American Housing Builders, Inc

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“Now, you can follow us on Facebook.”

AmHousing Mick

You can now follow American Housing on Facebook and keep up with what is happening in the world of new home building and remodeling. Just go to AmhousingMick and request to be a friend. Once accepted, you will become a part of the American Housing Facebook community. Facebook is a social site that connects people with friends, family and others throughout the world.

You can also follow us on Twitter.

Click here to go to AmHousingMick on Facebook.

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3.5% FHA Down Payment Program

American Housing is now offering a financing program that is designed to meet the needs of buyers who want to build their Dream Home!

The “Close It, Build It” Loan provides builders and buyers the special financing options needed in today’s market. With one application, one set of fees, and one closing, construction of your home can begin.

American Housing builds affordable, quality new homes and also works with all Federal, State and local finance assistance programs in order to make homes obtainable for families wanting to achieve the “ American Dream” of home ownership. We are pleased to be able to make this program available.

The “Close It, Build It” loan combines the lot loan, interim construction financing and a permanent mortgage into one loan, and closes before actual construction begins.

• Program requires as little as 3.5% down payment, or if you already own your land, you can use the equity in your land as all, or part, of the down payment.
• The cost saving package includes one closing and one set of fees, which is unlike a typical two time closing.
• The Power of One program includes: 1 Lender, 1 Application, 1 Approval and 1 Closing.
• There are no payments required during the interim construction phase.
• Rates are protected with a Float Down. If rates go down, your payment could go down as well.
• Minimum credit score is 620.
• Also, ask about a 2 year Deliquency Protection plan that is available.

Call us at 727-546-6611 for more information on this program.

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Selecting your New Home Floor Plan Can Actually be Fun!

One of the most exciting parts of building your own home is selecting and designing the floor plan. You may want to start from a stock plan and modify it to suit you and your family’s needs, or you may prefer to start from scratch with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.

Looking through home magazines and walking through model homes are a great way to come up with new and innovative ideas to help you with your designing process. Talk to friends, family and co-workers and pick their brain for ideas. You will be surprised at some of the things they will come up with. You will probably get some really “good” and you will definitely get some really “not so good” ideas. You can then sift through their thoughts and suggestions and come away with pretty good ideas of your own.

Then the fun begins. There will be many questions you will need to ask yourself in order to get started, but you have to start somewhere. So, to start, here are a few questions to consider:

Do you want a one or two story home?

Do you want a block or frame house?

How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you want?

Will you need a one or two car garage, or possibly even a three car garage?

How many square feet of living area do you think you will need?

Do you want your kitchen to open up to the living area or would you rather have a galley type kitchen?

Simple questions maybe, but they will need to be answered. Remember, the list will just seem to go on and on, but even knowing that, don’t let it intimidate you. A lot of the questions will just sort of answer themselves as you go along. The most important thing is to do is to just get started.

To help you in this process, American Housing has an in-house staff that can not only help assist you in the design phase, but can also help you in your product and color selections. From there, with your input of course, our in-house CAD department can then take your design sketches, notes and selections, and convert them to actual working drawings.

Once the plans are complete and the selections are made, American Housing will start the process of building your new home. We will prepare plans for permitting, secure the building permit and then build your new home with the plans and design you have selected.

But, there is a certain mania that can sometimes go along with being “green” and that is why we each have to decide how “green” we each want to go individually. It is a personal thing we each have to decide on our own.

As builders, we feel that incorporating many “green” products and procedures into the homes and room additions we build as standard features just makes sense for home buyers and homeowners. Products like Low e windows, high efficiency heat pumps and programmable thermostats, Low VOC paints, low water consumption commodes, water efficient faucets and Energy Star appliances are just some of the products that we use as standard building products in our homes and jobs, but we also know that building “green” actually goes a little further than that.

Going “green” also includes using procedures like silt fencing around the property when construction is under way, having floor plans designed to maintain a home’s functionality, having job site plans drawn to help reduce material waste during actual construction, making sure water is being diverted away from the home, and sealing all of the home’s penetrations during construction. These are just some of the ways used to help make our projects more energy efficient and more “green.”

There are also many optional “green” products available today, with many more coming out every day, giving home buyers and home owners a wide selection of products for their homes. Each home owner has do decide on how “green” he or she may want to go.

Although we are NAHB Certified Green Professionals, we do not claim to know everything about “green” technology. We do try to stay current on “green” trends and products, in order to be able to provide pertinent information to our home buyers and room addition clients, so that they can make educated decisions as to what products they may want for their home.

Just saying that we are a “green” builder does not make it so. We know we have to put our money where our mouth is. That is why we not only try to stay current on the most current “green” products and technologies available, we try to incorporate the ones we feel can truly make a difference into our new homes and remodeling projects when it is economically feasible.

Click here for more information on “green” construction.

When you decide to build a new home, the type of house you want influences what type of building company you select. Careful consideration in choosing a builder can assure that the amount of time, emotion and money you will invest in a new home will result in a comfortable home that you can enjoy for years.

There are basically three types of builders: production builders, semi-custom builders and custom builders.  Production builders are organized for higher volume construction. Having a standardized list of choices for floor coverings, tiles, countertops, light fixtures, cabinets and exterior finishes means it’s faster and easier to make selections. Through repetition, the production builder has worked any bugs out of floor plans and the time to build is usually shorter.

Semi-custom builders work with existing plans, but are flexible regarding changes. Some home buyers feel more comfortable starting with a plan, rather than developing their own.

