I'm planning to rehab a 4-unit building, and wnt to include green materials and will market it as "green", but was turned down by my bank for the loan. Anyone have ideas of how to convince the lender the extra costs (for the carpets, paint, HE hvac system, etc.) will be made up in the sale?

Any help would be appreciated.

John

1st. You are not stuck with that lender, are you? There are hundreds of lenders/banks/brokers out there. I am sure some of them have incentives for greenbuilding. I know a local (Mobile,AL) Whitney Bank advertised energywise rebates.

2nd. You need to convince the appraiser of the value of such upgrades. Are there any other Commercial properties in your area that have these upgrades? He needs comparable properties to establish a rule of value.

3rd. How much of an adjustment are these added costs. Just a higher grade carpet and paint and the HVAC cant be but another couple thousand. Total of 5-10k markup on a 4unit commercial building. I know here we are cheap and that would be 500k? So we are talking a 1-2% adjustment? Talk with the appraiser about getting a 1% adjustment for these upgrades. Doesnt sound like a strech.

If your greening includes a geothermal system you could then apply for a energy efficiency mortgage. and it should cover all improvements . Along with your local state energy rebates.
Eldon Howe

Where are you located, Northern California has a number of "green" banks that love projects like this, talking earlier today in a meeting there are certain lenders who only lend to green projects.

Eldon, we're doing ICF wf geothermal, but our bank hasn't mentioned energy efficient mortgage, is there any special verbage, etc to mention to them re this? We'll go elsewhere in a heartbeat if this is available in our area (we're in Western NC) & these guys won't play.. !! d-

Hi

For financing needs I seached the information about financing comapies from the net.  Out of many I found out the best options and applied for my loan. I got loan easly. U can also surf teh net for your finanancil needs and can get the oan easily.


Stella

John,

There are thousands of lenders out there and some of them specifically seek out green builds and rehabs. Drop these guys like yesterday's newspaper and seek a lender with an eye on our childrens future!

Write back if you need help finding one.

Regards,

PW

Shore Bank is committed to financing environmentally friendly projects: www.sbk.com. DOE has energy tax credits provided certain standards are met. they can be substatial, and some banks will buy your tax credits from you, so you'll have more equity for the project. Each state's commerce and housing departments have programs that administer federal money for green rehabs. Contact the state senator of the district where your building is located, go to your councilman's office. This is the kind of project that can be a photo op for them.

The fed. government is offering NOW $2.25/sf. TAX CREDIT for using energy efficient equipemt  and achieving at least a 50% savings from established performance guidelines.  Look into USGBC website for current issues and answers here.  Look to develop a spec that will tightly wrap the exterior of the building, as you are able.  A serious R-value in the walls and roof will be a huge benefit to get you moving toward a +50% energy savings.  A rigid insulation technology will be your best bet to handle this portion of the box as you tear it down and put it back together.  The energy savings in this strategy is very dramatic with 50-70% savings out there IF you coordinate a team approach and cover ALL the aspects tied to an enegy efficient building plan; windows/doors, hvac, electrical, building enfelope.

Also, look to work with a known Green Supplier, who's rates may not affect the cost of the project as well. If you need the name of one, let me know.


LS.

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Looks similar to the nigerian letters I get every day though?

I know this is an old post but I had to get some good news out .... we just finished 12 townhouses (two storey, three bedroom, two bathroom, double garage average 130m2) in a coastal town about an hour south of Sydney using ICF's downstairs and three inch thick styrene screw fixed to timber studs upstairs with a metal roof, nice italian double glazed windows and groovy internal doors (also from italy).

August 2006 the bank valued the units at $430,000 each (while the market was still going reasonably well);

Delays due to weather, a lot of experimenting with new products and materials, getting rid of shotty tradesmen etc the project dragged out to 21 months!

Welcome to May 2009 - we are all in the guts of the GFC and we are expecting a backlash from the bank when four independent valuers representing four of the five investors in the project all needed to refinance so they could release the original mortgage and lease out their finished units.

All four valuers came in around $490,000 !!!!

That's a $60,000 increase in valuation when everything else around town has been culled by 20% in the last six months !!!!!!!!!

THey weren't paid any backhanders, there was no alcohol involved, no sweet talking just an in depth explanation of how these townhouses were built and the two main advantages of building with ICF's are unfortunately intagibles .... but that day it was 35oC outside and they all commented on how quiet and how cool it felt inside.

This proves to me that even though we are ten years behind the U.S. in ICF market penetration, the educated people representing banks understand that quality commands a better dollar.

Steve Krsticevic
FORMCRAFT
Concrete Homes Built For Life.