If indeed there is going to be an effort to minimize the consequences of owning a house with poor energy efficiency at time of sale, there are some hard questions to ask about other aspects of the business of real estate under various degrees of control by that trade association.
The vast majority of the transactions done in the state employ that association's standard forms array. The content of those forms represents the legal basis for the transaction and accounts for much of the information about the house, the community and the decisions facing the Buyer and Seller in the transaction. Does the present set of forms adequately represent the relatively new world of green housing, energy efficiency and climate change issues? Will they evolve in that direction? Will the political (leaning just a bit to the right--LOL) underpinnings of the association influence that path? In the near future I'll run through the forms looking for content that addresses green and forms that could address green in a more helpful way.
The association is also still attempting to gain control of MLS services in the state--thus far with little success.
None of the existing MLS systems do a very impressive job of displaying green features, ratings, etc. in their databases or reports. Our present MLS system already has an array of green features, but the agents are very slow to populate the fields so it has little effective value at this time. There a great deal of improvement in the display of MLS information to better facilitate buyers and sellers making wiser and greener decisions about housing, but if the parent corporation behind the MLS subsidiary is not enthusiastic about perceived negative effects of bringing energy efficiency into the mix of factors in housing decisions, there's a real question about how the subsidiary's new statewide (that's not) MLS system will represent the greening of the housing market.
In all fairness it should be pointed out that the state association does not represent the public, it represents the members and the most powerful members are the broker/owners of the larger firms, mostly in the metro areas. That group largely represents "the industry" when lobbying promotions mention protecting "the industry". In many cases what's good for "the industry" is good for the member practitioners and also the public, but not always. It's that one size fits all syndrome again.
Then there's the planet. I keep mentioning the planet, but there's a higher purpose involved with the greening of the housing market, at least if you believe that climate change is real and that human activities played a significant role in creating it.
The trade associations aren't very forthcoming with definitive positions on climate change and the causes. That topic is a political tightrope considering their base. Green is good because it saves homeowners money in utility bills--that's the thrust of all the promotion behind green features and the certification courses for agents--oh and the agents that are green certified allegedly do more business and make more green stuff. The ultimate greening of real estate!
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