Homes for Hope Program Expands to California

Jeff Rutt, here.

I recently got back from a Homes for Hope trip a wonderful group of people from all over the country to the Dominican Republic. This trip, like so many others I've taken, reminded me of the true purpose behind Homes for Hope and HOPE International. It's still amazing to me how so many people have banded together over the past few years to help make a difference in global poverty.

Following on the heels of this trip, I am glad to announce that Wathen Castanos Hybrid Homes has joined the Homes for Hope team, and that they have started construction on our first Hope home in California.

Wathan Castanos is nationally recognized for their quality, green homes. However, the builder also embodies a culture of stewardship, supporting organizations such as Project Playhouse, Youth for Christ, Habitat for Humanity and now Homes for Hope.

Through this build, we hope to raise more than $100,000 in funds for HOPE International who will use the money to find micro-loans to aspiring entrepreneurs in 17 developing countries, including the Dominican Republic.

The new home will be located in the Artisan Harlan Ranch subdivision at 4317 Salem Lane, Clovis, CA 93619.

If you're in the home building industry either as a builder or trade supplier, I hope you will take the time to check out Homes for Hope. To date, we've generated more than $10 million, which has helped more than 100,000 entrepreneurs break the cycle of poverty. By joining our team, you too can experience how giving a "hand up" can build a future of hope and promise.

Blessings,

Jeff Rutt

Using Technology to Help You Buy and Sell Homes

Unsurprisingly, as of May 2013, 56 percent of Americans owned a smartphone. And, if you're a real estate agent, chances are you fall within that 56 percent of people who have traded in their old flip phone for a smartphone. Thanks to the smartphone, we can now search the Internet and enjoy our favorite apps all in the palms of our hands. However, smartphones are good for more than just play, they can also help you be more productive in your career.

Here's a look at some of my favorite apps for Realtors:

• DocuSign: While the app may be free, the real estate edition is well worth the $14.95 subscription fee. This app gives you the ability to digitally sign legal documents on the go.
• Evernote: You never know when inspiration (or information) will strike. Evernote is productivity app that helps you organize your notes, lists and photos into notebooks you create. You can even add tags to help you find what you're looking for later. The best part? You can access everything you've stored in Evernote from your phone, tablet, computer and even their webiste.
• Houzz: Show your home buyers and sellers a world full of potential with this design eye candy app. Houzz is great for helping you find ideas for staging a home or decorating your brand new home. Plus, it allows you to easily track down professionals in your area and find out what products are used in the rooms.
• HomeSnap: Users can take a picture of a home that's for sale, and then the app matches the image and GPS location to display teal-time data from MLS and other sources on its price, size, features and additional photos.
• Mortgage Calculator: Ever wanted to quickly show your buyers just how much that home will cost them per month? There are plenty of free mortgage and loan calculator apps that quickly provide all of the financial information you need.
• REALTOR.com: This is the largest and most popular database of real estate listings. The app is GPS supported, so you can easily see what properties (and all of their important details) are available nearby.

Agents, what apps are you using on your phone or tablet? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below!

Until next time,

Jeff Rutt

Hope International Announces Jeff Rutt Winner of 2013 Epoch Lifetime Achievement Award

HOPE International is pleased to announce that its founder and board chair, Jeff Rutt, has won the 2013 Epoch Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding work in the missions field. The award was presented to Rutt on October 28 at Atlanta’s historic Fox Theatre during the second annual Epoch Awards presentation.

The vision of Tim Abare of Adventures in Missions, the Epoch Awards honor those who are persistently tackling issues of poverty, sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS, the need for clean water, homelessness, and other concerns in today's society.

“More than anyone else I know, Jeff models ‘humbition,’ that rare combination of humility and ambition,” says Peter Greer, president and CEO of HOPE International.  “Jeff is tenacious in pursuing his goals, but his success is never about him. The result: both the homebuilding industry and the philanthropy community have appropriately honored Jeff with their highest awards for lifetime achievement. Jeff is a remarkable leader, a true visionary, and a servant who follows the example of Jesus.”  

Since Jeff started HOPE in 1997, the organization has grown to serve over 575,000 men and women in 17 countries through discipleship, biblically based business training, a safe place to save, and small loans. As chairman of HOPE’s board, Jeff provides ongoing leadership in the nonprofit’s work transforming lives both spiritually and physically, empowering men and women to escape poverty, and restoring dignity in families around the world.

“Jeff Rutt is a leader whose heart is set on serving people and motivating others to do the same,” comments Paul Marty, Tomorrow Clubs director and HOPE’s first president.  “I had the privilege of working alongside Jeff on a courageous vision that turned into a global missions organization. Because of Jeff’s passion and dedication to helping underserved communities, I have seen people in poverty set free, with reasons to celebrate new hope and new purpose. It’s been incredible and inspiring to witness over the years.”

During the Epoch Awards ceremony, $50,000 in cash grants were given to help further the endeavors of each award winner and to encourage these innovators to continue making a difference in the world.

First North Dakota Home for Hope Under Construction

Credit: Homes for Hope

I love building homes, but there's nothing more rewarding than building lives.

