Green Building: A Vital Selling Tool for Builders

In the home-building world, there are numerous ways companies can stand out from the competition, whether through offering upgraded design features and community amenities or providing price incentives. In recent years, a growing number of builders have found that incorporating green/energy-efficient features in their homes helped with sales.

This trend is backed up by the results of our recent survey of 244 Professional Builder readers, where more than half of the respondents (51.8 percent) said they agree that green features and practices help them sell homes. This group is much larger than the 24 percent of builders who don’t agree. However, the added cost for green remains a major impediment for builders, according to survey respondents, especially when consumers aren’t willing to pay a premium for green. For more results from our 2012 Green Building Survey, see the charts below.

Methodology and Respondent Information

This survey was distributed in October 2012 to 86,054 Professional Builder readers. No incentive was offered. By the closing date, a total of 245 eligible readers had responded. Respondent breakdown by discipline: 51.1 percent single-family home builder; 24.4 percent diversified builder/remodeler; 10.5 percent designer/architect; 3.4 percent multi-family builder; 1.9 percent systems builder; and 10.9 percent “other.”