Why buyers want green homes and how to find them

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Christian Thompson, managing partner of Green Door Living, Christian, welcome to the show.

Christian Thompson: Thanks for having me Dan.

BrokerIPTV: Glad to have you here. Tell me a little bit about Green Door Living.

Christian Thompson: Green Door Living is a full service real estate company here in Denver. We help buyers, sellers, and investors and we focus on green or ecofriendly housing.

BrokerIPTV: All right. So, why this area? Why now?

Christian Thompson: Well, the Denver market has a real progressive clientele, people who are looking for energy savings, way to save money, and to help the earth.

BrokerIPTV: And some people might say, that's a pretty narrow angle, narrow market. Do you represent people who don't have a green home?

Christian Thompson: You know Dan, we do. We help all buyers and sellers. We are trained as ecobrokers, which is a designation for the National Association of Realtors on energy efficiency and environmental issues as they relate to real estate.

BrokerIPTV: Now, there are a lot of people out there who espouse[Phonetic] green building, green living, energy saving is becoming a much more important topic. It's becoming a more important choice for what they are going to do when they buy a home. So, if they want to find out about you, how do they do that?

Christian Thompson: Now, we have a website greendoorliving.com. We are located here in Denver in the northwest section of the Highlands on Tennyson Street. Recently, we did launch a website of a comprehensive database of green homes. So, if a consumer is specifically looking for a green house, we have a concise database unlike anything else that's out there.

BrokerIPTV: Let's build on that just a little bit and say what does it take to qualify as a energy efficient, built green home and get into your database?

Christian Thompson: Okay, that's a great question. We are in the preliminary stages of building this site up. So, what we have done right now is focus on homes that are certified through energy rating organization such as Energy Star, Built Green Colorado, or E-Star rating. So, if a home is certified as one of those components, they qualify right now for our website. We hope to be able to expand that out to other home owners who may have solar panels or have upgraded insulation throughout their house and really tightened up that home and made it more energy efficient.

BrokerIPTV: And one of the things you do is you are reaching out to other brokers who have built green homes as their listing and you are contacting them, saying, hey, would you like to have your listing advertised on our site? Is that right?

Christian Thompson: Exactly. What we have looked to do is partner with listing agents who already have that inventory and set up a cross marketing agreement where we would feature that energy efficient home on our website and so far the response has been really great.

BrokerIPTV: Well, it doesn't cost the listing agent, is that correct?

Christian Thompson: That's correct. It is a free marketing service and we hope to work with them and potentially bring some buyers to their listing.

BrokerIPTV: That's what they want, buyers.

Christian Thompson: It's a win-win.

BrokerIPTV: All right. How about the response from the public? People who have gone in, used your site, used your services, what's that been like?

Christian Thompson: You know, the public has... there is a hunger out there right now, especially for home buyers who are making these huge purchases, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are they making smart choices, what's going to be important to them down the road when it comes to their house? If we can help educate them and walk them through the process of environmentally efficient housing and how it is going to impact their bottom line down the road, there has been a real appetite for that. So far the response has been really strong and positive.

BrokerIPTV: Christian, thanks, great information.

Christian Thompson: Thanks Dan.

BrokerIPTV: Looking forward to it.

Christian Thompson: Great. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Posted on October 31, 2008 08:34:04 by Blog Author