Dom Naidoo - Pacific Palisades Real Estate

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope that you all got to enjoy the beautiful weather in Southern California! It was a busy weekend for Josh and myself. We were stuck in a video shoot at our new listing in Malibu...which wasn't a bad place to be :)

6360 Cavalleri Road, Malibu 90265

15901 Alcima Avenue, Pacific Palisades 90272

Today we juggled multiple open houses from Malibu to Pacific Palisades. It felt priceless to have Pacific Coast Highway open without traffic. If my career insists of me working weekends, what better place to do it!

This article that The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) released on Friday caught my interest. What's even more interesting is that we have a buyer submitting an offer on an property in Santa Monica who was sad to hear that she wouldn't qualify for the tax credit.

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

C.A.R. calls for swift adoption of Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment to extend home buyer tax credit

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 23) - The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) today called for the U.S. Senate to swiftly adopt the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment, which would extend and amplify the hugely successful first-time home buyer tax credit until June 30, 2010.

"The success of the home buyer tax credit and its positive impact on the real estate market is clear," said C.A.R. President James Liptak. "According to our research, nearly 40 percent of first-time buyers said they would not have purchased a home if the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers was not offered. This underscores the significance of the federal tax credit to the housing market's recovery in California.

"The Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment would expand the credit by removing the first-time buyer requirement and instead would apply to all home buyers," he said. "The amendment also would increase the qualifying income limits to $150,000 for single buyers and $300,000 for those filing joint income tax returns.

"We urge Senators Feinstein and Boxer to demonstrate their support for home buyers in California and quickly adopt the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment," Liptak said.

Under additional provisions in the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment, taxpayers would be able to claim the credit on purchases completed in 2010 on their 2009 income tax returns. The amendment maintains the provision that home buyers do not have to repay the credit provided the home remains their primary residence for 36 months after purchase, and waives this requirement for active duty military personnel who move due to a military order.

Leading the way...® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with nearly 163,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

If You're Buying Another Home

You may wonder what will happen when you're selling one home and buying another - how will all the details work out? This is a common situation and REALTORS^®, lawyers, and title and escrow companies have plenty of experience in arranging contracts and loans so that the two transactions dovetail smoothly.

And should you sell your home first then buy or buy first then sell? Ideally, it's best to find a home you like and make an offer subject to selling your current home. This generally works in a normal market. However, in a "hot" market most sellers will not accept a "subject to sale" offer. In this case you need to sell your home first and then buy a new home in the interim period between selling and vacating your house.

If you find that you need to buy the next house before you've received the proceeds from the present one, lending institutions can sometimes make you a short-term " bridge" loan to tide you over between the two transactions. Make sure you fully understand the exposure and emotional investment before proceeding with this type of loan.

Marketing Basics: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Annual tax bills will be mailed on or before November 1st to all property owners as shown on the Assessor's 2009 Assessment Roll.

Property owners who have not received a bill by November 3rd should immediately contact the Tax Collector's office by calling 213.974.2111 or 1.888.807.2111 to request a substitute tax bill. You may also email your request to the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office at ttcmail@ttc.lacounty.gov

Substitute bills may also be obtained by contacting the Assessor's office via email at helpdesk@assessor.lacounty.gov , or by going in person to any of the Assessor's office locations.

Also, Now you can pay Property Taxes On-Line!
http://lacountypropertytax.com/portal/list/news.aspx?newsid=47

How Long Has Your House Been on the Market?

Professional appraisers sum up their entire body of knowledge in three words: " Buyers make value." Your home is worth as much as a buyer will pay for it.

If your home has been on the market for months, it's a clear message that the property may not be worth what you're asking for it. This is particularly true if there haven't been many prospects coming to see it. What you do at that point depends on whether you really need to sell, and whether you're working with a time limit.

If you're not really motivated to move soon, you can always wait - years if necessary - and hope inflation will catch up with the price you want. The problem is that in that time, your home begins to feel shopworn. Buyers become suspicious of a house that's been for sale for a long time.

If you really do need to sell, with your REALTOR^® discuss a schedule for gradually dropping your price until you find a level that attracts buyers. There's no point in saying, " We simply can't sell our house." Anything will sell if the price is right.

Marketing Basics: Part 1 Part 2

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or for a free professional market analysis of your home. 310.459.8191 or via email info@wsprops.com

Happy Tuesday everyone! It has been an amazingly busy day here at Westside Properties. We've hosted an extremely busy broker open house today at our listing at 15901 Alcima Avenue(website) in Pacific Palisades.

Josh and I also had the opportunity to cruise PCH up to Malibu to check on our new listing at 6360 Cavalleri Road(website).

I ran across this article in the SFGate and figured to expose to my readers...especially the new-home buyers.

The $10,000 state tax credit for new-home purchases could be revived soon for a limited-run engagement.

Last week, the California Senate passed a bill 35-1 that would provide $30 million in tax credits to about 4,000 additional new-home purchases. The bill now moves to the Assembly floor, which could take it up as early as Monday.

A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he "supports the idea of this bill."

In an earlier bill, the Legislature made $100 million in state tax credits available to anyone who bought a new, previously unoccupied home in California on or after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010. The $10,000 credit must be spread over three years and can offset only up to $3,333 a year in state income tax.

The money was allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and it went fast. Less than four months after the effective date, the Franchise Tax Board had received 11,925 applications representing more than $100 million in credits. It shut the door on new applications at midnight July 2.

Although it doled out $100 million in credits, the tax board estimated that about $30 million would go unused because many buyers could not claim the full $10,000.

To get the entire benefit, the buyer must owe at least $3,333 in state income taxes in 2009, 2010 and 2011. A buyer who owes only $1,000 in one of those years loses the remaining $2,333 for that year - it can't be paid out in cash or carried into future years.

The original bill didn't allow the tax board to reallocate unused credits to other new-home buyers, but the new bill - SBX3-37 - essentially would.

Pushed by the home builders, it would provide $30 million in tax credits to two groups of new-home buyers.

The first is about 300 people who bought a new house and got their paperwork in to the Franchise Tax Board by July 2 but missed out on the credit because the money was gone.

The other group includes people who buy a new house after the bill is signed and before March 1 - but only until the $30 million runs out, which could be long before March.

People who buy a new home after July 2 and before the bill is signed are out of luck.

Given that only 70 percent of the home credit is typically used, about 4,285 new-home buyers would qualify for the additional $30 million.

Sponsors say the bill is necessary to "facilitate California's economic recovery, a large part of which is the maintenance of the new-home tax credit." It was written as an "emergency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety."

Democrat Loni Hancock of Berkeley was the only senator to vote against the bill. She couldn't see "offering subsidies to potentially well-off people buying expensive homes while we are cutting the heart out of education," says Larry Levin, Hancock's spokesman.

She also questioned the fairness of offering a subsidy only to new-home purchases when there are so many foreclosed homes on the market.

When the bill was first introduced as AB765 by Assembly members Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, and Jose Solorio, D-Anaheim, it would have provided $200 million in additional tax credits on top of the original $100 million. But as the state's finances worsened, the increase was whittled down to $30 million.

When the Senate took up the bill last week, Republicans refused to support it (and other bills that needed a two-thirds majority) unless it had a Republican as lead sponsor. So the contents of AB765 were moved into SBX3-37 with Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, as the principal co-author.