Raine Carraway - Lenoir & Caldwell County, NC Real Estate

While the well-publicized First Time Homebuyer's Tax Credit of 2010 has long expired, many home buyers in North Carolina are still eligible for a tax credit of up to $2,000 per year.

This is possible because of the Mortgage Credit Certificate, a program offered through the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA), that allows eligible buyers to deduct up to 30% of their mortgage interest from federal income taxes.

• Be a First Time Home Buyer
  

You must not have owned a home in the last 3 years, usually defined as not having claimed any mortgage interest on your tax return during this time.

• Purchase A Primary Residence

You must be buying the home for you to live in, not as an investment property or as a secondary or vacation home.

• Earn at or Below the Maximum Qualifying Income

Income limits are defined by area and county. In North Carolin, they range from $66,000 in most rural areas up to $88,000 for a 3-person household in certain Metro areas. Household income is defined as the “gross income of the mortgagor and any other person expected to live in the residence who is 18 years of age or older.”

• Purchase a Home at or Below the Sales Price Limit

The sales price of the home is capped at $210,000 for existing homes and $220,000 for new construction.

The terms of the mortgage for qualified loans are determined by the lender, not by the NCHFA.

The loan may be FHA, VA, USDA, or conventional and requires lender approval. Once it is approved, the mortgage underwriter will submit your loan to the NCHFA in order to obtain the Mortgage Credit Certificate.

To protect againt fraud, the home buyer's W-2 must match their income tax return and income disclosure and the seller is required to sign an affidavit about the sale and to acknowledge and confirm the sale price of the home.

This program is subject to local approval and availability of funds, and may not be approved if all of the monies for your area have been used.

To learn more about the Mortgage Credit Ceritificate, contact your preferred mortgage lender or see the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) website for details on the program and a list of cooperating lenders.

(This is a continuation of "Why Should I Care About Building Permits?", so please read that first if you have found your way here through another link.)

Building permit requirements vary by state and even by city and county, so please keep in mind that this post is geared toward homeowners in North Carolina, and laws will differ for those living in other states.

You need a building permit to:

◘ Build, re-construct, alter, move, remove or demolish any building (with some exceptions for small storage sheds, according to their size), including constructing, adding onto, or altering any external or load-bearing structures on an existing building.

This includes adding onto, changing, or repairing any exterior wall or other load bearing wall, floor joists and footings, replacing any wood in a roof (including plywood, beams, and rafters), replacing one type of shingles or roof covering with another (asbestos shingles to fiberglass shingles or metal roofing), adding new shingles over existing roofing material, and building a deck or porch.

◘ Install, expand, extend, or repair any plumbing system (there are certain exceptions to plumbing permits for replacing a hot water heater, but both require a licensed contractor to install them, because of requirements for inspection and a leak test on the piping for gas heaters and for the electrical work on electric water heaters).

◘ Install, replace, add to, or change the design and components of a heating and cooling system (swapping an electric furnace for gas, , re-routing duct work, or adding duct work to heat and cool an additional room, for example), and for any repair costing more than $5,000.

◘ Install, extend, alter, or repair any electrical wiring, device, appliance, or equipment. The few exceptions to this (repairing or replacing an outlet or light switch) still require that the work be performed by a licensed electrician, in the same location, and operate on the same or less power than the previous fixture. This includes installing light fixtures, hard-wired outdoor or carport lighting, ceiling fans, and attic fans.

◘ Have any construction, alterations, repairs, or additions done on a commercial or rental property. Also, if you are a landlord or property owner, you must have the work done by a licensed professional, not yourself.

You do not need a building permit to :

◘ Do any project in a single-family residence or farm building costing less than $5000, unless the work adds to, replaces, or changes load-bearing structures, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or electrical wiring, devices, appliances, or equipment; uses materials not allowed by the NC Uniform Residential Building Code, repairs a load-bearing structure, or adds roofing materials.

◘ Add interior walls or add an opening or doorway to a non load-bearing interior wall.

◘ Install, replace, or repair siding on a home.

◘ To replace existing pluming piping or fixtures with like fixtures (replacing a sink, toilet, or appliance), so long as the water supply lines and the trap in the drain line are not altered.

◘ Repair or replace most heating and air conditioning equipment and components, so long as the design or type of system is not changed.

◘ Replace an existing light switch or receptacle with one of the same voltage and the same or lower amperage, so long as the work is done by a licensed electrician and in compliance with State Building Code and State Electrical Code.

◘ Add an outdoor storage shed or other "accessory building", in some jurisdictions, so long as it is not wired for electricity, and does not exceed maximum size limits (12 ft in any dimension for many NC counties).

If you are not sure whether or not you may need a building permit, the best thing to do is to find out from the source. Call your city or county inspection department, or the inspections division of your local planning department, and they will tell you which permits you may need, if any. It is much better to check in advance than to have to pay a fine for a retroactive permit, or tear down the work you have done because it is out of compliance.

