Dale Weir

The Veterans Administration had provided some extra help for Veterans and military members who may be having problems with their mortgages. The first thing a veteran or military member should do is contact the VA at 877-827-3702 or http://www.homeloans.va.gov/ and talk with a counselor. Their options include:

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act - to qualify for this program, the military member has to have gotten the mortgage prior to the current period of active duty service. The program can provide a lower interest rate for up to ONE year and can provide forbearance, or prevent foreclosure or eviction up to 9 months from the period of military service

If the military member or Veteran has a VA Loan, it is VERY important to remember that the VA guarantees the loan. If the member defaults, they will lose their VA loan eligibility up to the amount that the bank loses and the VA covers, but the bank CAN NOT go back against them if they accept the VA payout!! The VA WILL work with the veteran or military member and the bank to explore all options first, before the home is foreclosed on - Call 877-827-3702 for help.

If the military member or Veteran has a NON-VA loan, (ie a conventional or sub-prime loan) the VA can offer guidance and advice, but they cannot legally intercede on the veteran's behalf. The Veteran or military member CAN however, refinance their loan to a VA loan as a result of the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2008 which was signed into law on Oct 10, 2008. Veterans can refinance up to 100% of the value of the property now (previously they could only refinance up to 90%).

The HOPE NOW alliance is also available to help veterans if the VA cannot help them. They can be reached at 888-995-4673 or www.hopenow.com

Spot surveys have been the norm in the St Louis area for many years. They were cheaper. The title coverage was not quite as great, but it wasn't significantly different, so why bother paying for a boundary survey which would be at least a $100 more? A few months ago the primary title companies in the area started insisting on boundary surveys before providing survey coverage to the buyers. Yesterday I got the results back on a villa in a very nice area. We had 6 encroachments that the seller is now going to have to pay to have fixed. That's $30 a pop for each of the six encroachments just to record the paperwork with the county. That's time and trouble to go to each of the neighbors AND the villa's trustees and management company to get them to sign off and approve easements for the encroachments AND if the people who are being encroached upon don't agree, then a lot of money is going to have to be paid to move the entire perimeter fence for the villa. That's the potential of having to pay the title company $150 (approximately) to draft an easement deed for each encroachment - luckily the title company we are dealing with no longer charges that fee, but many still do. Why are we making the seller do the work now? I represent the buyer - the rules and regs for the complex clearly state that the owner can be fined if their fence is on someone else's property AND when the property next door is sold, the new buyers can make the fence be moved at that time, which would then be at my buyer's expense. I'm not protecting my buyer if I take the attitude that everyone is OK with the situation now, since we then run the risk that the full cost would be against my buyer at a later time. The cost to the seller now - FAR more than the cost of a boundary survey originally when he could have had the person he bought from fix the problems and pay the costs that he will now pay. - A penny saved - a pound foolish. Always make sure that the survey's are checked - it's a good idea also to take the survey and go back to the home and look at the lot with the survey in hand. I have one now where the surveyor put in writing that there were no visible encroachments but I can stand in the street, look at the stakes and pins and see what sppears to be an encroachment, so I've got a call into that surveyor to ask why that isn't an encroachment.

It's that season again - time to get the freshest produce available at the wonderful farmers' markets in our area. This year we have some new ones opening up and there are more that are in the planning stages as I write this so keep checking as I'll add to the list as I find out about them.

Sundays - Defiance, Kirkwood and Pevely

Monday - Kirkwood

Tuesday - Jerseyville, Kirkwood

Weds - Columbia IL, Farmington, Kirkwood, Maplewood, Potosi, Soulard, Washington MO

Thursday - Carlyle, Downtown St Louis, Ellisville, Highland, Kirkwood, Soulard, U City, Wash U, Webster Groves, Wood River

Friday - Kirkwood, Soulard, U City

Saturdays - Alton, Belleville, Clayton, DeSoto, Edwardsville, Farmington, Ferguson, Foristell, Kirkwood, Mascoutah, O'Fallon MO, Overland, Pevely, Potosi, St Charles, Silex, Soulard, Tower Grove, Troy, U City, Washington MO, Waterloo IL, Wentzville, Wildwood

The county extension departments are working to open up other farmers markets as well -

Jilly's restaurant in High Ridge (a great place to eat by the way) is also planning one in their parking lot

We live with our children every day and as a result, we don’t see the small daily changes that a grandmother who only sees them a few times a year sees when she visits. Homes are like that – we live in them every day and as they age and start to creak and have issues we often don’t see them because we’ve watched the gradual transformation. We only notice it when something stops working or when someone comes in from outside and with a “new eye” calls our attention to it. I just closed on a very pretty home, BUT. The sellers had been in the home for almost 30 years. During that time they had upgraded the kitchen and one bathroom. They had done things to the home to make it work for their family, but they had ignored things that didn’t “bother them”. As a result the building inspection and the municipal inspection came as real shocks to them.

The husband had switched out some electrical outlets and light switches over the years. The home has aluminum wiring. He apparently went to the hardware store and picked up switches and outlets without making sure that they were CO/ALR and could be used with aluminum wiring - $8000 bid just to check every outlet and switch in the home to see which ones were done correctly and which ones were done incorrectly BEFORE the electrician fixed the ones that were done incorrectly, not to mention the fire hazard they has been living with all these years.

The children are grown and gone so they seldom went to the basement – as a result they hadn’t noticed that the plumbing stack had reached the point where it was leaking.

The gas furnace had 3 leaks and the flu liner was so corroded that it was leaking – the gas leaks you couldn’t see, but the flu liner corrosion could be seen. Add the gas leaks in the house to the electrical problem caused by the wrong switches and outlets and you have a much larger problem.

