Undercover Agent

As many of my readers know, I am one of a handful of partners involved with a nine-home development called Battenkill Meadows, in Manchester, Vermont. As such, I often take time hosting open houses and promoting our project. What I have learned has been fascinating.

Usually, I have the chance up front to explain that I am not a real estate agent. And as I explain my involvement with the project, I watch as they let out a slow, long breath, their shoulders drop, and they relax into what I presume is the person they were before they got out of the car.

The truth is, many of the people who stop by are not planning on buying a house any time soon, and so have formulated their story about why they are there. They are afraid of getting caught in the possessive and territorial cross-fire of the real estate sales world. With housing sales at record lows, it is completely understandable that real estate professionals are working harder to procure and protect their potential sources of income.

One thing I've learned is that many people are looking for ideas about how to work with what they've got. They're also trying to see what trends there are in the new-construction marketplace. People are re-thinking the role that houses play. They are moving away from the status symbol back to a more grounded notion of home.

What I’ve also learned is that people are becoming really interested in their environments. Most folks actually know very little about the structure they inhabit. As I explain what a high performance building envelope is and why it is important to both their wallets and the environment, I can see them pensively trying to recall what their home is made of. “I know we have fluffy stuff in the walls. It comes out when I drill into it to try to hang a shelf. But I don’t think there’s anything in our basement. And I have no idea what’s under our basement floor.”

With the shifting values from frivolous to responsible financial and environmental decision making, I think we will see homeowners sifting through the “green noise” in the marketplace and trying to get a handle on what really matters to them: comfort, value, and integrity. (And it doesn’t hurt if it looks good too!)