Some jurisdictions are very strict, and may even have additional requirements to be met, while others are lax and may allow certain repairs without a permit, but it is always better to find out what your local inspector requires rather than to get caught partway through a project and find out you needed a permit, or need to change something in order to keep it.

It is surprising how many homes in the Lenoir, Morganton, and Hickory area have had electrical and plumbing work done, and whole rooms added, without a building permit.

In fact, there is one home which has been sitting abandoned, uninhabitable, and unable to be sold as a residence for decades, on a main road near Catawba Valley Medical Center. The reason it's unlivable - the owner neglected to obtain a building permit, so he cannot recieve a certificate of occupancy, and cannot have power and utilities connected to the house.

Many times, the owners may not have known one was needed, or considered them a waste of money, so I hope this will help people to understand when they are needed and why they are important.

Two common misbeliefs are that building permits are only for new construction, and only for contractors and builders. In fact, they are necessary for many projects on existing homes, and are still required even if the homeowner is doing the work themself.

Building permits are important for many reasons:

◘ They protect the homeowner's safety by insuring that the work is safe and up to code.

◘ They protect the value of the home by recording any additional square footage, and by preventing problems that can occur with sales where work has been performed out of code.

◘ They protect the homeowner in case of a fire or other problem in the addition. If a home is damaged or destroyed and problem occurs as a result of electrical or plumbing work without a permit, or in an un-permitted addition to the home, then the insurance company can refuse coverage for the claim.

◘ They are the law. Violating North Carolina law by not obtaining a building permit when one is needed is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

So, when might a building permit be necessary? :

In North Carolina, building permits are regulated by NCGS (North Carolina General Statutes) 153Aa-357 (for Counties) and 160a-417 (for cities). You can read either of these laws by clicking on the numbers in the previous sentence, but many people are still confused by them, so I will try to list some of the most common times when a permit will be needed and some of the most common exceptions.

In general, a building permit is necessary for any work affecting a load-bearing structure (exterior, and load-bearing walls, joist and flooring supports, roof and roof supports, and decking), plumbing, electrical work, heating and air conditioning, and anything else with costs exceeding $5,000.

(For more specific information on when a building permit is required in North Carolina, please see the second part of this article, "When Do I Need A Building Permit?").

If so, we have many.

There are over 40 single family stick built homes for sale under $50,000 in Lenoir, NC alone right now, according to the Catawba Valley MLS. Some of these are foreclosures and bank owned properties, but several are owned by investors as rental property, and a few are owner occupied or for sale by the owners' estates and would be ready to move into without needing major renovations.

Two of these homes are 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, and another two are 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. The majority [18 homes] are 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom. The remaining homes are 2 bedroom, with 9 having 2 bathrooms and 12 having one bathrrom. Lots range from very small yards to over an acre.

These numbers do no include the many manufactured homes also available in Lenoir and the surrounding area, but there are many doublewides and modulars also available in this price range or below.If Lenoir is not your ideal location, similar homes can be found in Morganton, Collettsville, Granite Falls, Connelly Springs, Valdese, Drexel, Hickory, Hildebran, Hudson, and throughout Caldwell, Catawba, and Burke counties.

If you are looking for a low-priced starter home or investment property in Caldwell County or the Hickory metro, please give me a call at (828) 430-1936, and I'll send you a list of properties meeting your criteria.

Marves Industries will Produce Mattress Padding in Hildebran, NC

Marves Industries, an international textiles manufacturing company, will be occupying the former Bauer Industries plant at 205 Cline Park Drive in Hildebran, and using the building and existing equipment to manufacture padding to be used in mattresses and furniture. The average wage for workers is expected to by $33,636, not including benefits. They plan to be up and running by January, employing about 50 people in 2010 and adding more jobs later on.

Marves Industries is an affiliate of a Mexican Company known as Industrias Marves S.A. de C.V. (Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, translated as "variable capital company"). That company is based about 200 miles west of Mexico City, in the city of Urupuan in the state of Michoacán. They have been in business for many years and have about 60% market share of the mattress padding industry in Mexico, dealing with such companies as Sealy, Simmons, & Restonic. In addition to mattress padding, they also supply padding for the furniture industry.

This is the company's first move into the U.S., and it is receiving a $200,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund as an incentive to locate its operations in Hildebran. The corporation itself plans to invest $1.75 million in the move. The company was attracted to the area because it is in an ideal location to supply mattress manufacturers in the eastern U.S., because it is overly expensive to ship such a lightweight and voluminous product from Mexico to manufacturers in the US.The available building, with the proper manufacturing equipment in place, and Hildebran's trained manufacturing & textile workforce were also big attractions.

The former plant's owners, Bauer Industries, manufactured aucoustic padding for automotive interiors. They closed apruptly in February 2009, giving workers only a 30-minute notice they were losing their jobs, before padlocking the doors and moving out. They had been open for about 15 years and employed around 40 people.

For information about job opportunities with the company, call Cindy Foster at 397-4400 or send a resume to Marves Industries, Attn: Cindy Foster, P.O. Box 946, Hildebran, N.C. 28637.