VOL. 8
Educated Home Inspectors,
Advancing Home Performance
By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau | August 2019
Every profession – real estate practitioners, lenders, appraisers and so forth — associated with a real estate transaction plays an important role in advancing home energy efficiency.
The home inspection industry is no exception.
I.D. Energy, an approved partner and service provider of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Home Energy Score, provides distance training to home inspectors across the country.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company teaches inspectors to conduct home energy assessments and assign a DOE Home Energy Score (HES) to the homes they inspect.
The distance learning option gives inspectors access to new skills, even if they work in remote or rural markets.
In addition, the company is a Home Energy Score service provider for Pearl Home Certification, American Society of Home Inspectors, Building Performance Institute, and others, and delivers training, quality assurance, and software for the HES.
It’s also managing an energy pilot program for the city of Denver that’s aimed at heightening awareness and energy savings among home buyers, sellers, and owners. The city is providing HES to single-family homes and assessing whether that information influences consumers to make energy improvements.
Inspectors’ pivotal role
Brent Loya, I.D. Energy’s program manager, in addition to seeing home inspectors as playing crucial roles in helping homeowners understand a home’s energy efficiency, anticipates greater demand for such home scoring services.
After all, he points out that energy disclosures are becoming common in more markets – think Portland, Ore., and Austin, Tex., for example – and there’s greater consumer awareness of and concern about home operating costs.
Right now, I.D. Energy has just under 500 certified assessors, and Loya is working to increase that number.
Providing a baseline number to consumers
Though such inspectors don’t conduct intensive exams like blower door tests, the inspections they do are affordable – some inspectors are including the service as part of their standard package and others provide it as an add-on service – and give homeowners the easy-to-understand MPG-style home rating.
“It’s simple and affordable gives people a baseline and a place to start,” says Loya. “We think everyone deserves to have an understanding of how their home performs.”
Loya sees such inspections and the HES especially valuable for Millennial buyers, given that they’re frequently on tight budgets and need a complete picture of their monthly costs. Having the HES provides what he calls “an entry-level roadmap to understanding the energy efficiency of a house” that helps them find ways to lower monthly utility costs and make improvements that will raise the value of their new home.
He doesn’t think a low score is necessarily a deterrent to buying an older home and uses himself as an example. He just purchased a 1947 property that needs energy efficiency upgrades and says that the HES helped him map out future projects and understand the potential payback of each change.
Heightening professionalism
Putting such information into the hands of buyers and sellers can be positive both for you and for real estate industry.
For one, it’s a conversation opener and lets you share your green knowledge with prospects and enhance your value to them. You can discuss the HES in more detail, connect clients to other experts and skilled contractors, and point them to state and local energy incentives.
For sellers with homes that receive a pre-listing inspection, a good HES can be a powerful marketing tool. For buyers, knowing the HES can be tremendously valuable in understanding their total cost of homeownership and the projects they’ll need to do to achieve a higher HES.
In addition, having more educated inspectors in your community only enhances your networking circle. It’s a win when there are more home-related professionals conveying energy efficiency and home performance messages to consumers.
Become A U.S. Department of Energy Certified Assessor
Classroom Trainings Coming Up This Fall and Winter!
Separate your business from the competition with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Home Energy Score. Complete the U.S. DOE’s Home Energy Score online training in record time during a one-day classroom setting with Home Energy Score expert Brent Loya! The instructors will walk through the online simulation with you step by step, providing individual attention as needed throughout the day to each student. This training takes many inspectors up to 20 hours to complete at home, so this one-day class offers a great head start into a program that is increasingly seen as a “must-have” for buyers across the country.
As part of this training package, attendees will automatically be registered for the last step of the DOE’s required training process – a mentored Home Energy Score through I.D. Energy’s award-winning Virtual Mentorship Program and will receive DOE required quality assurance on your first 5 professional assessments, access to online software and mobile apps, tech/program support, and access to the I.D. Energy Exclusive Marketing Suite once completed with the training and certification.
October 17th, 2019 – Niagara Falls Home Inspection Conference 2019 – NEW YORK AND NORTH EAST INSPECTORS
- The Home Energy Score is coming to the State of New York in a BIG way!
- New programs from NYSERDA will be promoting the Home Energy Score across the state of New York starting Winter of 2019!
