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Article: What Are Energy Efficient Mortgages? (http://www.informedbuilding.com/Live-Efficient/Main14/What-Are-Energy-Efficient-Mortgages?/)

I've been searching online for days now trying to locate various institutions who offer these loans, but when I DO come upon one, there's no branch in my area.  Is there a site which might list ALL the available banks/mortgage co's. who offer these programs?

Welcome to Informed Building!

Here is the deal with the EEM.  There doesn't appear to be any comprehensive list of EEM lenders.  However, this is because any lender who provides FHA loans or who sells their loans on the secondary market to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac can write an EEM - almost all lenders do at least one or the other.  If they tell you otherwise, move on to someone who will work with you. 

The FHA programs allows you to qualify with a lower credit rating than typical by including projected utility savings into the qualification calculation.  If you need more info to show your lender you can print it off from here:

http://www.fha.gov/sf/real/programs.cfm#14

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac program works in pretty much the same way - providing an income adjustment based on projected savings.

These programs are not well marketed and so your local bank may not even be aware that they can in fact write such a mortgage - basically, they just need to use the EEM qualifying calculation which incorporates the Energy Rating of the home you are buying.

That being said, your first step would be to get an energy rating on the home in which you are interested.  You can search for accredited energy raters by state at the below link:

http://www.resnet.us/programs/providers/directory.aspx

In fact, if you run into trouble finding a knowledgeable local lender, one of your local energy raters may be able to point you towards a local institution with which they have done business in the past. They are probably your best local source of knowledge on the subject.

Hope this helps cut through the confusion - it really is strange how under marketed and misunderstood these mortgages are.

Let us know if you have any questions - we'd also love to hear feedback from you on the process in order to help out others who are looking for energy efficient mortgages.