Find green homes in Chicagoland MLS!

It just got easier for buyers interested in green homes to find them!  On Thursday, the Multiple Listing Service that serves Chicagoland (called MRED) released new fields that cover the green features of a home.  

The fields cover general green features of a home, such as if it includes a tankless water heater.  They also cover "dark green" features such as the green-building certification that a home was built to, or the HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score of a home.  Buyers can find the most green details about a home by searching for homes with the new "Green Disclosure" on file.  This optional form includes extensive information from the seller with everything from insulation values to the walking distance to public transit to the products used to promote healthy indoor air. 

The fields and the disclosure is optional.  Once you identify a home that has the disclosure on file your REALTOR can pull the disclosure from the listing record.  Then it is up to you, the buyer, to evaluate if the green features of the home meet your needs, and as with everything else in a home purchase, to validate the seller claims for yourself.

I know these features will prove to be an extremely valuable tool in our market.  The fields will allow sellers of homes with green features to fully promote them, for buyers to find them and for appraisers to fairly evaluate the value that the green features bring.