Posts Tagged ‘appraisal’

The green real estate market is being repressed by appraisals.

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Developers would like to see green real estate projects rise quickly. Sadly appraisals are slowing down the quick advancement of the environmentally friendly real estate projects. Take a home that would usually cost half a million dollars to build. You decide that you want the property to be more environmentally friendly, therefore you ask your architect to design the new house so it utilizes the sunshine and you put in high quality insulations and solar panels. Now going green doesn’t come cheap therefore these green choices are going to increase the build charges to $600,000.

Still, your bank’s appraiser values it differently. David Snook says “It doesn’t do a lot of good to simply add value based on cost, but the question is, How much will the market pay on resale?’ , he should be able to tell us, as David is an appraiser and associate of the real property committee on education for the American Society of Appraisers.

Let’s carry on our illustration. Your bank or mortgage company will only recognize a $550,000 price. This increases your deposit by $50,000 working on a 20% down payment. With a high-ratio mortgage 5% down payment, you will have to save $77,500 in place of $27,500. That is a very large amount of cash to get hold of straightaway. This might force you to search for the cheapest green option, using older and cheaper technologies, or maybe you will write off the whole green idea of the project altogether.

However, as a green Toronto MLS listings agent I realize green properties do make a big difference whatever the price increase. If you look at the Green Work Realty report, you will see why green real estate are better financially, with their increased resale value of more than 8% and the fact they sell 22% faster. This information doesn’t help us though if you are dealing with bank or mortgage business appraisers who don’t have much if any experience with the green property technology.

While you can demonstrate to the appraiser the figures, until they have the knowledge then there is not a lot you can do about it. Anyway, I believe there will be strong initiatives soon to standardize indicators of environmental and energetic efficiency, which will certainly help appraisers (and future owners) to move forward. Even though green housing is about the environment and efficiency it is also about price. When looking at purchasing a motor car, one of the first things you find out is its fuel consumption, how many miles to the gallon does it do. So when purchasing your new property, it stands to reason the logical thing to do is find out how energy efficient the property is.

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Appraisals hold back green property markets

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Developers would like to see green property projects jump quickly. Regrettably appraisals are slowing down the rapid advancement of the environmentally friendly real estate projects. Imagine you are going to build a standard $500,000 property. On top of the cost for the standard build you have your architect design the property to utilize the full potential of the sun and you install solar panels as well as good quality insulation. Now going green doesn’t come cheap therefore these green choices are going to increase the build costing to $600,000.

Unfortunately this is not how your bank or mortgage company appraiser looks at it. David Snook says “It doesn’t do a lot of good to simply add value based on cost, but the question is, How much will the market pay on resale?’ , he should be able to tell us, as David is an appraiser and representative of the real property committee on education for the American Society of Appraisers.

Shall we carry on with our example? Although the real estate cost $600,000 to build the bank or mortgage company will only recognize the value at $550,000. This swells your fees by $50,000 found on a 20% down payment. With a high-ratio mortgage 5% down payment, you will have to find $77,500 rather than $27,500. That is a large difference in particular if you are on a budget and every bit of savings matters. This might force you to look at the cheapest green option, using older and cheaper technologies, or maybe you will abandon the whole green idea of the project altogether.

Nevertheless, as a green GTA MLS agent I see deciding to go for a green property does make a difference. Look at it this way, green real estate sell over 20% faster with an 8.5% increase on sale price, according to Green Work Realty report. Regrettably, when you deal with an appraiser having little or no experience with green property technologies (and that’s quite probable, especially if you are among the green pioneers in your area), your home’s value will most probably be underestimated.

There is little that can be done about it at the moment . Whilst there is no standardization for environmental and energy performance at this time, I think that they will soon be on their way. Green housing is not only about the environment, it’s also about cost. Not many of us are willing to buy a car without at least a basic knowledge about its petrol consumption. So when purchasing your new home, it stands to reason the logical thing to do is find out how energy efficient the home is.

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