Your Best Offer: The Green Edition

Three Green houses: The one on the far left has been sold; the agents "bid" on the housees on the right.

STEVE MCEWEN
@properties

"Paul's approach to building makes it affordable to buy something green," said Mc Ewen, who used to live on the same block as this house. "He's knowledgeable and diligent about the methods he uses. There's value in that long-term energy savings." On top of that, Mc Ewen considered the neighborhood a big draw, with its nearby restaurants and nightclubs and its many new houses. "This is where you get million-dollar homes for less than $900,000," he said.

KIRK FOX
Helios Real Living Realty

"This is how green homes should be done," Fox said, pointing to the house's high-efficiency water heater, the nontoxic paints and varnishes, and the cabinets made from sustainable wood. "He's not charging extra for any of those," said Fox, who specializes in green residential real estate. "The only thing I can argue with is that [the house] has a big footprint, which doesn't help on sustainability—
but you do have to give that to people if they want it."

CERA STAN-TSANOV
Ace Development

Stan-Tsanov, a real-estate agent developing a condo building a block away from the Grun houses, arrived with little understanding of green construction practices. Then the owner of Ahlrich's corner house told Stan-Tsanov that his December gas bill had been only $171—less than half what she had expected. "It's amazing the kind of money you can save living here," she said. "And it's such a nice house. I didn't expect something this sophisticated to be green."

HIS BEST OFFER
$899,000