With taxes due any day, and people's pockets feeling a little lighter, it may be a good time to promote to prospective buyers that your properties feature energy-efficient products that will save them money. The Energy Tax Incentive Act of 2005 includes tax incentives for both real estate consumers and companies alike to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses in 2006 and 2007.

Not only is it practical, but it is quite simple to claim a lifetime credit of up to $500. For example, property improvements such as insulation exterior windows and doors, state-of-the-art circulating fans, high-efficiency air conditioners and furnaces, and electric heat pumps and water heaters qualify towards the credit. Improvements made must meet criteria in the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code.

Interestingly, conversions to solar and fuel cell equipment qualify for an even larger credit, up to 30 percent of cost, or $2,000 maximum.

This is good news for many current and prospective home buyers who are looking to get away from the traditional fossil fuel method of heating and cooling property to more environmentally-friendly sources. One such method gaining in popularity is geothermal, whereby systems are put in place to capture heat from the ground to warm a home and remove heat, returning it to the ground, for cooling. The technology has been around since the 1970's but with gas prices soaring and more American recognizing that global warming is threatening our very existence, perhaps geothermal units will become more commonplace.

According to published reports from the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, geothermal units use electric compressors and heat exchangers to focus the heat and deliver it at higher temperatures through existing ductwork. In summer, the units remove the hot air from the home and release it back into the ground.

There's no denying that initial costs are a factor, as geothermal units range in price from $15,000 to 21,000. Property owners can choose from having an installer put hundreds of feet of pipe buried three-to-six feet underground or having a well dug deep enough for a vertical lop pipe to heat and cool a property. While costs vary based on whether the property is new or is existing (like other improvements, it is easier to install geothermal units during new construction than retrofitting existing properties to use these systems), over the long-term the savings in the form of lower heating and cooling costs eventually will outpace the up-front expenditures.

Experts claim the systems use energy so efficiently that they typically pay for themselves within five to seven years. More specifically, some claim that geothermal systems are rated up to 400 percent energy efficient; meaning the return on investment is four dollars on every dollar spent on heating or cooling a property. A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that on average, geothermal systems are the most efficient technology available.

The time is ripe for new energy and cooling technologies to take center stage. The demand is there as more and more Americans tire of being held hostage to fuel producing countries. Builders, too, are looking for new environmentally, socially and economically sustainable ways to enhance their already strapped bottom lines as they struggle with rising material costs and finding skilled labor.

So, alert your customers. It is not enough, unfortunately, for most to turn to these new methods without an incentive. You simply cannot market environmental and social sustainability without promoting the economic benefits derived for these actions. Money in consumer's collective pockets should serve to be that incentive to drive these technologies into mainstream America.

Published: April 12, 2006

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Peter L. Mosca is president and founder of BAK Communications, Inc. He has over 22 years of communications and media consulting experience, serving a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the CCIM Institute and the REALTOR Association on all three levels – national, state and local. He is the Spokesperson Trainer for the CCIM's Jay Levine Academy and trains hundreds of residential REALTORS nationwide to be effective industry spokespeople. He is consistently ranked as "excellent" by about 90% of those who attend his presentations. While his principal consulting focuses are public speaking and media relations development and content delivery and management, Peter is also the host of the Voice America Network's weekly radio program, "Income Property Investment Talk," a one-hour program that brings the powerhouses of commercial and residential real estate to property investors every Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Peter is married 17 years to his wife Barbara. They have two children: Ashley, 15 and Kelli, 12. Hence, the name BAK Communications, Inc.