A few weeks ago I wrote about the "Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007".  (Scroll down to read more).  I've now included a link to an IRS webpage that has some Q&A that explains in more detail the Tax Ramifications of the Act.

Here is the link.

If you are in a Short Sale or pre-foreclosure position, we can help!!  Please give us a call!  Take our Short Sale primer at our website www.AyersTeam.com, scroll down and click on Short Sale.

Rich Ayers, e-PRO, ABR

We have some new listings we want to share with everyone!  If you are interested, please give us a call at 630-430-5927 or email me at Rich@AyersTeam.com

1) Visit www.3425ButlerWalk.com for all the details and tons of pics!
Eagle Pointe Subdivision, Naperville, 204 Schools

2) Visit www.5056PrairieSage.com for all the details and tons of pics!
High Meadow Subdivision, Naperville, IL 204 Schools

3) Visit www.1372Braymore.com for all the details and tons of pics!
Eagle Pointe Subdivision, Naperville, IL 204 Schools

These are GREAT houses.  Each has its own strengths:  Sunrooms, finished basements, large lots, well-respected schools!  Please visit each website to learn more and let us know if you want to take a look!

Rich Ayers, e-PRO, ABR
Karen Ayers, GRI

Hello everyone, We are so sorry, but we had some "technical issues" as they say and couldn't access our blog to post or respond.  Karen and I are working this weekend to get all our updates in and readable!  Again, we are very sorry!

Rich and Karen

This house has it all!!  This is the Winning Colors model in Churchill Club in Oswego.  3,844 sq ft plus another 1,828 sq ft of unfinished basement!  4 BR, 2.1 BA.  The home has a huge bonus room over the garage (15'x20'), large living, dining and family rooms.  1st floor office, butler's pantry, separate laundry room!  All 4 bedrooms upstairs are oversized as well!

See MANY pictures, a virtual tour and more details at www.933Jessamine.com today!! 

Rich & Karen

Here is a timely article just released today.  MGIC is the largest mortgage insurer in the US.  This is the company that provides PMI insurance when you put down less than 20%.  In a nutshell, they are saying that starting in March 08, in their "restricted markets" which includes Chicago, it will require homeowners to put down at least 5%.  They are also tightening their standards on investment property loans and condo loans as well.  Here is the full text from Associated Press. 

Please call us if you are planning to buy and have questions on how this will affect your purchase!!

"Beginning next month, MGIC Investment Corp., the country’s largest mortgage insurer, will reduce its exposure in weak housing markets by requiring at least 5 percent down on homes in what it calls restricted markets.

These markets include the entire states of Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada, as well as the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta.

Home owners hoping to insure condos will have to put down 10 percent.

The company also will refuse to insure mortgages with little or no documentation, nor will it insure investment property loans in restricted areas. Home owners in the restricted markets who put down 10 percent will have to have FICO scores of at least 620 out of a possible 850. If they put down less, their scores will have to be at least 680.

Home owners typically must get mortgage insurance when they put down less than 20 percent of their home’s value.

MGIC expects the new requirements to result in the issuance of fewer new policies, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Competitor PMI Group Inc. also announced in a filing that it would stop covering home loans with loan-to-value ratios of more than 97 percent."
Source: The Associated Press, Emily Fredrix (02/11/08)

Here is a good article I just read on Realty Times.  I talk about this a lot with my home sellers, but it is nice to hear someone else back me up every now and then!  It is a well written article.  Here is the link.

This article was so timely and goes perfectly with my last blog I just had to provide a link to it.  The source is Realty Times' Blanche Evans.  She is a long-time journalist on the housing market.  You will love this story and it jives with what we have been telling our clients.

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20080122_sixsigns.htm

RIch

People ask me, "What can I do to sell my house quickly?"  It is the same question I am asked year after year.  Whether it's a Buyer's Market (like now) or a Seller's Market (like a few years ago), fundamentally, the answer is the same and I repeat it in EVERY appointment I go on.  It is 4 letters: P,C,L,M.  PRICE, CONDITION, LOCATION, MARKETING.  It doesn't matter what the current market conditions are. 

1)  If a home is priced COMPETITIVELY relative the competition and relative to the market it WILL sell.  

2)  The home needs to be in GREAT condition!  I always say MODEL HOME condition.  There is just too much competition out there - you need to stand out from the crowd!  If you don't, you are just one of 15 houses that was "looked at" last weekend. 

3)  Location is important, but not much can be done at this point.  Hopefully you picked your home with LOCATION in mind when you bought it because this is when it will pay off!  Are you close to schools?  Close to shopping? Close to the train? In a clubhouse community?  All those points need to be marketed in order to sell your home.

The first 3 points are under the control of the SELLER.  The last is one is the Realtor's® responsibility.

4) Marketing matters!  Over 80% of home buyers start their search on the internet, according to the NAR.  Make sure your agent is advertising you everywhere, especially online! 

By hiring us to represent you in selling your home, we make sure all of these issues are covered! We help you price competitively to ensure a smooth closing.  We provide STAGING RECOMMENDATIONS to get your house ready to go on the market.  A STAGED HOME is a SOLD HOME! We pay for a professional cleaning service to clean your home right before it is listed. We do everything possible to highlight your location and amenities to potential buyers.  Lastly, we market your home like no other agent!  We provide Virtuals Tours, Video Tours, and custom websites for your home (see www.2569Rosehall.com for an example).  We syndicate your listings out to hunderds of different websites (ie Zillow, Google, Trulia, etc, etc) to provide MAXIMUM internet exposure.  We provide Showcase Status on Realtor.com which boosts your rankings on search results.  We even give you a 10% discount at Lowe's through our Partner Program to get you going.

