By Eric Doub, Founder & CEO

I was recently asked by a writer for GreenBuild Magazine whether green-built, high performance homes have encountered any difficulty when being appraised under conventional appraisal standards.  Here is an excerpt from my email response:

Our high-performing homes have not had any appraisal issues.  Solar Harvest was appraised for $1.45 million in June 2006.  Standard comps were used, and the appraised value was not increased or decreased based on the home being the highest Energy Star rated home in Colorado (of 30,000 homes tested).  Of course I am biased in thinking that this home, Solar Harvest, where I live with my family, should be appraised higher because it is nationally known and one of the only homes in North America be have publicly verified performance as being zero net energy (that it produces as much energy as it uses in a year — and in fact, Sept. 07 – Sept. 08, we had 1,100 kWh EXTRA on the net meter…meaning the home was a net producer).

Also, the home is all-electric and there is no natural gas meter.  This might be considered by some buyers to be a safer home, but this benefit is not reflected in the appraisal (but could be in the insurance; I need to check that).

I believe that as energy prices rise and carbon management becomes a fact of life (federal cap and trade, state goals for emissions, local building codes), then homes with energy bills near zero will sell better and for more than homes with energy bills in the hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.  Why wouldn’t a future-proofed home be more valuable to buyers?  I think that day is not far off.

Also, these homes are simply built better — with healthier materials, leading to better air quality — in the “Build Tight, Ventilate Right” whole systems approach.  People appreciate the comfort and safety of our super-efficient homes.  I think that such benefits will show up in appraisals as more such homes get built, lived in, bought and sold.  My professional goal is to become average — for our work to become mainstream, unremarkable.  When that happens, appraisals will haven caught up too.

Be sure to also check out our Solar Harvest verification page and live data monitoring page to learn more about our net-energy producing home.