DON'T SHORTCHANGE SHORT SALES

Article below points out a more and more common "flaw" if you will of short sales that are not properly managed. The seller thinks the sale has gone through and he has been released from the debt but INSTEAD, upon closer review of the short sale acceptance documents you find that all the bank agreed to was to RELEASE the LIEN on the property so it can be sold. If  not CLEARLY spelled out then you cannot assume that you are not still on the hook for some or even all of the old debt.  We see MANY investor homes where the one or both of the lenders ask for SOMETHING more than the proceeds of the sale to issue a satisafaction. I guess that is the point that needs clarifying here. A release of the lien on the house ONLY clears the way to SELL the house - that's not the same as issuing a Satisfaction of Mortgage. A satisfaction ALSO clears the lien but it is also the thing that shows on your credit report that you have, by either paying in full or in part, satisfied the debt.   Anyway - BEFORE you get to the closing table, if you are working with your Realtor on a short sale - make sure you understand what is being offered to you and what will be expected of you post closing and include in that discussion any possible TAX ramifications as well. You may elect to suffer some of this but you need to understand what you are agreeing to....see below -   Mike - W


Short sales were a hot topic at a recent meeting of the California Association of Realtors' board of directors; and brokers, brokerage attorneys, and risk managers underscored the importance of agents reviewing all short sale documents carefully. They should ensure that lenders consider the balance completely paid after the short sale goes through. Sellers who find out after the fact that they still owe the entire loan balance will be dissatisfied and possibly blame their real estate agent. Want more short sales information? Go to: http://www.floridarealtors.org/LegalCenter/HotTopics/index.cfm

Source: Realty Times (12/01/08) Hunt, Bob
© Copyright 2008 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

Think Short Sales Are Only in the Subprime Market? Think Again!

Attached is a link to a Florida Association of Realtors article pointing out the changes in the market place that are now affecting the half million dollar plus and even million dollar place home market.

For us, our experience is that, like the article said a large group of these short sale homes ARE located in the sub $200K and now even sub 150K range and WERE limited to the sub prime market but we had already been seeing plenty of Shorts 500K plus and even 1 million plus as far back as this time last year.  We believe that this (Sarasota Bradenton) market was a "leader" if you will, into the downturn - having had a market stall in September of 2005 and then at first a slow erosion of price which has turned in the last 14 months or so into a pretty rapid decline in price. And while the higher end SEEMED to react a little later - we saw that end of the market come down long before the folks nationally in the markets quoted have seen them.

Perhaps too, these took longer to go short as folks on the upper end of the market had more resources to exhaust and were willing to do so to try to avoid the stigma of either a short sale or a foreclosure. We have also seen banks be a lot more agressive in asking for some "owner contribution" on the higher end as they see this type of  customer as having a better income stream to tap into or they would ask them to liquidate 401K type assets (that usually can't be harmed in a Bankruptcy but the bank is assuming the customer wants to avoid that route as well) or even that the customer has a better income stream and can afford to take back a note after the lien is released.

But as the market continues to weaken AND folks have had their 401K's and their portfolios depleted they have less resources to tap on AND are less willing to exhaust what they have left to keep a mortgage that is far bigger than the current value of the home current.

Once again, this is not the answer for everyone but if you find yourself in this position and need to understand your options you should speak with someone who has done a number of successful short sales before you get too far behind on your payments.

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n1-111708.cfm

- Mike W.

AP Article on Foreclosures Gets Me Thinking...

Below is a link to an AP Newswire article saying that foreclosure rates are up 25% year over year for October of 2008 back to October of 2007.  As folks who read this blog know, in a way our real estate practice has benfitted from the spate of short sales and foreclosures but the last two years have been a real eye opener for us as well - on  a lot of levels.

My heart goes out to folks who truly have financial misfortune and find themselves upside down and unable to stay in a home they thought they could afford but that is only one piece of this group of underwater properties.

