Guiding you every step of the way home!
May 7, 2012 Leave a comment
Pending-home sales in March hit their highest level since April 2010, spurring the return of real-estate bidding wars.
Nick Timiraos reports on The News Hub. Photo: Peter Earl McCollough for The Wall Street Journal.
March 14, 2012 Leave a comment
Six Tips for Reducing Tax-Time Stress
Tax preparation doesn’t need to give you a headache. There are several ways to make it easier on yourself. The IRS offers six tips to help make your tax-filing experience a breeze this year.
1. Don’t procrastinate. Resist the temptation to put off your taxes until the very last minute. Rushing to meet the filing deadline may cause you to overlook potential sources of tax savings and will likely increase your risk of making an error.
2. Visit the IRS website. More than 322 million visits were made to www.irs.gov in 2011. Make “1040 Central” your first stop to check for the latest news and find answers to your questions about tax filing.
3. Use Free File. Let Free File do the hard work with brand-name tax software or online fillable forms. It’s available exclusively at www.irs.gov. Everyone can find an option to prepare their tax return and e-file it for free. If you made $57,000 or less, you qualify for free tax software that is offered through a private-public partnership with manufacturers. If you made more than $57,000 and/or are comfortable preparing your own tax return, there’s Free File Fillable Forms, the electronic versions of IRS paper forms. Visit www.irs.gov/freefile for options.
4. Try IRS e-file. Last year, 79 percent of taxpayers – 106 million people – used IRS e-file, which is the safest, easiest and most common way to file a tax return. If you owe taxes, you can file immediately and pay later (by the April 17 tax deadline). Best of all, when you combine e-file with direct deposit the IRS can generally issue your refund in as few as 10 days.
5. Don’t panic if you can’t pay. If you can’t pay the full amount of taxes you owe by the mid-April deadline, you should still file your return by the deadline and pay as much as you can to avoid penalties and interest. More than 75 percent of taxpayers eligible for an Installment Agreement can apply using the web-based Online Payment Agreement application available at www.irs.gov. To find out more about this simple and convenient process, type “Online Payment Agreement” in the search box at www.irs.gov. You can also contact the IRS to discuss your payment options.
6. Request an extension of time to file – but pay on time. If the deadline clock is ticking, you can get an automatic six-month extension through Oct. 15. However, this extension of time to file, which must be filed or postmarked by the April 17 deadline, does not give you more time to pay any taxes due. If you have not paid at least 90 percent of the total tax due by the April deadline you may also be subject to an estimated tax penalty. You can obtain an extension through Free File at www.irs.gov/freefile. Or, file Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, available for downloading at www.irs.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) to have a paper form mailed to you. Allow at least 10 days for mailed forms and publications.
March 8, 2012 Leave a comment
To avoid losing homes to foreclosure due to long response times for short sale transactions, three senators introduced legislation to speed up the short sale process.
Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed the bill addressing the issue of short sales timelines on February 17. A short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner sells the property for less than the unpaid balance with the lender’s approval.
“There are neighborhoods across the country full of empty homes and underwater owners that have legitimate offers, but unresponsive banks,” said Murkowski. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Why don’t we make it easier for Americans trying to participate in the housing market, regardless of whether the answer is ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe?’”
The legislation, also known as the Prompt Notification of Short Sale Act, will require a written response from a lender no later than 75 days after receipt of the written request from the buyer.
The lender’s response to the buyer must specify acceptance, rejection, a counter offer, need for extension, and an estimation for when a decision will be reached. The servicer will be limited to one extension of no more than 21 days. The bill will also allow the buyer to be awarded $1000, plus “reasonable” attorney fees if the Act is violated.
According to a release from Short Sale New England, short sale homes do not bring down neighboring home values like foreclosed homes do, and 83 percent of short sale buyers are satisfied with their purchase, according to a 2012 Home Ownership Satisfaction Survey conducted by HomeGain.
“The current short sale process can be time consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a homeowner from foreclosure,” said Moe Veissi, president of the National Association of Realtors. “As the leading advocate for homeownership, realtors are supportive of any effort to improve the process for approving short sales.”
Equi-Trax released a survey last year on the issues real estate agents face when completing short sales. Guy Taylor, CEO at Equi-Trax, said 71.9 percent of respondents reported that a short sale can take four to nine months to complete, and they think that is simply too long.” The survey also found that 18.2 percent of deals require less than three months to complete, with 10 percent requiring more than 10 months.
