As some of you know, the United States Congress passed by a vote of 219 to 212 the recent cap-n-trade bill.

Nobody really knows exactly what is in the bill yet because last Friday morning when they voted on it 300 pages were added to the bill.  Very few of the Congressmen took time to read the bill. 

My concern is, how does it affect real estate. 

Saturday night I received a phone call from my sister, Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R7) and she was talking to me about how it affected real estate.  I asked, I am a Realtor, why do I not know this?  Why didn’t the National Association of Realtors send out emails to all of it’s members.  The obvious answer is that they did not know it either.  We have received some since then and they are trying to determine how it affects real estate.

My concern is that there will be federal qualification for contractor’s inspectors.  The Government cannot say which contractor you must use except for the fact that they must be certified in energy efficiency in order to meet new codes (Section 202F).

That is just another way for the federal government to have more power over real estate and building. 

One particular section of code of concern to me is 201F.  It states that if the state or local government fails to enforce the new codes, the Secretary of energy can enforce them on their own and require inspection fees to cover the cost.  That sounds like a lot of fun.

Section 299A states that appraisers will be required to be certified in energy efficient home improvements for home value.

There is also a provision that allows the Secretary of HUD to override any contracts. 

I think it all goes back to how you feel about the government; if you think the government can be more effective at running private enterprise, then you probably think the cap-n-trade is a good deal.  On the other hand, if you think that private enterprise will normally do a better job than the government then you probably think it is a bad deal.

We all need to learn more about this.  If we ran our business by making decisions when we did not know all the details we would have been out of business a long time ago.