Indiana

IT'S GOING TO BE A GRRRRRREAT DAY!!!!

11-21-09

Fort Wayne Realtors Jared and Amanda Christiansen

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Office: (260) 436-9700 x304

Mobile: (260) 704-0842
Secondary: (260) 704-0843

I wake up each day thankful for what I have and thankful for the life I live, but some days I just wake up and I know without a doubt that today that:

IT’S GOING TO BE A GRRRRREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!

The sun is shining, I already got my morning hug from my wife (AND SHE ALREADY HAS THE COFFEE MADE!!), my son is on a walk with the new pup, and I have 4 showings with some very fun people.

After my showings I will return to a home that smells like pumpkin pie that my wife is making for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving at her mom’s house and maybe we’ll all watch a movie together.

Oh yeah, I forgot about FOOTBALL too! Man, this day just keeps getting better!!!!!

If you would like to buy or sell a home in Fort Wayne Indiana or in the surrounding communities, please call us at 260-704-0842, email us at ChristiansenTeam@gmail.com, or you may want to visit our website for more specific information on the communities we service.

Relocating to Fort Wayne? Contact us to see how we can help!

Want to know a little more about us? Check out our Facebook fan page HERE or GOOGLE US!!

Fort Wayne Realtors Jared and Amanda Christiansen

FORT WAYNE HOMES FOR SALE

The Christiansen Team

WE work, YOU win!!

4 Comments

Both Santa and The Scrooge Showed Up In My Tax Bill

11-20-09

James K Barath, CMPS - Serving Northwest Indiana

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Office: (219) 926-1600 x1

Mobile: (707) 722-7284

Tax Bill | iStockphoto.com As a Certified Mortgage Planner in Northwest Indiana, I have had numerous calls over the past several months in regards to property tax bills. The main reason for the calls are due to a reassessment process that has created delays since 2005.

Our normal cycle for property tax bills in the state of Indiana is for the 1st installment to be due in May and the 2nd installment to be due in November. Both installments are exactly half of the bill.

Our state property taxes are a little unusual in regards to the fact that they are always paid in arrears. For example, the 2007 property taxes owed were not paid until the calendar year 2008.

This year there was even a longer delay due to new state legislation that had been passed and new calculations on reassessed townships. Instead of our normal split bills, residents of Porter County Indiana began to receive our one and only property tax bill for the entire year earlier this month. I personally received my property tax bill this past Tuesday.

There was good news and bad news. The good news is that many like myself will see their property tax bills go down due to property tax caps that went effective this year. The bad news is that the entire amount owed is due by Friday, December 4th.

Happy Holidays! Both Santa and The Scrooge Showed Up In My Tax Bill.

1 Comment

VU Team rallies to Win Home Opener After Miserable Start...

11-20-09

Jeff & Grace Safrin, Broker / Owners, Northwest Indiana

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Office: (219) 309-9930

Mobile: (219) 405-1232

After the first 20 minutes of the V.U. Crusaders vs IU South Bend Titans game, I sat wondering how was it even remotely possible that the Crusaders came within 11 points of 6th Ranked North Carolina only a few days earlier? They were missing shots, they were sluggish, they were out rebounded, outplayed, & out scored in every area of the game. (Let's give some credit to the Titans).

In my previous years of watching Valpo play, they had times as a slow starting 2nd half team. After a 10-4 spurt, the Crusaders were down 43-34 and I was thinking "uh-oh". During a time out, I turned to the friends behind me and my wife and said "McPherson is a 5th Year Senior, he needs to step up & take control of this game and team with leadership" .....and he did!!!

Valpo went on a 21-0 run! It all started with Howard Little and Eric Buggs defense to start the 2nd half ! This combined with one of the most impressive 3 point shooting bonanza I have ever seen by Brandon McPherson. Having season tickets in the front row, it was an absolute treat to see him right in front of me knocking down 3pointers... 4 in a row! It was as though the basket was 10ft wide:) Whatever he threw-up, WENT IN! Brandon ended the game with a career high of 25pts.

