Case Study:  Atlanta, Ga
Purchase Price - $265,000
June 2015

To illustrate the Power of TCO, we developed this case study based on a median priced home in the Atlanta, Ga marketplace.

Step #1

We start the discussion with a few calculations that represent what a traditional buyer would review when buying a home with traditional financing. The numbers are fairly straightforward and are focused solely on the price of the home, the amount of the loan and the monthly mortgage payment.

Step #2

We follow these baseline assumptions with an illustration which represents a breakdown of the sum of the Total Mortgage Payments that a buyer would pay if they paid the mortgage loan described above, from origination thru the term of the loan.

Our purpose here is twofold ... to introduce our  prospective home buyer to the concept of looking at the cost of owning their home from a holistic perspective, and to also set a baseline figure for our further illustrations.

In Step #3

We update the total monthly mortgage payment by adding the monthly utility expenses for the home owner or prospective home buyer to consider. The majority of buyers don't include these energy related costs as part of the decision making process, but as you will see, utility expenses are usually the 2nd highest monthly expense associated with home ownership and they can vary widely from home to home ... by the time your finish this initial review of this website, you will be amazed how powerful paying attention to these expenses can be.

And in Step #4

To complete the picture, we also create an illustration that takes the Total Monthly Mortgage Payments (from above) and adds the Estimated Total Utility Expenses to the equation to come up with an estimate of the Total Cost of Ownership for a prospective buyer.

Click Graphic to See Additional Details

And Step #5, You Choose Your Savings

You Can Choose to Improve the Energy Performance by 30%

You Can Choose to Improve the Energy Performance by 40%

You Can Choose to Improve the Energy Performance by 40% & add a Solar PV System

Click any of the Graphics above to See Additional Details

In the spirit of full disclosure, we have ignored estimating any the maintenance expenses for the property noted in this Case Study, as these expenses seem to vary widely from home owner to home owner. We have also not added any annual inflation to the analysis for Property Taxes or Homeowners Insurance because we expect that they will rise and fall the same amount regardless of how the home is financed or how it performs.