Selling the Job
Other options in the home performance arena take into account both energy auditing and the improvements suggested as a result of it. These include:
GreenHomes America. This California–based organization franchised its first dealer in 2008. But GreenHomes has been around since 1981 and has retrofitted nearly 10,000 homes. “We’re franchising the entire home performance model,” president Brett Knox says. “We’re the only guys offering a turnkey business model, like a Subway or McDonald’s.” GreenHomes is also more specific about who it wants as potential franchisees. The GreenHomes website indicates that the company seeks “residential contractors” in the 35 states where it is licensed to offer franchise opportunities. GreenHomes is a division of The Linc Group, which also operates a franchise for commercial HVAC contractors. Since several trades can be involved, especially in an extensive retrofit, Knox says that his company is looking for franchise partners that “have the ability to deal with multiple subcontractors.”
Knox says that in addition to training in how to test in and test out, GreenHomes trains franchisees in how to develop a scope of work from their testing, sell the job — average about $10,000 — to homeowners, manage the specifics of installing in different types of homes — for instance, how to size a home for new HVAC equipment if that’s what is required. The company’s promise to consumers is that they can save anywhere from 20% to as much as 60% on energy costs. GreenHomes also trains the installers of franchisees.
Nor does it neglect the business side of the business. The part that remodeling contractors “might struggle with,” Knox says, “is lead generation.” Since home performance jobs are short-cycle jobs at a relatively low price-point, the contractor has to turn a lot of them. Creating leads and closing them is critical. Listed as first among the benefits of becoming a GreenHomes America franchisee is “attracting new customers.”
Recurve. Want home performance knowledge without the cost or obligation of franchising? That’s what Recurve, a San Francisco home performance company that has done retrofitting in the Bay Area for the last five and a half years, aims to offer. “Our focus is on the technical platform rather than traditional franchising,” founder and president Matt Golden says. The company recently launched a Web-based program, which it is licensing for use by other contractors. Golden says that Recurve is looking for “those already working in the booming home performance industry as well as those interested in entering the industry from residential construction, green building, HVAC, and other related fields” to be partners.
Recurve will supply them with interactive tools that automate the auditing, reporting, and in-field estimation processes. “On the back end,” Golden says, “this information feeds into a complete set of tools, powering a home performance business at scale.” Costs of partnering and using the system, he says, are based on quantity used, “so this makes it affordable for any size business. Our system will cost only a small percentage of what one saves.” (For more information, go to Recurve.com or to www.software.recurve.com.)
Golden says that remodeling and home performance retrofits are similar: “Same people, same skills. The core difference is production.” The program is “meant to be used in the field” and to, among other things, help contractors looking to get into the home performance arena quickly get up to snuff.
Golden says that for novices — say remodelers or home improvement contractors just getting their feet wet in home performance — this is a system that will provide auditors with the means to test more than 20 home systems, “put together a solution, price it properly, and translate that information to your production department.” That means no back-end work at the office putting a proposal together. “It’s all the details that are really hard to train for,” Golden says. “What if they sell a furnace and they have the wrong size gas pipe?”
Whatever their perspective or their strategy for going to market, owners and managers at all these companies agree that the home performance industry is in its infancy and will grow. Permann, for instance, believes that some states will soon require an energy audit when homes are sold, just as they now require a home inspection. “Right now,” Knox says, “homeowners are looking for ways to reduce their bills at home, and they’re thinking long-term. There’s a heightened awareness of people wanting to do things that are right for the environment. They’re not moving. They’re looking toward improved energy efficiency and comfort levels. And the third piece,” he says, “is the incentives. When you have incentives, it draws attention.”
—Jim Cory is editor of REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, a sister publication of REMODELING.
