Reducing Energy Costs to increase the real estate value of your Hillsborough Home

Reducing energy Costs can Increase the Real Estate Sales Value of your Hillsborough home

How energy efficient is your home? Would you like to find out how much you could save on your energy costs by taking steps to improve your Hillsborough home's energy competence? The Alliance to Save Energy is providing a FREE online Home Energy Checkup. Remember, if you lower your energy bill, the real estate selling value of your Hillsborough home will increase. So you can save money each year; increase the value of your real estate when you sell your home; and feel better about being kinder to the environment. FREE Online Home Energy Checkup

Twenty Things You Can Do to Conserve Energy to lower your utility bills:   If you may be placing your Hillsborough home on the market in the next few years, lowering your utility bills will add value to your Hillsborough home on the real estate market and money to your bank account.  PowerScore card has given twenty pieces of advice to lower your utility costs whether you live in an all brick home in RTP or a two-story home in Durham or Hillsborough.   Make your Durham home more Energy Efficient

Home buyers are increasingly asking questions about utility costs, energy efficiency and the effect it has on the home’s real estate value. Realtor Magazine reported in a recent study that among buyers age 43-53 years old, the most important feature when buying a home was improved energy efficiency. Can real estate experts afford to overlook this important trend as sophisticated homebuyers become more concerned about lowering monthly bill costs?        #1 Most important real estate home buyer feature - Realtor Magazine survey

Energy savings can increase the appraised value of your home. The federally sponsored secondary mortgage markets of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA now allow appraisers to capitalize the flow of energy savings in an energy efficient home and add the capitalized value to the market value of a home in the appraisal. FHA recognizes the value of energy savings

94% of new home buyers believed energy features are important in their buying decision. Energy features ranked in importance above such popular features as wall-to-wall carpeting, dishwashers, and fireplaces. 78% of real estate appraisers believed that energy efficient homes were worth more - approximately 5% more. (Source: South Carolina Electric & Gas)  Home buyers place a dollar value on real estate energy efficiency

The value of a home increases by an average of $20 for every $1 decrease in annual utility costs according to a 1998 study commissioned by Environmental Protection Agency as reported in the Appraisal Journal -   Real Estate Appraisers weigh in on energy efficiency    Appraisal Journal Article on real estate Market Value of Energy Efficiency

Among buyers age 43-53 years old, the most important single feature in a prospective new home purchase is improved energy efficiency according to a  recent study cited in Realtor Magazine. More and more home buyers are asking questions about utility costs and energy efficiency. As sophisticated homebuyers become more concerned about lowering monthly costs and their impact on the environment, can real estate professionals afford to overlook this important trend?    #1 Most important real estate home buyer feature - Realtor Magazine survey

Fluorescent light fixtures one of the great secrets for saving on real estate utility bills says the National Association Of Realtors.  Florescent lights are great for kitchens, workshops, laundries, recreation rooms and home offices.  Florescent lights are one of the best kept secrets: they are about three to four times as efficient as incandescent lighting and last about 10 times longer.      Lower your Durham real estate utility bills

Simple actions, say the team at ENERGY STAR, can save significant dollars.  Savings on utility bills can add value to your home when you put it on the real estate market.  Just replacing the bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified lighting in five of the fixtures you use most can save up to $60 per year in the average home, according to the real estate specialists on the ENERGY STAR team.  Check out other ENERGY STAR fixtures and suggestions for additional savings at the ENERGY STAR web site.     Advice from the real estate specialists at ENERGY STAR

Twenty Things You Can Do to Conserve Energy to lower your utility bills:   If you may be putting your home on the market in the next few years, one way to add value to your home on the real estate market and dollars to your bank account today is to lower your utility bills.  Whether you live in an all brick home in RTP or a two-story home in Durham or Hillsborough you can lower your utility bills with these twenty suggestions from PowerScorecard.   Make your Durham home more Energy Efficient

Interested in making your home more energy efficient? The US Dpartment of Energy is providing a collection of computer software programs for home owners and real estate agents in Durham and elsewhere to analyze the energy efficiency of your home - some are demo versions and some are full programs free for downloading.   A home energy analysis is important at any time and especially if you are preparing your home for sale.  Department of Energy Home Energy Efficiency Software list

