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OFFICE HOURS |
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Monday
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Thursday
8:30 am to 4:30 pm
For more information on Association Events please visit the HBAGTA website at
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CALENDAR AND
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June 30, 2010
Office Closed for Staff Training
July 2, 2010
Office Closed
July 5, 2010
Office Closed for Holiday
July 23, 2010
MAHB Summer Conference
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HBAGTA COMMITTEES
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Participation in any HBAGTA Committee is open to all members of the Association!
Want to get more from your membership?
JOIN A COMMITTEE!
Call the HBAGTA Office for more information:
(231) 946-2305 |
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REMEMBER TO ADD THE HBAGTA! |
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When developing your marketing plan, whether it be EXPO participation, a web site design, coupons to consumers, stationary...just about anything your company participates in or distributes, be sure to add the HBAGTA logo and display your pride in being a member of the Home Builders Association!
Did you know? If you provide a link to the HBAGTA on your business web site - your company's web site link is activated for free? We will waive the $50 annual service fee! - Just ask how.
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SUMMER CONVENTION
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The Michigan Association of Home Builders (MAHB) Summer Convention this year will be held at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, Michigan. A full schedule of events and the registration form has been posted at buildingmichigan.org. All MAHB members are encouraged to attend this two-day event. The Board meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 23, 2010 from 1:30 - 4:30 PM. Contact Pam Frankenberger at 517-646-2572 for more details. |
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MEIJER CARD RENEWED!
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The (MAHB) Michigan Association of Home Builders is partnering with Meijer to present twelve months of exclusive savings to association members beginning July 1, 2010. Cards will be mailed directly to each active HBAGTA member at the end of June. This exclusive offer for the whole year is a convenient way to put your membership in the association to work for you!
Spend $25 or more in General Merchandise, present your Meijer Savings Card to the cashier to scan at checkout, and you will get $5 off your purchase at the register. There is no application form to fill out or fees to pay. Take advantage of this benefit of your HBAGTA membership
The offer is good at all Meijer Stores from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Purchases
exclude: Grocery, Alcohol, Tobacco, Prescriptions, Gift Cards, Lottery, Postage, Park and Entertainment Tickets.
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FIXING INACCURATE NEW HOME APPRAISALS
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Home builders have recently seen some encouraging progress on residential real estate appraisal issues and concerns - including guidance on how builders can communicate with appraisers and what they can do in response to faulty valuations of their homes.
Appraisals remain a major problem for the industry, particularly the inappropriate use of foreclosed and distressed properties as comparables, which has negatively affected property values and remains an obstacle to the recovery of the housing market.
Two appraisal summits hosted last fall by the NAHB Housing Finance group bringing together representatives of the major housing and financial institution stakeholders, appraisal organizations and federal housing and banking regulators opened up ongoing discussions on key areas that needed to be addressed. (Click here for a previous NBN story on the Sept. 21 summit and click here for a story on the Nov. 3 summit.)
Representatives from the Appraisal Institute, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) are continuing to work with NAHB on this effort.
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HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION
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Grand Traverse County Resource Recovery Department (Recycle Smart) will conduct the summer Household Hazardous Waste collection on Thursday, July 29th from 1-7 p.m.
The online scheduling system is a convenient tool to secure an appointment. Appointments are required and can be made beginning July 1st at www.RecycleSmart.info or by calling the RecycleSmart Hotline at 941-5555.
This service is provided to Grand Traverse County households and businesses at no cost (up to 150 lbs. and $1.30 per lb. thereafter) with the exception of televisions and other electronics, which will be charged at $ 0.38 per lb. Acceptable materials include oil-based paints, automobile fluids, cleaning products, mercury, moth balls, pool chemicals and other hazardous materials.
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| Greetings! ,
The Parade of Homes is our Association's premier event- no doubt about that. A dedicated volunteer committee works tirelessly to ensure that the event comes off without a hitch. And the staff does an inordinate amount behind the scenes to make sure everything goes well. However, things don't go as flawlessly and we would like our collective public to think! Things invariably do go wrong - even with the best laid plans. So to give you a glimpse behind the scenes, I thought I'd share a few of the funny and not-so-funny things we encountered at the outset of the Parade.
- After a four month wait, the association switched to a new cost saving phone service. The new provider promised us "unforgettable service". And that's exactly what we got! Some snafu in the "seamless transition" left our office without a dial tone on a primary phone line the day before the Parade opening. Our complex call forwarding plan we devised was worthless. None of our builders or non-profit hosts could reach us off hours now. We were frantic to figure out how to contact 19 Parade builders/developers and countless unknown non-profit reps in the pre-Parade hours. However, a big-hearted technician arrived late Saturday night to provide a temporary fix - just to get us through before the big guns with cables and testers could arrive Monday morning.
