Two BOLD Built Homes open this weekend:
10701 Union Reserve North Rd, Union, KY (click)
988 Aristides Dr, Union, KY (click)
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Saturday, May 28th, 2011Have Your Cake and Eat it Too with The BOLD Company
Saturday, February 19th, 2011As heard on WNKR, 106.7FM, 60 seconds
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Have Your Cake and Eat it Too with The BOLD Company
Building or Remodeling, Think of The BOLD Company
Saturday, February 19th, 2011As heard on WNKR, 106.7FM, 60 seconds,
CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN
Building or Remodeling, Think of The BOLD Company
Home Sizes are Getting Smaller
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Home sizes continue to shrink across the country as families look to downsize and move closer to the city.
“A McMansion was a trophy–often times a house with five or six bedrooms when you only needed two,” says Scott Phillips, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in Cleveland.
The median home size in 2008, the most recent year for data, is 1,825 square feet, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. First-time buyers are buying even smaller at 1,580 square feet.
Phillips says home owners aren’t just downsizing but they are also moving closer to the city.
“People like to live where they’re closer to the amenities, the parks, night life, grocery stores,” he says.
Source: “McMansions Out of Vogue in New Economic Reality,†Gannett News Service (Feb. 11, 2011)
Banks Want More Money Down from Buyers
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Banks are increasingly telling borrowers that if they want to buy a home, they need to come with a higher down payment. Banks are requiring higher down payments in order to help mitigate the bank’s risk as home prices continue to fall. Plus, banks say larger down payments discourage delinquencies.
The Obama administration last week called for gradually increasing down payments to a minimum of 10 percent on conventional loans that can be bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 on properties purchased through conventional mortgages–the highest in median down payment since the data started being tracked in 1997, according to a Wall Street Journal and Zillow.com analysis.
In the late 1990s, median down payments once averaged 20 percent in the nine metro cities Zillow analyzed, but in 2001 started inching downward as banks began requiring little or no down payment in some cases during the housing boom.
Now banks want more, believing that the more a buyer has invested, the less likely they are to default.
Borrowers who can’t afford the higher down payments are seeking assistance elsewhere, such as loans for veterans or those backed by the Federal Housing Administration (which require 3.5 percent down payment), or loans by the United States Department of Agriculture for rural areas.
Source: “Banks Push Home Buyers to Put Down More Cash,†The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 16, 2011)
Mike Kegley Testifies for NAHB to the U.S. House Small Business Committee
Saturday, February 12th, 2011Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was signed into law last year, businesses will have to file a significant number of additional IRS Form 1099s. Currently, businesses are required to file 1099s when they purchase more than $600 in services in a given tax year. But starting in 2012, businesses would also need to file 1099s for purchases of goods from a vendor that exceed $600. In addition, whereas transactions with corporations have generally been exempted, this will no longer be the case under the new law. NAHB has vigorously argued against these expanded reporting requirements, and for the most part, lawmakers have agreed on the need to repeal them. In fact, the Senate recently approved an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that would do just that, assuming the House approves a similar measure.
With the House likely to take up repeal legislation in the coming weeks, home builder Mike Kegley from Union, Ky., testified before the House Small Business 
Committee on Feb. 9 about the effect that the new reporting requirements could have on his business. His company, which built six homes last year and employs seven workers, estimates that it would have had to file an additional 173 forms for 2010 had the law been in effect at that time. Mike told committee members that it would have cost his company $6,400 to obtain and catalog the W-9 forms and $2,600 to generate the additional Form 1099s, for an estimated total of $9,000 — and that does not include the software upgrades he would have had to purchase or subsequent work that would have to be done to correct any errors. In all, he told lawmakers, these burdensome tax paperwork requirements would make it more difficult for small businesses to add new employees to their payrolls, because they’ll instead be spending that money on accountants and bookkeepers. Additionally, Mike called lawmakers’ attention to the unfairness of a provision in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 stipulating that independent landlords as of Jan. 1, 2011 must submit 1099s to firms to which they give more than $600 for services. “By imposing this change in the law with less than three months notice, we believe it is reasonable to say that landlords have been set up for failure when it comes to compliance,” he said. “NAHB urges Congress to re-examine the wisdom of imposing these burdensome requirements on independent landlords and, ultimately, to repeal them.” Read NAHB’s press release .
Buy Now Before the Housing Shortage
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Some experts are saying that the next big real estate problem could be a shortage of homes.
Only 672,000 new homes were started in April. That’s less than half the number needed to meet the country’s average population growth.
