Comment 29121

By arienc (registered) | Posted February 25, 2009 at 21:41:16

hopeful, Trey...I think your concerns are unfounded.

What this bill will do is put a number relating to the home's energy efficiency in the listing.

That number is only one of many factors that buyers will consider when buying a house. Someone who wants to live downtown will not choose to buy a house on the outskirts of town simply because the efficiency ratings are a few points higher.

The objective is so that someone who has taken the initiative to improve the efficiency of their home sees the recognition when they go to sell that home.

Think now...if someone had spent a few hundred bucks making sure all leaks were caulked, and the attic was insulated to a higher R-value, that homeowner should indeed realize more value when they go to sell than on an identical house that did not do the upgrades.

This creates an added incentive to do the work before you sell instead of leaving the house in an inefficient condition for the next owner to deal with. Just like there is an incentive for people to employ "professional home-stagers" to arrange the furniture in such a way that buyers will envision themselves living in the home and pay more for it.

This creates the same incentive for the seller to do those little things that bump up the rating - caulking, weather-stripping, insulating...Not all of these cost a fortune, but they all deliver long-term benefits.

Make it optional, and only those few of us who consider efficiency as an important criteria will even bother to have it done. Yet this is incredibly important for our future economic growth. This is why it has to be included on every listing, just like the property taxes, square footage and number of bathrooms.

"First they built the road, then they built the town. That's why we're still driving around and around, and all we see. Are kids in buses. Longing to be free." - Wasted Hours, The Arcade Fire

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