Utility bills and realtors (the continuing saga)

[MaggieTheCat]

So, as some of you know, my husband and I are looking for a house to buy. We found one that we liked quite a lot, but it is a 2 story with a very open living room (the second story is only over about half of the house, so the loft on the second floor overlooks the living room and the ceiling in the living room is very high) and we were afraid the utility bills would be rather more expensive than we wanted to pay. Especially in the summer, since we're located in the middle of Texas and it gets quite toasty down here (it was over 100 degrees F for something like 54 days straight this summer.)

So, we asked our realtor if it would be possible for her to get the average utility bill costs for the place in the summer and the winter. It took her about a week to do so; she said she contacted the seller's realtor, who tried to contact the seller, but the seller was out of the country or something and couldn't get them for us right away. Okay, fine, we're in no rush.

Well, the seller's realtor just emailed us with the response: Averages are $70 in the winter, $90 in the summer.

This floored us. We were expecting twice that, at the very least. The house in question is 1651 square feet, more than double the size of the apartment we're living in now (800 square feet) and our utility bill in the summer is usually around $100-$120. Now, granted, this apartment complex is pretty old, I think it was built in the 80s and I don't know how much, if any, improvements to sealing/insulation have been done since then. The house was built in 2005 so it's probably much better insulated than our apartment. Plus, our apartment is an upper which is always warmer than a lower especially in the summer. Plus, my husband has a lot of computer equipment that he runs constantly (4 computers (one of them being mine) and a server, at the very least, run pretty much 24/7.)

So...questions...is it possible the seller's realtor fudged the utility bill numbers to help persuade us to buy the house? He's told our realtor twice now that they really want an offer, any offer. Is there any way we can somehow verify the numbers he gave us? It just really seems almost too good to be true, but if those numbers are fairy accurate, we're seriously going to consider putting an offer on this place.

[telecom_goddess]

That doesn't sound at all accurate to me...right now I have a 200 electric bill for my 3 bedroom apartment. And I am constantly after people to keep the heat down and turn things off after they use them.

[ditchdj]

It mainly depends on your usage habits. Try to get the price per kilowatt hour and compare it to the rate it is your're paying right now. That's the best thing to do.

[Aethian]

How long has the house been vacant and can you get a two year estimate from the utility company itself?

[Broomjockey]

Actually, with a set-up like that, it's quite possible. With it being so open, natural air mixing would do a great deal of the work, as long as the insulation was set up properly. There's also a ton of other factors that affect it.

Maybe the previous owners went on vacation in summer. Maybe they like it a bit warmer. I dunno. I'd probably get an inspector, and ask them about the insulation on the place.

[Kiwi]

When we brought our apartment we were actually shown the utility bills for the apartment.
Go go $15 power bill in winter a month!

[Evil Queen]

Okay, I KNOW that is an inaccurate number. I've lived in Texas. Now, MY house is 2K square foot and the average is $122 a month, a little more in the Summer since I use a swamp cooler that runs maybe an hour a day so figure... $150.

You don't have to get the numbers from the realtor. I went to the power company itself to get my estimates. Granted, no one had lived in the house for 2 years by the time I bought it, but I was also basing my stuff off of my parents back in TN. Their bills were sky high. Mine is "cheap" in comparison because of all the extra stuff I have (two freezers, 7 computers, 3 TVs, more minor electronics than you can shake a stick at).

[Aethian]

I know I was told that the average bill is 90 bucks for the winter for my trailer...and yet here I am looking at a 211 bill. And thats with me keeping the furnance at 65 all the time.

[draftermatt]

I'd find out what they keep the furnace set to.

Also, what kind of heat do they have? If it's oil heat or natural gas is a different supplier than electric it could really change the numbers on electric.

Also, did you specify electric or say "utility"? They could be giving you the water bill...

Does your supplier offer budget billing? Call them up and explain it to the utility company that you're looking and you want to know what to budget.

(Budget billing is they take the last 12 months bills and divide it by 12 and send you that as your bill, we did that at our last house and when we moved we actually got a check since we had a nice credit)

[trailerparkmedic]

I live in Texas. My boss owns a house and over the summer he got new insulation. I'm not sure how big his house is, just that it's two stories and he's got two kids and his wife living there. His electric bill for August went from $200-ish a month to just under $100. What I'm trying to say in my roundabout way is that good insulation makes a BIG difference. Boss said that he didn't change the theromostat settings but he could feel how much cooler the second level was afterwards.

That said, my old (70s?) 1000 sq top floor apartment costs us $120/month in the summer at 0.14/kw hour.

[MaggieTheCat]

Thank you, everyone, for the responses! :)

It mainly depends on your usage habits. Try to get the price per kilowatt hour and compare it to the rate it is your're paying right now. That's the best thing to do.

How? Can we just call the electric company to get this?

How long has the house been vacant and can you get a two year estimate from the utility company itself?

I don't know for sure how long it's been vacant, but I don't think too long. We got a copy of the seller's disclosure and on there, it states that the seller was still occupying the property when they filled the form out (they're not anymore, though.) I think it's been on the market for about a month. So, if the SD is accurate, it's been vacant a few weeks, probably. I don't know about getting an estimate from the utility company itself, but I will try to find out.

a little more in the Summer since I use a swamp cooler that runs maybe an hour a day so figure... $150.

