All Posts Tagged With: "buyer"
Time Winding Down for First-Time Military Borrowers To Get Tax Credits
The government’s landmark tax credit program for first-time home buyers is starting to drift back in focus again as tax day approaches. The unique $8,000 credit for new buyers and $6,500 credit for existing homeowners helped inject stability into the slumping housing market during 2010. Consumers and some industry observers have pushed for a renewal [...]
3Mar2011 | Chris Birk | 0 comments | Continued
1 Million First-Time Home Buyers To Owe IRS
More than a million first-time home buyers are likely to get unfriendly letters from the IRS, brief little notices from Uncle Sam which say we want our money back. A report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration shows that nearly 1.8 million taxpayers filed claims under the government’s First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit [...]
15Sep2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
What’s A Private Transfer Fee In Real Estate?
Usually when we think of a real estate sale we think that the interest of the seller ends with closing. It is, after all, called “closing” for a reason. Now, however, some sellers are trying to maintain a financial interest in a property for decades after it’s been sold, not with a mortgage or a [...]
12Jul2010 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
Real Estate: Could Realty Brokers Have Prevented the Mortgage Meltdown?
Part of the puzzle of the mortgage meltdown has been the role of real estate brokers. Could real estate brokers have done more to prevent home buyers from making inappropriate purchases or using loans which were inherently too risky? The question has now been raised by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. NAEBA surveyed [...]
4Aug2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Can 11,000 Appraisers Be Wrong?
Gee, golly, mention the idea of pressuring appraisers to come up with the “right” valuation numbers and you’re hardly alone. There seem to be a large number of appraisers who have encountered efforts to distort their valuations. Say 11,000 of them. That’s how many signed on at AppraisersPetition.com. And what, exactly, is their beef? As [...]
29Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
How To Pick On Appraisers
Many in the real estate community are upset with the newly implemented Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) and want it suspended or revoked so we can go back to the good-old-says when it was okay to threaten and pressure appraisers. The HVCC was an agreement worked out between New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, [...]
26Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 9 comments | Continued
Making The First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Better — Or Worse?
There is now a new effort on Capitol Hill to increase the first-time buyer credit from $8,000 to $15,000. Under S1230, first-time buyers would be able to get a credit equal to as much as 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $15,000. Not only that, but the time the home would have to [...]
19Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
FHA — Yes (Sort Of) To No Money Down
HUD has come out with new regulations which will allow borrowers to get FHA financing with no money down — but only in very limited circumstances. On May 11th HUD said first-time buyers could use their $8,000 tax credit to fund their FHA downpayment. In effect, borrowers would get a short-term bridge loan that would [...]
1Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
500,000+ Grab First-Time Homebuyer Credit
More than 500,000 buyers have used the first-time homebuyer credit to purchase a home. Amazingly enough, more than 38,000 buyers have already claimed the write-off but do not qualify. Why? In most cases because they owned a home during the past three years. Figures from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration show that a [...]
24Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 1 comment | Continued
Can We See Another Buyer’s Offer For A House?
Question: We made an offer on a home. The broker representing the sellers said a higher offer had been received and asked if we wanted to raise our bid. We declined, but here’s the question: How do we know there was another bid or that it was higher? Answer: One of the most difficult issues [...]
16Mar2009 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
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