Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended

The new bill signed by the president includes the following provisions:

Taxpayers must purchase their home, or be locked into a contract to close, before midnight on April 30, 2010. The closing must occur before midnight on June 30, 2010.

The credit is allowed in full for those with incomes up to $125,000 ($225,000 if married filing joint). The credit is reduced for taxpayers with an income between $125,000 and $145,000 ($225,000 and $245,000 if married filing joint) and is not available for taxpayers with an income higher than $145,000 ($245,000 if married filing joint).

Taxpayers who have lived in their home for five consecutive years out of the eight years preceding closing on a new house may qualify for a reduced credit ($6,500 or $3,250 for those who file separately).

Nice Saginaw Short Sale!

This appears to be a really nice house, worth the aggravation of the short sale process! It's in the Saginaw subdivision of Creekwood and has 3 bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 baths, a study, and a 3 car garage! It also has granite counter tops and backs to a greenbelt. Creekwood is close to the schools too.

Eagle Mountain Lake Foreclosures

There are two foreclosures available on the lake. One is in Lake Country, built in 1978, listed for $376,200.
The other one is in Oak Harbor and was built in 1992. It's listed at $400,000. They both have docks.

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

The name is a little misleading. If you haven’t owned a home in the last three years, you may qualify for a tax credit up to $8000. (10% of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.) It's a temporary credit available on a principal residence purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. Unlike last year's tax credit, this tax credit does not have to be repaid if you don’t sell your home for at least three years. Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full credit.

This is a pretty sweet deal. The tax credit combined with low interest rates and a great supply of available homes, both new and preowned make this the perfect time to buy.

Eagle Mountain Foreclosure

There is a foreclosure on the lake! I'm asked about this all the time, but they aren't that common. This one is a doublewide with a dock and a pool, on an acre. List price is $117,900. The lake is down about 5 feet right now. We need some rain! It could be worse, Bridgeport is down about 10 feet.

Highland Oaks - Keller, Texas

1511 Cat Mountain - listed at $186,000.

This is a really great house. Four bedrooms, formal living and dining. All the bedrooms have big closets. The den has new carpet.

New Homes

David Weekley Homes is closing out several neighborhoods in the Fort Worth area. They have some good deals available. One home that's ready and waiting is a four bedroom two and a half bath in Keller ISD. The entry and living room floors are hardwood. Master bedroom has a sitting area, It backs to a farmhouse. The yard faces west and with the huge covered patio and tree line along the backside of the fence, it would be a very usable yard. 

Eagle Mountain Lake Waterfront Homes

Houses on the lake are still moving. 7 homes sold in June, 4 more so far in July, and there are 6 more pending. There are 51 active listings ranging from a condo for $119,000 to a fabulous home on almost 4 acres with a garage apartment, pool, outdoor kitchen, and incredible lake view for $3,500,000.

There's one that would make a great weekend home for $205,000. I still love the one in Oak Harbor for $684,000. It has a 4 car garage, granite counters, pool, boat dock, and great views. There's one in Lake Country for $435,000. It's been on the market a couple of weeks. I haven't seen it yet, but from the pictures, it looks like with a little updating it would be a great house.

Call me if you'd like a list of what's available or if you'd like to take a look at any of these.

Congress Bans Down Payment Assistance Programs

Congress passed a bill today to try to deal with the housing - mortgage problems facing the country. Among the many provisions of the bill designed to help home owners avoid foreclosure and shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a provision to end the down payment assistance programs that have become popular with first time buyers over the last several years.

Seller funded down payment assistance programs popped up when someone figured out that the law allows a charity to provide the 3% down payment required when a buyer finances a home with an FHA mortgage. The seller donates the amount of the down payment to the charity along with an additional fee. The charity pays the down payment, and the buyer moves into the home without having to come up with any money out of their own pocket.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill next week and the down payment assistance ban is set to take affect October 1st, 2008. If you're planning on buying a home using one of these programs, there's still time, but you need to hurry!

Short Sales and Foreclosures, Are We Having Fun Yet?

Short sales and foreclosures can be good investments, but they can take a lot of time and patience. Last month I had a buyer ready to pay cash for a home in the $120,000 to $140,000 range. His lease was up on his apartment at the end of June, so we needed to close on something by about the third week of June. He first contacted me on May 24th, so we had plenty of time... you'd think.

On our first trip to look at homes, he and his fiance wanted to see homes with pools. We looked at about six homes. They loved the last one. It was a fantastic house with five bedrooms and a pool. It was a short sale, meaning the lender would need to approve the sale and agree to take less at closing than was owned on the home.

I called the agent and was told that she had submitted an offer to the bank over two months ago, in March. She was still trying to get the bank to set the price they would accept. She didn't know for sure if that buyer was still interested, but she didn't think so. We submitted an offer but continued to look at homes.

We found another home they really liked. It was a foreclosure. Big house with four bedrooms, a game room, and a media room. All the ceiling fans and doorknobs were missing, but it seemed to be in pretty good shape otherwise. We put in a full price offer. They received 8 offers and the agent informed me that another offer had been accepted. Darn!

We found another foreclosure in the same neighborhood as the short sale, with almost the same floor plan, but no pool. They had just lowered the list price from $159,900 to $120,900. We put in an offer for about $5000 over list price. The bank received 12 offers and chose another.

We were still communicating with the short sale agent and she was still trying to get an answer from the bank. We were into the middle of June by now and panic was setting in. On the 16th of June the agent for the foreclosure with the media room called me to say they were accepting our offer. Woo hoo! Never really found out what happened the week before when they said they had accepted someone else's offer.

Now all we had to do was get all the paperwork ready to close before the end of the month. We were shooting for about June 25th, but the resale certificate from the HOA wasn't received until the 26th, so we closed on Friday the 27th, leaving the buyer 3 days to replace ceiling fans and door knobs and move out of his apartment.

The agent for the short sale with the 5 bedrooms and fantastic pool called me this week to say the bank has said they are willing to accept $137,000 with no buyer concessions. The original buyer has moved on so... if you're interested in this home call me! It's located in the Eagle Mountain - Saginaw school district. This one should go really fast now that the lender is ready to move it.