Arn Cenedella

Archive for the 'Helpful Sites' Category

Additional opportunity to use Retirement Funds to buy real estate

I have written on several occasions about the ability to use retirement funds to purchase real estate.

There is a window of opportunity to convert IRA funds into Roth IRA funds and spread the tax impact out over two years.

As you probably know,  for “regular” IRAs, before-tax funds are placed in an IRA where it grows tax free until the funds are withdrawn and taxed at withdrawal.  In a Roth IRA, “after” tax funds are placed in a Roth IRA and they grow tax free and are TAX-FREE upon withdrawal.

The general theory on IRAs is to put money in and then withdraw after retirement when theorectically your tax bracket will be lower. Of course, with all our government borrowing and defecit spending, who knows tax rates may be higher 10 to 20 years from now than they are today.

Currently, most individuals due to a new law are able to convert IRA funds to ROTH IRA funds and pay the tax due on said conversion over a 2 year period.

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Do Zillow or Trulia have all the real estate listings on their sites?

Jay Thompson the Phoenix Real Estate Guy took a look at how many listings Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com are posted on their sites compared to the IDX mls search his blog site provides. It turns out that at least in the Phoenix area Trulia has 64% and Zillow 87% and Realtor.com 94% of the listings that appear on Jay’s IDX mls search site.

This week I will run the numbers for some cities in the San Francisco Peninsula and see what they show.

My site provides my clients and readers access to the Diverse Solutions IDX Search - check it out. Diverse has many cool features including Google Street views and the ability to search by WalkScore.

Trulia and Zillow both provide lots of good useful information to home buyers and sellers.

That being said, it is important for a prospective home buyer to know that Trulia and Zillow do not provide information on ALL available listings.

Price is not the only thing a seller looks at !

Jay Thompson the Phoenix Real Estate Guy provides an excellent review of all the factors that go into a seller’s evaluation of an offer or offers.  It does not ALWAYS come down to price.

Each seller has different needs and motivations so each seller will give differing weight or importance to all of the factors you detailed.  The strength of the buyer financially and the likelihood this particular buyer will close can be a very strong factor in which offer gets accepted.

When trying to buy an REO, the bank almost always will go with the buyer that has the most cash.

Banks just want to get that property off their books.

A buyers’ agent can really earn their commission and help their client by effectively packing their offer with supporting documentation and structuring the buyers’ offer to meet the needs of the seller.

The buyers’ agent’s reputation is also a factor considered by seller and seller agent. Is the agent a professional – who gets sales closed – with minimum of drama and headache? Does this agent do what they say?

When I present an offer on behalf of one of my clients, I make sure I have:

1. Pre-approval letter.

2. Copy of earnest money deposit check

3. Asset statement with account numbers removed to show seller buyer has liquid assets needed to close

4. A fully signed and completed disclosure packet.

5. A fully complete and signed offer with all addendums. If the offer is sloppy or missing necessary items, seller and seller agent will wonder just how good buyer agent will be in taking care of all the details needed to bring sale to close.

I never “run down” a sellers’ property when presenting an offer. Most sellers have pride and a lot of memories about their home. It is not to the buyers’ advantage to have their agent irritate the seller with negative comments about the property. That being said, I do present the relevant market data to support the buyers’ offer price. I do not close the door on further negotiations. I always tell seller if offer is not acceptable, buyer would love to see a counter – I am not sure what buyer will do – but let me know what you want and I will present to my client.

Do any of these government mortgage relief programs work?

I have generally been pretty skeptical about whether any of these much talk-about government programs will actually help any homeowners? Are these programs just more of the “promise a lot, deliver a little” that we seem to get out of Washington DC the past 10 years or will they actually help people.

I like to stay in touch with my past clients on a regular basis and try to speak with each of them at least every quarter and often once a month.

Today I called a first-time home buyer, Jim, who in January 2009 bought a home in Redwood City at a very affordable price. After a few minutes of chit chat, I suggested it might be a good time to look into a refi since rates have dropped maybe about 1% since they bought. He told me that they were already working on that through the Making Home Affordable program. They hope to reduce their rate over 1%.  Jim said since he mortgage was owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Jim and his wife, Lynn, were eligible for an interest rate reduction. Please understand, Jim and Lynn are current on their mortgage payments – a requirement for the loan refinance. Jim and Lynn purchased with 5% down on a house a little over $500,000 – so a typical refiance that requires 20% equity is not possible for them – but with the MHA program refinances up to 105% of the value are allowed.

Jim told me they hope to know by June whether their application will be approved.

I am interested to see if the progrma will actually work as intended and reduce their loan payments to a more affordable level. Stay tuned and I will keep you posted.

Check the Making Home Affordable site for more info.

Click here to see if your loan is owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Do you need help selling your home with a short sale?

I have recently sold a short sale in Redwood City representing the buyer and another short sale in East Palo Alto representing the seller.

Do you need help evaluating your options? I am glad to help. I have undergone short sale specific traing and have the process and procedure down. It is still time consuming but I can handle short sale without making the mistakes that add time to the process.

One of my blog buddies in the East Bay, San Benson, has been approved by Wachovia as an approved short sale agent. He provides good useful information, click here.

Is there a slight uptick in the real estate market?

Kappy Mann, a colleague in Truckee Lake Tahoe recently posted an article from Rueters that states many people are entering the market for the first-time since ownership costs are now approaching rental costs in some areas of the country.

Combine low interest rates with lower housing prices, add in federal and possibly state tax credits and there is opportunity to make a good buy on your first property.

If you are looking in the San Francisco Bay Area, please contact me and I will give you all the information you need to decide if buying is right for you at this time. I am currently working with first-time buyers from $150,000 to $800,000 price range.

Obama Home Mortgage Rescue Plan part 6

One of the things President Obama promised was greater use of the internet to make information about government programs and activites more accessible to the general public.

The MakingHomeAffordable website is now up and runnning.

This is a very useful site which will help homeowners determine if they are eligible for either the refinance plan or the loan modification. You can find out if your loan is owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

There is a wealth of information here. Check it out.

If you need further guidance just let me know.

All home-related stimulus info including loan mods and tax credits

Curtis Van Carter of the Napa Valley Address provides and the information and relevant links to answer the questions many folks are asking.

Curtis and my Sonoma colleague Pam Buda of Wine Country and Horses indicate there are lots of good buys in their areas right now though market activity appears to be picking up.

Maybe a good time to buy something as a rental right now for use as a second or retirement home in the near future????

I bought my rental and future retirement property at Waikoloa Beach Big Island Hawaii.

Available for rent right now – check it out!

Isn’t the sunshine wonderful? This is one of reasons why folks love the San Francisco Bay Area.

Full details on CA Franchise Tax Board $10K credit for NEW home purchase

Here is all the info you want about this credit directly from the proverbial horse’s mouth – The California State Franchise Tax Board including how much of the money is left and how many applications they have received – 173 to date!

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/New_Home_Credit.shtml

The buyer sale of house contingency is back!

During the past few years, the market has been so hot - so many buyers were “throwing” money at sellers and sellers were getting 6 and 7 offers – no buyer with a house to sell had a chance to get his offer accepted.

Times have changed. Buyers now have a change to get an offer accepted CONTINGENT upon the sale of their home.

Kris Berg of San Diego Home Blog provides a nice explanation of this contingency and process.