Archive for the 'Real Estate New' Category
Foreclosure Update
October 15th, 2008 categories: Buyer's Advice, Real Estate New, Seller's Advice
16,352 Notices of Default were filed in September, down from 42,790 in August, a decrease of 61.8% from August 2008, and a decrease of 36.4% from a year earlier.
Notices of Trustee Sale:
Filings decreased 47.3% from August to a total of 19,116 filings.
Filings increased 33.9% from September 2007.
Properties sold at auction increased 163.2% from the prior year, to 23,409 sales with a combined loan balance of $9.75 Billion. A 12.4% drop from August 2008
Lenders took back 95% of the properties taken to auction, with a combined loan value of $9.19 Billion. 5% probably taken at the Court house Steps.
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Richard Branson Launches Eco-Consulting Group
September 4th, 2008 categories: Green Events, Neighborhood and City events/highlights, Real Estate New
Branson Plans to create a Zero Carbon Resort and emerges also with an Eco-Consulting Group. Branson plans to turn Mosquito Island in the British Virgin Islands into the most environmentally friendly resort in the world. Located off Virgin Gorda close to his Necker Island, an uninhibited Island, imagines it being a beachfront with restaurants and 20 villas powered by solar and wind.
Thermal airflows will completely rid the need for air conditioners in the restaurant’s, while food will come from an organic orchard on which vehicles will run on biofuel.
The response from the government has been enormously positive to become the most environmentally friendly island.
Branson also says he is creating an eco consulting group called Virgin Green Owls. Which will advise governments and corporations in carbon neutral projects beginning in August.
Following the British government’s criticism of British Airways last year.
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Housing and Economic Recovery Act 2008
August 31st, 2008 categories: Buyer's Advice, Real Estate New, Seller's Advice
Federal Tax Credit and what it means?
The amount is 10% of the purchase price of the home up to a maximum of $7500. It will be a credit on your personal income tax return in a calendar year following the year of closing on your property. The year after that you will be required to pay it back in equal installments over the next 15 years. Also, if you sell your home during 15 year payback period it will be recaptured when it is sold. If the home is sold at a loss the debt is completely forgiven.
So, if a home costs $67,000 the credit to you will be $6700.
If the home costs $125,000 the credit to you will be $7500.
Who is eligible?
The tax credit is for First Time Home Buyers only. But, the interesting thing is that you cannot have owned a home in the last three years but who may have done so previously.
- If your 1040 filing status is single or head of the household you are eligible for the Tax benefits if your income is no more than $75,000. First
time home buyers who file a joint return cannot have more than $150,000 in income. - Incomes between $75,001 - $94,999 (single) or $150,001 - $169,999 joint returns are eligible for only partial Tax Credit. (Which is so much better than nothing)?
- Incomes that are greater than $95,000 (single) or $170,000 (joint return) are not eligible.
- To claim the Federal Tax Credit on your single or joint tax Returns for the purchase of a Single Family Home - between April 9th, 2008 through July 1, 2009. You should also contact your Tax Advisor.
- You are required to pay back the Tax Credit without any interest in equal installments of 6.67% of the total credit each year for the 15yrs beginning the year after the Tax Credit has been claimed.
Examples:
If your Tax Liability was $5000 after The Tax Credit was added you would receive a total of $2500. The refund amount is the $7500 - $5000.
If your Tax refund was $2000 after The Tax Credit was added you would receive a total of $9500.
If you claim your Tax credit of $7500 in 2009 on your Federal Income Tax Return for a closing that occurred in 2008, obviously the Credit will be received in 2009 so repayments will begin in 2010 with a payment amount of approx $500 a year.
Information reliable but not guaranteed
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Lenders Responding to Short-Sales
June 22nd, 2008 categories: Real Estate New
Why do Banks say they want to help troubled homeowners? but they delay the buyer that could save the Seller and the Lender themselves.
Lenders are taking much longer to react, respond - anything, Give us a “Yes” or a “No’. I have offers in on properties and still I am waiting for responses. I had a response on a property we had an offer on three months ago and the response was Yes. Guess what? My client had already moved into a new home.
What is a short sale? Basically - homeowner who cannot keep up with their loan asks the lender can they sell their home for less than what is owed on the home’s mortgage, and forgive the balance of the unpaid debt.
So if a borrower has a mortgage balance of $450,000 and finds a buyer who will pay $400,000 , the lender then agrees on $400,000 and guess what? Happy Seller, Happy Buyer and Happy Lender.
In a Short-Sale, everyone wins. Sellers avoid foreclosure which destroys their credit, and lenders recoup more of their costs instead of trying to evict an owner and then sell the property.
Do we not have a fiduciary responsibility to our buyer clients, who come to us wanting a better property in a buyers market for a killer price, and less hassle. Are short sales working against getting a bargain… ??? Are lenders in denial … ???
What concerns me more is do Agents really know what they are doing in a short sale..??? Over half tell me that sending in the HARDSHIP PACKAGE IS NOT DONE UNTIL THEY GET AN OFFER. Are you kidding me.
Make sure when your clients do make an offer on a Short Sale that you still preview other homes out there. DO NOT WAIT.
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