The ad campaign, "For All the Things That Move You," centers on the pivotal life moments – a marriage proposal, a new baby, a student leaving home for college – that drive the decision to buy or sell a home.
The four new TV ads will appear in 15- and 30-second versions on major network and cable programming. In a fifth, 30-second TV ad in the U.S., RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly thanks buyers and sellers for helping RE/MAX earn its two trophies from J.D. Power and Associates. That ad debuted in December during the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship on ESPN.
Many homes and businesses are too cold in the winter and
too warm in the summer. The idea of making the buildings more efficient
while keeping costs down is daunting, and many home and business owners don't
know where to begin.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE), Thurston Energy, Echo Energy,
Generations Credit Union and the Northwest Energy Team are partnering to
provide home efficiency information to home and business owners. The program is
called HEAT: Home Efficiency Action Training. This free seminar will be held at
the Lacey Library and will give attendees the basics of home efficiency
upgrades.
Fannie Mae has made some major changes in its polices that now allow real estate investors to purchase up to 20 properties, using renovation loans similar to 203k mortgages.
The new changes that took effect on Oct. 1 are big news for smaller investors, and are designed to help Fannie clear out its inventory of foreclosed properties. Previously, Fannie Mae guidelines limited investors to 10 mortgages on nonowner-occupied residences. And, while the new policy allows the purchase of up to 20 properties by one investor, half of the purchases now are required to be Fannie Mae foreclosures.
Here’s the fine print:
Minimum downpayment (on each home) is 30%
No mortgage insurance needed
Appraisal not required
Contributions from sellers and other interested parties are limited to 2%
Purchase loans only, no refinances
No second homes
Properties 11 through 20 have to be Fannie Mae foreclosures
203k type renovation loans available through Fannie Mae finance partner
Investors have to purchase properties through the HomePathprogram and finance those homes through Fannie Mae’s finance partner, Prospect Mortgage.
Over the past months, investors have stepped into markets all over the country, whether to concentrate on "flipping" properties, or renovating and renting. I've sold my share of Fannie Mae homes - call me for details.
Ever since health care reform was enacted into law more than two years ago, rumors have been circulating on the Internet and in e-mails that the law contains a 3.8 percent tax on real estate. NAR quickly released material to show that the tax doesn’t target real estate and will in fact affect very few home sales, because it’s a tax that will only affect high-income households that realize a substantial gain on an asset sale, including on a home sale, once other factors are taken into account. Maybe 2-3 percent of home sellers will be affected.
Nevertheless, the rumors persist and the latest version that’s circulating falsely say NAR is advocating for the tax’s repeal. But while NAR doesn’t support the tax (it was added into the health care law at the last minute and never considered in hearings), it’s not advocating for its repeal at this time.
The characterization of the 3.8 percent tax as a tax on real estate is an example of an Internet rumor, says Heather Elias, NAR’s director of social business media. Elias and Linda Goold, NAR’s director of tax policy, sat down for a discussion of how the tax works and how Internet rumors work and you can find their remarks in the 6-minute video below.
Goold says the tax will affect few home sellers because so many different pieces must fall into place a certain way for the tax to apply. First, any home sale gain must be more than the $250,000-$500,000 capital gains exclusion that’s in effect today. That’s gain, not sales amount, so you really have to reap a substantial amount for the tax to even come into play. Very few people are walking away with a gain of more than half a million dollars today, even in the high-end home market, so right off the bat only a few home sellers would be a candidate for the tax.
For the few households that do see a gain of more than the $250,000-$500,000 exclusion (that’s $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for joint filers), only the amount above the exclusion would be factored into the tax calculation, and that would still only apply to high-income households, which the law defines as single people earning $200,000 a year and joint filers earning $250,000 a year.
So, if you are a households with annual income of $250,000 or more and you earn a gain of more than $500,000 on your house (again, that’s after the $500,000 exclusion), any amount of gain above the exclusion would be plugged into a formula to see if it’s taxable. If it turns out that it’s taxable, then the amount could be subject to the 3.8 percent tax. If the household had a gain of more than $500,000 but only earned $249,000 a year in income, the tax wouldn’t apply.
(Note that these are just hypothetical examples. To know if a case would really be subject to the tax, a professional tax preparer or tax attorney has to look at all the particulars of the tax filer’s case. Only a tax professional is in a position to say the tax is applicable, but the examples cited here could help you get a sense of how the tax works.)
The other thing about the tax worth noting is that, although it takes effect in 2013, any impact on taxes wouldn’t happen until 2014. That’s because the tax filer would do the calculation in 2014 for the 2013 tax year. Because it’s not a tax on a real estate sale but rather on a capital gain, it’s not calculated at the time of an asset sale, whether that asset is a house or something else. It’s calculated at the time the filer figures his or her tax.
This is all explained clearly in the video, so if you have questions about how the tax works, or if you’re still hearing rumors about the tax and you’re not certain of the accuracy of what you’re hearing, the video should prove helpful.
Information provided by REALTOR.ORG |SEPTEMBER 2012 | BY ROBERT FREEDMAN
Seller's want to know you have the ability to obtain a loan before you enter their home and as agents, we want to ensure that the time we spend showing homes is with preapproved customers. These two home mortgage terms often get used interchangeably, but in fact, they're very different.
Prequalification is an estimate of the loan amount a lender may be willing to lend based on the preliminary information provided. A prequalification is really just a general figure to help the buyer get started shopping for a home.
Preapproval is more formal than a prequalification and means that a lender has tentatively committed to an amount for a buyer's loan. It is based on a preliminary review of the buyer's credit information and provides the approximate mortgage loan amount and monthly payment for which the buyer qualifies.
As always, I can give you names of lenders who can help you with the process. Just let me know.
