Edmonton Real Estate Blog

What does it really take to make a home green? Whether you’re thinking of selling your Edmonton home for just planning to make some renovations, converting to a green home would have tons of benefits.

There are currently six broad categories that could be used to measure or see if your home is truly green. Your home must fit all these categories in order for it to be considered as green. Let us discuss it one by one.

1. WATER EFFICIENCY: 260 gallons is the typical water consumption of a household every single day. Using water saving structures and landscapes at home such as containers for holding rain water properly could reduce the amount of water consumption and ultimately save you more money.
2. ENERGY EFFICIENCY: The point of having an energy efficient home is to minimize the environmental impact. Advances in technology have provided improvements in building elements and construction techniques that allow energy saving equipment such as solar panels to be seamlessly integrated into the overall house design.
3. BUILDING MATERIALS: The use of environmentally friendly building materials is at the core of turning regular homes into green ones.
4. INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: These category enhances the lives of the inhabitants and significantly increase the resale value of your home.
5. LOCATION: Large percentage of home energy consumption is linked to the location of the family’s home. A walkable community would be a thriving and sustainable place that would give you and your neighbor’s safe transportation and improved quality of life. Although you might not change your community, keeping this in mind in some way could and would help you in future decisions if and when you’re going to buy another home.
6. SUSTAINABLE SITE: Last, but not the least is the site. Complementing number 5, there’s a shift in land development and design that leans towards conservation and restoration of natural systems. This is just for you if you would be redesigning the landscape of your backyard or front porch.

There’s a wide variety of green options out in the market if you’re renovating your Edmonton home or building a new one.

As we have said in our previous posts, the value of your home could jump up a few zeroes higher if you convert your home into a green one. Check out the green homes for sale at our Edmonton MLS listings to get some inspirations. Good luck!

Thinking of adding more value to your home or you just want it to simply look awesomely good? We got the good stuff for you! Team Leading Edge gathered the 5 simple tips and tricks to help you execute your home reno perfectly.

THINK AHEAD OF TIME

Knowing what you want and deciding what you need to do a head of time will help you avoid those excruciating delays-time is gold my friend!

Having planned ahead would also help your bottom line. You’ll know what the cost would be and can make those necessary adjustments in your cash flow as to not impact your other expenses, in other words, budget!

INFORMATION IS POWER

Home renovation does have the possibility of ending up in a mess and giving you and your family headaches due to the potential inconveniences that it poses. A simple way to avoid this is to inform your family of all the reno plans, from the top to the bottom and preparing them for it. With simple preparations, the whole family can adjust their schedules to accommodate the renovation process. Reno work might start from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, so you may want to bring the kids back home after 5 or since the living area might be a bit dusty, you may want to take your family out for dinner.

REMEMBER THE FILTER

As we have said, the reno work could be dusty so it is best to check and change the air filters during and after the whole work. Worst case scenario would be having the HVAC system damaged because of the heavy dust particles. Avoid this costly mistake by simply changing the filters.

IF YOU’RE DOING THE KITCHEN

If you still don’t know, improving the kitchen is one of the most cost effective way to drive up the value of your home once you are ready to sell. Replacing the kitchen counter top can be the most affordable and be made in a short span of time.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, KNOW YOUR CONTRACTOR

Unless, you’re a contractor yourself (which is cool) you may want to double check on the background of your chosen contractor. Don’t just be impressed because the contractor was referred to you by your friend, do your own research and try to find out the contractors previous projects-this will give you a snapshot of he’s quality of work.