There are a number of good, free shows during SXSW at Auditorium Shores. Schedule is below:
Thursday March 18
Friday March 19
Saturday March 20
Homebuyers seeking to take advantage of the First Time Homebuyer credit must enter into a binding contract to purchase a principle residence by April 30, 2010 and must close on the property by June 30, 2010, according the IRS.gov website. Buyers may elect to use the credit on their 2009 or 2010 tax returns.
The IRS.gov website has some great information to brush-up on filing requirements and to help with submitting the required application. Below are several useful links:
Home buyers who purchased a home as their principal residence in 2008, 2009 and early 2010 may be able to take advantage of the credit. The credit is 10 percent of the purchase price of the home with a maximum credit of $8,000. The credit will either reduce the buyer’s tax bill dollar for dollar or increase the refund. The credit does not have to be paid back unless the home ceases to be the buyer’s principal residence with three years after the purchase.
Long-Term Residents
In addition to the First Time Homebuyer Credit, long-term residents of the same house may qualify for a $6,500 credit when purchasing a new principal residence in the United States. The purchase must take place after November 6, 2009, and before May 1, 2010 or after April 30, 2010, and before July 1, 2010, and the buyer must have entered into a binding contract before May 1, 2010, to purchase the property before July 1, 2010. To qualify, buyers must have lived in the same home for any five consecutive-year period during the 8-year period ending on the date you purchased your new main home.
Who Cannot Claim the Credits
According to the IRS.gov website, you cannot claim the credit if the purchase price of the home is more than $800,000. This rule applies to homes purchased after November 6, 2009. Also, you cannot claim the credit if your modified adjusted gross income is $95,000 or more ($170,000 or more if married filing jointly) and you purchased your home before November 7, 2009, or $145,000 or more ($245,000 or more if married filing jointly) and you purchased your home after November 6, 2009.
How to Apply for the Credit
Buyers seeking the credit must fill out the IRS Form 5045 and file with your federal income tax return. If you have already filed your return, you may claim the credit by filing out an IRS 1040X with the completed Form 5045 attached. All supporting documentation is required.
All information provided above on the First-Time Homebuyer credit was pulled directly from the IRS.gov website. It is deemed reliable, but it is not guaranteed. Please refer directly to the IRS.gov website or your accountant to verify any information important to you.
John Allen is the broker and owner of Allen Real Estate Services, Inc., a 30-year boutique Sarasota real estate firm. He specializes in luxury Sarasota FL homes for sale, condominiums, gated neighborhoods and golfing communities. John’s team of outstanding buyer’s agents can help you with all of your Sarasota Florida real estate needs.
The point of sale energy audits look like they’re here for a little while. Pricing has come way down since they were first implemented, so I thought I would start a post where we can highlight the least expensive auditors. If you know of someone cheaper, please comment, and I will add them to the list (these are listed in order of pricing – cheapest to most expensive.) To keep it simple, I’m listing their base price (one a/c) and max square footage that base price covers (if listed.)
I finally signed up for a Dropbox account, as I’ve been collaborating a lot with graphic designers & WP developers. It’s a pretty great service. You install the software, and it adds a “dropbox” folder on your system. You then install the software on any machine you use. Any file you want to share between machines, you simply put in the dropbox. If you want to collaborate with friends, you create a new folder within dropbox, and share that folder.
Friends of ours have decided to list their house within the next week or so. We met a couple of weeks ago and discussed staging & possible improvements. They have a fantastic home, and it had been updated very nicely, but the bathrooms were largely original. Since they had a very nice kitchen remodel, and great landscaping, it only made sense to update the bathrooms.
I won’t list the cost of the remodel, as the property will go on market soon, but I can guarantee that they will easily earn 400% on this one improvement (in part b/c it was the last objection any buyer would have over the home.)
Before:
After:
For a broker or agent facing industry challenges along with the rest of the real estate market, home improvement and lifestyle trends are just as important to take into consideration as the stats and numbers provided by real estate market analysis. As the economy continues to play a part in the decisions of first time home buyers and property owners alike, a trend that real estate professionals have caught on to is a lifestyle changing one that goes beyond recycling and eating organic: Going Green, and making your home more eco-friendly for your wallet’s sake (and the environment’s!)
In a recent article posted on HouseLogic, Mark St. John Erickson, a writer for the Daily Press, shares his experiences as a homeowner who sought to improve the energy efficiency of his house in Virginia, which was built in 1924. Older homes, though popular for their vintage appeal and retro designs, often come with the expectation that their antique structure and features will at some point need a facelift for the sake of aesthetics, functionality or both. The heating bill is often steep in older homes, which can be a detail easily overlooked for those looking at older homes when buying a home for the first time.
Starting with improving the insulation in his attic, Mark began the gradual process of improving the less-than-charming attributes of his house that affected its ability to retain heat and remain eco-friendly. With renovations underway, one thing became clear to Mark: Though it’s easy to pinpoint problem areas in your older home, it may take more than adding insulation or replacing windows to “green” your home and leave it energy efficient post-remodel. “Going green in a vintage house means exploring and fixing the pieces of a much more complicated puzzle,” says Mark in his article. “Hidden air leaks, an outdated boiler, and a vented crawl space were just some of the things sucking away even more of our energy dollars than inadequate insulation.”
