Electric Vehicle Expo at the Taj Mahal

For those who missed it, there was a “Drive Clean Summit & Expo” at the Jeffco Government Center on October 12th. The display of electric vehicles in the parking lot included the following:

An electric street sweeper:

A Bluebird electric school bus:

An electric shuttle bus:

An electric work truck:

A Ford eTransit van:

A Nikola electric semi:

A Lightning Motor electric van (made in Colorado):

A Motiv electric step-van:

A Moser propane-powered self-contained mobile Level 3 charging station prototype:

Study Reveals Why Certain Homes Survived the Marshall Fire While Ones Around Them Did Not

One of the free lectures associated with the Oct. 1st tour of “green” homes was a fascinating presentation by Paul Kriescher of Bowman Consulting based on a study of the few homes which survived the Dec. 31st Marshall Fire while the houses around them burned to the ground. Click here for a PDF of Paul’s PowerPoint slides.

You’ll recall that it was the hurricane-force winds that were responsible for the fast spread of the Marshall Fire. Flying embers were what caused homes to catch fire in rapid succession. According to Paul, there’s a simple reason why those embers didn’t torch certain houses. It was because they didn’t get inside the homes or their attics.

The standard developer-built homes are “leaky” and built with ventilated attics. As I have explained previously, the standard procedure for finding and sealing the places where air can enter your home is to conduct a “blower-door test.”  (See graphic.) This involves installing a computerized fan in a doorway and sucking the air out of a house. The computer on that fan will tell you how leaky your house is — how many air changes per hour your home can expect during a certain wind speed. While that fan is operating, the technician can go through your house and determine all the places where air is coming into your home so that they can be caulked or otherwise sealed.

Many of those places are going to be around windows or on the rim joist — where your floor joists rest on the concrete foundation.

The goal is to get your home to a degree of air tightness at which you achieve two air changes per hour or less. Once you achieve that degree of air tightness, you then install an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) to bring filtered outside air into your home while expelling air from your home.

Making your living quarters more air tight can keep burning embers from entering your home. Combine that with having non-combustible exterior siding, decks and landscaping, and you go a long way toward preventing burning embers from being sucked into your home — and to keeping ash and smoke from making your home unlivable if it doesn’t burn down.

But the most critical area to seal is your attic. Your home probably has an attic which is vented. Blown-in insulation sits on your attic floor to keep your living quarters warm in the winter, while soffit vents combine with roof vents to draw outside air through your attic. This controls moisture buildup but is also ideal for drawing burning embers into your attic which can then light your entire house on fire.

Some builders have switched to building homes with “conditioned” attics, meaning that the underside of the roof is insulated and all vents eliminated. Thus, the attic itself is heated and cooled like the rest of the house. With no vents in your attic, those flying embers blow past your house instead of entering it.

There’s a subdivision in Arvada built by Meritage Homes called Richards Farm. It’s on the north side of 72nd Avenue, across from the Apex Center. Our agents were invited to tour it while it was under construction, and the builder showed us their conditioned attics. The reason the attics were conditioned had nothing to do with fire prevention. They were running heat ducts through the attic, and by insulating the attic, it made the ducts more efficient. But now we know the most important reason for conditioning an attic, and I suspect we’ll see building codes changed to require conditioned attics.

I learned another disadvantage of vented attics from participating in the 1994 Jimmy Carter Work Project, which built 30 Habitat for Humanity homes on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Those one-story homes all had vented attics. Within months of completing those homes there was a blizzard which filled the attics of those homes with snow, which entered through the soffit vents. The snow then melted, causing the drywall ceilings to fall, causing immense damage. The homes had to be vacated and rebuilt on the inside the very next summer. The reservation had no building codes to follow, but if it did it would probably not have allowed vented attics for that reason.

How to Make Sure the Home You Buy Isn’t a ‘Money Pit’

When you go under contract to buy a home, the contract will have a deadline for inspection objection, inspection termination and inspection resolution. Every home buyer is well advised to hire a home inspector and make use of the opportunity to ensure that the home you end up buying is in good condition.

