Qualifying for the Homebuyers Tax Credit - Expires April 2010

More Home buyers Qualify for Tax Credit

For additional information visit Metrovisions Realty, Inc. on the web or come to our office in Johnsburg, IL.

Ann Arbor, MI November 6, 2009 – Congress just passed an expanded version of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit that was set to expire on November 30. “The new version of the tax credit has the potential to stimulate the housing market even more than the old version due to the fact that more people will qualify under the new rules,” said Gibran Nicholas, Chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “Although the tax credit remains at $8,000 for home buyers that have not owned a primary residence in the last three years, it has been expanded to include a $6,500 tax credit for home buyers that have lived in their current primary residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years. Under the old rules, move-up home buyers did not qualify.” Consider these three examples:

Example 1:
Jane purchased a home in Johnsburg, Illinois in 2002, lived there for 5 years as her primary home, moved out in 2007, and turned that home into a rental property. If Jane decides to buy a new primary residence in McHenry today, she would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she lived in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 2:
Harry purchased a home in McCullom Lake in 2004, and lived there for the past 5 years as his primary home. If Harry decides to buy a new primary residence in Fox Lake today, he would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that he lived in the same residence as his primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

Example 3:
Nicole purchased a home in Round Lake Beach in 2006, and lived there for the past 3 years as her primary home. If Nicole decides to buy a new primary residence in Waukegan today, she would not qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she did not live in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.

The tax credit applies to homes purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. “If you sign a binding contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010,” Nicholas said. “It works kind of like a gift certificate that can be redeemed for cash. You simply file a form with the IRS right after you buy your home, and the IRS will send you a check for the full amount of your credit.”

The income limitation for single tax payers went up from $75,000 under the old rules to $125,000 under the new rules. For married tax payers, the income limitation went up from $150,000 to $225,000. “This means that more people will qualify for the credit – especially in parts of the country with higher costs of living,” Nicholas said. “This should help stimulate parts of the housing market that may not have been impacted by the old version of the credit.”

There are many creative ways of structuring your home purchase transaction in ways that maximize the benefits of the credit. Here are a few examples:

· The credit applies to 1-4 unit homes as long as you live in one of the units as your primary residence – you could live in one unit and rent out the others. Go to www.metrovisions.com right now to set up a search for your income property now!

· If two unmarried individuals buy a home, and only one of the individuals qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit. (Note: In the case of married couples, both spouses must qualify for the credit.)

· The credit applies even if you have co-signers on your mortgage loan.

Visit www.metrovisions.com today or call Carolyn at 815-669-4944 to have a home buyers search set up specifically for you and what you are looking for. You specify what you are looking for, and Carolyn will send you a daily report of houses for sale in the areas you are looking for. When you see something you like, call Carolyn at 815-669-4944 and set up an appointment to look at the property. Remember, it is important you act quickly, this credit expires in April of 2010! From Richmond to Crystal Lake and Zion to Buffalo Grove, Metrovisions Realty, Inc. has a professional real estate agent ready to help you buy the house of your dreams!

Foreclosure in McHenry County, Illinois

I'm sure that you may have been hearing "foreclosures are on a decline" lately.....and this may be true, but there are signs that is it not true as well.

Check out Metrovisions Realty, Inc. on the web.

Everyone has theories about how this financial meltdown started, some blame it on people who should never have been able to get loans in the first place defaulting. Some blame it on greedy banks, others will say that it is because of lazy people who don't want to work but want to have everything working people have. So what is the truth? It could be each of these things, a combination of all.

The government, in 2002, started with this speech:

http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm

This 2002 speech started the beginning of low down payments, tax credits to make the houses more affordable, and the rules are too strict so lets make that more lax. People who qualify will not have to save the money to come up with a down payment, the government will supply it. And by 2010 we will have 5.5 million homeowners.

It is 2010. In just the first half of 2009 there were a reported 1.5 million foreclosures.

The present administration is trying to help these people losing their homes. If you haven't lost your job and can still make your payments they will help you to refinance at a lower rate for a period of time. This has helped many people lower their mortgage payment to a more reasonable rate so they have more money to live on during the month. If enough people do this it will help to free up some money for people to spend.

Banks do not want to have to report to the government how high their foreclosure rates are right now, so the banks are holding off on some of the people who are not paying. This keeps the banks numbers low and the government off their back. How long can this last? The banks are not going to be able to let homeowners stay with out paying forever.

If you are in foreclosure, you should seriously consider selling your house. Yes, when you are in foreclosure you CAN sell your house. If you owe more to the bank than your house is worth you can do a short sale, in which case the bank accepts less than you owe to sell the property. The bank allows the costs of selling to be absorbed into the sale, so no money will come from the homeowner. The banks usually do not ask for anything, but in rare cases if the homeowners are in foreclosure and can afford the payments, the bank may ask for an agreed amount to be paid back to them.

Pricing your property at the same price as similar homes in the area are selling for is essential to getting an offer on your property. This may be significantly lower than you owe on the property, but if the price is not comparable to what has been selling no one will even look at your house.

Once an offer is made on your property, then the work begins. The bank will need paperwork from the homeowner, as well as documents and letters showing the reasons behind the foreclosure. Once this is provided to the bank they begin crunching numbers and deciding what they will be willing to accept to pay off the loan.

The best thing to do sometimes has to be to cut your losses and move on. A very difficult thing to do, but well worth it in the end.

2010 Census

It's time for the 2010 Census! You will start receiving them in the mail in March, and as I'm sure you are hearing from just about everyone.....it's important to fill it out and send it in!

There are 10 questions and it comes with a postage-paid envelope to send it back. If you do not send it in, you will receive a visit from a census worker. Your responses are strictly confidential and protected by law. The 2010 Census will not be released for 70 years, and how wonderful it will be for your grand-children or great-grandchildren to look at the 2010 Census and see your name!

The previous census work has proved invaluable to genealogy research. It has helped people to find long lost relatives and lines of family that have not been in contact.

The state and federal government distributes funds based on the population calculated off the census, so you can see how important this will be to all of our communities. These funds help provide for our schools, transportation, healthcare, housing, and much more!

If you do not receive a census form please call 1-866-872-6868.

If you have any questions or for more information please visit www.2010.census.gov

Visit our website at www.metrovisions.com to start a search for homes for sale. Our agents will work hard for you to find the house that suits you, and nothing is more exciting than walking into a house that you know is where you want to call home.

Our agents work in all of McHenry and Lake counties. From Zion, Winthrop Harbor, Waukegan, North Chicago, Round Lake, Grayslake, to Hebron, Woodstock, Crystal Lake, McHenry, Johnsburg, Island Lake, Bull Valley, Marengo, and everywhere in between, if you are looking to buy a house we will help you find it!

If you purchase a house before April 30th 2010 you may qualify for tax credit!!! Call us today at 815-669-4944 for more details.

Buy a Bank Owned property in the snow!

How much snow is there where you are? In Johnsburg there isn't that much snow yet! In Lincolnshire I have heard there is more snow than here.

We were out looking at houses today, which is a difficult thing to do with lots of snow on the ground. The bank owned properties are rarely shoveled, but we'll bring a shovel to shovel our way in if we have to!

When you are ready to buy a house, no amount of snow should stop you, especially right now, when you can get government tax credits. If you have the means to buy a house you should start looking for a house right now, today. Go to our website and sign up for a free search that will email you houses based on your self set criteria.

Spring Grove, IL buy - sell my home or house

Metrovisions Realty, Inc. is offering a free gift $100 card to Home Depot when you purchase your home through us. This offer expires June 2010.

List your home, house, land or real estate with us on the MLS and recieve a 15% discount on your sales commission call us at 815-669-4944 for details.

Did you know that a first time home buyer can get up to a $8,000.00 credit for buying a home before June 31, 2010? First time home buyer mean that you have not bought or owned a home for 3 years.

For more information visit us on the web at Metrovisions Realty, Inc. or come to our office in Johnsburg, IL

Sping Grove, Richmond, McHenry, Fox Lake, Round Lake, Grayslake, Wood Stock, Crystal Lake, Ingleside, Lake Villa, Antioch, Holiday Hill, Lake in the Hills, Gurnee, Volo, Cages Lake, and Island Lake.

Steps of doing a short sale!

Step 1 – Get Educated

You need to know your options when it comes to your home. If you want to keep your house, but can’t make the payments and you owe more than your home is worth, you may look into filing bankruptcy. This will stay the foreclosure process (not forever) and may allow you to stay in your home and repay your lender under different terms.

Deed in Lieu

If you owe more than the home is worth, this is not an option for you. Deed in Lieu means that you give up the house to the bank and walk away. Ie, you give up the deed instead of facing foreclosure.

Short Sale

If you owe more than your home is worth, and don’t want to declare bankruptcy or face foreclosure, then a short sale of your home is the best option. A short sale does have potential tax implications.

Step 2 – Get Some Help

This is probably the biggest tip I would give to people who want to sell their home in a short sale. FIND AN EXPERIENCED REAL ESTATE AGENT WHO HAS DONE A SHORT SALE BEFORE. Your real estate agent will be able to deal and negotiate with the mortgage company(ies) on your behalf. An experienced short sale agent will give you a much better chance of successfully short selling your home.

Because there is often so many different entities involved in a mortgage (1st mortgage, 2nd mortgage, the investor on the loan, etc) you really don’t want to do this on your own, with no experience. Plus, you’ll never have any out of pocket expenses to pay an agent, as everything is essentially paid by the lender.

WARNING! Just because an agent says they specialize in “short sales” does not mean they have actually successfully done one! There are many classes agents attend regarding short sales, but nothing compares to real world experience.

Step 3 – Get Started Now

The longer you wait to get started with the short sale process the less chance you have of success. Every state is different with their foreclosure process. You need to decide quickly to start the short sale process if you’re getting behind on your payments, or have already received a notice of default.

Step 4 – Follow Instructions Exactly

An experienced short sale agent will tell you what you need to do to get the house ready to sell. Don’t get too hung up about the price. If the agent wants to set a low price on the house, there is a reason behind that.

In my own short sale, we priced the house pretty low and got an offer very quickly. You need a buyer that is willing to stick around for a super long closing or changes to the agreement. In my case, it took almost 4 months from when we got the offer to when the closing took place. Don’t get hung up about the price, all you should care about is getting the place sold.

Step 5 – Know The Tax Implications

Congress recently passed and the president signed a law that likely releases you from any tax implications of a short sale.

Talk to a qualified tax attorney or CPA about this for your particular situation. Your real estate agent should know about this! A good agent will have a quality referral for you to handle the tax implications of your short sale.

Step 6 – Prepare to move quickly

Because your closing date may not be set in stone, you need to be prepared to leave your home quickly if needed. You do not want to end up like me and live in your office for 2 months! Trust me, it’s not fun!

A minimalist lifestyle is nothing to be ashamed of; in fact it should be venerated. Your possessions are just inanimate things; it’s the relationships in your life that really matter. OK, enough life advice! Sell anything you don’t need or haven’t used in the last 6 months on craigslist! The less you have to deal with on moving day the better.

Step 7 – Prepare yourself emotionally

If you are already in default, or have a foreclosure pending, this whole scenario and process of trying to short sell your home can be very emotionally draining.

You will receive solicitations from everyone and their mother. You may have people stop by your home while you are still there. It can be a very difficult process.

Make sure you have people in your life to talk to about your situation. You will need a support network to help through this time in your life. It will pass. And you are being proactive in seeking a short sale of your home. You are taking the right steps, and in time, everything will work out. I can’t promise it will be easy, but you will make it!

You Need An Experienced Short Sale Agent!

Home Buyer Credit Extended

November 1, 2009

For more information or questions regarding how to get this credit visit us at http://www.metrovisions.com

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to extend unemployment benefits for an additional 14 weeks, 20 in some of the hardest hit areas. Under the measure, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers will be extended and expanded to current homeowners.

Folks across the U.S. who are running out of unemployment benefits and those who need an extra incentive to move into a home could get it very soon.

In a vote of 403 to 12, the House passed a measure to extend the home buyer tax credit. Cara Wilkerson with The Charlotte John Company says, "I have a lot of buyers out there excited about the news."

First-time home buyers have been getting an $8,000 tax credit since January as part of the economic stimulus package, but the program was set to expire in November.

The vote Thursday will extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. She continues, "They've added a $6,500 incentive to sellers who have been in their homes for at least five years. When they sell and buy new homes, they can take advantage of that."

First-time buyers and those who haven't owned a home in the last three years will still get the $8,000 tax credit. To qualify, you must close on the house by June 30th.

"Houses are moving pretty quickly," Wilkerson says families of all economic levels can now cash in and the tax credit will continue to help maintain and create jobs as the economy returns.

"The Little Rock real estate market has been pretty stable over the past year, so this tax credit has just been an extra boost to our economy," Wilkerson concludes.



And that stability and extra boost means more open houses to take a look at if you're in the market to buy.

The bill now heads to President Obama who is expected to sign it.



Although people have been examining the pros and cons of extending the home buyer tax credit, legislators' main focus is to help the millions of unemployed Americans looking for work.



The national unemployment rate comes out Friday; that figure is expected to reach close to 10 percent, possibly reaching a 26-year high.