More and more I am going into homes that were built by speculators and investors, they never lived in the home and they did 100% financing on the home - and now they cannot sell them for the outstanding loan balance and they end up in foreclosure. And here I'll use a specific to describe a general, never a good thing, but we have one where someone, AFTER they tried to sell the home themselves and before the home ends up in the property of the bank, literally REMOVED the KITCHEN from the building. Went in with a sawzall, cut the plumbing back to the wall, took every cabinet, appliance, counter, EVERYTHING. Now I can't say for sure WHO did this but the home shows no sign of forced entry. IF the previous owner did it, exactly how does one square the idea that although the bank financed EVERY dime of the home, if it's headed to foreclosure and the bank is going to lose 100's of thousands ANYWAY, then this person can in good conscience take a 50 to 60 thousand dollar kitchen with them as well??

We see it all the time, people are mad at the bank and destroy the home as they are leaving. SOOOO they leave all their NEIGHBORS with an eyesore that cannot be sold and when it does it severely depreciates values all around them and somehow they "punish" the "Bad Ol Bank" for loaning them money they probably shouldn't have borrowed to begin with!  I guess I don't understand that logic at all.

I am no advocate for banks who made loans to people who had no business borrowing more than they can afford but conversely I feel if the bank financed the home, all of it, then if you give it back to them you should give it back, INTACT.

What do you think?

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n2-111308.cfm

- Mike W.

Ahh a New Source of Tax Revenue from Those Who Can Least Afford It - DOC STAMPS on DEBT FORGIVENESS!!

Yup you're reading that right. I had been getting warnings this was coming but now I've had my first short sale where it's taking place. I had a letter from a large title company that read in part:

"The Department of Revenue took an unofficial position last month that documentary stamps must be calculated based on the sales price paid by the buyer plus the amount of debt forgiven by the Short Sale Lender. Last week the Department of Revenue indicated that it was still considering the issue and that the position previously communicated by their staff was the unofficial opinion of the revenue officers, not the official positionof the Department. The Department has agreed to communicate their official position as soon as theyhave determined it."

- Mike W.

Down Payment Assistance Set to Bite The Dust October First

Below is a link to a very informative article from BankRate regarding the possible (PROBABLE) end of Seller down payment assistance.

I had mentioned in an earlier blog what I felt were the pros and cons of these "Gift" programs. As of October 1st if the legislation stands as written - these will no longer be allowed for any Fed Insurance backed mortgages.

My own experience with them is a real mixed bag. Yes they DO allow people with very little of their own money to put in to achieve home ownership and get a mortgage. That in itself is a two edged sword. Home ownership is a positive influence on the economy in many ways and obviously personally for us as well.

The downsides as I see it are these: First, with so little down and with the market in many areas continuing to fall, we will be left again with a large number of these where the folks who feel any financial pinch will realize that they have zero equity and no real reason not to default. For the market to finally stabilize we HAVE to get all these defaults with their corresponding Short Sales and Foreclosures to work their way out of the system. They depress appraisals in general and continue the downward spiral in property values.

Second the entire practice of turning cash back from the seller into a "Gift" that meets the current lending guidelines has created a nice "cottage" industry for companies that do exactly that - they take a Seller's cash back at closing and, for a fee, convert it into a complying "gift".  So what's the problem with that? Well in the ones I have been a party to (and I have NEVER had one of my buyers do it - I have only been part of having my sellers participate) the cost these "not for profit" companies charge is very dear. In one case it was $750 to convert just $5000!!  That's FIFTEEN PERCENT to convert it into a complying gift. No surprise that in this article two of the biggest players in this business are very vocal and actively trying to protect first time homebuyers (and their own best interest) in finding a way to keep this very lucrative (for them) program alive.

