Award-Winning Spec Home Leverages Benefits of Building Healthy Homes
The rise in building material prices, shortages in labor and rise in home sales prices are leading some builders to pivot from pre-sales and/or custom builds to a speculative building business model. Maximizing the interest in a spec home or condo to appeal to today's buyers — and managing build costs to be able to offer a target price point — are critical to successfully building and selling spec homes.
Industry research has consistently shown high consumer interest in and willingness to pay for energy efficiency, smart home tech and healthy homes — a trend that has continued upward during the coronavirus pandemic.
One builder who has test-driven these concepts on a spec home is former NAHB Chairman Randy Noel of Reve, Inc. A custom builder for more than 30 years, he decided to build a speculative home for the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans' Parade of Homes around the pillars of efficiency, resiliency, health and smart home tech, as well as pilot the Wellness Within Your Walls (WWYW) healthy home certification.
Healthy home features include:
- Maximizing natural light,
- Detaching the garage from the home and connecting it via a breezeway,
- Installing locking cabinets for pharmaceuticals and garden chemicals,
- Controlling humidity for the outside fresh air being brought into the home and reducing stress on the heat pump,
- Removing contaminants from the incoming utility water through reverse osmosis water filters,
- Installing automatic faucets to reduce touch points,
- Incorporating an electromagnetic field (EMF) control cabinet — the interior of which is painted with a special electromagnetic wave-blocking paint — for electronics charging,
- Integrating automatic vents in the bathroom to exhaust damp air from the home,
- Installing a non-combustible, electric fireplace and induction cooktop, and
- Incorporating a kitchen herb wall.