Would "Cap & Trade" Bill Impact Home Purchases?

[Bill Cobb]

Yes, I know that this ill-conceived Bill is not law - has to pass in the Senate. I received this email from a local Realtor, who asked me if I had ever heard of this. The Realtor received it from a potential home buyer:

"Dear XXX Realtor,
This is the word going around about the Cap & Trade bill that will effect the housing market. This is what I was talking about the other day. "To sell your house the Cap & Trade bill requires home owners to have their home inspected prior to sale. The inspector will determine if your appliances, AC, etc. meet energy saver guidelines and if they don't you must replace the appliances, etc. or the difference will be deducted from your appraisal."

My response to the Realtor was this:
I read the email and have no idea what the Fed Gov will require. This doesn't make much sense to me. Either the Fed Gov would make them replace it or the sale doesn't go through would make more sense. If they don't replace these items and they're deducted from the appraisal, what has that accomplished toward the goal of cap and trade? Nothing unless there's a final inspection to prove that the inefficient appliances were actually replaced. I'm not for this, but the solution to the goal of cap and trade would be to make them replace these items prior to sale, just like they make the owners of homes with older septic tanks are made to replace them with new modad systems prior to sale. If the Gov can make them replace an older septic tank, then they can make them replace older appliances as well. I guess! Way too much Fed. Gov. intervention in our lives.

[Lucia Goheen]

If states would offer loans for up to 50% of the cost to retrofit, then the loan would have to be paid before the property title transferred. If I were a underemployed cash-strapped homeowner (oh wait, I am one) I would add the cost of the retrofitting to my listing price. That being said, Californians may have swallowed it, but I can't see the rest of us laying down for it.

This is a very stinky bill and I hope it doesn't pass. In Great Britain, the gov't uses drones to fly over neighborhoods to check for excess BTU usage. This spring a census worker trespassed onto my property to find the location of my house and upload it onto a GPS device. If they wanted to verify my address, the numbers were next to the road at the driveway and not on my house. If this bill passes, I won't sell my house, ever. Neither will I give up my woodstove.