Agents are not created equal!  Choose one with experience, credentials, location knowledge and a proven track record!

Buyers are out there!  And more homes are being listed!  We are working with a handful of Buyers currently and have showed over a dozen properties over Christmas break.  Attention Home Sellers!! The Buyers are out there!  But, there is A LOT for them to choose from!

Historically, for the last 3 years, January-April has been the best time to get your house SOLD!  There is less competition on the market and the Buyers are serious.  Once May or so gets here, the market gets FLOODED with homes and it becomes much hard to differentiate yourself. 

Your home needs to be STAGED and in perfect condition.  And it has to be PRICED competitively.  There is a large SUPPLY in the market and you need to stand out!  Call Rich and Karen to help you gain a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE when selling your home this year!  We offer more services to market you home than just about any other broker.  You can read about some of what we offer our clients here.

On Dec 20, 2007, President Bush signed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007.  Quite a mouthful! 

For those homeowners who are in a short sale or possibly a pre-foreclosure position, this Act will ensure any debt forgiven on a mortgage secured for a principal residence will not be taxed.  Picture this!  You sell your home at a loss....let's say a $30k loss.  That means you sold the home for 30k less than the mortgage and the lender gave you approval to do that.  Guess what used to happen?  At the end of the year you would receive a 1099 from your lender and you would owe tax on that 30k!  So at a 25% marginal tax rate, you would owe close to $7,500!!!  Now, where in the heck is the homeowner who just sold their house for zero proceeds going to come up with $7,500.  I've read of tax bills that were in the 20-30k range.  Unbelievable!!

So, this act ensures no tax is due.....It is only available for 3 years, so if you are in this position, please give us a call and we can try to help out with your home.

Here is a link to the article.

Full text is below from Associated Press

Bush Signs Mortgage Tax Relief Into Law
President George W. Bush signed legislation into law on Thursday that will ease the tax burden for home owners who have had debt forgiven on a mortgage due to a foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure. The bill — Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act — has been supported by NAR since the 1990s.

"The president offered a Christmas present to many people who have suffered the agony and humiliation of losing their home," said NAR President Dick Gaylord in a statement. “Today’s bill will ensure that any debt forgiven on a mortgage secured for a principal residence will not be taxed. This is very significant legislation."

The tax code used to require a lender who forgives debt to provide a Form 1099 to the IRS stating the amount the borrower had been forgiven. If the property was sold at foreclosure or was sold for less than what was borrowed, that difference was considered income and subject to the tax.

“We have always believed that it is clearly an issue of fairness and of not kicking people when they are down,” Gaylord said. “By making the forgiven debt taxable income, individuals in already unfortunate situations most likely faced IRS actions because they did not have the money to pay the additional taxes. This legislation will relieve that additional burden and may also encourage families to work with their lender to negotiate terms, knowing they will now not be subject to an IRS bill.”

Other Legislation Making Its Way to the President

Also, this week, the U.S. House passed two other bills — which have already passed the Senate — that could have a big impact on the real estate industry.

The bills are:

• Mortgage Insurance Tax Deductibility. This bill makes mortgage insurance premiums tax deductible for all mortgages originated for the next three years. Mortgage insurer Genworth Financial estimates that this tax break is worth $350 to the average taxpayer who has purchased a home with less than 20 percent down.

• Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Federal backstops for terrorism insurance, passed initially after the Sept. 11 attacks, have been extended for another seven years. The bill also expands the program's protection by including domestic terrorism. The insurance and real estate industries have pushed for an extension, saying federal guarantees to help cover catastrophic losses are crucial to stimulating the investment needed to spur economic growth.

Source: The Associated Press, Jim Abrams, and Dow Jones International News (12/18/07) and REALTOR® Magazine Online (12/20/07)

In the 12/6/07 edition of the Ledger-Sentinel paper, there was an article about a proposed "Lifestyle" retail center planned right near Churchill Club. There is a map in the paper, but it looks like the entrace will be off Ogden and it is tentatively located between Ogden Falls and Steeplechase. Upon first glance, I do enjoy these types of retail spaces. I am not fond of the traditional strip-malls.

If you have ever been to The Promenade in Bolingbrook, I think you would really enjoy this space. It usually consists of upscale retailers in an outdoor environment. Naperville is planning something similar and I do agree that if we beat them to the punch we could have some nice shopping very close by.

Personally, we live on the east end of Churchill Club and will be pretty darn close to this property. It will probably be a mixed blessing for us. We are hoping that we will not see the back sides of many stores and blaring lights every evening. But we are looking forward to the shopping and amenties that follow.

We will be attending the Oswego Economic Development meeting in January...we will let you know if anything interesting results!

Hello Churchill Club Homeowners, Karen and I just posted all the YTD 2007 Actives/Contingent/Closed listings for your neighborhood. Please go to www.churchillclubhomes.com and download the reports.

We will be updating this report every month and will post it by the 3rd of each month. We've decided to do this since the Association will only be mailing out the flyers once a quarter in 2008. Other homeowners have expressed an interest in seeing the data more frequently.

Rich