Green house for sale

A friend of the Hoots Group (Jennifer Spivey) is selling a house for another associate of the Hoots Group. The story of the vision of the house and the land were just published in their local newspaper:

A planned agrarian community in Carroll County may become a casualty of the floundering economy.

Myra Bailes, the owner of 66 acres in Carrollton near John Tanner State Park and who dreamed of living and working the land in a green community, has put the ranch on the market for financial reasons.

“I’m not so much disappointed, but just frustrated,” Bailes said. “There’s definitely been people who seem like they’re teetering on the brink of saying, ‘Yes, we’re in,’ and then they can’t, either because they have a job that they can’t afford to give up right now and it’s too far away, or they would have to sell the house that they’re in now and they know that they can’t sell it.”
Bailes has been living on the ranch for four years. She has been planning the community called Brokenfoot Ranch for nearly two years. She built her home, using some of the latest green technologies, and she enlisted professional designers from Village Habitat Design to plan the community.

The finished design developed about 6 acres for living and working, and preserved the rest for organic farming or natural land. It included 12 to 15 homes, a community home, an arts and crafts work center, a communal parking garage, a shed and barns.

Bailes envisioned a community of like-minded people working together to farm the land, enjoying an environmentally friendly lifestyle, relying on each other for company and support.

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“I think that maybe in the past, it was more like that in America and in other places, too,” Bailes said. “Now people think we can rely on technology. But really the basic bottom line is that we need to rely on ourselves and each other. If you’re just always relying on nothing but yourself, it’s lonely. Maybe some people like that, but I don’t. Also, one person can only do so much. If you build community your options are greatly increased.”

Since introducing the idea to the public through presentations at the library and weekly potluck dinners, Bailes has been at work on the ranch building a green house, and adding to the farm’s fruit trees and other food-producing plants. She has been lucky enough to have volunteers who are interested in the concept help her with some of the work.

“In terms of people being interested in the concept and the design, and even to the point of coming out here and working very hard to help do things on the property … it seems like it’s been increasing,” Bailes said.
But one important ingredient has been missing – financial commitment. She has now reached the point that she needs to do something or face possible foreclosure, she said.

Bailes listed the property with Jennifer Spivey, an EcoBroker, about six weeks ago. Spivey has a background in energy and environmental issues and teaches other brokers about things such as green energy, green building practices and alternative energy, as well as environmental hazards such as lead paint and asbestos.

“Unfortunately, I can’t do exclusively green, because I have to pay the bills, just like everybody else,” Spivey said. “One day, I see that I’m going to be able to be 100 percent green. Right now, most of my clients are green.”
It’s all about teaching people what green means, she said. Many people envision living green as a Thoreau-type lifestyle, living in a rustic cabin with no running water or electricity. Living an environmentally friendly lifestyle is easier than many people think, Spivey said.

“People have the idea that it’s some far-off thing and, basically, it just means energy efficiency and building a better, tighter home and using less water,” she said. “There are probably more people out there that are green than know it.”

Spivey was the perfect fit for Bailes, who hopes to sell to someone who will use the land with the same environmental ideals that she hoped to use. She definitely doesn’t want to see the property chopped up into subdivisions, Bailes said.
“I would much prefer to sell to someone who is going to protect the land and only use it for good environmental purposes,” she said.

That shouldn’t be a problem, Spivey said. There are many people who share the same goal as Bailes. She would love to find a contributor who would help keep Bailes’ dream alive. However, if she can’t, the next best thing would be a buyer with the same ideals.

With the house already existing and some farming already being done, Bailes’ work has already created the environmentally friendly foundation. The new buyer would just have to maintain it.
The problem Bailes is facing is the economy. The real estate market, including green housing, has screeched to a halt, Spivey said.

“The only thing that’s moving right now are foreclosures,” she said. “Everybody wants (to pay) you know 50 cents on the dollar.”

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