A HERS® Index Score Can Help Sell Your Home!

We at Capital Home Builders have always built homes to a higher standard by using quality materials and labors. Our homes are not built like standard built homes in Thomasville and South Georgia. The approach to building a minimum code home is “how much can I really cut back on laborers, materials and building code. Capital Home Builders approach to building a quality high-performance homes is how can we build it better, stronger and more energy efficient, our RESNET number do not lie. 

If you’re selling your home and a potential buyer wants to know what its HERS Index Score is, can you tell them? Because chances are, this is a question that’s going to come up more and more often. That’s because the issue of home energy efficiency is on the rise and consumers are trying to cut back costs wherever they can – and that extends to buying a home.

Fact: the highest cost of homeownership outside of the home loan is energy.

For many years, consumers have been able to buy cars and appliances based on energy performance. While cars have MPG (miles-per-gallon) stickers and appliances have Energy Guide labels, for the longest time homebuyers had no way of knowing the potential energy costs of homes they were viewing. That meant sometimes choosing a home that ended up costing more than anticipated due to poor energy performance. The HERS Index Score changes that.

• The HERS Index was developed by RESNET and is the industry standard by which a home’s energy performance is measured.
• A HERS Index Score is the result of a comprehensive HERS rating, in which a certified RESNET HERS Rater assesses a home on its energy performance.

Fact: mortgage default risks are 32% lower on homes with low HERS Index Scores.

Why Should Homeowners Get a HERS Index Score?

A HERS Index Score tells you how your house compares to other similar homes for energy performance. The lower the score, the more energy efficient the home; the more energy efficient the home, the higher the potential resale value. The Earth Advantage Institute, a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, “found that newly constructed homes with third-party certifications for sustainability and energy efficiency sold for 8% more on average than non-certified homes in the six-county Portland metropolitan area. Existing houses with certifications sold for 30% more.” Their report, published in May 2009, confirms that energy efficient retrofits add value to homes, resulting in generally higher resale prices for sellers.

Fact: energy efficient homes save money, improve home comfort and enjoy higher resale values.

As a homeowner, you want to keep your energy costs under control and your home comfort levels high. The best way to achieve this is through energy efficient improvements. By making your home more energy efficient, not only do you save money and improve your home comfort, you also add value to your home. And that means a higher resale price when you sell, because homebuyers want energy efficient homes, and HERS Index scores tell them how energy efficient a home is.

Therefore, as a homeowner who is looking at their home as not just a place to live in but also as an investment, getting a HERS Index Score is the smart thing to do. After all, you know how energy efficient your car is – don’t you want to know about your home too?

http://www.resnet.us/library/index-score-can-help-sell-home/