Joseph Hill

The Home Buyer Tax Credit has just been Signed into law and is effective immediately! The expanded Home Buyers Tax Credit is valid for First Time Buyers AND for 'Move Up' exisiting Home Owners who are purchasing another property! Here are the details:

Tax Credit for Homebuyers

First-Time Homebuyers (FTHBs): First-time homebuyers (that is, people who have not owned a home within the last three years) may be eligible for the tax credit. The credit for FTHBs is 10% of the purchase price of the home, with a maximum available credit of $8,000.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

Current Owners: The tax credit for home buyers program now gives those who already own a residence some additional reasons to move to a new home. This incentive comes in the form of a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

What are the New Deadlines?

In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010.

Tax Credit Versus Tax Deduction

It’s important to remember that the tax credit is just that… a tax credit. The benefit of a tax credit is that it’s a dollar-for-dollar tax reduction, rather than a reduction in a tax liability that would only save you $1,000 to $1,500 when all was said and done. So, if a first-time homebuyer were to owe $8,000 in income taxes and would qualify for a tax credit of $8,000, she would owe nothing.

Better still, the tax credit is refundable, which means the homebuyer can receive a check for the credit if he or she has little income tax liability. For example, if a first-time homebuyer is eligible for a tax credit of $8,000 but is liable for $4,000 in income tax, she can still receive a check for the remaining $4,000!

Higher Income Caps

The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased.

Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible

Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.

Maximum Purchase Price

Qualifying buyers may purchase a property with a maximum sale price of $800,000.

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Remember, the new tax credit program includes a number of details and qualifications. For more information or answers to specific questions, please call me at 206.218.8448 or email Joseph R Hill at josephrhill@kw.com today.

In addition, you may be able to benefit from additional housing related provisions, including the following:

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Tax Incentives to Spur Energy Savings and Green Jobs

This provision is designed to help promote energy-efficient investments in homes by extending and expanding tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation.

Landmark Energy Savings

This provision provides $5 Billion for energy efficient improvements for more than one million modest-income homes through weatherization. According to some estimates, this can help modest-income families save an average of $350 a year on heating and air conditioning bills.

Repairing Public Housing and Making Key Energy Efficiency Retrofits To HUD-Assisted Housing

This provision provides a total of $6.3 Billion for increasing energy efficiency in federally supported housing programs. Specifically, it establishes a new program to upgrade HUD-sponsored low-income housing (for elderly, disabled, and Section 8) to increase energy efficiency, including new insulation, windows, and frames.

Expanding Housing Assistance

This provision increases support for several critical housing programs. It includes $2 Billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant properties.

Thats it! come see Joseph Hill this Sunday at his Open House on Capitol Hill or call with any questions!

WOW - It is official, the Seattle Condo Auctions at Brix and Gallery announced JUST TODAY in The Seattle Times show us the Seattle Condo Market HAS A WAYS TO GO BEFORE BOTTOMING OUT.

I was suprised to see these two buildings go in to Auction, especially suprised by Brix. Yes, Brix Condos located on the North end of Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood had been beset by Contractor problems and ended up going through three, yes three different general contractors before finishing, but Brix also had a good lead timeline wise on the entire Condo Meltdown, and their on-site sales were starting to pick up last I heard.

An Auction at Gallery in Seattle's Belltown - in contrast to the Condo Auction at Brix - is not as suprising as it is disheartening. This recent developement proves to me that Seattle Condos still have a bit of price adjustment to go before the market will support more market based sales.

SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? WHY ARE BRIX and GALLERY GOING TO AUCTION??

We have a supply problem, plain and simple - Buyers that would have been looking at BRIX or GALLERY a year or even two years ago are buying today in nearby townhouses and a few scattered single family homes that previously would not have been affordable to them. The price advantage of buying a condo in Seattle dissappeared - evidenced most strongly by the announcement today of the BRIX and GALLERY AUCTIONS.

So how much do Seattle Condo prices need to come down to absorb the inventory?

