Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Scaling down (more about appraisals & energy-crafted homes)

[Jim Snyder-Grant (jimsg]

We had a conservative appraisal for the houses at New View (Acton MA) , and
needed to make up the difference by having a larger down-payment, etc. This
effected both the construction loan & the early home loans.

On the other hand, with houses built later in the process, the bank's
appraisers for the individual home loans were happy to use the cohomes sold
earlier as 'comparables', and thus the fact that there were a bunch of nuts
(me! us!) willing to pay high prices for relatively small houses that had
other houses near by or even *attached* was a reasonable proof to the
appraiser that these new houses would also sell (& re-sell) for that same
kind of price.

In our state (Massachusetts), we used the 'energy-crafted home' standard for
our houses. It worked well, I think. The onerous thing, from the builders
point of view, was the objective testing done: some sort of special smoke
blown into the sealed house to see how much escaped over a certain time,
etc.  But from our point of view, it was great to have objective proof. (Our
standard also called for some rather fancy fans for circulation from outside
to in, to help prevent sick-building syndrome).

It was one of our criteria that our builder be willing to work with those
standards, with the special sealing for external wall electrical outlets &
switches, special doors & windows, etc. Many leders for the individual home
loans were willing to increase the percentage of income tied up in house
payments beyond the usual standard, based on the understanding that monthly
utility payments would be lower than usual because of the building
standards.

-Jim Snyder-Grant
New View,
Acton MA

(Rumors to the contrary, we DO have a finely functioning common house, with
meals, yoga classes, concerts, a food coop, some home schooling activity,
etc. Come on down!)


----- Original Message -----
From: <lpoley [at] vt.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 11:06 AM
Subject: RE: Scaling down


>
> I have looked at both "Not so Big House"  books - and love the ideas
> presented.  Quality over quantity seems like such an obvious improvement
> over more standard building trends and it is certainly a powerful idea for
> cohousing, however a big question we have in our group (who are now trying
> to make decisions about the type of housing we want to build) is: if we
pour
> more money into high quality building and green building elements, how
will
> those things be factored into the appraisal value of our homes (and
> therefore the amount banks are willing to lend us .)?   We have been
warned
> that the appraisal formulas are generally anything BUT progressive and
that
> it is difficult getting appraisal value for implementing green building
> elements or simply construction strategies that reflect a more
sustainable,
> higher quality home.  (Unless these elements are obvious to the naked
eye -
> ie - marble countertops in the bathroom etc. ) Flat out finished square
> footage seems to be the biggest determinant of how a house is appraised
and
> it seems that if you spend an extra few thousand dollars to use
sustainably
> harvested lumber, for example - that is not likely to show up at all in
your
> appraisal.
> Talk about a screwed up incentive system....
>
> I am curious about the  experiences of other groups in terms of
> working with the appraisal process  and whether they were able to get the
> value of these qualities recognized. Does anyone have an experience they
> want to share?
> I am aware of the existence of "energy efficient loan programs" that
> many banks subscribe to (I think in collaboration with either the EPA or
the
> DOE)  but a local builder here who worked to qualify indicated that, at
> least locally, it makes for a whole lot of extra paperwork and red tape.
> Has anyone taken advantage of one of these loan programs and had a
> good experience? (Or a bad one?)
>
>           Thanks much  -
>
>                Lisa Poley
>      Shadowlake Village
>                Blacksburg, VA.
>
>