Eco-flipping is a popular new sustainable trend in the real estate world. It’s a version of house flipping that focuses on creating more eco-friendly homes. In case you haven’t heard of house flipping, here’s a quick breakdown.
In the 80s, a recession hit, leading to the foreclosure of thousands of homes. Real estate-savvy investors saw an opportunity to make a major profit and began buying up as many homes as possible.
Once bought, the homes were renovated. When the housing market returned to normal, the homes were placed back on the market, scoring the lucky investors a significant payday. Flipping lost its popularity in the 90s but returned with the rise of reality shows about the subject.
Flipping has come back into style in a very different era. People are waking up to the realities of climate change and are beginning to make significant changes. With these changes, comes a need for house flipping to evolve, so people are turning to eco-flipping.
So let’s discuss how eco-flipping helps the environment and why you should invest in becoming an eco-flipper today.
How Does Eco-Flipping Help The Environment?
There are several ways eco-flipping can help the environment. Preventing unnecessary new builds, encouraging sustainable living, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging people to embrace alternative power are the main ones, so let’s dig a little more into each of them.
Preventing Unnecessary New Builds
Building a new house creates about 50 tons of CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions are famously bad for the environment, so avoiding the production of them when possible is always an eco-friendly move, or at least consider sustainable architecture when building. Flipping a house gives it a new life. That means one less new home will need to be built, eliminating that 50 tons of potential CO2 emissions.
In addition to that, preventing an unnecessary new build also saves trees. On average about 44 fully grown trees go into the construction of 2600 square feet of home. Because your house has already been built, no new trees will need to be harmed.
This also eliminates the use of other resources, like electricity to power tools. Because you’re doing an eco-flip, the house will be as efficient as possible, lowering its impact on the planet for all of the years that people continue to live in it.
Encouraging Sustainable Living
Eco-flipped homes allow the people who live in them to live sustainably without having to undertake the time and stress of home renovations. Being in an eco-conscious home may also encourage them to make other green choices, like recycling or eliminating plastic.
As these new homeowners begin to experience the benefits of making eco-friendly choices, they’ll likely mention it to others. This gets more people talking about sustainable living and considering the benefits of a green home. More people talking leads to more people participating, which is exactly what is needed for the planet.
Improving Energy Efficiency
Eco-flipped homes are packed with energy-efficient features. These include energy-star-rated appliances, renewable power sources, tankless water heaters, low-flow toilets, and eco-friendly insulation, just to name a few. These features lower the amount of energy needed for the home to function, simultaneously lowering the home’s environmental impact.
As more homes are eco-flipped, the impact of housing on the environment will go down. This is great news given that housing plays a major factor in contributing to environmental destruction.
Encouraging People To Embrace Alternative Power
The traditional electric system accounts for about 86% of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are what trap heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere, warming the planet. Because there are too many greenhouse gases in the air, the planet has entered a state of climate change.
Ditching traditional electricity can help improve those numbers. There are multiple renewable energy sources available that can be used to power eco-flipped homes. These include hydropower, wind power, and solar power, which has been called an investment for the future.
Which one you choose will depend on where the house is located. Choosing to power your eco-flipped house with any of these options guarantees that the house will be more sustainable long-term. It also lowers energy bills, which is a great selling point.
Powering eco-flipped homes with renewable energy also exposes more people to the idea, hopefully leading to more installations in the future.
Why Should You Become An Eco-Flipper?
As an eco-flipper, you can be instrumental in creating the environmental changes we’ve been discussing. You can help make the changes that are necessary to ensure that the housing market joins the sustainable world. You also have the opportunity to provide a family with a lovely and sustainable place to call home.
Besides the environmental benefits to becoming an eco-flipper, there are the financial ones.
A traditional flipped home creates a profit of $20,000 to $30,000. Because eco-flipping is newer, we don’t have that many statistics on it. So far, many house flippers are reporting up to a 50% increase in income since they began selling eco-flipped homes.
Eco-friendly homes are in high-demand, so you’ll make a tidy profit, and you won’t have to wait long either. The average eco-flipped home sells in under a month when it’s placed on the market.
How Do You Become An Eco-Flipper?
Becoming an eco-flipper is actually simple, there are six basic steps.
The first step is research. You need to find out what kinds of homes sell well in your area. Are they single stories? Multiple? What should you be looking for?
The second step is to find a home that fits the specifications you decided on. Take a look at the local listings and see what houses in need of a little attention are on the market.
Once you choose a house, you can move on to the third step, which is paying for it. For this step, you need to secure a property flip investment, you can do this quickly so there’s no need to wait. Once you receive your loan, you can place your offer on the house, which is step four.
Assuming that all goes well with the offer, you’re now ready for step five, beginning your eco-upgrades. Research what options are best, and don’t forget the tried and true favorites like energy-efficient appliances.
After that, the hard part is over and you’re ready for step six, putting it on the market! A realtor can help you with this step and ensure your investments are worthwhile. Once the house sells, you’re done. Unless, of course, you enjoy the process so much that you decide to make it a full-time job.
Eco-flipping is an investment in a sustainable future for real estate and the planet. By becoming an eco-flipper today, you can lead the way to a greener future.
