February 2018 - Realty Solutions Group

Getting a Tax Refund? Use It on Home Improvements

February signals the start of tax season, a time when many Americans gain nearly $3,000 on average in the form of a tax refund, according to the IRS.

Splurging on a vacation or iPhone X is tempting, but as a homeowner, sinking refund cash into your house may be smarter, especially if debts are already under control, says Lisa Greene-Lewis, a certified public accountant and tax expert at TurboTax.

Even small home improvements can nudge home value — and your quality of life — in a positive direction. But how do you decide what to do?

The first question to ask, says Craig Webb, editor in chief of Remodeling magazine, is “How long do I plan to stay in the home?” The answer dictates how much you should spend on home improvements and which projects to prioritize.

If you’re staying put, focus on changes that make your life better and improve value, Webb says. Fix what’s broken before thinking about curb appeal.

Here are some home improvement ideas in several price ranges so you can put that tax refund to work.

» MORE: See how much your home is really worth

Around $100

Replace cabinet hardware. Changing knobs or handles is fairly simple, but gives the whole room a new look, says Colin Shaw, owner of Shaw Remodeling in Niantic, Connecticut.

Seal the driveway. You’ll reduce unsightly cracks and slow deterioration of the concrete or asphalt.

Get the HVAC system serviced. Regular cleaning can add 10 years to the life of your system, says Laura Hales, a real estate agent and owner of Hales and Associates in Overland Park, Kansas.

Around $500

Add a tile backsplash. Backsplashes provide an instant transformation at a fraction of what a full kitchen remodel costs.

Refresh interior paint. New paint in main rooms brightens the whole house, and doing it yourself saves on labor costs, Hales says.

Insulate the attic. Buyers love energy efficiency, and you’ll love lower utility bills.

Around $1,000

Get a new front door. Shaw recommends fiberglass doors that don’t swell or contract with the weather.

Replace inefficient appliances like the water heater, toilet, refrigerator or dishwasher.

Tile the bathroom floor. Heavy foot traffic leaves flooring dingy. Opt for bright, easy-to-clean tile instead.

Around $3,000

Install new kitchen countertops. Almost all buyers want granite, quartz and other solid surfaces, Hales says.

Replace the garage door. A new garage door recoups around 98% of its cost in improved home value, according to Remodeling magazine’s 2018 Cost vs. Value report.

Enhance your landscaping. Stone pavers, a fire pit or exterior lighting boost curb appeal and functionality.

The article Getting a Tax Refund? Use It on Home Improvements originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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How to Buy a House That Hasn’t Been Built Yet

Trisha and Dennis Rawlings, a couple in their early 30s, are moving to suburban Chicago and leaving their over-60-year-old first home in the St. Louis area behind.

“We were looking at potentially buying a house,” Trisha says. But in the area where they want to live, the options within their budget were limited to purchasing an older home or building a new one.

The couple loved the features of a modern, new-construction neighborhood with a pool, a clubhouse and excellent walkability. And taking out a construction loan and building a house means they’ll avoid the ongoing maintenance that comes with an older home.

With the supply of existing homes available to buy at “an all-time low” nationwide, according to the National Association of Realtors, homebuyers like the Rawlingses and others — including younger buyers — are looking at other options that include building a house. Here’s how to get started if you decide to build a home.

» MORE: How much home can you afford?

Finding a construction loan

“It all starts with your ability to be financed and what kind of budget can you establish from there,” says Dan Moralez, regional vice president for Northpointe Bank in Holland, Michigan. “You don’t want to be sold something by somebody and then the next thing you find out is that you don’t qualify.”

But not every mortgage banker or broker offers construction loans.

“Most mortgage people will go their whole career without ever doing one,” says Jerry Thomas, a mortgage loan officer in Farmington Hills, Michigan. “Another big group of (lenders) will do one and then swear they’ll never do another one again.”

There’s no easy way to find a construction lender. Ask for referrals from friends and family. Builders often have lenders they recommend.

Locking in the land

Getting a place to build a house is a major part of the homebuilding process.

“You don’t have to own the lot free and clear,” Moralez says. However, any equity you have in the land can be applied toward a down payment and closing costs.

