[Greenbuilding] question about fireplaces, etc.

[Bobbi Chukran]

Hi Jason and all,

>What sold the house?  Did your buyer come through the
>web? An agent?  Please share.
>

I decided to post this to the list since we have talked about the 
fact that I had my house on the market.  Several others were 
interested in the experience of selling it, too.

In the end, selling it came down to one thing.....it was a great 
house.  Great design, looks good, in great shape in a beautiful area 
and great neighborhood.  I'm not so sure, unfortunately, that any of 
the green features of it sold the house--the buyer says that they 
just "fell in love with the house".  As a matter of fact, they seemed 
very cautious about the features, such as the rainwater system (paid 
a large sum for a water test), the insulation, the dehumidifier/air 
system, etc.  Another thing...the buyers and their bank were 
extremely concerned with WHO did what...as in, was the builder well 
known, who installed the tile, who installed the metal roof 
(insurance company demanded that information), who installed the 
septic system, who engineered it, etc. etc.  All of this might be 
because the buyers are just, well, VERY persnickety about things (for 
lack of a nicer word I can use here.  LOL!) or maybe that's just the 
way it is now.

It sold for less than the sales price, which was a surprise.  Turns 
out, there are tons of brand new other houses for sale in the area, 
only one of which I'd consider greenbuilt, so I think that hurt us. 
Maybe if we'd waited another six months, we would have gotten full 
price or more, but we weren't willing to wait.  And we didn't have to 
do any major renovations/remodeling at all before selling, so I think 
we came out ahead anyway.  There were two other houses (including the 
green one) in our sub-division for sale, and the owners had already 
lowered the price on those several times already.

As for how they first saw the house, I expect it was because my agent 
did a lot of preliminary marketing locally, and all the agents have 
some cool software that has some incredible search features so that a 
buyer can find a brand new listing almost the day it's on the market. 
That's the way we found the smaller house we bought in town the same 
day it was listed, even before any photos, etc. were posted of it.

In general, I don't think that any of the green features sold the 
house, which is a pity.

Any other questions, I'll be glad to answer!

bobbi c.
Leander, TX