Flipping Green Houses

Hmm, well this couple is claiming a 2x return on investmentGoing 'green' at homeA Seal Beach couple try to flip houses they have made environmentally friendly.By SCOTT MARTINDALETHE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ROSSMOOR – These days, it's not uncommon to flip a house – buy a property, renovate it and quickly sell it – but Drew and Carolyn Wesling have come up with their own niche in this business, one that's friendlier to the environment.
The Seal Beach couple are going into business making older homes "green," hoping an environmentally conscious approach to homebuilding will translate into profit. Their first property, a $1.75 million Rossmoor home they bought two years ago for $800,000, is now on the market.
"These are just little things that can be done to help the environment," Drew Wesling, 35, a construction project manager and an accredited green professional. "This isn't cutting-edge stuff. It certainly didn't take any extra money."
The 3,500-square-foot home, which doesn't look all that different from any other house, includes energy-efficient windows, a "tankless" water heater, bamboo wood floors and a variety of environmentally friendly building materials.
When the Weslings bought the home in November 2005, it was a 1950s-style original Rossmoor tract home with three bedrooms. They gutted much of the one-story house and added a second story, two bedrooms, a family room and a breakfast nook, more than doubling its size.
Their "green" remodel is part of a nationwide trend toward adding more environmentally conscious features to homes, schools, libraries and commercial buildings, experts say.
Within a few years, building green could become as well-known as the Energy Star ratings on appliances like refrigerators, said Walker Wells, program director for Global Green, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit that promotes green building.
"If they can demonstrate to other builders that going green is a way to make money, that's phenomenal because hopefully other people will embrace it, too," Wells said.
The couple, however, aren't applying to have their home certified green by the U.S. Green Building Council. The guidelines are too strict, and certification would be too costly for a single house, they said.
Q. How did you get interested in building environmentally friendly houses?
Drew: I was exposed to green building in 2001 on a project in Santa Monica. It was an office building for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. I loved that project, so I got involved in the U.S. Green Building Council and joined the board in Los Angeles.
Q. Your house looks brand new, but you actually renovated the original house. Why did you remodel instead of leveling it?
Drew: It's so much to easier to tear down the house, but you don't want to send all of that waste to the landfill.
Q. Do you live in a green house now?
Carolyn: No, we're renting in Seal Beach. We're looking for two lots in Rossmoor, one for us and one to sell. As soon as we're in escrow with this house, we'll move forward. I'm hoping as we move forward, they're going to get greener.
Q. You've had to move around a lot. You spent a year in your Rossmoor home, then decided to remodel it. When you build your next home, you'll have to move again. How do you cope?
Carolyn: We have a high tolerance for construction. I definitely feel like I've gone back to work, but I have control over what I'm doing, and the second income will be so nice.
Q. How did you convince your kids to let you sell the Rossmoor house?
Drew:They love the h