When agents in the survey were asked to how the short sale process can be improved, 57.6 percent said lenders should take less time to close transactions, 14 percent said borrowers should be better educated about short sales, and 40.4 percent said both of these changes are necessary to improve the process.
In April 2011, a similar bill was introduced by Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Florida) and Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey), but this version requested a response deadline of 45 days instead of 75 from lenders. The legislation never came up for debate before a House committee.
Author: Esther Cho • Date: 02/20/2012
February 28, 2012 Leave a comment
Mortgage Debt Forgiveness: 10 Key Points
Canceled debt is normally taxable to you, but there are exceptions. One of those exceptions is available to homeowners whose mortgage debt is partly or entirely forgiven during tax years 2007 through 2012.
The IRS would like you to know these 10 facts about Mortgage Debt Forgiveness:
1. Normally, debt forgiveness results in taxable income. However, under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, you may be able to exclude up to $2 million of debt forgiven on your principal residence.
2. The limit is $1 million for a married person filing a separate return.
3. You may exclude debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in a foreclosure.
4. To qualify, the debt must have been used to buy, build or substantially improve your principal residence and be secured by that residence.
5. Refinanced debt proceeds used for the purpose of substantially improving your principal residence also qualify for the exclusion.
6. Proceeds of refinanced debt used for other purposes – for example, to pay off credit card debt – do not qualify for the exclusion.
7. If you qualify, claim the special exclusion by filling out Form 982, Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness, and attach it to your federal income tax return for the tax year in which the qualified debt was forgiven.
8. Debt forgiven on second homes, rental property, business property, credit cards or car loans does not qualify for the tax relief provision. In some cases, however, other tax relief provisions – such as insolvency – may be applicable. IRS Form 982 provides more details about these provisions.
9. If your debt is reduced or eliminated you normally will receive a year-end statement, Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt, from your lender. By law, this form must show the amount of debt forgiven and the fair market value of any property foreclosed.
10. Examine the Form 1099-C carefully. Notify the lender immediately if any of the information shown is incorrect. You should pay particular attention to the amount of debt forgiven in Box 2 as well as the value listed for your home in Box 7.
For more information about the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, visit www.irs.gov. IRS Publication 4681, Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions and Abandonments, is also an excellent resource.
February 28, 2012 Leave a comment
To see the full interview on CNBC, please click here
February 16, 2012 Leave a comment
This is a great article posted online by yahoo finance. A lot of homeowners are either underwater or have some sort of financial hardship where they can no longer afford their homes. In some cases people are taking advantage of the down market and purchasing homes for far less than what they owe on their current homes and walking away from it. This is called a strategic default. Even thought this article does shed some light on what most homeowners are going through BUT whats important here, is that you have options. Your options include: modifying your existing mortgage, refinance, short sale and last resort foreclosure. I think the biggest option that was brushed over in this article is the option to short sale. It’s not as simple as walking away from your home BUT its less of a hit to your credit and some lenders will even allow you to purchase right after as long as your mortgage was paid on time with no lates in the last 24-36 months.
The best thing to do before you make any decision is to seek counsel. See the advice of a professional. Now a days real estate attorneys are charging around $100 bucks for a 30 – 1 hour consult to go over your options. To me that will be the best $100 bucks you’ll spend to get legal advice so you can sleep at night. Another important fact is that it’s not the end of the world. You can and will recover from a short sale or foreclosure. Some lenders will allow you to purchase just 3 years out of a foreclosure but the hit will stay on your credit for 7 years.
If you are thinking about buying or selling or would like to seek legal advice, please don’t hesitate to contact me, for I can help point you in the right direction.
To read the full article, click here.
February 10, 2012 Leave a comment
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — In an effort to cut their losses, banks are paying some struggling homeowners as much as $35,000 to sell their homes
before they end up in foreclosure.
The deals are aimed at incentivizing homeowners who owe more on their home than it is worth and who are seriously delinquent on their payments to sell their homes in a short sale.
In short sales, homes are sold for less than what is owed and the bank forgives the excess debt. Banks have been reluctant to approve such deals in the past — since they take a loss on the home — but in certain cases, it’s become a much better proposition than letting the homeowner fall into foreclosure.
This new approach by the banks has startled plenty of homeowners, according to Elizabeth Weintraub, a Sacramento-area real estate agent who specializes in short sales.
