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Net-Zero homes and energy efficiency, everyone knows that language. But materials are something people are just learning about. They are really getting pushed to the front. I think everybody knows that USGBC, International Living Future Institute, and Healthy Product Declarations. There’s this push the materials, and in so doing the green homes forward.

Kate Bachner holds an MA in Contemporary Art from the Sotheby’s Institute and a B.A. in Art History from Emory University. She has studied the principles of sustainable building and healthy materials at NYU and the Parsons School of Design. She has earned her LEED GA, WELL AP, and LFA. Kate is also a licensed real estate agent in the state of California. Her new venture, Wise Matter, marries Kate’s deep knowledge of healthy building products with her refined eye for art and curation to create a home that is beautiful from the inside out.

Kate shares her journey of coming from the world of art to being in the world of green building and real estate, and why she chose this path. She reflects on her experience and knowledge from working with homeowners and developers as she offers some insight into what are the current challenges and prospects in creating more healthy homes.

After we had an energy audit done, we knew why some rooms in our home was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. In addition to our propane furnace approaching the end of its life, we needed to improve the energy efficiency of the home before we even consider of getting solar panels on the roof.

Henry Francois of Gundlach’s Services from Bakersfield talked through the energy efficiency improvement project of our home. Based on the findings from the energy audit, they replaced the furnace with 96% efficiency unit; added cellulose insulation in the attic; repaired fallen insulation and placed Tybek paper to keep the insulation from breathing in the crawl space and caulked the ceiling to seal the air leak from outside and attic. Henry explains some of the logistics and the objectives of each of the work done. He offers some insight into how to prioritize the work that may have greater return of investment and result in creating more comfortable homes.

In order to get this work done, we utilized an unsecured financing specifically designed to provide energy efficiency improvements through GoGreen Financing, and was able to obtain a loan called, REEL (Residential Energy Efficiency Loan). You must use the contractors who are vetted and registered in their network to qualify for the loan.

  "There are many things inside our home that people can focus on before you even get the solar."

Before homeowners rush to get the solar panels installed on your roof, it is recommended that the "envelope" of your home be inspected to make sure the energy is not being wasted.  

Carl Reese, a general contractor and building inspector with many qualifications, discusses what energy audit also known as "home performance evaluation" recently and why homeowners and home buyers should have one, and what measures you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your home and reduce the utility bills as well as the indoor air quality.  

Carl suggests the first thing the homeowners can do is to change the light bulbs to LED, which would reduce the energy bill by up to one quarter. If the home tends to be dusty and/or you sneeze a lot in the house, that's a sign of air leaking into the living area from the attic and that the duct works should be looked at by HVAC professionals. Improving the insulation and sealing air leaks, which can be done relatively easily and inexpensive, alone would have more immediate return of investment.  

“Banks love it because they know after the mortgage a lot of people’s next payment is utility payment. So if they see that you’re gonna have a home without $200 or $300 monthly utility payment, the banks would make the asset more valuable and to the new buyer it’s neat to get a net zero home and it’s more exciting for them.”

Steve Nauert, a mortgage broker with Green Mortgage Advantage, as well as real estate broker, offers various mortgage products that allow new home buyers as well as home owners to take on a mortgage that includes the funds to get home improvements done for energy efficiency upgrades. We discuss the advantage and benefits for both the lenders and the borrowers of these mortgage products and why consumers should consider.

“We care about the home owner, and we care about the environment. We’re trying to lower emissions into the atmosphere where we’re trying to build it. We’re conscious, eco-conscious. So we care about sustainability, and we care about the toxins that are in your home. We don’t want VO2 emissions going off in your living space. The real heart of my messages are that we care.” - LeAn

Fortunate Homes builds well thought-out carefully designed homes with love. Their design includes a functional floor plan, tasteful finishes, and the best top-of-the-line Green Building Techniques. They create a WIN-WIN-WIN because they create passive income for investors, a wonderful home for the owners, and reduce the impact on the earth.

… regenerative real estate can go as deep as regenerative design by looking at why are we considering the rain that falls on our roof storm water whenever it is the precious vital resources, and why are we powering our homes with fossil fuels that are extracted and degrading whenever we can be pulling from the earth and the sun and free resources, and why are we degrading mountain tops and far away landscapes whenever we can use local non-toxic materials that we know are beneficial to our health and we can do it in a way that is beneficial for the economy and ecology. That’s really the basis of the regenerative real estate.

Neal and Alissa Collins are the founders of Latitude, Regenerative Real Estate. They created this community of real estate agents across the boundaries of states and countries through eXp Realty who are pursuing something more than the traditional transactional real estate business and finding ways to do good in our world with passion projects where they can actually face the issues of the world and help solve them by intertwining the personal values in their businesses.  Their focus is the wholistic approach to home living beyond finding dream homes for buyers or selling homes at the best price with short amount of time.  These "Change Agents" dare to be different from most real estate professionals and dedicated to the message of how to prepare our built environment for 21st and 22nd centuries as culture creators and leaders.  

“…The National Association of Realtors, research shows that since the pandemic one in six homebuyers are purchasing multigenerational homes, which is bigger, accommodates grandparents who live with us and young kids. So this new ‘full house family dynamic’ can also lead to increased energy usage, obviously, and consequently, increasing our utility bills.”

Dennis Stinson is the Vice President of Sales for Fujitsu General America, a national manufacturer with distributors in local communities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean leading a team of sales professionals, selling well over $300M of Fujitsu products. At Fujitsu, Dennis has held the responsibilities of Regional Sales Manager in the Mid-Atlantic and The Director of National Accounts.

Dennis discusses the following topics in the light of post-COVID lifestyle and dynamics.

"Today it's actually less expensive to put in a more efficient system, because of the incentives coming back. It is cheaper to go more efficient in many places in United States.”

Go to Eco Rebate Finder on FujitsuGeneral.com!

Joseph Gentile, Vice President of Real Estate at Pearl Certification

"According to the Department of Energy, 25% of homes are sold undervalued every year and what are those homes have in common? Well, it's energy efficient features.

If you went up to a buyer and said, “Would you like to live in a house that had less dust, less bugs, less mold, costs less money to run every month, and it was more comfortable.  Would that appeal to you?” Of course, every buyer would want that but articulating that is very difficult in the real estate transaction.  So they combined together all these features and considered a high performing home. They said, okay, what can we do to help highlight these features to bring them to the forefront of the transaction and that's what Pearl Certification is. We are a marketing program for real estate agents..."

Joseph has spent the last two decades leading efforts in the Real estate services industry. He is fluent in all aspects of franchising, sales, operations, and management, and has taken those skills to Pearl Certification, a nationally recognized company that brings the value of energy efficiency to the real estate transaction by helping homeowners recoup the value of their high performing investments at the time of sale or refinancing.

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