Dear Mr. President:

If there was ever an opportunity to put sound and face on an improving economy it is the cash for caulkers program. But not as proposed.

We understand the details are sketchy but the idea is to rebate present homeowners up to $12,000 for making their homes more energy efficient. Great.

As long as it is still in the conception stage, let's think this through: The goal: Provide incentives for the maximum number of home owners to maximize the energy efficiency of their homes as fast as possible.

The market:

1. Homeowners who just want to improve the efficiency in their home, and not sell.

2. Homeowners, who want to upgrade their home to enhance its value, and perhaps sell it.

This could be a sizeable market and, of course, would help kick start an energy efficiency program throughout the United States. It would no doubt generate interest in home renovation beyond efficiency related upgrades, a positive impact for the home renovation business.

It may even help some homeowners who are marginally upside down on their mortgage increase their homes value enough to sell at break even or better.

3. Preconstruction single family home buyers (proposed). A preconstruction purchase incentive would add a vehicle to create jobs by the thousands and sell home supplies and soft goods by the millions of dollars. The sound of rooftops being nailed into new homes in local neighborhoods puts a face and a 'sound' on a housing recovery. New homes construction, unlike new car production, is a sight and sound that local people can see,feel, and hear. It is hard to think of a product that would do more to put local people to work faster than an incentive program like Cash For Caulkers, if it included buyers of preconstruction homes.

Small volumn and production builders alike provide a sales network to give the program credibility and visibility while producing energy efficient homes in their hometowns. The new homes builder network provides an information and education resource to help sell the program to resale owners. This fact alone makes the preconstruction market worth consideration. It's a great idea. There is a need. There is a way to market it at a low cost. Offering it to the new homes industry and its preconstruction buyers will seal the deal.

Published: January 14, 2010

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David Fletcher has been a Florida real estate condominium and new homes broker for 30 years with more than $3 billion in new construction sales. In 2008, Keller Williams Realty International named him a "Lifetime Achiever." Along the way he has chaired the Florida Homebuilders Associaiton Sales and Marketing Council, trained thousands of general agents and on-site agents to work together, and was a featured speaker at the National Association of Realtors. Recently he founded New Homes Niche, a builder-certified co-broker training system "to meet the growing trend we see in short sale buyers moving to new homes for a lot of reasons." Call David at 407 234 2349, , and visit his website.