Valpo won the game final score = 78-56.

This is a young team and there are 2 players that, in my opinion, will need to step it up and be the Leaders - McPherson and Little. Both these guys are very solid players and with their leadership and hard play as examples, Valpo may just have a pretty good year !

Editorial By Jeff Safrin

3 Comments

Did you buy a home in Indiana this year?

11-20-09

Bob Murphy

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Office: (812) 282-7600

Mobile: (502) 773-2564
Secondary: (812) 282-7010

Did you buy a home in Indiana this year?

Have you filed for your tax exemptions if you did? IN INdiana you have the benefit of a tax break on property taxes if you file for certain exemptions.

The typical exemptions that nearly everyone qualifies for are "The Homestead Exemption" and "The Mortgage Exemption".

You qualify for "The Homestead Exemption" if the home is your primary place of residence.

You qualify for "The Mortgage Exemption" if you have a current mortgage on your home. This one is very interesting because you don't necessarily have to have a balance on your mortgage to qualify for the exemption. Many homeowners take out an equity line on their home when they don't have another mortgage, just to qualify for this exemption.

The tax savings can amount to a large sum of money. The exemption amount is taken off the assessed value of the property before the property taxes are applied to the home. Many homeowners reduce the value of their home for tax purposes by as much as $48,000.00.

A couple things you should know about these exemptions:

1) If you bought your home in 2009 you have until December 31, 2009 to file for the exemptions to have them apply in the following year.

2) If you refinance your home you must re-file for the Mortgage exemption.

It is easy to file. Take a phto ID (Drivers License) and your property address to the Auditors office in the county in which you are filing. Simply let the Auditor know you want to file for your exemptions. The clerks in the office will walk you through this process. It takes about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes there is a small fee (Like $1.00) charged by the Auditor to process your filing.

Once you file KEEP YOUR RECEIPT. It is the only proof you have that you did indeed file.

If you have questions about filing your tax exemptions in Indiana please give me, Bob Murphy, a call at 502-773-2564 or you can email me at Bob.Murphy@RealLiving.com

If you are in the market to buy or cell a home in Indiana or Kentucky I am licensed in both states.

Want to see my listings? Visit http://www.RealLiving.com/Bob.Murphy

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Experienced REALTORS each Bring something of Value to the Table.....

11-20-09

Jeff & Grace Safrin, Broker / Owners, Northwest Indiana

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Office: (219) 309-9930

Mobile: (219) 405-1232

This week some of our Experienced REALTORS of F.C.Tucker 1st Team Real Estate got together for several events!

One was Virtual REBar Camp - some attended online from the comfort of their home, while a few of us went to our local Board of REALTORS in Merrillville, IN ( GNIAR ) and watched the informative break out sessions hosted there!

The information shared at this event was awesome. We all learned much to implement into business building that will benefit our clients! I am refreshed by the willingness of our TEAM to learn, grow and change with the times and embrace the new social media avenues!

The very next day we held our monthly F.C.Tucker 1st Team Real Estate Round Table Event locally in the conference room @ Evelyn Bay Coffee Co. in Valpo. This is an event we look forward to montly as everyone brings something of value to the table!

If you remember last month - we all got LinkedIn :) feel free to link to us!

This month beside discussing the many of the latest REal Estate Topics i.e. The Local Market Statistics in Lake, Porter and La Porte Counties in NW Indiana, The Expanded and Extended Home Buyer Tax credits and local development issues and much more, - we also each wanted to share our Facebook Pages - so feel free to befriend us - just click on the name below to go to their Facebook Page!

Olga Kwolek, Ty Gammon, Linda Littlejohn, Grace Safrin all expereinced REALTORS with F.C.Tucker 1st Team Real Estate serving NW Indiana