My point would be, if you're going to allow seller participation and take the risks associated with it. just allow it, with some reasonable guideline. But let's just call it what it is, let the market assume the risk associated with it, and eliminate the need for "clever" conversions that only add needless expense and just line someone's pockets with the already crimped funds available from a buyer with limited funds and seller's who keep having their equity chipped away. Otherwise let's live without the practice.

www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20080821-down-payment-assistance-a1.asp

- Mike W.

More Ranting and Raving on Short Sales.

I had an interesting conversation today. Seems in January I spoke with a very nice lady who, like many others out there - found herself unable to continue making her mortgage payment. I explained how a short sale works and she said she and her husband would discuss it. I followed up a couple times but she seemed to have lost interest - and I moved on to greener pastures.

Today she called my office and my cell - she needs to speak with me RIGHT AWAY. When I got back to my desk I checked at the Clerk of The Circuit Court site - she is being foreclosed upon. And received a summons. The house had been "Lis Pending" for over two months.

So I did call her, and she said there must be something I can do. I said well you really needed to try to short sell this months ago. Turns out that a neighbor of hers is a Real estate agent and she decided to list with them. They had the house listed for 500,000 (appx). I checked and a list of comparables justified a price of about....333,000!!  She says, well he never got much action and nobody made an offer. I said well why is it listed so HIGH?  She says well THAT'S what we OWE on it!!!!! And that's what my real estate agent  (her neighbor) said we have to sell it for! 

Well it's NOT a SHORT SALE when you sell it for what you OWE on it. And maybe the fact that you OWE $200,000 more than your neighbors are selling their houses for is a reason your neighbor can't seem to drum up any interest in the house!  We call it a SHORT SALE when the proceeds of the sale are going to have you "coming up SHORT" against what you owe the bank!!

For a short sale to work you need to have an offer that the lender thinks is reasonable against the current value of the house - not against what you OWE on it. If you do not have ANY offers you won't have any basis for a discussion with a loss mitigator to justify a short sale. In this case the lady's neighbor/agent told her he was unable to have a conversation with the bank - that they are "Too Hard to Get Hold of". Uhhh that's your job if you're short selling - the agent needs to keep dropping the price until you have an offer you can take to the loss mitigation dept. If you don't have an offer, you've got NOTHING the loss mitigator can talk to you about so sitting for months on the market at the current loan value is downright dumb!!  And for this poor lady what that agent did is use up all of her negotiating time ineffectively marketing the home at the wrong price.

Now, with an auction date set, all I could tell her to do was, call a lawyer and start packing! (I thought the lawyer might be able to help her at least negotiate a Deed in Lieu). Even the lawyer said, they waited too long - it's going to foreclose.

I did ask her - "How many short sales has your neighbor/agent done"? She said he told her TWO. I'd say if he left the home in the MLS for six months at the loan value - he sure as heck doesn't know how to do short sales. And here is proof positive - for that agent all he has is a listing he couldn't sell. But for his customer who was not properly served - well they face foreclosure, a severely damaged credit report for seven to ten years, lots of stress and sleepless nights.

If you needed a Thoracic surgeon and your neighbor was a veterinarian but said he had handled these would you pick a neighbor so there wouldn't be "hurt feelings"? Of course not! This process is way too complicated to leave to amateurs and hurt feelings or not - this is an area, like a doctor, a lawyer or a CPA - you pick it for competence - not because they are "nice" and live close by. Those nice neighbors can now help her pack - or just say "Tsk Tsk - what a shame" as she loses her house and her credit!  And they move on to their next sale....

- Mike W.

Below is a link to the June 2008 Results for the Credit Suisse Realtor survey. As many of you know this survey is conducted by  Daniel M. Oppenheim, CFA amd Michael  Dahl  both of  whom were with Bank of America and  are now with Credit Suisse. I am  a monthly contributor to the  poll  and  I have received their permission to place it here for you.  I like it as, while it is  FROM  Realtors the results are computed by this independant entity at Credit Suisse so it is hard to say it is colored by, for example, an overly optimistic outlook that many feel real estate trade associations give off. Any go to page 44 of 59 for the Sarasota results. 