Moralez says he has clients who want to “lock in a piece of dirt” so they can build on it in a year or so. Unfortunately, he says, the number of lenders who finance vacant land is significantly smaller than the number of lenders who will do a construction loan.

Buyers who are planning to finance the cost of the land and home construction simultaneously will need to keep this in mind when searching for a lender.

Qualifying and the down payment

It’s harder to qualify for a construction loan than for a typical purchase mortgage, Moralez and Thomas say. That’s because the bank is taking extra risk during the building phase, since there isn’t an asset to secure the mortgage.

Typical down payments are around 10%. Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Agriculture mortgage programs back construction loans and can allow some credit leniency, along with low — or no — down payments.

“If you can put 20% down and you have a 720 credit score or better, you know you’re pretty much going to qualify for everybody’s program,” Thomas says.

» MORE: Best lenders for FHA loans

Using a builder or DIY

There are two kinds of builders: custom builders and “production builders,” who construct a high volume of similar homes and work for maximum efficiency. If your house plan includes many special or unique features, look for a custom builder, since they specialize in building to meet client expectations, Moralez says.

Want to build your own home?

“More and more often, we’re saying no,” Moralez says. “Most lenders will not do a self-build project.” He says the few exceptions go to borrowers with relevant trade experience.

Moralez says borrowers who think they can save money contracting out the work themselves may be in for a disappointment. With the housing industry facing a shortage of skilled labor, you’ll likely pay more for workers than a high-volume contractor would.

Also, construction loans for a do-it-yourself project typically require higher credit scores and larger down payments. Terms and qualifications vary by lender.

Staying within a budget

Cost overruns are the biggest danger you could face when building a home, Moralez says. A builder’s bid sets cost allowances for lighting fixtures, flooring, countertops and other major features. An upgrade here or there can bust the budget, and you’ll have to make up the difference in cash, he says.

Research the costs of the materials upfront to help avoid making significant and expensive modifications along the way.

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This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

The article How to Buy a House That Hasn’t Been Built Yet originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.

How to Buy a Home When Mortgage Rates Are Rising

Mortgage rates have risen about half a percentage point since September. What does that mean for you if you’re buying a home now or plan to buy one soon?

For starters, don’t panic.

When you’re buying a home, the mortgage rate matters, but it shouldn’t monopolize your attention, says Robert Frick, corporate economist for Navy Federal Credit Union. “You shouldn’t focus on the rate and let that scare you into making a hasty decision about buying a house,” he says.

How rising rates affect your monthly payment

The average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.54% on Feb. 16, 2018, according to NerdWallet’s daily rate survey. It averaged 3.99% on Sept. 26, 2017 — meaning it has gone up more than half a percentage point in less than five months.

While a half-point increase doesn’t have a major impact on the monthly payment, the added cost does add up over time. On a 30-year loan for $200,000, the monthly payment would be nearly $59 more at a 4.5% interest rate than at a 4% interest rate. That adds up to more than $21,000 over 30 years.

What to do when rates rise

Mortgage rate fluctuations have been catching home buyers off guard for generations. Your forebears have developed tried-and-true strategies to cope with rising rates. Here are some things you can do when mortgage rates trend higher:

No. 1: Lock your mortgage rate. With a mortgage rate lock, the lender promises a defined combo of interest rate and points. If you close the home loan by the specified date, the rate can’t go up. You can use this tactic after the lender has approved you for a mortgage for a specific house. Some lenders offer a one-time “float down” option allowing you to secure a lower interest rate if rates go down; this option is more common for construction loans and long-term rate locks.

No. 2: Buy “points” to reduce the interest rate. If you have the cash, you can pay for discount points — in effect, prepaying some of the interest in exchange for a lower mortgage rate. One point equals 1% of the loan amount. The discount you get for one point varies as mortgage rates fluctuate. But as a rule of thumb, paying one point often gives a rate cut of one-quarter of a percentage point.