Simple actions, say the team at ENERGY STAR, can save significant dollars.  Savings on utility bills can add value to your home when you put it on the real estate market.  Just replacing the bulbs with ENERY STAR qualified lighting in the five fixtures you use most can save up to $60 per year in the average home, according to the real estate specialists on the ENERGY STAR team.  Check out other ENERGY STAR fixtures and suggestions for additional savings at the ENERGY STAR web site.     Advice from the real estate specialists at ENERGY STAR

Interested in making your home more energy efficient? The US Dpartment of Energy is providing a collection of computer software programs for home owners and real estate agents in Durham and elsewhere to analyze the energy efficiency of your home - some are demo versions and some are full programs free for downloading.   A home energy analysis is important at any time and especially if you are preparing your home for sale.  Department of Energy Home Energy Efficiency Software list

Energy savings can increase the appraised value of your home. The federally sponsored secondary mortgage markets of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA allow appraisers to capitalize the flow of energy savings in an energy efficient home and add it to the market value of a home in the appraisal. FHA recognizes the value of energy savings.  Water supply shortages and use restrictions are taking center stage, as severe droughts and a growing population are demanding water in excess of the available supply. The prolonged summer of 1999 drought in the mid-Atlantic and elsewhere has spurred state and local governments to implement mandatory or voluntary water use restrictions, including landscape watering bans. To find out more about living with water restrictions, click here.

Programmable thermostats are possibly your highest return energy saving step you can take whether your live in Durham, NC; Hillsborough, NC or almost any other location in the US. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, by turning your thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees for eight hours, you can save between 5 percent and 15 percent a year on your heating bill. That's a savings of as much as 1 percent for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long. As reported by the Lawrence Kansas Lawrence Journal World http://www.ljworld.com/section/toplikar/story/151496

Vicky Olive www.vickyolive.com  has researched and documented a collection of energy saving tips from all over the Internet. You can review her latest collection of links and tips at http://www.chapel-hill-nc.com/vickyolive/Durham_Real_Estate/ReduceEnergy.html.

"What we've learned about basic energy efficiency isn't readily available to homeowners, builders and contractors," says Dave Brook, an extension agent specializing in energy for Oregon State University. The reason is clear enough: Because much of that knowledge was developed for low-income housing as part of the federal Weatherization Assistance Program, it hasn't yet reached the mainstream housing industry. Nevertheless, it includes a number of findings that affect all homes.

Air leaks into the attic can drain 30 to 50 percent of a home's heating energy. Gaps in forced-air ducts can cut home heating and cooling efficiency 40 percent." A couple of weekends sealing the attic and furnace ducting using materials that cost less than $50 on average will slash up to 30 percent off your energy bill. See the FULL ARTICLE.

A study in South Dakota found that windbreaks to the north, west, and east of houses cut fuel consumption by an average of 40%. Houses with windbreaks placed only on the windward side (the side from which the wind is coming) averaged 25% less fuel consumption than similar but unprotected homes.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) estimates that urban America has 100 million potential tree spaces (i.e., spaces where trees could be planted). NAS further estimates that filling these spaces with trees and lightening the color of dark, urban surfaces would result in annual energy savings of 50 billion kilowatt-hours -- 25% of the 200 billion kilowatt-hours consumed every year by air conditioners in the United States.

See Vicky's collection of tips for saving on energy bills and increasing the real estate value of your Durham, NC or Hillsborough, NC home. Even new communities like Hillsborough , one of the communities Vicky serves, can increase the value of their homes by reducing energy bills.

Cold Snaps are an Opportunity to find Energy Savings, increase the real estate value of your Durham home.
A drop of the mercury into the twenties or below can send a chill though most homes. Use this cold snap to help identify air leaks in your home that are running up your heating bills.  It is not just your current comfort at stake.  Studies show that a reduction of $1 in your annual heating cost can increase the real estate value of your home by as much as $20.