Jeff Craig Broker, Realtor, CSP

Come see us at the Greensboro and Winston-Salem Parade of Homes this weekend and next. Piedmont Personal Builders will have houses in the Greensboro and Winston-SalemParade of Homes this weekend and next, 10/10&11 and 10/17&18. The Greensboro Parade home is at 1205 Mosely Rd. in Northern Point at Lake Jeanette Northern Shores. The Winston-Salem Parade home is at 7349 Meadow Chase Ct. in the Ridgecrest neighborhood in Lewisville. Both will be open from 12:00-6:00 Saturday and Sunday. Please stop by and say hello. Regis Skeehan, Tom Bernard and I will be manning the homes at various times. We will be happy to take you through these Energy Star Certified homes and answer any questions you may have about building a custom home on your lot or on the lots we have available in both neighborhoods. We look forward to meeting you.

Well, I don't wear black knee socks and man sandals. I don't go to dinner at 4:30 to get the early bird special. I don't drive a Buick.

But, I turn fifty five this week. I'm officially considered a senior citizen by many local businesses wanting to give me a senior discount. Now I like a bargain just as much as the next guy, but I just can't ask for the senior discounts. ARP has been sending me membership invitations for the last five years. I immediately toss them. Sure I could get some good benefits from joining. Maybe when I'm seventy!

I'm told I don't look my age frequently. Do you think it has anything to do with all of those very nice, considerate people trying to sell me something? Do I feel my age? No, I'd say I feel closer to........sixty. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I take five different medications every day (and I don't even need one of those boxes labled Monday-Sunday). It has more to do with needing a nap around 3:-4:00 every afternoon. Perhaps if we actually had some business, I could stay awake. But that's another story.

So I'll smile as my children make all the senior jokes and give me birthday cards about dentures, laxatives, nasty bodily functions and driving Buicks. Hopefully, they won't give me one of those hats that says "Where's my senior discount?"

The housing boom and the subsequent sub-prime mortgage crash precipitated almost all the of the financial turmoil that lead to the current recession. And almost everybody agrees that the economy won't recover until housing does.

Yet a year after the crash and 8 months after the passage of the Recovery Act, only about 20% of the stimulus has even gotten out into the economy. The great bulk of it will hit in the next few years, long after we needed it. And housing is showing only partial improvement.

Two parts of the stimulus package actually worked: "Cash for Clunkers" sold hundreds of thousands of automobiles in only a few weeks, helping car dealers clear out almost all their old vehicles so that they could replenish their stocks. This got the manufacturers to crank up their plants to start building cars again, putting thousands of people back to work.

The other thing that worked was the "First-Time Homebuyers $8,000 Tax Credit." It worked so well that it increased the share of first-time homebuyers to over 40% and virtually cleaned out new-home inventory under $250,000. However, it has done little for the bulk of move-up housing above the first-time market that normally accounts for 65% of sales.

Might this cause housing demand to eventually trickle up into the higher price ranges as the folks selling their homes to the first timers buy up? Yes, probably. But the key word is eventually. It may take a year or more to work its way up the price structure. With unemployment approaching 10%, who has time to wait?

Both of the stimulus programs that actually worked were tax credits.

I say that if you want to fix the economy now, we had better fix housing first. And we already know the solution: extending the first-time homebuyer tax credit and expanding it to cover all home buyers regardless of income or previous home ownership status, preferably with an increase in the cap to $15,000 in order to make it meaningful to move-up buyers.

The administration and both houses of congress are considering various bills to extend and expand the tax credit.

Why not do your part? Here are three websites that will make it easy for you to voice your opinion.

To contact the Obama Administration, go to www.fixhousingfirst.com. To contact congress, either the National Association Of Home Builders' website www.nahb.org or the National Association of Realtors' website www.realtor.org have links that will enable you to easily contact your senators and representatives.

Please do it now.

You own land and you're ready to build your dream home. You think, "I can do this myself. How hard can it be? I will surely save money and I can make sure it's done my way". Well, there's just one issue. You've never built a home yourself.

That's where a professional builder comes in. In particular, that's where Piedmont Personal Builders come in. We have been building "on your lot" custom built homes for almost nine years. The owners of the company have a great deal of building experience. Regis Skeehan has been building for thirty five years and Tom Bernard, for twenty four years. What this means is, they have seen it, experienced it and done it, no matter what the issue is. Believe me, there will be so many issues, your head will be spinning. From siting the home properly, to what kind of insulation to use, a builders experience is invaluable.

Just dealing with the local governments for building permits, having the engineering and CAD work done correctly can be time consuming and confusing. Lining up your sub-contractors is a big issue. How experienced are they in their field. Do they know the local building codes. Will they show up when scheduled. Will they clean up after themselves or even get you in trouble with inspectors, local governments, OSHA, or even the EPA? Does one sub-contractor co-operate with the other? Will they cause delays? These are just some issues to deal with.

Another major issues is the building time line. Will you be able to build on time for your projected move in date? Will you make it on time for your lender's rate lock? Long delays are not unusual. At Piedmont Personal Builders, we guarantee a six month build time and it's very common for us to beat that deadline. Would'nt it be very comforting to know exactly when you will be in your new home?

Finally, one of the biggest issues is cost. Many who consider building their own home believe they will save a great deal of money. Typically, this is not the case. Many sub-contractors will charge an individual "retail" rates, where as they would charge us a "wholesale" rate. Also. a builder is likely tp pay better rates for materials. Delays for one reason or another can be very costly. We at Piedmont Personal Builders guarantee a fixed rate price for your custom built home. Once a purchase agreement is signed, the cost of your home will not go up, guaranteed!

So, let the pros do the job for you, you'll be gald you did.

The Triad Parade of Homes will be held on October 10-11 and 17-18 from 1 - 5 pm each day. More than 90 new homes will be on tour throughout the Greensboro and Winston-Salem area ranging from 1,400 to 8,400 square feet.

The Greensboro Builders Association and the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem are partnering to co-sponsor this region event which will span five counties: Guilford, Forsyth, Stokes, Northern Davie and Davidson. Admission is FREE.

The Greensboro Parade of Homes is sponsored this fall by Amanzi Marble & Granite, Gary Jobe Builder, ProBuild and RSG-Greensboro. Information on Parade Homes located in Guilford County can be found below...click on Fall 2009. You can search by all entries, builder name, price range, neighborhood and city.