Get Ready for Cooler Weather Now

The drought’s ending – that’s an unofficial prediction but the signs are everywhere – and temperatures are beginning to fall. Okay, so we’re still in the 90s. But before you know it, we're going to feel the welcome touch of autumn. Now is a great time to start getting your home ready for cooler weather.

Here are some things to do now to prepare:

Fall cleanup

• Turn over your mattress and wash your bedding, including comforters and blankets.
• Get your carpets professionally cleaned.
• Clean your windows, inside and out, including in between the sills. Many new windows have UV filters and aren't supposed to be cleaned with glass cleaners. Instead use water dampened microfiber towels.

Other deep-cleaning ideas for the fall from the web site organizedhome.com include:

• Clean top to bottom, starting with public rooms such as the living room, family room, entryway and guest bath.
• Vacuum drapes, window treatments, baseboards and in the corners. Move furniture and vacuum beneath and behind it. Vacuum upholstered furniture, or have professionally cleaned if needed. Pull the refrigerator away from the wall, and vacuum the condenser coils. For bottom-mounted coils, use a long, narrow brush to clean coils of dust and debris.

Home maintenance

Now is a great time to have your home’s air ducts cleaned, and if you have a fireplace, check the flue. Have the fireplace cleaned if it’s wood burning.

Here’s a must-do: clean the gutters! If they gutters get clogged, roof damage could result. Install gutter protectors, which will keep debris out.

Other home maintenance tasks for the fall include:

• Examine the chimney for any damage.
• Touch up paint on decks, trim and railings. Use a wire brush to remove flaking paint; prime bare wood first.
• Inspect washing machine hoses for bulges, cracks or splits. Replace them every other year.
• Check the dryer exhaust tube and vent for built-up lint, debris or birds' nests. Make sure the exterior vent door closes tightly when not in use.

Beware of bugs

Bugs and mice look for a warm place to stay in the winter, so now is the time to check for rotted, cracked or damaged wood around the house that can serve as an entryway for critters. Check the strip around the garage door, which is typically weathered at the bottom. It’s important to keep the wood on your home painted, sealed and caulked. Consider replacing wood trim with PVC material trim that requires no maintenance and can be painted.

Energy-saving fall ideas

Caulking around windows and doors, if you have an older home, will help seal the house, keeping chilly air and bugs out and heat in. All homeowners should check weather-stripping and door sweeps.

Other energy saving maintenance ideas for the fall include:

• Install ceiling fans. With the blades tipped to push warm air down, ceiling fans save energy and money.
• Check attic insulation and add more if necessary.
• Replace windows for energy efficiency – they will pay for themselves in time and make your home more comfortable.
• Have an energy audit done, which will tell you where heat is escaping your home and costing you money.

Enjoy the rest of the summer as you look forward to the cool, refreshing days of fall.

Tips for Planning to Purchase Your New Home

There’s no question that with today’s low mortgage interest rates, large selection of homes on the market, competitive prices, and other incentives such as the $8,000 first-time home buyer federal tax credit, now is a great time to buy a home. But what if you are planning to buy a year or two from now, and you want to make sure you’re ready when the time comes?

One of the most important things you can do is get your credit report in shape. Banks use your credit history to decide whether they want to lend you money and to set the interest rate, so having a good credit report is vital.

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are the three consumer credit reporting companies that provide information about your credit history to lenders. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, each of these companies is required to give you one free copy of your credit report every 12 months if you ask for it.

You can request your free reports online at www.annualcreditreport.com, or by calling 1-877-322-8228. Since you won’t know which company your lender is using, you should get a copy from all three.

Carefully review the information on the reports. If you find a mistake, contact the reporting company and provide them with an explanation and copies of any documentation you have proving the error.

If there is an item that is accurate but might be viewed negatively by a lender, such as a series of late payments, you may be able to have a comment included on your report to explain it. You need to have a credible reason, such as an illness or other extraordinary circumstance, and be able to back it up with proof.

What if your credit report could use improvement?

Unfortunately there isn’t a quick fix, despite what some companies may claim. However, there are things you can do to help make your credit report more attractive to lenders, although it will take time:

1. Always pay your bills before the due date.
2. Make a payment every month, whether it is the full balance, the minimum due, or some amount in between.
3. Don’t open new accounts. Lenders look at the total amount of debt you could run up, based on the limits on your cards, as well as how much you actually have.
4. Don’t close old accounts. A few longstanding relationships are better than a bunch of cards you’ve only had a year or two, unless you have an excessive number of inactive accounts.
5. Pay down your total debt as much as you can. Lending standards have gotten much stricter, and banks are reluctant to loan money to people who already owe a lot.

Lenders use your credit history to predict the likelihood you will pay them back on time. Since you can’t change the past, it is important to always carefully manage your debt, whether you plan to buy a house in the next six months or not until six years from now.