In my life, I am proud to stand by this statement. When I founded Homes for Hope back in 1998, I knew I was doing something good by providing home builders and their trade partners with the opportunity to build new homes for a greater purpose. Hopes for Hope was a project that allowed me to combine what I am good at, home building, with my passion to help others and to help my still relatively new nonprofit, HOPE International. Since that time, Homes for Hope has been able to build more than 90 homes, impact more than 500,000 lives and raise more than $10 million in revenue benefiting HOPE International.

Last month, we were lucky enough to break ground with Red Door Homes to build North Dakota's first Home for Hope. The Bismarck-based builder and its trade partners will build and sell the home knowing that the profits, which are estimated at $100,000, will benefit thousands of people in more than 17 countries.

Art Goldammer, owner of Red Door Homes, said, "Homes for Hope gave us the opportunity to help more people than we could possibly serve alone. It is hard to put your finger on just the sense of joy that you can help out that many people and that, things you can’t even relate to, but you can make that big a difference in the world from Bismarck, N.D."

If you're looking for a new home in North Dakota, this home located at 3819 Crest Circle in Bismarck is a great opportunity to help a lot of people.

If you're a builder looking to benefit your community, not just locally, but also globally, I hope you'll consider getting involved with the Homes for Hope program.

Until next time,

Jeff Rutt

Weathering the Storm

Last year, I had the chance to speak at the 2012 Entrepreneurs Conference. This conference was a great honor and opportunity to share my message with other business owners. We all know the past five to six years have been a trying time for businesses in every industry, so I thought a message with the theme of weathering the storm was quite appropriate.

Here are my top three take home messages from my speech about weathering the storm:

• Survival - Whether you think of survival in terms meeting of basic needs (300 million children will go hungry today and 92 percent of the world is without clean drinking water) or a home building company (half of the home builders in the country have gone out of business during the recession), we have to take challenging situations and turn them into positive ones.                                                                                                                                                       Here's a look at what we have done at Keystone Custom Homes to survive:
  
  
  
  
  1.       Built an incredibly strong and effective leadership team
  2.       Provided more value without raising costs and reduce costs without reducing value
  3.       Developed our own risk/reward continuum
  4.       Reinvented areas of our business
  5.       Made decisions using Jim Collins' triangle of fanatic discipline, empirical creativity and productive paranoia
  6.       Created a strong work culture
  7.       Communicated transparently
  8.       Trusted God and understood he is in control
  9.       Remained humble
  
  
  Many of these same tactics can be applied to businesses in other industries. Consider how you can implement these actions to make your business more effective and successful.
  
  
• Success - Instead of focusing on ourselves, focus on others and the small successes you can create.

• Significance - Focus on the true purpose behind what you are doing. Each one of us has a purpose in our life, and at the end of the day, our businesses are not really ours, they are God's. Always remember that you are serving for and working for a greater purpose.

I hope you will watch my speech in its entirety, so that you too can hear the message of weathering God's storm.

Until next time,

Jeff Rutt

REPOST: The public sector, not planning, is responsible for unused land

This article in the Guardian examines the politics of insufficient space for building new houses in the UK.  It makes the case that public ownership of land and the actions the public sector takes to make these lands available for building houses have to cohere with the plans of home builders for maximization of urban space:

Image credit: Snarfed.org

It owns third of developable sites in the UK – so the public sector must deliver on its commitment to sell up

In the passionate debate about housing, there is probably only one piece of consensus: that there is a shortage and it is growing rapidly.

Put bluntly, as a nation we are building at least 100,000 too few homes every year. This shortage affects every tenure and every location.

After that, the consensus breaks down. Where should houses be built – greenfield, green belt or brown field? What role should local people have as national and local needs are attempted to be met? What designs and tenures should be built? Is it planning that limits building, or developers hoarding land?

All the blame is often pinned on the planning process but that is unfair. Yes, it can be frustratingly slow – but improving the process alone is only part of the answer.

Barratt is not hoarding land – we buy land subject to planning and there is very little land that we own (and which has planning permission) where we are not on site building. The fact is that even before planning, there is not enough land coming forward for development.

The public sector in all its forms owns around a third of developable land in the UK, and so has a direct and urgent role in addressing this. Most of this land will be brown field, and the rate at which this land is brought forward for development needs to be largely increased. It's a commitment both this government and the former one have made, but although more land has been released in the last year than we can remember it is yet to be fully delivered.

If the public sector makes more land available, it is right and proper that it should also define the economic and social outcomes. The public sector should stipulate the mix of housing and what other social objectives, for example local employment, need to be achieved on public land.

Of course, land should be sold on terms that are economically viable for all parties. That means incentives for housebuilders to build and incentives for the public sector to sell. There should also be strings attached that specify delivery. This is a process that can work well. We now have more partnership schemes than any other housebuilder and a specialist regeneration unit that will work with the public sector on what can be achieved.

Take Heritage Park, Silverdale, where we are redeveloping the former colliery site with the Homes and Communities Agency. Redundant land is being transformed into 300 new homes, leisure facilities and a country park. This project was started in the depths of the recession.

