![]() The builder’s photovoltaic panel provider, SunVest Solar, helped ensure that each home had exactly the right number of rooftop panels, so it produced neither too much nor too little energy. The success of Red Fox Crossing hinged on having the right partners in place, O’Brien says. Trade partners key to net zero ready homes That’s a marked difference from its typical development breakdown of 60 percent client builds, 40 percent spec. The builder constructed 85 percent of the development’s homes for clients, with the remaining 15 percent built as spec homes. For the 3- or 4-bedroom homes, ranging from about 1,800 to 3,000 square feet, sales prices ranged from the low $400,000s to just over $600,000. “The interest was really strong coming out of the gate,” O’Brien says.īy early 2020, Tim O’Brien Homes closed on the last of the development’s 34 homes-selling about 18 homes per year, compared to its other developments’ typical sales of 12 to 14 homes per year. Making that neighborhood-wide commitment helped attract the right buying demographic: environmentally conscious individuals looking for efficient, high-performance homes. Red Fox Crossing in New Berlin, Wis., is a subdivision with net-zero electric homes as the standard offering. ![]() So, in mid-2017, along with its investor, Neumann Developments, Tim O’Brien Homes began work on Red Fox Crossing-a subdivision with net-zero electric homes as the standard offering. “If we did zero energy homes in a community with other builders who were not doing that, it’d be more difficult to convince buyers to pay a little more to have solar.” “If the buyers in our market have some extra money, they put it in upgraded cabinets or a three-car garage-not in energy upgrades,” O’Brien says. He felt that if his company built some zero energy homes in a development among code-built homes, his units would be a harder sell. That objective had been driven by a clear-eyed assessment of the market, according to president Tim O’Brien. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home Program-the first such development in the state of Wisconsin. It wanted to build an entire community of homes certified by the U.S. ![]() Tim O’Brien Homes, a green-homes builder in Wisconsin, wanted to do more than construct one-off energy-efficient homes.
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