Building a cordwood house is labor intensive. You're making a trade here with your time vs. your money. Resellability - I don't know if this is a big problem or not. I haven't seen too many cordwood houses on the market, but it might be harder to sell a cordwood house just by the mere fact that most people have never heard nor seen a cordwood house. Although I had no problem in getting our building permit, I'm sure that it would be more difficult to obtain a permit in urban areas.
Residential areas are always more stringent on building permits.
If you would like to find out more about cordwood masonry, there's a number of good books describing most aspects of cordwood houses. Check out the Essential Reading page under the Alternative House Building section for a list of books or visit our Links page to view some of the Internet sites available on the web.