22 May What Buyers Really Want in a Green Home

When it comes to selling a green home, your marketing needs to be different than what you would do for a typical home, which competes on price and features. Green homes are won over with their value (lower utility bills, less toxins).

So how do you market a green home?

Get rid of the term “green”. No one really knows what that means today. A term like “high-performance” sounds much more accurate: a home that is extremely energy-efficient is high-performance.

What about benefits? Buyers care more about lowering their utility bills and keeping their families safe than they do about the rain forest and saving the whales. Of course many buyers do care about the environment but that’s not the primary driving force behind their purchasing decision.

Give your eFlyers a facelift. 95 percent of flyers show the features of the home, not any of the real benefits. What about listing the high performance benefits? You can really speak to your buyers when you show them the projected monthly and annual utility bill savings.

Also, green homes tend to appraise for at least 10 percent higher than comparable homes, so illustrate that their home would be worth $20,000 more than comparable ones.

“Non-toxic” gets to the point more than “eco-friendly”. Everyone enjoys breathing clean air.

It’s a new market – clever graphics don’t sell homes anymore. Be clear and speak to your buyers’ needs. Show them the value.