The cost of energy, all types of energy is on the rise. If you’re an investor who’s in the process of building a home with the idea of selling it for a tidy profit, you need to know as much as you can about HERS rating. You can rest assured that any prospective buyers will be well versed in the home energy rating program and that it will play a huge role in the house they ultimately purchase. It will be very difficult to sell any home that with a high rating. When it comes to HERS rating, the lower the number, the better.
There are several different reasons prospective buyers have become so concerned with HERS rating.
The first has to do with getting the funding needed to purchase their new home. After the housing fiasco a few years ago, when people were granted mortgages they could never pay, banks have become very conservative when approving mortgages. In addition to looking at the applicant’s annual salary and the purchase price of the house, the banks have also taken the estimated monthly utilities into consideration. Homes with a low HERS rating could make the prospective buyers eligible for an energy efficiency rating. Eligibility for this type of mortgage could give you a leg up on the other newly constructed homes being sold in the area.
The time to estimate the HERS rating isn’t after you’ve completed construction on the home you want to sell isn’t after you’ve completed construction. The best time to explore the homes HERS rating will be before the construction begins, before you’ve even started to purchase the building materials needed for the project. There are companies that will take the blueprints you’ve created for the home and estimate the rating, which you want to be as low as possible. The rating will be determined by comparing the home you plan on building with an imaginary home that has a very high rating.
Good companies do more than simply provide you with the predicted HERS rating. After determining the rating, they’ll sit down with you and start running what if scenarios. Together you can explore how doing little things, like using windows with a different type of glazed, making an adjustment to the appliances you’ve installed, and making some changes to the insulation used will impact the rating.
It’s likely that obtaining a low HERS rating will end up increasing the final cost of the house. This shouldn’t cause you to lose any sleep. Experts have found that since the money used to improve the homes rating will be recouped in a very short period of time, banks will be willing to approve a mortgage, despite the somewhat higher purchase price.
The experts at Home Energy Raters LLC know that every homeowner should have a low HERS rating Hopkington MA, and will look at your proposed blueprints and offer advice.