After tossing old panes for new storm windows, replacing the 30-year-old gas boiler with a modern, high-efficiency model and indirect hot water tank, installing a programmable thermostat to save on heating costs while no one’s at home and insulating the walls with cellulose, Mark increased his home’s “green”, eco-friendly factor by reducing its use of energy and electricity. In addition to saving the environment one minor home improvement at a time, Mark’s pocketing cash from the noticeably lighter electric and heating bills that used to frequent his vintage homestead.
These green home improvements, which capitalize on lifestyle trends and resourceful solutions to counter the economic slump some first time home buyers may find themselves in, are encouraging developments in real estate industry news. With vintage-chic inspiring prospective buyers to look for older homes and green remodeling stories like this one making the rounds, real estate professionals will undoubtedly find an interesting angle when it comes to the marketing and sale of older, eco-friendly homes.
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Mark W. Martin is President of 2M Realty. He is active in real estate sales and develops land in the Houston real estate market. Areas of current development include the Conroe real estate, Porter real estate, and the New Caney real estate markets.
2M Realty has simple goals in mind: Simplify the real estate process, reduce stress for Buyers and Sellers, earn client trust, and keep client trust. These simple but lofty goals are backed by over 20-years experience as a Texas real estate broker and Houston Realtor.
Austin’s job market held steady for 2009, shrinking by a mere 0.3%. While we’re not at the 4% unemployment rate we enjoyed in early 2008, we’re still at a respectable 6.9%. Here are the best performing metro areas in the country:
Short sales can make a whole lot of sense and certain provisions in the tax code can really help.
The swimming metaphors are so over used here but also so very appropriate. The long and short of it is, if you are drowning, dump the weight and then swim. If you made an unfortunate investment decisions with your home or rental property and the property is underwater, the federal government will not cover your loss. However, IRS code section 108 lets people in the tightest situations exclude cancellation of debt income.
First, with the passing of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, you can exclude cancellation of debt income realized from mortgage modification or foreclosure of your principal residence. With this supreme act of common sense from congress, if your home is foreclosed on and you are forced to leave because you can make the payments they won’t tax you on the “gain” realized when you had to abandon your home. The long and short of this is, dump the weight, and get your head above water so you can breathe.
Additionally under section 108 of the tax code, you can also exclude any cancellation of debt income (1099-C) under a variety of situations including “Insolvency”. In IRS terms this means if your Total Recourse Debt exceeds the value of your Total Assets you can exclude the excess.
For example:
Total assets: 300K
Total debt: -450K
Excludable cancellation of debt income 150K
Before you jump, be sure to talk to a CPA (contact us) or tax attorney to understand the rules and exactly what things like “Recourse Debt” means and assess your situation.
Concerns over credit impact are not irrelevant. But, if you are driving yourself into bankruptcy trying to maintain payments on an asset that might recover in a few years, worries about impact of a short sales seem misguided. In the end, it really is just a business decision. The monikers of winning or losing or guilt really have no place here. The fundamental question is how to stay best provide for yourself and your family.
Michael White is an Austin Accountant.
A recent discussion with the Austin Board of Realtors and Home Builders Association of Greater Austin has shown reason to be hopeful for a healthy 2010.
According to Austin real estate experts, the housing market could see a rebound during 2010. On January 13, members from each of these organizations noted the area’s better job market as a possible cause of this.
The city of Austin and surrounding area reported a significantly less loss of jobs during 2009, as compared to other Texas cities. Austin lost 4,300 jobs during November 2008 – 2009, while Dallas lost 50,700, and Houston lost 88,900. Economists also predicted that Austin’s job market would begin growing by the end of 2010.
A residential real estate market study was done that compared Austin to 30 other U.S. cities. Eldon Rude, manager of Austin operations for the study, reported the economic and housing fundamentals in Austin are the strongest among the other markets tracked. Because of this stability, he believes Austin will be one of the first markets to show a strong growth when the U.S. economy improves.
During 2009, Austin builders built 19% less homes than the year before, bringing the total to 6,490 which is the lowest level since 1995. However, the start rate remained stable during the last three quarters of 2009. Because of this, Austin builders have closed more homes than they’ve built in the last three years, resulting in less inventory issues as compared to other cities.
According to the study, new home starts will remain at the same level during the beginning of the year, primarily due to slow job growth. Experts say the test will come as interest rates get higher and the new home buyer tax credits are no longer available.
It’s also predicted that as many as 7,000 homes will be started during 2010. This is due to the current low supply of new homes, as well as the expected rebound in the local economy.
This positive outlook paired with the condition of the area’s job market, continues to make Austin, Texas, a top U.S. location. Add the fact that Austin has been named one of the “Top Cities to Live” by several publications, this capital Texas city is growing in popularity and becoming one of the best cities to call home.
This article was provided by Brian Talley of Regent Property Group, providing Austin real estate services and Austin luxury real estate services to those people searching Austin neighborhoods for purchasing or selling a home.
Forbes recently released its fastest growing large & small metro areas in the country. Austin hit #1 with projected growth of 32% from 2007-2012. It’s very encouraging, as Austin is expected to grow by 50% more than the #2 fastest growing market.
