Traverse City, MI

FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS

Free Seminar

Bayshore Resort, Traverse City

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Experts will be available to answer all of your questions regarding the First-time Home Buyer Credit.

This new $8,000 credit is part of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The tax credit represents 10 percent of the purchase price of a home up to a maximum of $8,000

For the purpose of this credit, a first time homeowner is defined as one who has not owned a home for the 36 months ending on the date of purchase.

COME LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HOME OWNERSHIP AND VIEW SOME OF THE INVENTORY THAT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI

Michigan State Transfer Tax Exemption

In 1993, the State of Michigan implemented the state real estate transfer tax. When a home is sold in Michigan, there is a transfer tax that must be paid by the seller. This tax is based on the sale price of the home and is equivalent to $7.50 per $1,000 or the sales price on all home sales (unless the transaction is exempted under the statute).

There is a portion of this statue that can potential help some sellers. It has been on the books for years but is only coming to light due to our recent decline of values. If the current owner sells their property and the current assessed value is less then when they purchased the property, they do not have to pay the State Transfer Tax.

This could affect owners that have purchased a property in the top of the market and are now forced to sell at a loss. Since the tax is calculated on the "Sales Price", some due diligence must be done to find out if your seller qualifies for this exemption. This is not the duty of the title company, it is your accountability duty to your client to research this information and find out if they are eligible for the exemption. This could potentially save your client thousands of dollars depending on the price of the home.

This exemption only applies to the STATE tansfer tax. There are NO exceptions to the COUNTY transfer tax.

Christie Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49686

The March of Dimes Mission
To improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. We carry out this mission through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies' lives.

This morning at 8:30 am over 450 registered walkers started their 5 mile "March For Babies". This annual event was held at the Grand Traverse Civic Center. There were many families in attendance that had heart warming stories of how March of Dimes helped them through the challenges of their pre-mature babies early days of live. There were also families in attendance that were walking in memory of their child who did not survive their pre-mature challenges despite the wonderful support provided by March of Dimes.

This event is the largest find raising event that the local March of Dimes Chapter does annually. Many of us do not know the challenges faced during a challenging pregnancy or in the first few critical hours, days and months of a pre-mature baby. Some of these babies weigh less than a pound at birth and go home months later a very healthy baby.

1 in 8 babies are born too soon. Premature birth can happen without warning and for no known reason. Much needed research is done through donations received by the March of Dimes in hopes that someday, we will have better answers to the reasons that some babies are born premature.

If you would like to donate to this wonderful cause, you can visit the web site below to make a donation to a chapter in your area.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/michigan/38394.asp

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.Stalsonburg.com

http://www.stalsonburg.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49684

Traverse City Michigan Real Estate Sales were strong in March and April of 2009! There was reported in TAAR MLS 150 closed homes. Compared with March and April of 2008 that represents approximately a 7% difference. 161 Homes closed in March/April of 2008. Of those 150 Traverse City Mi Homes that closed this year how many were bank owned or reported as Traverse City foreclosures homes? 49 homes were reported as Traverse City bank owned or foreclosures. That means that 33% of the closed homes were foreclosures in Traverse City. For a direct link to see all broker foreclosures in Traverse City MI click here.

In a previous blog, I mentioned the box exchange service that I offer to my clients. The one thing that I forgot to mention was the alternative to those expensive peanut packing products that are out there. If you have not had the opportunity to stop by and price those little jewels, they are quite priceless. They would be a great commercial ad for Mastercard because they are priceless. I cannot even begin to try to rationalize why it costs so much to purchase a bag of Styrofoam peanuts. I suppose it is simple supply and demand. I have found an alternative to packing peanuts.

Most of us have a shredder at home and we can put it to good use for our clients. I recently was packing items in my Arizona home to send out to my home here in Traverse City and ran out of those "wonder peanuts". I went to the local packaging store and just about choked on my words when the clerk told me how much they were going to cost. I immediately went home and ranted to my husband about the incident. His response was "we have a shredder and that ton of newspapers in the garage". Why don't you just shred those and use it for packaging. What wonderful idea. That is just we what we did and it turned out just great. I had all of the packing fill that I needed and it did not cost me dime.

This is something that we can do for our clients. If we have shredders at home, why not shred and package all of our paper into large trash bags to pass on to our clients when they are moving. It makes great fill material and your clients will love you for not having to go to the store to purchase those high priced packing peanuts.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49686