More Central Austin home buyers are looking for energy efficient and green homes. If you’re selling your existing home, how do you compete with the green builders over at Mueller? In parts II and III of this series, I looked at some of the green building programs used by new builders. In this last article in the series, I look at some simple steps you can take to make your existing home appeal to green buyers.

There are two ways to make your existing home greener: The first is to focus on updating key items, and the second is to remodel your home in order to meet one of the rating programs.

Green Building Program Home Central AustinHere is a 1947 home in Shoalmont which has been remodeled by the owner and rated by the Austin Energy Green Building Program. Listing courtesy of Tim Sweeney at YourIgloo.

Rather than getting your entire home certified, you may just want to improve parts of your home.

Austin Energy has rebate programs to give up to $1575 in rebates for improvements to HVAC, weatherstripping, attic insulation, solar screens and caulking. They also offer rebates for installing solar water heaters, and solar power systems.

Austin Utilities have a $40 energy audit for their customers - an energy auditor will come to your home and evaluate the high priority fixes that will save energy in the home. Addressing these items and putting this information in the seller’s disclosure will be a great marketing move when it comes to sell your home.

Other simple items to address:

  • Lighting: replace incandescant bulbs with compact fluorescents which can use 75% less energy.
  • Appliances: it costs more to run an appliance over its lifetime than it does to buy it, so look for Energy Star rated appliances if you’re planning on replacing them.
  • Water heaters: on demand or tankless water heaters will appeal to the green buyer due to reduced energy bills.
  • Windows: consider replacing inefficient older windows with low-E double pane windows to reduce energy bills.
  • Flooring: if you need to replace flooring to sell your home, consider durable and natural choices - exposed concrete, bamboo, tile or cork.
  • Landscaping: replace thirsty plants with native ones which require less water and artificial fertilizers. The City of Austin has a plant rating guide to evaluate your landscaping.

If you want to dig deeper into using sustainable green building, check out the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, Texas on September 26-28th 2008.With rebates and some basic upgrades, you can increase the green marketability when it comes to sell without having your home rated by the green building rating schemes.

Garreth Wilcock is a real estate consultant at Keller Williams. He specializes in Central and East Austin Real Estate. Call 512 694 8873 or contact him at his website if you want a free valuation of your Austin home. You can search the Austin MLS at his website.