HERS® Index to be Featured at the 2018 Appraisal Institute Conference The 2018 Appraisal Institute Conference will take place on July 30 to August 1, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. RESNET is a sponsor of the 2018 conference. The Conference will feature a session on “Insights for the Valuation Professional from HERS® presented by Sandra Adomatis and RESNET Executive Director Steve Baden on July 30. RESNET will also have a booth at the exhibit hall. The presence at the 2018 Appraisal Institute Conference will serve to heighten awareness of the value of the HERS® Index and educate appraisers on how to factor a homes’ HERS® Index Score in an appraisal. Appraisal Institute President Message Features Appraisal Institute Blog on “How Important is HERS® to Appraised Value?” In the May 24, 2018 President’s Message to members of the Appraisal Institute James L. Murret highlighted a blog post written by Sandra Adomatis, CEO of Adomatis Appraisal Services and Ryan Meres, RESNET Program Director posted in the Appraisal Institute’s Opinions of Value. How Important is HERS® to Appraised Value? By Sandra K. Adomatis, SRA, LEED Green Associate, and Ryan Meres, RESNET program director Most builders and sales agents admit that in the home buying process, the decision is usually all “hers”! That’s also true in the valuation process of a new construction home that is touted as an energy efficient or green home: a key part of the process should be HERS® – the Home Energy Rating System report. An appraiser will have limited knowledge of the energy efficient features without the Home Energy Rating System report. Appraisers are not trained in building science and energy evaluations. They do not carry a blower door, duct blaster or infrared camera in their bag of tools when inspecting a home. However, the appraiser can rely on an independent, third-party opinion of the home’s energy efficiency by understanding the home’s HERS® rating. The HERS® Index was created in 2006 by the Residential Energy Services Network, known as RESNET, and has become the gold standard for rating the energy efficiency of a home. A HERS® rating is based on a scale from 0 to 100+, where a lower number means the home will be more energy efficient. A HERS® Index score of 100 represents a home built in compliance with 2006 energy efficiency standards, while a score of 0 represents a home that produces about as much energy as it consumes on an annual basis. While more MLSs are seeing the HERS® searchable field populated, that is not the only place appraisers, agents or buyers can find the energy rating. RESNET and the Appraisal Institute will be launching an Appraiser Portal, which is a new online portal that will allow AI professionals focused on residential valuation to access important information about the energy efficiency of more than 2 million homes across the U.S. As buyers become more aware of how useful the HERS® rating is to their buying decisions and estimating monthly energy costs, sales data will quickly show why a property sold for more with a low HERS® rating compared to a similar house with a higher HERS® rating. View a short video that explains the portal here. For new construction, the appraisal is typically done from plans and specifications when a mortgage is required. Because a Confirmed Rating, which is included in the Appraiser Portal, is not possible until the house is built, the appraiser usually never sees the HERS® Rating – and therefore never considers energy efficiency as a feature to be analyzed. This will change as the secondary mortgage market guidelines continue to change with more emphasis on energy and green features. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA already require the appraiser to describe and analyze energy or green features. What better way to describe and analyze than to have a HERS® Rating that takes the guessing out of the opinion! Valuation professionals can hear more first-hand about the role of HERS® at this year’s Appraisal Institute Annual Conference in Nashville, on Monday, July 30, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PMat the session, “Insights for the Valuation Professional from HERS”. Sandy will be joined by RESNET Executive Director Steve Baden to offertips, tools, and solutions to valuing the new building science of today, demonstrate how to register as a user of the RESNET Appraiser Dashboard and search for trends, energy ratings for a given address, and even ENERGY STAR® rated homes. Sandra K. Adomatis, SRA, LEED Green Associate, is a nationally recognized expert on green and energy-efficient valuation. She has developed residential green appraisal courses and seminars for the Appraisal Institute and is the author of the AI-published book “Residential Green Valuation Tools.” Follow her on Twitter at @SAdomatis. Ryan Meres, RESNET program director, has 10 years of experience in energy efficiency, energy policy and building energy codes and has published more than two dozen case studies, reports and resources on those topics. He is a LEED Accredited Professional, an ICC Certified Residential Energy Inspector/Plans Examiner and holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Follow him on Twitter at @RyanMeres
