Back during the epic real estate market of 2005-2007, Green-built homes were the next big thing.  Builders and developers jumped on the bandwagon by building earth-friendly homes.  Virginia adopted Earthcraft as it’s standard for environmentally friendly homes.  To earn the Earthcraft certification, the builders earn points for energy efficient design, systems, and materials…just to name a few.  (Check out the full guidelines here).

Back around 2006, Charlottesville builders were estimating that building an Earthcraft certified home could cost anywhere from 5-15% more.  That was even a lot for then.  Buyers began to question true ROI of whether it was worth the additional cost.  Some decided they wanted to do it for the environment, but many wanted hard data before they plunked down an additional $25,000 for that little Earthcraft logo.  Unfortunately, since the Earthcraft program was so new back then, there was no data as to how much utility bills were lowered in an energy efficient home.

Fast forward to today.  The real estate market is nothing like it was in 2006.  But energy efficient homes are still in the news.  With data in their hip pockets, national homebuilder KB Homes recently announced it will be rating homes with it’s Energy Performance Guide (EPG).  Here’s the gist of it: just like automobiles are rated for MPG and emissions, they’re aiming to rate homes for their efficiencies in heating and cooling costs.  KB represents just one example – other builders are planning a similar rating system.

But does the average homebuyers care about ‘green’?  The answer is no.  Today’s homebuyer doesn’t really care if a home is certified Earthcraft, LEED, or any other green-friendly name you can think of.  It doesn’t matter to most people.

Check out this chart from the National Association of Realtors Homebuyers’ Profile 2011.  It answers the question of how important a home’s environmentally friendly features actually matter.

So, according to this chart, buyers don’t seem to be as enamored with environmentally friendly homes as builders and marketers think they should be.  It actually surprises me that only 39% of buyers are ‘very interested’ in heating and cooling costs.  Over the past 12 months, our agents at Nest Realty have seen a big increase in the number of buyers asking for utility bills before they make an offer on a home.  Today’s buyers do seem to care about utility costs and efficient homes…but whether or not they are certified as ‘green’ actually doesn’t matter to most.

Actually, I think that heating and cooling costs and home efficiency are the only 2 ‘green’ factors that buyers care about.  Features like green roofs, rain barrels, recycled materials, etc make for good conversation, but do they really sell homes to the average consumer?

The Number 1 Team in the Country

And  that is something of which to be very very proud. In fact, when you look at the season, it started out strong, and the fan base just continued to grow and grow. I took my kids to a game against Boston College less than a month ago. The stands were packed. So, how does UVa respond? Bring in more stands. 679 more seats to be exact. Imagine if Penn State could roll in 20,000 new seats for a football game… that’s about the same thing.

The Hoos are playing at the top of their game and are looking to host the Regionals headed to the College World Series. If they keep up the pace, they will then play host for the SuperRegionals for the first time. And that all leads to the game they want… June 19 in Omaha at the College World Series.

Regional play starts at the beginning of June. It should be fantastic.

But for now, head out to Davenport Field this weekend for #1 UVa v. #20 VT for a three game series this weekend. Friday 7pm, Saturday 4 pm, and Sunday 1pm. Grab the kids, get some peanuts and a hot dog and enjoy the weather. Time to enjoy what spring is all about.

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Keith Davis is an Associate Broker and a Founding Partner with Nest Realty. He writes at DirtAroundGrounds.

Here’s the theory: There are buyers in the Charlottesville real estate market.  They are just being very selective and are going after properties that are…

 1. Priced right          2. Show like a model home          3. In a good location. 

We’ve been saying for months that you have to price your home right in order to sell it.  And while there will always be instances of homes selling at obscenely high prices, it’s becoming less and less likely in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. 

While it is absolutely true that there is a huge supply of homes for sale in Central Virginia, there is still a lot of inventory that is not priced correctly based on it’s condition and location.  I refer to this inventory as ‘junk inventory’ – it’s there and listed for sale in the Charlottesville MLS…but it’s not going to sell at it’s current price. 

So, I’ll get to the point: homes are selling…and quickly…if they are well priced. 

Anecdotal proof: I am aware of 4 (yes, 4!) multiple offer situations in the past 7 days.

Real proof: Take a look at the 17 properties that have gone ‘under contract’ in the Charlottesville MLS this week so far. 

Here are the Days on Market: 85, 17, 18, 9, 18, 119, 4, 11, 200, 38, 15, 5, 27, 151, 7, 8, 53. 

- That is an average DOM of 46 days…not bad. 

- 10 of the 17 were on the market for less than 20 days.

- The one that was on the market for 119 days had a $40k price reduction 2 weeks ago

- If you take out the three with the longest DOM (119, 200, 151), then the average DOM was just 23.

So, if you are thinking about selling your home: clean it up, make sure it looks like a model home, and price it right.