[jprince]

I'd be interested in such a thing but these homes are far from affordable. In fact they're priced a bit more heavily than homes in nearby Elmhurst, IL, no bastion of cheap home prices.

I'd be up for trying this if I could get it for around 250-300k for the 4br and then that allows me to pick up the land for 150k and come out about 150k cheaper than a standard house, but you're expecting me to pony up 500k + whatever it costs for the land plot, when I can just buy a house for 550k in the same neighborhood prebuilt.

My point is, your value prop isn't real. It's a great home, and a great idea, but it's actually more expensive square foot for square foot.

My wife and I are going to be house hunting in the next two years, and we would have considered this option but it's actually more expensive.

You can give the standard Tesla "but you'll have lower (gas/electric) bills" argument but I like air conditioning, so I doubt that's true for me, and even if it was, it doesn't really sell me either. "Because you'll save so much in the long run(and we can't really prove you will), you need to pay an extra 150k up front!" doesn't ring well.

EDIT: To clarify, I basically feel like in order for this business to work at all, it has to be a much cheaper option than a normal home, because there is an accompanying huge risk in investing in one of these. It's resale value may be next to zero, and all it's fancy gadgets will be out of date by the end of next year.

[andrewksu]

Fully agree. Our overall mission is replace the average American home with a ZE home, no additional cost and no energy bill to boot.

This first series is the first DVD player. High end, priced at a premium and for early adopters. It'll help us push the edge of our product and fund development of tech/engineering that pushes future price down.

We should be able to launch homes in the $225K range next year that can be built spec and start helping that average family. That is no easy task and nothing else is commonly available anywhere. The early adopters will pave the way for everyone else, just like the Roadster and Model S is doing for the Model 3 and spurring on the rest of the industry to pay attention.

Currently Net-Zero homes start around $250/sqft, with many that push well above that. We aren't really targeting the mid west, where this does tip the scales (we are originally from Kansas City, so appropriate the gap). In major metros in CA, OR, CO, WA, etc, this is actually a good deal for a normal home and a steal for a turn key zero energy home. Our current home in Redwood City, CA is zillowed at $1.6M and would be $220K in KC. It's all relative.

I'll disagree on the resale. The principal of the home is based on passive heating/cooling, good design and great materials, so performs well regardless. Solar will last 30, quality is significantly better than par and even the software can be updated.

Keep posted, we will have a model home available via AirBnB late summer and you can see how truly different (better) these homes are. By the time you are ready to buy, we should also have our next series available.

[rrowland]

How many sales have you had so far? I can see the "DVD player" logic working for DVD player, cars and other possessions that are expected to lose value over time but I don't see this working for real estate and other assets that are commonly seen as investments (Whether they are income-producing or not).

Regardless of which area you're building in, the bottom line seems to be that I'd pay $400k this year for something I could get for $225k next year. Whether I'm in KC and it's worth $220k or Bay Area and it's worth $1.6mil I'm still immediately losing $200k at the time of purchase for no benefit other than having the property a year earlier.

[maerF0x0]

But unlike the first dvd player, people have been doing ZE homes for a long time.

[slm_HN]

>EDIT: To clarify, I basically feel like in order for this business to work at all, it has to be a much cheaper option than a normal home, because there is an accompanying huge risk in investing in one of these. It's resale value may be next to zero, and all it's fancy gadgets will be out of date by the end of next year.

Bingo. I've never lived in one house for more than 7 or 8 years so planning to own a house for longer than 8 years is foolish.

If I had to choose between this house and the $20,000 house that was featured on HN a while back, I'd take the 20k house and save 380k for retirement.

[andrewksu]

I assume you mean this article? http://www.artsatl.com/2016/01/serenbe-rural-studio-artist-r...

Love the homes, have followed their work for some time and would certainly consider for $20K.

You'll notice it was actually $135K to build, not their 20K "aspiration". That would take them to $128/sq ft which is close to our last home which you can find in our news section. We'll be able to offer that at scale, at a net zero performance level next year.

Beyond that, to remake our housing industry, it'll take many different builders and architects offering different products at different sizes and price points. Definitely not a one size fits all market.