- New York’s Senate has passed a climate bill that will set the most aggressive clean energy target in the country.
- Receive 8 ASHI CE Credits for the Training
- Attendees will need to bring: A decent/up-to-date laptop computer.
- Cost: $450 Before October 1st, $500 after and up to the day of class! – Includes special-one-day classroom training, Virtual Mentorship, and Initial 5 QA Scores – Full Fast Track Training Program.
- For more information about the Fast Track Training and/or the Home Energy Score visit: www.EnergyScoreUSA.com
- Questions? Email: [email protected] or Call 866-499-4921
January 18th, 2020 – ASHI Inspection World 2020 in New Orleans
- Receive 8 ASHI CE Credits for the Training
- Attendees will need to bring: A decent/up-to-date laptop computer.
- Cost: TBA – Includes one day classroom training, Virtual Mentorship, and Initial 5 QA Scores – Full Fast Track Training Program.
- For more information about the Fast Track Training and/or the Home Energy Score visit: www.EnergyScoreUSA.com
- Questions? Email: [email protected] or Call 866-499-4921
- Meet Home Energy Score Ambassador, Ms. Eco International, and Home Inspector Extraordinaire Rose Buckley!
- Cost and Registration directly with ASHI on the Official Inspection World 2020 website.
NYSERDA: Help Wanted!
Energy Minded Home Inspectors Apply Here!
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is administering the Home Energy Ratings Pilot (Pilot) to assist New York homeowners in improving the energy performance, durability, comfort and safety of existing one- to four-family homes. The Pilot will last 2-3 years to establish home energy ratings in specific markets to increase consumer awareness and demand for energy efficiency services. The Pilot targets homeowners who are ready to invest in their homes and are looking for independent, trustworthy information. Home inspectors and contractors will provide homeowners with third-party home energy performance ratings including opportunities for improving their energy efficiency and therefore their home’s comfort, safety and cost performance.
The pilot targets market-rate homeowners, that is homeowners who are not eligible for low- or moderate-income services.
The pilot solicitation will be offered in 4 rounds. In Round 2, open now, NYSERDA is seeking applications from licensed home inspectors to deliver ratings to homebuyers as part of an inspection. The energy ratings are to be used to encourage home buyers to invest in energy efficiency upgrades of their newly purchased home.
See full details and application | Must submit application by October 3rd.
Interested? Want more information? Contact Keith Bohling | [email protected] | (518) 862-1090, Ext. 3491
iOS App = Game Changer
There is NO reason NOT to include a Home Energy Score with your Inspections!
Inspectors report using app takes NO MORE than an additional 5-10 min with an existing inspection to enter, submit, and generate your clients customized Home Energy Score Report!
- I.D. Energy presents an All New Scoring Tool app for U.S. Department Home Energy Score Certified Assessors.
- Integrated Assessor Calculator: Don’t slow down your process by calculating R-Values, Efficiencies, or areas. These calculations are streamlined directly into the scoring tool!
- Instant Report Generation: Submit and generate your U.S. Department of Energy Home Energy Score report on-site as soon as you are completed with the assessment.
- Manage your Scores from one place: Email Reports to Clients and edit existing reports as corrected, final, or alternative without entering data twice.
- Rapid Fire Photo Capture: Easily capture photos, caption, and edit directly to your report to comply with I.D. Energy’s Award Winning Quality Assurance programs.
- App is compliant for all Home Energy Score Partners and Programs.
Free Access and app usage available for all training or Certified Assessors in I.D. Energy’s Virtual Mentorship or DTQA programs.
If you are subscribed with I.D. Energy’s Fast Track Training or Desktop QA programs you have instant and free access to our all new iOS app! If you are not subscribed to I.D. Energy’s award winning training and quality assurance programs, you can still gain access to our online and mobile Scoring tools! Using the mobile app will allow you to complete required calculations quickly and easily on-sight, generate and email reports instantly, and manage your Scores in one easy to use interface.
- Download the new I.D. Energy Home Energy Score App for iOS devices NOW!
- Purchase your “Software and App User” subscription to gain access today!
- See all of the I.D. Energy Home Energy Score App custom features!
*Android Users – We are currently in development updating our I.D. Energy Home Energy Score App for Android devices… stay tuned for updates and release date!