I suspect that Carol is basing the 30 percent higher resale value on her experience with fat ultralights. There are some home-built airplanes that were registered as E-LSA before the January 31, 2008 deadline. I doubt that enough of those have been sold to be statistically meaningful. Any fat ultralight that is not registered as E-LSA is illegal and therefore is worth a lot less.
But we are concerned with how to register the RV-12.
See
http://www.kitplanes.com/sportplanes/0505-3740.pdf
Advantages to E-LSA:
You can pay for professional builder's assistance, if desired.
You do not have to prove that you did 51 percent of the work.
Build time will be reduced because all parts are provided. All you have to do is follow the step by step directions. Even the electronics are plug and play.
Test flying time is only 5 hours. After that you can go on trips and carry passengers.
When sold, an E-LSA will be worth more because it was built exactly according to plans with new quality parts. And the new owner can do his own annual inspections (after taking a 16hr course).
Disadvantages to E-LSA:
During construction, NO modifications are allowed. After flying 5 hours, you may modify at will, provided it still meets the LSA definition.
You MUST take a 16 hour course to do the annual inspections yourself.
Your plane might cost more because you have to buy everything new from Vans.
The prop can not be adjustable in flight.
You can not fly faster than 120 knots. (Who would know if you did?)
I intend to register my RV-12 as E-LSA.
If your RV-12 is not built exactly as Vans specifies, you probably can register it as E-AB, although there is no guarantee that you will be able to.
Joe