Below is a chart prepared by the National Association of REALTORS ® comparing the new changes to the Homebuyer Tax Credit.
The biggest change is that current Homeowners are now eligible if they sell their current homes and then buy AFTER the date of enactment of this extension which is November 6th, 2009.
Because of widespread incidents of fraud, purchasers must now attach documentation proving they actually bought a qualifying home to qualify for the credit.
Additinally the income guidelines have been increased, now a single taxpayer can qualify if they earn up to $125,000 and up to $225,000 for married taxpayers.
The rationale for increasing the income limits and expanding the credit to existing homeowner is that it should encourage more higher priced home purchases. Currently the existing tax credit was driving mostly lower end purchases.
Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, ACRE, NAR Certified e-PRO Trainer ***************************************************************** Visit my blog: www.KnoxvilleTennesseeRealEstateBlog.com Realty Executives Associates, Knoxville, Tennessee See all Knoxville area Realtor listings at: www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com (865) 693-3232, My Personal Toll Free # 1-800-662-2488 ext. 163 mailto:Jim@JimLee.com
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I believe Joan of Arc and Galileo were officially heretics to the big "ism" in their age. Joan got burned at the stake for it...
ActiveRainism - dogma?
How to write this without going into religion, dogma... I am a fan of ActiveRain. I don't think I practice ActiveRainism but some might... I think ActiveRain is one good way (place?) for the real estate industry to learn about social media, the real estate industry, blogging, technology.
I have been an ActiveRain member since 2006. I have seen lots of members come and go. Some for the next big thing (shiny object), some for their own blog, some back to their own blog... some to play on a cooler real estate blog (geekier, exclusive, classier) some because they are no longer working in the RE industry, some because they got in a snit...
For me that's OK! ActiveRain is not for everyone... just for 164K +/ - in the real estate industry.
ActiveRain is a real estate network.
If you are in a physical class with me and the ActiveRain heresy is uttered you will see steam coming out of my ears... The sentence which when uttered by a real estate guru, educator, RE blogger or a technology know it all... here it is... The ActiveRain heresy is "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents" or maybe "just for talking to other agents"...
ActiveRain heresy - heretics
ActiveRain is NOT a religion... ActiveRain is not a cult. There is no ActiveRain kool aid. Is there?
Endoheretics would be those within?
I am not sure if those who were members but quit in a snit (or just fell away, or are just inactive ActiveRain members) would be endoheretics or exoheretics when they utter the heresy... "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents."
Exoheretics would be those from outside...
I know when I go to a real estate class and the instructor is not a member that they probably don't know what they are talking about. They are exoheretics but I try not to scream "HERETIC" when they utter the phrase "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents"
Fact not everyone likes ActiveRain - that's OK
The sentence which when uttered by a real estate guru, educator, RE blogger or a technology know it all... The ActiveRain heresy "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents"
ActiveRain
You can talk to other agents...
You can also talk to the general public. Google and other search engines can be your megaphone for talking to consumers about real estate, communities. If you need help on how to blog to consumers ask for help.
Your ActiveRain blog? Your choice who you talk to.
Reblogged from my page on www.mioaklandcounty.com and http://mioaklandcounty.realestatetomato.com/
When potential buyers view a house for sale, they need to see rooms presented as they were intended. The master bedroom shouldn’t be an exercise room, the bathroom shouldn’t be a pet station, the garage shouldn’t be a storage unit, and unless you have more than 3 bedrooms, resist the urge to make one an office.
This is especially important when it comes to dining areas. People want to see where they will gather for meals and entertain their loved ones.
I recently staged a 900 sq. ft. house for a client who was using her dining room as office space. As you can see (amongst the considerable clutter), a desk definitely does not belong there. Aside from being the wrong use of the space, it was also the first thing visitors saw when they came in the front door … NOT a good first impression.
After completely clearing out the area , I moved the table and chairs that were overwhelming the small kitchen and created a proper dining room.
Visitors can now see that there is room for a full size table and 4 chairs at the very least. Showing a dedicated dining room, the intended purpose for this space, adds value to this petite house and answers an important question for the buyer.
It looks like the first time home buyer tax credit is being extended and there's also Home Buyer Tax Credit for the rest of you, or a lot of non - first time home buyers.
The bill passed the senate.
The bill passed the house.
The bill needs the presidents signature.
I just saw on Twitter that it has been signed by President Obama.
Home Buyer Tax Credit for the rest of you
Up to $6,500 for move up buyers. If you've lived in your home 5 of the past 8 years...
Home staging is a service some home sellers use to make their home more saleable than the competition. I am not sure how many Central Ohio home owners use home staging to be number one for home buyers but some swear by home staging.
To borrow some old ad from a car rental company... was it Hertz? or Avis? that was number two so they tried harder? How old is that ad?
Sorry.
I first saw staging being #2 on the Michigan real estate blog of my old pal real estate agent Maureen Francis. The post is written by Marianne Sweet of Home Sweet Home Staging in the Detroit Metro area:
Maybe because I had just heard of a new business in Central Ohio - Home Stagers Supply I was more prone to noticing the headline on the miOaklandCounty.com site. Or perhaps I would have noticed it anyway.
Susan of Home Stagers Supply is a brand new member of ActiveRain (a real estate network) I am not sure if Susan will be talking to the general public about the importance of staging, talking to home stagers or talking to Central Ohio Realtors about home staging. Maybe all of it.
I am tuned in.... to whatever Susan has to say.
Home Staging #2
I am not a HomeGain fan (member for a real short time years ago, it was different management, same brand... the HomeGain logo gives me the heebie jeebies... whatever heebie jeebies are) so I hate to even send you there but I was confused by why staging was #2 on the list.
