What are Green Home Mortgages and how does it work in your favour?
Green mortgages are really popular right now and its important to understand how they work.
Tip 1 - Energy efficient Mortgages allow you to roll in the cost of green improvements into a new loan yep that means you can qualify for a bigger mortgage.
As much as 15% of the homes value as long as you spend that extra money on improving your homes energy efficiency like upgrading your insulation or installing new windows lowering your monthly utilities bills is even better than usual as home energy prices are meant to spike as much as 30%
Tip 2 - Get a Hers Report : Now to get a green home mortgages you have to get a home energy rater to inspect your home, they give you a " Hers Report " stands for Home Energy Rating System it measures if your home meets energy efficient standards, they suggest improvements for your home and they estimate your energy savings for all kinds of improvements, plus it gives you an estimate of the price tag for these improvements. The Inspection costs between $150 to $400 which might seem like a lot but at the end of the day it may save you a lot of money.
So, you might be asking yourself , Is this good for any home buyer?
Tip 3 - Do the Math : You have to do the math and work it out according to your situation, but as a rule of thumb you dont want to spend more than a 3rd of your income on housing, make sure the savings you get from your improvements offset the increased cost of the loan and this is critical, ask your energy rater " How long will it take for the improvements to pay for themselves ? " For example if you blow insulation into your home, you will have immediate benefit, but if you install solar panels that will take far longer to pay. Make sure the mortgage payment will fit easily into your budget the last thing you want to do is take out a bigger mortgage and then not be able to afford it.
Now it has been heard that the Government is providing some incentives if your decide to make energy improvements to your home. But there are going to be some changes to that.
Tip 4 - No More Energy Credit : The government has offered an energy tax credit for last year and for this year. It gave up to $500 for installing energy efficient appliances, windows, insulation, heating and cooling equipment and other things but the downside is this tax credit expires at the end of this year, so if you want to take advantage of these green house mortgage credits you will need to it before the end of December 31st, 2007
