“We have homes that are a hundred years old — they are not built with today’s code,” Presti said. “This would add, No. 1, expense. Now the homeowner has to pay for this. It would add more time. And then there would be complications to an already complicated process. If the report is given after the home inspection, it’s going to complicate or even jeopordize a deal based on the home inspection.”

Wilk said the more information about homes for buyers, the better, but not if it creates an undue buren on the seller.

“It’s great for a buyer, especially a first-time buyer. They don’t factor in all those costs,” Wilk said. “Especially in this fast-paced market, people go to an open house on Sunday and have to get their bid in by noon Monday. They don’t have time to call the gas company and ask how much it costs. … I believe in transparency, but if a seller has to bring their house up to a certain energy score, I think that’s a little unreasonable. Some sellers don’t have the wherewithal to do that.”

Amazon

Like many other cities across the country, Boston submitted an aggressive pitch for Amazon’s planned second corporate headquarters. The primary site pitched to the online retail giant is Suffolk Downs, a 160-acre site in East Boston and Revere. Housing is tight throughout the area, but if the city is tapped by Amazon, the two neighborhoods where its headquarters would land would see seismic changes.

Because of the city’s lack of inventory, there’s the question of where the 50,000 employees based in the new headquarters would live. But perhaps the better question is: Where would all the Bostonians displaced by the well-heeled Amazon workers go?

“It’s fantastic for the area, but it goes back to low inventory. Where are these people going to go?” Wilk said.

Warren says landing the Amazon bid would cause both buyers and renters in the city to scramble.

“Obviously that would be a massive shift in the Boston real estate market,” he said. “It might cause another surge in certain areas, with people looking to get in before the rest do. It will raise the values in some of these mid-level neighborhoods. I don’t think it will change the value in the higher-end areas because they’re already so expensive. These up-and-coming neighborhoods, it would change pretty quickly.”

For more on issues that will affect Boston’s market this year:

View the results of our Boston Agent reader survey.

Read about how tech will transform in the industry this year.

Brush up on changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.