- Mike W.

http://www.realtownblogs.com/uploads/RingTheWingers_Industry_RealtorSurvey_7-17-2008.pdf

Fannie, Freddie and Indy Mac rescue pushes housing aid.

The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac problem will likely boost momentum for a quick final passage of Congress' massive housing aid bill, aimed at helping some 400,000 struggling homeowners. "I'm confident we're going to get this done," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd. "Unfortunately, these events over the last few days have probably increased the importance of this in the minds of some."

AP News Story today that may in fact show that the Indy Mac "meltdown" and the Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac confidence issue may in fact help homeowners in mortgage trouble as it forces Congress' hand in moving legislation through that, by guaranteeing some homeonwers refi's will prop up both an ailing mortgage and housing industry AND some hurting consumers as well.

As a Realtor dealing with Short Sales and distressed property, dealing with bank loss mitigation officers AND a Mortgage Broker my exposure to these issues is perhaps sometimes through the fisheye lens but I had a very interesting discussion with a client in the banking industry (who will go unnamed!) and I asked him how far he thought this problem could go. His explanation was crystal clear and maybe a little scary. He explained that it is common knowledge that banks in the US are levergaged between 30 and 60 times their available asset base - so let's use 40X as the average. If the VALUE of the assets they are leveraged on falls just 2.5% then - they have exhausted the onhand assets! So if a particular institutions PRIMARY asset base they leverage on is HOUSING stock and we KNOW nationally and CERTAINLY here in Florida that the overall value of housing stock has fallen far more than 2.5% - the results could be VERY far reaching.

No wonder then that both parties understand the seriousness of this, no matter HOW we got here, we had better begin making sound policy decisions as regards both banking AND the housing market.

Read the full story:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n2-071508.cfm

- Mike W.

Foreclosed homes bring stinky pools and health warnings!

Saw this article today from Florida Association of Realtors and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the number of dirty pools in Florida due to foreclosures and it struck home.

From what I've seen it is not just foreclosures that end up with that as an issue. As you know if you read this blog at all, we now do a large number of short sales and distressed properties and it seems like the VERY first thing to go when homeowners are cutting back and considering having to short sell is....the pool guy!!  :-)    And a lot of the property management companies that banks use to sell their REO property may have the lawn mowed but never hire pool care.

The OTHER thing I have learned is that, particularly down here in Paradise, you stop putting chemicals in the pool and even if you run the pump night and day it will be green in about a week to ten days. When they let the electricity go off and then the pool doesn't run - well the pool looks like pea soup in as little as 4-5 days. And if there is no cage then it starts looking like a science project with polliwogs and toads and snakes and mosquitoes pretty darn quick.

I AM amazed though that I find home LISTED for SALE where the power is ON but because the owner fired the pool guy no one is putting chemicals into it and even though it's running it's green.  What we find is that, regardless of how well priced it is - if the pool is green it is SO much harder to sell.  So I am always encouraging sellers, even those upside down on the loan, if they are serious about selling to keep the pool up but quite honestly I now almost always have a bag or two of shock in the back of the car and some chlorine tablets.  At the last short sale we closed (and it was for three quarters of a million dollars on Siesta Key) the buyer asked for the number of the pool guy so he could continue on the "contract" with them. I opened my trunk and pointed to my chlorine tabs and said that the pool guys last day was.....TODAY! Me!

Here's the article - the situation really ISN'T funny if this pool is next door to you:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n3-061008.cfm

- Mike W.

TOP 10 BEACHES

1. Caladesi Island Clearwater

2. Hanalei Beach Kauai, Hawaii

3. Siesta Beach Sarasota

4. Coopers Beach Southampton, N.Y.

5. Coronado Beach San Diego, Calif.

6. Main Beach East Hampton, N.Y.

7. Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii

8. Cape Hatteras Outer Banks, N.C.

9. Cape Florida Key Biscayne

10. Beachwalker Park Kiawah Island, S.C.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080523/NEWS/805230395/1661

What your agent ought to be asking YOU if you're thinking of a Short Sale.