- An early Saturday morning phone call from a Builder Buddy (the Parade committee helpers that put out signs and deliver materials) informed me that his builder's signs were stolen - all of them! And the house was on the outskirts of our Parade route. With family commitments looming and an 80 mile round trip trek, he was desperate to figure out how to replace at least a dozen road signs before show time.
- This is a celebration but I never expected a "shower"! Arriving at a lovely new home site, I was surprised to find that I had to dodge a substantial sprinkler onslaught at the front door. Seems the irrigation programmer got a bit confused with the "a.m." and "p.m." thing. So the anticipated watering just before dawn was an unexpected obstacle for guests or perhaps with the heat index that day, a welcome relief.
- A non-profit hostess comments on Saturday how she's having trouble finding anything about her builder's home in the Plan book . . . as she holds up a copy of the newest issue of Traverse Magazine's Home & Cottage!
- A Parade visitor comments how nice it is that we have decided to keep the homes open until 9 p.m. on Sundays now. What?? The Parade always closes at 5 p.m. each Sunday. But much to our dismay, we have thousands of tickets printed that state that the Sunday hours are noon until 9 p.m.! Oops.
- Needing some information from a non-profit hostess, I repeatedly call the home and receive no answer. Hours later I drive to the home and bring up the issue of not being able to reach the group. Puzzled, the lady indicated that the phone was right there on her table as requested. . . . but no. . . no one told her that she had to turn it on!
- Worried that perhaps even with the ramped up
 advertising, the public still isn't fully aware of our spectacular event, my staff cronies and I go on a 2-day hunt for Jacob - the Domino's Dancer to help promote the Parade. With him donned with a hard hat and a ticket outlet sign, stationed at the corner of Barlow and S. Airport, I finally sigh and find a semblance of peace.
Wasn't it Sara Lee that said, "Nobody Doesn't Like a Parade?" Okay, this week, maybe I could find a few!
Together We Are Building a Stronger Association!
Kathy Maisonville
Executive Officer
Home Builders Association of the Grand Traverse Area, Inc.
3040 Sunset Lane
Traverse City, MI 49684
p: 231.946.2305
f: 231.946.1051
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NAHB scored a clear victory when EPA announced that it would delay enforcement of the worker training and firm certification requirements for the Lead-Based Paint (LBP) rule. Although the rule became effective April 22, this new directive effectively gives remodelers until Oct. 1, 2010 to file for firm certification, until Sept. 30 for workers to register and Dec. 31 for workers to take the required training course. However, they will still be required to use lead-safe work practices during this time. As you recall, NAHB has been urging EPA to delay the rule for a number of reasons, including the lack of training providers and training opportunities.
EPA's action is in direct response to NAHB's continued involvement in the LBP rule, its petition to delay the rule, its work with the HBA of Tennessee to provide relief in areas damaged by the recent flooding, its strong support of Senator Collin's amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act that would delay the rule's effective date, and NAHB's efforts to educate the Members of Congress on the rule and its ramifications. Indeed, EPA's memo acknowledges that the delay was necessary because of concerns raised by the regulated community. Now that EPA has heard and acted on our concerns, it is incumbent on NAHB to continue to provide support to remodelers to increase their awareness of the rule and inform them of the opportunities to get the necessary training and certification.
It is very rare that we are able to claim clear victories in the regulatory arena, yet EPA's delay of enforcement of the LBP rule is exactly that. Unfortunately, there are still a number of uphill battles ahead in the LBP arena related to clearance testing and removal of the "opt-out" provision - battles that staff and the members will continue to fight.
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PARADE ROYALE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP! | |
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 CHERRY ROYALE PARADE ENTRY
The HBA is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. To bring attention to this fact and the enormous impact housing has on this community, the association has partnered with NMC students to create a special float for the Cherry Royale Parade to be held July 10th.
Under the leadership of HBA member and Adjunct Professor, Devin Hill, over 30 1st year students from NMC's carpentry program have worked for the past 6 months on a miniature replica of Eric Olson's 2009 Parade home in Empire. Without architectural drawings or blueprints, the students created the tiny house to scale with nothing more than the Parade Planbook photo. This mini-home will be the featured attraction on the HBA float.
