Greg Saunders

Atlanta, GA Georgia State Capitol

Originally uploaded by army.arch

Greetings Peachtree City! Well it finally happened! Governor Sonny Purdue signed into law the highly debated House Bill 261 on May 11, 2009. How much controversy was behind this bill? Well, as far as the Georgia Association of Realtors were concerned, it was at the top of their 2009 agenda.

From the side of the opposition however, this bill seemed unnecessary because it was felt that the credit would not pose to be a huge incentive for folks that were preparing to buy anyway. Critics also stated that Georgia is facing a $3.1 billion deficit in fiscal year 2010 and projected deficits projected at $746 million in 2001 and $1.7 billion in 2012.

Just for the record, I personally think that Governor Purdue should be commended for taking a stand to assist Georgians with another stimulus to combat our housing crisis. The impact of home foreclosures has devastated our communities not to mention the psychological and economic impact that has results from families losing their homes through foreclosure.

HB 261 gives new homeowners a one-time tax credit of 1.2% of the purchase price or $1,800, whichever is less. To be eligible you must purchase your new single family residence between July 1, 2009 and November 30, 2009. The tax credit is applied over three years, with one-third of the credit available each year. If a the amount of the credit exceeds the taxpayer's tax liability, then the unused credit may be carried forward to the next tax year.

Based on projections according to GBPI analysis, the credit will result in between 900 and 1,100 additional homes sold at a cost to the state of $164.5 million. Now as I mentioned earlier, pundits will protest the fact that the credit is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Georgians that were already going to purchase a home. However, the way I look at it is that this gives a bigger nudge to those folks still sitting on the fence and a chance to reduce the huge inventory of homes on the market. Further, through home ownership we have also created additional new property tax revenues.

For Realtors and the mortgage financing community an additional 900 to 1100 homes or a 1.2% increase will be sold this year. This number is based on the estimated calculation of 90,500 homes sales x .012 = 1100 homes.

So hey neighbor....you've got the federal first time home-buyers credit ($8,000), the new Georgia State Income Tax Credit ($1,800), combined with home prices and interest rates at historic all-time low. So, if you have been playing hide & seek waiting for a better time to buy....The time is now!! Get off the fence, pick up the phone and call an agent and a mortgage professional now!

If you don't have one...I hope that you'd give me a call! I'd be privileged to assist you with all your professional real estate needs!

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://track4.mybloglog.com/js/jsserv.php?mblID=2009051708045009'></script>

Thoughts the one
Originally uploaded by FeelFreeTravel

Greetings Peachtree City and friends that have followed my blog. Over the last several months I noticed that my sites were getting tons of hits from all over the country as thousands of folks were reading my blogs. (I know because each of my sites has analytics to track visitors) Anyway, if you have read one of my posts you pretty much know that this is definitely not your A-typical real estate blog.

Each post was the result of extensive research, years of study, and personal experiences. These experiences in both the public and private sectors proved to be real "revelations" about the inner working and the behind the scenes activities of our systems related to finances, government, education and the economy.

The results of my knowledge and experience developed into a real passion to enlighten folks by providing information that empowers and provokes the need to think, question, and qualify what we have been led to believe and accept as factual. The topics have been current, the writing poignant, and my perspective and analogies....well let's just say I've received comments ranging from brilliant to folks who thought I may be blogging from a drug induced state.

Anyway, during one of my monthly business check-ups, a bell went off in my head! With all the traffic on my site I felt that my business should be progressing a might bit better than it has. As I normally do, I discuss my business with my brokers and several confidants and mentors who I can always count on to give me pretty honest feedback. My initial conclusion was that I could be farming the wrong area and/or maybe I was being excluded due to a number of what I thought were reasonably rational theories. There I sat late one night pondering over the empirical data when my wife walked into my office. Of course, I showed her the numbers and asked what she thought. Expecting at that point late in the evening to get a petty nonchalant response like, "well...you never listen to me anyway," I got the most profound answer. "Hun....I know your articles are really great but maybe it's the subject matter. You write so much on all the gloom & doom in the world."

