreenerHomes.ca Clients buy and sell.

2. To help GreenerHomes.ca Clients access energy-related grants and financial incentives while saving thousands of dollars in energy costs and the related reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact GreenerHomes.ca facilitator James Rodgers for more information at 778 772 8979 or james-at-greenerhomes.ca

 

Visit Green Communities Canada for more information about the current state of the EnerGuide and ecoENERGY Programs and some useful PDF downloads (half way down the page).

GreenerHomes.ca is happy to announce that ecoEnergy Home Energy Assessment services are now available in the Kootenay Region thanks to City Green Solutions.

 

GreenerHomes.ca is a free online resource of green* related news, tips, opinions, and directories of green products, organizations, and more organizations pertaining to homes and property. In addition to it's presence on the web, the GreenerHomes.ca team offers a 'green' realty service throughout British Columbia for both Buyers and Sellers of real estate.

Get in touch with the GreenerHomes.ca team to discuss your green-related real estate questions & comments and to explore this quickly emerging sector of the real estate industry. Realtors, and specifically Greener Realtors can play a key role in the sustainable development of our communities as they are often the ones sitting down with people to discuss their housing and lifestyle needs and wants. Also, realtors are often a first point of contact for people moving to a new community and can act as a community's ambassador.

 

* Green is a common metaphor referring to environmental association based on the shared secondary color of many plants. It is often used to associate people, products, organizations, political parties, or policies with environmentally sensitivity and to a lesser degree social responsibility.