I've heard of swamp coolers but never used or seen one. My husband said that for whatever reason, they're not very popular in our area, he thinks because of the humidity. We're in San Antonio, by the way. Do you know if it has to be dry enough or humid enough or something to effectively use a swamp cooler, EQ?

Also, what kind of heat do they have? If it's oil heat or natural gas is a different supplier than electric it could really change the numbers on electric.

Also, did you specify electric or say "utility"? They could be giving you the water bill...

Does your supplier offer budget billing? Call them up and explain it to the utility company that you're looking and you want to know what to budget.

I just checked the seller's disclosure and according to that, the AC is electric and the heat is gas. When we told our realtor what we were looking for, we specified we wanted the electric bill averages since running the AC in the summer is way, way, way more expensive around here than running the heat in the winter. Texas doesn't get too cold (at least, this part of Texas doesn't) so the heat doesn't get turned on nearly as often as the AC does. We're not really worried about the gas bill since we won't be using the heat all that much.

I'm pretty sure that the electric company has budget billing. Our realtor said it might take a year or two of us living in a house for them to offer it to us so they can get the average costs of what we're using.

So, if I call the electric company and give them the address of the place we're looking at, they should hopefully be able to give me some averages themselves?

[Aethian]

So, if I call the electric company and give them the address of the place we're looking at, they should hopefully be able to give me some averages themselves?

Yup, but I would go into the office so that you can explain in person what it is your looking for.

[MaggieTheCat]

Yup, but I would go into the office so that you can explain in person what it is your looking for.

I actually just called the electric company and they said they can't give this information out due to privacy laws. The only way we can get it is through the owner of the house, if they're willing to share it.

[ditchdj]

How? Can we just call the electric company to get this?

YES! :)

Call the electric company and the rep. should have no problem explaining the rates and fees to you and how they calculate them each month.

[Evil Queen]

I've heard of swamp coolers but never used or seen one. My husband said that for whatever reason, they're not very popular in our area, he thinks because of the humidity. We're in San Antonio, by the way. Do you know if it has to be dry enough or humid enough or something to effectively use a swamp cooler, EQ?

Yep, since you're so far south and much closer to the gulf, it's more humid so they won't be out there. They work best when it's really really dry, which is why we use them out here rather then using a conventional air conditioning unit.

[r2cagle]

I can give you my averages in Louisiana...we have a 1640 sq ft house, one story, central heat/air, gas water heater, and our electric bill runs about $60-$70 in the winter and $120 - $160 in the summer and our house was built in the 70's. Our very highest bill was $220. But the averages my utility company uses for estimating our usage is about double what we actually use, so I guess we're doing pretty well.

Yeah, you won't get specific dollar amounts from the utility companies and usage is always dependent on lifestyle usage, number and type of appliances/electronics. Expect your first year in the house to be higher bills than expected, once you've been there for a while, your usage pattern will naturally taper off.

Also, if you can manage it, don't go on any average monthly payment plan just before or during summer. If possible, wait until the winter months to go on it. The reason for that is, that will be when your 'anniversary' date is. If the utility company does a 'true-up' on your anniversary date during the summer months when you've got a large balance built up, it'll significantly increase your monthly payment for the next year. Best months for an anniversary date is Oct/Nov/Feb/Mar. That gives the averages time to get close to zeroing out before any yearly adjustments are done. But of course, not knowing how your bills will run, you may not have any control over when or if you need to take advantage of that program.

I would take the averages you were given on the house and multiply by 3, if you could still handle that amount if it was a very high summer bill, (not saying it would be) then that would be an indication to me that it's worth trying to buy the house. Sounds like it's really nice. Good luck.

[Primer]

As for the "budgeting," you can always do your own. My electric bills average about $200/month for 2400 sq ft, all electric, 3 people, 2 of whom are at home pretty much 24 hours a day. I send them $250-300/month when it's lower, so that I have a buffer built up for the summer when it's higher.

[tacohuman]

it will also depend on your provider. most providers who draw their power off the south texas nuclear project plant charge significantly lower rates than those who don't. for example, city of austin (a stnp client) only charges $0.0355 for the first 500kwh, and after that it's $0.0602 in the winter and $0.0782 in the summer. txu, the other main provider around here (not a stnp client) charges around $0.135/kwh.

[bookworm]

Another thing to look at is how old is the heat and air equipment. My husband is a HVAC tech, and the equipment is getting more and more energy efficient every year, so if it's fairly new equipment you could be looking at accurate electric numbers. Aside from age, there are different SEER ratings, the higher the SEER rating the more efficient the unit is and less expensive to run.

That being said, those numbers do seem a bit low to me, but I'm not in Texas either.

[MaggieTheCat]

Well, we actually found another house that we like a lot (I started another thread in the Off Topic forum about it) and the owners of that place kept a detailed list of what the electric and water bills were for the year of 2009, which they sent to us, along with a scan of both the water and electric bill for the month of January (2010.) The numbers are a little higher, averaging for the year around $130 for both and getting up to the $190-200 range in the summer, which is more like like what we expected but still very good. The AC in this house is also brand new, it was installed last year and the warranty will convey with the house to the new owners.