No. 3: Revise your price range. A higher mortgage rate brings higher monthly payments. When you begin your home search, determine a range of interest rates that will still allow you to afford the type of home you want without stretching your budget past the point of reason. Or, rising rates might force you to adjust your home-price range downward. Start with this loan affordability calculator and click “Edit rate” on the right side.

Why rates are rising now

This recent rise in mortgage rates arrived in two stages:

The first happened in the weeks after the passage of tax reform in late December
The second happened Feb. 2, 2018, when the January employment report indicated that hourly wages had risen 2.9% compared with 12 months before

The tax cuts and the wage report were both regarded as inflationary, because when people have more money in their pockets, they tend to spend it, driving up prices. (Classic supply and demand.) And higher inflation tends to bring higher interest rates for everything, including mortgages.

On top of that, futures traders expect the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates at least two, if not three, times this year, which could exert upward pressure on long-term mortgage rates.

Frick says businesses and governments around the world are ramping up their borrowing. As they compete with one another to borrow money, they bid up interest rates. This upward pressure trickles down to consumers, who end up paying higher interest rates for everything from credit cards to mortgages.

Are higher rates the ‘new normal’?

Talk to any housing economist about mortgage rates, and you’ll hear that rates have been abnormally low in the decade since the housing crash.

“I remember in the mid-’90s, getting a 7% rate, being happy with that,” says Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The rates we’re looking at today are still, by any measure, pretty low. So it’s basically the economy getting back closer to normal.”

Frick says: “People have gotten kind of lulled into these low rates, and a lot of people think this is normal, but this is not normal. We’re returning to normal, and that’s still going to be a painful process because we’ve gotten used to low rates.”

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The article How to Buy a Home When Mortgage Rates Are Rising originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.

You Don’t Have to Overpay For Your First Home

A typical first-time home buyer pays thousands of dollars more than an experienced buyer would pay for the same house, according to research from two housing economists.

First-time buyers overpaid an average of about $2,200, or 0.79%, for their homes, according to senior economist Jessica Shui and economist Shriya Murthy of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. They analyzed appraisal data from 1.7 million home sales from late 2012 to early 2016. The study’s average home price was $275,020.

Their research doesn’t mean that you’re destined to spend too much when you purchase your first place. With some expert advice, you can pay a fair price and nothing more.

It’s about being eager

First-timers “pay significantly more than repeat buyers,” despite also buying “smaller, inferior and cheaper homes,” Shui and Murthy concluded in a working paper titled “Under What Circumstances Do First-time Homebuyers Overpay? An Analysis Using Mortgage and Appraisal Data.”

It’s no surprise that first-time buyers tend to buy starter homes. But why do they have “a higher willingness to pay,” as Shui and Murthy put it in their paper?

“The underlying reason for first-time home buyers’ overpayment likely is their inexperience,” Shui and Murthy say in an email interview, adding that home buyer education would be helpful.

It’s about emotion, too

The reasons go beyond inexperience, says Jim Murrett, president of the Appraisal Institute, an association of real estate appraisers. Buying any home, and especially a first home, is an emotional undertaking.

“First-time home buyers, many times, let their emotions get the better of them,” Murrett says. “They have the excitement of owning their first home, and they sometimes kind of look at a property with blinders on.” He says that first-timers “tend to overlook potential negatives and only look at the positives of a particular house.”

Murrett says he’s not surprised by the research. “I probably would have guessed a little higher” than an average overpayment of 0.79%, he says.

Neil Garfinkel, a real estate attorney in New York with Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson, says first-timers are “more likely to think with their hearts than their heads.” By contrast, someone who is buying a home for the second or third time “probably can sort out the emotions a little bit and create that opportunity to say, ‘Well, I’m not going to pay any more than this.’”

And the experienced buyer is more willing to walk away, even if it hurts emotionally.

Tips to avoid overpaying

You can avoid overpaying for your first (or next) house by following these tips:

Hire an exclusive buyer’s agent who will work in your best interests.
Use multiple tools to determine the home’s value, such as online home value estimators and a competitive market analysis from your real estate agent.
Strive for objectivity by writing a list of pros and cons for each house you view. and paying attention to the drawbacks.
Get personalized advice by seeking homeownership counseling from a HUD-certified agency.
Maintain control by being willing to walk away if you can’t get the fair price you want.