My guess is around 10% from current asking prices across the board. The entry point for condos and the monthly payment needed to live in them needs to come down below that of nearby Townhouses. Paying $400 and up for HOA dues is like financing an additional 80,000 or more in buying power for a townhouse or regular house.

WANT A DEAL ON A SEATTLE CONDO? GET IN ON THE AUCTIONS!!

It is all happening September 27th 2009 for both BRIX and GALLERY, and you need to be pre-approved for financing BEFORE you can bid. If you are thinking of a new Condo, you need strong Buyer Representation, especially in an Auction! CALL ME at 206.218.8448 and lets get the ball rolling for pre-approval so you can take advantage of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities! Of course if you are a first time buyer, getting in on the Condo Auctions at Brix or Gallery could mean an additional $8,000 tax credit as well, just need to close by November 30th to take advantage and meet some income guidelines.

Register for the BRIX Condo Auction at www.AuctionBrix.com

Register for the GALLERY Condo Auction at www.AuctionTheGallery.com

Become pre-approved so you can bid at one of these Auctions at www.imaginepropertiesnw.com

Sign up for our once a month FREE FORECLOSED HOME TOUR if your looking to skip the whole messy Auction bit and just go straight to the best deals!

Urbnlivn.com BLOG Post with links to prices and brochures for BRIX AUCTION

Urbnlivin.com BLOG Post with links to prices and brochures for THE GALLERY AUCTION

The LONG TERM (7+ years) outlook for Seattle Condos remains unchanged - we will trend upwards!!! Don't be discouraged if you dream of fabulous Condo living. Instead be excited by the incredible opportunites that the Seattle Condo Auctions at BRIX and GALLERY represent!

Joseph R Hill

Your Professional Realtor, serving Capitol Hill Seattle, Short Sales, Bank Owned & REOS, National Relocation, and Buyers throughout King County.

206.218.8448

Timeline to use the $8000 Tax Credit - only ~ 35 'shopping' days left so you are not rushing the clock to the closing table. Escrow companies are going to be VERY busy the last half of November and with Thanksgiving week taking two days away, plus some furlough days in King County, there are even fewer recording days here than elsewhere. Don't miss out!

To qualify for the Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8000, you must buy your home prior to Dec 1, 2009


The tax credit is for first time home buyers, defined as people who haven’t owned a home in the last three years prior to the day you close on your home purchase or people who have never owned a home.

Here is the current timeline working backwards from the last possible closing day for a frame of reference.


November 30th - Deadline - The transaction must be closed by this date to qualify for the credit.

November 19th - Critical “Closing” date - The is the safe date to close by. The next week is Thanksgiving holiday week with county offices closed Wed-Fri. Closing on or before Thursday, 11/19 will avoid the hassles of trying to close during the peak vacation time along with all the other buyers trying to close at the same time.

October 5th - Critical “Contract” date - It is important to have a contract in place by this date if you plan on claiming the Federal Housing Tax Credit. Most first time home buyers are using FHA financing, which realistically takes about 45 days to process.

September 15th - Ideal “Contract” date - Sometimes your first offer isn’t accepted or the inspection can uncover unacceptable conditions, so ideally you should leave some time in case the first contract doesn’t work out. I have had three clients miss out on competitive offers in the last 2 and a half months!

August 1st - Ideal time to start looking - The Federal Housing Tax Credit is putting up to $8,000! in your pocket, that is the easy part, but it usually takes up to 3 weeks to find a home and become Pre Approved for financing - - no time like the present to get started.
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.



Will the deadline for the Federal Tax Credit be extended? Maybe, however it could be extended with a lower dollar amount or with the payback requirement re-instated. What is certain is that if you buy a home that closes before December 1st, 2009 and you qualify, you will get $8000.



Please call me with any questions: 206.218.8448 and Please forward to friends and family that may want to take advantage of this tax credit. I will help them get a great deal, whether buying or selling, the Federal Housing Tax Credit is a HUGE Opportunity right now, don't miss it!