Codes change over the years, and the codes that the home met when they bought it, aren’t the codes that the home needed to meet now – from GFCI’s that had to be installed to shut-off valves on gas appliances. The list just kept growing, the seller just kept getting angrier and blaming the buyer for being picky about wanting things taken care of that hadn’t been a problem until the buyer came along.

The buyers, who had taken care of their home and had fixed it up before selling it, kept their cool, and were exceptionally good at recognizing what were important items and what were annoyances. But it should never have happened. The sellers had been living in an unsafe environment for some time without realizing it. If they hadn’t put their home on the market, which generated home inspections, they could have had disastrous consequences from several of the problems that were found.

It’s HARD, to look at your home with an inspector’s eye. But periodically you need to.

1) If you live in a community that has a municipal inspection (from your city or county or both), you can get a copy of the inspection checklist and go through it on your own or with a handyman to find out the areas where your home might have issues (I don’t recommend asking the municipal inspector to come, because if your home has issues they can force you to move out while the issues are being fixed and most people don’t want to do that). Then fix them.

2) Some heating and cooling companies will come check your system out for you for a minor charge at the beginning of each season, but you need to ask if they will check your gas lines and your flues when they do the inspection, not just the furnace and air conditioner. They are the people who repair them, so they can check them, but they won’t automatically do it in their seasonal inspections unless you ask for it.

3) Look at your plumbing stacks – in a newer home they will be PVC plastic pipes and you don’t have to worry about them, but in an older home they are cast iron and they will rust through from the inside out. Look for brown stains – look for “growths” – they are called carbuncles. They are actually boils where the cast iron is rotting from the inside out and when it rots enough, the sewerage will leak out through the hole. Do not cut off the rust and paint over it, it will come back with a vengeance. At that point, your stack has to be replaced – call a plumber. Make sure you look at the section of the stack that is at the top of the floor joist/at the basement ceiling (ie look up) not just the section of the stack that is the straight pole in your basement.

4) Check your electrical panel box. Go to a website called “Is My Panel Safe?” if your panel is listed here, consider getting a new one.

If you have any questions, please consider contacting a local realtor to get the name of a reputable building inspector to help you (in the State of Missouri, building inspectors are not licensed and ANYONE, can be a building inspector without any training or experience. As a result, your local Realtor will have a list of inspectors that they know are experienced, do a good job, and will provide you with the information that you can use to help you to have a safe home for your family.

As always, if you would like more information, please go to my website at www.YourSTLHome.com , Dale

Have you paid any attention to how many tax credits are out there right now? It is amazing to me how many are there that no one seems to know about.

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Everyone has heard about the First Time Home Buyer tax credit - if you have not owned a home for the past 3 years and you buy a home the government will give you a tax credit of 10% of the purchase price of the home up to $8000 if you meet certain income levels (and the majority of us will meet those income levels). You must have an accepted contract by 30 April and you must close on the home by 30 June. With this tax credit, you can file against your 2009 or 2010 income tax. If you have already filed your 2009 taxes, you can file an amended tax return. This is a credit, if you owe money, they will subtract what you owe and send you the rest, if you don't owe money, they will send you a check. I had someone who closed and refiled his taxes the next day and a week later got his money.

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For the Repeat Home Buyer - If you have owned a home AND lived in it for 5 out of the last 8 years (now this means that you can have already moved out of the home, you may have sold the home or be renting it, or have it on the market), you meet the income guidelines, and you have an accepted contract on a new home by 30 April and you close by 30 June, the government will give you a tax credit of 10% of the purchase price of the new home up to $6500. With this tax credit, you can file against your 2009 or 2010 income tax. If you have already filed your 2009 taxes, you can file an amended tax return. This is a credit, if you owe money, they will subtract what you owe and send you the rest, if you don't owe money, they will send you a check.

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Now comes the interesting part. What other tax credits are out there that you may qualify for? Check with your State.

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In Missouri, we have the HOPE credit. If you buy a home in the State of Missouri in 2010, the STATE, will give you the value of the home's 2009 property tax with a cap of $1250 (you do have to meet income levels here also, but many buyers will meet those levels), AND if you are buying new construction and the home has any energy conservation features that value can be increased by $500. if you are buying an existing home and you add any energy conservation features within the first 60 days, you get an additional $500. In the St Louis area, refrigerators don't come with the homes. If you buy an energy efficient refrigerator, a washer or dryer, you have now added an energy efficient feature to the home - it doesn't have to be windows, siding, insulation, a water heater, furnace, etc. This program will run until they run out of the $15 million dollars they have to fund it with.

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Now comes the next set of credits that apply to ALL home owners not just new ones.

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The Federal Government Energy Tax Credits run until Dec 31st 2010. If you improve the energy efficiency of your home you can qualify for the energy tax credits. You will get 30% of the purchase price up to $1500, and for a few items, like a geo-thermal system, there is no top cap. You can find out more at :

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http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index

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Now on top of the federal government program, there are rebates and state programs available. For example, in Missouri, in April. We will have one week when from 19-25 April if you buy energy star appliances, you won't be charged sales tax:

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http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=MO81F&re=1&ee=1

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But, it doesn't stop there. The state also has a rebate program. I can find information out about that at:

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http://dnr.mo.gov/transform/energizemissourirebate.htm

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So I can get a $1500 federal tax credit, a state rebate and not pay sales tax AND if I'm a home buyer, get an additional $500 through the HOPE credit and the home buyer tax credit. What's not to like? Your state may have slightly different tax credits, but it's worth taking the time to find out. Talk to your Realtor and Mortage lender and ask them what you may qualify for.