During the recent sellers’ market it was common for buyers to waive or limit their rights to object or terminate based on the condition of the home as a way of making their offers more attractive. Even then, however, the smart buyer hired a professional home inspector so they would know what they’re getting into.

Home inspectors are not licensed in Colorado, but they are typically certified by one of two professional associations. Your real estate agent can recommend inspectors that he or she knows are good based on the experience of previous clients.

The home inspector knows enough about every aspect of a home to provide a good overview, including identifying specific defects. In some areas, however, he will encourage the buyer to order a secondary inspection by someone with more in-depth expertise in the area of concern. Although a certified inspector can diagnose most electrical or plumbing problems, in some cases he might recommend a more detailed inspection by a licensed electrician or plumber. That also helps to produce an estimate for inclusion in the inspection objection submitted to the seller.

Most inspectors can recognize a structural issue but will typically urge you to have the matter evaluated by a structural engineer. This can cost a few hundred dollars but, like the general inspection itself, could allow you to demand (and hopefully get) the seller to pay for a repair instead of paying for it yourself later on.

Two routine inspections that you should consider and which your general inspector can often perform himself for an additional fee, are the sewer scope and radon test.

A sewer scope consists of running a camera from a cleanout within the house to the main sewer line in the street or alley. Until the late 1900s, most home sewer lines were made of clay pipes that are susceptible to root intrusion and collapse. A sewer scope will cost you between $100 and $150, but is well worth it. If it uncovers a collapse, the repair, if excavation is required, could cost $10,000 or more. You will want the seller to pay for that repair, not yourself.

A radon test also costs $100 or so and consists of installing a computerized device in the lowest habitable area of the house — a basement, if there is one, but only if it’s habitable, whether finished or not. This device samples the air every hour for 48 hours, and the resulting measurement is an average of those 48 readings. If the result is in excess of the EPA action level of 4 picocuries per liter of air (4 pCi/L), you should demand that the seller pay for radon mitigation. Mitigation starts at about $1,000 for a single family home, but can be considerably higher if it has a partial basement with an earthen crawl space.  Again, the $100 or so that you spend on the radon test can save you much more if you’re able to get mitigation paid for by the seller.

A final thought: The report produced by your inspector will include every little thing he or she found wrong with the house, because the inspector doesn’t want you to come back later and say he missed something, however insignificant. Typically, your inspector will highlight the serious issues which you should consider for your inspection objection. Even then, it may be wise strategically to omit the minor items that you can take care of (or ignore) yourself.

HOW THE INSPECTION OBJECTION PROCESS WORKS:

As mentioned above, there are three deadlines in the Contract to Buy & Sell:

> Inspection Objection

> Inspection Termination

> Inspection Resolution

Typically, the objection and termination deadlines are within a week or 10 days of the date on which you go under contract. Since inspection is the most common reason that a contract falls, both seller and buyer want this date to be as early as possible. The buyer can submit an objection or can terminate. If he submits an objection, he can’t then submit a termination. However, if an Inspection Resolution is not signed by both parties before the resolution deadline (typically 2-3 days later), then the contract terminates automatically.

The Inspection Objection and Inspection Termination documents are merely notices to the seller, so they are signed only by the buyer. The Inspection Resolution document is what truly matters, and it is signed by both parties, making it an amendment to the contract which, by the way, must be provided to the lender.

Help Turn Pumpkins into Habitat for Humanity Houses!

Golden Real Estate is happy once again to support the Habitat for Humanity pumpkin patches in Lakewood and Arvada. The Lakewood patch is at Garrison Street & Alameda Avenue, on the grounds of Mile Hi Church. The Arvada patch is on the grounds of Trinity Presbyterian Church at 78th Avenue & Wadsworth Blvd. Our thanks go to these two churches for providing great locations for this fundraiser.

