Environmentally friendly or "green" strategies are becoming more and more important in the world of real estate. Today we had a guest speaker in our office from EAM Associates (Energy & Management Resources). They offer green building consulting services. They spoke about the latest environmentally friendly materials and processes and how this affects developers as well as actual buyers. There is actually such a thing as an "energy efficient mortgage" or EEM. This type of mortgage makes it easier for borrowers to qualify for loans to purchase homes with specific energy-efficiency imporvements. There are also potential benefits to home builders such as tax credits for building new energy efficient homes. And last but not least, lets not forget the benefits of actually living in a green building....cleaner, filtered fresh air; reduced exposure to allergens, lower utility bills from energy-saving features and high efficiency use and using recycled building materials which won't add to our already large land fills. If you want to learn more about ways to save money and protect the envirement, you can go to the website of Energy Star which is a program introduced by the EPA to identify and promote energy-efficient products. energystar.com