ECO-Green Home Loans?

Earth day is here today (for 32 more minutes) and being green is a hot topic these days. Since I am in the mortgage banking industry, I will speak about what can be done in and around home loans and real estate to be a little greener. I have always done what I could to make my business as earth friendly as possible but I have always been a little leery of trying to say I was in fact a green business because there is no specific certification in my industry and I did not want to come across as someone simply trying to look good (known as greenwashing).

My business is a paper intensive business and so I buy recycled paper and I have contributed to American Forests Global ReLeaf program (www.americanforests.org) where every $1 donated plants a tree. It is a way to "replant" a mortgage. For years I wanted to use an electronic signature program but the industry would not let me. Last year, I found a few places that would accept these documents and I made the switch completely. This year I am sad to say that I have stopped using the program as many key players do not accept these electronic signatures anymore. We have one major player in our industry that uses electronic documents at the closing table but they require the escrow officer to print out about 80% of the documents and have them signed in person as well so it is not very effective (and really irks the escrow officers). As an industry, we seem to be moving 1 step forward and two steps backwards in this area.

I do everything I can to keep all documents electronic and not print them unless I absolutely have to. I use an Efax service and have for at least 12 years. I scan all documents instead of copying and I encourage clients to fax or scan and email their documents to me. As an industry, for the most part, our files are electronic now and not paper so we are doing well there. For the last 3 years I have used the web and videos and email to communicate with clients almost exclusively. I regularly have web meetings with clients to save on gas (and time).

There is a program for local real estate agents in Sonoma County to become EcoGreen Certified and you can find out more at www.ecogreenrec.com . I honestly don't know much about this program but I intend to find out more. A lot of great local agents have become certified and it seems to be run with integrity and for all of the right reasons.

One of my favorite loan programs has had a very green element available since 1995. If you are getting an FHA home loan, you can obtain an EEM (Energy Efficient Mortgage) on top of the regular loan to pay for items that are..... you guessed it, energy efficient. Since it is a government program, it is rich with acronyms and you need to get a HERS report from a certified CHEERS participant to qualify. Basically, you can get an additional $8,000 on top of your regular mortgage if your improvements will save you more in energy costs than it will cost you in the mortgage. You can also get up to $2,000 for weatherization as well in some cases on this program.

Also check out my interview with Steve from Pipedreams Plumbing about FREE water saving toilets at www.AsktheLoanMan.com and clicking on the FREE toilets video.

There is a lot we can do now and I am sure there is much more that I could be doing. I am going to continue to do what I can and look into getting eco green certified myself this year. My wife drives a Prius that gets 50 MPG and I drive a diesel Jetta that gets 40 MPG. Hers is a more obvious green vehicle but I am happy to be doing my part and I am always pleased at the pumps and I am looking into bio diesel as well.

Please email or call me with any real estate and mortgage related questions. I am happy to answer you and it may become the topic of a future article.