Both pumpkin patches are operated each year by Jeffco Interfaith Partners, a coalition of a dozen local faith groups. The profits from these two volunteer-manned patches have funded over 20 Habitat for Humanity homes in the metro area over the past 2+ decades.

The pumpkins are grown on a Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area, so the sales also benefit that community, which gets 60% of the proceeds. Habitat gets the other 40%.

Yes, the pumpkins sold at our two patches may be more expensive than at your local supermarket, but you have the satisfaction of making a difference with every purchase, and the 40% of your purchase which goes to Habitat is tax deductible.  Ask for the tax receipt.

What Can You Do to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient?

In a previous column, I pointed out that making your home more energy efficient can save you money immediately if you finance the improvements, because the monthly payments could be less than your monthly savings. The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act has some very generous tax credits and rebates that make such improvements even more practical and affordable. My intention this week is to give you a “roadmap” for doing so.

The logical starting point is to hire a professional to do an energy audit of your home — to identify the “low-hanging fruit,” meaning the quickest and easiest changes you can make or improvements you can install that will give you the most “bang for your buck.”

That low-hanging fruit is typically better insulation, and the energy auditor normally begins by performing a blower door test of your home. That involves installing a computer-calibrated fan in a doorway which sucks air out of your house. By depressurizing your home in this manner while all your other windows and doors are closed, the auditor can identify all the leaks which allow cold air into your home in the winter. That way you know where to caulk to make your home less “leaky.”

When it’s cold outside, the auditor can use an infrared camera pointed at your walls and ceilings to assess where you could improve your in-wall and in-ceiling insulation.

You’ll get a written report from you energy auditor with suggestions of things to do and how much benefit you will get from making those changes, whether it’s blowing insulation into your attic and walls, replacing your old gas furnaces and gas water heaters with heat pump versions, or installing better windows. Most recommended improvements will earn you a 30% tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.

There are more “roadmap” items, but you will learn about most of them by attending the Oct. 1 tour of green homes. See the blog post.

If you or someone your know is an energy auditor, let me know. We expect big demand for your services!

Cash Sales Are Up Less Here Than Nationally

By JIM SMITH

Like you, I’ve read reports from Zillow, Redfin, the National Association of Realtors, and others about the surge in investor purchases and the percentage of transactions that are all cash, but I can rarely confirm those reports when I do statistical searches on REcolorado, Denver’s MLS.

For example, Inman, the leading real estate news service, reported the following last Saturday: “All-cash home purchases in the U.S. hit 31.4 percent of all transactions in July 2022, up from 27.5 percent the year before, and just shy of an eight-year high reached in February, according to data released Friday by Redfin. Since the beginning of 2021, all-cash purchases have surged thanks to a pandemic-housing rush, reaching an apex in February when 32.1 percent of all transactions were made without financing, according to Redfin.”

Compare those numbers with the chart below, created from REcolorado, based on closings within 25 miles of the State Capitol.

The pandemic took root in April 2020, but there is only a modest increase in the percentage of cash transactions well into year two of the pandemic. A more significant increase can be noted in 2022, but the peak was well before the increase in mortgage interest rates which only showed up in April, and the percentage of cash sales actually dropped a little as those rates increased.

Regardless of those fluctuations, the percentages are well below the national percentages reported by Inman.

Looked at Correctly, It Costs No More to Build (or Buy) a Sustainable Home

“Conventional wisdom” says that it costs more to build a solar powered, highly sustainable or net zero energy home, but that’s not really true if you look at the issue a little differently.

As you surely know, such improvements reduce the operating cost of a home. Solar panels, for example, can virtually eliminate your electrical bill, if your system is sized correctly. They can even provide free fuel for your cars — if they are powered by electricity.

Super insulating your home can reduce the cost of heating it, whether by natural gas or electricity (using a heat pump system). Ditto for installing triple-pane Alpen windows and doors.