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The article You Don’t Have to Overpay For Your First Home originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.

Easy Home Touch-Ups to Bring All the Buyers to Your Yard

If you’re planning to sell a home in spring, prepare now for the crucial (and fun) job of luring home shoppers. Homes that look loved and well-maintained get more attention — and first impressions matter: “A buyer makes their buying decision as they are coming up the front walk or walking through the front door,” says Pat Vredevoogd Combs, a former National Association of Realtors president based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

These six quick, budget-minded projects help boost your home’s curb appeal. Each takes a weekend at most, and starting early gives you time to prepare for your sale.

1. Pressure-wash the siding

A home and its porch, decks, steps and walks shine bright after you’ve sluiced away winter grit, dead bugs and cobwebs. Choose a washer setting powerful enough to blast mold and sludge but not so strong it lifts paint or splinters wood.

Budget: Renting a gas-powered pressure washer, about $80 a day

2. Primp the porch

Did you realize that your home’s entry is a test? “‘If they can’t keep up the outside of the house, what are they hiding on the inside?’” Combs says she hears from buyers when confronted with dingy or messy home entries. Clean up your porch by removing household clutter and adding a pot of flowers or greenery.

Budget: Resin planter, $10; plants and potting soil, $40

3. Clean exterior windows

This job is easier than you’d think. Use an exterior window cleaning product that attaches to a hose, says Danny Watson, home and garden expert at The Home Depot. Shoot the solution on exterior glass, followed by a spray of clean water. Let the glass dry or squeegee it.

Budget: Cleaner, $10; squeegee, $5

4. Repaint the front door

Your home’s focal point is the front door. Repainting makes it sing. Watson says a premium one-coat exterior house paint pays off in time and effort saved, because it needs no priming. A semi-gloss finish lets you wipe off smudges. Avoid high-gloss paint, which reveals imperfections. Consult your paint store or department for color advice and samples.

Budget: Gallon of paint, about $35

5. Update house numbers

New numbers are eye-catching. Go big and bold, at least 5 inches tall, Watson says. Decide where to place them by standing at the street and imagining you’re searching for your house.

Budget: Four numbers, $30

6. Clean or replace porch lights

New porch lights run as little as $30 each, Watson says. Consider a contemporary finish, such as black, brushed nickel or oiled brass. On a strict budget? Watson likes using restoring wipes like those made by Rust-Oleum or Rejuvenate to renew oxidized, faded or dirty metal, resin and hard surfaces.

Budget: New fixture $30 and up; wipes $20

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The article Easy Home Touch-Ups to Bring All the Buyers to Your Yard originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.

Mortgage Rates Friday: Rising Sharply in Strong Economy

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 11 basis points, the rate for the 15-year fixed rose 10 basis points and the 5/1 ARM stepped upward by three basis points, according to a NerdWallet survey of daily mortgage rates published Friday by national lenders.

The average rate on the 30-year fixed has risen 15 basis points in one week. The rate is six basis points higher than one year ago. A basis point is one one-hundredth of one percent.

One month ago, the average rate on the 30-year fixed was 4.09%. It has risen 40 basis points — almost half a percentage point — in that time. But that trend didn’t take mortgage lenders by surprise.

It was bound to happen

“The tide was going to turn at some point,” says Ryan Leahy, sales manager of inside sales for Mortgage Network, a lender based in Danvers, Massachusetts. “Rates were so low, for so long, that we’ve been spoiled.”

Brett Sinnott, vice president of capital markets for CMG Financial, a mortgage lender in San Ramon, California, says, “Most of us in the industry have been waiting for this. The fact that it happened in a two-week period is kind of why you’re seeing it pop up on everybody’s radar.”

He adds that “this is kind of where we should have been, what we should have seen, when the Fed raised rates back in December.”

Neither Sinnott nor Leahy has seen evidence that the higher rates are dissuading anyone from buying homes. Sinnott says rapid rate increases tend to push fence-sitters into action. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you see applications go up over this period, too, which would be ironic,” he says.

