Spacep0d
Active Member
This is great work on your part, jhm. I appreciate this grass-roots advocacy. I'm sure we all do. Here's what I did recently.
As some of you know I sold my last townhome because it had no upgrade path for charging two Teslas. I went home shopping and it annoyed me to no end that clueless real-estate agents (that's most of them, apparently), do NOT show the garage in their listings......not even for gorgeous empty garages! They do not talk about the service panel (relating to EV charging or upgrades). They may mention an existing EV charger if we're lucky. They almost never show that or the panel and again, they don't even show the garage in 99% of the listings. Of course, this means they don't talk about EV-charging 'readiness', but may waste words explaining what pictures could show instantly. "Spacious living room." Okaaaay.
What did I do? I joined the real estate sub-Reddit with about 240,000 members+ and stated my case thoroughly to the entire sub. I explained why I just moved. I explained how solar helps us who drive EVs, arguably for the same purpose (clean energy and a lower carbon footprint). I argued my case for showing the dang garage (and not just for EV-owners) because it's an essential part of a house. Some people buying houses have never had a garage and this might be a primary housing upgrade driver. It was for me. Some people are going from a two to three car garage and again, showing this area is important. I explained the horrific downsides of NOT having a garage and the indignities of weathering, vandalism, theft, and everything else street-parkers have to deal with as they work to afford their first home with a garage.
Beyond protecting our cars, I explained that people like to work in garages. Guys often use this as an opt-in means for passive social invitation to neighbors who might amble over and be offered a beverage. It's a sacred space full of possibilities...utilitarian, invention, and yes, a safe haven for parking cars and charging our EVs. One of the primary benefits of EVs is charging at home, and yet these REAs cannot be bothered to show this vaunted space.
*Crickets*
Of course, the listings never missed that carefully-staged country kitchen or bathroom, but a garage apparently has no meaning in the world of legacy REA (real-estate agents).
The depth of ignorant recalcitrance I found here was staggering. It was a deep and entrenched vein of obstinance and unwillingness to adapt or even acknowledge the world in which we live now. I heard every excuse in the book; "The garage isn't pretty". That's not the point. People want to plan those garages AND their EV-charging solutions. They want to see the panel or at least know its service amps for headroom (for EV-charging, power tools, refrigerators, freezers, etc.). They want to know as much as possible *before* they trek all the way out to see the home....only to find a 60a panel in the back of the house or some nightmarish garage-to-room conversion that dashes their plans. Perhaps it's just an ill-placed support pole in the garage that wasn't shown. This is why pictures are important, but this concept seemed a bridge too far for most.
I did manage to convince a few REAs, but there is *definitely* a culture of ignorance here where not showing the garage is the trending behavior. It's shocking that people don't understand this, even when I thoroughly explain it to them. Some eschew garage pictures simply because they insist that 'nobody cares about that' or 'that's how it's done' or some other bizarre reasoning.
If garages don't matter, then why do these same REAs keep using them in their own homes? Why do home builders keep including them? Why are 'dream garages' a thing on Google or with Jay Leno? I have many ideas about why this situation is how it is, but either way this must change. Don't real estate agents realize the advantage they would have showing garages and educating sellers to that end compared to the fools who refuse such an obviously beneficial inclusion?
I even made examples that they would understand. "Imagine if nearly every RE listing you saw omitted pictures of the kitchen." Most still didn't get it. Yet using first principles, I figured out in 5 minutes what so many career REAs couldn't process even when having it explained. Unbelievable.
Beyond that, all new construction from apartments to business centers must consider and include EV-charging needs, but I think this is already happening.
/rant
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