March/April 1984 RAIN Page 17 The cost of a MLS is minuscule compared to the fees charged by realtors. A normal charge to a realtor is $65 a month for the service, plus a $25 charge for each listing sold. The technology of multiple-listing services makes most of the services that realtors perform in the housing market unnecessary. A nonprofit MLS operated as a community housing exchange could make such listing booklets available to prospective buyers in libraries, post offices, shopping centers, employment services, personnel offices of businesses, in banks, and on newsstands. Simple guidebooks could advise both buyers and sellers what to look for, how to evaluate a house, and how to make a fair deal. They could also include necessary standard forms for contracts, earnest money, escrow, and land contracts. People would still be able to go to realtors for any special assistance or services they wanted. But for the vast majority of sales, a community housing exchange could perform the job for about one-thousandth the cost of listing with a realtor. 5. Construction labor/Owner-building Owner-building provides a reduction in the economic cost of housing only where it makes use of human resources that would otherwise not be taken advantage of, as with sweat-equity housing grants as part of public housing programs. It does provide financial savings to the owner-builder when it avoids finance charges or taxes, as well as providing social and personal benefits. 6. Infrastructure: Reducing water, sewer, road, police, commuting, and other costs Our patterns of housing location, design, and use substantially affect our community costs for utilities, roads, parks, and police, as well as our commuting costs. Alternate sanitation, water and energy conservation, solid waste reduction in the home, and working at home can reduce the costs of off-site development, commuting, and community services, but these savings are beyond the scope of this overview. This overview has focused on ownership costs of houses, but similar costs and savings are possible in other sectors of the housing market. Additionally, in the rental market, separation of economic and financial analysis has developed the logic for change in mortgage regulations that would give renters ownership equity for the portion of their rent that now goes to an investor's mortgage payments—50% or more of most rental payments. The changes we've discussed make possible immediate reductions of 75% in the cost of housing purchase and ownership, and eventual long-term savings of up to 90% in the overall cost of housing for generations to come. These changes are likely to improve, rather than sacrifice, comfort or quality, and would release vast amounts of resources and money for other social needs. At the same time, they forcefully document the value of rethinking our social institutions and economic processes to remove the encrustations of financial policies and practices that have crippled and debilitated our basic economic systems. Housing has taken a vital leadership role in realigning our energy thinking and policies for a new era. It can fulfill a similarly vital role in the revitalization of our economic system and its reorientation toward fulfilling a greater destiny for our society. □ □ ACCESS: Housing The Owner-Builder's Code Reform Handbook, by Steve and Dianna Nienhaus, 1982, $10.75 from: Rainbow Pond Publications 7080 South Holst Road Clinton, WA 98236 Resources for implementing an owner- built amendment for building codes, based on a successful action in Island County, Washington, Such amendments have been enacted on a state- or countywide basis in California, Oregon, and Washington. If unreasonable code problems exist in your area, check first to see what political level has the power to grant such amendments, then take a look at this book and take a hard look at your own assumptions before acting. The changes aren't easy to make, and you might be more successful resolving your problems in other ways. If you need such an amendment, here's the stuff you need to get to work on it. —Tom Bender Community Self-Help Housing Manual, edited by Robert William Stevens for Habitat for Humanity, 1982, 72 pp., $8.95 from: ITDG/NA PO Box 337 Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 Habitat for Humanity is a Christian group that organizes and promotes low-income housing-construction projects in the U.S. and in several underdeveloped countries. This book is a guide for people who would like to organize similar projects. It outlines, step-by-step, how to go about incorporating, forming committees to carry out each step, and selecting sites and families for new homes. It is not a construction guide, and it does not mention the difficulties involved in volunteer construction projects. The book includes several simple floor plans and a good bibliography on low-cost, energy-efficient housing. The group's orientation is decidedly Christian: Its motto is, "A decent house in a decent community for God's people in need." This orientation is also reflected in its approach, which recommends the use of church networks as the basis for fund raising. The manual is a guide to the Habitat for Humanity system and would be most useful for people who want to plan a similar project. —Kristine Altucher Kristine Altucher has been involved with the Eliot Energy House in Portland since its beginnings.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz