BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
rics when deciding when and where to use sustainable materials. “The basic goal of green building is attractive, comfortable, and afford- able shelter that does no harm to the earth,” Reddy added. Ultimately, the structure should “create a more desirable human experience.” THE COSTS & BENEFITS OF SUSTAINABLE OPTIONS Probably one of the easiest sus- tainable moves you can make in any property, whether you plan to rent it out or flip it to a retail buyer, is to incorporate LED lighting options into the home. While a typical LED light will only save about five dollars each year in energy costs (probably about $100 a year cumulatively if you replace most or all bulbs in the home) compared to an incandescent bulb, over time they will also save you (or the new owner) a great deal of money on replacement bulbs. Furthermore, LED lighting is one aspect of a home that homeowners or residents can happily point to as evidence that they care about the earth, which makes the investment a good one when it comes to appealing to a potential buyer’s emotional side. One important thing to note about LED lighting: while you can “plug and play” an LED light into just about any fixture, installing LED fixtures will optimize the life of LED lighting and make it more user-friendly. Partic- ularly if you are putting LED lights into fixtures with dimmers, consider replacing the entire dimmer feature with one designed for LED bulbs. Depending on the area of the country in which you are building, installing LED-specific fixtures may help you meet strict building codes or qualify for tax advantages on the home. It will also improve the quality of the light, which is a common complaint about LED options.
Saving the Planet Without Sacrificing Real Estate Returns SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR REHAB BUDGET.
Fix-and-flippers and their eventual buyers are discovering that using sustainable materials, products that provide environmental and econom- ic benefits, on a rehabbed property does not only make the buyer feel good about saving the planet; it also can substantially increase overall returns. However, using “sustainable materials” is definitely an art. If you are not careful, you could end up just as far over budget as if you took your remodeling cues solely from reality real estate television and installed the finest marble counters and latest sculptured fixtures in every rental. For the environmentally conscious real estate investor and their retail buyers, practical decisions should outweigh emotional ones on the topic
of sustainable materials just as they should in other investment decisions. “Key financial benefits of green construction generally relate to lower operational costs, lower energy, waste, and water costs, lower main- tenance costs, and increased produc- tivity and health,” observed Sumateja Reddy, a professionally accredited architecture expert with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in India. Reddy’s research indicates that green building and green renovations are most effective when treated less as a trend and more as a benefit to the residents of the structure. This makes renovation using sustainable materials much more of a science than an art because an investor may leverage measurable goals and met-
by Carole VanSickle Ellis
L
oggerhead sea turtles eat their weight in jellyfish each
through swarms of jellyfish, vacuum- ing them down, they eat quite a few plastic bags in the process. When that happens, over time the sea turtle’s digestive system becomes
clogged with plastic and, not sur- prisingly, the turtle dies. That’s sad, but what does it have to do with your next rehab? More than you might think.
day. When you weigh 400 pounds or more, that’s a lot of jellyfish. Un- fortunately, when the turtles swim
30 | think realty magazine :: september / october 2019
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