At Sposen Homes, we understand that buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make. That’s why we want to help you make informed decisions about financing your new home. In this blog post, we’ll explain how buy down rates can help you afford your dream home and maximize your budget.

What is a Buy Down Rate?

A buy down rate is a mortgage financing option that allows you to pay an upfront fee to lower your interest rate and monthly mortgage payments for the first few years of your loan. This upfront fee can be paid by you, the seller, or even a third party. Continue reading ..

When looking for a new home, there are plenty of benefits to buying or building a new construction home. These homes ensure that the building codes are up to date, and everything is new.

Buying a Move-in Ready New Construction Home 

If you decide to purchase a move-in ready home, there is no hassle of waiting months for your home to be finished and ready for you to move in. This saves you time and energy while still giving you the newly built home of your dreams. They also include popular features most people look for in a new home. Like open concept layouts, updated bathroom styles, stainless steel appliances and upgraded flooring and countertops.  These are great options if you don’t want to wait until the whole building process is complete to move in.  
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“Nearly 25% of U.S. homebuyers are looking to move out of their current metro areas, with many people turning their attention to cities in Florida as their next place to call home, according to a new study.”  – Fox Business

Historically speaking, Florida’s real estate market has been resilient after a hurricane. People are rebuilding in areas hit the hardest by Hurricane Ian. Homeowners know what their land is worth and reinvesting in their property.   Continue reading ..

Builder’s risk insurance helps protect buildings under construction. For a home builder, it minimizes the risk that they take for potential property damage that could occur during the construction on a property. A construction project is protected from property damage from fire, lightning, hail, explosions, theft, vandalism, and natural disasters. 

Who needs it? 

Builder’s risk insurance is needed by anyone that has a financial interest in the construction project. This includes the property owner, builder, general contractor, subcontractors, and any lender providing financial investment in the project. It is always a good idea to make sure you are covered so that you are not personally liable in case something happens. Continue reading ..

If you are struggling to find your dream home, here is why one of our inventory homes might be right for you. Inventory homes are new construction homes that are built with the same standards and quality as our semi-custom-built homes.  

These homes feature our most popular floor plans and premium design selections. With a faster move in timeline, popular layout, and designer selections pre-selected you may find an inventory home is perfect for your family. 

Advantages of buying an inventory home 

The price of an inventory home is set. This means you are not investing any more money in additional upgrades, the land and selecting the floor plan. It also takes away the headache of choosing the selections you want in your home since this is done by the builders’ design team.  

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Investing in Real Estate is one of the best ways to grow your personal wealth. Being an educated investor when it comes to real estate transactions and the taxes you are subject to is important. To understand that we are going to discuss about Capital Gains and ways these monies are taxed when you sell a home.

After a successful real estate transaction, the capital experienced from the sale on your asset, is up for grabs to the IRS.

Capital gains are realized if you sell an asset (in this scenario your home) for more than what you paid for it. The difference between what you paid and what you sold it for may be subject to capital gains taxes.

How long did you own it?

The amount of taxes due on these gains, varies based on how long the asset was in your possession before selling. If the home was held for a year or less this is considered short-term capital gains, and if the home was held for longer than a year it’s considered a long-term capital gain.

Now, the IRS does allow homeowners an opportunity for tax relief on capital gains due to an Act passed in 1997 called the Tax Relief Act of 1997. This Act shifted the policy on how taxes are treated for capital gains realized when it comes to housing. Prior to 1997, homeowners paid capital gains taxes if they sold their house, unless they purchased a new home of equal or greater value.

EXEMPTIONS

Today, there are exemptions on capital gains for the sale of a person(s) primary residence of up to $500,000 for jointly filed married couples and $250,000 for singles if they lived in their home for at least two of the previous five years.

The Tax Relief Act of 1997 also lowered the top tier of taxes for long-term capital gains. The current 2021 long-term capital gains tax rate is 0%, 15% or 20% dependent on the income bracket of the taxpayer, while short-term gains are now taxed at the persons ordinary income tax level. This credit has been phased out for high-income families and is capped at usage to once every two years.

You may also qualify for an exception of these gains if the sale of your home was sold because of your employment, health or “an unforeseeable event, according to the IRS.

CONCLUSION

Always speak with a trusted financial professional for details on how this may affect YOUR own financial information. The IRS has an edibility test you can find here.  Deferring capital gains tax on a sale with the use of a 1031 Exchange is something you will want to explore. To learn more about 1031 Exchange click here.

If you’re ready to invest in real estate, Sposen offers new construction homes at a great value. Contact us today!

With many major financial decisions in life, there’s one number that keeps rearing its potentially ugly head – credit score. In fact, you have many credit scores, not just one. Use your credit card app to look up your credit score and you might get one number. Apply for a loan, and the lender might end up using a different credit score altogether. Whichever scoring system is used to determine your credit scores, you can expect it to fall somewhere within a range of 300 to 850. The higher your scores, the better your credit.

The most common scoring systems you’ll encounter are FICO, which is established credit by the Fair Isaac Corporation, or VantageScore, the system used by the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These scoring systems measure your creditworthiness, or how much trust financial institutions should have in you as a borrower. To take charge of your credit scores, you must understand what exactly is being factored into them.

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A home insurance policy may not be a requirement for most homeowners, but if you have one, it certainly gives you some peace of mind. After all, a disaster can strike your home at any time, and your homeowners’ insurance policy is your guarantee that you will be able to recover from the damage and losses it may cause.

COVID-19, however, has many policyholders worrying about their home insurance coverage. They already know the pandemic is affecting the economy, and it is likely to make an impact on the insurance industry as well.

How worried should you be about the impact COVID-19 might have on your homeowner’s insurance?

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While much of the world is currently in a state of uncertainty, the housing market is in its most viable state. Rates are lower than ever, and it is a seller’s market. Anytime spent on a listing site would show that houses are spending a record short time on the market and are often going for asking price or above. First-time home buyers are taking advantage of every program available, and it is allowing many homeowner goals to be achieved much sooner than expected.

Why Now is the Best Time to Own A Home

This current boom in home buying is attributed to one factor above all others: record-low interest rates. These low rates are the result of the Federal Reserve buying larger and larger amounts of government bonds and keeping the interest rate near 0%. This has led to more families than ever being able to accelerate or achieve their long-term homeowner goals. Becoming homeowners for the first time and having the opportunity to move into the home of their dreams is becoming a reality for so many. Many families have spent their extended time at home and are more motivated more than ever to take advantage of every tool available to help them reach their goals.

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