Ax Your Utility Bill

A totally true saying in Colorado is “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” This past week $A Busy Beaver lives here! He\'s certainly not cordless!$ was proof positive as we have enjoyed temps from the 40’s to the 80’s with both sunshine and rain.

As luck would have it, my relocation assignment this week came from sunny California to our rainy Colorado. It only rained for 1 and 1/2 days, the entire time he was here. Now I’m not making any accusations, just saying it was a terrible coincidence. My client must have had our weather on the mind, because every house he had even a slight interest in, he wanted to know the average utility bill. Funny how seldom people think about the cost of utilities when buying a house.

Of course now that energy costs are sky rocketing, everyone should be more cautious. It was easy for me to oblige my soggy client, thanks to the 24/7 service Xcel Energy provides. With just a quick call to them (even at 10:00 p.m.) I was able to fulfill my assignment!

What did strike me as odd was the HUGE disparity in average utility bills. The range for approximately the same size homes ran from $95 to $262 a month! Now in all fairness the $262 a month housed a family twice the size of the $95 a month. We didn’t take into consideration other factors such as energy efficient windows and such. Certainly that will account for significant savings. Also I recall the $95 a month home was southwest facing with lots of natural solar properties. I bet that helps in normally sunny Colorado!

As energy cost rise I’m thinking all buyers should be considering the average utility bill before making a home purchase. The reality is a well-built home that uses all the right construction materials over a home that doesn’t should be part of the home buying decision. So many times buyers purchase with their HEART instead of their HEAD.

I do believe the times they are a changin’.

Note the photo! This too came my way just this today in fact. I was up in Conifer when out of the corner of my eye I noticed this amazing wood pile. Someone plans to be toasty warm this winter.

Wonder what a cord of wood costs? On second thought I betcha this one cost the cutter a few gazillon calories!