Danell Merren

The Mortgage Credit Certificate is the tax credit that keeps on giving! Unlike the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit (www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com), MCC is a Federal Tax Credit that moderate income families can access year after year!

It is offered in most states, but each state operates the credit a little differently. From 1984 until 2007 the MCC was operated by MSHDA (Michigan State Housing Development Authority) in Michigan.

I am excited to announce that MSHDA is rolling out the MCC in Michigan again effective July 13th, 2009!

The MCC is combined with FHA, Conventional, RD, or VA Financing. It is operated by MSHDA in Michigan.

Here's how it works. The MCC is a 20% credit of the interest you pay. The borrower can take the credit every year in one lump sum at tax refund time OR they can take the credit in their monthly paychecks. So, it's like getting a raise once you buy!

Example: $100,000 mortgage X 5.5%= $5,500 in interest. $5,500 X 20% = $1,100 annual tax credit! Taken monthly, this reduces the effective house payment by $91.67 per month.

The MCC also helps borrowers qualify for more. In the example above, the reduction in payment would allow a borrower to qualify for $16,000 more in a home!

There are income limits, but the income limits are broad. For example, in Kent County in Grand Rapids a family can make up to $74,750 and purchase a home with a price up to $224,250. In Kent County in Wyoming, a family of 1-2 can make up to $63,800 or a family of 3 or more can make up to $73,370. In most other Kent County areas a family of 1-2 can make up to $63,800 and a family of 3 or more can make up to $65,000 with a price up to $195,000.

There are times that the tax credit does not work well because unlike the Earned Income Credit and the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, it is not considered "refundable". This means a borrower must have a true tax liability to get the money back.

I always recommend you seek professional tax advice, but I am happy to analyze tax returns to see if this will be a good fit for you or your borrower!

To learn more about the MCC, give me a call at (616) 719-4513!

My husband has worked at Mel Trotter Ministries in Grand Rapids for several years. Most people from our area know that Mel Trotter is a rescue mission, and they feed and shelter the homeless in the Heartside Neighborhood of Grand Rapids, near downtown.

They also have a drug and alcohol rehab. program.

One of Mel Trotter's best kept secrets is their car ministry that has now gone public! They now have an auto shop at 555 28th Street, SE in Grand Rapids. It is located between Madison and Eastern on the north side of the road.

We decided to take my VW Volkswagon in to give the mechanics at Mel Trotter Auto Sales a shot. We thought we needed a muffler and breaks. My breaks sounded so bad that I thought I needed rotors too. We figured the bill would be hundreds of dollars.

This was the first time ever that we paid for only 1 hour of labor! We walked out of there paying $83.30!

Here's why:

• I didn't need a new muffler or exhaust. I only needed a clamp- part cost $3.30.
• I didn't need breaks or rotors. I had two bad tires that were so low they were making my breaks sound bad. Cost- $40 for two perfectly good used tires that came off a Passat they had put new tires on.
• Labor- $40 for 1 hour.

These guys told us the truth, charged us actual cost for parts, and they only charged for the actual labor time!

You can check them out at:

http://www.meltrotter.org/purchasevehicle.aspx

Or feel free to stop in at 555 28th Street or give them a call at:

Questions? Call (616) 301-1415 or (616) 301-1416

If you're in the greater GR area and need a trusted mechanic, give them a call! Save yourselves a lot of money!

We have a number of people who call who would like to refinance, however, their home is currently listed. This is a major problem in the industry. It is standard to not allow a refinance of a property that is currently listed or that has been listed in the past six months. Exceptions used to occur, but with the declining market, banks don't want to take this risk. On rare occasion, some banks will still allow a refinance if the home has not been listed for at least six months. While refinancing may make sense to the borrower to take advantage of the current rates, I encourage sellers to see this issue from the bank's point of view- all banks pay loan origination staff in one form or another- if you go directly to the bank, they pay their Retail loan officers. If you go to a broker, the banks pay the brokerage a Yield Spread Premium most of the time. The loan officers at the brokerage then get paid in one way shape or form from this money their company collects. So the bank doesn't want to pay out these fees and then have the borrower turn around and sell the home; when that happens the bank does not collect the monthly interest they were expecting to collect. In these cases, the bank actually lost money rather than made money. We all know banks are not out to lose money.

If you are considering listing but are on the fence, and you're thinking about a refinance, do it now before you list.

I walked into my youngest daughter's room last night, and it smelled like something was burning! I was a bit alarmed but trying not to panic. I didn't see anything burning, and her room was quite messy, so I was moving things around, looking under toys, looking under the bed, etc. I walked around and felt all the walls knowing that sometimes electrical fires start in walls. Thankfully none of the walls were hot, so we concluded that wasn't the problem. I told my oldest daughter to quickly get daddy. My hubby was definitely the better investigator. He started picking up and all the toys and smelling them. He said that some of the toys were actually hot! He began opening them up with a screw driver (fortunately for our kids, most battery operated toys are now "baby proof"). Some of the batteries were actually leaking!

Our daughter is two, and as you can imagine, she has way too many battery operated toys. They included a Weeble House, a school bus, a flashlight, a Dora piano, a Disney Princess mirror, and on and on. Some were big. Some were small, but they all had batteries.

She even had two inexpensive dolls whose hair smelled like turpentine!

Needless to say, we took out all the batteries and threw away any dolls who smelled like chemicals.

Be careful to limit how many battery operated toys you allow your kids to have, and recycle the batteries every few months to prevent a bigger problem!

I am excited to share that today Sunday, April 5th, St. Mark's will be hosting the GVSU Arts Chorale singing Requiem with the GVSU Concert Orchestra. It will be a beautiful way to begin Holy Week. Featured vocalists will be GVSU faculty members Kathryn Stieler and Dale Schriemer. The concert begins at 5:00 p.m. St. Mark's is located at the corner of Pearl and Division downtown Grand Rapids. All are welcome and encouraged to come!