Below I am going to paste the contents of the questionaire we have devised to help us and our client to determine if a short if right for them AND if a short sale can even be accomplished. This is pretty comprehensive but could always use improvement. If you are not prepared to answer these questions to your realtor then maybe you're not ready OR you need to establish a relationship with someone you think is competent in handling the type of information that the answers will provide.  Anyway we look forward to your comments or questions as to why we would need some piece of this answered.

Ann M Winger, LLC Short Sale Preparation Checklist

1. Is this your primary residence?
2. Any other properties? Are they in trouble?
3. If tenant occupied is your tenant aware of any problem?
4.  If this is NOT your primary residence do you understand the IRS consequences of debt forgiveness?
5. If either of the lenders required it would you be prepared to offer some lump sum or sign a promissory note to facilitate a short sale? (Not always required)
6. Are you prepared to give us permission to speak to your mortgage lenders on your behalf?
7. Name and Account Number of First Mortgage Holder:
8. Approximate Current Amount Owed:
9. Is the account current?                                       Date of last payment:
10. Phone number for lender or copy of payment coupon
11. Name and Account Number of SECOND mortgage holder if any:
12. Approximate amount owed:
13. Is the account current? Date of last payment:
14. If married is your spouse on your mortgages?
15. Did you pay prior year’s property tax?                                 Do you have proof of payment?
16. Does the lender ESCROW your property tax?
17. ANY other liens on property such as HOA or Mechanics Liens? Current with HOA?
18. What is your current monthly income?  Can you document it?
19. Tell us about all your cash and non cash assets such as 401K and stocks – so we can determine if you will be considered a short sale candidate.
20. Do you have two years worth of fed tax records to provide banks?
21. What is your “Hardship Story”?
22. Are you working with a Bankruptcy attorney, do you intend to file bankruptcy?
23. If you are working with a BK attorney may we contact them?    
24. Do you have living arrangements for when the property sells?
25. We have reviewed the Short Sale Addendum to the Listing Agreement:    
26. As I have just explained them will you be willing and able to go through with a short sale if accepted?

- Mike W.

Fed cuts interest rates to lowest level in 4 years

Attached is a link to an AP news article describing the Fed's latest .25 point rate cut. While this is good news for your credit card debt, car and boat loans and maybe even your Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) it is not neccessarily going to lower mortgage rates per se.  Mortgages are tied to rates like 10 Year Treasury Bills and ARMS are tied to things like the London Inter Bank Rate (LIBOR) and they are not lock step effected by the Fed funds rate.  So while the Fed cut rates yesterday a 30 year fixed rate mortgage was about 5.8% prior to the Fed announcement and lo and behold today the 30 year rate is......the very same 5.8%

Still any break in interest rates is welcome relief. The Fed is now "cautious" about inflation and so may not lower rates further. I would say with what is going on with the price of oil continuing to rise and with ALL that does to prices - I'd say the inflation fear is VERY well founded!

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n4-050108.cfm

- Mike W.

New home sales plunge to lowest level in 16 years

Below is a link to an AP story pointing out that nationally new home sales in March 2008 plunged to a 16 and a half year low.

So why did I start this out as a possible "mixed bag". Well data from March for Sarasota County, Manatee and Charlotte shows that sales of EXISTING homes are actually up a bit, though prices are down.  The mixed bag is that for all the bad things that come home to roost in our economy, especially locally as it is so tied to the housing market, there is indication here of SOME movement to use up some of the backlog of existing inventory of resale homes  - perhaps at the expense of sales of new product. But for prices to stabilize we really do need to burn through some inventory before we "make some more" with new construction. If you need to sell or are currently trying to sell your home - seeing some inventory drain off would be a good thing.

