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The regulations come from Fannie and Freddie as the poster said. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae The other c

The regulations come from Fannie and Freddie as the poster said. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae The other concern is that a centrally planned regulation about being connected to grid power prevents them from doing solar. These are both regulations made FAR from where the OP is building their house, and OP is simply caught in the regulations as an edge case. But because these things are centrally planned there is no recourse.

jeffbee 5y ago
Neither of those is a "regulation" at all. Fannie won't buy mortgages on off-the-grid properties, because they are a weird and frankly pointless niche and a vanishingly small slice of the housing market that nobody cares about. To build one on credit you need a portfolio loan from a cooperative lender. Obviously, if you try to get a construction loan that the lender thinks can be resold as a traditional mortgage, but then try to build a non-traditional building with the money, there's going to get differences between you and your lender.
djrogers 5y ago
> centrally planned regulation about being connected to grid power prevents them from doing solar. This is not correct at all. Solar is not only possible for grid connected new construction in CA, it’s required. The only restriction here is the federal one that requires his new construction home to be grid tied if Fannie Mae is going to loan him $$ for it. Given the potential negative impact on home value of a non-grid-tied home, that’s probably reasonable.
- rhacker 5y ago
  Holy crap this is going to be so far from the truth going forward in this area. PG&E will, for the rest of time, have wind based power outages that last multiple days (about 20 days in 2020). This is truly a terrible restriction based on idiots that can't comprehend we have solutions to the problems in California and Texas. The other thing PG&E is pushing for is 100% electric appliances - this only benefits the utility, at this point is going to get $600 per month per household in the winter. It's pretty obvious who's writing these grid tie restrictions.

jeffbee 5y ago

Neither of those is a "regulation" at all. Fannie won't buy mortgages on off-the-grid properties, because they are a weird and frankly pointless niche and a vanishingly small slice of the housing market that nobody cares about. To build one on credit you need a portfolio loan from a cooperative lender. Obviously, if you try to get a construction loan that the lender thinks can be resold as a traditional mortgage, but then try to build a non-traditional building with the money, there's going to get differences between you and your lender.

djrogers 5y ago

> centrally planned regulation about being connected to grid power prevents them from doing solar. This is not correct at all. Solar is not only possible for grid connected new construction in CA, it’s required. The only restriction here is the federal one that requires his new construction home to be grid tied if Fannie Mae is going to loan him $$ for it. Given the potential negative impact on home value of a non-grid-tied home, that’s probably reasonable.

rhacker 5y ago
Holy crap this is going to be so far from the truth going forward in this area. PG&E will, for the rest of time, have wind based power outages that last multiple days (about 20 days in 2020). This is truly a terrible restriction based on idiots that can't comprehend we have solutions to the problems in California and Texas. The other thing PG&E is pushing for is 100% electric appliances - this only benefits the utility, at this point is going to get $600 per month per household in the winter. It's pretty obvious who's writing these grid tie restrictions.