Selling Your Green Home? Read This.

Green homes are in demand. In fact, buyers are actually willing to spend more for an eco-conscious home than a standard residence.

So, whether you’re offering a free Tesla Roadster with every green home, or just selling a tiny house, read on. Green minded "for sale by owner" types, a LEED for Homes builders, and green real estate agents should effectively market the environmentally friendly aspects of a property by telling a compelling story of why it makes sense to eco-conscious.

It could mean a notable difference in your profit.

Make It a Focal Point:

Whatever the green facets of your listing, sell the heck out of them. Include them in both the real estate description (e.g. "This Home Has Gone Green!"), and as a key point in all promotional material. Include pictures where possible. You may even go so far as to have specific real estate signs made that call out the green features. The reason is this: people interested in green homes are on the hunt for such aspects and are likely using them as keywords in their online searches, while everyone else in the market may just consider them a value-add.

Also some buyers may have heard of solar panels (photovoltaics) or geothermal heat, but not understand why they're important. Tell the story of green that helps them understand. For instance, Houze Zero Energy Homes highlights the fact that their custom built net zero homes have a total lifetime cost of home ownership that is less than renting an apartment.

But whatever you do, don’t overpromise. Clearly represent the home’s level of environmental impact appropriately. In other words, whether the property includes a hybrid hot water heater or is a Certified net zero residence with no energy bills, market the greenness and energy savings of the home with full disclosure of the positives as well as caveats.

Why? The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports that the first thing on home buyers' minds in terms of desirable features is energy efficiency.

Talk About Actual Savings:

While you can't guarantee savings, even based on your own personal proof of energy efficiency, you should point out any quantifiable benefits that have come from green home improvements. For instance, if your heating oil bills were $1,000 a month before insulating your home and now they're $500 a month, that's $3-6,000 of savings annually (depending on where you live, how cold the winter is, etc.)

According to the same 2012 NAHB survey, the average homebuyer was willing to pay $7,095 more for a home to reduce energy costs by $1,000 annually. This suggests a required 14 percent rate of return.

Get Targeted:

If you're looking for something specific, chances are there's a niche website for you on the Internet. The same is true of green home sales.

To maximize the dollars on your green property or real estate listing, you need to emphasize the assets it possesses in an engaging way. It’s also wise to go where your audience is likely already looking – such as greenhomesforsale.com or listedgreen.com – both of which are realty search engines specifically for environmentally friendly houses.

However, some buyers may not be Internet savvy... Know your audience and then leverage that knowledge to create engaging movements. For instance, Denver-based realty startup Trelora recently placed mysterious green pigs all over the city as a way to generate interest in their “when pigs fly” campaign.

Although not directly related to green homes, it is an example of effective guerrilla marketing in the relatively stodgy real estate industry that can gather attention in ways that are not limited to online.

(Chart source: National Association of Home Builders)