Green Real Estate Appraiser

Emotional clutter can be biggest obstacle to home sale

Posted on August 6, 2016 | Leave a comment

It’s

not the cracked tile in the kitchen or yesteryear’s fixtures in the bathroom. Agents say that the biggest obstacle to a sale is often the seller.

In short, sellers have to get out of the way, literally and figuratively.

That’s no easy task, because people are often still living in a home that’s now on the market. There’s an emotional attachment that needs to be unraveled even when people think they are thoroughly prepared to sell.

Don’t just declutter – depersonalize

Lynne Hart Herrera of Keller Williams Realty said, “The way a buyer looks at a home is very different than the way a visitor looks at your home. Think about a hotel. It looks really simple, clean, and there’s no personal or religious items. Some people like taxidermy, but if a buyer walks into a home they might only see dead animals on the walls and now that’s what they remember.”

Rajeev Tailor of Portica Real Estate said, “Personalisation is a barrier to the buyer. They don’t see the great space and crown molding because they leave the property distracted by, ‘Oh, that’s the house with them in the photo with President Obama or whatever. They leave with the impression of what was in the house versus the impression of the house. You can’t have a successful sale, if someone can’t connect to the property.”

Wight, of Dielmann Sotheby’s International Realty, said, “It can feel sterile to remove all of your family photos, wedding photos and pare down to a simpler life, but I tell people to focus on their goal and keep mementos away.”

He said they have to imagine that they don’t live there anymore, and that extends to the kitchen. Depersonalising can relate to the smells from last night’s meal when a potential buyer is walking through. You don’t want them focusing on what you had for dinner, he said. “That doesn’t mean don’t cook, it just might mean you should use the barbecue outside not the stove” for dishes with a lingering odour.

Another Battery Company if you want to go off grid

Posted on August 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

battery

A North Hollywood operation has been quietly beating Musk and Tesla when it comes to selling residential electricity storage batteries.

Sonnen Inc., which emerged on the world stage half a dozen years ago in Bavaria, Germany, has sold 13,000 residential storage batteries worldwide at a current pace of about 900 a month. U.S. sales, managed out of the Sonnen’s American headquarters in North Hollywood, account for about a quarter of the monthly tally.

Tesla is still ramping up Powerwall production but delivered 2,500 Powerwall systems worldwide in the first three months of the year, according to a May shareholder letter. Sonnen sold 2,600 residential batteries during the same period, a company record.

“Elon Musk has the name,” said Boris von Bormann, chief executive of Sonnen Inc. He didn’t bother to stifle a grin as he added: “Yes, we are the leader.”

With little fanfare, Sonnen rolled out its U.S. operations less than a year ago and opened the Southern California office in January. The company already has expanded its offerings to include commercial electricity storage, which should be ready for delivery by the end of the year.

disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Fed: VA and HUD hopes to expand solar

Posted on August 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

The Obama administration unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at helping middle-class and low-income communities put solar panels on their roofs.

Homeowners could choose to harness electricity from the sun, buy energy-efficient water pumps and make other energy-saving upgrades at no cost upfront, eventually paying it back through their property tax bills.

Appraising energy-efficient and solar homes needs a qualified “green” appraiser and it is a USPAP violation for appraisers to accept appraisal assignments that they are not competent to appraise. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com known forerunners in green property appraisals.

While this type of clean-energy financing has existed for years, officials said backing by the federal Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs should expand access to families who may not afford it otherwise.

The White House estimated the effort would bring solar power to about 250,000 middle-class and low-income homes by 2020.

“Solar panels are no longer for wealthy folks who live where the sun shines every day,” President Barack Obama said in a video message accompanying the announcement.

In recent years, technological advances have made it cheaper to install rooftop solar panels, Obama senior adviser Brian Deese said in a telephone briefing with reporters.

California Gov. Jerry Brown praised the effort, saying it would lead to more solar installations and energy-saving retrofits around the country.