Irvine, CA

Who Qualifies for the Home Buyer Tax Credit in Irvine California?

• First-time home buyers who purchase homes between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.
  
• Current home owners can qualify for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit by purchasing a home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, who have used the home being sold or vacated as a principal residence for five consecutive years within the last eight.

To qualify as a "first time home buyer tax credit" the purchaser or his/her spouse may not have owned a residence during the three years prior to the purchase.

Which Properties Are Eligible for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit?

The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit may be applied to primary residences, including: single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops.

How Much Is Available?

The maximum allowable credit for first-time home buyers is $8,000.

The maximum allowable credit for current homeowners is $6,500.

How is a First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Amount Determined?

Each first time home buyer tax credit is determined by two additional factors:

1. The price of the home.
2. The buyer's income.

Price

Under the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, credit may only be awarded on homes purchased for $800,000 or less.

Buyer Income

Under the First time Home Buyer Tax Credit, which is effective on November 7, 2009, single buyers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000-may receive the maximum tax credit.

If the Buyer(s)' Income Exceeds These Limits, Can He/She Still Get a First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit?

Yes, some buyers may still be eligible for the First time Home Buyer Tax credit.

The Home Buyer Tax Credit decreases for buyers who earn between $125,000 and $145,000 for single buyers and between $225,000 and $245,000 for home buyers filing jointly. The amount of the Home Buyer Tax Credit decreases as his/her income approaches the maximum limit. Home buyers earning more than the maximum qualifying income-over $145,000 for singles and over $245,000 for couples are not eligible for the credit.

What if I am interested in doing a short sale?

Can a Buyer Still Qualify for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit If He/She Closes After April 30, 2010?

Under the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, as long as a written binding contract to purchase is in effect on April 30, 2010, the purchaser will have until July 1, 2010 to close.

Will the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Need to Be Repaid?

No. The buyer does not need to repay the Home Buyer Tax Credit, if he/she occupies the home for three years or more. However, if the property is sold during this three-year period, the full amount credit will be recouped on the sale.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit information Irvine California

With the recently changed FHA rules for condo financing, it has become a little more difficult for Orange County first time home buyers wanting to buy a condo. FHA recently made big changes to the condo approval process while at the same time eliminating the Spot Approval program.

First, a little background information on FHA financing and condo's. FHA has, for many years, required that condo projects be "approved" before allowing financing within the project. In the 70's and 80's, and even the early 90's, when a project was being built, the builder pay the expense of getting the new project approved, thus making it easier to sell the finished condo's to homebuyers wanting to use FHA financing. Most condo projects in Orange County were approved and it was rarely a concern that a project would not be approved. In the late 90's and for most of the last 10 years up until 2008, the Orange County FHA loan limits failed to keep up with property values, and alternative loan products allowing high loan to values and very easy qualifying took the place of the FHA loan program. In 2007, along with the collapse of the Mortgage Backed Securities market and the elimination of the easy qualifying program, the FHA program suddenly became viable again.

The only problem was that most newer condo projects had never been FHA approved, and even some of the older projects that had been approved and lost their approvals as a result of either a lawsuit against the Homeowners Association, high investor ownerships percentages, among other reason.

The Spot Approval Program

The FHA Spot Approval program did become popular in Orange County, CA in 2008 once FHA increased the loan limits from $362,790 to $729,750. Suddenly, almost every condo in Orange County fit within the FHA loan limits. The Spot Approval program allowed an individual unit to be financed even if the project was not FHA approved, provided certain conditions were met. Now, effective February 1, 2010, the Spot Approval program has been eliminated. This means that projects that are not FHA approved will lose out on a large segment of home buyers (almost anyone with less than 20% down, except for VA buyers, based on current lending guidelines), which will surely affect the projects property value.

New FHA Condo Approval Guidelines for 2010

On June 12, 2009, FHA issued Mortgagee Letter 2009-19, which gave the new guidelines for approval along with the method's used for approval, called DELRAP and HRAP. The guidelines were supposed to go into effect on October 1, 2009, but FHA delayed it until Dec 7. DELRAP (Direct Endorsement Lender Review and Approval Process) and HRAP (HUD Review & Approval Process) are now the method used for getting projects approved. The DELRAP process allows for a Direct Endorsed FHA lender to approve a condo project. However, there is a huge liability for the lender if it ever turns out that the project should not have been approved. For this reason, HRAP will most likely be the most commonly used condo approval process. A complete condo package will need to be put together and sent to HUD for approval. The length of time required to get a project approved will vary from region to region, but plan for 15 to 30 days from the day the condo package is sent to HUD.