Stunned, her words started resonating in my head! Okay...maybe my wife (Kaye) won't read this one but...I'll have to admit just maybe she was right....again! Doggonit! Could the Law of Attraction actually apply to my success in business endeavors too? Could it be that my consciousness has absorbed all the negativity from all the doomologist I embraced daily from CNN, CNBC, Fox News and the rest of the sarcastic, melodramatic, overly negative bearers of the gloom & doom theory? Was I then proselytizing the same victimization? Had I become self-absorbed in the gloom and doom mentality to the point that I was becoming a cynic and allowed feelings of depression to infiltrate my attitude on a daily basis? Even worst, could it be that my focus on scaricity was attracting what I was promulgating and then manifesting what I was focusing on....Lack of?

Was I freekin out? Just then the shock made me realized something rather ingenious...I had a choice in the matter. Not only that, I could utilize the Law of Attraction to create what I wanted for my business simply by focusing in on abundance and opportunities. Believe it or not and despite the economy there are some very good things happening in our industry. All we have to do is bypass the minutia and all the self-limiting beliefs and and find a way to turn them into ideas, visions, and successes. I'll have to admit that the brokers in my office have made every effort to overcome all the negative energy by finding ways to help make us successful despite the economy. Thanks Kristen Anclien Jones and Megan Pafford Wyatt and all the great agents and staff at our office for insuring that it remained a safe haven full of promise as well as a conduit for continual success.

Folks, there is probably nothing you can do to change market conditions but you can change your attitude!
Change the television channel, change your friends, change your conversation, change your focus, change your attitude...and in doing so change the outcome of your life. Just in case you didn't know there were more millionaires created during the depression than in any other time in history. If there was ever a good time to utilize the Law of Attraction....its now! Remember, within every adversity is an equal or greater benefit.

Oh I know there are you naysayers....just reminds me of something I heard growing up. "Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still!" Well, I guess they still gotta sell newspaper, right?

Hmmmm... but it seems like gloom and doom isn't even selling newspapers too well these day either!

Much success to you whatever your business or personal endeavor!!!

Get ready Peachtree City...the Japanese Zero Air Show is coming as part of the Peachtree City Memorial Day celebration on May 30, 2009!

The air show features an excitingly and breath-taking replica of the feared and famous Japanese "Zero" fighter that once ruled the Pacific skies in the early part of WW II. This aircraft is a replica A6M2 "Zero", also known as a "Zeke" and was built for the filming of the now famous WW II film Tora! Tora! Tora! about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Just to give you a little bit of history, The A6M2 or Zero was one of the most significant aircraft in the Japanese Navy's arsenal. Also known as a Zeke, this piece of machinery was a fighter aircraft whose performance was far superior to anything in the United States inventory, and perhaps the world. The Japanese were confident they could control the entire Pacific with their air superiority. While over 10,000 Zeros were produced, their losses during the war, and the requirement included in the Japanese Surrender Agreement signed in August 1945 stating that all of Japan's offensive weapons be destroyed, made unavailable any authentic Japanese war planes for documentary and film production.

The replica A6M2-21 Zero is authentic right down to details included the addition of 7.7mm machine
guns over the engine cowl, a 20mm canon on each wing, and a cockpit canopy modified to the specifications of the original Zero. Even the detail of adding the three bladed prop, a tail arresting hook and converting the formerly fixed tail wheel to a fully functional retractable tail wheel were accomplished.

The Zero was the predator of all aerial dogfights and the nemesis of the US Wildcat with a max speed of 364 mph, a cruising speed of 201 mph, and unbelievable range (1,200 to 1,800 miles). Surely the Zero can be without argument considered one of the best fighter planes of its time next to the British Spitfire.

The pilot is Capt. S. J. Jack Van Ness, Jr. Capt. Van Ness has an aviation background that includes having been a flight instructor, corporate pilot and airline pilot. His experience includes flying the Lockheed PV1 Super Ventura, Howard 500, Lockheed Constellation, Douglas DC7, Lockheed L188 Electra, Douglas DC8, Douglas DC9, Boeing 727, Boeing 757, Lockheed L1011, Airbus A300, as well as many light aircraft.

Jack and his wife, Barbara, reside near Atlanta, GA and are active Colonels in the Dixie Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. He is a flying sponsor of the Dixie Wing P-51 Mustang and Korean War LT-6 aircraft. While his formal education is in Aerospace Technology and Business, he enjoys flying in air
shows and discussing some of the history of the events of Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, and the war in the Pacific to the younger generations he meets.

Don't ya dare miss it!!