In the long run though our own local economic engine will continue to sputter if the trend for new home sales continues on this path.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n4-042408.cfm

- Mike W.

Who or What IS a "Short Sale Specialist"?

In an earlier blog entry I tried to lay out some specifics on doing short sales as I have learned them from experience. In our local market for the last 9 months they have become a pretty regular part of not only our business but of the overall market.  We still have Realtors who say "I don't handle those" or "I hate them and avoid them" but honestly they ARE a significant piece of the market now so if you avoid them you lock yourself out of a piece of the market.

But today's entry is me RILING on what I'm seeing out there as "Short Sale Specialists".  Last month I sold a home and the other realtor was a very nice person but pretty much brand new to real estate. I represented the seller but I found myself having to answer all the buyer type questions, find them a bug inspector, tell the buyer how to read his HUD and what money to bring to closing etc. Many of these things were just falling through the cracks as the agent just had never done them before. I asked the agent how long they had been in business. The answer was less than a year and had done very few deals - none of them a short sale. But lo and behold - printed on the business card was "Realtor, Short Sale SPECIALIST".  Now if a DOCTOR was a SPECIALIST in say BRAIN surgery I would ASSUME he'd OPENED SOMEONE'S BRAIN and hopefully a LOT of them, under someone elses guidance, until he/she WAS really a SPECIALIST.

Now we have this new portion of our business and we have people who maybe even have not DONE a single deal that is a short OR they brought a BUYER to the process - which really isn't ANY more work for the BUYER'S side than a typical sale and these people are calling themselves "Specialists".

Perhaps you're thinking, what's the harm? Well there IS REAL HARM here. If you hire somebody as your realtor to short sell your house they had BETTER know how to negotiate with banks! AND remember IF they blow it - their own credit is not harmed but they can torpedo YOUR credit - and your house goes to foreclosure instead of being short which is a huge difference on your credit report.

Since we now have people who have NEVER done a short or if they have they represented the buyer is it any wonder some realtors think these are potential disasters that "never close".

So far on all of my short sales we have had only one get out and out rejected by the bank and even on that one we are right this minute "resucitating" the deal with the lender and will likely close it too. We do expect that in some cases we will not be able to get the bank to accept a deal but we KNOW how these work and we KNOW the approach to take to get banks to accept deals.  If your agent wants YOU or worse yet THE TITLE COMPANY to talk to the bank....RUN, don't walk, away from them.  Truly here is where having a good negotiator on the phone with the bank and someone who KNOWS how to put all the paperwork together is critical. 

And ASK - how many short sales have you successfully closed? Tell me about a couple - who were the banks, what ended up being the actual closing terms, how long did it take from contract to closing. What steps did YOU take to make this happen? Here's a REAL clarifying question: "Do you KNOW how to put a HUD1 statement together"? If they say they leave that to the title company...they are NOT a short sale "specialist".  If they tell you they represented the BUYER - while it's good they got a deal done - all they did was wait while the seller and his agent got the deal lined up. Truly on the buyer side it is about managing expectations - not about managing PROCESS. Keeping the buyer IN the transaction is of course critical but the lion's share of the work is with the seller. Plus if I were using a buyer's agent to DO a short sale I would want to know they understood the process from the sell side.  I have buyer's agents calling me on my short sales wanting to put offers in because their client offered on another short sale and it's been THREE weeks and they haven't heard so they are backing out. These deals take 6-8 weeks and as the banks get BURIED they are taking LONGER. You want to BUY a short sale? Plan to wait 8 weeks to a closing - maybe more.

OK I have railed enough for one day - but I KNOW I am going to be back on this topic more, and probably sooner than later!

- Mike W.

Below is reprint of  a Washington Post Article from today announcing today's additional half point rate cut. While I believe this is additional good news for Real Estate and a step in the right direction do keep in mind that this does not instantly translate to lower mortgage rates as most mortgages are tied to the LIBOR (London Interbank Rate  - the rate banks charge each other for short term money) or they are tied to things like 10 Year Treasury Bills (T-Bills) so having the rate drop IS an indication of the government trying to inject money (credit) into the system but if you are currently locked into a rate in anticipation of closing on a NEW loan - you might ask about resetting before closing.