Check out this website for more info: www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com

Joseph R Hill

josephrhill@kw.com

www.josephrhill.com

Seattle Short Sales are not different from other Short Sales across the country. One difference we are experience however is that we have higher Short Sale inventory and fewer Bank Owned properties for sale in Seattle on a density basis than other parts of the country. There have been a number of Clients and Friends asking me about the whole Short Sales How To - This is what I tell them: Cool! Your going for it! Here is my Seattle Short Sales How To advice

The SELLER will have to submit:

-Last 2 months of everything
-income statements (paystubs etc)
-Expense statements (all bank and investment statements)
-Last TWO Tax returns (Federal)
-Last two mortgage statements
-Hardship letter explaining to countrywide/BoA the reason the Seller is no longer able to afford the loans and the non-existent possibility they would be able to afford it even under a loan modification. Keep it short, less than one page, google for examples if needed
-Financial worksheet from the Seller showing their budget on a monthly basis

The Seller pretty much has to go through the steps they would do to apply for a loan in the first place, since now they are 'applying' for a Short Sale

In my experience Banks are approving Short Sale NET TO BANK pricing of between 80 and 83% of what is owed on the loans.

YOU as the Short Sale Buyer / Your Agent will have to submit (along w/ everything above from the Seller)
-Completed Purchase and Sale agreement, with a contract agreed to price, and all terms, and closing date (# of days after bank approves the short sale that you will close on the property)
-Copy of your earnest money check (you don't have to open escrow or deposit the check till the bank accepts the short sale though
-'BPO' (Broker Price Opinion) and a CMA.

The Bank will typically... once they receive everything above...(We call all this stuff the Short Sale Packet)
-Acknowledge receipt of the short sale 'packet' within 10 days (bank business days...send everything a couple of times and call after each time to see if the got it)
-Assign a Loss Mitigator to the file Short Sale File w/in the first 15 days
-Loss Mitigator (LM) will order a BPO of their own on the property to help determine value in case of actual foreclosure. They might already have one of these if the auction date is so close ,you say sept 8th?!
-Take a look at the offer from you, what is owed on the mortgage, the sellers 'plea', and the probability of selling the house at auction or after foreclosure for greater than your offer, PLUS look into whether the bank could file a claim on their own loss insurance for the difference between a foreclosure sale price and what the Seller currently owes. If it isn't going to cost a ton of money to fix up the house to put it on the market for a quick foreclosure sale they will probably opt to file the claim and deny the short sale...

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
-Some banks are much better than others, and each file is different because of the difference in timelines for lateness and pending foreclosures of each mortgage.
-Last year only about 20% of Short Sales were actually closing successfully
-This year the banks are much better, but we still don't have stellare results. often teh buyers get cold feet and walk away because they find another hosue they love, or interest rates have gone up in the mean time and the original affordability is impacted adversely.
- I think 45-75 days is probable - but you absolutely MUST have verified continual communication with the Loss Mitigator in the case and you must submit a complete packet all at one time. Otherwise the file will always just sit at the bottom of the LM action pile, these guys/gals are overworked and won't waste their time on anything that is not a complete Short Sale packet.

If you are going to go through with it, I suggest having an inspection done up front if you are going to do an inspection at all. Why wait 45 - 75 days for the bank to approve the Short Sale only to then find something on inspection that is a deal breaker for you. Also you need to realize that the seller is in no condition at this point to address any of the issues that would come up under inspection. If it is a serious safety or code issue then you won't be able to get the financing to go through... good to know ahead of time what your getting into. 400 bucks well spent I say!

Ok, have fun. and I'll send you a BIG BILL for my time:)

Now, here is what typically people say after they hear all this about Short Sales How To:

Eek! Hmmm, that’s an awful lot to get done in not very much time! I’m kind of wondering if a Short Sale is worth it though, the bank is going to know that they can sell the thing once they own it and might be able to file a claim for their loss, and the owner just never hired an agent so it was never on MLS and nobody could get ahold of him. See, that’s the value of real estate agents!

