Terrible Estate Agent Photos

Green roofs have a huge list of benefits.

1. They keep the place better insulated, both warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
2. They help reduce local air temperature, particularly in cities, by reducing reflected sunlight / radiation.
3. You can farm animals on them(see https://oldcountrymarket.com/ )
4. You can have a rooftop garden and bee colonies. See the western half of Vancouver BCs Convention Center. Where they maintain a wildflower garden and beehives on the roof of the building and the chefs inside the building harvest honey from the beehives. ( https://www.greenroofs.com/2022/08/18/featured-project-vancouver-convention-centre-west-expansion-project/ )

Only fault of the realtor is they didnt get the place landscaped prior to the photo.

The whole point of these types of places is to save on heat/cooling.

Very unusual unfinished, unpermitted concrete bermed home with unpermitted septic system and no power on 4.97 secluded, wooded acres. Individual well. 4-1,000 in ground propane tanks, 500 gal water storage tank. Used to be powered by a solar system & a generator, both of which were stolen (and other equipment) but electric nearby. Owner was working on a self-sufficient home but passed during construction having spent over $400K on the project.

They were building a bunker.

You can usually delete the tracking stuff after the question mark in the link

Depending on how it's built and insulated, it might be much cheaper to heat and cool, though.

replace that roof with native plants and you have solarpunk

Deja vu! I legitimately looked at this listing (not in person). I think it's neat but we don't have the time or money for all of the problems of an unofficial unpermitted unfinished prepper pad of unknown quality.

Getting permitted may be about impossible, but there's a lot going on here. On a creek, near a lake, not too far outside a major city, I dig it. And 5 acres is nothing to sneeze at. I've got half that in Florida Swamp and still haven't explored it all after 4 years.

This is the kind of place I want. Mostly underground. Like a Hobbit hole.

My sister just bought a house like this!

Fun fact: it can be difficult to get an appraisal for one of these, especially if in a location where not many others have been built or sold. They almost had to back out of the purchase because the underwriter couldn't sign off without an appraisal, but luckily, they were able to find one.

My dream home

Would be better in the midwest where we have multiple tornadoes a year. I bet their electricity bill is nice though.

Seller could have doubled the price for the cost of installing a round door.

A bit of a fixer upper but I'd totally live there, especially for that price (I live near San Francisco).

I kinda get "new-age cult" vibes from some of the interior pictures

Also, while I bet the house is quite heat efficient, the underground design means that rooms in the back will get no natural light, which would be pretty miserable.

I want it

The building itself looks quite claustrophobic and possibly haunted, but the outside looks so serene.

That much underground would be awful for mold allergies. And IDK how much time and money is needed to deal with nothing ever getting permits

Very unusual unfinished, unpermitted concrete bermed home with unpermitted septic system and no power on 4.97 secluded, wooded acres. Individual well. 4-1,000 in ground propane tanks, 500 gal water storage tank. Used to be powered by a solar system & a generator, both of which were stolen (and other equipment) but electric nearby. Owner was working on a self-sufficient home but passed during construction having spent over $400K on the project. Current best use may be to bring in power, do engineering calculations & permit this structure as a shop/ag building & build another home/manufactured home. Owners have some construction photos. Great buy at the list price. There is still a lot of value there. Located in the country East of Olympia.

Zelda has ruined my mind, my first thought was definitely that I could get a few rupees by smashing all those pots before I even noticed it was an unusual building.