Energy Matters - New Tools to Inform the Valuation of Commercial Buildings

This course is designed to assist commercial appraisers in advancing their own expertise in analyzing energy characteristics and in the process, set them apart – and ahead – of their competition. Appraisers will learn the role energy is currently playing in investment decisions and how to analyze it as a factor in the three approaches to value. The course includes new energy data points and tools not currently offered by any other national education providers in their existing continuing education courses.

The course introduces a suite of three tools developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that can provide critical valuation information to appraisers on the various aspects of energy and building performance. Descriptions and demonstrations of the three tools and their respective outputs will be provided, as well as information on the applicability of their outputs in the appraisal process.

Learning Objectives

After taking the course, attendees will:

• Understand the increasing relevance of energy as a performance metric in the real estate markets
• Have access to those publications used by investors and other market participants to evaluate energy metrics as part of their acquisition/disposition strategies
• Be able to analyze the role of energy in the valuation process

• Know how the three DOE tools - Portfolio Manager/Energy Star, Asset Score and the Buildings Performance Data base – work;

  • In what aspects of the valuation process they can provide useful data, and
  • What outputs of the tools are most useful as metrics of comparison in estimating Market Value

Course Content

This course is divided into seven sections, with each section made up of video presentations followed by a short quiz. Each video must be watched completely before the next video will be available for viewing. There is no final exam at the end of the course. A course completion certificate will be issued after watching the last video.

This course will take about 4 hours to complete and is available for 1 year from the date of enrollment.