For more information the $8,000 first-time home buyer federal tax credit, give us a call at 21-244-3635 or go to ww.federalhousingtaxcredit.com. You can also contact the Greater San Antonio Builders Association at www.sabuilders.com

Satisfied Clients

We love to hear from our clients and recently received this letter from a couple whose house we built. They speak better for us than we can for ourselves -

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fred and Jesse,

We wanted to take a minute to share with you how we feel about our new Bridle Bit home: WE LOVE IT! It is everything that we had hoped for and more; we look forward to many years in our beautiful new residence.

We also wanted to express our delight at the entire experience. When we set out to build a home, we heard from more than one source that the endeavor was sure to be a “nightmare”; acquaintances who had built homes did not hesitate to regale us with stories about builders and supervisors who would not return calls, shoddy workmanship on the part of work crews, and unbearably long delays in completion. We are pleased to say that we experienced none of these things—or anything else that was even slightly unpleasant—in our dealings with the two of you.

We so appreciate that you answered or returned all calls promptly; listened carefully to and followed through on our desires and ideas (and shared excellent ideas of your own); hired competent and reliable crews; finished our home in a remarkably short time; and, most of all, built our dream house at a price that we could afford! When we decided to build a home, we had expectations that we would have to make considerable compromises in order to come in at budget; even your assurances as we entered into the contract did not prepare us for the complete satisfaction that was to come; to our great surprise, you were able to find a way to put most everything that we hoped for into our home.

Since we have moved in, we have had a few of the minor problems encountered by any new homeowner. Again, you responded as soon as we called; most often, it was Jesse himself who took the time to run out and fix the ceiling fan or adjust the door—what service!

You are the kind of builder about whom every family setting out to build a new home dreams; you are straightforward, clear, and honest in your business dealings, and both of you are delightful to work with on a personal level. We cannot begin to express our sincere gratitude to you for a very pleasant building experience and a fabulous new home.

With much appreciation,

Mark and Sheila Richards

P.S. We just received our first electric bill—another pleasant surprise! :-)

The Tax Advantages of Home Ownership

Owning your own home can be a very rewarding experience — especially when tax time rolls around. Three tax items in particular — the mortgage interest deduction, the property tax deduction and the capital gains exclusion — can provide significant financial benefits to home owners when the time comes to settle up with Uncle Sam.  

Mortgage Interest Deduction

The interest you pay as part of your mortgage payment is deductible on your federal tax return and may also be on your state income tax return depending on where you live. This deduction applies to first and second mortgages, up $1 million of mortgage debt. Your lender should provide you with one or more IRS Form 1098s, which will provide the amount you may claim on your tax return. To benefit from this deduction you must itemize your deductions using a Schedule A Form. 

You may also deduct the interest on money you borrow against your home to finance housing or non housing-related expenses. An example is a home equity loan, which many home owners use to remodel their home, pay off credit card bills, buy a car, finance a vacation or pay for educational expenses. 

Property Tax Deduction

State and local taxes paid on the assessed value of the home are also deductible on your federal return.  Like the mortgage interest deduction, itemizing is necessary if you wish to deduct property tax payments.

Notably, for many home owners the combined deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes exceed the standard deduction — currently between $5,700 and $11,400, depending on filing status. When this is the case, home owners are able to deduct or “write-off” many other items including charitable contributions, state income or sales taxes, medical and dental expenses, tax preparation fees and other miscellaneous allowable deductions, which collectively can reduce your federal and state income tax liabilities dramatically.   Research by economists at the National Association of Home Builders indicates that for the typical home owner, these savings can exceed $5,000 in the first year of homeownership. 

Capital Gains Exclusion

Perhaps the biggest advantage to owning a home is the ability to avoid paying capital gains when it is sold. Under current law, married home owners filing jointly may exclude up to $500,000 of capital gains and single tax filers may exclude $250,000 from taxation. This exclusion applies only if you have lived in your primary residence for two years or more. But the exemption may be used repeatedly as long as the residency rules are met.  

The tax benefits conferred on home owners by the federal government are substantial. Annual benefits, such as the mortgage interest deduction and the property tax deduction, along with the less frequently used benefit of the capital gains exclusion, make homeownership more tax advantageous than almost any other investment. Take advantage of it!  

Be sure to consult your tax advisor about the deductions you may be eligible to claim.

To see the many more reasons homeownership benefits you, call us or visit www.nahb.org/forconsumers.

 

                                                

That Little Uptick

On March 25, the Commerce Department released a report that showed  sales of newly built, single-family homes rose for the first time in seven months in February. The little uptick you see in the graph on the left stands for a 4.7 percent gain in new-home sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000 units in February.

