NAHB Education is offering a variety of dynamic webinars for housing industry professionals every Wednesday in July. These webinars are structured to help participants expand their knowledge about industry best practices in customer service, design, and sales and marketing. Many are offered at a discount to NAHB members, including several that are free for certain council members.

Be sure to reserve your spot today! If you are unable to attend, you will get access to the webinar replay for 12 months.

Check out the schedule for July:

Update Your Elevations: A Live Demo on Applying Multiple Facades to a Single Floor Plan
Wednesday, July 15
1-2 p.m. ET

Learn how to create multiple unique elevations ranging from traditional to contemporary in a live 3D modeling demonstration. Walk away with the knowledge to offer your clients a variety of options and the choices they desire. Register now.

Evergreen Online Lead Conversion: Creating a Strategy That’s Ready for the Unexpected
Wednesday, July 22
2-3 p.m. ET

Build a successful digital marketing engine that converts online leads and boosts sales in the unpredictable markets where you operate. With the impact of COVID-19 still looming, you’ll learn what it takes to navigate change and create a business pipeline that’s not just immune to disruption, but actually designed for it. Free for NAHB’s National Sales & Marketing Council members. Register now.

New Rules for Creating an Exceptional Customer Experience
Wednesday, July 29
2-3 p.m. ET

Discover the biggest pain points for home buyers and how your team can provide “WOW” moments to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and the end-to-end experience buyers want. Register now.

Register today. For questions about registration, please contact Deborah Krat at EdWebinars@nahb.org.

The NAHB Young Professional (YP) Awards annually recognize young building industry professionals under the age of 45 who:

• Propel their careers forward;
• Advance in all three levels of the NAHB Federation;
• Advocate for the home building industry; engage with their peers; and
• Establish themselves as exceptional members of their communities.

“The annual YP Awards are the premier way to highlight young industry professionals who are changing the way the world looks at the construction industry today,” shared Heather Laminack of Ferrier Builders, 2020 chair of the Young Professionals Committee. “These awards will go to the best of the best from across the country, showcasing individuals’ innovation, community and industry involvement, career advancement and leadership in the building industry.”

A panel of five judges select 15 finalists and five winners. One winner will be selected from each NAHB national region (A-E).

Anyone under the age of 45 who meets the criteria is highly encouraged to apply, Laminack added. Nominees must be active members in good standing, excluding last year’s winners, judging panelists and the current NAHB Young Professionals Committee chairman. Industry and membership areas within NAHB had also previously recognized rising stars within their segments; members are encouraged to nominate these stars for the YP Awards to recognize their efforts.

Applications are open until Oct. 16, 2020. Apply today or nominate an outstanding YP in your network at awards.nahb.org.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will extend several loan origination flexibilities until Aug. 31, 2020, to ensure continued support for borrowers during the COVID-19 national emergency. The flexibilities were set to expire on July 31.

Extended flexibilities include:

• Alternative appraisals on purchase and rate term refinance loans;
• Alternative methods for documenting income and verifying employment before loan closing; and
• Expanding the use of power of attorney and remote online notarizations to assist with loan closings.

NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke today sent an open letter to the nation’s residential construction workers imploring them to continue following guidance to prevent the transmission of coronavirus in the face of rising cases nationwide. Read the letter below:

Dear Colleagues,

As chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), I commend your dedication to building our nation’s homes and your steadfast commitment to jobsite safety during this unprecedented time.

The pandemic has highlighted the country’s housing affordability crisis and the need for new housing is more important now than ever. NAHB has worked hard to have home building designated as “essential infrastructure workforce” at the federal, state and local levels to allow our industry to continue building homes. None of this should be at the expense of safety, however. Fortunately, the safety measures taken by home builders and remodelers have allowed our workers to stay on the job without jeopardizing their safety.

Yet, today, as we witness spikes in the spread of the coronavirus around the country, it is time to recommit our efforts to implement and maintain jobsite safety measures. NAHB, in collaboration with the Construction Industry Safety Coalition, developed a comprehensive Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Plan for Construction that outlines the steps every employer and employee should take to reduce the risk of exposure to and transmission of COVID-19.

We all know the basics: maintain a distance of at least six feet, wear face coverings and wash your hands frequently. These simple steps can help stop the virus from spreading. For those of us in construction, we must take additional precautions, like avoiding the sharing of tools, properly disinfecting equipment that must be handled by others, using individual water containers rather than shared ones like water coolers, and minimizing the total number of workers on a site at any one time. Employers also must have written exposure prevention plans in place as well as procedures to follow if a worker does become sick.

Safety will always be our industry’s number one priority. This COVID-19 guidance complements NAHB’s year-round Safety 365 campaign that provides information and resources to help keep construction workers safe and eliminate preventable accidents, injuries and deaths.

Thank you for continuing to put the health and safety of your fellow workers and community members first. Together, we can lead the way out of the crisis and lift our economy back on its feet as we work to provide safe, affordable housing for all.

Sincerely,

John “Chuck” Fowke
NAHB Chairman

For more information on NAHB’s job site coronavirus safety resources, contact Rob Matuga.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released Notice 2020-54 (PDF), which requires employers to report the amount of qualified sick and family leave wages paid to employees under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

FFCRA generally requires employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide their employees with paid leave because of certain COVID-19-related circumstances occurring in 2020. Employers are entitled to receive a refundable tax credit equal to the amount of qualified wages, including employer-paid health plan expenses, paid under this temporary mandate.

Employers will be required to report these amounts either on Form W-2, Box 14, or in a statement provided with the Form W-2. The guidance also provides employers with optional language to use in the Form W-2 instructions for employees.

Additional information on the FFCRA medical and sick leave tax credits can be found here.