My journey down the "Green" Real Estate road began in August 2011, completely inadvertantly. Kelly Green, who is the Home Energy Retrofit Occupations (HERO) Grant Program Coordinator at the Alameda County Workforce Development was looking for Real Estate Professionals- Realtors and mortgage originators to take a nearly free course called "Making Money Selling Green Homes". This was a 16 hour course at Ohlone College Newark Campus over a 4 day period, requiring attendees to register at Ohlone as a student. Well, it has been quite a while since I registered as a college student and what is really funny is that I never in all my academic career attended "summer school", so this was a first for me! The course was designed as a comprehensive overview of the latest techniques in "green" building, home energy efficiency audits, a basic primer on residential building and systems-electrical, heating, a/c, roofing, site planning, etc, that affect energy consumption. The mortgage originator aspect covered financing of hoem energy retrofits through the FHA 203K loan, the 203k Streamline and the EEM-Energy Efficient Mortgage. Attendees had to be knowledgeable about these financing techniques as well as the building techniques and other materials covered in the course, there were quizzes and homework assignments. The course was taught by a gentleman who is a licensed contractor and home energy audit specialist. I was interested in this course because I have always been interested in alternative energy, energy efficiency; and if I could make money while applying these concepts to real estate, I was all for it. I was hooked on what I learned and the amazing possibilities that could be achieved. I completed the course and earned an "EES" designation- Energy Efficiency Specialist. more to follow--