“Initially, the homeowners are skeptical,” she said. “The bank may have already turned down their request for a modification. Then, one day, they call and say, ‘Let us give you some cash.’”
When Chase Mortgage (JPM, Fortune 500) told Angelique Pierce, that she would receive a check for $25,000 if she sold her house, she couldn’t believe it.
“I got the offer in the mail,” said the Rancho Cordova, Calif. resident. “I called my bank to ask if it was real.”
After Pierce became disabled a few years ago and had to stop working work, she fell behind on payments on both her first and second mortgages, valued at $250,000 and $50,000, respectively.
Now, she’s trying to sell her three-bedroom ranch for just $95,000 — almost half of the $179,000 she paid for the place in late 2002.
From the bank’s point of view, the offers make sense, according to Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Chase Mortgage, who would not comment on Pierce or other individual cases. “The first choice is a modification but if that’s impossible than a short sale is a faster, more efficient solution,” he said.
For the banks, foreclosure has become an increasingly difficult and expensive option. Homeowners have learned to fight the banks tooth and nail, dragging out cases for years.
And as the cases drag, expenses grow. Homeowners not only stop paying their mortgages but they stop paying property taxes and conducting normal maintenance as well. Roofs, siding, plumbing and other parts of the home deteriorate and the property loses value. By the time banks take possession, they’re out tens of thousands of dollars.
“I’ve seen a lot of foreclosures for sale where it would cost a lot more than $20,000 to get them into condition to sell again,” said John Hayton, a short sale specialist in Orlando, Fla, who has had a number of clients receive offers from the banks.
Short sales also command higher prices than foreclosed homes. In December, foreclosed properties sold for an average of 22% less than conventional sales, while the discount for short sales was only 14%, according to the National Association of Realtors.
All that has been true for years, but it is only lately that these outsized incentives, which Bloomberg recently reported on, have surfaced.
Sellers are more cooperative when they’re going to receive a five-figure check for their troubles.
Nick Chaconas, an agent with discount broker Redfin, wondered why one seller was so anxious to sell their home. “Since I represent the buyer, I didn’t even know about the incentive until the closing,” he said.
It turned out that the seller’s bank was writing her a check for $30,000.
Whether sellers can expect incentives from their banks depends on multiple factors, including where they live.
Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) limits its offers to certain states, such as Florida, where the foreclosure process can be lengthy, according to spokeswoman Veronica Clemons. The bank has paid $10,000 to $20,000 to borrowers who short sell or transfer their title to Wells via a deed-in-lieu.
Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) had a pilot program in Florida that paid incentives of $5,000 to $20,000 for sales that were initiated between Sept. 26, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2011 and close by the end of this August. The amount of the incentive is based on 5% of the unpaid balance, with a $5,000 minimum and $20,000 maximum.
Jumana Bauwens, Bank of America’s spokeswoman, called it a “test-and-run program” that may be expanded to other states.
The offers are not always a panacea for homeowners struggling to pay the bills, however.
Pierce, for example, has not been able to make hers pay off. She had a buyer but her second mortgage holder refused to go along with the deal unless it got a share of the $25,000 she was being offered by the bank. She said that the bank balked at the deal and the sale was cancelled.
She’s looking for another buyer, but it’s up in the air if Chase will honor its original offer if the second mortgage holder won’t cooperate.
February 7, 2012 Leave a comment
“We have jobs,” said Tanya Marchiol of Team Investments, a local real estate investing firm. “Not a lot of big markets like us that went through the bubble have so many jobs.”
The unemployment rate in the metro area fell to 7.7% in November, a 1.1 percentage point improvement from 2010 and better than the national rate of 8.2%.
Home sales have been picking up, thanks to rock-bottom foreclosure bargains. During the fourth quarter, homes sold 27% faster than they did during the same period in 2010, according to Realtor.com.
A four-bedroom, two-bath house in good condition is currently listed for under $80,000, a significant discount from the $200,000 or so it would have fetched during the 2006 peak, said Marchiol.
Even with sales volume and home prices solidifying, Phoenix buyers are not likely to become overnight real estate millionaires. Over the next five years, forecasting firm Fiserv expects local prices to rise at a steady but paltry 2.4% annual average rate.
January 19, 2012 Leave a comment
Should you buy a home in 2012?
This video provided by cnnmoney.com offers great insight to wither you should buy a home in 2012. The housing market is being said to stabilize this year with a slight increase in home values. The is good news for the economy and for buyers and sellers alike.
