When it comes to choosing a real estate agent, a lot of factors must be considered: Do they understand what you’re looking for? Do you have chemistry? How long have they been in the business? But there’s another question that should be coming into play more these days: Do they work for an agency with a green initiative?
The real estate biz can definitely create a lot of waste: All that faxing, driving around the city, leaving the lights on for showings, the mountains of business cards that get left on the hall table, etc.
But in Toronto, one company has taken the lead when it comes to the environmental side of selling houses.
Bosley — which I just so happened to use when selling my condo and buying my house — has made a point of restructuring themselves in numerous ways. When my agent, Lisa, sent me an electronic greeting card this holiday season (so as not to waste paper), I noticed a little green logo at the bottom and asked her about it. Here’s what she said:
Bosley has formed a ‘green task force.’ The purpose of this is to recommend ways that we can be more environmentally responsible without costing the company more money, and to suggest ways that we can guide our clients to be environmentally responsible as well.
So far, there has been one meeting and it was very productive and yielded a number of good suggestions:
- We will be conduct an environmental audit on all three of our buildings and enlarge and promote our recycling program
- We will develop a checklist for green living to educate and encourage our clients and develop green gift baskets
- We will price partial or even total use of recycled paper
- We will encourage everyone to use the new green logo on everything they do — including their websites
I have always sent out as much electronically as possible — newsletters, just listed, open house invitations, etc. I only do actual mail-outs when advertising a listing where I need to target a specific geographical area. I’m also thinking of getting a Toyota Prius in the spring when the lease on my Honda is up.
Isn’t my agent great?
See, people always think of ways to green their homes, but what about their home-buying and selling? I’m glad I made the right choice, and from now on I’ll be sticking with Lisa and Bosley.
I hope these people start thinking about how the pre-sale fluffing affects our environment. Many of the fast and easy fixes involve using toxic chemicals, some of which can permanenty make a place uninhabitable for people with allergies, asthma and environmental sensitivities.
“Air-fresheners” and scented candles leave oily residues which get into all nooks and crannies and crevices. The phthalates in them are designed to keep the chemical scents around almost permanently. Laminate floors, another quick, cheap fix, are full of formaldehyde and solvents. Vinyl is a problem throughout its life-cycle.
Clean used to be fragrance-free. Fragrances used to be toxin fee. Selling or renting out a property these days usually means making changes that negatively affect the air-quality, and therefore health, of the current residents, as well as prospective buyers and renters.
I would love to see this being addressed.
One more step realtors could take is to not force homeowners to paint their house interiors white for a sale. We saw friends do this, despite the beautiful painting job they’d done throughout their interior. It was not standard traditional white and the realtor insisted they paint over it. The two times we’ve sold houses, we made sure to pick a realtor who understood creative decorating. The first buyer loved what we’d done – the potato printed tulips on the window sills, the single wall of different color in several rooms, the faux dark green marble wall, and other unusual decorating choices. The second house sold because the house was so cool and the paint was irrelevent, but we’d had to interview a dozen agents to find one who “got” the house (earth-bermed, cental open courtyard, etc.)
Oh, and the only fragrance we used in our house was baking chocolate chip cookies. I kept frozen dough on hand so I could pop a sheet in the oven as soon as I got the call. No cookies were wasted in the showing of the house.
Such an innovative Toronto realtor! You can hardly find anybody taking serious steps for the environment additionally a real estate agent. I think that other companies should catch up as well with this topic, anyway it`s essential and and they can benefit even more.
It`s in their interest as well to create nice and cosy environment where is worth to live.
Chile, I love your cookies idea!
Me, me, me, = )
I am a licensed Realtor in California. Here we have an EcoBroker program I am enrolled in. My approach along with the EcoBroker program is also one of proper business practice. The use and implementation of technology makes for a better experience for my clients but also a tremendous savings in waste. Please come visit my site.
http://www.GreenMortgageGroup.com
Hope to talk to you soon! I just did an interview for a Geo Thermal magazine as well on financing options in Real Estate and the use of Green (EEM) Mortgages.