Thursday, December 27, 2012

The fiscal cliff is just a few steps away! Are you strapped in and ready for the fall?

As the year winds down, and we count how much we spent for those little gifts there is a dark cloud in Washington D.C. No, no, not rain, not snow, it's the two biggest heads in our nation. I will not mention any names in the hopes that you all can self determine who they are.

Here are a few things that might be useful to remember.

First and most important. We the people have the cards in our favor. What do I mean with this you ask? Only we as consumers decide how, when, where, and why we spend money. This is a very important issue. Since we as consumers own our financial future, only we can start the distraction of our great economy. If you have a job and make money.....spend it. Yes yes I said spend it. Wisely but spend it. If you need shoes buy them, if you need that morning Joe, go get it. I don't want you to think I'm telling you to go out and spend all your savings, but don't change your spending habits because of some over rated issue like this cliff. What's the reasoning behind this? Well it's easy. Listen yes I know our lives were turned upside down over the last few years, but remember we are only going back to the old tax rates. I mean how much is a few bucks less a week any ways. Yes you might say I'm nuts, or that I have gone mad, but that beats the flip side. Sit on our hands and wait for the big heads in DC to save us at the cost of our kids and grand kids.

Second and just as important jump on the phone with your tax consultant. Ask the important questions. The most important is how will falling over the cliff will affect you.
If you are undergoing a Modification or a short sale, you need to find out how any balance forgiveness will harm you. Ask them if there is a way around having to pay taxes on those amounts.

Third I would recommend that if you have a 401 k or something similar, you should talk to a financial advisor ASAP to see if gold is a good option. If you have your money in a unstable market you will most likely not want to run the same risk that you did a few year back. Remember gold is a great way to make sure your future is secure. Silver might be an option as well. So reach out to your financial planner. If you don't have one I can give you a few good guys who can help.

Four Please refer to number 1,2, and 3.

If you have any questions let me know. I'll do my best to help you strap on and get ready for this wild ride that's coming.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

AGENTE EXCLUSIVO DE EDGAR RODRIGUEZ DEL GROUPO DUETO VOSES DEL RANCHO

VDR
Que mas puede pedir uno.  Mi Cliente y Gran amigo Edgar del groupo Dueto Voces Del Rancho me consagro unas buenas palabras por dar buen servicio y attencion. 
Muchas Gracias Edgar.  Como siempre es un placer servir a mis clientes y Amigos

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Porque no se compra su casa?

 

Le he preguntado esta a mucha gente.  La verdad no entiendo la razon que me dan.  Las respuesta mas comunes son:

No tengo pa el down payment.

Mi credito esta un poco danado.

 

Voy a escribir un poco de las dos respuesta porque creo yo que mucha gente no entiende que estos son puntos muy negativos.

El Primer Punto

Asi como estan las cosas hoy en dia en nuestra economia se entiende porque gente piensa esto.  La verdad si es muy bueno cuando uno cuenta con un ahorro.  Este ahorro tipicamente te ayuda sostener economicamente su familia en caso que pase un imprevisto.  Pero uno se tiene que dar cuenta que puede comprar una casa con menos de 1% de enganche.  Eso es muy poco. 

Ahorra usted puede preguntar o especular que estos prestamos son como los prestamos que estaban dando cuando eran muy famoso los fraudes.

NO! Te digo estos prestamos son respaldados por el gobierno.  Son programas que ofrece el FHA para ayudar a gente comprar.  Lo estan haciendo porque hoy en dia los precios estan muy bajos y los intereses estan casi casi regalados.  Antes uno no verificaba nada de informacion.  Ahorra uno tiene que comprobar que uno tiene trabajo y paga sus taxes.  Ya no es como antes que solo si tenia pulso podias comprar.

EL RESULTADO

Hoy puede comprar una casa con tan solo $750.00 de engancho.  WOW uno dice.  Mas bien uno dice que es mentira.  Pero la matematica no miente.  Aqui esta el ejemplo

Casa que vale $150,000.00

Su down payment es de 1/2% (Medio Porciento) es igual a $750.00

Su pago de principal y interes sera de $756.23 por mess (utilizando un interes promedio de 4.5%)

Ahorra si lo piensas bien uno gasta mas en renta que pagando su propia casa.  Hoy en este momento ahi 3 propiedades de venta por menos de los $150,000.00

Digo piensalo bien.  Vale la pena o no?

 

Ahorra para retomar el segundo punto.  Sobre el credito.  Su credito antes era muy importante.  En los anos despues de la derumbe del mercado de Real Estate era muy estricto.  Ahorra estan mucho mas flexibles.

Ahorra les comento que con estos dos pontos aclarados QUE ESPERA EN COMPRAR SU CASA.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Bush tax breaks might be history

The very tax break that is helping our real estate market recover and allowing lenders to work with home owners to avoid getting kicked out of their home is now at risk of ending.

What does that mean for home owners who can no longer pay their mortgage, and are not willing to just give up?

Lets start with the current incentive for home owner to leave their home.

Lets take two major lenders who are paving the way for our market recovery. Bank of America (BofA) and Chase.

Both BofA and Chase started offering a cash on sale incentive above and beyond what the current HAFA incentive can offer. They are offering up to 30 thousand dollars at the close of escrow.

Now lets put this into prospective. You bought a home 4 years ago that you can no longer pay today. You are now forced into a bad situation. You can ride the defaulted loan wave and see where it takes you, or you can take action. When you finaly choose to take action (assuming you choose the correct decision by selling your home) you list your home at a fair market value, and the sale yields a massive loss.

For example

In 2006 you bought a home for $375,000.00 on an adjustable loan. Today your loan adjusted and your payment jumped almost twice of what you were paying. Then you lost your job. You now have to miss payments and since you don't have any money coming in you don't qualify for a modification. Your next step is to sell your home. When you put your home on the market you discover its only worth $210,000.00. So you still have a balance pending.

So this is how you have a short sale. The lender will most likely allow you to sell your home for less than what you owe, and in turn they will send you a tax form for the balance that was not paid called a 1099. The tax form translates to income to you in the IRS's eyes. (MONEY YOU MADE) Now here is where the Bush tax cuts help. If you lived in the home you can currently tell you tax preperer and they can get you out of paying taxes on that fake income. Once you and your agent close escrow you can get a check for up to 30 thousand dollars.

If the Bush tax cuts expire this will change. A client who chooses the correct route and short sells a home they live in they will now have to pay the full tax penalties on the "earned income" or better knowned as the pending balance.

Now depending on how much you normally make in a year this amount will most likely raise your taxable bracket by a few. Resulting in a massive tax hike.

If you are or know someone in this situation please be warned this will affect you/them.

Is there hope? Yes and unfortunately. Its political. The United States Senate and House of Rep. need to compromise, and send a bill to the President's office to be passed. This is easier said then done.

I ask everyone to embrace for a disaster. Here is why, there are so many aspects of the Bush tax cuts and so much government spending that if there is a compromise it would be hard to say if this prevision of the tax cut will survive. Heck its like rolling the dice.

Here are the biggest things to watch according to the way I see things.

1 Watch the president and his position. He wants to raise taxes on the wealthy (over 250k yearly income)
2 The Senate is mostly with this idea so count on strict opposition to anything else of what the presidents wants
3 Please watch the Republican House. I have heard 2 positions first and most unlikely is to allow the tax cuts expire. This will toss us off the so called Fiscal Cliff. It will raise taxes evenly, wealthy and middle class. It will also cut in to our massive government spending.
Another position is to negotiate and compromise with the Senate to come to an agreement.

Now I see a cross road we will have to face. The right offers economically correct choices but are harsh to our global economy. The left offers very comfortable options and increases our dependence on the very ones who pay the most of our tax revenue.

Over all I write this so we can plan ahead. We have to be READY for what ever comes our way. Make plans to negotiate not only with mortgage lenders but to negotiate with the IRS and any other lien holders who you owe money to. Build yourself a power team. A great agent like ME, a great tax advisor, a good IRS negotiator, and a real estate attorney if needed. this way you are covered for all aspects of the outcome.

I will update this as soon as I have more info and hear more bi or uni partisanship projections.