- Mike W.

State Economist Says It Has....But HAS IT?

Below is a link to today's Sarasota Herald Tribune and an article by Michael Pollick quoting economist Hank Fishkind and saying that the market bottomed out in October/November.

I believe that we ARE seeing more activity, certainly there was more buyer activity over these Holidays then in the last few years BUT I also feel that pricing is NOT done coming down. Even with the activity level picking up I believe we still have a large number of bank short sales and foreclosures in the pipeline and that they, and the associated lower appraisals that they will drive, need to work their way through the system before appraisals and then prices can stabilize.

Remember that most homes purchased DO have a mortgage on them and mortgage money is tied ot what homes appraise at, lower appraisals do drive lower sale prices around them.

Additional activity WILL though get us to the point the article states we are at and that can only be goodness.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080108/REALESTATE/801080350

- Mike W.

Bank Of America Realtor Survey Results for November 2007

As I have mentioned in the past I am a Realtor participant in Bank of America's monthly survey of Realtors in about 40 markets in the US to guage market activity. The Sarasota Bradenton market is on page 47 of the survey results which you can download here. Not surprising - November has been pretty slow and the survey results reflect that. Southwest Florida's true selling season is January through early May so it will be interesting to see if this trends up over the next 60 days.  I'll post the results for Dec and Jan so you can spot the trend.

- Mike W.

http://www.realtownblogs.com/uploads/RingTheWingers_November20RE20Agent20Survey.pdf

IRS Ruling on My Safe Florida Home Grant is Non Taxable

You may already have heard of this program and many of you may in fact have applied and even had some of the retrofits done to make your home more stormworthy. Today Florida Realtors.org published the article linked below showing that the IRS has determined that the grants are not subject to Federal Income Tax! That is very good news. Even if you elect not to do everything that is reccommended to your home when it is evaluated you will very much benefit from the report that the program sends you on the stormworthiness of your home as it currently sits and what can be done to improve it. If your home is more than 5 or 6 years old it's just about a guarantee there will be some low hanging fruit here - inexpensive things you can do to greatly improve your homes survivability in the next wind event. My own home was built in 1989 - up North that's quite new - but here in Florida it's practically ancient! But the addition of shutters, a new garage door and some other changes really quickly and relatively inexpensively raised it's score. And most of the reccommened additons qualify for matching grant money. So let the state help you bring your home up to snuff! And now you don't even owe tax on the grant money! Send me a note if you want more information. See the article below.

- Mike W.

MY SAFE FLORIDA HOME

Not only can Floridians receive state grants through the My Safe Florida Home program to boost their homes' defenses against storms, but that money is tax-free, according to a ruling issued by the IRS and released yesterday by Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

Read the full story:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n2-121307.cfm

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

It's time for supporters of property tax reform to be counted. Gov. Charlie Crist just launched his "Yes on 1" Web site to promote passage of property tax reform, to be accomplished through a proposed constitutional amendment. "While the amendment is temporarily off the ballot, we have every confidence that the citizens of Florida will be voting on tax reform on Jan. 29," says John Sebree, FAR vice president of public policy. "Floridians have suffered long enough and deserve an opportunity to vote for the largest tax cut in Florida history." The Web site asks visitors to join the reform movement and includes a count of the "number of Floridians who support Amendment 1." Help make that number grow by going to the "Yes on 1" Web site, http://yeson1florida.com/.

Don't let this pass you by...if you are concerned about real estate values here in the Sunshine State property tax reform is a MUST. High property taxes along with high insurance rates are the two main factors quoted most often when you read about flight out of the Florida housing market. Stand up and be counted!!! - Mike W

A hidden treasure that is not so hidden anymore: