EcoBroker® Provides New Standard Of Care For Real Estate Community

With the real estate market facing challenging economic times, real estate professionals are looking to gain a well-deserved competitive edge in the marketplace. The key to gaining this advantage is providing unmatched customer service that sets you apart from the rest of the brokerage community.

EcoBroker International trains its Realtor® membership to do just that, by teaching them how to provide a new standard of care for real estate consumers and investors. Through an innovative curriculum centered on lowering energy costs, creating cleaner water and improving air quality, EcoBroker is making the real estate professional an invaluable resource to his/her clients by helping improve overall quality of life.

THE LANGUAGE OF GREEN

EcoBroker training is truly comprehensive. Unlike introductory programs, EcoBroker provides a three-day set of classes that teaches the fundamental language of green. Moreover, Eco-Broker provides impeccable coaching and on-going communication and education to its membership on a monthly basis through e-newsletters, continuing education classes, membership services, and annual conferences that discuss the hottest topics in the green real estate industry.

EcoBroker is the first and largest provider of green training for real estate professionals. Through Eco- Broker’s unique energy and environmental designation curriculum, which emphasizes everything from energy efficiency to solar energy to indoor air quality and green financing, real estate professionals acquire the knowledge and resources to become EcoBroker Certified®, assisting real estate consumers and communities in their pursuit of green properties that provide more affordability, better comfort and healthier environments.

BUILDING A BRIDGE

As Realtors® and green building scientists, we founded EcoBroker in 2002 to meet the demand we saw in the real estate industry for green education and to build a resource-oriented bridge between the real estate industry and the blossoming green buildings industry. There simply wasn’t anything that taught real estate agents how to address the new energy and environmental features that are found in 5 to 10 percent of all new homes or to help consumers incorporate green features into existing homes.

According to the National Association of Realtors®, 46 percent of American homeowners claim they would be eager to incorporate green principles into their homes (NAR, 2007). Real estate professionals recognize the quality service and benefit they can provide by helping consumers incorporate money-saving green features
into homes, and communicate their benefits when selling a home.

Since its inception in 2002, EcoBroker has grown substantially. To date, EcoBroker has over 3750 members in 47 states, five Canadian provinces, the Caribbean, and New Zealand. And the numbers grow every day, as Realtors® look for genuine training to create genuine competitive advantages.

GREEN DESIGNATION

“I achieved my EcoBroker designation because I have always been greenminded and wanted to educate and help others become more eco-friendly,” said Christopher Welch of Keller Williams Front Range Properties LLC in Boulder, CO. And Chris is but one of now thousands of examples of Realtors® providing that additional standard of care to buyers and sellers.

EcoBroker is not only the first and largest provider of green training but also the most trusted by the consumer and brokerage communities. The EcoBroker designation offers agents a competitive advantage. When building their client base, our membership finds more and more consumers are looking for real estate professionals with green expertise when buying, selling or retrofitting a home.

In a recent membership survey (with an amazing 35 percent response rate), 20 percent of EcoBroker respondents reported working with a client to complete a major cost effective retrofit that helped them significantly reduce their energy bills. Moreover, nearly 100 percent of respondents indicated they had encouraged their clients to undertake similar projects or smaller green upgrades as well.

These projects spanned across all regions of the U.S. and beyond, and benefited consumers in virtually every demographic. “I can attribute nearly half of my business directly to referrals based on just my EcoBroker and E-Pro designations,”
said Diane Sherry, EcoBroker with RE/MAX Alliance in Fort Collins, Colorado.

We love these kinds of stories, and we know that Diane is really helping people (making everything we do for the membership worth every bit).

GREEN BUSINESS PRACTICES

With national surveys indicating that 80 percent of consumers consider themselves “green-minded,” green business practices are becoming more common in all industries. A trend toward green building practices has emerged to mitigate the environmental impact of home building and remodeling and address consumer and investor demand.

Green building techniques are increasingly more a part of the standard practices. Builders are finding that utilizing green building and remodeling techniques reduce
call backs, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance overall profitability. According to GreenBiz.com, the market for green homes is expected to rise from $2 billion to $20 billion over the next ten years (GreenBiz.com,2007).

With this growth comes misinformation and the need for education. EcoBroker fills this niche in the green real estate space by offering licensed real estate professionals the only comprehensive green educational curriculum available, with a healthy dose of the need for proper representation and caution about greenwash.

CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS

In order to earn the EcoBroker Designation®, licensed real estate professionals must fulfill a straight-forward set of requirements that center on an energy, environmental, and marketing training program. They actually have homework, take tests, and update their training each year. The curriculum is $395, and includes three day-long interactive classes complete with quizzes, homework, activities, and a final exam.

Unlike other programs, every EcoBroker member is required to renew their certification on an annual basis through the program’s four-hour annual update course. The curriculum is designed to help real estate professionals address a variety of topics that impact the environment and consumer life, including: green home certification programs such as Energy Star® Qualified Homes, energy- efficiency, environmentally sensitive design, health issues in properties, mold, radon, and indoor air quality.

Affordability is also of key concern, and we provide real estate professionals information to help improve the efficiency and comfort of homes. When our members’ work then leads to cost savings on utility bills, consumers in all real estate price-points win and so does the environment. For the real estate professional looking to improve his/her overall standard of care, the EcoBroker designation is an ideal way to provide invaluable professionalism.