Home > Blogs > Maria Rogers > Maria Rogers's (mariarogers) Blog

Tax Credit Extension Now Helps Sellers Too

By Maria Rogers

Real Estate Agent with Aero City Realty

November 08, 2009 10:50 AM

Some notes from Shawn Bowling at Garden Mortgage (http://www.shawnbowling.com) on the tax credit extension...

As you may already know, the Federal homebuyer tax credit has been extended! Yeeha! Below is the lowdown on the credit:

*Runs from December 1st 2009 through April 30th--(A buyer must be IN CONTRACT by 4-30-09 and will have til July 1, 2010 to close)

*If you have not owned a home in the past 3 years, you're a 1st time homebuyer

*If a buyer has lived in the SAME property for the past 5 years and wish to upgrade, they will qualify for a $6500 tax credit!

*Income limits have been raised--$125,000 for single buyers and $225,000 for married couples

*Purchaser must attach documentation of purchase to the tax return

Re-Blog

Comments(7)

Comment

Show All Comments

Sort:

Vickie McCartney

Maverick Realty - Owensboro, KY

Broker, Real Estate Agent Owensboro KY

Hi Maria~ It is good thing that sellers have some incentives now to make a move too!

Nov 08, 2009 10:54 AM

Fred Doleac

Fred Doleac - Bean Group - Amherst, NH

Real Estate in a Virtual World

Maria - You wrote "*A current homeowner must have the current home sold or being sold while purchasing the new home. Cannot retain the home moving from."

I have not been able to find any information about this requirement. Would you provide a source?

Thank you

Nov 08, 2009 10:41 PM

Mike Saunders

Retired - Athens, GA

Maria - I have the same question as Fred, cannot find this anywhere.

Nov 09, 2009 02:27 AM

Maria Rogers

Aero City Realty - Dayton, OH

Center

It was from an NAR press release which says the seller "must have used the home sold or being sold" as a principal residence, which indicates they have to be selling the previous property or have it sold. I did a search for this on IRS and there is nothing very clear on that site, which doesn't surprise me, so I would suggest that we all check with tax folks but this is the way NAR is explaining it. Hmmm. Let me know if anyone else finds something that says differently. This is sure to come up with sellers who want to rent out their former home and I am going to check into it further.

Nov 09, 2009 03:13 AM

Maria, - Thanks for following up.

Nov 09, 2009 05:00 AM

Maria and Mike - My CPA has received documentation from their IRS service that indicates that an existing homeowner does not have to sell their current home to qualify. This is good news as there are many that do not want to sell (underwater and othe reasons) and would prefer to rent them and sell later.

Nov 11, 2009 11:37 AM

Thanks Fred! I removed that line. I guess I can't blame the NAR for adding their own twist ;-) or prehaps I misunderstood their intention. At any rate I appreciate your follow up- this is good news because it will open it up for more owners of course!

Sellers, take advantage of this! In my area this nearly pays the commission for the sale on average priced home.

Nov 11, 2009 01:22 PM

Tax Credit Extension Now Helps Sellers Too

Comments(7)

Maria Rogers

Real Estate Resources

Recent Posts