Cane Hill is another example, where there is close collaboration between us as the developer, the Greater London Assembly, Croydon council and local people – to regenerate one of the biggest sites for housing within the M25, building 650 homes.

Partnership can also deliver research and development for the sector. AtHanham Hall near Bristol, we have worked with the public sector to build one of the most environmentally advanced housing projects anywhere in Europe.

To increase housing on redundant public sector sites will need a powerful leadership role for the Homes and Communities Agency, and I support the proposal that they should lead the disposal of public land for housing.

There has to be a clear plan from major public landowners to identify surplus land and kickstart the development process.

But it will also require change from the housing sector. There must be a new determination to work in partnership. To achieve this we have to demonstrate that design and quality are at the forefront of our thinking.

That the economic and social use of public assets are being maximised and that we are building a lasting legacy.

Mark Clare is group chief executive at Barratt Developments plc

Follow this Jeff Rutt Facebook page for news on movements in the housing sector, both in the US and abroad.

REPOST: Should you buy a fixer-upper? (Part 1)

While new homes are the ideal that most homeowners strive for, sometimes they settle for a cheaper dilapidated home that has depreciated in value. The fixer-upper may be an economical choice for those who don't mind a little DIY, but is it worth it? Melinda Fulmer of MSN Real Estate weighs in the options. The full article is available on MSN.com

With housing inventory tight and many bank-owned homes on the market, some buyers are starting to consider homes that they previously would have dismissed as problems.

How much of a project should you take on? We asked real-estate agents and a home inspector what buyers should consider when evaluating a home that needs work.

In this month's Buying Advice, we'll also check in with the latest housing statistics and help define a real-estate phrase that's commonly used but not universally understood.

Repair, renovate, rehab

Buying a fixer-upper is hardly ever anyone's first choice. But with the number of available listings at or near record lows in many markets, paying for repairs is something more buyers have to plan on, says Chasin Prather, with ERA Buy America Real Estate in La Palma, Calif.

But Prather says there are times when it's best to walk away. Here's his list of problems you should walk away from:

• Mold: If you see or suspect (sniff sniff) mold in the house, you should definitely get it inspected carefully. (Did we mention that you should never skip a home inspection, or any additional specialized inspections recommended by the inspector?) Mold on the inside could mean repairs to plumbing and extensive drywall replacement. Exterior mold could mean that the house has improper drainage, which requires expensive lot grading to remedy and, if uncorrected, could mean a flooded basement every time it rains.

• Foundation issues; If an inspection turns up a problem with the foundation, you can bet that you'll be draining your bank account to fix it. And if your lender becomes aware of the problem, it could jeopardize your financing, Prather says. Many lenders request a copy of the home inspection if it is cited on the purchase agreement.

• A bad floor plan: Many buyers with large families talk themselves into a home with a less-than-ideal floor plan by rationalizing that it would be made better with an addition. While an addition can add space, it can't always resolve issues such as a cramped kitchen or bad access to the laundry room, bedrooms or backyard. "Be sure the rest of the home works for you," Prather says. 

Image source: MSN.com

Bill Jacques, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, says first-timers should probably steer clear of a house that needs extensive repairs. He says most people overestimate how handy they are and underestimate the costs of repairs. "They end up taking on these large projects and not being able to finish them," he says.

Problems that made his walk-away list include:

• A bad roof: You are looking at thousands of dollars to replace it, on top of any other work.

• A dead or dying heating and air-conditioning system: "If you have to replace the unit, you're looking at a minimum of $5,000," Jacques says. And if it's a much older home, you might also have to commit to replacing some ductwork.

• An ancient, problematic electrical system: Many old homes, he says, have faulty wiring and electrical panels that could pose a risk of electrical fire. For example, he says, in many cases, old circuit-breaker panels made by Federal Pacific Electric Co. failed to trip and protect homeowners. Updating wiring is expensive, he says. Know that going in.

If many repairs are needed, he says, you have to consider whether you'd be better off waiting and buying something a little more expensive. "You will be spending all of your money [and time] trying to fix everything up," Jacques says.

If you are going to give a fixer serious consideration, make sure you do your homework, says Tony Geraci, broker/owner of Century 21 HomeStar in Cleveland.

Price out repairs with a licensed contractor before you buy and have the contractor help you map out a realistic timeline for repairs.

If repairs are major, ask yourself if you are able to find another place to live. If you must move in, can you live with the house the way it is?

Know that a home inspection might not turn up everything that needs work. Make sure you have an emergency fund to deal with these problems.

See if your city's planning department offers any grants, tax abatements or other incentives for renovations in your neighborhood.

Lastly, prioritize your projects and don't tackle them all at once, especially if you're doing it yourself. You don't want to start working on both bathroom and kitchen and wind up getting stuck or out of money halfway through, when your counters are all ripped out.

When repair costs are astronomically high, it is probably better to build new homes, courtesy of home builders like Jeff Rutt's Keystone Custom Homes, instead of refurbishing old ones. Visit this website for more information on home building.