For more information contact:

Japanese Zero, LLC
Attn: Jack Van Ness
826 Gary Summers Rd.
Senoia, GA 30276
Phone: 770-599-1355 Fax: 770-599-3171
Email: contact@japanesezero.net

Hey AR, it has been a pretty sobering experience to speak with some many folks who now face the simple fact that their homes are now worth less than they owe on then. Hence the terminology being "underwater". For the people that have not experienced the joys of home ownership yet, it equates to the same thing as your car being "upside down" where you actually owe more that its worth. I have been impacted by this behemoth phonenomon because we decided to build a custom home in a brand new golf course community. Being the 2nd or 3rd home sold, we felt we got in on the "ground level" before the word got out and prices got jacked up.

Now I probably need to preface that statement because I don't want it to be taken out of context. We are investors and have other real estate and the house was an investment for us. Not only financially but it was part of my dream to be able to afford our aging parents some serenity and affirm to our grown children the meaning and sense of family ties and values. If that sounds hokey to you...blame my mom for sending me to catholic schools and coronating herself as the patron saint of care-taking.

Anyway, just the other evening a noticeably excited neighbor stopped by to give me some news about how he was able to modify his loan. Of course, he got my attention because we both have similar styled custom homes which we have watched lose about half their value. He then proceeded to tell me that his mortgage company modified his interest rate to 4% and his actual mortgage balance to coincide with the current market value of the home. He went on to tell us about the friend (who told him) that he got mods to his loan to include only paying $200 per month for a max of 24 months which will allow him to find reemployment. "But today is the last day and you gotta get down to the World Congress Center before 8pm!" As I closed the door, I jumped on the computer to verify what he just stated. A few days earlier I had just learned that the $320 Billion Hope-4-Homeowners had only modified one mortgage. Just that quick, I was greeted by the wife's shriek...."Let's go!" I guess that assumption was relevant enough to move her to action.

All I can say is with Blitzkrieg the wife and I jumped in our car and headed downtown. I had a notebook
full of certified letters I prepared to the mortgage companies that also contained BOPs, Appraisals, Recent Homes Sales, and info from Zillow and what ever else I could find and use to verify that our area and specifically my home was in distress. You see my subdivision was started by very reputible builders that had successfully developed other golf course communities. These builders and their vision along with several others who built spec homes around us are now all gone. The leftovers were numerous vacant lots, plenty of new foreclosed custom and spec homes, and tons of promises. Of course, the golf course is the goose that laid the golden egg so its still the focal selling point of the community. So sell they must and did! The foreclosures started to be sold by the banks as we watched the value of our investments get desecrated.

Well it turns out that the program that our neighbor was describing is The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (Hope Now)as part of the President Obama's strategy to help families restructure or refinance their mortgages to avoid foreclosure. To be honest folks as Realtors and Mortgage professionals most of us have seen the mortgage meltdown and the down turn of the economy impact our ability to make a living in the industry. I won't even mention job losses....they speak for themselves. Our family had it cutting both ways. My wife was in the mortgage business (until recently) and I was in real estate. All I knew, is that I have a family to protect; 3 kids still in college, a son with a new baby and my dad fighting diabetes and cancer. As astute as I felt I was in investing, money and finances, it seemed that I was looking at the only viable alternative...walk away from my home rather than to continue to invest in a asset that would never regain its original value. Even a short sale was eliminated as an option because the bank would report the difference from the short sale and send it to the IRS where then it becomes subject to taxes. Uggghh!!

So pretty much we met with the officials representing our mortgage company(s) and began to discuss the program, options, and requirements. The requirements were minimal, the reps really helpful and the stated time it would take to find out if we qualified went from the months that I have been sending certified letters to a matter of days. Now, it should be mentioned that all the qualifying financial instutions do not have a finalized plan in place but it looks like most are very close to closing that gap. You don't really grasp thefull magnitude until you looked at the sea of people waiting on this the 3rd and last day. It should be noted that from the explanation we received from one of the mortgage reps it appears that the banks will somehow assess the market value of these troubled assets and modify the loan amount to current market values and work out terms that are advantageous to the homeowners and investors based on their financial conditions and ability to pay.

As we left and was driving back home exhausted, my mind drifted back to earlier in the day. I had just completed an afternoon of looking at homes with an out of town client. But on the way back to my client's hotel I noticed a man on the highway. He looked about 30-something...unkempt, his clothing tattered and in his dirty hand was a sign soliciting drivers for money to buy something to eat. People past him annoyed but I stopped rolled down my window and gave him a dollar bill. Just then I noticed a shinny-new black Mercedes slowing and literally stopping traffic. A man's suited hand emerged and it had a large number of bills in it. I slowed down so the man could run up and get the donation. Then as I exited off the highway I was stopped by the light. looking left, I noticed a young lady in a wheelchair with a QuikTrip cup. Both her legs were missing and it looked like the amputation was recent because the wounds were still healing under a dirty nylon stocking dressing.

It almost broke my heart because I have a daughter too! I looked at her, smiled and crazily all I could think of to say was to ask how she was doing. I got a broken smile back but what got me more was what I saw in her eyes. It was like all the humanity was gone but the reflection went much further and it seemed as if I looked into her soul and there she was a person with all her appendages....flesh and blood just like me and the only thing that made us different were our circumstances. What was a short time seemed like forever, as the light changed to green. I again reached in my wallet. I felt bad because she said I had to throw the money at her because the curb restricted her so she literally could not meet me to get it. I drove off trying not to let my passenger know my emotion at that moment. That emotion must have sparked another image in my head. But this time it was someone I had recently spoke with that in our initially meeting seemed to have it all and now other personal circumstances seems to have pierced through to the spirit. It was the eyes.....not the same color but just the same as I had seen twice earlier!

I immediately looked over at my beautiful wife and grabbed her hand. in an instant it seemed like all the problems that I personally was experiencing seemed so small. I remembered her saying that my preoccupation with my business and the economy was consuming me and that I was missing out on what life was really all about. No it wasn't that I was a bad husband or father. It wasn't about the house or all the things we had accumulated or some now even lost. Then I remember the question she asked me, "Greg if we lost everything....we would still have us, right?"

Folks, I can't predict what will happen to our economy....heck I can even see to type this post without having glasses on. However what I am sure of is that through it all remember and hold on to those things that really matter......close!

Hey AR...you know I often wondered what Ben Franklin was really thinking about when he wrote the phrase "the only thing certain is death and taxes"in a letter sent to his friend Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789. We all know that our day is enviable but have you ever really thought about which one really comes first.? Oh come on.......you know the taxman always cometh first!

But the truth be told folks look at how much of our lives are regimented based on the simple premise of trying to avoid tax liabilities. Just how bad is it? Let's pause to reflect for just a moment. We spend enormous amounts of time and money looking for investments, shelters, tax loopholes, and yes some folks even plan to have their babies just at the end of the year to get that extra tax credit! Shameful you say? Well, just like Sargent Joe Friday from Dragnet, I'm here just to give the facts. Speaking of facts, 20% of all American wait until the last week to file and 5% to 10% wait until April 15th. That when in a rush we ambush our accountants and CPA with the phrase coined from Larry the Cable Guy...'"Just Git-R-Done!"

By the way speaking of death and taxes, were you aware of the new law that has slayed the so-called death tax? Yep, back in June of 2001, President Bush made good on his promise to slash taxes by putting his John Henry to the trillion dollar tax cut package that has become infamously known as the Economic Growth & Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. Of course, that nifty piece of legislation proved to contain the biggest cuts in over 20 years but some of these changes may or may not even go into effect.

One of the biggest and most complicated is the repeal of estate taxes set to go into effect in 2010.
Stay with me folks...the estate tax exemption increases from $675,000 in 2001 to $3.5 million in 2009.
Then in 2010 "poof" its gone! But guess what, it reappears again in 2011 at a $1 million dollar exemption! Why? Get this....In order to meet budgetary restriction a "sunset" provision brings the rule back in force in 2011. Here is the 411.

Under the current law when you die, your assets receive a "step-up in basis." This means that real estate, stocks and other inherited assets are valued at their market price on the day of your death, not the price you originally paid for them.

This will of course change after the estate tax is repealed but it could create a paperwork nightmare for folks who inherit a large amount of appreciated assets because you will need to get your hands on records that will document the original purchase price of the assets. May I suggest that for more information please consult your attorneys, financial planners, Accountants, or CPAs for more information on the tax, probate, trusts, credit-shelters, and other questions related to handling your estate.

But not to worry! I'm certain that President Obama and Congress will soon revisit this issue prior to the end of the year. Word out is that the Prez is not in favor of a full repeal but looks to keep the exemption at $3.5 million. I believe that the gift tax will also stay. Yeah, I know what you've thinking....All this crap is really taxing your patience.