Buying and Selling Your Davis, CA Home with Keller Williams agent Carmen Isais

The April 30, 2010, deadline is fast approaching to have purchased – or be under a binding contract to purchase – a home and still receive a tax credit under the best government-sponsored homebuyer incentive program to come along in decades. After that deadline, the program will most likely disappear for good.

Do You Qualify?
Under the federal program, first-time homebuyers can receive a tax credit of up to $8,000, and current homeowners can receive a tax credit of up to $6,500 when they buy a home as their principal residence.

• A first-time homebuyer is defined as someone who has not purchased a primary residence in the past three years.
• Current homeowners must have lived in the same principal residence for at least five consecutive years out of the eight years leading up to the date of the purchase to qualify.
• The extended credit applies to homes purchased between Nov. 7, 2009 & April 30, 2010.
• Form 5405 must be completed & filed with your taxes in order to receive the tax credit.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a pet peeve about over use of  exclamation marks…  But. really, time is running out. The time to act is NOW – without delay!

If you have any questions or are simple ready to get out there and start seriously looking to invest in your future and property, contact Carmen at 530.601.1003 and let’s get moving in the right direction.

Actively working as real estate agent in Davis, CA,  I’ve had the thrill of meeting many of my online blog readers in person. after more than one request, I’ve decided to deliver.

Basics of the $8000 Federal Tax Incentive for First Time Home Buyers

• The $8,000 tax credit is for first-time home buyers only. For the tax credit program, the IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid unless the home is sold or ceases to be used as the buyer’s principal residence within three years after the initial purchase.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.
• The tax credit applies only to homes priced at $800,000 or less.
• The tax credit now applies to sales occurring on or after January 1, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010. However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by April 30, 2010, a home purchase completed by June 30, 2010 will qualify.
• For homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and on or before November 6, 2009, the income limits are $75,000 for single taxpayers and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.
• For homes purchased after November 6, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010, single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

The $6,500 Move-Up / Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance

• To be eligible to claim the tax credit, buyers must have owned and lived in their previous home for five consecutive years out of the last eight years.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid unless the home is sold or ceases to be used as the buyer’s principal residence within three years after the initial purchase.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $6,500.
• The tax credit applies only to homes priced at $800,000 or less.
• The credit is available for homes purchased after November 6, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010. However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by April 30, 2010, the home purchase qualifies provided it is completed by June 30, 2010.
• Single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

If you have any questions regarding the first time home buying process, please do not hesitate in contacting me, Carmen Isais, or calling me directly at 530.601.1003.

There is a new buzzword being used in today’s real estate market, that term is Short Pay Refinance.

Most of you have not heard about this.  It is a new approach were a new lender negotiates on your behalf  with your current lender to pay less than the full amount for the pay off of the existing loan. This is not a loan re-modification. This is a new loan with new terms and lower balance.

This is an amazing concept, basically you get to buy your home again at the current market value.

For more information call Carmen Isais at Keller William’s Realty in Davis : 530.601.1003 or email: carmen@focusondavis.com

I’m not an e-Pro.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, an e-Pro is a real estate designation given after taking an approved course from NAR, the National Association of Real Estate. After paying some amount of money for said designation, and after looking over the course work, I quickly saw I had been had– and so was the public, if they cared much about this particular designation. In short, if I took and learned anything at all from the e-Pro course it would mean I wasn’t nearly qualified to market your property on the Internet. If you are interested as to why this is, read Real Estate Tomato’s, “e-Pro is a Tinfoil Badge”.

And if you want to see what I’m doing instead of studying to be an e-Pro, take a look at my list….

Top Ten Things I Do As a Realtor Instead of Studying for the e-Pro Designation

1. Posting via postletts and quickblog, New Listings every week  to Posterous, Craiglist, Sac News and Review and more.
2. Updating my Hyper Local Real Estate Blogs to showcase new listings and find my sellers buyers who, might be other’s agent’s clients, but visit my site regularly for updated information.
3. Exposing your home, should you sell with me, to Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist audience– because these online venues are visited more often by home buyers than traditional print advertising.
4. Texting, facebooking, emailing, and twittering my clients to keep them abreast of any market changes in the quickest, cleanest communication method they are comfortable with and…
5. Oh yes, I actually still phone clients and even better, meet with them face-to-face.
6. Creating out-of-the-box virtual presentations of your home and embed them on mutiple sites from Vimeo to You Tube, From Blog posts to Facebook– NOT just MLS.
7. Networking online with literally hundreds of agents from San Francisco to Pollock Pines, From Sacramento to Los Angeles to expose your home to the largest market possible– NOT just Davis.
8. Holding your home open,  personally, because despite it all, there is no replacement for the face-to-face. And along those lines…
9. Networking offline with Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, CPA’s and other professionals making “keeping the deal together” much easier should things get rough– and they do.  An agent with good social skills and the ability to negotiate calmly is harder to find than you might imagine.
   
10. Keeping it real. Today’s market is a tough one. Seller’s might not want to hear that their property cannot sell at “X” price, and I know you can find an agent who will tell you exactly what you want to hear. But, I promise you, unless your agent is being straightforward and genuine– which includes sometimes delivering news you don’t want to hear– your home will be sitting on the market, unsold and most likely not even shown for months to come. So, I like to keep it real, using trends and data that I keep up with daily and are concrete.

In short, I’m busy using my advanced internet skill sets selling your home or finding you one to buy. If you’d like to reap the benefits of my work ethic, everyday stamina and dynamic tech-skills call me (530.601.1003), skype me (carmen.isais), twitter me, facebook me or otherwise contact me. I’m always connected.