However, we would also like to include many of the HBA's founding members on that float. We are proud of them and what they created four decades ago. If anyone knows where we can find some of those charter members, we would appreciate you contacting the office at 946-2305. |
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SAVE THE DATES FOR SHOWCASE | |
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Mark Your Calendars Now - Save the Dates
Annual Showcase of Remodeled Homes
Saturday and Sunday, October 2nd and 3rd
Contractors, remodelers and trades professionals are reminded to save Oct. 2nd and 3rd for the 2nd annual Showcase of Remodeled Homes. Whether you have a whole house remodel or a small specialty project to showcase, this is your venue to share the possibilities available to today's home owners. Showcase contracts will be available at the HBA office and online in early July. Now is the time to talk to your clients and customers about featuring their home and your business this fall.
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CONTINUING COMPETENCY | |
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The six 3-hour Continuing Competency seminars filled quickly last month. The association is now taking a break from hosting more of these until fall. However, sessions are slated for September 15th and 29th and October 13th and 27th. Undoubtedly, many whose licenses expire in May 2011 will want to save one of these dates. The cost is $59 for members and $99 for non-members. Registration forms are available in the office or on our website.
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A MESSAGE ON THE AD&C LOAN CRISIS | |
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from NAHB Chairman Bob Jones
Bob Jones |
This spring, we have seen encouraging signs of a housing recovery starting to take root, with home sales and starts slowly and erratically beginning to register encouraging gains from the steep decline of recent years. Despite what you might have been seeing in the national data, many local housing markets are poised for a return to normalcy, and the hardest-hit parts of the country appear to have seen the worst of a devastating housing downturn.
But there can be no long-lasting housing or economic recovery as long as the home building industry continues to experience severe credit problems for acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) loans. The lack of access to capital especially puts small and medium-sized builders at a disadvantage, making them uncompetitive in their markets and even threatening the viability of their businesses.
Ending the freeze in home building credit that is jeopardizing countless home building firms across the nation is our association's top priority.
Under intense pressure from bank examiners to reduce their exposure to development and construction loans to builders and curtail their outstanding portfolio of real estate loans, many lenders are refusing to make loans for viable new housing projects and cutting off the funding for performing loans, or calling them. This is causing unnecessary foreclosures and losses on these loans. Performing loans are also being reappraised, reducing the value of the collateral and forcing borrowers to come up with large amounts of cash to keep their loans current.
Since the credit crisis began, NAHB has been working relentlessly to improve the availability of credit for home builders. We have - and continue - to work to resolve this issue on all fronts. These efforts include:
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An ongoing series of meetings with federal banking regulators to urge them to reduce regulatory restrictions on AD&C credit and rein in overzealous bank examiners
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Taking our concerns on AD&C to Capitol Hill to get congressional pressure for regulatory change as well as direct legislative remedies
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Working with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on behalf of builders with loans caught in receiverships
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A joint outreach to all major banking trade organizations
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Efforts to pursue meaningful changes in the appraisal process
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Attempts to identify and facilitate builder access to alternative sources of housing credit
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Providing information and assistance to NAHB members who are experiencing AD&C credit problems
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Undertaking a range of activities to address appraisal problems
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Engaging in an aggressive media campaign to publicize the problem and pressure policymakers to take action
Many builders throughout the land are struggling today for access to credit. Financing for the production of housing is critical not only for their languishing businesses, but for the full-fledged housing upturn that is needed to boost consumer confidence and create jobs. Rest assured that NAHB will continue this good fight for as long as it takes to restore the flow of housing production credit to our industry.
Reprinted from Nation's Building News
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DID YOU KNOW?
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 Over the next several months in our Tuesday Toolbox we will be highlighting some of the member benefits that you may not know were available to you as a member of the HBA. This week our "Did You Know?" features discounted vacation rentals.
NAHB members can save big on their vacation rentals anywhere in the world with Endless Vacation Rentals by Wyndham Worldwide, one of the world's largest global marketers of vacation rental properties and part of NAHB's Member Advantage discount program.
Members can choose from a vast portfolio of villas, condos, cottages and homes in more than 100 countries - while enjoying the comforts and space of home along with the amenities and services of a resort. And, with more than 200,000 vacation rentals worldwide, there's something for everyone and every budget.
To plan a vacation and to view images, information and ratings on most properties, visit www.evrentals.com/nahb.
For the cost of a long weekend at a hotel, Endless Vacation Rentals guests can often stay for a week in a condo, villa or cottage. What's more, a 24-hour concierge service can provide destination information before your departure and book activities, tee times and restaurant reservations.
Endless Vacation Rentals can also provide 24/7 telephone check-in assistance, upon request.
To book a vacation rental with Endless Vacation Rentals, visit www.evrentals.com/nahb, or call 877-670-7088 and mention code 20090. Vacationers will receive a confirmation e-mail within 24 business hours.
Other Member Advantage Discounts
For the most up-to-date details on the Member Advantage discount program and all of the participating companies, go to www.nahb.org/MA.
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