Wednesday, April 15, 2009

2 lots for sale in AB

For those of you familiar with the beach.. we know Atlantic Beach kind of like its own little city, with its own personality, old charm, laid back people!!  I have a great opportunity for someone to build in there.. have a double lot owned by 1 family, either to build one house or build two.  About a block and a half to the 10th street beach access and 8 blocks from town center!  Check it out!!

www.882ocean.com

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

$8000 tax credit for buying a home

FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS, PAY ATTENTION!

Wanted to keep this short & sweet- If you buy a home in 2009, and close on or before December 1, 2009, you may qualify for an $8,000 tax credit.

Visit www.FederalHousingTaxCredit.com, for detailed information about the tax credit.  Best deal available to 1st time home buyers in a long time!  The $8000 is actually yours to keep if you live in the property as a primary residence for 5 years!

The tax credit is available to all first-time home buyers, or persons who have not owned a primary residence for the last 3 years.  Frustratingly, I have a great friend who will miss this deadline by 13 days :(

But you can't wait too long to become a home owner. Qualified buyers must buy the home on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009 to receive the tax credit

If you have already filed your taxes for 2008, but you purchased after January 1, 2009, then you can amend your taxes, or you can claim this money on your 2009 taxes.  

To learn more about the $8,000 tax credit, go to www.FederalHousingTaxCredit.com.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Short Sales

Such the buzz word in today's Real Estate market-- and with good reason.  Since they are opportunities in which the seller is selling his house for less than he owes, you are getting the price, in most cases, for less than what they paid, which is unfortunately the way the economy sits now.  (In some cases, the seller over-leveraged themselves with a 2nd mortgage or line of credit, but a lot of cases are due to the decline of property value.)  Some notes on some short sales I'm working with- GMAC seems to have their "act" together.. about a month after submitting the offer, (along with ALL the necessary paperwork), we were assigned a negotiator, and within a week they had ordered the "BPO"- Broker Price Opinion, which helps the lienholder determine approximate value for the neighborhood.  A month- seems like a long time to some, but I'm doing dances with the listing agent!!  Now Bank of America, on the otherhand, kindof makes me want to jump off the Dames Point.  Approximately 80-90 days in FINALLY a negotiator, and after just under a month, he's finally "looking at the file".  I'm sure one day he'll order a BPO, and maybe in 2010, he'll decide to accept or reject the offer.  Please please let the buyers still want the house after waiting probably 6-7 months for an answer!  Had another one- offer to close in about 60 days.  Just wrote another offer for some folks and Chase has the 1st lien.. Fingers crossed & toes crossed, its going to be a LONG few months!!  I've read that there is around 30-40 negotiators per bank, and they review about 20-30 files a day- no wonder they are always so short with us Realtors who call in!  Not an easy process, but if all goes well, price wise- worth the wait!!