Getting an appraisal

Our friendly and expert banker, Bob Link of The Private Bank, (I hadn't heard of them either, which I guess is why they chose that name for themselves), grasped our goals in the first meeting. Making this a viable project though, meant that we needed an appraisal to support the financing we would need. Appraising a green project is vastly different from appraising a tract home. First of all, there are few true comparables for the appraiser to use as a baseline. There's just not enough homes yet that have been built with these techniques. Secondly, the energy efficiency does translate into appraised value. There are formulas they can use to compute that value. Most appraisers aren't familiar with them at this time. Finally, there's a little forward looking thinking around future values as the green features become more generally desirable and sought after. Bob knew an appraiser that was well schooled in appraising custom and green homes. He delivered a number that made this project possible. We thank him for making this a 2008, instead of 2009 or 2010 project.

If you are planning on building or remodeling green, insist that the appraiser used by your bank understands that business. Otherwise, you'll be upside down and have to contribute more cash than you may have planned or hoped.