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Affordable "Green" Home

By
Real Estate Agent with Realty Pro Albuquerque

 Most of us are aware that "green" building is going mainstream. Most of us realize that it behooves us to mention features like passive solar heating, active solar systems, themal windows insulation upgrades or energy rated appliances and systems in our listing and advertising materials. Unfortunately many people still belive that sustainable building means huge expense.

 Recently my QB was helping his neice find a home. She was a typical first time homebuyer with a restricted budget. Fortunately, her expectations were more reasonable than most. They had just terminated a contract on a house she liked because the listing agent had missed several deadlines including ones for inspections and repairs and it was not looking like anything was going to get done to make it possible for the house to be ready to close in anything resembing a timely manner.

I happened to be looking for a house in the area she was interested in for one of my clients. I ran across a listing in the MLS that was not appropriate for my client but sounded perfect for his neice. It said the home was a two bedroom home on a large lot with a detached workshop. It was small--under 1000 square feet They went to see it.

They returned to the office raving about what a great home it was. Loved it. Then they said "Why didn't you tell us it was an ecohouse? We didn't know it was one of those earth sheltered/underground houses you've been talking about". I was stunned. I didn't tell them because I had no idea. We pulled the MLS listing again so I could show them that NO WHERE in the listing did it mention that the home was earth sheltered or underground or that it had a vegetative roof. It did not mention the attached greenhouse that helped heat the bedrooms. It waqs an older home, probably quite unique when it was built and sat among conventional home. From the street in front you would never know it was there; it appeared to be a grassy field. From the back it looked like a wonderful open home with lots of windows and a flat roof with tile edge (quite common here). They did not get the house despite making an above asking price offer. Whoever did get it got quite a deal. It was priced low enough that when they left the office they were expecting a handyman special; what the saw was a jewel.

What puzzles me is what the listing agent was thinking. This was a home that could have been sold at a much better price for his seller; that would have had a lot more showings and higher offers if ANY, let alone ALL of it's "green" features had been mentioned in the listing. I suppose that the listing agent saw the home as an unusual "white elephant" type of home....rather than a practical, money saving AFFORDABLE "Green" home.

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