You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2007.
As you read your local and national news papers, they will often report that adverse economic conditions have cooled-off the once hot second home market. There is no doubt that the second home market is not as brisk as it once was. The masses of investors have gone back to their full time jobs and making the forecast for the second home market a bit cooler than it’s been in the past few years.
Is this “cooling market” a bad thing? NO! Now that the investor pool has slowed, it allows the typical buyer of a second home a chance to get into their dream of a beach or mountain home at more reasonable rates. There is a definite green light to those who are looking for a deal in the second home market. Because there was so much speculation during the second home housing boom, some of the investors are looking to unload properties in a onetime hot market. So this is good news for someone looking to get into the second home market!
But BEWARE! Before you enter a contract to buy your dream vacation home, you need to check with you Jenny Pruitt & Associates Mortgage Services Representative to make sure you know of the total costs of owning that second home. There are many fees and carrying costs that you may not be aware of and don’t assume that you’ll be able to offset the cost of your mortgage, by renting your vacation home. Being able to have a “natural or positive cash flow maybe not be possible! Your Jenny Pruitt & Associates representative can help you with this process.
Hope you have a most wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year!
Senior Vice President, Managing Broker – Sandy Springs office
ATLANTA – Dec. 14, 2007 — A standing room only crowd of agents, friends and families associated with Jenny Pruitt & Associates, Realtors gathered Dec. 7 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead for a “Christmas Inspirational” program with keynote speaker Ruth Graham, daughter of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham.
The audience that packed the hotel’s grand ballroom also heard performances by the Atlanta Boy Choir, a solo by the choir’s artistic director, David R. White, and a special welcome from Dan Parmer, president and CEO of Jenny Pruitt & Associates.
Participants surrounded six Christmas trees with a mountain of toys and other gifts donated to the children of Atlanta-based Metro Ministries. A love-offering was also collected for the residents of The Potter’s House, a Stone Mountain-based residential and therapeutic facility for formerly abused and neglected boys. The Potter’s House maintains four homes across metro Atlanta.
Graham’s message was entitled, “What Does Faith Have to Do With Christmas?” and her eventual answer was “Everything.” She said her steadfast Christian faith has delivered her from a score of personal crises, including a divorce stemming from her husband’s infidelity. One teenage daughter had two unplanned pregnancies. Another daughter suffered from bulimia. Her son battled drug abuse.
“I’m not here because my father is Billy Graham,” she told the audience. “I’m here because I’m a sinner who was saved.”
Graham, who returned to school at age 40 and graduated cum laude in 2000, is the author of multiple books, including “In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart” and “I’m Pregnant … Now What? Heartfelt Advice on Getting Through an Unplanned Pregnancy.”
She is the third child of Billy Graham and the late Ruth Graham, who died in June at the age of 87. Graham is 89 and his health is failing, his daughter said. He is nearly blind and almost totally deaf.
A resident of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Ruth Graham is founder and chairwoman of Ruth Graham Ministries.
Source: EarthCraft Homes website 
EarthCraft House allows builders great flexibility in achieving environmental performance. To achieve EarthCraft House certification, homes must meet ENERGY STARcertification criteria, including achieving passing scores from diagnostic tests for air infiltration and duct leakage.
In addition, each house must achieve a minimum of 150 points from a scoring sheet. Select and Premium status are awarded to homes that meet additional criteria and achieve 200 and 230 points, respectively. All EarthCraft certified homes will also be awarded ENERGY STAR certification.
EarthCraft House guidelines include the following categories:
- Site plannings
- Energy efficient building envelope and systems
- Resource efficient design
- Resource efficient building materials
- Waste management
- Indoor air quality
- Water conservation (indoor and outdoor)
- Homeowner education
- Builder operations
- Bonus/innovation points
The energy sources used by homes can contribute to global warming and other serious environmental problems. Also, the materials used in the construction and maintenance of a home can deplete natural resources. EarthCraft House can increase the energy efficiency of a home by 30% which can result in a reduction of over 1,100 pounds of greenhouse gases introduced into the atmosphere each year. In addition, EarthCraft homes can conserve water and reduce stormwater pollution. Finally, by promoting recycling and the used of durable, low maintenance, recycled, and rapidly renewable materials, EarthCraft House helps to ensure out homes conserve natural resources and protect ecosystem biodiversity. EarthCraft homes are truly “sensibly built for the environment.”
