It is increasingly more and more popular in the Portland metro real estate market to include a floor plans with the home listing. Whether you you a homeowner that is about to go live with your home listing, or a realtor that wants to provide that little extra for their clients, consider getting a professional floor plan of the home completed. A comprehensive floor plan allows for perspective buyers to further understand the flow and design of the home. Prospective buyers envision themselves inside the space before they even set foot in the home, which can be a major competitive edge.

Lucky for all of the local realtors and home sellers, Portland Home Energy Score provides the most accurate, professional, and customizable floor plans in the greater Portland metro area. Each custom floor plan is measured with laser accuracy by our field verifiers. All fixed home features are recorded and incorporated by our designers, who finish, edit, and publish the file off-site. Any attached or detached structures like porches, decks, hot-tubs, ADU, etc can be added to the floor plan by request. 

What are the Benefits?
Flow and Organization — A floor plan helps prospective buyers organize themselves inside of a home. They will be able to see how the rooms and hallways flowHomeowners want to know the flow of the home will work with their current furniture

Accurate dimensions — Floor plans are often measured with highly accurate lasers or LIDAR scanners that produce very accurate dimensions of the different sections of the home. 

Effective Marketing tool — A custom floor plan is powerful visual tool that brings in prospective clients with to bring in prospective buyers and keep them looking at your listings. 
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Attention to all homeowners and real estate agents in Hillsboro, Oregon — as of September 1st, 2021 the city of Hillsboro adopted the ordinance no. 6376 Home Energy Score as a requirement for all home sales. Anyone wanting to sell a home in the city of Portland is required to get a home energy score completed by a licensed Home Energy Assessment contractor. This new city wide ordinance matches the same legislation in Portland passed in 2017, and is intended to improve the existing housing stock and reduce residential energy consumption in Hillsboro. The score is an asset based assessment of the current conditions of the home.
The exceptions to the City ordinance are as follows:

1. Building Exemptions
2. Vertically stacked units (condos)
3. Detached ADU's 
4. Mobile homes
5. Buildings used primarily for commercial purposes
6. Selling Exemptions
7. A foreclosure sale,
8. A trustee’s sale,
9. A deed-in-lieu of foreclosure sale, or
10. Any pre-foreclosure sale in which seller has reached an agreement with the mortgage holder to sell the property for an amount less than the amount owed on the mortgage. 
11. Undue Hardship Exemptions
12. The covered building qualifies for sale at public auction or acquisition by a public agency due to arrears for property taxes,
13. A court appointed receiver is in control of the covered building due to financial distress,
14. The senior mortgage on the covered building is subject to a notice of default,
15. The covered building has been approved for participation in Oregon Property Tax Deferral for Disabled and Senior Citizens, or equivalent program as determined by the Director, or
16. The responsible party is otherwise unable to meet the obligations of this Chapter as determined by the Director
17. The low-income qualified seller demonstrates household income is at or below 60 percent of median household income for the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area,
18. The low-income qualified seller has been approved for participation in Oregon LowIncome Home Energy Assistance Program,
19. The low-income qualified seller has been approved for participation in Free and Reduced Price Meals through Oregon Department of Education, or
20. The low-income qualified seller is otherwise unable to meet the obligations of this Chapter as determined by the Director.

Other Exemptions

1. The Director may provide a waiver from the requirements of this Chapter for homebuilders or sellers using scoring products that are not compliant with Oregon Administrative Rules adopted by Oregon Department of Energy for Oregon’s Home Energy Performance Score Standard. The waiver will allow homebuilders or sellers currently using Energy Performance Scores (EPS) or Home Energy Rating System (HERS) to temporarily continue the use of these asset rating tools. 

Enforcement
Similarly to the City of Portland, Hillsboro will be enforcing this new city ordinance with penalties and fines. All violations will be subject to $500 citation and for every subsequent violation within a 90-day period, another $500.00 penalty will imposed. A written notice will be issued to the responsible party, where the violation is described and steps to become in compliance. The notice sent by the city of Hillsboro will provide 15-days to reach compliance before any fines are issued to the responsible party. To avoid all city of Hillsboro fees, homeowners, brokers, and real estate agents need to schedule a Home Energy Score with a Certified Energy Assessor.
Our quick, professional, and comprehensive services will keep you in compliance with the new city Ordinance.

​Give us a call at (503)-567-5551 or check our our website to learn more!

The U.S. Department of Energy (maker of the home energy scoring software) put out a guide on how to interpret their home energy score. 

Click here to view the newest energy upgrade incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon. 

Is your home within the City limits of Portland and fall under the home energy score ordinance requirements? 

• Go to www.portlandmaps.com
• In the top right corner type in the address and hit enter.

The City of Portland is allowing anyone to make anonymous comments about the Portland Home Energy Score law before they decide on the final rules in September. Comments will be accepted until August 24th.  

In a recent webinar, Earth Advantage (Portland's appointed QA/QC provider) stated the cost of non-compliance with the Portland Home Energy Score Program would be $1,000. This is double what is currently written in the ordinance. It's important to keep in mind this is not a one time fine. It's $1,000 for the first 90 days of non-compliance and $1,000 for every 180 days there after. 

The New Home Energy Score
The U.S. Department of Energy created the software used for the Portland Home Energy Score Program. However, the city wanted a little more than what the DOE offered so they teamed up with Earth Advantage to make the reports more descriptive and enable home buyers to quickly easily compare the costs and environmental impact of each home.  

See the old Home Energy Score Report

The new Home Energy Score report includes:

• The home's estimated energy costs per year (see below). Keep in mind this does not include personal behavior such as TV's, lights, appliances or small basement farms.
  
  • See what's included in the Home Energy Score
•  The new report will also include the home's estimated carbon footprint in tons/year so you can tell all of your friends how awesome you are. 
• If the home has built in renewable energy generation, the estimated energy savings will be included on the front page.