I needed a graph on the HomeGain blog to help me understand the ranking of number 2 is because home staging has the second highest return on home investment. The number of real estate agents recommeding staging is much lower than some of the other recommendations in the HomeGain survey.
There is a graph on the HomeGain site that helps me understand why home staging is number two. The rating is the all important return on investement. The investment is the second best return on investment to cleaning and decluttering your home.
#2 is using an investment of $300.00 for home staging.
Hmmm is $300 enough? Home staging depending on how much help and materials you need may be low.
Marianne Sweet home stager (we are motoring back up to Metro Detroit area top link in the post if you care to come along for the ride.... miOaklandCounty.com blog) says:
"I have already had an agent ask if $300 for Home Staging is realistic. The answer is yes, a $300 Home Staging can make a major improvement in the way an occupied house shows. Call a Home Stager for more details."
Try harder - #2 the point of home staging is to make your home #1
Many, many , many of the other 11 items on the HomeGain list are about home staging...
Columbus is among the cities of course, you can find it on the 12 page list, but here's a quick snippet of Columbus :
Those are " Year over Year Total Visitors" for October, September, August, and July 2009. Traffic on Columbus properties is way higher year over year increases than LA, San Francisco... I would think bigger cities, California cities would be paying lots more attention to home values.
Recently I posted something about Columbus neighborhood values from Zillow on ColumbusBestBlog.com (my main site) and got a comment from "zillowhater."
All of Real Living HER's listings are on Zillow.
Thanks to Sara Bonert from Zillow for providing the information. It is interesting to look at other cities... scroll down the list, but of course Columbus is the most important.
Here are Zillow's local traffic numbers for the month of October. The numbers are down a little this month from our highs in July and August, but this is to be expected as we near the end of the year.
You can also find more traffic information directly on Zillow. If you go to any property on the site, click on Home Info in the left hand column, and scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see that we publish a running traffic count for the home, zip, county, and state for the month.
Also, if you've created a free account on Zillow, we now send periodic traffic updates via email for your specific listings.
Lack of Strategy aka “ActiveRain syndrome”. Some bricks-and-mortar strategies apply to online engagement. In recent years, the ActiveRain blog community established a peer-to-peer social networking model replicated among licensees on other social platforms. Take the First Time Home Buyer Seminar bricks-and-mortar marketing device. Whom does a REALTOR invite? A lender? … home inspector? … and people who are renting! Does a Coldwell Banker REALTOR host invite all the RE/MAX agents in town?
RE people talking to one another? The nerve... aren't they supposed to listen to the teachers and social media gurus who know better?
I believe Frances is saying ActiveRain syndrome has spread to other organizations too...she says:
There are increasing numbers of qualified REALTOR groups where agents can gather and engage … Women’s Council of REALTORS has new groups, CRS and other specialty groups are pages where licensees can gather and share ideas.
Or is she saying those groups are OK to share.
When I first read the 'Dirt Little Secret' post on Facebook I thought the post was blaming ActiveRain for the spread of people in the real estate industry talking to people in the real estate industry. Maybe it is.
Might be ActiveRain Syndrome or it might just a natural reaction... Locally I see a lot of the public relations people and IT people talking to one another too... can't blame that on ActiveRain.
This tendency to talk to one another... to "group with" one another, to help one another is a bad thing?
ActiveRain syndrome don't let it affect your Facebook
All those friends you've added on Facebook? Frances says "Say bye, bye" she wrote: "Choose Friends Wisely/UNfriend Fellow REALTORS. Most REALTORS’ Facebook Friends lists are comprised of fellow REALTORS. REALTORS. Real estate Facebook trainers can share good dialogue for declining Friend requests and UNfriending fellow REALTORS."
So if you go to a class and an educator (that is who Frances is addressing I believe) urges you to UnFriend those in the Real Estate industry....
I have had a clock on my first blog for a long, long time... That site has a 'Time and Temperature' category. It's a category that was inspired by a church in the Worthington area.
Of course we just "fell back" in Ohio on Sunday morning. The whole day light savings time confuses me. Are we on daylight savings time in Ohio now or are we off daylight savings time? Is this "standard" time? Is this EST and during the summer EDT? Or vice versa?
It probably does not matter whether it is EDT, or EST really. I look at a clock and know what time it is NOW. I don't like that it is getting dark at 6:00 PM but I can live with it. What choice do I have?
You hear about kids who are raised with digital clocks who can not tell time. I am not sure I really believe those stories. Legends? ...maybe the reason I don't believe them is because I see a clock and I can read it. I vaguely remember learning "when the big hand is on the...."
There is a count down clock on my website and on Real Living and Real Living HER. It has to do with the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. It may be time to scrap that clock real soon but of course that's a different story and it is all over the news. Will the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit be extended? Looks like it... but maybe not. I'd say "only time will tell" but that's probably one cliche too many for a post about time and clocks.
The working clock here is from ClockLink.com as is the clock that's been ticking on Discover Columbus ( a different blog) since 2006?
Discover Columbus - Time and Temperature
I had to laugh when I went to the home page of ClockLink.com because there is a graph there! And although this post is about "time" ... this post really has more to do with graphs than clocks. The graph on ClockLink.com shows how daily clock views has grown over time.
My Wave account does not yet have the function to invite others. Google says this is the reason:
As soon as we're confident that the system can accept more users, we will add a wave to your account that allows you to nominate friends and colleagues for an account. Once you have the capability to invite people, the wave appear in your inbox.
Meanwhile, if you did get your Wave account, we can practice waving at each other.
I discovered you must add the individual to your contacts list before you can wave with them.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
The ActiveRain heresy...
Columbus Home Sellers - staging #2
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