How To Find FHA Approved Condo Projects in Orange County

The quickest way to find out if a condo project is FHA approved is to go to the HUD website and use the condo lookup tool. Choose the HRAP/DELRAP Approval method, and then narrow down the search by choosing state, city, and/or zip code. Projects that were approved prior to October 1, 2008, which will be nearly all projects in Orange County, will need to be "recertified", most likely through the HRAP method.

**Interesting thing going on right now. Orange County VA loan home buyerscan still use the VA approved list without having to deal with recertification. VA continues to have their own list.

Orange County real estate agents with listings in condo projects should contact the Homeowners Association to have them work on getting their project either recertified or approved. There are companies that specialize in helping association management companies take care of the approval and/or recertification process that should be consulted at the very least.

These changes will lengthen escrow closings, but shouldn't keep first time home buyers from purchasing a condo. Of course, the first thing a prospective Orange County home buyer should do is get prequalified for a mortgage. A loan officer can provide loan scenarios that will take into account a home buyers qualification, payment comfort level, and estimated HOA dues if they are thinking of purchasing a condo.

Authored by Tim Storm, an Orange County, CA Loan Officer - Please contact my office at Frost Mortgage Lending Group for more information about an Orange County, CA home loan. 877-786-4243 x 7.

www.OCFHALoans.com

Contact us for your Orange County FHA Mortgage:

Call our office today and see how we can help you and your family. Ask for your Free First Time Home Buyer Report.

877.786.4243 x 7 | tstorm (at) ochomebuyerloans.com

*Licensed by Department of Corporations under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. PRMI Branch License 813F487.

Irvine Company bet that there was an appetite for new homes and it has paid off and they are now their program speeds up the home building. They bet that new homes would have an appeal in this market and 70 new homes were sold before Saturday's grand opening of two new comunities in Woodbury and Woodbury East neighborhoods. They believe that with just 10 days they could hit 100 new homes sold.

In the whole of Orange County the DataQuick reported an average of 124 new home sales a month. The Irvine Company got off to a very quick start last Saturday. The response was so good that they were forced to speed up the new home building.

The Irvine Company is funding the construction of the homes with the builders concentrating on building and selling the homes.

If you wanted to know more or want to go see these and other homes the Irvine Company and their builders are creating contact me.

Are you ready for a rule that’s important both in business and life? You may not be a big fan of numbers but file this one away in the grey matter. It’s called The 80/20 Rule and goes like this: 80% of your outcomes result from 20% of your inputs.

That’s sort of a janky way to say the following:

1. If you’re a businessman, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.

2. Apply this to life and you’ve got 20% of your activities provide 80% of your happiness.

Of course, the ratio isn’t always an exact 80/20 but the big idea is that most of your happiness/sales/whatever come from a much smaller minority of customers/activities/whatever.

What can you learn from this?

If you’re an internet marketer or interested in work-at-home businesses, make it a top priority to keep your best customers happy and always, ALWAYS try to sell them something else. There’s a good chance they’ll buy it. They’ve already proven they like what you’re doing with their loyal patronage.

This means it is absolutely crucial to your business success that you figure out how to determine which are the prized 20% customers. Look at your sales stats and line them up with a face or name. Create a separate mailing list comprised only of these customers and play it up big. Have a great sale just for them.

You get the idea?

For more free business, real estate investment, and internet marketing advice, visit http://jasonhartman.com/radioshows/.

Or sign up for my free CD http://jasonhartman.com/freecd/.

Are you ready for a rule that’s important both in business and life? You may not be a big fan of numbers but file this one away in the grey matter. It’s called The 80/20 Rule and goes like this: 80% of your outcomes result from 20% of your inputs.

That’s sort of a janky way to say the following:

1. If you’re a businessman, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.

2. Apply this to life and you’ve got 20% of your activities provide 80% of your happiness.

Of course, the ratio isn’t always an exact 80/20 but the big idea is that most of your happiness/sales/whatever come from a much smaller minority of customers/activities/whatever.

What can you learn from this?

If you’re an internet marketer or interested in work-at-home businesses, make it a top priority to keep your best customers happy and always, ALWAYS try to sell them something else. There’s a good chance they’ll buy it. They’ve already proven they like what you’re doing with their loyal patronage.

This means it is absolutely crucial to your business success that you figure out how to determine which are the prized 20% customers. Look at your sales stats and line them up with a face or name. Create a separate mailing list comprised only of these customers and play it up big. Have a great sale just for them.

You get the idea?

For more free business, real estate investment, and internet marketing advice, visit http://jasonhartman.com/radioshows/.

Or sign up for my free CD http://jasonhartman.com/freecd/.