That little uptick just might be the harbinger of a housing market recovery. And, if you believe that the recovery begins where the bust started, that's great news for the entire economy.

"This is an encouraging sign that the market may finally be reaching a bottom," said Joe Robson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. "Consumers are beginning to take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit, historically low morgagte rates, very affordable home prices and the great selection of homes they have to choose from in this buyer's market. For those with good credit and job security, the stars are all aligned to buy a home now."

NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe predicts that sales numbers will continue to climb as a ressult of the stimulus package, which includes the $8,000 first time buyer tax credit and higher mortgage ceilings for conforming loans, historically low interest rates, and builders' incentives. All these are working together to reverse the three year housing slide.

The key fact for people who want to buy a home but have been putting it off is that once sales begin to steadily rise, so will prices and, eventually, so will mortgage rates. So, now is the time!

Call or email us today for information about our available homes and incentives, or about custom building the home of your dreams. We're always happy to hear from you and will bend over backwards to help you acquire a beautiful new home. 

Phone: 210-244-3635; Email: bridlebit@gmail.com

Remodeling? Get the Best Bang for the Buck

Your home is your castle, but sometimes that castle may need a face lift. Remodeling is a great way to create a home environment that can meet your family's changing needs and tastes without you having to spend a lot of money.

Before you spend your hard-earned dollars, however, make sure that the changes you make now will have longer-term benefits for you when you look to sell your home in the future.

You should find out what features are standard for homes in your neighborhood. If you only have one bathroom but most of the other homes average two or more, you will want to bring your house up to that standard. On the flip side, do not make changes to your house that are too extravagant or out-of-place for your neighborhood.

Make sure you are not making changes that will turn off prospective buyers. Keep in mind what future home buyers would like to see in their next home. For example, it may be wise to add an additional bathroom or bedroom rather than a sun room or sauna, which are costly and will not necessarily be a priority for anyone else.

The size and cost of your project matter as well. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University advises that smaller or midrange jobs overall will tend to recover a higher percentage of their cost than larger, higher-end projects.

For example, replacing old windows will generate a higher payback ratio than adding a high-end kitchen with all of the bells and whistles and costs significantly less, according to Stephen Melman, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders. (www.nahb.org)

Maintenance-related projects, such as siding and window replacement, are especially popular because they are repairs that are seen as needed, but can also help improve curb appeal at fairly low costs in relation to other projects.

The top ten midrange projects, cited in Remodeling magazine's "Cost vs. Value Report", that provide the highest percentage return are:

1. Deck addition (wood) - 81.8%

2. Siding Replacement (vinyl) - 80.7%

3. Minor Kitchen Remodel - 79.5%

4. Window Replacement (wood) - 77.7%

5. Window Replacement (vinyl) - 77.2%

6. Major Kitchen Remodel - 76%

7. Bathroom Remodel - 74.6%

8. Attic Bedroom - 73.8%

9. Deck Addition (composite) - 73.7%

10. Basement Remodel - 72.9%

These numbers represent the national average and percentages may vary in your area. To get information on projects that are the best investments for where you live, check out Remodeling magazine's "2008-2009 Cost vs. Value Report" at www.costvsvalue.com.

Whether you are looking to sell your house soon, or just want to remodel for yourself, it makes sense to keep an eye on how the changes you make now will reflect on your biggest investment down the road.

If you'd like more information, please give us a call at 210-244-3635 or email us at bridlebit@gmail.com.

What About the "What Ifs"?

Given the ongoing turmoil in the housing and financial markets, many people who want to buy homes are sitting on the fence, either waiting for the market to bottom out or fearing that it never will. So what is the chance that the market will continue to decline, prices will continue to drop and a home purchased today will be worth less a year from now?
Of course, no one can know for sure what will happen a month, six months, or a year from now. Housing is predictably cyclical, but the current housing slump has already lasted longer than previous downturns. Moreover, timing the market is a strategy that rarely works; by the time it's clear that a market has turned around, it's too late to take advantage of the conditions at the bottom.
Fortunately, San Antonio has not been affected like so many other areas that we are hearing about. And we should not be basing our decisions on markets that are suffering a great deal more than we are. According to the 2008 and 2009 Multiple Listing Service (MLS) report by the San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR), at the end of November 2008, there were 949 pending sales. A month later, the numbers were up -- with a total of 996 pending sales. In January 2009, the numbers were up again -- 12 percent from the December figures -- with a total of 1,112 pending sales.
For most Americans, homeownership is a primary source of net worth and an important step in accumulating personal wealth assuring financial security. Today, even though property values have declined in some markets, Americans have a total of $8.5 trillion in equity in their homes. Home equity represents the largest share of net worth for most families.
It is time to buy! Get off the fence!

--Fred Elsner, President/CEO Bridle Bit Corporation and president, Greater San Antonio Builders Association.