Hey, all! My house is on the market. My property backs up to a power line easement and there are power lines running along the back of my house, beyond the back yard. Not telephone-type poles, but metal transmission towers, like the smaller ones you can see here.
As the house has been shown, it has become apparent the power lines are an issue for a significant number of people. Maybe 50% of those who comment leave comments on the powerlines, and those comments are always negative, not “Yay! Power lines!”. My realtor now suggests that I get EMF (electromagnetic field) readings done in order to reassure potential buyers that the power lines don’t present a health issue. The kicker is that if I have EMF readings done, I must disclose the results, even if they are negative (high EMF). As it is, I can say I have no idea of the EMF output, which is perfectly true. I can also say I’ve never had a problem with them, and am unaware of any neighbor who has, which is also perfectly true.
My initial reaction is to say “no” to doing EMF readings. I guess I think people who object to power lines will object on one of two bases: health or aesthetics. If they object to them for health reasons, then I kind of doubt any reading of EMF is going to reassure them, I assume they just won’t want to live there. And if they object to them for aesthetic reasons (i.e., think they’re noticable and ugly), then they’re not going to care what the EMF reading is anyway.
Thoughts? If you were looking at a house backed up to a powerline easement, would knowing the EMF reading make any difference to you? Any one else encountered this issue?
We had the same problem with our last house. People with kids especially had a problem with it. We didn’t do an EMF reading - hadn’t considered it actually. The house eventually sold, but if it had been on the market much long, we may have considered doing one.
My house is about a hundred feet from a substation. The realtor thought that would be a drawback for me. I didn’t see why - and I’ve been living there almost three years and my power has never gone out. Never. Not ever. So I think it’s a plus, personally.
I’d tend to vote with you–don’t get the EMF readings done.
It seems more likely to me that the aesthetics are causing an immediate negative reation to most folk than that they are really concerned about health issues related to EMF. Being able to provide good EMF readings might just aggrevate the issue–sure the readings are good now, but what will the future bring? And of course, without doing the readings you don’t know whether the readings you get will be good, or whether they will be more scary than the present state of knowledge.
But that’s just my instincts. Still, I think I’d focus on making your house look really desirable in other ways–or like a bargain, not so cheap one wonders if there really is a problem with the EMF or other stuff, but enough of a better price to make people want to take a second look.
I’m one of the people who wouldn’t buy your house. EMF readings wouldn’t make any difference, so I’d recommend against the expense. Frankly, if a realtor was showing me houses, I’d never even get out of the car at your house. And it isn’t aesthetics; it’s the power lines. You might as well figure nuts like me are out of the market and you can’t do anything about our irrational behavior or thinking.
Or have the Sci-Fi channel “Ghost Hunters” charlatans come to your house to see if it’s “haunted”, I think they do EMF readings as part of their scam…errr…service
This is my feeling as well, and 3acresandatruck’s response – which I appreciate – tends to back this up. I’ll give it some more thought but I’m still thinking “no.” Plus, I don’t even know what it would cost to have the readings done.
Like Zsofia says, make this an positive – put in your brochure that the house is directly adjacent to a major power line, and you have never had an electrical power failure in all the years you’ve lived there. (This also protects you if a buyer ever tries to claim damages – you clearly mentioned the nearby power line.)
The hysterical people scared of EMF effects have their minds made up, and won’t be swayed by real evidence like EMF readings. They are a lost cause to you as buyers. For those worried about the aesthetics, nothing you can do will change that – the power line is there to stay. The best you can do is offer a positive about it. That might sway them, or might appeal to some other buyers.
That has to be one of the best lines ever! I’m saving that one. That had me laughing and thinking “DAMN right!” at the same time.
I know it’s not rational. But it’s my money and there’s plenty of houses that aren’t near major power lines. I also avoided being downwind of the railroad tracks. I stayed away from the town that was a Superfund site, the town with the lead smelter, a couple of houses that looked like prime locations for a flash flood, houses that might have been in the 2000-year-flood zone, one house just because I couldn’t figure out how an ambulance could get to it in the winter (and they have some bad-ass ambulances here), and the houses that would be in the most likely path of any local zombie uprisings.
That limits the natural disasters which might befall me to windstorms, tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes…I think that’s all. Oh, wait…what if Yellowstone goes all supervolcano and suffocates us all?
We have a similar problem (a power pole right at the back of our property, and support wires across the back and right up into our yard), and I think the only thing we can do is find someone who wants a house at the reduced price that such a negative feature causes. If people want a perfect back yard, they won’t be buying our house. I don’t think we’ve had any positive benefits from having a big honking pole right in the back of our yard; it’s just there. I vote for no EMF readings too. (And I too thought that we were going to be discussing whether or not your house was haunted.)
I had no idea! But Google “EMF readings” and you get site after site about how to confirm whether or not there are ghosts in your house.
I’m pretty comfortable on the ghost question. (Either there aren’t any, or they are really, really quiet.) But there’s very little information as to whether EMF-related health concerns are legitimate or to what extent any of us should be concerned. Or how much having readings done costs. Or how likely it is that the type of power lines I’m dealing with would yield a “bad” reading or a “good” reading. That’s the type of information I need; I guess it’s a little too mundane and relevant for teh intarwebs.
OTOH, if I develop brain cancer in 20 years, you can all testify that you know why.
You’ve got a much better approach/attitude than the people who buy property adjacent to farmland or water treatment plants and then put up a fuss because of bad smells.
Gleanings from the observant:
There was a suit brought by a farmer against a utility claiming the presence of transmission towers’ “emanations” reducing the output of his dairy herd. He lost as a third party could detect no meausurable “forces”.
Sorry, no cite, but it happened in the NE US, 1980s.
I worked for an interstate pipeline company on a job sharing right-of-way with electrical transmission towers. Difficulties with welding were claimed, though again, no detectable source, but could be attributed to other factors.
