The environmental building industry is notoriously bad at clearly marketing and educating. Architects don’t tell you what products they are using. Consultants don’t share the details of how they achieved their results. Builders don’t take the time to get on the web and share their knowledge. I am speaking in general terms of course as there are firms in all of these fields that do a good job, but they are far from the norm.

The naming of the 120K house is unfortunate from a development standpoint, but is nothing we loose sleep over. The bottom line is that our homes are and will always be sold at or slightly below market value which will allow us to prosper. We may never be as financially successful as developers who only care about the single bottom line, but that was never the intention.

The smart buyer knows they are getting much more bang for the buck with our homes. Whether they are comparing our $265K LEED Platinum House with the $550K LEED Gold homes down the street or they are comparing us to the $295K energy hogs with lousy architectural design across the street. The value is clear.

Are people really so naive that they think we are making a $145K profit because we sell it for $265K and build it for $120K? I really need to post on the business of development I guess. There are land costs, countless soft costs, loan costs and sales costs in development that eat up the profit margins that might seem ludicrous at first glance.

Having said all this, you make a valid point. I appreciate your business ideas as well. Future homes will not have a dollar amount to their construction costs. That will not change the fact that our top priority will continue to be figuring out the most economical way to bring energy efficient, healthy and low-impact homes to average working people at an affordable price. In order to succeed at this goal, we must continue to make all of our successes as well as failures public for others to learn from. Even if we (or others like us) develop the best way to build a house, we can’t build every house in the US.

One last point. These two homes have taken countless hours to design and market. The “competition” would not be able to copy what we are doing with the same results in my opinion as I don’t think there is anyone else out there dumb enough to put the stupid amount of effort we have into just two homes. One person might be able to build it. Another might be able to market it. Those will not be the same people. Everyone in between will make a compromise on one of those two aspects. Crazy… [pause for effect]… is our business model.

Your complete transparency allows the buyer to see exactly what the construction cost of the home is and it also gives all of your competitors free access to your valuable knowledge and experience.

Do you hope to become a design / build shop where the design aspect is systematic and integrates your marketing / branding and where the majority of your profit comes from the build side of the equation?

Maybe you could sell postgreen builder franchises where a builder is trained on your system and you provide the marketing and design. You might even be able to get into the financing side.

Or do you plan on being a developer, in which case you might want to stop telling people exactly how much it costs to build your product!?

I have a tendency to use and at times abuse sarcasm. The idea of personally pursuing a government bailout seemed ludicrous enough that I thought I didn’t need to explain it as a joke. Perhaps I was wrong.

The 100k House is a market driven, privately funded project. We don’t get any money from the government, though I hear there are grants out there we could be getting for some of this r&d work. Anyone know about those? I could use a grant or two.

I agree that the solution to the environmental situation is not going to be legislated. It is going to come from entrepreneurs responding to a demand in the market. That said, government regulation and “interference” can be educational. John Q. Public often needs to be hit on the head with a very large and uncomfortable hammer (metaphorically) before he realizes what’s best for him.

Lastly, for those interested in retrofitting an existing house and avoiding pain that will come as the era of cheap energy ends, check out http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/Half.htm

Now, say what you think, but let’s steer clear of the personal jabs. They are tempting but not particularly constructive.

What you know about my situation could fill a thimble, so take your comment and stick it.

Seriously.

As for what someone says on their own blog, what about that piece was I not suppose to take at face value?

Seems like you need the Paxil.

Tony, you’ve obviously been forcing the argument at hand into your little preconceived box. It’s pretty apparent, if you’d care to look.

Take a paxil! Can’t you tell when some one is joking? The whole bail out comment was a joke.

What about this project is not a free market approach?

No one is forcing them to do this as a green project and if you are wishing for lighter utility bills in your 5 year old house then you should have built someting greener.