Real Estate Blog

For the next two or three posts, I'm going to be exploring the advantages to investors of going green. It's a topic of personal interest to me, and frankly one I'm learning about as well. During the week, I made some notes, but when I sat down to write, I realized this was more than a one-post deal.

We all know that we live in a city that is highly environmentally conscious. In fact, some people are drawn to Austin for that very reason. If that's the case, and we can honestly say we've made green modifications and choices with a property, that immediately becomes a selling point.

And, even if the options available to you don't add up to huge savings, green choices on refurbs and maintenance over multiple properties will add up, just like anything else. And, I'm not saying there aren't big advantages, like potential breaks on property taxes. That's the kind of thing I want to explore.

Some of the topics I hope to consider include:

- green rebates,

- incentives,

- tax credits,

- and energy efficient loan options among others.

I can already tell you that some of this is bad news for us. Green Federal Tax Credits, for instance, are for owner-occupied dwellings, not real estate investors. But hey, we need to know this stuff to make good choices.

I have seen much more compelling and encouraging numbers that CAN benefit investors. For instance, green properties can cost 30-60 percent less to operate and they appraise, on average, for 10-15 percent more.

(That's based on research by SmartMoney in 2008.)

If you want to do some poking around with me, a good place to start is the Texas page of the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. One glance will tell you there's A LOT of this stuff out there.

By all means, participate in this discussion. If you have questions, please ask. If you have answers, please share. I think as investors that it's very important to uphold the "tone" of your city or community

Green is an important part of life in Austin and as wise investors, we need to embrace that as much as possible.

Stay tuned. More to come next week.