Custom builders specialize in starting with a blank sheet of paper and creating a unique home. They have experience with a wide variety of finishes, unusual treatments and design details. Because each house is one-of-a-kind, home buyers can expect significant initial investment in time and dollars for design development and the creation of working blueprints and specifications.

There are several different sources for finding the builder. Potential home buyers can check newspaper advertising and real estate agents…

When you meet the builder, ask about things that are important to you and get a sense of the company’s personality. You will be spending considerable time with the builder and his employees; you will want to find a company with whom you are compatible. Ask to meet the person who would be in charge of building your home. What experience does he or she have?

Throughout the selection stage, your explorations and conversations will no doubt lead you to the same names again and again. Comparing one detail after the next, you will probably keep coming back to the same builder. When the price range is in line with your budget, and you feel more excited than ever to get started, you have probably found the right builder.

Click here to read the entire article on the FHBA website.

According to a recent article written by Martin Crutsinger and Alan Zibel on Builder Online, the economic recovery is gaining strength with the biggest rise in construction spending in nearly a decade.

“The recovery is still on track,” said Brian Bethune, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight. While Europe’s troubles will put a drag on profits at U.S. companies that do business overseas, Bethune said, “it’s not going to be a show-stopper.”

The burst in April construction spending reported by the Commerce Department sent a promising signal for an industry that was among the hardest hit during the recession. The 2.7 percent increase was spread across all major sectors. But temporary government incentives fueled gains in two of three major categories. The economy will eventually have to manage with less government support.

John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said: “It does look like there’s sustainable economic growth in the U.S. for the time being.”

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. last week reported a narrower loss in its latest quarter but said it had seen a surge in orders. The company said the strength in orders was holding up in May even though the tax credits had ended. “It appears our business has finally emerged from the tunnel and into a bit of daylight,” CEO Robert Toll said. Still, he cautioned, “We don’t expect housing to roar back right away.”

PulteGroup Inc., the nation’s largest homebuilder, reported in early May that it was able to reduce its loss for the first quarter and expected to be profitable this year. That would mark a key turning point for the company, which has posted losses in 14 consecutive quarters.

American Housing Builders, Inc. has noted more activity and are looking for things to continue to improve throughout the rest of the year. You can contact American Housing at 727-546-6611 or go to the “Contact Us” page and send a request for more information.

Click here to read entire article written at Builderonline.com.

In a May 18, 2010 story written by Teresa Burney at Builderonline, it is noted that April housing starts were up 5.8% compared to March and up 40.9% compared with April 2009 according to the Commerce Department’s monthly residential construction report. Single-family starts were up 10.2% month over month, to a seasonally adjusted level of 593,000.

Compared with April 2009, all of the regions throughout the U.S. saw increases: the Northeast was up 66%; the Midwest, 25%; the South, 59.6%; and the West, 3.5%, all on a year-over-year-basis.

In terms of future construction, total building permits hit a seasonally adjusted level of 606,000 units, which is 11.5% lower than the previous month, but on an annual basis, April’s overall building permits were 15.9% above the same month one year ago.

So, after all of the negative news we have been hearing over the past few years, it seems as though there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for builders and consumers. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a continuing trend back to normalcy.

Click here to read more at builderonline

VALUES ARE DOWN & COSTS ARE UP!

According to a recent article in the Ocala Business Journal by Jeff Brooks, and noted by our most recent cost increases from our own suppliers, we have seen that building material prices have risen rather sharply over the past few months. From wire mesh and steel rebar, both of which are used to strengthen concrete, to plywood and OSB sheathing, to 2×4 studs and other nominal lumber, prices have gone up 15 to 30%.  When lumber prices go up, so do the costs of other lumber related products such as roof and floor trusses, baseboards, interior doors and even cabinets.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, recently said that while he hasn’t heard of any major hardships concerning shortages yet, he has noticed a notable price increase in almost every market segment of the construction industry.

In a time when home prices are already deflated, this is not very welcome news and just makes things even more difficult for home builders who are still trying to provide a product for the home buying consumer, while at the same time trying to keep prices affordable. In order to help to keep our homes affordable even in today’s market, we at American Housing are working closely with our suppliers and contractors so that we can keep abreast as to what these costs are today and where they are going.

Click here to read this entire article written by Jeff Brooks for the Ocala Business Journal

We at American Housing never underestimate the power of a woman. We have invested a lot of time in trying to get the female perspective on our homes. While we feel, as a company, that we are very talented and know how to build a quality home, we don’t want to overlook the realities of what a woman looks for in a home. We feel it is important to try and anticipate the needs of a family at a more personal and detailed level, and feel that a woman seems to come naturally equipped with that perspective.

In 2007, the Women’s Council of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) showed that women played a major role in up to 90 percent of home purchases and we consider that quite impressive. In talking to women who have purchased our homes, we have learned that one of their major concerns in purchasing a new home to be built, was that they wanted to know what their home was going to look like when it was finished. They wanted to know how the style of their home was going to look, from the roofline to the individual rooms. During construction, she wanted to be involved in the building process so that she could be sure that her vision would be realized.

American Housing saw that there was a need for a woman’s touch in our homes, and because of that, we wanted to create a home with a layout and style that a woman would expect in her home. We want to feel certain that American Housing’s homes are functional for both men and women and feel that a woman’s point of view is vital to accomplish that goal.