For professionals looking to add value to their fix-and-flip or residential rehab project, there are several ways to define “value.” The first and most obvious is, of course, how much the house will sell for compared to how much you spent rehabbing it. There is another, less tangible meaning of value as well, and that is a home’s emotional and psychological worth. A house can have great value to a resident even if it isn’t worth very much monetarily, as long as it is their home and they care about it. It can also have value because it contributes positively to the environment. Using your hard-money loan from Socotra to invest in renewable energy sources for your fix-and-flip is a good way to improve all three.
Rehabbing a house to prepare it to use renewable energy is a great way to invest in its future and signal to potential buyers that a lot of thought and care went into the rehab. It lets them know that their energy bills will be lower, and that they will have more flexibility and independence. It could even potentially allow them to live completely off the grid of traditional power companies. Not only is this economically beneficial, but many modern buyers are looking to purchase homes that match their principles, including environmental scruples. We’ve talked about the benefits of solar power panels, but there are other renewables, including a new type of solar receptor, you may want to consider, or pay attention to for the future.
The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind
Wind power isn’t new. Different cultures, most famously the Dutch, have used windmills to crush grain for centuries. People have long known that harnessing something as powerful, elemental, and near-constant as the wind can make certain difficult tasks easier. It wasn’t until recently, though, that we really started considering its use as a primary source of energy. And it wasn’t until even more recently that harnessing and leveraging it on a large scale began to be viable.
Since 1980, the cost of producing wind energy has dropped nearly fourfold, making it increasingly cost-effective. While it is still more costly than natural gas, it also doesn’t have the potential to be disrupted by supply shortages. Wind isn’t fungible, and its supply can’t be hoarded by a cartel. California has always been at the forefront of wind technology in the United States, and even with huge investments in Texas and Oklahoma, among others, the state still has the most turbines in the country.
Of course, utilizing wind power is largely a matter for governments and energy companies, but it is becoming more and more scalable economically. As someone working on a single house, there are still ways to implement wind power. A home-based turbine can harness the power of wind and allow residents to drop their electricity bills. A wind turbine can either be off-grid entirely, or on the grid, which often results in getting money back from the energy company.
One area in which wind is superior to solar is, of course, that wind blows at night. This is becoming less important now that solar batteries are being developed, but it is still a consideration. Many families are choosing to have a solar/wind hybrid energy system, with the wind power making up for the hours when daylight ebbs.
There are a few considerations, of course. Experts say that you’ll want an average wind speed of around 10 mph in order to produce enough energy. This is difficult to do in more urban areas, where buildings often block winds. The less urban you are, the more the wind can be captured. You will also want to check with neighborhood associations and zoning boards about regulations before installing.
Installing a wind power harnessing device is currently expensive, running into the tens of thousands of dollars. For the right kind of buyer, this can be worth it, as long as you can add the cost to the house. You’ll be taking a step forward in providing them with renewable energy and lowering their bills with an environmentally conscious solution, and that can make the house much more valuable, in both the tangible and intangible sense.
Solar Paint
You’ve heard of wind power before, but do you know about solar paint? Specialty chemical companies are using incredible advances in modeling and simulation software to develop a paint that mimics the chemical and electrical processes of a solar panel by using nanocrystalline solar cells that are painted onto a conductive glass electrode and a counter-electrode. When a light is shined on them, they can complete a circuit, generating electricity.
The technology is still in the preliminary stages, but the implications are staggering. If it becomes scalable, it would provide the benefits of solar power without expensive and unsightly photovoltaic units. Solar paint would make solar power accessible for nearly everyone.
Of course, you can’t run to the paint store today and order up a can. It’ll be a few years before this hits the market. But it is a good example of how quickly technology can change. It’s also further proof that you have to keep up with current technological developments if you want to use your hard money loan from Socotra to the best possible effect. The world is changing, and as someone involved in residential rehab or fix-and-flip efforts, you have to be prepared to change along with it.
