02 - Why I Would Never Buy a Production Home
This is Season 1, Ep. 2 of the Affordable High-Performance Home.
When you look at the overall cost of a home, it's not THAT much more to use high-performance materials, so why don't new production homes do it?
1) It comes down to simple economics.
When you have shareholders to please and 80,000 homes to build is a year, then $5,000 in material savings on one home = $400 million in additional profit!
As a homeowner, the $5,000 is worth it, but for the corporation its not.
2) We don't stay in our homes long enough.
Why would you be concerned about using a 50 year product if you only plan to stay in your home for 5-7 years.
3) Home warranties are too short.
Structural warranties in Texas only have to last 6 years.
4) Homes are sold by square footage, not quality.
After the first homeowner sells, there's no way of knowing who built your house, and when the high-performance goodies are in the wall how do you know one home is better than the other?
So, what's the answer?
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