If you go all-electric, you not only save on the natural gas or propane you consume, you can have your gas meter removed, saving on the base cost of being connected to the gas distribution network. As a commercial customer, Golden Real Estate, saves over $600 per year from having removed our gas meter, since that’s what Xcel Energy charges before a business uses a single cubic foot of natural gas.  The savings is lower for residential customers.

So, yes, it may cost more to go all-electric, but the return on investment is substantial over a pretty short period of time.

But consider the following. Whether you build or buy a home with these cost saving features, and whether or not you pay a premium for them, you will likely be financing your home with a mortgage.

Let’s say, conservatively, that you pay an extra $50,000 or even $100,000 for those features, and it adds that amount to the principal of your mortgage. Your monthly savings from those solar panels or that heat pump system or those Alpen windows and extra insulation will be far in excess of the increased monthly payment for your mortgage.

And if you make those improvements in a home you already own, you can take out a Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC) to pay for them, and the monthly payments will again be less than your monthly savings.

Looked at it this way, does it make any sense at all to build a home powered by fossil fuels, that is not solar powered or that has “normal” insulation and have higher monthly cost of ownership, starting from day one?  Of course not.

You can apply the same reasoning to the purchase of an electric car. You could go with the conventional wisdom that electric cars are more expensive and you should wait until the price comes down, but that thinking substantially misrepresents the cost of ownership.

I haven’t purchased gasoline for my electric cars since 2014, during which time I have saved tens of thousands of dollars on gasoline as well as on repairs on components that don’t exist on an EV, such as transmission, engine, fuel pumps, water pumps, timing belts and so much more.

And I have never had a catalytic converter stolen — or lost any sleep after reading about the epidemic of such thefts in my city.

Forgetting for the moment that there are indeed EVs which cost no more than their gasoline-powered equivalents, even if you paid $10,000 more for an EV than you might for a gas powered car, the cost of financing that difference is far less than what you’ll save on fuel and repairs.

If I have changed your thinking about making your home (or transportation) more sustainable, here’s what you can do.  First, attend this year’s Metro Denver Green Homes Tour on October 1st. You’ll be able to visit a dozen or so homes whose owners have taken steps to make their homes more energy efficient or even net zero energy. You’ll also visit a home builder who is building net zero energy homes. If you can’t visit some of these homes in person, you can view the narrated video tours which I have created for most of them.

(You can also — right now — take video tours of 16 homes that were on this tour in previous years!)

You can register for the tour — and see those videos — at www. NewEnergyColorado.com.

And if I have changed your thinking about the cost of buying or owning an electric vehicle, plan on coming to the Electric Vehicle Roundup (mentioned below) which occurs the same day, October 1st, as the Metro Denver Green Homes Tour.  If that date doesn’t work for you, there are many other EV roundups in October around Colorado. Find those other events online at www.DriveElectricWeek.org.

Here’s More Info on Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act

John Horst of the National Renewable Energy Lab read last week’s blog post about the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact on the building sector and provided some valuable additional information.

For starters, he made me aware of the White House website, which has a listing of tax credits and grants under the IRA which pertain specifically to each state. Click here to view the IRA tax credits and grants that apply to Colorado. It’s a two-page PDF with paragraphs about those financial incentives plus job creation, manufacturing, cleaner air, rural opportunities and “resilient communities.”

One new incentive that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage is the $4,000 upfront discount on the purchase of used electric cars and trucks. In the past, there was no incentive for purchasing a used EV, and the $7,500 incentive for a new EV came only as a tax credit on the following year’s tax return.

Making both incentives an “upfront discount” will make both incentives much more attractive and useful to car buyers and will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

John also provided a link to a list of 59 state and federal tax credits (both personal and corporate), loan programs, grant programs, rebate programs, sales tax incentives, regulatory policies, energy standards and more — each with its own link for further information. (The above link gives the information for Zip Code 80401, but you can select a different ZIP Code anywhere in the country on that website.)