Bringing Home Energy Information to Real Estate: A Toolkit

The Home Energy Information Accelerator was designed to expand the availability and use of reliable home energy information at relevant points in residential real estate transactions. It functioned as a collaborative effort among national organizations, federal agencies, and regional, state, and local leaders in real estate and energy efficiency. Accelerator Partners developed and demonstrated replicable, sustainable approaches that make energy related information – important data for the home buying process – easily available to home buyers and sellers through multiple listing service (MLS) and other reports.

This work was based on the following assumptions: (1) For consumers to demand efficiency upgrades in the residential sector, they must first be aware of their home’s energy features to understand, appreciate, and invest in a home energy upgrade. (2) One key way of increasing that awareness is through the real estate transaction process and enabling home energy information to inform the home’s appraised value. (3) To have home energy information influence home value, the real estate industry (i.e., REALTORS®, appraisers, and mortgage lenders) must have access to and knowledge of how to use reliable and standardized home energy data.

Connecting the dots from home energy information databases to real estate professionals, and then to consumers, will grow the market for energy information and efficiency improvements.