At Green Drinks Warrenton last night I had the opportunity to talk with Anthony Palladino from Golden Rule Builders about Earth Craft Homes.

I was aware of the Earth Craft Homes but hadn't realized that Golden Rule was a certified Earth Craft builder. It's great to have local builders who are excited about green building!

Earth Craft Homes are homes that are, by design, more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The standards and scoring system are different than the LEED standards. The Earth Craft designation comes in three levels, Earth Craft House, Earth Craft House Select and Earth Craft House Premium. You need a progressively higher number of points to achieve each certification. There's a worksheet on the Earth Craft web site that shows how points are accumulated.

Earth Craft homes can cost slightly more money up front. But weigh that against the energy cost savings you'll get every month for as long as you own that home.

I'm excited to see more and more activity around green building locally. And, if you haven't been to a Green Drinks meeting yet, you're missing out!

I was fortunate enough to hear Glenn Tecker give a speech about leadership last week. It was a terrific speech, but one piece in particular has stuck with me.

He talked about how we are moving from a Carbon Economy to a Green Economy. The path looks like this:

He views the end state here as about a decade away.

And, of course, I got to thinking about what this means for real estate.

First of all, if you're a buyer, you should be looking for energy efficient/green homes. That's not just for your own short term financial/health well being. It's because when you sell that home down the road it's likely to net you significantly more money.

What that rules out, of course, is a McMansion. I'm not saying no one will ever buy a McMansion again. I'm saying the market for those monstrosities is going to be so small, and the existing supply is so large, that you need to seriously consider the financial implications of such a purchase.

If you recently bought a home and are thinking about doing some upgrading/updating, every item you think about improving, add a green filter to that decision making. Ask yourself if what you're doing will make the house more appealing in that future green economy.

And, if you're contemplating selling any time soon, start thinking about what energy efficient qualities your home has already. Talk to your agent about how those can become part of the marketing plan. And, if you're doing any upgrades before selling, factor this into your plans.

One word of caution here. If you're selling in the short term, do NOT invest a lot of money in "green" or any other kind of upgrades. You will not get a good dollar return.

The pain in the diagram above will be unavoidable for the economy as a whole. But some smart planning may help you avoid it in terms of buying and selling real estate.

I've been saying for awhile that, given the upward climb of energy prices, buyers are more and more interested in knowing about the energy efficiency (or lack thereof) of the homes they're thinking about buying.

New features in our local MLS system now make it easier for buyers to find the homes that have features that cater to that desire.

It is now possible to designate when a home has Energy Star Appliances, an Energy Star Heating System or an Energy Star Cooling System. And, that, in turn, means that buyers will be able to ultimately search on those features.

This is only the beginning of a revamping of the MLS system to help buyers more easily find "green" homes. While "green" is a fuzzy term without any real, solid definition, the changes being made will allow buyers to search for concrete items that make up their definition of green. The rest of these changes will be announced in the first quarter of 2008 and I'll tell you more about them then.

But meanwhile, if you're a seller, or if you're thinking about selling you should be figuring out how to make use of this information.

First of all, if your home is already listed, make sure your agent knows about any Energy Star systems in your home and that they update the MLS system to reflect that.

Secondly, if you're thinking about putting your home on the market in the next six months, think about what "green" qualities your home has now or what things you might want to invest in before you put your home on the market. If you were going to replace that old dishwasher any, make sure you get one that has the Energy Star certification.

This is just the start! I truly believe that investing in energy efficient features for your home will save you money later and will also enhance the marketability of your home when you sell.

If you've got questions on this or would like some guidance on what you can do in preparation for selling your home, I'm happy to help!

20 teams of college students have been hard at work on the mall in DC building 20 houses. These aren't just your average house. These teams and the houses they've built are competing in the solar decathlon.

These homes are probably too small for most of us to want to live in. (Although one of them is for sale and does have interested buyers!) The reasons behind the competition are threefold. The first idea is to provide an opportunity for the students to learn about ecologically friendly building techniques and materials. It's also an opportunity to call attention to the possibilities and the improved technology available. And thirdly, this is an opportunity for consumers to get a close up view and to learn what might be adaptable to their own homes.

It's called a decathlon because the students compete in 10 categories.

• Architecture
• Engineering
• Market Viability
• Communications
• Comfort Zone
• Appliances
• Hot Water
• Lighting
• Energy Balance
• Getting Around

The houses themselves are fascinating and beautiful. They are often ascetically pleasing as well as incredibly energy efficient. And it was great fun to talk to these knowledgeable, passionate young people.

The decathlon is on the mall through Saturday, October 20th. In addition to seeing the houses and talking to the students you can also attend a variety of seminars to help you implement some of this technology at home.

If you can't get there (or even if you can) check out their web site at http://www.solardecathlon.org There you'll find tons of information on the competition, the teams and the houses. That information even includes house plans you can download.

I promise, it will get you thinking!