In the past, an average of more than 1.3 million households have been built each year, creating demand for 1.5 million new homes. In 2009, only 398,000 new households were formed, according to the Census Bureau.
“The decline in household formation is artificial,” says James Gaines, a real estate economist with Texas A&M. “The young are moving in with their parents. There’s even doubling up among working-class people. There’s a pent-up demand coming if and when the economy recovers.”
Some economists believe this analysis fails to take into account the changing economy or the large inventory of vacant properties. But Gaines and others say these factors are unlikely to significantly drive down demand.
Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (06/15/2010)
Top Questions Home Buyers Have About the Tax Credit
Monday, March 29th, 2010March 25, 2010 – As the April 15 deadline to file 2009 federal tax returns approaches, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is providing answers to some of the questions home buyers are most frequently asking about the home buyer tax credit.
“NAHB’s Web site that provides information about the home buyer tax credit, www.FederalHousingTaxCredit.com, has received more than 8 million visits,†said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a builder and developer in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “We are doing everything we can to make sure home buyers are informed about this outstanding opportunity to benefit from buying a home before it expires April 30.â€
Some of the more commonly-asked questions, and the answers, include:
How does a home buyer claim the tax credit?
The credit is claimed when the home buyer files or amends their federal income taxes. For qualifying homes purchased in 2009 or 2010, the taxpayer must complete IRS Form 5405 and attach a copy of the settlement statement. In most cases, the settlement statement is a properly executed Form HUD-1.
In circumstances where a HUD-1 is not provided, such as purchasing a mobile home or a newly constructed home, the IRS will accept an executed retail sales contract (mobile homes) or a copy of the certificate of occupancy (new homes).
Does the home buyer have to sell their current home in order to qualify for the $6,500 repeat home buyer tax credit?
A home buyer does not need to sell their current home in order to be eligible for the repeat buyer credit. They can continue to own both homes, and rent or use their former home for something else, as long as it no longer serves as their principal residence. The taxpayer is required to use the new home as their principal residence, and live in it for at least 36 months, or they will have to repay the credit.
Do married couples both have to meet the eligibility requirements in order to claim the credit, even if they file taxes separately?
Both spouses must fully meet all the eligibility requirements for either the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit or the $6,500 repeat buyer tax credit, regardless of if they file joint or separate tax returns. However, if an unmarried couple purchases a home and only one person qualifies, the eligible person may claim the full credit.
Do all home purchases need to be completed by April 30, 2010, in order to be eligible for the credit?
There are two exceptions to the April 30 deadline. If the buyer enters into a binding contract by the deadline, they have until June 30, 2010, to complete the purchase. The deadline has been extended a year, to April 30, 2011, for members of the uniformed services, Foreign Service or employees of the intelligence community who have been on qualified extended duty outside the United States for at least 90 days between January 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010.
NAHB’s Web site www.FederalHousingTaxCredit.com provides information including eligibility requirements for the $8,000 first-time home buyer and $6,500 repeat buyer tax credits, detailed question and answer sections, and links to additional home-buying resources for consumers.
Disclaimer: NAHB is providing this information for general guidance only. This information does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services, investment advice, or professional consulting of any kind nor should it be construed as such. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional tax, accounting, legal, or other competent advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action on this information, you should consult a qualified professional adviser to whom you have provided all of the facts applicable to your particular situation or question. None of the tax information in this release is intended to be used nor can it be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. The information is provided “as is,” with no assurance or guarantee of completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose.
Storing Paint Advice
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Good advice from my friend, Tim Carter of www.askthebuilder.com
I discovered many years ago it’s a mistake to save the paint in the cans from the paint store. Not only do you have to deal with lots of air in the cans, but you also have an issue with rust at the lid lip. The excess air in a paint usually causes a nasty skin to form on top of the paint.
What I’ve discovered that works best for me, and you may have an even better idea, is to use the inexpensive food-storage containers you can buy in the grocery store. They come in different sizes and the trick is to fill one nearly to the top with the leftover paint.
If the paint is water-based, I always add an ounce or two of water at the top of the paint before sealing the lid. This prevents the skinning effect. Using a permanent marker, and I do this before, filling the container, I write on the side of the container the room the paint was used in, the mfr., paint type, paint name, formula if available, etc.
Yesterday I had to touch up many spots in my living room. I painted this room about ten years ago. If you were here with me today, I’d bet you $100 you couldn’t find one spot where I touched up the walls. The paint matched perfectly and it’s consistency was just like the day I opened the original can. Suffice it to say I store this leftover paint indoors at about 65 F.
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Saturday, January 30th, 2010