The economy has the wind at its back

Interest rates are rising as the economy continues to show its strength. The economy added 200,000 jobs in January, according to the Department of Labor. Average hourly earnings went up 2.9% in the 12 months ending in January. The Trump tax cuts will begin to be felt this month when federal tax withholding is adjusted. The tax cuts will put money in consumers’ pockets, which should further spur the economy.

Sinnott says he believes the tax cuts are the most important factor in pushing mortgage rates higher in the last few weeks. Other factors include a pause in scary headlines about North Korea and an impending showdown over the federal debt ceiling, he says.

Yet another upward push on rates may have come courtesy of the Federal Reserve, whose monetary policy committee met this week and left short-term interest rates unchanged. But the Fed’s policy statement said inflation “is expected to move up this year,” and markets took that as confirmation that the central bank will continue hiking short-term interest rates.

MORTGAGE RATES TODAY, FRIDAY, FEB. 2:

(Change from 02/01)
30-year fixed: 4.49% APR (+0.11)
15-year fixed: 4.14% APR (+0.10)
5/1 ARM: 4.47% APR (+0.03)

Get personalized mortgage rates

NerdWallet daily mortgage rates are an average of the published annual percentage rate with the lowest points for each loan term offered by a sampling of major national lenders. APR quotes reflect an interest rate plus points, fees and other expenses, providing the most accurate view of the costs a borrower might pay.

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The article Mortgage Rates Friday: Rising Sharply in Strong Economy originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.

Dog-Friendly Designs Attract Home Buyers and Remodelers

Some eras are defined by bumper crops of new babies, like the 1980s and ’90s, when baby boomer parents birthed the millennial generation. Today, a new twist: We’re in an era of pets — dogs in particular. Sixty million U.S. households have a dog, and dog ownership grew 29% in the last decade, according to a recent survey from the American Pet Products Association.

Pet-crazy millennials, now ages 18 to 34, lead the pack, say pet products researchers, who keep a keen eye on dog demographics. And they spoil their pets. From calming shirts and fashionable attire to supplements and allergy-free organic foods, pet owners will go to just about any length for their beloved “fur babies.”

The next phase in extreme pet pampering? Entire communities and custom-designed home features dedicated to the physical and emotional well-being of canines.

Read on to see how architects, designers, homebuilders and remodelers are adding dog parks, dog concierges, built-in feeding stations, home elevators and more to make sure dogs — and their owners — feel right at home.

1. Buying and remodeling with dogs in mind

Eighty-one percent of respondents in a National Association of Realtors survey said they’d take their pets’ needs into account in choosing their next living situation.

A laundry room can be outfitted with a pet-washing station.

Fences, dog doors and laminate flooring are the most common pet-friendly improvements Americans make to homes, the NAR adds. In Sacramento, national homebuilding firm Taylor Morrison shows buyers how they can modify some floor plans to add a pet-washing station, like this one, in the laundry room.

2. Sacramento’s a dog town

In the Sacramento, California, area, homebuilder Taylor Morrison has 15 communities. Most of its home buyers are dog owners, leading the company to design dog runs, built-in dog beds and other dog-friendly options that can be added to its properties. Aren Bazzocco, Taylor Morrison’s Sacramento division president, lives in the Calabria community in Newcastle, California. For the family’s Shih Tzu, Chloe, they added an outdoor pet-washing station and a laundry room dog door that opens onto a fenced exercise area with synthetic turf and a concrete walkway.

The Bazzocco family includes Chloe, a Shih Tzu.

3. Options include a canine concierge

Taylor Morrison’s Esplanade 55-plus community at Highland Ranch, in Clermont, Florida, includes homes with cabinets that can be modified to accept pet beds and feeding stations.

Cabinets can be modified to hold pet beds and feeding stations.

Esplanade communities — there are 13 in Florida — have canine concierges who coordinate services like visits from mobile groomers, “Howl-o-ween” costumed dog parades, wellness and behavior education, photos with Santa and monthly newsletters. “Yappy hours” give dogs and their owners a chance to socialize. “People seem to loosen up and meet each other more easily with dogs,” says Taylor Morrison communications director Colleen Rubart.