Seattle Short Sales are a Specialty of mine. I work with an exclusive team of Certified Distressed Properties Experts, and I am a Certified REO Property Specialist. I know how to get the deals put together so the banks can approve them!

Can you believe August is here already?

The question everyone seems to be asking right now, 'Has the market stabilized?' is certainly fair, and this newsletter is PACKED with information to help you decide. I have included Tables of Seattle inventory for Residential and Condos, along with Average and Median Sales prices. There is a Table of Bank owned homes for sale and a link to a map of these homes. I also have my first ever links to the latest homes to hit the market on Capitol Hill along with a link to homes on Capitol Hill that have had price reductions in the last three days, so you are the first to know about these homes available for sale.

But what I am really excited about this month is my first Consumer Real Estate Survey! Its just 4 questions and it is powered by you, the consumer, not some techie Economist or Real Estate Broker. I want to get your feel for what the market is doing. Go ahead and take the survey now, here is the link.

One thing we saw in July was an increase in the National Case-Shiller Home Price Index for the first time in three years. That bears repreating - The FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS. That tells us nationally that resale home prices ticked UP and the slide stopped, great news indeed.

Click this link for the newest listings with photos and all information and existing listings with price reductions in the Capitol Hill area. In the last three days there have been 26 new listings, and 25 price reductions.

Lets Take a look at Local Numbers for July in Seattle


There have now been 4 consecutive months of modest increase in average sales prices in the Seattle Area, and we didn't have a huge glut of homes hit the market this summer as anticipated / feared. Both of those items are good news for our local market. The homes that are priced well are selling quickly. Even homes that had previously been priced out of the market and had significant price reductions saw buyers through the doors. I had 26 client appointments in July!


Greater Capitol Hill is my bread and butter! It is the area I am most passionate about in Seattle and it is great to see the Capitol Hill area performing better than the Seattle Area as a whole!



There is a suspicion out there that all of the Bank Owned or Foreclosed homes are in just one area, certainly not in 'my neighborhood'! right? Well, HERE IS A MAP LINK THAT SHOWS YOU A PRETTY GOOD DISTRIBUTION OF ALL THE SINGLE FAMILY REO HOMES AVAILABLE IN SEATTLE.

Personal Note from Joseph

Orange is one of my favorite colors. We don't want to see it on too many walls of houses as that would just be way too much of a good thing, orange represents heat. I bring up a 'hot' color to draw a comparison to our local Best Buy Markets. That of course is the REO and Short Sale Market, they are HOT HOT HOT, bright orange one might say. Last month I became a Certified REO Property Specialist this means that I know the ins and outs of how to get my clients the best deal on a Bank Owned home, and to make sure the transaction is successful all the way to close. My Team of Certified REO Specialists does educational TOURS once a month for investors and owner-occupied buyers alike in the local REO/Bank Owned market. We would love to see you there! SIGN UP HERE FOR A TOUR!

When you hire me, it isn't just a one-man-band. I work with a team with decades of experience in the local Real Estate Market, everyone playing a critical part from lending, inspection, appraisal, staging, photography, marketing, transaction coordination, and post close follow-up. Keller Williams didn't get to be NUMBER ONE IN BUYER SATISFACTION for nothing, call me at 206.218.8448 and find out how we can help you today!


Enough said about all that, thank you as always for your support, have a fantastic August 2009 and I'll be in touch in September or before!

joseph
Best wishes,

joseph
Joseph R Hill
Professional Realtor; Metro Seattle Re-sale, New Construction, & North American Relocation
206.218.8448

My Core Values are to Always:
1 - Live by the Get by Giving Philosophy
2 - Make my Client's #1 Goal, my #1 Goal
3 - Live up to my Standards, Despite Temptations to Lower Them
4 - Be Willing to Work Toward a Common Good
5 - Do What I say I will do, Sometimes More Just Never Less!