TurningHoustonGreen

The US Green Building Council’s and their LEED Green Building Program has helped to change the face of Building as we know it across the Nation.  They have brought to light the True homeowner benefits of Building Green, and ways for Commercial and Residential owners to combine Conservation, Sustainability and Environmental concerns in to Construction.

Over the past year USGBC has rolled out several programs and the LEED for Homes program is fully rolled out and no longer Pilot.

Now, in a few weeks, they will introduce LEED for Remodeling to the industry.  This will be a way for Homeowners to revamp their homes to be more Energy Efficient and Healthy.  Homeowners with Auto Immune Disorders, Asthma, Allergies, etc. will be able to Remodel for a more comfortable Home Environment.  Those homeowners concerned with high Utility bills will have an ultimate guideline to revamping.

But what will this do to the face of Real Estate Investment?  Being able to pick up a home that is distressed and remodel it for sale or lease has been a Real Estate Dream for many throughout the years.  Often times these changes have been cosmetic but more and more we are seeing investors come in and completely reface houses, nearly gut them and turn them in to something unimaginable.

Will home investors catch on to LEED for Remodeling? Will they realize that more and more consumers are wanting healthier and more efficient homes and remodel it to the highest respected Green Building Standards in the Nation?

Another question that comes to mind is what will this do for Green and Affordable Housing across the Nation?  In many areas, it is not uncommon to see flippers taking homes at or below the Median Price Range for an area.  It is the lower price ranges that homeowners could benefit the most from low maintenance and energy efficient homes as sometimes there is limited income for maintenance, let alone the utility bills.  Some parts of the Nation are faced with Water Shortages and the cost of fresh drinking water can be quite high.  This would also allow existing homes to use less water for those that it may be too costly.

All of these are questions because it is too soon to tell what will happen.  Regardless, it will be interesting over the next few years to see how LEED for Remodeling takes in the House Flipping world.  I’m calling it now, a new Reality TV Show called “Flippin’ Green” will be out by Mid 2009. Maybe I should copyright that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Green Houston Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.