4. Fur babies get royal treatment

Agnes’ patio boasts antimicrobial “grass.”

About half of architect Phil Kean’s clients consider their pets’ needs when planning their new upscale homes, he says.

A handful request entire rooms built for their dogs’ care and feeding. More often, clients ask Kean to design grooming and washing stations, food storage cupboards and feeding spots into family areas, usually the mudroom, of their new homes. Kean’s 6-year-old basset hound, Agnes, has an outdoor potty area “planted” with antimicrobial artificial grass at Kean’s home near Orlando, Florida. Behind Agnes are a dog door and washing station.

5. Whose lift is it anyway?

Taking the stairs can be hard on a basset hound’s spine. To protect Agnes, Kean added an elevator to his home. The cost: $30,000. “I don’t think there’s anything that hasn’t been done for Agnes. She’s the most spoiled dog I’ve ever met,” he cheerfully admits. Kean trained Agnes to stand next to the elevator when she wants to go up or downstairs.

Agnes stands next to the elevator when she wants to go up or downstairs.

Managing dogs’ movement inside a home can be tricky. For one client, Kean built an air-lock-type entry consisting of a small dry chamber flanked by two dog doors to keep the home’s temperature constant. Kean says clients have requested baby gates to limit dogs’ movement indoors. Dutch doors, he notes, are a good way to contain dogs indoors while letting them hop up and peek outside through the door’s open upper half.

6. No more tripping on dog bowls

A feeding station built into the end of a run of kitchen cabinets is the brainchild of Susan Cracraft, vice president of design at Interiology Design Co., a Boston-area interior design firm.

Elway has a built-in feeding station.

Her dog Elway, a 2 1/2-year-old mini goldendoodle, enjoys it, and it solves a perennial problem for humans used to tripping on dog bowls underfoot. Mark Haddad, Interiology president, estimates the feature adds about $2,000 to $4,000 to their kitchen remodels, depending on materials. Cleanup is made easy by lining the station floor with the same stone from the kitchen countertops.

Interiology’s dog-owning clients like built-in storage space for supplies and equipment — and even for a dog. Solutions have included food-storage cabinets similar to trash-can pull-outs and an enclosed dog den built into the triangular area under the stairs. Is a built-in feeding station practical for your home? It depends on your cabinets, the height of the bowls and the size of the dog.

7. Lucky Kentucky canines

Norton Commons, in the northeastern corner of Louisville, is a planned community of about 1,300 condos, townhomes, single-family homes and rental apartments built around a village center with small businesses — including a wildly popular dog salon.

Norton Commons has three dog parks and an agility course.

The community has sold 500 canine memberships for its three dog parks and one agility course. But Marilyn Patterson, Norton Commons spokeswoman, thinks the dog population is higher — more like 800. Why? She orders the dog-poop bags. “We have 45 doggy cleanup stations scattered along our sidewalks and walking trails in the community. That’s a lot of doggy bags,” she says.

8. Snug as a bug

The step-in washing area works for dogs and humans, too.

Ken Perrin, owner of Artistic Renovations in Seven Hills, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, often fields requests from clients who want to make life with dogs both easier and aesthetically pleasing.

This built-in dog-bed cubby and washing station packs a lot of utility into a laundry room. The walk-in bathing area eliminates the need to haul a dog into a tub or utility sink, and is potentially useful for gardeners or small children, who can hose off muddy boots before entering the house. In another recent remodel, Perrin installed softer flooring to help an owner’s beloved old Labrador retriever keep from slipping on hard floors.

Photo credits: Featured image: Getty Images; (1) LUX Films; (2) Mike Hammons; (3) John Unrue, Unrue Photo; (4) Jeffrey A. Davis Photography/courtesy Timberlake Cabinetry; (5) Photo courtesy Phil Kean Design Group; (6) Jared Kuzia Photography; (7) Norton Commons; (8) Ken Perrin, Artistic Renovations of Ohio.

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The article Dog-Friendly Designs Attract Home Buyers and Remodelers originally appeared on NerdWallet.

In less than 5 years, Realty Solutions Group is among the top independent brokerage firms in S/E Wisconsin.