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We are one hundred percent off the grid on five acres in a very scenic part of SE Utah.
Grid is at the driveway, but we never hooked up. There is no seller's market at all where we live, in a small community of four hundred, with no services. A popular, bustling tourist town is just twenty miles away; Moab. We are just three miles from the CO River; rafting, hiking, etc.
Our property has horse facilities, and you can ride right out the gate to wonderful areas. In three years, we've had only a few showings. It is lack of interest in the area, more than our particular place.
Any advice for more specific targeted marketing in the "green living" community; suggestions of websites or anything?
Kind of at wit's end...thanks for any advice. Realtor has none....
Unfortunately, if a place doesn't sell, it's priced too high for the market. The market for out of the way places where there are no jobs is small-- there's only a few of us who value seclusion and undisturbed Nature and can afford to live far removed from sources of income-- either retired or with good income not requiring our presence at a work place.
I sold last year and had trouble selling-- we were located just six miles from Chicago's Midway airport in a small neighborhood grandfathered in to allow horses on small properties, with easy access to 200 miles of bridal trails thru the Forest Preserve. We had a hoop house, small barn & paddock, potting shed, fruit trees, flower & vegetable gardens, 2 dz large trees, gazebo with picturesque fountain, backyard chickens-- a cute mini-farm in an urban setting at a modest, working class price amid a metro area with 6 million people-- yet the only buyer tore down all that stuff and turned it into a typical suburban lawn.
Most people don't care. As you can deduce from perusing this site which is supposedly devoted to ecology, most discussions are about virtue signaling over "carbon footprint" and plastic shopping bags, not actually about conservation issues, preserving or improving habitat and wildlife & resources.
Is the asked for price trying to make up for your solar investment cost?
How much solar do you produce? A lot of people don't want the inconvenience of having to worry about energy conservation or lack of some luxuries. Here in Az, I wouldn't want to live off the grid unless I had a serious battery bank, more than it would be worth. I have a 9K solar system that breaks even with being tied to the grid, but I still pay an assortment of taxes and fees a month. But it is worth not having to worry about some of the issues of off grid.
How much would it cost to connect to the grid both initial investment and month to month fees even if you break even on electricity. It may open your home up to more people that do want to conserve, but are fearful of being completely off grid.
We have a off-grid vacation home that we rent. It definitely drops the market by a significant number and we live in the "green" Pacific NorthWest.
Even though our home is totally transparent to the renter, most folks equate off-grid living with hippies. And so they pass on renting many times.
We have tried various marketing techniques and quite frankly they don't work. People do not want to be off-grid. Your best chance is to connect to the grid. Leave the solar as a grid connect option.
Sorry, but these days people talk green, but are unwilling to "walk green". In our case, it means shutting off the lights at night.....that is too much of a sacrifice for today's generations. The WWII generation was great, but they are pretty much dead at this point!!
See if your house could be converted to Bed and Breakfast? With this great location, lots of land, river, horses - you might get someone interested in B&B.
I know the area around Moab and it's flat out gorgeous. But people have to make a living and there are no jobs in the area. There is another solar house built into a rock not too far from you and I would love to have that one as well. But again, no way to make a living.
Someone else mentioned this but I agree, advertise in California/Washington where people have a lot of money and can afford a 2nd home.
What's the average price of a home in your area? Plus or minus a little, that's what yours is worth. Market value. Your house may well be 'special' but you have to find a buyer who agrees with you. And it will most likely have to be a cash buyer because the house will appraise for market value.
You're smokybtoo far away from daily conveniences. It takes very special people to want to live literally off the grid. Most can't simply because they need to be near civilization forvwork food entertainment etc.
You would need to price it low enough to make it attractive enough for a buyer.
I know the area around Moab and it's flat out gorgeous. But people have to make a living and there are no jobs in the area. There is another solar house built into a rock not too far from you and I would love to have that one as well. But again, no way to make a living.
Someone else mentioned this but I agree, advertise in California/Washington where people have a lot of money and can afford a 2nd home.
What's the average price of a home in your area? Plus or minus a little, that's what yours is worth. Market value. Your house may well be 'special' but you have to find a buyer who agrees with you. And it will most likely have to be a cash buyer because the house will appraise for market value.
Thanks for these thoughts, YellowSnow. I know where that house built in the rock is. Amazing.
Re making a living, though--couldn't you say that about ANY tourist area? Why would this be a specific problem to Moab? People DO make a living at various things, just like in any small town. Not great jobs, but....we survived just fine.
Unfortunately, there are no "average prices" because it is literally---mansion, yurt, manufactured home, small adobe, straw bale, trailer....like that. Prices are $150,000 to 2 million. We had maybe one "comp" and we are priced close to that. At this point, we would entertain bare land price.
We have had no feedback of being over-priced and had 2 very low-ball offers ($50,000 less) that we accepted; then the would-be buyers disappeared. Really, no feed-back at all on anything.
We don't consider our place "special" at all. No value is given to the solar installation.
But I don't understand your last sentence: a cash buyer because it's market value?
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