Senior Vice President, Managing Broker, Cobb office
To keep your home’s value, you’ve got to invest a little more time.
Doing mundane jobs like changing filters and flushing radiators won’t win you any decorating prizes. It will, however, keep your biggest investment in peak condition and preclude the need to budget-busting repairs. But it’s hard to remember what to do when. The solution: Keep your home-maintenance checklist handy.
Winter
Prep Your Pipe: If you don’t, it’ll ice up and burst. Remove your garden hose from the outdoor faucet before the first freeze. Unless you have a frost-proof spigot (a worthwhile $25 to $50 upgrade), turn off the water supply at the shutoff valve inside the house and open the outdoor spigot to drain water from the line. Leave it this way until the spring thaw. Frequency: Once a year
Dry Up: Does your house use hot-water radiators? When you fire them up for the season use a flathead screwdriver to open their bleeder valves one by one, allowing air that has built up in the system to escape before closing them again. This will make your heating system more effective. Frequency: Once a year
Get your Flue Shot: Have your boiler or furnace – and your hot-water tank – serviced before you turn on the heat for the season ($100 to $200 per burner). Neglect this task and debris can clog your exhaust flue, and your equipment won’t operate efficiently. If you burn oil, your oil company will provide the service. For gas burners, contact a local heating contractor. Frequency: Once a year
Let off Steam: If you have steam heat with an overflow valve, open it until the water runs clean (probably five to 10 seconds) to flush out rust and sediment. Then top off the water level. Frequency: Every few weeks Read the rest of this entry »
During a Housing Slump, You can Take Steps to Keep Your Home’s Value High
Source: ABCnews.com
The new bear in market housing, says the very man who fathered the bubble, Alan Greenspan, is likely to continue for another year or more. Even if you have no problem making your mortgage payments, watching the value of your home nose-drive is a grim business.
It’s grimmer still if you bought in the past year, as 14 million Americans have done, because in that case you probably are, or soon will be, looking at a paper loss. To pour brine in your wounds: should you realize this loss by selling, you can’t use the loss to shelter gains in your stock portfolio. Tax rules treat a loss on your home as a nondeductible personal item.
Nevertheless, a few tax tricks and other financing gambits are available that take the sting out of the bear market. Frank is trying one of them. Some ideas:
Get Reappraised – If the house has tumbled in value, your property taxes should, too. So get your house reappraised by your municipal assessor. You may even be bale to petition, or sue if you must, to get back some taxes you overpaid in past months.
Home Office – Got a room you use to make a living? Dust off your receipts. You might be able to deduct some depreciation and a pro rata share of utilities and maintenance. The depreciation lowers your cost basis, which can come back to bite you when you sell at a profit. But if the property has lost value, this is not an issue. Many caveats apply, since the Internal Revenue Service closely scrutinizes home-office deductions, warns Mark Nash, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ private company services. If you are an employee, (a) the home office has to be not just permitted by but useful to the employer, and (b) only the amount exceeding 2% of adjusted gross income can be claimed (as “miscellaneous” items). If you are self-employed, the home office can only reduce your taxable income; it cannot create a loss. For both categories of worker, the room in question has to be used regularly and exclusively for work; a den where you occasionally write software won’t cut it.
Sale-leaseback with Relative – Suppose the $1 million home you and your spouse bought five years ago in Washington, D.C. has been appraised at $1.8 million, but you’re convinced your neighborhood is in for a 20% correction. Sell now and you’ll pocket $500,000 of the $800,000 gain tax free, thanks to the exemption on profits from the sales of personal residences. You’ll pay a 15% federal tax on the rest. Sell the property to a wealthy relative you can trust, ideally a parent or grandparent who’s got a few million tied up in safe yet stingy Treasury bonds. Then become a tenant. Your rent, which covers your property taxes and insurance but not utilities: less than $6,000 per month. Have outsiders certify that the sale of house and the rent are done at market rates so the IRS can’t argue that the arrangement is a sweetheart deal designed to disguise a gift from the parents and thus keep their estate taxes. Read the rest of this entry »
